ABSTRACT
There are as many versions of the story of creation as there are human cultures. Details of the creation vary, of course, according to what aspects each culture finds most important. In some accounts, the world is created from nothing by the will or word of a deity, as in our familiar biblical account, as well as in myths from Egypt, Greece, and Mesoamerica. The concept of the primal sea is one of the most common, turning up in the myths of cultures as far apart as ancient Egypt, pre-Christian Finland, and the Pacific Northwest of North America. The final theme contained in this myth is that of the ages of man, and the belief that the 'good old days' were finer than the current times. This is a very human belief; an Assyrian clay tablet, for instance, holds a complaint about 'modern children who lack respect for their elders' and how things were better in the old days.
