The view of creation os world,life and humans is driven by myths.

The eternal struggle amongst optimism and pessimism is by no means more apparent than in the comparison of the creation myths of the Yoruba and the Babylonians, The Creation of the Universe and Ife and The Enuma Elish respectively. Humanity springs forth in considerably the same manner in every single story: beginning with a world of water and the determination of a single god. Although the structure of both myths is relatively comparable, a distinction in tone is quickly distinguishable. By studying the motivations of the creator gods, the varieties of human beings developed, and the partnership amongst the gods and their people, we can see that the societies of Babylon and Yoruba differ far more than they resemble each and every other in regards to culture and world view.

The notion of servitude itself is apparent in each myths, but requires drastically diverse embodiments in every. The gods of the Enuma Elish, the highest authorities of Babylonian culture, designed human beings to serve. Marduk, the fantastic hero, says, “I will generate a savage and get in touch with him ‘man.’ His job will be to serve the gods so they can rest at ease” (ten). This excellent stands as an inevitability in the span of a life, significantly as death is an unavoidable reality. To believe that death is the only reward for an entire life spent toiling for the sake of superior beings would break the spirit of even the strongest even so, the humans had been produced to be absolutely nothing much more than the gods’ slaves. This arrangement reveals a dark sense of pessimism looming over Babylonian culture as nicely as a low regard for Babylonians themselves as individuals. In The Creation of the Universe and Ife, Obatala, looking down on an empty earth, dreamt of a lot more than ocean below the heaven in which he resided. He said, “The world below requirements some thing of interest! Everything is water soaked, and not one particular living factor enlivens the region!” (510). He wanted to develop humans because he wanted to make the world a much better, livelier location, and in a way the gods serve the men and women by hearing their prayers and rescuing them from destruction. Obatala hence developed humanity with the virtues of creativity and exuberance in thoughts. This motivation drastically differs from that of the Babylonian gods, who did not produce humans for something far more than their capacity to do the labor the gods themselves did not want to total.

The belief that a human’s aim is to serve places a bigger emphasis on physicality and strength. This emphasis, consequently, shifts art and spirituality to comparatively low priority with regard to daily life. Babylonians endeavored to be warriors, and this ingrained fighting spirit produced strife inside themselves. Their myth is a reflection of their gloomy and adversarial way of life as considerably as the life style is the outcome of a deep-seeded sorrow, which itself springs from the knowledge of their own inferiority. Even the humans produced by Obatala are acknowledged as deformed and imperfect as a outcome of their sadly timed creation: “He did not recognize it, but the wine made him drunk. Obatala returned to his job of producing clay figures, but his fingers had been clumsy now. The figures he designed were no longer perfect” (512). These people have every single cause to endure from their inferiority, and but their gods do not condemn them. The drunken mishaps that lead each and every human to be molded inconsistently from the earthen clay are the roots of their sturdy connection to their gods. Rather than demanding to be served by the lesser creatures, as did the Babylonian pantheon, the gods of Yoruba look upon the humans as objects of sympathy, as in need of their assistance. The quite material from which the humans had been created in every single myth demonstrates this division. Obatala’s humans had been carved from the clay of the earth, which presents a pleasant connection to nature, vitality, and the gods themselves. The Babylonians had been designed from the blood of a slain enemy: “Ea killed Kingu, severed his blood vessels, and fashioned the very first human beings out of Kingu’s blood” (11). In their own eyes as nicely as in the eyes of their gods, humans were forever tainted by the evil of the enemies.

As is the case for most ancient folks in the imagining of their deities, the gods of the Babylonians and the Yoruba are a reflection of humanity. Whilst the gods in The Creation of the Universe and Ife have numerous traits that reflect the best of humanity, the Babylonian gods seem to have been imagined from a darker perspective. Owing the ultimate debt to the gods in return for the appropriate of their existence, the folks have no option but to worship and fear the gods with every single element of their being. This method supplies a dramatic contrast to the devoted attitude the men and women have toward their gods in The Creation of the Universe and Ife in return for the gods’ unconditional really like and protection. The obvious inferiority of humans is not utilised as a weapon against them by the gods that designed them. Due to the fact humanity’s deformities and imperfections had been due to a god’s admittedly careless error, he vows to be a protector of humans as an alternative of their master: “‘I will devote myself to safeguarding all the individuals who have suffered from my drunkenness’ And Obatala became the protector of all these who are born deformed” (512). To the audience of this myth, a god who gets drunk and makes blunders is an imperfect a single. This ideology makes it possible for people to have a closer connection to their gods since these exact same gods can be viewed as flawed. In contrast to those of other cultures, whose gods are all-effective and superior in each and every way, these gods accept their faults and adore even the creatures they make in error. The bond amongst man and creator is hence warmer and stronger. To humans, who differ in just about each way conceivable, this truth of life is a relief, as the stress to live up to an impossible normal disappears. Right after the humans are produced, the greatest god orders the gods on earth to hear the prayers of the humans and serve them. and prove themselves to be compassionate gods, a relative rarity in mythology. These relationships reveal the extremely foundation of the cultures’ respective fundamental world views. In contrast to the Yoruba, the Babylonians saw a harsh world, and so naturally the creators of that planet have been thought to be harsh as effectively. Understanding, acceptance, and really like stand at the core of The Creation of the Universe and Ife, proving that the Yoruba held these values in the highest regard, rather than prioritizing the debt and perform that permeated every single aspect of Babylonian culture.

Eventually, the distinction between the creation of humanity in The Creation of the Universe and Ife and The Enuma Elish is a single of outlook. To the Babylonians, life is struggle, from the very moment humans were raised from a pool of blood and enslaved. Never condemned nor abandoned by their gods, the Yoruba are left with a sense of community and hope. Positioned opposite to a single one more, these myths prove to be the sources as effectively as the goods of every single society’s view of the world, no matter whether it be violent servitude or prosperity.