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54-459: The Great Ennead was only one of several such groupings of nine deities in ancient Egypt. Claims to preeminence made by its Heliopolitan priests were not respected throughout Egypt, as each nome typically had its own local deities, whose priests insisted stood above all others; even in the nearby city of Memphis , which along with Heliopolis is contained within the limits of modern Cairo , the priests of Ptah celebrated him as singularly superior to

108-539: A classification based on some common motifs that reappear in stories the world over. The classification identifies five basic types: Marta Weigle further developed and refined this typology to highlight nine themes, adding elements such as deus faber , a creation crafted by a deity, creation from the work of two creators working together or against each other, creation from sacrifice and creation from division/conjugation, accretion/conjunction, or secretion. An alternative system based on six recurring narrative themes

162-613: A common origin in the eastern Asiatic coastal region, spreading as peoples migrated west into Siberia and east to the North American continent. However, there are examples of this mytheme found well outside of this boreal distribution pattern, for example the West African Yoruba creation myth of Ọbatala and Oduduwa . Characteristic of many Native American myths, earth-diver creation stories begin as beings and potential forms linger asleep or suspended in

216-503: A female sky deity falls from the heavens, and certain animals, the beaver , the otter , the duck , and the muskrat dive in the waters to fetch mud to construct an island. In a similar story from the Seneca , people lived in a sky realm. One day, the chief's daughter was afflicted with a mysterious illness, and the only cure recommended for her (revealed in a dream) was to lie beside a tree and to have it be dug up. The people do so, but

270-475: A group of supervillains collectively called the Ennead. Each of its members wield an ancient artifact that grant them the powers and appearance of a member of the mythological Ennead; in the game's universe, most of ancient Egyptian religion originated from stories about the original wielders of these artifacts. Nome (Egypt) A nome ( / n oʊ m / , from Ancient Greek : νομός , nomós , "district")

324-564: A hole opening to the underworld to stories about their subsequent migrations and eventual settlement in their current homelands. The earth-diver is a common character in various traditional creation myths. In these stories a supreme being usually sends an animal (most often a type of bird, but also crustaceans, insects, and fish in some narratives) into the primal waters to find bits of sand or mud with which to build habitable land. Some scholars interpret these myths psychologically while others interpret them cosmogonically . In both cases emphasis

378-408: A man complains that the tree was their livelihood, and kicks the girl through the hole. She ends up falling from the sky to a world of only water, but is rescued by waterfowl . A turtle offers to bear her on its shell, but asked where would be a definitive dwelling place for her. They decide to create land, and the toad dives into the depths of the primal sea to get pieces of soil. The toad puts it on

432-679: A more or less orderly fashion south to north through the Nile Delta, first covering the territory on the west before continuing with the higher numbers to the east. Thus, Alexandria was in the Third Nome; Bubastis was in the Eighteenth. Upper Egypt was divided into 22 nomes. The first of these was centered on Elephantine close to Egypt's border with Nubia at the First Cataract – the area of modern-day Aswan . From there

486-404: A new nome, Antinoopolites, for which Antinoöpolis was the capital. The nomes survived into Roman times. Under Roman rule, individual nomes minted their own coinage, the so-called "nome coins", which still reflect individual local associations and traditions. The nomes of Egypt retained their primary importance as administrative units until the fundamental rearrangement of the bureaucracy during

540-439: A rational explanation of deity." While creation myths are not literal explications , they do serve to define an orientation of humanity in the world in terms of a birth story. They provide the basis of a worldview that reaffirms and guides how people relate to the natural world , to any assumed spiritual world , and to each other . A creation myth acts as a cornerstone for distinguishing primary reality from relative reality,

594-463: A sense of their place in the world and the regard that they must have for humans and nature. Historian David Christian has summarised issues common to multiple creation myths: How did everything begin? This is the first question faced by any creation myth and ... answering it remains tricky. ... Each beginning seems to presuppose an earlier beginning. ... Instead of meeting a single starting point, we encounter an infinity of them, each of which poses

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648-435: A separation or splitting of a primeval entity, the world parent or parents. One form describes the primeval state as an eternal union of two parents, and the creation takes place when the two are pulled apart. The two parents are commonly identified as Sky (usually male) and Earth (usually female), who were so tightly bound to each other in the primeval state that no offspring could emerge. These myths often depict creation as

