Creative Story - Free Essay Example

Myths are stories that are used in explaining natural events. The purpose of the myths is to concretize a distinct perception concerning human beings or the earth in which they live. Myths are less concerned with moral teachings but tales of the people. This paper will provide a discussion on the myth of the sky and a myth that explains the meaning of existence and death. Also, a myth that chronicles the adventure of a racial hero.

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The sky has an essential religious benefit. Many religions have myths that explain the origin of the sky. Each Native American tribe has its own story of origin. Iroquois legend narrates a great island that was floating in the sky on which the sky people lived long ago before the existence of the world. There were no feelings of sadness and death among the sky people. However, one-eve sky woman noticed that she was giving birth to twins, and her husband was not happy. Her husband tore out a light-giving tree, peered through the hole, and pushed her down to the world below the sky.

When Sky woman was falling from the sky, she was caught by two birds and was taken to other animals. The other animals had created the land they were living in through bringing mud from underneath the sea. The sky woman, while on the land, created the moon, sun, and stars. She bore twin sons Flint and Sapling. They were evil and good sons, respectively. When Sapling created good things in the world, Flint would destroy them. There emerged a fight between good and evil, but good outdid evil. Hence according to Iroquois, this is the origin of the sky, which has moon, sun, and stars.

There are several myths about the origin of death. The myths about death vary from one community to another basing on the values and beliefs of that community. One of the myths of the origin of death, according to the Zulus, is the claim that in ancient times Unkulunkulu that is the old one sent the chameleon with information saying “go chameleon and say let no man die." The chameleon began the journey towards the earth to pass the message to the people. The chameleon crawled slowly and loitered in the way, eating the purple berries produced by Ubukwebezane tree and basking in the sun when its belly was full and fell asleep. The chameleon tendency of being easily swayed away by things in the air he could crawl and when he sees sweet fruits of flowers he stood, and this made his journey to take a longer time than expected by the sender.

Old one opted to send another message to the earth; this time, he chose to send a lizard. He told the lizard to go and say, “let men die." The lizards crawled faster, passed the chameleon without speaking to it went and delivered its message, the lizard returned on his wheel to the sender. The lizard was always obedient and followed instructions quickly when sent to an errand by the Old One. After a while, the chameleon arrived where it has been sent; it shouted, "the old one says let no man die." The men refuted the information delivered by the chameleon, claiming they had heard the lizard where men should be left to die and could not listen to the chameleon. Thus through the word of the lizard, death started occurring on the earth up to date.

In Polynesian mythology, Maui was a strong trickster god popularly known for the creation of pacific islands. Maui was the son of the god Tangaroa. He undertook many activities to improve people's lives, making the day longer and sky higher. Maui was endowed with magical powers; he created islands while up on a fishing trip with his brothers. Foremost he fashioned a magic fishing hook with a jawbone of his grandmother. Then he cast the hook into the water and started pulling up from the ocean floor the islands in which currently Polynesians live. On the matter of advancing the time for people to have more hours to make cloth, cook food and attend to their farms, He used his grandmother’s jawbone to beat the sun, which was caught and placed in the net. Due to that beating, the sun was seriously injured, and from that instance, it limped slowly across the sky, and hence people had extra time to attend to their chores, whether at home or the farm. Maui's attempt to become immortal by tricking Hina was not successful. Hina, the goddess of death, was asleep when Maui was trying to trick her. Maui crawled into her body, trying to pass through it only for the goddess to be woken by the call of a bird and crumpled Maui to demise.

In conclusion, in many communities, there are several myths concerning events and phenomena depending on their culture, beliefs, and values. This paper has provided a discussion on the origin of the sky, which consists of the stars, sun, and moon. The myth of the origin of the sky, as illustrated, has been based on the Iroquois legend. The second myth was about the origin of death and existence. The origin of the myth was that of the Zulus is the claim that in the ancient times, Unkulunkulu sent out a lizard and a chameleon on the same errand with different messages. The chameleon was sent with the right message to the men in which the lizard was given a negative message. Chameleon was slow in delivering the excellent news; hence the lizards arrived first and delivered the bad news to the news about them dying. Lastly, the myth of the racial hero from Polynesian mythology, Maui, had the power to make days longer for people to have enough time to perform their duties on the farm or at their homes.