Egypt
Ancient Egyptian Creation Stories
The Ancient Egyptians believed that at the beginning of time the only thing that existed was a dark spinning chaos. Then the god Atum created himself using his own thoughts and rose out of the chaos (for additional information on Atum visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atum ). Atum had an all seeing eye that could see all over the universe. Atum joined with his shadow and created a son and a daughter. Atum gave birth to his son, Shu by spitting him out.
Shu was the god of air (for additional information on Shu visit: http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/shu.html ). Atum vomitted up his daughter, Tefnut. Tefnut was the goddess of mist and moisture (for additional information of Tefnut visit: http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/tefnut.html ). Shu and Tefnut seperated the chaos into light and dark. This was called Maat. Maat was a light and pure feather that formed the principles of life for all time. Next, Shu and Tefnut created two more gods, Geb and Nut.
Shu pushed Nut up into the heavens and he remained there, arched
over the universe. Nut produced rain and Geb made things grow on
earth. Nut gave birth to the sun every night before dawn and by day the
sun would follow it's course around the earth and die at sunset. Shu and
Tefnut decided to create more gods, so they created all of the gods and
goddesses that the ancient Eygptians worshipped. Later on, Shu and Tefnut got lost, so Atum sent his all seeing eye to search the whole universe for them. Shu and Tefnut returned to Atum with the all seeing eye. Atum was so happy that he cried tears of joy onto the earth. As each of the tears hit the earth it created the first humans. The humans job was to worship the gods and in return the gods protected and loved the humans creations. (to watch this story in pictures visit: http://www.bigmyth.com/myths/english/2_egyptian_full.htm )
Some ancient Egyptians believed that in the beginning there was only Nun, the great celestrial waters. Eight gods swam in these waters protecting an egg that incubated the creator. Overtime the egg began to hatch. It split into two halves creating lower and upper Nun. One day a blue Lotus rose high above the darkness. When it opened its petals, the creator Amen-Re, was resting inside the flower (for additional information about Amen-Re
visit: http://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/egypt-god-amon-re.html ). Light streamed from
Amen-Re's body, banishing the darkness. The first thing Amen-Re did was build an island that
he could live on. It did not take long until Amen-Re was tired of being alone. Amen-Re created
the goddess of justice and truth, Maat. Then Amen started creating other gods and godesses.
Amen-Re was alone again because he lost the first two gods he created, Shu and
Tefnut. He took his own eye and called it his daughter, Hathor. He filled her/the
eye with power and sent her out into the darkness to find Shu and Tefnut. She
filled the darkness with light and brought Shu and Tefnut back to Amen-Re. He
rewarded her by placing her on his head and told her that she would have power
over his enemies and one day people would fear her. Shu and Tefnut loved
eachother and gave birth to Geb and Nut. Amen-Re took Nut as his wife, but Nut
was in love with Geb. When Amen-Re found out about his unfaithful wife he pulled the sky far above the earth and held them distant by force. Also, Amen-Re said that Nut could not give birth to her children in any month of the
year. Nut mourned for Geb and her unborn children. One day, Thoth, the self created god of magic and spells
came to Nut and found a way for her to give birth to her children. Thoth challenged the moon goddess for some of
her light and easily won. He then created five days with the light and added them onto the original 360 day lunar
calender. Nut was then able to give birth to her five children within these five days.
Amen-Re breathed life into the humans that Khnem'u created on his potters wheel. Amen-Re made a land for all of human kind to dwell in, called kingdom Khemet (Egypt). Amen-Re protected the land he made with desert barriers. He also created the Nile river to provide humans with water and rich crops. Also, Amen-Re created other countries and a Nile in sky that would rain down its water and sustain human life. (for information on how the Nile
River impacted ancient Egypt visit: http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/nile-river2.htm ).
Amen-Re also gave the breath of life to to different forms of bird, fish, plant, and animals
on his land. Amen-Re established himself as the first king of Egypt and reigned for many
years. Every night the blue lotus flower closes its petals and sinks into the waters of the
Nun. Darkness reigns throughout the night until the Amen-Re is reborn the next day. The
forces of darkness were never conquered and they surround the earth trying to attack the
sun god. Ancient Egyptians believe when the war between the darkness and the sun god
come to an end the earth will also come to an end.