702-483: A staged ascent or metamorphosis from nascent forms through a series of subterranean worlds to arrive at their current place and form. Often the passage from one world or stage to the next is impelled by inner forces, a process of germination or gestation from earlier, embryonic forms. The genre is most commonly found in Native American cultures where the myths frequently link the final emergence of people from

756-586: Is a type of cosmogony , a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it. While in popular usage the term myth often refers to false or fanciful stories, members of cultures often ascribe varying degrees of truth to their creation myths. In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths  – metaphorically , symbolically , historically , or literally . They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical myths – that is, they describe

810-496: Is likened to the act of giving birth. The role of midwife is usually played by a female deity, like the spider woman of several mythologies of Indigenous peoples in the Americas. Male characters rarely figure into these stories, and scholars often consider them in counterpoint to male-oriented creation myths, like those of the ex nihilo variety. Emergence myths commonly describe the creation of people and/or supernatural beings as

864-544: Is only one of many creation stories . The Egyptians believed no specific myth was more correct than the other, rather that some combination of these myths was correct. This creation story, the Heliopolitan tradition, is one of physiological creation. The other major creation traditions are the Memphite Theology and Hermopolitian Ogdoad creation myth . A dual Ennead ( Psḏty ) was written Most of

918-483: Is placed on beginnings emanating from the depths. According to Gudmund Hatt and Tristram P. Coffin , Earth-diver myths are common in Native American folklore , among the following populations: Shoshone , Meskwaki , Blackfoot , Chipewyan , Newettee , Yokuts of California, Mandan , Hidatsa , Cheyenne , Arapaho , Ojibwe , Yuchi , and Cherokee . American anthropologist Gladys Reichard located

972-536: Is pre-existing within the unformed void. In creation from chaos myths, there is nothing initially but a formless, shapeless expanse. In these stories the word "chaos" means "disorder", and this formless expanse, which is also sometimes called a void or an abyss, contains the material with which the created world will be made. Chaos may be described as having the consistency of vapor or water, dimensionless, and sometimes salty or muddy. These myths associate chaos with evil and oblivion, in contrast to "order" ( cosmos ) which

1026-506: Is the good. The act of creation is the bringing of order from disorder, and in many of these cultures it is believed that at some point the forces preserving order and form will weaken and the world will once again be engulfed into the abyss. One example is the Genesis creation narrative from the first chapter of the Book of Genesis . There are two types of world parent myths, both describing

1080-652: Is uncertain, since hieroglyphs do not record vowels, but may have been /piˈsiːcʼat/ in Old Egyptian , /piˈsiːtʼaʔ/ in Middle Egyptian , and /pəˈsiːtʼə/ in Late Egyptian . Egyptologists conventionally transcribe it as Pesedjet . The ancient Egyptians created several enneads as their unification under Dynasty I brought numerous local cults into contact with one another. The ancient Egyptian mythology often had many different explanations for

1134-616: The Ancient Egyptian term came about during the Ptolemaic period , when the use of Greek was widespread in Egypt. The availability of Greek records on Egypt influenced the adoption of Greek terms by later historians. The division of ancient Egypt into nomes can be traced back to prehistoric Egypt (before 3100 BC ). These nomes originally existed as autonomous city-states , but later began to unify. According to ancient tradition,

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1188-622: The Chukchi and Yukaghir , the Tatars , and many Finno-Ugric traditions, as well as among the Buryat and the Samoyed. In addition, the earth-diver motif also exists in narratives from Eastern Europe, namely Romani , Romanian, Slavic (namely, Bulgarian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Belarusian), and Lithuanian mythological traditions. The pattern of distribution of these stories suggest they have

1242-832: The Egyptian calendar of lucky and unlucky days , may reference the Pleiades . The most important was the "Great" or "Heliopolitan Ennead" of Awanu ( Ancient Egyptian : I͗wnw ), known under the Greeks and Romans as Heliopolis . It celebrated the family of the sun god Atum (sometimes referred to as Atum-re ) and thrived from the Old Kingdom to the Ptolemaic period . Its development remains uncertain, although it appears to have first appeared when Ra 's cult – supreme under Dynasty V – declined in importance under Dynasty VI . Egyptologists have traditionally theorized that

