Titien Diah Soelistyarini

The story that explains the origins of life and

of all things
An attempt:
to make sense of life's mysteries;
to impose structure and order in the universe
to define the place of individuals, races and
all people in that universe
1. First, there was chaos
2. The Universe began to take shape
3. Titans & giants
4. Uranus oppresses his children
5. The castration of Uranus
6. The new generation of Gods
7. History repeats itself


During the flood, Old Man was sitting on the highest
mountainved black water.
Then he said to the people, "Talk," and they all talked
differently; but those who drank black water spoke the
same.
This happened on the highest mountain in the
Montana Reservation [Chief Mountain].

There was once a time when there were but two persons in the world, Old Man and Old
Woman. One time, when they were traveling about, Old Man met Old Woman, who said,
"Now, let us come to an agreement of some kind; let us decide how the people shall live."
"Well," said Old Man, " I am to have the first say in everything."
To this Old Woman agreed, provided she had the second say.
Then Old Man began, "The women are to tan the hides. When they do this, they are to rub
brains on them to make them soft; they are to scrape them well with scraping tools, etc. But
all this they are to do very quickly, for it will not be very hard work."
"No, I will not agree to this," said Old Woman. "They must tan the hide in the way you say; but
it must be made very hard work, and take a long time, so that the good workers may be
found out."
"Well", said Old Man, "let the people have eyes and mouths in their faces; but they shall be
straight up and down."
"No," said Old Woman, "we will not have them that way. We will have the eyes and mouth in
the faces, as you say; but they shall all be set crosswise."
"Well," said Old Man, "the people shall have ten fingers on each hand."
"Oh, no!" said Old Woman. "That will be too many. They will be in the way. There shall be four
fingers and one thumb on each hand."
"Well," said Old Man, "we shall beget children. The genitals shall be at our navels."
"No," said Old Woman, "that will make childbearing too easy; the people will not care for their
children. The genitals shall be at the pubes."
So they went on until they had provided for everything in the lives of the people that were to
be. Then Old Woman asked what they should do about life and death.
Should the people always live, or should they die? They had some difficulty
in agreeing on this; but finally Old Man said, "I will tell you what I will
do. I will throw a buffalo chip into the water, and, if it floats, the people
die for four days and live again. But, if it sinks, they will die forever."
So he threw it in, and it floated.
"No," said Old Woman, "we will not decide in that way. I will throw in this
rock. If it floats, the people will die for four days. If it sinks, the people
will die forever."
Then Old Woman threw the rock out into the water, and it sank to the
bottom.
"There," said she, "it is better for the people to die forever; for, if they did not
die forever, they would never feel sorry for each other, and there would be
no sympathy in the world."
"Well," said Old Man, let it be that way."
After a time Old Woman had a daughter, who died. She was very sorry now
that it had been fixed so that people died forever. So she said to Old Man,
"Let us have our say over again."
"No," said he, "we fixed it once."

Brahmanaspati as the creator of all the gods (Agni, Mitra, Indra, the
Adityas, etc.) who shaped the world, and Aditi as their mother (mother
goddess)
With blast and smelting, Brahmanaspati produced Existence, in an
earlier age of Gods, sprang from Non-existence.
Thereafter the regions were born, sprang from the Productive Power.
Thus, Earth sprang from the Productive Power
Daksa was born of Aditi, and Aditi was Daksa's Child. Then, from the
feet of gods came a thickening cloud of dust arose.
Gods, like Yatis, caused all existing things to grow, then brought
forward Surya who was lying hidden in the sea.
Eight are the Sons of Aditi who from her body sprang to life. With
seven she went to meet the Gods she cast Martanda far away.
So with her Seven Sons Aditi went forth to meet the earlier age. She
brought Martanda thitherward to spring to life and die again.
The origin of death is a theme in the myths of many
cultures.
Death is a universal feature of human life, so stories
about its origin appear to be universal in various myths
and beliefs.

The Myth of the Old Woman Who Hid Death
In the beginning times people lived happily without any fear of
death. Now it happened one morning that God (Imana) was
chasing death to exterminate it from the land of people. When
God drew near to arrest (catch) death, death ran into a dog and
possessed him. Then the dog quickly ran and entered into the
small hut of an old woman who happened to be sitting near the
fireplace warming herself. Then death spoke through the dog
saying, "Hide me. If God comes inquiring about me, tell him that
death is not here." The old woman, being surprised to see the
dog and hear him speak, hid the dog under her bed. Then she
went out and sat in front of her house.
Suddenly God appeared with great speed. Seeing the woman, he
halted and asked: "Lady, have you seen death?" "No, Sir," replied
the old woman. "I am rather blind and death is not here. Maybe
he passed by running." But because he knows everything, God
said: "You have hidden death. So from now on you will be
acquainted with death.

