What elements of the world and human nature does this creation myth explain the world on the turtles back?

Anyone who’s ever heard the expression “it’s turtles all the way down” is probably familiar with the image of the world being carried on the back of a giant turtle. While that philosophical one-liner is of relatively modern vintage, the cosmic turtle mytheme has appeared in disparate cultures across the globe for millennia. In honor of everyone’s favorite intellectual quandary, let’s take a moment to celebrate the tortoises that hold up the world.

In his book Researches Into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization, the turn-of-the-20th-century anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor writes that the world turtle concept likely first appeared in Hindu mythology. In one Vedic story, the form of the god Vishnu’s second avatar, Kurma, is a great turtle, which provides a celestial foundation upon which a mountain is balanced.

Over in China, part of the traditional creation mythology involves a giant turtle named Ao, although the image in this case is a bit different. According to the legend, the creator goddess cut off the legs of the cosmic turtle and used them to prop up the heavens, which had been damaged by another god. It’s not quite carrying the world on its back, but it still puts a terrapin at the center of the universe, making sure that the very sky doesn’t fall down.

The concept of a world turtle seems to have arisen independently within Native American myth and legend. In the creation stories of the Lenape and Iroquois people, the Earth is created as soil is piled on the back of a great sea turtle that continues to grow until it is carrying the entire world. Many indigenous tribes in North America refer to the continent as Turtle Island to this day.

The image of the world being carried through space by an ancient, impossibly massive tortoise is evocative, so it's not hard to imagine why it has survived for so long in so many different cultures. But in the end, why turtles?

In a 1974 issue of the anthropological journal Man, the scholar Jay Miller provides some thoughts on what makes the turtle such a popular world bearer, writing, “I viewed the turtle as a logical choice for such an atlantean because its shape and appearance were suited to this role.” But he goes on to write, specifically of the Lenape belief in a world turtle, that the creature also mirrored aspects that they valued in their culture, such as perseverance and longevity. And that idea doesn’t just apply to the cosmic turtle in Lenape culture. “With intensive research, the above analysis should also apply for other societies that place the earth on the back of a turtle.” Most turtles and tortoises are also famously long-lived, giving them a wise, ancient quality that lends itself to mythologizing.

World turtles appear in more modern pop culture as well, from the Great A'Tuin of the late Terry Pratchett's Discworld franchise, to the all-knowing Maturin of Stephen King’s metaverse. Clearly, it remains cool to imagine that our world is being led through space by a being that actually knows where we’re headed.

The Sky Gods vs the Iroquois
The stories “The World on the Turtles Back” by the Iroquois, and The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday discuss two different creation myths. “The World on The Turtles Back” is an Iroquois legend that has been passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, making it an oral tradition. A creation myth is a traditional story that involves supernatural beings or events that explain how the some aspect of human nature or the natural world came to be. These myths have comparable aspects that are specifically the roles of men, women, animals, and nature. The men in “The World on the Turtles Back” have different roles for each character. For example, the husband plays a more submissive role in the story. Although the husband did…show more content…
The right-handed twin chose to be born the normal way, showing that he is smart and has respect for his mother. He always told the truth, and tried to “accomplish what seemed to be right and reasonable”(38). He made the weak animals of the world, and the sweet berries and fruits for them to eat. He also made man, which makes him the “Master of Life”. The right-handed twin is a symbol of the sun and daylight. When the sun rises, the people realm of the right-handed twin. Unlike the right-handed twin, the left-handed twin is stubborn, untruthful, devious, and crooked minded. Instead of being born the normal way, he chose to be born through his mother’s armpit, showing no respect for his mother. The left-handed twin always lied. He also contended with his brother, and made the dominant creatures who would feed on the right-handed twin’s creations and the poisonous plants of the world. He is a symbol of night and darkness. The boy in The Way to Rainy Mountain has similarities and differences to the men in “The world on the Turtles Back”. While the boy was at play with his seven sisters, the boy turned into a strong, aggressive, and violent bear, which symbolized the turning

How the World Uniquely Begins Native American myths and the Christian Bible both offer stories about how the world began.. In “The Earth on Turtle’s Back” and Genesis 1, both tales have similar values and ideas. These two stories compare in that both tell the importance of water, the fact that Earth came out of the water, and the existence of supreme beings; in contrast, each story has a unique idea of how the world came into being. “The Earth on Turtle’s Back,” a story from the Onondaga tribe, an original Native American group, is a myth which relates a story about the beginning of the world. Water is below the Skyland and it becomes an issue when the Great Tree is uprooted. Earth is located beneath the water, and the wife of the Ancient Chief falls through the hole left by the uprooted tree. The animals who live in the water know she is from the Skyland and that she cannot survive in the water. The muskrat saves her by diving into action and bringing the Earth up to the surface. Once the muskrat comes up, she puts Earth on the turtle’s back. After the Earth was placed on the turtle’s back, the wife drops seeds she was holding from the Great Tree onto the land. “The two Swans brought the Sky Woman down. She stepped…show more content…
Even though the creation stories that exist in all human cultures end up sharing similar elements. Both Genesis 1 and “The Earth on Turtle’s Back” relate because somewhere along the lines, the Earth was once covered in all water. The differences are in the way the Earth is created. In Genesis 1, God creates the Earth, humankind and everything that lives. In “The Earth on Turtle’s Back,” the animals are responsible for creating the Earth. After comparing and contrasting, “The Earth on Turtle’s Back,” to Genesis 1, one can see that both of these creation stories have two distinctive tales about how the Earth was