The first creation myths are science fiction with a social function. They reconcile scientific progress to political and theological demands. What is their charm, and what does it mean when their poetry evolves, in the Babylonian Creation Epic and later, into more scientific prose?
Athena Title
Creation Myths and Cosmology
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to analyze the mixture of poetic license and knowledge and construction of nature in early cosmogonic myths and epics, and the evolution of cosmological language in the direction of more scientific prose exposition.
By the end of this course, students will understand how contextualizing the works historically permits sorting authors' assumptions from intended political and social messaging, and exposes the function of the texts.
By the end of this course, students will understand older and contemporary cosmological models in a continuum of technical progress, and in recycling models despite increasing instrumental power, problematizing the notion of an impermeable distinction between science and religion.
By the end of this course, students will be able to describe, interpret, and appreciate creation myth texts and their contexts.
By the end of this course, students will be able to analyze the impact of creation myths on our understanding of the human condition.
Topical Outline
A. ANCIENT MYTH
1. Understanding ancient myth
Sources, Genres, Conventions: Cosmology and Social Order
2. Sumerian creation
3. Middle and New Kingdom Egypt
4. Hittite cosmogonies
5. Ugaritic theogonies
6. Early Judaean cosmogonic myths
7. Mesopotamian cosmogony
8. Hesiod Theogony
9. Phoenician creation myths
10. Genesis 1
11. Anaximander and Anaximenes
12. Ezekiel 1, Isaiah 40-55, and Apocalyptic: recrudescent cosmogonic myth
13. Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Parmenides Empedocles
14. Berossos: Babylonian Religion in the Hellenistic Era
B. COSMOLOGY AND SOCIETY
1. Cosmology and Kingship
2. Cosmology and Society
3. Why cosmologies change
4. Projecting tomorrow’s cosmologies