There are three primary places where the dead were
perceived to go:
Helheim (Old Norse Helheimr, the home of the
goddess Hel),
Valhalla (Old Norse Valhll, the hall of the fallen), and
Folkvang (Old Norse Flkvangr, the field of the people
or the field of warriors).
To die is merely to continue living, although in a
somewhat different form.
Thus, life is eternal.
Death is a threshold in the wider process of life, not so
much an end as a continuance and a transformation.
Thanatos the God of Death, does not appear as a
distinct divinity, though he is described as the brother
of Sleep, together with whom he carries the body of
Sarpedon from the field of battle to the country of the
Lycians (cited in Homers poem).
The dead went to the Underworld (Hades the God of
the Underworld)
Many cultures have myths and legends that tell of heroes or
other characters who die and then come back to life, not as
their former selves but as other people, as animals, or even
as plants.
It is based on the belief that a person's soul continues to
exist after death and can transmigrate, or move, to another
living thing.
Cultural groups that believe in reincarnation have different
ideas about the way it takes place. Some say that human
souls come from a general source of life-giving energy.
Others claim that particular individuals are repeatedly
reborn or come back to life in their descendants.
Most Aborigines believe that human souls come from
spirits left behind by ancestral beings who roamed the
earth during a mythical period called Dreamtime.
The birth of a child is caused by an ancestral spirit
entering a woman's body.
The spirit waits in a sacred place for the woman to pass
by.
After death, the person's spirit returns to the ancestral
powers.
The souls or spirits of recently dead people linger near the
grave for a time, seeking other bodiesreptile, mammal,
bird, or humanto inhabit.
Many African traditions link reincarnation to the worship
of ancestors, who may be reborn as their own descendants
or as animals associated with their clans or groups.
The Zulu people of southern Africa believe that a person's
soul is reborn many times in the bodies of different
animals, ranging in size from tiny insects to large
elephants, before being born as a human again.
The Yoruba and Edo of western Africa share the widely held
notion that people are the reincarnations of their
ancestors. They call boys "Father Has Returned" and girls
"Mother Has Returned."

The Greek historian, Herodotus, recorded ancient
Egyptian ideas about reincarnation.
The Egyptians believed that the soul passed through a
variety of speciesanimals, marine life, and birds
before once again becoming a human.
The entire journey, from death of a human to rebirth
as a human again, took 3,000 years.
One ancient Egyptian source, the Book of Going Forth
by Day, states that the souls of important individuals
can return to earth in the form of creatures such as the
heron or crocodile.

Ancient Norse kings were regarded as reincarnations
of the god Freyr.
After the introduction of Christianity to Norway, some
people believed the Christian king Saint Olaf was the
reincarnation of an earlier pagan king, also named
Olaf.

Reincarnation plays a central role in Buddhism and
Hinduism, as well as in Jainism, and Sikhism that all began
in India, where the idea of rebirth first appears in texts
dating from about 700 B.C.
They share a belief in samsarathe wheel of birth and
rebirthand karmathe idea that an individual's future
incarnation depends on the way he or she lived.
People who have done good deeds and led moral lives are
reborn into higher social classes; those who have not are
doomed to return as members of the lower classes or as
animals.
Only by achieving the highest state of spiritual
development can a person escape samsara altogether.
Reincarnation plays a central
role in Hinduism.
People who have performed
good deeds and led moral
lives are reborn into higher
social classes; those who
have failed in these areas are
doomed to return as
members of the lower
classes or as animals.
This carving of two men
with a wheel represents the
cycle of birth and rebirth.

Every mythology has its own way in explaining the
origin of life and death. However, there are still some
interesting similarities that we can draw from all of
these creation myths
Many traditional beliefs also acknowledged life after
death; including believing in reincarnation, in which
one can return to life after his death and reappear as
someone or something else in another life.
Black Foot Creation and Origin Myths in
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/blkftcreation.html
McClelland, Norman C. Encyclopedia of Reincarnation and Karma.
Jefferson, NC & London: McFarland & Co. 2010.
Origin of Death Myth of the Old Woman Who Hid Death in
http://www.afriprov.org/index.php/african-stories-by-season/14-
animal-stories/65-origin-of-death-myth-of-the-old-woman-who-
hid-death.html
Reincarnation in http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Pr-
Sa/Reincarnation.html
Thanatos in http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Thanatos.html
The Creation Myth: How It All Began in
http://www.igreekmythology.com/creation-myth.html
The Hindu Theories of Creation in
http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/concepts/creation.asp