1296-1060: The First Intermediate Period , a time that saw a breakdown in central authority lasting from the 7th–11th Dynasties which ended when one of the local rulers became strong enough to again assert control over the entire country as pharaoh. The nomes ( Ancient Egyptian : spꜣt , Coptic : ⲡⲑⲱϣ ) are listed in separate tables for "Isti" - "the two Egypts" ( Upper and Lower Egypt ). Note: Nome Name Inebu-hedj Memphites Khepesh Letopolites Imentet/Amentet Gynaikopolites Nit Resy/Nit Resu Prosopites Nit Resy/Resu Phthemphouth Nit Meḥtet Saites Khasuu Xoites Huu-(ges)-Imenti Menelaites Huu-(ges)-Iabty Heroopolites Andjety Bousirites Kem-Wer/Ka-kem Athribites (Ka)-Heseb Leontopolites Tjeb-Ka/Tjeb-Netjer Sebennytes Heka-Adj Heliopolites Khenti-Iabti Sethroites Djeḥuti Mendesios Hatmehyt Mendesios Behdet/Sema-Behdet Creation story A creation myth or cosmogonic myth

1350-523: The Rig Veda , and many animistic cultures in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and North America. In most of these stories, the world is brought into being by the speech, dream, breath, or pure thought of a creator but creation ex nihilo may also take place through a creator's bodily secretions. The literal translation of the phrase ex nihilo is "from nothing" but in many creation myths the line is blurred whether

1404-579: The pagi from which they originated. For most of the history, each nome was headed by a nomarch . The position of the nomarch was at times hereditary, while at others they were appointed by the pharaoh . Generally, when the national government was stronger, nomarchs were the king's appointed governors. When the central government was weaker, however—such as during foreign invasions or civil wars—individual nomes would assert themselves and establish hereditary lines of succession. Conflicts among these different hereditary nomarchies were common, most notably during

1458-538: The Ennead are portrayed in Gods of Egypt (2016 movie); the main focus of the movie is the conflict between the protagonist god Horus versus the antagonist god Set. In the first episode of the 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe television miniseries Moon Knight , Steven Grant points out a problem with some of the museum's marketing material that seems to refer to the Ennead as a pantheon consisting of seven, rather than nine, gods. Yet in episode 3 they name Hathor as part of

1512-524: The Ennead, pointing out a deviation with the series' interpretation of the mythology. In the BL manhwa ENNEAD , written and illustrated by Mojito, Set (using the name Seth) is the main character. It draws heavily upon classic Egyptian mythology and centers on the conflict between Horus and Seth. The Infernal Relics expansion to the cooperative superhero card game Sentinels of the Multiverse introduced

1566-533: The Great Ennead was well established, the cult of Ra – identified with Atum – recovered much of its importance until superseded by the cult of Horus . The two were then combined as Ra-Horus of the Horizons . B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W According to the creation story of the Heliopolitan priests, the world originally consisted of

1620-413: The Heliopolitan priesthood established it to establish the preeminence of Atum over the others, incorporating some major gods in lesser positions and omitting others entirely. The most prominent of such deities was Osiris , god of vegetation and the afterlife , who was incorporated into the ennead as Atum's great-grandson. However, in the 20th century, some Egyptologists question the whole scenario. After

1674-702: The Nine — In addition to Memphis having its own creation myth, the contemporaneous city of Hermopolis had another creation story, the Ogdoad , that accounted for the physical creation of the universe by eight (different) primordial gods. The English name ennead is a borrowing via Latin of the Greek name enneás ( ἐννεάς ), meaning "the nine". The term was a calque of the Egyptian name, written psḏt and also meaning "the Nine". Its original pronunciation

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1728-399: The creative act would be better classified as a creation ex nihilo or creation from chaos. In ex nihilo creation myths, the potential and the substance of creation springs from within the creator. Such a creator may or may not be existing in physical surroundings such as darkness or water, but does not create the world from them, whereas in creation from chaos the substance used for creation

