Creation Of The Sun And Moon example essay topic

Myths about the Sun and Moon The sun and the moon are powerful beings that bring life and death to all living creatures. They control when it is day or night, which season it is, and the weather. They fascinate humans and a considerable amount of mythology has been dedicated to the creation of the sun and moon and why or how they travel across the sky during the day and night. This paper will discuss and compare some of these myths and the gods attributed to their care and existence.

The sun and the moon are such influential powers that the creation of them is right along with the creation of the world and humans in some of the better-known mythology. The story of creation in Christian Bible tells of God's creation of the sun and the moon. On the fourth day "God made two great lights - the greater to rule the day and the lesser to rule the night... God set them in the dome of sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness". (Genesis 1.16-18).

A similar myth of the creation of the sun and the moon is found in the Qur " an, 'It is Allah Who hath created the heavens and the earth and send eth down rain from the skies... He has made subject to you, the night and the day; the sun and the moon; and the stars in subjection by His command. ' (Qur " an 14: 32-33). These two myths are from monotheist religions in which the sun is just created out of nothing, they describe the creation but they lack explanation as to how and why the sun and the moon where put in the sky and have no detail about the orbits or movement or them. "The Creation of the Sun and the Moon" by Michelangelo is a large fresco of God creating the sun and the moon. In the foreground he has one hand pointing towards a large yellow ball, the sun, and in the background he is pointing towards a large bluish ball, the moon.

He is looking forcefully at the sun in the foreground. This fresco is just one person's take on the creation of the sun and the moon as the bible explains it. The Egyptian sun god was Re. His name meant sun and he represented strength. The Egyptians had two theories concerning appearance each day and disappearance every night.

One is that he rose from the waters enclosed in petals like those of the lotus blossom and that the petals also enfolded about him when he returned at night. The other myth is that he rose in the shape of the phoenix, the mystical bird of fire, and alighted on top of an obelisk, which collected all his light and shone it over the world. At night Re would sink back into the unknown until the next morning. As Re aged and weakened he abdicated some of his duties to Troth, the moon god. This is how the Egyptians explained the daily disappearance of the sun, and the nightly appearance of the moon. A seemingly simple story from Nigeria actually describes the creation and how the sun and the moon got into the sky.

The Nigerian story tells that the Sun and the Moon met and married and built a beautiful house on the dry land. After their new marriage wore off they got bored and decided to invite an old friend, the ocean, into their house for a visit. The ocean insisted that he was to large to fit in their house but the Sun and the Moon insisted that their house was huge. The ocean came in and flooded their whole house up to the roof and the Sun and the Moon had to rise high up into the sky to avoid getting wet. That is how the Sun and the Moon took up permanent residence in the sky and distinguished land and ocean. (Home...

1) A Dakota myth tells of the separation of the sun and moon. Wi is the all-powerful Great God of the Sun and his wife is the Moon Goddess, Hanoi. Some of the other Gods and Goddesses decide to trick the Sun and the Moon. They make an extremely beautiful woman and, in seeing her, the Sun invites her to sit next to him at a feast.

When the Moon arrives and sees the Sun, she is so ashamed that she hides her face. Because of that instance the Sun lost his wife, the Moon, and was only to rule during the day while the Moon was to rule the night. Whenever they are together the Moon covers her face in shame. (Myths...

1) The Dakota myth not only tells of how the sun and the moon were separated in the sky, but also the reason for the suns dominance over the moon when they are both in the sky at the same time. It is a simple tale, yet it explained a lot to the Dakotas. In the last two myths discussed, the sun and the moon started together and got separated in the sky. This is the true in quite a few other myths as well; another example being in Greek / Roman mythology, Apollo is the sun god and his sister Artemis is the moon goddess. This shows that humans see the connections between the two celestial beings and in trying to explain them, often do so with the sun and the moon together. Malina is the sun god of the Eskimos.

She lived with her brother, Anni ngan, the moon god. They got into a terrible fight and Malina spread black grease all over her brother's face. Afraid, she ran as far as she could into the sky and turned into the sun. An nigan chased after her and became the moon. Their eternal chase makes the sun alternate in the sky with the moon. (Fun...

1) The movement of the sun and the moon across the sky is also a natural phenomenon that is explained using myth. In Greek mythology Apollo pulls the sun behind his golden chariot across the sky each day, rests in a palace in the west in the evening and sails back east in the night, only to repeat the journey the next day. The sun and the moon are two of the most worshipped beings in the world. They seem to magically appear in the sky day after day after day, and they provide the basic essentials of life, without the sun life would cease to exist. Their power has inspired many myths about their origin and explanations of their behavior in the sky. Humans are fascinated with their presence and as a result have come up with many fascinating myths about them.