
The egg almost universally symbolizes perfection
and totality. Cosmogonic myths which posit creation
as arising from the cosmic egg are varied. Sometimes
the creator God lives alone inside the egg. Sometimes
the primordial chaos is described as an egg.
Generally, all the possibilities of a perfect
creation are inherent in the egg. Detail - NASA Photo Mars meteorite sample ALH84001,
August 7, 1996.
China
In
the Sanwu lichi (Records of Cycles in
Threes and Fives - 300 CE),the
narrative tells that
heaven and earth were inextricably commingled like a
chicken's egg. Within the egg there was engendered a
being - P'anKu. After 18,000 years this egg mass
split apart: the bright and light became heaven, the
dark and heavy became earth. For another 18,000 years
heaven daily increased 10 feet in height and the
earth increased 10 feet in thickness. Between the two
was P'anKu, who grew 10 feet in size daily. After
18,000 years heaven and earth were separated 90,000
li (or 30,000 English miles). This conception relates
to the Chinese astronomic theory at the time that
earth was enclosed by heaven as is the yolk of an egg
by its shell.
Greece
The Orphic rites
practiced in parts of Greece (including Athens in the
5th and 6th century) incorporate a number of concepts
including doctrines about death and resurrection. The
extant fragments of writings are known as the "Orphic
Bible" and include a theogony similar to that of
Hesiod.
The
Dogon
According to
tradition, the Creator fashions an egg. It is the egg
of the world "aduno tal." The world
egg is infinitesimal and consists of air, fire and
water and a metal called sagala. The world egg
is, then, infinitely small and infinitely heavy (480
donkey-loads or 85,000 pounds = weight of all seeds
and iron on earth.) In the egg are two pairs of twins
-- one male, one female. The twins mature in the egg.
At maturation they become androgynous (perfect
creatures).
Bibliography