Myths concerning creation
Myths concerning creation take various forms. Creation stories are very broad and split into sections depending on what creation emerged from. This paper will compare and contrast the Mesopotamia story of creation, focusing on Enuma Elish and Egyptian creation story focusing on Memphite theology. The Memphite theology is grounded around Ptah, who becomes the primordial fire and provides its substance. The Enuma Elish recounts the struggle between cosmic order and chaos. Although the two myths have several similarities, they also have several differences.
The Mesopotamia myth Enuma Elish starts with the word “when on high.” Egyptian myth, Memphite theology, is written on the Shabaka Stone, which is a prominent significant relic. The Memphite theology has an essential aspect in common to the Mesopotamia Enuma Elish. In both Egyptian and Mesopotamia myths, deities emerge from another god. In Egypt, there is Ptah, an essential figure for the Egyptian city of Memphis. The other deities in Egypt were created from Ptah. Even for Enuma Elish in Mesopotamia, there is a genealogy of gods.
Another similarity is the creation of man from clay on both myths. In Enuma Elish, Ea, on the order of Marduk, rose to dominance in this creation created man from a mixture of clay from the ground in addition to the blood of Kingu. The myth states that Marduk later killed this goddess. Also, in Egyptian myth, Memphite theology, there is the creation of man out of clay. According to the Memphite theology, the Egyptian god of fertility known as Khnum created humans using clay on a potter’s wheel. However, there is a difference in the two stories of the creation of man out of clay. The Egyptian myth mentions a potter who molded and shaped ma with potter’s while highlighting that humans were created as a copy of the creator. In contrast, the Mesopotamia myth doesn’t mention the creation of man in god’s likeness. It can also be seen that in Egyptian Memphite theology, it is not gods who mod and create man as a copy of themselves; rather, it is humans who constructed gods in their idiosyncratic resemblance.
Both Memphite theology and Enum Elish myths have the idea of kingship. For both myths, there are instances where the kings are praised and to contain total power on everyone and everything. This is so since the Egyptians and Mesopotamians looked at kingship to provide crucial factors for social order. Both Memphite theology and Enuma Elish are political, justifying the main status of the capitals. While the Egyptian myth cosmological system was developed at Memphis when it became the capital city of the kings of Egypt, the Mesopotamian myth basic story was written in Akkadian, featuring Maduk, the patron deity of the city of Babylon.
There are differences between the Egyptian myth of creation and Mesopotamia myths of creation. In Memphite theology creation in Egypt, there is a creation of man where only one god creates everything, while in Mesopotamia, there is no creation of man by one god. While the man in Mesopotamia myth, Enuma Elish, man is created to serve gods, in Egyptian myth, Memphite theology, the man was created to rule themselves and rule above other creatures. In Enuma Elish, the man was created to serve the gods by bringing them sacrifices and food and respect their images of gods. Unlike in the creation myth in Egypt, Memphite theology, the creation story in Mesopotamia state that man has to serve gods since gods have to take it easy. According to Mesopotamians’ beliefs, they must sooth gods to avoid them taking out their rage against humans. Here gods are superior and are t be feared since they can bring wrath upon humans.