Myths About The Sun And The Moon

Myths about the Sun and Moon

The sun and the moon are powerful beings that bring life and death to all living creatures. They control when it is day or night, which season it is, and the weather. They fascinate humans and a considerable amount of mythology has been dedicated to the creation of the sun and moon and why or how they travel across the sky during the day and night. This paper will discuss and compare some of these myths and the gods attributed to their care and existence.

The sun and the moon are such influential powers that the creation of them is right along with the creation of the world and humans in some of the better-known mythology. The story of creation in Christian Bible tells of God's creation of the sun and the moon. On the fourth day "God made two great lights - the greater to rule the day and the lesser to rule the night... God set them in the dome of sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness." (Genesis 1.16-18).

A similar myth of the creation of the sun and the moon is found in the Qur'an, "It is Allah Who hath created the heavens and the earth and sendeth down rain from the skies... He has made subject to you, the night and the day; the sun and the moon; and the stars in subjection by His command." (Qur'an 14:32-33).

These two myths are from monotheist religions in which the sun is just created out of nothing, they describe the creation but they lack explanation as to how and why the sun and the moon where put in the sky and have no detail about the orbits or movement or them.

"The Creation of the Sun and the Moon" by Michelangelo is a large fresco of God creating the sun and the moon. In the foreground he has one hand pointing towards a large yellow ball, the sun, and in the background he is pointing towards a large bluish ball, the moon. He is looking forcefully at the sun in the foreground. This fresco is just one person's take on the creation of the sun and the moon as the bible explains it.

The Egyptian sun god was Re. His name meant sun and he represented strength. The Egyptians had two theories concerning appearance each day and disappearance every night. One is that he rose from the waters enclosed in petals like those of the lotus blossom and that the petals also enfolded about him when he returned at night. The other myth is that he rose in the shape of the phoenix, the mystical bird of fire, and alighted on top of an obelisk, which collected all his light and shone it over the world. At night Re would sink back into the unknown until the next morning. As Re aged and weakened he abdicated some of his duties to Troth, the moon god. This is how the Egyptians explained the daily disappearance of the sun, and the nightly appearance of the moon.

A seemingly simple story from Nigeria actually describes the creation and how the sun and the moon got into the sky. The Nigerian story tells that the Sun and the Moon met and married and built a beautiful house on the dry land. After their new marriage wore off they got bored and decided to invite an old friend, the ocean, into their house for a visit. The ocean insisted that he was to large to fit in their house but the Sun and the Moon insisted that their house was huge. The ocean came in and flooded their whole house up to the roof and the Sun and the Moon had to rise high up into the sky to avoid getting wet. That is how the Sun and the Moon took up permanent residence in the sky and distinguished land and ocean. (Home... 1)

A Dakota myth