Many of the conflicts throughout history have

been caused by differing religions and beliefs;

therefore it is ironic that many ancient religions,
myths and beliefs, often have more in common
than they do in difference

Karan Kumar

There are many different ancient religions from all corners of the world, which all
have their own myths and beliefs, but even though many of these ancient
religions come from completely opposite sides of the world and would not have
had any interaction with each other in ancient times, many of the myths and
legends are in fact very similar.1 For many people this fact leads to the
hypothesis that while people and cultures from around the world may be very
different, the thought processes and reasoning of humans from every culture are
not dissimilar.
One of the most common religious myths in the
ancient and even the modern world is the creation
myth. Almost every single religion in the world
believes in some form of the creation myth, the
basic form of this myth being that some deity or god
rose out of chaos and created the world as we know
it. For Greeks and Romans, creation centres around
the myth that Gaea, the earth, and Uranus, the sky, rose out of chaos and had
children who eventually created mankind. The story
The Creation by James Tisot
is relatively similar for Egyptians who believe that
the gods rose out of the bubbling waters of chaos called Nu. This story does not
change even as we go all the way around the world to India where the Hindus
believe that Lord Shiva came out eternal darkness and set about create the earth
and cosmos. Even in ancient religions that still have prevalence today such as
Christianity, the creation myth centres around God creating the entire universe
as we know it.2 This universal tale of creation is known all around the world and
was assumably formed from humanitys need for a point of inception and
beginning, which perhaps stemmed from the fact the most humans often want
knowledge, answers to mysterys and closure.
Another basic myth which can be seen in near all ancient religions is the
concept of a great evil. In almost every religion there is some form of greater evil
which opposes the deity that is worshipped by people. In Christianity the great
evil is incarnated as Satan, in Greek and Roman mythology the main incarnation
of evil is Kronos or Saturn and the titans, in the Egyptian religion the god Set is
seen as the deity of evil and chaos, in Norse mythology Loki is seen as the
trickster god of chaos while in Hindu mythology there a number of Rakshakas or
demons which signify evil. These manifestations of great evil often cause great
cosmic battles in many different cultures. The Christians had the great battle
between God and the fallen angels led by Satan, Greeks and Romans believe
1 http://listverse.com/2014/01/16/10-universal-myths-of-the-ancient-world/
(MORRIS M. JANUARY 16, 2014)
2 Another very common myth related to the creation myth is the story of the first
man and woman. Many ancient religions have a known first man and first woman
such as Adam and Eve from Christianity, Epimetheus and Pandora and from
Greek mythology and Manu and Shatarupa from Hinduism.

that there was Great War between the Titans and the Gods with the Gods fighting
for good and the Titans for evil, the Egyptians believed that Set was constantly
causing conflict between himself and the sun god Ra, the Scandinavians believe
in a series of wars in which the Asguardians (the gods) fought the god Loki and
the evil race of giants called frost giants, while the Hinduism details many wars
and conflicts between goods and demons where the Gods would fight epic
battles for good and just causes against the evil demons. All these myths
apparently point towards the fact that humans of all cultures believed in some
inherent form of evil, it seems that ancient people all manifested there fear of
evil and chaos in the form of one chaotic and evil deity. The fact that these evil
deities often came into conflict with other deities shows the nature of the ancient
world with war and bloodshed being a prominent part of ancient society all
around the world. The fact that these evil and chaotic deities were defeated or
suppressed in each religion also shows how the people of the ancient fears of the
ancient world allayed their fears of evil. They believed that evil would always be
defeated, a fact clearly show in each religions myths and legends.
One of universal myths of ancient and even the modern world related to good
and evil is the existence of the afterlife, mainly heaven and hell. The existence of
heaven and hell is one of the most common factors in every religion know to
man and is a trend that goes back to ancient times. While the basic heaven and
hell is a Christian concept each religion has its own version, The Greeks have
Elysium and the fields of punishment; the Hindus have Svarga and Naraka. Many
religions do not have a physical representation of hell and instead consider the
opposite of heaven to be an eternity spent in purgatory. This hold true in
Egyptian mythology, with their version of heaven being called the Fields of Aaru,
and also with other ancient religions, such as Norse mythology, which has
Valhalla as its version of heaven. Through this multitude of afterlife myths it is
clear that death was quite an important matter to ancient people and people
from all over the world had speculations about what would come after death. The
fact the average life expectancy in ancient times were much lower than they are
today, due to poor living standards and medical ignorance, most likely caused
this fixation on death for ancient people and the idea of Hell or eternal purgatory
most likely stemmed from humanitys inherent fear of the unknown while heaven
was most likely humanitys form of hope that there was something or somewhere
better than where they lived their life, which in ancient times was often a place
of poverty, famine or war.
Another preposterously popular religious myth that is seen in religions all round
the world, and which may in actuality have stemmed from some grain of truth, is
the flood myth.3 The flood myth basically consists of the gods or God flooding the
earth once it had become too sinful, and only one man or family surviving
because they had been forewarned of the flood and had build themselves a boat
to withstand the flood. These survivors would then restart the human race as we
3 It has long been known that legends of a great flood, in which almost all men perished,
are widely diffused over the world ... James George Frazer, Folk-Lore in the Old Testament,
Vol. 1, (London: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1919), p. 105.

