This lineage comes from the Book of Genesis and aided future European monarchs in their quest to prove that they ruled by divine right, through their roots to Adam and Eve, and ultimately to God himself. But if we study the annals of other cultures and religions we find alternate hypotheses for human origin.
In early Greek mythology, it was the Titan Prometheus who created man. The Titans were the elder gods who ruled the world before being overthrown by the Olympians. It is said that Prometheus shaped man out of mud and that the virgin goddess Athena, daughter of Zeus, breathed life into his clay figure.
In ancient Mexico, the supreme God was Ometeotl, who being both male and female, spawned four sons. These offspring were then responsible for creating earth, water, heaven and hell.
In Eastern Canada, where I was born, the Canadian people believe that the Great Spirit Glooscap was responsible for their creation. He fell from the sky in a canoe with his brother Malsum, and anchored at Uktamkoo (now Newfoundland); an island that magically appeared for their use. Glooscap shot arrows into an ash tree, and out stepped men and women. They were strong and graceful with light brown skin and shining black hair, and he named his people Wabanaki. He then created animals from rocks and clay and while they were originally large and ferocious, he tamed them to be servile, and provide his people with food and clothing.
Norse legend also uses the imagery of trees as the roots of mankind. Their Garden of Eden was Midgard
(Mana-heim), originally inhabited by the gods, Odin, Hoenir and Lodur, who were responsible for creating the universe. One day when they were strolling around Midgard, they noticed two trees, an ash and an elm and decided that humans should be created with the same strength and beauty that they possessed.
The ancient Sumarians accepted Adam as the first man, but referred to him as a Pasisu-Priest of the Anunnaki tribe, a mythological race of people, found primarily in the Middle East, India and South Africa and we can certainly trace the migration of people from those regions into Europe and eventually North America. His father was "Enki, Lord of the Earth and Waters" and Adam was genetically created by mixing his father's blood with that of a Homo-Sapien. The first test tube baby, so to speak.
The creator of the Germanic people was Ymir; the Aztec, a plumed serpent named Quetzalcoatl; the Pawnee, Tirawa, also known as the 'Arch of Heaven' ; the Iroquois, Hahgwehdiyu and the Navajo Estsanatlehi, wife of the Sun god, who lived alone in a “house that floats on the western waters”. One day, when she was feeling lonely, she created men and women from small pieces of her skin.
These legends became the basis for their religious beliefs and encompassed that which they did not know about the universe or the origin of their species. But the majority of tales from around the world have a common theme, and that is how one God or Great Spirit was instrumental in assisting humanity during creation, and that one God or Great Spirit, directed their day to day lives.
Their existence is accepted on blind faith and their followers govern their actions with the desire to please them, or out of the fear of angering them. The followers of each of these supreme beings, often live together in small communities or congregate in churches, homes, halls, or in circles on the ground; to share their insights and renew their faith. Now that scientists have used their divine wisdom to clarify our origins, the focus of religion should be to offer guidance and inspire good behavior.
And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, ...And God blessed them, and God said unto them, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Gen 1:24-31
We had arrived!
