Creation Myth Archetypes

The main patterns revealed from the presentations were just as Mircea Eliade stated in his introduction:

The earth diver, creation out of nothingness, division of an original unity, and dismemberment of a divine primordial being. Within these basic structures, there were many repeated concepts. Nothingness and water were the main things existence prior to anything else. This makes sense for the cultures who were physically surrounded by water in the regions from which they originate. Additionally, water oftentimes gives birth in some way to the creation. This is even evident in the primordial soup theory. There also seemed to be a fundamental belief that all things were once compressed into a unified chaotic force that expanded, or separated resulting in plurality. This was commonly accomplished either by a physical means or by things naturally becoming stratified due to weight or density. Certain elements that repeated were dancing, singing, snakes, man made out of dirt, life breathed into man, eggs, and floods. One common theme that I found to be most fascinating is “the fall of man” theme. There seems to be an inherent understanding across cultures that humans were once perfect and peaceful, but as a result of their own doing became corrupt as we are today. This is apparent even in Ovid’s ages of gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Related to this is the understanding that monkeys are very closely linked to humans as the degenerates of man. Our belief that we are closely linked to monkeys persists in our current understanding of evolution. There is something profound about these repeating patterns. I'll have to utilize my mythological detective clues to uncover the mystery.