So I was poking around in some early mythologies and some other early writings, and wondered to what extent did old civilizations embrace the idea of "destruction".
Most (not all) civs - Egyptians, Greeks, Babylonians, Hebrews, Norse, Hindu - have some sort of the story of "Creation", the beginning of the world.
Creation stories are not always dependent on a Creator. In some mythologies, Creation is an intelligent act by some creator god yes. But in many cases the World just appears without explanation.
Curiously, most mythologies I've come across do envisage a remarkably similar pre-creation universe being a vast, dark, watery mess ("chaos"). Then either a god (or gods) bring order to it, and "create" the world. Alternatively, a bit of land just spontaneously emerges somehow from the water, then gods come into being, and the rest of creation follows.
The pre-creation "watery chaos" rests on what seems like a general presumption of many ancient people that the sky is made of water. I mean the sky is big and blue, looks a bit look a heavenly ocean. And we all know water comes down as rain. So it seems obvious there is "water up there" that leaks occasionally. Many posit that the world we are living in is some kind of land & air pocket between two oceans - one below us, one above us. So Creation often explains how that land pocket in the watery chaos came about, and "inserting" ourselves in it.
But that aside, what I'm more curious about is just as there is "Creation", is there "Destruction"? If the World has a beginning, does it also have an end?
This is a little harder to tell. I mean there are a lots of mythologies that talk about mass death of humans or even life on Earth - in some Great Flood or cataclysm by some angry Deity and the like. But I don't seem to come across myths of a clearly predicted end to the Earth itself. That is the destruction of this little earth mound & air pocket.
The ancients were clearly aware land is not constant. Mountains are eroded by wind and rain, landfalls from cliffs into the sea. Volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis are real and change the landscape. But following that observation, land of God's good earth is constantly being gradually lost. Does it get to a point where all land is eventually swept into the sea and disappears? Is there an "end of the world"? Just as it came from watery chaos, will it return to watery chaos?
Aristotle is bit tricky. For him, everything is biological - earth, planets, everything is to be compared to a living organism. Yet living organisms decay and die. Does the Earth die? In his Meteorology he is clearly aware that there are "signs of decay" - erosion and the like. But he posits optimistically that unlike animals or plants, decay on Earth is not a sign of impending doom of the whole. The decay in certain parts is counter-balanced by rejuvenation in other parts. Old mountains may disappear in one place, but new mountains "appear" in another place (doesn't explain how). So on the whole Earth persists - and will persist eternally.
But I've come across allegations that this optimism was uniquely Aristotleian. That other Greek schools (apparently Stoics & Epicureans) were convinced the Earth will "die". That these "signs of decay" are irreversible signs of the looming eventual death of the Earth. It is not that they think time or world ends altogether, but rather that it periodically destroys itself entirely, and re-creates itself entirely. But I can't find sources with details about that.
Cycles of death & re-creation seems to me to be a theme that is touched upon by many world religions. Clearly with humans - upon death, humans travel to an afterlife, or are resurrected or re-born. If they think about the world by analogy to a living organism, they would naturally also believe that Earth goes through a similar death & re-creation cycle. But I don't really find examples of that clearly articulated anywhere.
I was wondering if anybody had come across this kind of stuff, whether in mythologies or ancient writings. Creation myths are all over the place, but doom myths are a little scantier. I was just curious as to if and how they envisaged the End of the World.
Most (not all) civs - Egyptians, Greeks, Babylonians, Hebrews, Norse, Hindu - have some sort of the story of "Creation", the beginning of the world.
Creation stories are not always dependent on a Creator. In some mythologies, Creation is an intelligent act by some creator god yes. But in many cases the World just appears without explanation.
Curiously, most mythologies I've come across do envisage a remarkably similar pre-creation universe being a vast, dark, watery mess ("chaos"). Then either a god (or gods) bring order to it, and "create" the world. Alternatively, a bit of land just spontaneously emerges somehow from the water, then gods come into being, and the rest of creation follows.
The pre-creation "watery chaos" rests on what seems like a general presumption of many ancient people that the sky is made of water. I mean the sky is big and blue, looks a bit look a heavenly ocean. And we all know water comes down as rain. So it seems obvious there is "water up there" that leaks occasionally. Many posit that the world we are living in is some kind of land & air pocket between two oceans - one below us, one above us. So Creation often explains how that land pocket in the watery chaos came about, and "inserting" ourselves in it.
But that aside, what I'm more curious about is just as there is "Creation", is there "Destruction"? If the World has a beginning, does it also have an end?
This is a little harder to tell. I mean there are a lots of mythologies that talk about mass death of humans or even life on Earth - in some Great Flood or cataclysm by some angry Deity and the like. But I don't seem to come across myths of a clearly predicted end to the Earth itself. That is the destruction of this little earth mound & air pocket.
The ancients were clearly aware land is not constant. Mountains are eroded by wind and rain, landfalls from cliffs into the sea. Volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis are real and change the landscape. But following that observation, land of God's good earth is constantly being gradually lost. Does it get to a point where all land is eventually swept into the sea and disappears? Is there an "end of the world"? Just as it came from watery chaos, will it return to watery chaos?
Aristotle is bit tricky. For him, everything is biological - earth, planets, everything is to be compared to a living organism. Yet living organisms decay and die. Does the Earth die? In his Meteorology he is clearly aware that there are "signs of decay" - erosion and the like. But he posits optimistically that unlike animals or plants, decay on Earth is not a sign of impending doom of the whole. The decay in certain parts is counter-balanced by rejuvenation in other parts. Old mountains may disappear in one place, but new mountains "appear" in another place (doesn't explain how). So on the whole Earth persists - and will persist eternally.
But I've come across allegations that this optimism was uniquely Aristotleian. That other Greek schools (apparently Stoics & Epicureans) were convinced the Earth will "die". That these "signs of decay" are irreversible signs of the looming eventual death of the Earth. It is not that they think time or world ends altogether, but rather that it periodically destroys itself entirely, and re-creates itself entirely. But I can't find sources with details about that.
Cycles of death & re-creation seems to me to be a theme that is touched upon by many world religions. Clearly with humans - upon death, humans travel to an afterlife, or are resurrected or re-born. If they think about the world by analogy to a living organism, they would naturally also believe that Earth goes through a similar death & re-creation cycle. But I don't really find examples of that clearly articulated anywhere.
I was wondering if anybody had come across this kind of stuff, whether in mythologies or ancient writings. Creation myths are all over the place, but doom myths are a little scantier. I was just curious as to if and how they envisaged the End of the World.
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