Water means life. Without water we, along with the plants and animals we depend on, all die. Water covers 70% of the Earth’s surface. Water is the creator of life, but it is also the destroyer. Drownings, flooding, tsunamis, and drought (a lack of water) claim thousands of lives each year. That makes water the perfect subject for myths. Water seeks low ground, always flowing downhill, rushing, tumbling, roaring to get lower toward sea level. Streams, rivers, and creeks swirl, gurgle, tumble and flow across the landscape. These waterways are always tucked along the bottom of gullies, valleys, and canyons. Waterways are never found riding a ridgeline or marching across the crest of a hill.
Most origin myths begin with water (oceans) and the heavens already in existence. From these, some being forms land and creates life. Literally, hundreds of creation myths begin by saying that in the beginning, the world was all water. In myths, water usually affects the land (once land exists) only as a flood. Myths from hundreds of traditional cultures talk about the great flood that scoured the landscape, wiped out early evil or unjust civilizations, and gave humanity a second chance. Even landlocked cultures in arid regions the Sioux and Arapaho tribes, for example, have myths of a great flood that covers the Earth and kills almost all living beings.
The biblical flood of Noah is one of the few foods that can be traced to a specific geologic cause and event. Most exist in mythology even though there is little evidence that they ever happened in physical reality. Water is also the source of fog and mist—creepy earthly shrouds that seem to invite mystery, supernatural events, or the arrival of evil. The action of water, especially acidic waters, creates caves and caverns. These empty spaces in the Earth’s mass have always been viewed as dark and mysterious places.
Caverns are doorways to the underworld and to the land beyond death. To many people, it seemed wrong and unsettling that solid Earth should have such holes and gaps as if caves represented a mistake or the work of a demon. Certainly, water deeply affects even controls life. But does water affect the land itself? Earth Scientists study the land, not the life upon the land and certainly not the marine environment. Does water alter land? Is our land different because of the action of water or the presence of water?
Does a study of the land require a study of water and the water cycle? A few creation myths try to explain the origin of the oceans and of water. Virtually none, however, focuses on the effect of water on the land, on how water changes the land. Water creation stories typically rely on the mischief, greed, or misdeeds of a character to trigger catastrophic events that create the sea in a great flood. In one especially inventive story from Thailand, villagers decide to build bigger and bigger kites to win a kite-flying tournament.
A clever man, helped by a gang of children, builds a kite bigger than houses, bigger than fields, bigger than valleys. A great storm blows in and lifts this enormous kite. The man and the children try to hold on, clutching at trees, grass, rocks, and even the ground itself. But the storm lifts the kite high into the sky, pulling people and a great chunk of the Earth with it. The hole left behind forms the Bay of Siam. The bay fills with water that bubbles up from below, and the water spills over to create the oceans. The chunk of Earth flies up to become the moon.
The kite sails even higher to become a constellation of stars in the twinkling night sky. In a myth of the Tiano people of the Caribbean Islands, a famous hunter is killed by a hurricane. His magical bow is placed in a calabash and, when his people are in desperate need, this calabash splashes out fresh fish. Greedy boys break the calabash, and out-pour all the waters of the oceans and seas. In a Venezuelan myth, the sea is trapped in a greedy pelican’s egg. The pelican wanted to hoard all the fish for itself.
A curious and mischievous boy cracked open the egg and out spilled the ocean to cover everything except the mountaintops that became islands. Water means life. Without water we, along with the plants and animals we depend on, all die. Water covers 70% of the Earth’s surface. Water is the creator of life, but it is also the destroyer. Drownings, flooding, tsunamis, and drought (a lack of water) claim thousands of lives each year.
That makes water the perfect subject for myths. Water seeks low ground, always flowing downhill, rushing, tumbling, roaring to get lower toward sea level. Streams, rivers, and creeks swirl, gurgle, tumble and flow across the landscape. These waterways are always tucked along the bottom of gullies, valleys, and canyons. Waterways are never found riding a ridgeline or marching across the crest of a hill. Most origin myths begin with water (oceans) and the heavens already in existence. From these, some being forms land and creates life.
Literally, hundreds of creation myths begin by saying that in the beginning, the world was all water. In myths, water usually affects the land (once land exists) only as a flood. Myths from hundreds of traditional cultures talk about the great flood that scoured the landscape, wiped out early evil or unjust civilizations, and gave humanity a second chance. Even landlocked cultures in arid regions—the Sioux and Arapaho tribes, for example have myths of a great flood that covers the Earth and kills almost all living beings. The biblical flood of Noah is one of the few foods that can be traced to a specific geologic cause and event.
Most exist in mythology even though there is little evidence that they ever happened in physical reality. Water is also the source of fog and mist creepy earthly shrouds that seem to invite mystery, supernatural events, or the arrival of evil. The action of water, especially acidic waters, creates caves and caverns. These empty spaces in the Earth’s mass have always been viewed as dark and mysterious places. Caverns are doorways to the underworld and to the land beyond death.
To many people, it seemed wrong and unsettling that solid Earth should have such holes and gaps as if caves represented a mistake or the work of a demon. Certainly, water deeply affects even controls life. But does water affect the land itself? Earth Scientists study the land, not the life upon the land and certainly not the marine environment. Does water alter land? Is our land different because of the action of water or the presence of water? Does a study of the land require a study of water and the water cycle?
A few creation myths try to explain the origin of the oceans and of water. Virtually none, however, focuses on the effect of water on the land, on how water changes the land. Water creation stories typically rely on the mischief, greed, or misdeeds of a character to trigger catastrophic events that create the sea in a great flood. In one especially inventive story from Thailand, villagers decide to build bigger and bigger kites to win a kite-flying tournament.
A clever man, helped by a gang of children, builds a kite bigger than houses, bigger than fields, bigger than valleys. A great storm blows in and lifts this enormous kite. The man and the children try to hold on, clutching at trees, grass, rocks, and even the ground itself. But the storm lifts the kite high into the sky, pulling people and a great chunk of the Earth with it. The hole left behind forms the Bay of Siam.
The bay fills with water that bubbles up from below, and the water spills over to create the oceans. The chunk of Earth flies up to become the moon. The kite sails even higher to become a constellation of stars in the twinkling night sky. In a myth of the Tiano people of the Caribbean Islands, a famous hunter is killed by a hurricane. His magical bow is placed in a calabash and, when his people are in desperate need, this calabash splashes out fresh fish.
Greedy boys break the calabash, and out pour all the waters of the oceans and seas. In a Venezuelan myth, the sea is trapped in a greedy pelican’s egg. The pelican wanted to hoard all the fish for itself. A curious and mischievous boy cracked open the egg and out spilled the ocean to cover everything except the mountaintops that became islands.
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