SHARED STORIES: 10 COMMON MYTHS ACROSS THE WORLD (PART 1)

Culture is both distinct and universal. It connects and divides. It is explanatory and cryptic.

Photocredit: Deviant Art

Since I started this blog, I have attempted to bring varied elements of culture from around the world to life by talking about the artefacts, dressing, and rituals from various cultures. Today we would be counting down the top 10 myths from around the world and what these myths have in common.

Merriam Webster Dictionary defines myth as “a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.” While we have stories from different cultures trying to answer life’s biggest mysteries, there are the universal myths—myths that crop up repeatedly in cultures separated by hundreds of miles and thousands of years. These myths are so near-universal that their prevalence is downright spooky.

10. The Great Flood: The idea of a flood that destroys the entire world can be seen in many cultures and religions. Jews and Christians know it as the story of Noah, but other versions almost certainly predate the Genesis account. The Ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh includes the tale of Utnapishtim, who builds a boat, fills it with animals to escape a deluge, and eventually comes to rest on a mountaintop. The Greeks had Deucalion, who survived a flood sent by Zeus. Other versions appear in Hindu, Mayan, and Native American legends. These tales may or may not be inspired by reality. In 2009, National Geographic reported on the utter lack of evidence for a globe-destroying super-flood. Yet theories still insist that this myth may very well be a prediction of what is to come. Could this universal myth simply be the faded memory of a real event that occurred around 5,000 BC? We may never know.

9. Paradise Lost: People perceive the past through rose-colored glasses, as anybody who has listened to their grandfather go on and on about the ‘good old days’ knows. But nostalgia isn't limited to old people reminiscing about how youngsters used to be more respectful back in the day. It frequently consumes whole cultures. Consider the Garden of Eden. The fable of a peaceful paradise untouched by anguish or lust is the most heartfelt piece of "good old days" nostalgia you'll ever come across. Meanwhile, the Ancient Greeks fondly remembered their Golden and Heroic Ages, a period when the world was nicer, men were men, and things weren’t as bad as we have it. Similar notions may be found in Hindu, Norse, and Persian mythology, all of which feature a lost ideal to which contemporary civilisation can never return.

8. Epic Battles: The concept of an inconceivable battle that threatens to split the cosmos apart resonates with us so profoundly that it continues to fuel our epic legends. This time-honored cliche may be found in The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Doctor Who, and numerous more works. It may be found in practically every ancient culture's stories. The conflict in Christianity is between God and the rebel angels commanded by Satan. The Titans battled the gods of Mount Olympus in Greek mythology. The Hindu tradition entails a dizzying sequence of epic conflicts that would give Peter Jackson nightmares. There are a few ways to look at this. One option is to follow Scientology's lead and suggest that these stories represent genetic memories of some catastrophic war that shattered the universe billions of years ago The other is to recall that most societies throughout history have continually been on the verge of war or invaded, so a catastrophic massacre was probably never far from everyone's mind. In any case, it implies that the human desire for battle is nearly ubiquitous.

7. Vampires: Try living in Medieval Europe if you despise the previous few years of hormone-driven angst-inspired vampire media. Back then, belief in vampires was so widespread that there wasn't a single country that didn't see them as a dreadful reality of life. When harvests failed, there was a drought, or a baby was born with a tiny defect, vampires were blamed—a custom that dates back thousands of years. Undead bloodsuckers aren't a new concept. They didn't even exist before the Common Era. Ancient Egyptian cultures believed firmly in their existence, and variants of them may be found worldwide from China to Tibet to India. Even the Persians of Mesopotamia terrorized their children by stories of savage blood-drinking demons…Not the best parenting move, is it?

6. The Atlantis Myths: We've all heard the story of Atlantis, an ideal city wiped away in a single night by an extraordinary calamity. However, Atlantis is only the most well-known of mythological lost cities. Near-identical stories appear so frequently that it's easy to believe they're linked. Consider Iram (also known as Ubar). Iram, a mythological city in contemporary Saudi Arabia's deserts, is claimed to have been wiped away in a single night when Allah buried it beneath a deluge of sand. In other words, it's the Atlantis tale retold in a planet devoid of water. Then there's Ys, an island off the coast of France that was allegedly flooded in the 5th century by a mythological warrior king. That's before we get to the account of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Hindu myth of Tripura, both of which feature gods destroying immoral towns with a rain of fire. In short, the concept of a city being demolished overnight is so compelling that it appears everywhere. Are these half-remembered catastrophes based on truth (like Pompeii) or are they just myths that appeal to the apocalyptic fantasist in all of us? We'll leave it up to you to make a decision. In our next post, we would look into the other half of our list.

Now that you have discovered some of these myths, can you think of any similar myth that exists in your own culture? Where do you think you stand on the divide, is this all a coincidence or does this spell out an even bigger picture? You can get started on some answers by watching this video below courtesy of crash course on Youtube.

Thanks for reading. Do come back soon. :)