now know it. This myth is most commonly known as the Noahs Ark myth from
Christianity, but a lesser known fact is that almost every religion has their own
version of this legend. The Greeks had
Deucalion, the Hindus Manu; the
Scandinavians who worshipped the Norse gods
had Bergelmir and the Egyptians had Toth.
These are only some of the variations of the
flood myth with the Assyrians, Mayans,
Sumerians and even the Aboriginal Australians
having their own versions of the flood myth.
While the creation of many ancient myths can
"The Deluge", by John Martin, 1834.
Oil on canvas. Yale University
be put down to inherent human fears, wants
and needs, the origin of the flood myth is not so easy to interpret. Many
scientists and historians actually believe that there really was a great flood
perhaps at the end of the last ice age when the polar caps started to melt
causing water levels to rise.4 5While this hypothesis is certainly plausible it is
unknown whether it has any legitimacy considering that we do not know whether
the flooding could have been as widespread as the myth seems to be.
One final ancient myth or belief is the apocalypse myth.
It is a common belief between all ancient religions that
eventually there will come a day when the world is
destroyed and many religions believe that the worthy
will be taken to heaven and the unworthy will be
destroyed along with the rest of the world. This belief in
an apocalypse can be seen in very single Ancient
religion from Greeks and Egyptians to Hindus and
Buddhists and to the Norse apocalypse known as
Ragnarok. This worldwide idea of an apocalypse most
likely emanates from humanitys somewhat self
depreciating view of itself. In ancient times most
cultures were usually in varying states of war, conflict,
picted in Christian
Orthodox traditional fresco
poverty and famine which would perhaps have given
scene in Osogovo
humans the idea that they were sinful or being
Monastery, Republic
of
6
punished. The concept of the apocalypse could also be a result in humanities
desire for a better quality of life, especially in ancient times, and the hope that
they would have a new beginning in a better place after the apocalypse.
This dizzying array of myths and legends are all similar to the point where one
wonders if they are not in fact the same story changed and twisted over time. 7
Yet the fact that these myths all originate from cultures who would have lived
hundreds of thousands of miles apart and would have had no contact at all until
4 http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/great-flood.htm
(Maria Trimarchi)

5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis

modern times seems to negate this possibility, though some scientists and
historians have hypothesised that this distance would not be an issue if these
myths were actually much older than ancient times and originated to Pangaea
when the world was made up of one supercontinent. 8 9Many people also believe
that these myths are so universally known because they are real events and that
all religions are simply different versions one reality. Whatever the real reason for
the similarities in myths and religions from around the world, it is clear that,
different cultures in humanity are not as different as we may have thought, and
that looking into mythologies from around the world can provide us with more
knowledge about different cultures than we would normal expect from legends,
stories and make believe.10 (Word count 1821)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis

4/07/14

http://www.egyptartsite.com/crea.html

4/07/14

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_creation_myths

4/07/14

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afterlife

4/07/14

http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/ehh.htm

4/07/14

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naraka_(Hinduism)

4/07/14

6 This concept is supported by the fact that many apocalypse myths include a
number of ages. In both Greek and Hindu mythology there are different ages, all
of which end in an apocalypse once the people of that age become too corrupt
and sinful. Once an age has ended a new age that is already more corrupt that
the last begins. Hinduism states that this age is the last and most corrupt age
while Greek mythology places this age as the second last.
7 Womack 2005, p. 81, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe
and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop through oral traditions and therefore
typically have multiple versions."
8 This theory is based on the fact that people from different continents share
some similar DNA traits and the fact that the same animals can be found on
different continents.
9 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-migration-history-of-humans/
(Gary Stix)
10 As proved by Thom Absolm in his theory myth and history,
http://newhistories.group.shef.ac.uk/wordpress/wordpress/myth-and-history/

http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/life_history/age-specificmortality-lifespan-bad-science-2009.html

4/07/14

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_flood_myths

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http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/flood-myths.html

4/07/14

http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Fi-Go/Floods.html

4/07/14

http://www.billstifler.org/HUM2130/files/2D-003-00apocalypse.htm

5/07/14

http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climateweather/storms/great-flood.htm

5/07/14

http://www.icr.org/article/why-does-nearly-every-culture-havetradition-globa/

5/07/14

http://www.nwcreation.net/noahlegends.html

5/07/14

http://www.grisda.org/origins/11009.htm

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_myth

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http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?
historyid=ab83

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar%C3%B6k

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschatology

5/07/14

http://newhistories.group.shef.ac.uk/wordpress/wordpress/my
th-and-history/

5/07/14

Book of Greek Myths by Edgar Parin DAulaires

Children of Odin: The Book of Northern Myths by Padraic
Colum

2/07/14
2/07/14