The Role Played by Humans in the Myths - Essay Example

In Diné Bahaane’, the human soul takes shape depending on the set of social and ceremonial conditions that it is subjected to. Humans are presented as being under the control of a pantheon of gods some of who are persuadable while others are undependable. While the undependable deities are known to be evil, they occasionally do good to humans. Myths in Dine as told by ancestors are narrated to younger generations as they come and go. As humans tell the myths, they are replicated by rites, the former being at the conceptual level while the latter being at the action level. The gods in this culture prefer to be honored by humans through rituals and the performance of certain actions.

According to Enuma Elish, as believed by Babylonians, creation was accomplished by the action of cosmic chaos and order. The deities involved in the creation resemble humans in the sense that they have gender and the capacity to recreate as humans do. The deities also do good and evil just like it is in the case of Diné Bahhane’. The evil that is done by some deities is evident in the sense that sometimes they fight and kill or the main one another in a state of disorder.

According to the Yoruba myth that references the descent from the sky, the high god, Olodumare, requested Orishala to descend from the sky so as to create the first earth. Because of Orishala’s delay, it is his brother Oduduwa who performed the work. Later 16 other orisha (deities) descended from the sky and created humans, accompanying them in their dwelling place, earth. Humans in this case are seen to be friends of the gods, their role being to follow specific orisha as prescribed by an act of divination. The Yoruba deities who come in their hundreds are to be worshipped by humans through rituals. Divinities according to Yoruba creation myth also come in the form of natural phenomena such as mountains which the people are bound to revere.

While in some cases, chaos and order coexisted, in one case, there was almost absolute order in the creation of man. Whenever deities do acts worth praise, they are regarded by the people as heroes. Similarly, when humans accomplish tasks assigned to them by the good deities, they receive the statuses of heroes or heroines.