11/19/19 Salma Torky PD 7

11/19/19 Salma Torky PD 7

Aim: Creation Story Presentations

Notes:

Babylonian Mythology- group 2- Prometheus's Liver Failure
                    This group decided to make a video to explain the Babylonian creation story. As with many other creation stories, there was a chaos of nothing. Out of this swirling mass of chaos came Apsu the god of freshwater and Tiamat the god of saltwater. They came together to create the first gods. These younger gods were disturbing Apsu and Tiamat and when asked what he should do he was told that he should kill the younger gods. they decided that they cant destroy what they had created and didn't go through with it. However Ea a god who excels in knowledge overheard and cast a spell on Apsu, putting him to sleep and killing him and taking his crown and creating a temple from his remains. Tiamat doesn't go as easily and creates an army of monsters to aid him in his war against the gods. The gods choose Marduk to fight the war against Tiamat and he is successful in defeating him. Marduk then takes half of Tiamat's remains and turns them into the sky and constellations, he also creates night and day and the moon. He also creates the 2 rivers Tigris and Euphrates.  Marduk decides to spare all those who sided with Tiamat but the one who started the rebellion. With the blood of the one who started the rebellion, Ea created the first man. Mankind was created with the intention of servicing the gods. The gods created Babylonia and created temples and assigned positions, giving Marduk God of the gods. there are similarities between Babylonian creation myth and genesis in the Hebrew Bible. In both, a hero rose to create the world, and bring order to the universe. Both also revolve around water being the basis of creation. both also suggest that humans were created to service the gods and keep order.

Egyptian Mythology- group 6- Hades gonna Hate
                 This group replicated an Egyptian scroll that told the story of the creation of the World.
their first panel explained the 4 aspects of disorder which were 8 gods who each had their own counterpart. there was water and chaos, no time, darkness, and invisibility and the hidden. This is a parallel of Greek mythology where they don't know what happened before so they try to explain it with gods. Atum combined with his shadow and created 2 gods, Shu and Tefnut who divided the Chaos into light and dark. their next panel described the birth of Geb and Nut which were the earth and sky respectively. they were lovers who birthed many gods and goddesses. the sun god Ra decided to put a stop to this and ordered Shu the god of air to get between them. Geb and Nut were upset about their separation and cried creating the oceans and rain. Shannon related this back to Demeter and Persephone, and how they were separated and used to explain seasons. This brought back the overall theme that suffering can bring gifts. their next panel explained the beginning of mankind. Shu and Tefnut went missing and the all-seeing eye was sent to find them . when it did find them it shed a tear which created mankind. Their next panel explained Ra ascending to heaven. after years of ruling over everyone, he found that it became more and more difficult to control everyone. Ra became Hathor and was sent to heaven which created constellations. Another version of this has Ra riding a boat across the sky causing day and night. They then went on to explain that Pharaohs were descendants of gods and that's why they were so revered and respected even after death.

Reflection:

             Both groups chose creative ways of presenting their ideas, straying from the common powerpoint presentation, which made for a different feel to the class. As seen in both stories and every other creation story we've heard thus far the beginning is always unexplainable and is automatically labeled as nothing and chaos, which is eventually resolved by the gods. I was unaware of the origins of both of these stories so it was interesting to learn about how every culture attempts to describe the universe and mankind. Although I feel as if both groups lacked a connection to modern society.