1782-477: The distribution of the motif across "all parts of North America", save for "the extreme north, northeast, and southwest". In a 1977 study, anthropologist Victor Barnouw surmised that the earth-diver motif appeared in " hunting-gathering societies ", mainly among northerly groups such as the Hare , Dogrib , Kaska , Beaver , Carrier , Chipewyan , Sarsi , Cree , and Montagnais . Similar tales are also found among

1836-424: The habitable cosmos), but with assigning roles so that the cosmos should function. In the early 2nd century CE, early Christian scholars were beginning to see a tension between the idea of world-formation and the omnipotence of God, and by the beginning of the 3rd century creation ex nihilo had become a fundamental tenet of Christian theology. Ex nihilo creation is found in creation stories from ancient Egypt ,

1890-413: The nighttime sky personified as Nut . Geb and Nut were the parents of Osiris and Isis and of Set and Nephthys , who became respective couples in turn. Osiris and Isis represent fertility and order, while Set and Nephthys represent chaos to balance out Osiris and Isis. Horus , the son of Osiris and Isis, is often included in this creation tradition. Due to the duality of Ancient Egyptian myths, this

1944-619: The nome of Bubastis , appeared no earlier than the New Kingdom . Under the system that prevailed for most of pharaonic Egypt's history, the country was divided into 42 nomes. Lower Egypt (Egyptian: "Ā-meḥty"), from the Old Kingdom capital Memphis to the Mediterranean Sea , comprised 20 nomes. The first was based around Memphis, Saqqara , and Giza , in the area occupied by modern-day Cairo . The nomes were numbered in

1998-845: The numbering progressed downriver in an orderly fashion along the narrow fertile strip of land that was the Nile valley. Waset (ancient Thebes or contemporary Luxor ) was in the Fourth Nome, Amarna in the Fourteenth, and Meidum in the Twenty-first. Some nomes were added or renamed during the Graeco-Roman occupation of Egypt. For example, the Ptolemies renamed the Crocodilopolitan nome to Arsinoe. Hadrian created

2052-564: The ordering of the cosmos from a state of chaos or amorphousness. Creation myths often share several features. They often are considered sacred accounts and can be found in nearly all known religious traditions . They are all stories with a plot and characters who are either deities , human-like figures, or animals, who often speak and transform easily. They are often set in a dim and nonspecific past that historian of religion Mircea Eliade termed in illo tempore ('at that time'). Creation myths address questions deeply meaningful to

2106-419: The origin and nature of being from non-being. In this sense cosmogonic myths serve as a philosophy of life – but one expressed and conveyed through symbol rather than through systematic reason. And in this sense they go beyond etiological myths (which explain specific features in religious rites, natural phenomena, or cultural life). Creation myths also help to orient human beings in the world, giving them

2160-504: The past, historians of religion and other students of myth thought of such stories as forms of primitive or early-stage science or religion and analyzed them in a literal or logical sense. Today, however, they are seen as symbolic narratives which must be understood in terms of their own cultural context. Charles Long writes: "The beings referred to in the myth – gods, animals, plants – are forms of power grasped existentially. The myths should not be understood as attempts to work out

2214-464: The primordial realm. The earth-diver is among the first of them to awaken and lay the necessary groundwork by building suitable lands where the coming creation will be able to live. In many cases, these stories will describe a series of failed attempts to make land before the solution is found. Among the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the earth-diver cosmogony is attested in Iroquois mythology :

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2268-492: The primordial waters of precreation personified as Nun . From it arose a mound on the First Occasion. Upon the mound sat the self-begotten god Atum , who was equated with the sun god Ra . Atum evolved from Nun through self-creation. Atum either spat or masturbated, producing air personified as Shu and moisture personified as Tefnut . The siblings Shu and Tefnut mated to produce the earth personified as Geb and

2322-470: The reigns of Diocletian and Constantine the Great . From AD 307/8, their place was taken by smaller units called pagi . Eventually powerful local officials arose who were called pagarchs, through whom all patronage flowed. The pagarch's essential role was as an organizer of tax-collection. Later the pagarch assumed some military functions as well. The pagarchs were often wealthy landowners who reigned over

