Joshua Szymanski 11/20/19 Period 2 - Blog #1

11/20/2019 Joshua Szymanski PD2

Today was a day where we were presenting projects, so there was no aim.

For today, there were two groups that were presenting. One of them happened to be mine. The topic for our project was the creation story for the egyptian culture. We described the four different creation stories from each of the four major cities, Hermopolis, Thebes, Heliopolis, and Memphis. The stories of Hermopolis and Thebes are very similar in that they both believed that the Ogdoad, the primordial gods, inhabited the primeval waters of chaos, called the Nu, and created a mound, called a Benben, where the other gods and the world was created. However the story from Heliopolis believes that the Benben rose from the Nu on its own. From the top of the mound, Atum spoke his own name and from there he was created and birthed several more gods, 9 of which would form the Ennead. We then went on to explain that humans were created by the eye of Ra, who wept after struggling against the gods Shu and Tefnut. The tears of the eye of Ra would create humans. Our presentation ended with a quiz that was taken online.

The next group to go would be the group “Annabeth’s Fandom.” They did the creation story from the Judeo-Christian culture. They first began with an anecdote from one of the group member’s time in the foreign youth day. He went to Costa Rica to hear a sermon from the pope as well as speak to other locals about their faith and ask questions on the nature of god. They also mentioned the monotheistic nature of the religion, much different than any other presentation. They then retold the story of Genesis. On the first day God would create light, the day, and the night. On the second day he would create 2 bodies of water, one on the surface of the earth and one in the sky. On the third day he would create the earth, the seas, and vegetation. On the fourth day he created the stars and all other heavenly celestial bodies, as well as the sun and the moon to keep track of time. On the fifth day he would create all the living creatures in the sea and the sky, like fish and birds. On the sixth day he would create all land dwelling animals, including humans, which he made in his own image by blowing life into Adam’s nostrils after making him with dust. While Adam slept, he would take a rib and make Eve. On the seventh day he rested. The final point made was that in Judaism, they celebrate Sabbath on Saturday, and the christians celebrate Sabbath on Sunday.

What I learned from today is the very expansive nature of mythology throughout many cultures. As well as how in depth several of these creation stories are when explaining the mysteries of the universe. I learned this for the purpose of furthering my knowledge of mythology. This is very important in my study and understanding of mythology in many cultures. It also allows me to make many connections between cultures as well as understand why these cultures thought the way they did. It provides insight into the modern day as well, as many of these beliefs are still very prevalent in modern day society. I will use what I learned by making these connections of religious ideals between cultures to hopefully provide insight into their cultures. Finally I will use it by informing people to concepts and information that they might not have known otherwise. This will hopefully educate them a little bit more and allow them to respect other cultures.

Joshua Szymanski

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