Myths

Myths

1.       Metamorphoses

a.       Would you agree that creation myths represent one of the most stunning feats of the human imagination? Why?

                                                               i.      Yes, because without God’s creations, where would we be right now? Nature wouldn’t exist and humans wouldn’t be on the earth either.

b.      What is the place of human beings in these stories?

                                                               i.      It shows that we dominate nature. We are the intelligent creation, “capable in lofty thought” (page 113)

c.       How does God behave toward Man?

                                                               i.      Well, God loves us because he created the world so that we may be happy and prosperous with the natural resources we have. I think this world is a great blessing because we have so much offered to us, and we all take it for granted at times. At least I know I do.

2.       Pawnee Creation Myth

a.       How might the movement from an oral version of the story to a written version of the story affect what we take from it?

                                                               i.      I am a very visual person, so it is a lot easier for me to understand something when I can see what’s going on. If there were pictures of some kind to go with this myth, it wouldn’t be as bizarre as it sounds when I read it probably.

b.      How does God behave towards Man?

                                                               i.      In this case, the Indian’s god is Mother Corn. She is the one who gets credit for creating human beings according to the Pawnee Indians’ beliefs. It seems that Mother Corn loves her creations and she leads them from different directions so they can learn to live off the land that she wiped away the flood for them.

c.       What is the place of human beings in these stories?

                                                               i.      Mother Corn is the supreme ruler, and she definitely takes charge. She leads the Indian people and she raises them up from the ground. For some reason I imagine all of these people sprouting out of the ground like daisies…

3.       Polynesian Theology and Cosmogony

a.       Would you agree that creation myths represent one of the most stunning feats in the human imagination? Why?

                                                               i.      I think that they are interesting because there are endless stories from all different cultures and tribes that have their own version of how people came to be.  It’s intriguing to see how other cultures think from our culture because we don’t have traditions and beliefs like others do, and you can even get a better understanding of how a certain culture may function and what they think is to be true to them.

b.      What differences do you notice between the stories regarding where the gods live?

                                                               i.      Some of the stories aren’t as specific as to where the gods were living at first, but the Polynesian myth talks about how Ta’aroa emerged from a shell, and that’s one of the examples from a myth.

c.       How might the movement from an oral version of the story to a written version of the story affect what we take from it?

                                                               i.      For me, I want to see how this story would look like. Since the culture talks about their god being in a shell, the first thing that comes to my mind is a giant snail lord, and I know that’s not right. If I could see what they meant by “shell” then I would see how the story is developed more.