The Problems with Ancient Myths Around the World
Mythology is a story genre that has been told by people for a long time and is made up of religious beliefs, deities and astrology signs. Every country has their own version of mythology and a lot of the culture’s traditions are based on these stories.
It all wasn’t abnormal until you get two myths from two completely different cultures: the names are different, place taken is different; but you’ll spot the same storyline, same characteristic, same cultural practice, same supernatural happenings, and maybe same goal for both characters. Other than this coincidental incident, there’s some not-so-logical points and happenings too. An example is the comparison of Noah’s Ark and Emperor Dayu Tames the Flood.
The first problem is the similarity in the storyline of both myths. In Noah’s Ark, Noah and his family built the legendary ark which was 500 ft. big, larger than the Santa Maria of Christopher Columbus. After the successful construction of the Ark, Noah brought 3 858 920 animals on board along with his family to avoid the enormous flooding; granting him major credit for his voyage.
Emperor Dayu Tames the Flood, a Chinese myth about an immortal named Dayu, who was later an emperor of China, led his people to stop the flooding of The Yellow River and learnt that the method to stop the flood coming in the future is to construct dams. This revolutionised technology in the dynasty and protected its people for generations to come.
The second problem is how Noah’s Ark ended. Emperor Dayu Tames the Flood‘s ending is reasonable, as it successfully stopped the flood from the massive flow by installing dams. In Noah’s Ark, no mankind other than Noah and his family were on the ark, and all the other Eukarya are animals which do not explain why we have an enormous human population of 7.9 billion by 2021.
But when I think about this, I gave myself an answer — I guess it’s a myth? Maybe God granted him another group of mankind for a better world or it’s just me who didn’t study my Bible lessons well…
Albeit all of the problems mentioned above, they’re all mythologies from different cultures and are to teach us about having morality and faith in God, and to know ourselves better.
By: Otis Loong Chun Kit