2376-519: The result of a sexual union and serve as genealogical record of the deities born from it. In the second form of world parent myths, creation itself springs from dismembered parts of the body of the primeval being. Often, in these stories, the limbs, hair, blood, bones, or organs of the primeval being are somehow severed or sacrificed to transform into sky, earth, animal or plant life, and other worldly features. These myths tend to emphasize creative forces as animistic in nature rather than sexual, and depict

2430-640: The ruler Menes completed the final unification. Not only did the division into nomes remain in place for more than three millennia, the areas of the individual nomes and their ordering remained remarkably stable. Some, like Xois in the Nile Delta or Khent in Upper Egypt , were first mentioned on the Palermo Stone , which was inscribed in the Fifth Dynasty . The names of a few, like

2484-576: The sacred as the elemental and integral component of the natural world. One example of this is the Norse creation myth described in " Völuspá ", the first poem in the Poetic Edda , and in Gylfaginning . In emergence myths, humanity emerges from another world into the one they currently inhabit. The previous world is often considered the womb of the earth mother , and the process of emergence

2538-568: The same phenomenon. This concept is especially unique because no single story was more accurate than another, but rather the truth was a mix of them all. The Pyramid Texts of Dynasties V and VI mention the "Great Ennead", the "Lesser Ennead", the "Dual Ennead", and the "Seven Enneads". Some pharaohs established enneads that incorporated themselves as gods . The most notable case is Seti I of Dynasty XIX , whose mortuary temple at Redesiyah celebrated an ennead of six major gods and three deified forms of himself. The ennead mentioned in

2592-586: The same problem. ... There are no entirely satisfactory solutions to this dilemma. What we have to find is not a solution but some way of dealing with the mystery .... And we have to do so using words. The words we reach for, from God to gravity , are inadequate to the task. So we have to use language poetically or symbolically; and such language, whether used by a scientist, a poet, or a shaman, can easily be misunderstood. Mythologists have applied various schemes to classify creation myths found throughout human cultures. Eliade and his colleague Charles Long developed

2646-426: The society that shares them, revealing their central worldview and the framework for the self-identity of the culture and individual in a universal context. Creation myths develop in oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple versions; found throughout human culture , they are the most common form of myth. Creation myth definitions from modern references: Religion professor Mircea Eliade defined

2700-681: The turtle's back, which grows larger with every deposit of soil. In another version from the Wyandot , the Wyandot lived in heaven. The daughter of the Big Chief (or Mighty Ruler) was sick, so the medicine man recommends that they dig up the wild apple tree that stands next to the Lodge of the Mighty Ruler, because the remedy is to be found on its roots. However, as the tree has been dug out,

2754-715: The word myth in terms of creation: Myth narrates a sacred history; it relates an event that took place in primordial Time, the fabled time of the "beginnings." In other words, myth tells how, through the deeds of Supernatural Beings, a reality came into existence, be it the whole of reality, the Cosmos, or only a fragment of reality – an island, a species of plant, a particular kind of human behavior, an institution. Creation myths have been around since ancient history and have served important societal roles. Over 100 "distinct" ones have been discovered. All creation myths are in one sense etiological because they attempt to explain how

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2808-436: The world formed and where humanity came from. Myths attempt to explain the unknown and sometimes teach a lesson. Ethnologists and anthropologists who study origin myths say that in the modern context theologians try to discern humanity's meaning from revealed truths and scientists investigate cosmology with the tools of empiricism and rationality , but creation myths define human reality in very different terms. In

2862-475: Was a territorial division in ancient Egypt . Each nome was ruled by a nomarch ( Ancient Egyptian : ḥrj tp ꜥꜣ , "Great Chief"). The number of nomes changed through the various periods of the history of ancient Egypt . The term nome comes from Ancient Greek νομός, nomós , meaning "district"; the Ancient Egyptian term was sepat or spAt . Today's use of the Ancient Greek rather than

2916-447: Was designed by Raymond Van Over: The myth that God created the world out of nothing – ex nihilo – is central today to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides felt it was the only concept that the three religions shared. Nonetheless, the concept is not found in the entire Hebrew Bible. The authors of Genesis 1 were concerned not with the origins of matter (the material which God formed into

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