Since ancient times, man has been interested in how the world was created and how life appeared on Earth. A multitude of myths and legends have arisen that amaze with their imagination and variety of performance.
Myths of India
In Hindu mythology, there are several versions of the creation of the world. According to one legend, initially there was only water everywhere. From the endless surface of the water, a golden egg was once born, which floated on the water for a year. Once it finally split, and the god Vishnu emerged from it (according to other versions, Brahma). It was enough for a given god to simply call by name what he wanted to see, how it was immediately born.
Vishnu named the parts of the world and the earth, the sky appeared, and later he created the gods, demons and humanity. The myth says that the created world exists for about 4.5 billion years, and then dies. A period of chaos sets in, and the god Vishnu falls asleep for 4.5 billion years, and upon awakening, he again creates the Earth and all living things. So the cycles of birth and death are repeated over and over again.
Japanese legends
According to Japanese legend, the first gods, who hid from each other, lived high in the sky on the plain. After several centuries, they still began to live together, and they had children. From a new generation of gods, the goddess Izanami and the god Izanaki were born, thanks to which the world was created.
According to beliefs, the Earth originally looked like a jellyfish floating on the waves and looked like a speck of oil on the surface of a large ocean. The high gods gave the young Izanaka and Izanami a beautiful spear and ordered to thicken the earth, making it solid.
The young gods descended on the cloud bridge connecting heaven and earth and plunged the spear into the ocean. For a long time they stirred the water, and raising the spear, directed it over the floating "jellyfish". Drops fell from the spear onto the surface of the spot and thickened, turning into islands. Thus, the first dry land appeared, onto which young gods descended from heaven and performed a marriage ceremony.
Aztec and Mayan traditions
The ancient Maya and Aztecs believed that the gods could create and destroy the world at their discretion. The Aztecs believed that the birth of the world is subject to certain cycles, and with the change of each era, the death of the world occurs.
In their opinion, four more existed before our world. If people on Earth behave unworthily, the gods will become angry and destroy the fifth, current world.
The fertility god Quetzalcoatl and the omniscient god Tezcatlipoca create heaven and earth. Then they gather the council of the gods, on which they make a fire. The first one, on which of the deities the lot falls, jumps into the fire and turns into the sun, and the next one becomes the moon.
Maya beliefs have much in common with the views of the Aztecs. In both cultures, people were very afraid to anger the gods and lived in constant fear that the world might be destroyed. However, they worshiped different gods and presented the story of the destruction of worlds a little differently.
