From thunder gods to snake conquerors, scientists around the world are getting closer to unraveling humanity’s oldest stories. Researchers are sure that thousands of years before the advent of writing, people were already telling myths that formed the basis of legends that have survived to this day.
According to The New Yorker, scientists compare myths from different cultures and find surprising similarities. The focus is on battles between gods and snakes, birth from mud, resurrection and sacrifice motifs. According to experts, many of them are based on common traditions of ancient peoples who lived before the settlement of people from Africa. One of the most recognizable plots is the hero defeating the monster. From the Indian Indra to the Scandinavian Thor and the Slavic Perun, all are based on a single primitive myth, according to researchers.
Modern linguists and anthropologists reconstruct ancient narratives through the analysis of languages and symbols. Thus, by examining Indo-European origins, they were able to recreate the idea of the Heavenly Father, who appears in different cultures as Zeus, Jupiter or Dyaus Pitar. Based on these coincidences, a whole system of ancient mythology emerges, which once united different peoples.
But some researchers go further. Professor Michael Witzel of Harvard has suggested that all myths in the world can be divided into two global lines, Laurasian and Gondwanan. The first covers Eurasia and America and includes stories about the creation of the world and the apocalypse, while the second tells about the trickster gods common in Africa and Oceania and the creation of humans from mud. Other scientists, including Russian anthropologist Yuri Berezkin, are building databases of thousands of legends, looking for enduring stories that repeat themselves over tens of thousands of years.
According to the latest data, some motifs may have appeared more than 60 thousand years ago, even before people left Africa. These are, for example, stories about a rainbow-colored snake, about a woman trapped in a monster’s house, or about a hero performing impossible tasks for the sake of love. True, not all scholars are sure that these stories really come from the same source; perhaps they arose independently as a reflection of common human emotions and fears.
By the way, if you are a fan of Ancient Greek myths, take the test and find out which god you are.
Source: People Talk
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
