Author Description

Myths are divine stories that chronicle the work of supernatural beings who created the culture from the beginning, the timeless time. Most ancient civilizations believed in fertility goddesses who represented the powers of generation and creation. Theirs is the story of the genesis of the world…the plants, animals, humankind, cultures… and the reasons for their existence. Symbols of fertility in ancient mythology have a history as long as the first myths about the world's creation. They describe how the world tree, humankind, the sun, the moon and all other things came into existence. This mythology originated in the time when man was bewildered and frightened. At the time he lived in a hostile world and wanted to give meaning to the difficult environment around him. Through the study of mythology, we understand that the most cherished goddesses are the ones that are connected with fertility. This is the reason that the only respected and worshiped goddess in ancient Egypt was “Maat.” Her symbol is a hieroglyphic sign called the “ankh”. Today, the “ankh” shape identifies the female gender. However, in the early days of Neolithic era, earth was not always considered feminine. In China and Japan, there was no specific gender for the universe. In other parts of the world, no sex symbol was assigned for the earth as it was regarded as a bespoke sacred entity. Later on, due to the maternal role of women, earth was deemed as a female and nurturing entity. Earth generated everything in its womb in just the same way as women have given birth to generations. Similar in meaning were the myths of creation that were based on the belief that the first human beings, like the plants, grew from the earth. Akin to seeds, their life started from the world underneath and then came to the surface, like flowers, to be collected by their human mothers.