Enuma Elish vs. Norse
Creation myths are told through out the world. Every myth is unique to the country in which it came from. These myths tell a story of how each culture believes how the world came to be what it is today. The Enuma Elish and the Norse creation myth are two that are similar in that they believe the earth was crated by a corpse, and the water is life giving. However, they are in unique in the way of how and why humans were created.
The Enuma Elish and the Norse creation myth both explain how a corpse created the earth. In the Enuma Elish, earth was created from Tiamats corpse. Tiamat was the mother goddess and died in battle against Ea and Marduk. When Tiamat died half of her body became the sky and earth. Her saliva became the clouds and the mountains were her head. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers ran from her eyes. In the Norse creation myth earth was created from Ymir’s corpse. His blood became the sea, his flesh the land. Ymir’s bones formed the mountains and his hair became the trees. Finally his skull became the sky. In the Enuma Elish and the Norse creation myth they both explained exactly what body part became what in the earth. It may be slightly different but the ides is very similar.
In comparison, the Enuma Elish and the Norse creation myth both use water as an archetype that stands for life giving. In the Enuma Elish the first gods were created from the seas, Lahmu and Lahamu. In the Norse creation myth Ymir came from the melting ice of Niflheim. After Ymir emerged came a cow. In each of these myths water is very important to the creation of the earth, it is what began everything.
In contrast, the Enuma Elish and the Norse creation myth differ in how and why humans were created. The Enuma Elish explains that Marduk created humans from the remains of Tiamats monster’s bones. Marduk created humans for one purpose, to serve the gods and to do all of the work on earth. In the Norse creation myth humans were created from trees....