Common Elements in Creation Myths

Pictures by Alexandre Calame

As the Greek poet, Homer, wrote, “All men have need for gods.” This quote fits with a few of the common elements in myths. These elements are; good vs. evil, great sacrifices and the idea of a supreme being. These fit into many of the creation myths from around the world which is odd because all of these myths come from completely different places. Good vs. evil fits
in perfectly with a Norse creation myth with 2 opposite worlds waging war against each other. This myth comes from Scandinavia and the Vikings (the exact author is unknown) and there are many other creation myths with this same element further south such as a Babylonian myth which also has a war between 2 worlds. Phan Ku, a Chinese creation myth, deals with great sacrifices and a supreme being. It is about a giant scary supreme being who starts to create the world, and then sacrifices himself to finish it. This next myth also uses a supreme being, and it comes from Canada. That’s nowhere near China! It is an Inuit myth and has a kindly raven to create the world and man. In a way it is very much like Phan Ku but without the Supreme Being appearing giant and scary. This proves that the idea of a Supreme Being is truly a common element in creation myths. How did these common elements appear in so many different places? “All men have need for gods”. Well, why? I think Homer was right. It is human nature to be curious and ask questions so if man did not believe in anything, they would have no answers and in those days they did not have the science to explain their world. In a way, we still use myths to explain our world with religion because we are only just working out how everything came to be. I wonder if we will ever find the answers we need to live without myths or religion.

Why I chose the quote and the picture.

"There must be a beginning to any great matter, but continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory" Francis Drake
That is the real quote, but I had to cut it to get it to fit in the title.
The quote says that completing the journey is what matters. If you give up half way through, you will receive nothing, but if you complete it, you will get the rewards. Even if you don't get any physical rewards, you will get plenty of mental ones.
I chose this picture to go with the quote because it signifies a journey. This ship could be on a journey to get through the storm, but it is turning away because it thinks it cannot complete the journey.

Pills of the Giver

In class today we did a fishbole about the Giver so far, mainly on the pills Jonas takes. I think Jonas needs the pills to stop wanting to get married and have children, I think that is for everyone. Because the government gives you a child from the birthmother and you can't have your own, the government stops you from wishing you could have the certain feelings that you have when you have kids. I think Jonas' dream is kind of similar to adolesence because he had the feelings that you get when you are in puberty years. I think they have to share dreams and feelings to see if anything is different to what it is supposed to be, so that the other people there can alert the government about it.

How many kids should we have?

Today we said if we agree with the one child polacy or with everyone having 8 kids. I do not agree with having 8 kids or with being restricted to one child. Everyone having lots of kids will make the world over populated like it did to China when Mau was in control. But being restricted to only having one child will ruin the busineses and everyone will stop working as hard. I think everyone should be able to have up to 5 kids as long as they know what they are doing and are wealthy enough to care for them. The parents need to be educated enough to understand what they are doing so they can stop having kids after the number they want. People should be able to choose if they want to have children or not.

1 Child or 5, both have there disadvantages

Today we talked about China's one child policy and we came up with a headline for it. Mine was "1 child or 5, both have there disadvantages" I chose this headline because China's one child policy has a lot of bad things about it but it has some good things about it too. Having one child is one thing, you can choose if you want 1 or more, but having to have only one is completely different. You should be able to choose weather or not you have one child or 3. But if everyone has to many children China won't have enough resources to keep the living conditions stable and for everyone to have good work. I think that you should have the choice to have more than one child, but maybe no more than 4. That way there will be enough people to have good economy and sutible living conditions. China won't be under-populated but it won't be over populated either, so like I said, 1 child or 5, both have there disadvantages.

Interpritation of Sonnet 7

At first I thought this was talking about a king, then the sun and back to the king. It gives off the impression of it being a king many times with out stating it. When it says that he attends on his Golden Pilgrimage and unlooked on diest unless thou get a son. Kings tend to be rich and they tend to want sons (no offence to a king if he reads this). This is what I think happens in the poem, the king has climbed up a steep heavenly hill to look at the rising sun. It then implies that the king is strong, even though he is middle-aged but normal people still adore his beauty. But when he is at a feeble/old age, he dies, or reels from the day. I don't know what the next few lines mean but the last line could mean that before he did die he would have to have a son which he didn't. Maybe it was through some sense of pride that made him want a son, not a daughter.
This is my interpretation of sonnet 7... for now.

The MesMaps (The Mesopotamian Maps)

My headline for today's activity is; The MesMaps (The Mesopotamian Maps). This relates to the Maps of Mesopotamia we looked at. We looked at modern day Mesopotamia and ancient Mesopotamia. We used the "See, Think, Wonder" strategy to compare these maps. It was fairly easy to see which map was the oldest one. All you had to do was to look at the names of the places and if there were any borders. In Mesopotamia there were empires, such as Babylonia and Sumer. The empires reasonably close to each other so they would have had wars with each other but they still would have had cherished. You could see that Mesopotamia was one place and it covered that entire area however now that area consists of many countries.
This was my thinking for "The MesMaps."