Nerea Esteban, Mganne Hamelin & Mara Prez Martn

Aztecs

History
The beginning of the world
The five Suns

Greeks

History
Creation myth

Chinese

History
Four major views

Nomadic tribe in northern Mexico.

Emerged as the dominant force in central Mexico.

1521 end of the Aztec civilization.

The story of creation is a story of birth, death, and

rebirth.

In the beginning was the void.

Dual god, known as Ometecuhtli/Omecihuatl,

created itself.

It had four children which represented the four

directions.

These four gods began to create.

They had a problem - their creations would fall

into the water and be eaten by Cipactli.

From the destruction of Cipactli the universe was

created.

First Sun (Jaguar Sun):

For the Sun to be created, a God needed to be sacrificed.
Tezcatlipoca was chosen, but he only managed to
become half a Sun.
Giants were created and a fight began.
In the end, the Sun was knocked from the sky.

Second Sun (Wind Sun):

Quetzalcoatl took over for his brother as the Sun.
Humans were created but they became corrupt; so they
were turned into monkeys by Tezcatlipoca.
Quetzalcoatl sent a hurricane to blow the monkeys away.

Third Sun (Rain Sun):

Tlaloc was one of the early creations, the god of rain and
water and he became the next Sun.
Tezcatlipoca stole Tlaloc's wife, so he refused to send
rain.
In a rage Tlaloc made it rain fire, burning away the
world.

Fourth Sun (Water Sun):

The gods selected Tlaloc's sister to be the Sun.
Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl struck down the Sun and
all things were destroyed again.
In the darkness Quetzalcoatl descended into the
underworld to bring up the bones of the dead.

Fifth Sun (Earthquake Sun):

The gods gathered to bring another Sun into being.
The proud god offered himself, but the other gods
preferred the humble Nanahuatzin.
At the end Nanahuatzin became the Sun.

Can be traced back to Stone Age.

Then, the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations

came.

It was followed by the Dark Ages.

Greece was divided into small city states.

Chaos, a gaping void which covered the whole

universe, was surrounded by water ruled by
Oceanus.

Eurynome desired to make order out of the Chaos.

She separated the sky from the sea.

Born out of Chaos were Gaia, Uranus and

Tartarus.

Gaia and Uranus married and gave birth to the

Titans.

Cronus was warned that a son of his would one

day overpower him.

Zeus grew up, and got into conflict with Cronus.

His five previous children and Zeus went to battle

against their father.

Zeus triumphed over everything and he made

himself Supreme God over all, creating a home on
Mount Olympus.

He also brought order out of Chaos, but one of his

failings was that he did not look kindly upon the
people.

Prometheus was their champion before Zeus.

Prometheus stole some of the sparks of a glowing

fire from the Olympians.

Zeus and had Prometheus bound and chained to a

mountain, sending an eagle to attack him daily.

He send as well a beautiful creature (a woman

named Pandora) to torment Prometheus.

Pandora was given a precious and beautiful box.

Curiosity got the better of her and she opened the

box releasing "all the evils that plague men."

The only "gift" that stayed in the box was "Hope".

Greek creation myths are inextricably

filled with difficulties, though often
ameliorated by the gift of Hope.

Oldest civilization of the world

Oldest direct ancestor of mankind

First view: no myth

Second view: heavens and the earth separated
Third view: Ying Yang
Fourth view: Pan Gu

First version of Pan Gu:

Black egg
Pan Gu cracked the egg
He stood like a pillar between
the earth and the sky
When he died he became earth
Fleas and lice are the ancestor
of mankind

Second version of Pan Gu:

God in charge of the earth
King Gao Xin had a dog named Pan Gu
Rival of King Fang
Price for the head of King Fang; his daughter
Pan Gu killed King Fang
Tansformed into a human and married the
princess

Questions:

Which factors do you think that influenced the

myth of every culture?

Ometecuhtli was male and female at the same

time so as a result he/she has four children that
represented:
A- The seasons
B- The directions
C- None of the above

In which order did this characters appeared in the

greek myth:
Eurinome
Zeus
Prometheus
Cronus

In the chinese myth Pangu was mentioned, from

where did he came from?