A creation myth (or cosmogonic myth) is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it.[2][3] While in popular usage the term myth often refers to false or fanciful stories, formally, it does not imply falsehood. Cultures generally regard their creation myths as true.[4][5] In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths, metaphorically, symbolically and sometimes in a historical or literal sense.[6][7] They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical myths – that is, they describe the ordering of the cosmos from a state of chaos or amorphousness.[8]
Creation myths often share a number of features. They often are considered sacred accounts and can be found in nearly all known religious traditions.[9] They are all stories with a plot and characters who are either deities, human-like figures, or animals, who often speak and transform easily.[10] They are often set in a dim and nonspecific past that historian of religion Mircea Eliade termed in illo tempore ("at that time").[9][11] Creation myths address questions deeply meaningful to the society that shares them, revealing their central worldview and the framework for the self-identity of the culture and individual in a universal context.[12]
Creation myths develop in oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple versions;[3] found throughout human culture, they are the most common form of myth.<span>[6]</span>
