What are stories of origins?

Ancient cultures used stories of origins to help explain their heritage, and the heritage of the world around them. In Exploring Origins, the Genesis mission Web site explores ideas about the origins of the solar system held by various cultures throughout the ages. Let's look at how people have used stories over the ages to celebrate their interaction with me, the sun!

Stories, history, myths, legends, are they all the same?

We know that different cultures over time described the sun based on what was important to them. These relationships and perceptions of the sun show us that people have always seen the sun as important. The Genesis mission carries on this curiosity through its exploration. If you made the study of mythology your life's work, you would say that a myth is a story from the past that interprets some aspect of the world around us. Myths offer an explanation, interpretation, or meaning. Althaea, the Greek goddess who gave birth to the sun, is a myth. This is different from legends. Legends are stories from the past about someone, some place, or something that is believed to have been historical. They attempt to offer factual information. Merlin, the magician in King Arthur's court, is a legendary figure.

Is it all a matter of time?

After examining cultural artifacts, we know that people of long ago tried to count the number of days to keep track of time as it passed. Many ancient cultures explained the passing of time with a myth. An early Egyptian myth is that the universe is a rectangular box. The Earth is curved and sits at the bottom of the box. The sky is the top of the box, and it is supported by the peaks of four mountains located at the corners of the flat Earth. A river flows around the Earth, and carries the boat of the sun god-thus explaining the motion of the sun. Thoth, an Egyptian god, is the measurer of time, and is credited with devising our standard 365-day year. In early Egypt, there apparently were no attempts (other than mythological) to explain the motion of the heavenly bodies, even though accurate observations were made.

The early Greeks and Romans also relied on myths to interpret their worlds. From myths came the beginnings of scientific explanations for astronomical events with the Greeks. They thought that the sky was a solid hemisphere, like a bowl. It covered the flat Earth. A great river, Okeanos-the eldest of the Greek Titans and the father of all rivers) encircled the shape of the Earth. The sun traveled across the sky in a horse-drawn chariot. At night the sun sailed in a golden bowl around the stream of Okeanos, arriving just in time to rise the next morning. These early cultural explanations occurred to meet some purpose. Today we continue to find a purpose in nature and in our solar system.