ASTRONOMY 9: HISTORY OF COSMOLOGY

Handout #6

J. E. Baker
UC Berkeley, Spring 2000

Origin Myths: The Middle East and Europe

1.

Egyptian Cosmology

• Socio-political role of cosmological myth

  (a)

  Theology from Memphis (c. 3000 BCE)

  • Pharoh Menes unites Upper and Lower Egypt
  • Provincial creator deity Ptah of the new capital, Memphis
  • Establishes superiority over older Atum (Heliopolis)

• Creation through power of speech

  (a)

  Theology from Memphis

  • Words are literally the raw material
  • Creation is directed by the divine heart

• Male fertility as the agent of creation

  (a)

  History of the Creation of Gods and the World ($\approx$ 2400 BCE; hieroglyphics!)

  • Atum arises from primal water/chaos to create order
  • Intercourse with his own shadow (feminine), masturbation
  • Mouth as womb
  • Spits out gods, man and woman, plants and animals

2.

Mesopotamian Cosmology

(a)

Babylon: Enuma Elish (c. 1900 BCE)

• Probable Sumerian influence; strong influence on Bible
• Also has political purpose: Marduk (local deity) becomes national supreme Being
• Beginning: no earth, height, depth, name
• Apsu (ocean, male) / Tiamat (primal waters, female) create secondary gods:
  • Lahmu / Lahamu (silt / slime)
  • Anshar / Kishar (horizons of sky / earth)
  • Anu / Ea (heaven, authority / earth waters, wisdom, irrigation)
• Divine discord leads Apsu to attempt infanticide, but Ea kills him with words and begets powerful Marduk
• Tiamat makes 11 monsters to take revenge
• Marduk alone is brave enough to defeat her
• Creates Universe and Time from Tiamat's body
• Demands position of supreme power as his reward
• Takes Babylon as home
• Man created almost as an afterthought: from a slain god (Kingu, instigator of rebellion)

3.

Biblical Cosmology

• Two dramatically different creation accounts
• Pervasive influence on Western society

  (a)

  Genesis 1-2:3 (c. 400 BCE)

  • ``Priestly'' (P) school: god-centered, austere, remote
  • Creation of six ``days''
    • 1) Void, waters $\Rightarrow$ heaven/earth, day/night
    • 2) Land/sea, plants
    • 3) Stars, sun/moon $\Rightarrow$ time
    • 4) Sea animals
    • 5) Land animals, humans (M/F coequal) with ``dominion over every living thing''
    • 6) Finishing up
    • 7) Rest (ritual only comes later)

  (b)

  Genesis 2:4-23 (c. 900 BCE)

  • Older ``J'' author: anthropocentric, provincial Yahweh
  • Origin is arid earth, not water
  • Order of creation is very different
  • Man first from dry dust
  • Then the Garden (paradise), rivers, forbidden knowledge (good/evil), animals (named by man)
  • Woman from rib, derivative and dependent but necessary for completeness

  (c)

  Creation through speech

  i.

  Psalm 33: 6-15 ($\approx$ 600 BCE)

  • Power of the ``Word'' as literal creative agent
  • Deity as ultimate ruler, judge, commander-in-chief

  (d)

  Deity as ultimate ground of being

  i.

  Job 38, 42

  • Dependent creation (man) cannot question its ordained fate
  • Being takes primacy over justice

  ii.

  John 1:1-18

  • Primacy of speech
  • Jesus as the ``Word'' in physical form

4.

Zoroastrian Myth (Zarathustra b. 590 BCE, Iran)

• Power of numerology and astrology
• Battle of good (Ohrmazd) vs. evil (Ahriman)

  (a)

  Speaking of the World

  • All is change, existence cannot be eternal
  • Creator as ``Infinite Time''
  • Ohrmazd creates finite time (12,000 years) and 12 Zodiacal signs

  (b)

  Mixing of the Bounteous and Destructive Spirits

  • Sky, water, earth, etc. created as perfect (static) forms
  • Zorvan (Time) creates motion
  • Allows evil to surface, battle rages on

  (c)

  Answer of the Spirit of Wisdom

  • Origin of evil: Ahriman's self-sodomy ( $\Rightarrow$ demons, lies)
  • Numerology and astrology: 12 (good, zodiac, months/year, 1000s of years of time) and 7 (evil, number of ``planets'', days/week)

5.

Gnostic

• Physical world as evil realm: light trapped in impure matter
• Gnosis: saving knowledge of the true nature
• Man's only hope is to escape the material world
• Desire return to realm of light/wisdom/spirit

  (a)

  Poimandres (c. 100 AD)

  • Soul is immortal, but trapped in evil, mortal matter
  • ``Cause of death is love''
  • Original entrapment due to attraction to divine reflection in Earth's waters.

  (b)

  Creation According to Mani (215-275 AD)

  • Evil darkness tries to mingle with light
  • Primal man defeated by darkness
  • Living Spirit and Messenger launch rescue missions
  • Adam and Eve created by evil in order to maintain his control(!)
  • Jesus sent to reveal gnosis
  • Adam laments separation from the light/wisdom

6.

Islamic (Mohammed, 570-632 AD, Mecca)

(a)

Koran, Sura XVI

• Allah as the only god, all others insignificant
• Man created from moist germ along with elements of nature

7.

Celtic Cosmology

• Heaven (father) and Earth (mother) united, too close
• No room for children, so one kills Heaven
• Skull $\Rightarrow$ firmament, blood $\Rightarrow$ seas
• Good/bright/upper gods vx. dark/evil/lower Titans
• Titan as lord of darkness and death, but also creator of life!

8.

Ancient Greece and Rome

• Gods as personifications of natural elements or human traits

(a)

Pelasgian

• Eurynome (mother/wife) rises from Chaos, divides sea/sky
• North wind as agent of fertilization(!)
• Snake Ophion (son/husband) lays Cosmic Egg $\Rightarrow$ all creation
• Ophion takes all credit and is banished to underworld
• Creates 7 planetary powers and first man (Pelasgus)

(b)

Hesiod: Theogony

• Gods of earth, underworld, and Eros are born of Chaos
• Earth (female) gives rise to heaven (male), as an equal
• Plethora of other gods created by the few
• Uranus hates own children and hides them
• One (Kronos) takes revenge by castration
• Kronos eats all his children (prophecy says one will succeed him), but Zeus escapes
• Zeus wages great battles, controls Olympus, fosters male dominance

(c)

Hesiod: Five Ages of Man

• Olympian gods create regressive levels of man
  • 1) Gold: Perfect mortal men
  • 2) Silver: Lesser race, huge babies for 100 years then brief life; hidden away after dishonoring gods
  • 3) Bronze: warlike, strong, self-destructive
  • 4) Heros, demi-gods: sent to edge of the earth
  • 5) Iron: current age, suffering and death
• Ultimate fate: immorality, destruction by Zeus

(d)

Ovid: Metamorphoses

• Primal Chaos shaped into creation by god or nature (origin not specified)
• Man created by god or earth
• Only animal which can face up to heaven

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