Journal 1: The Iroquois Creation Story

In the myth of the Iroquois Creation Story we learn about how the universe was created
according to the Iroquois and how the eternal battle of good and evil affected it from the
beginning of the world. However, what impressed me the most in the story were the similarities
with the Christian beliefs of the creation of the world.
irst and foremost, the e!istence of a good brother and of an evil one that always struggle
against one another brings to mind the battle between "bel and Cain. In both stories, the brothers
fight against each other as the good ones try to ma#e the world good and beautiful, whereas the
evil ones try to destroy its beauty and ma#e it a dangerous place for human to live in. However,
the two stories have a different ending. In the Iroquois Creation Story, when the battle ta#es
place the good brother, $nigorio, wins over his evil brother, %onhahetgea, and everything is
restored as the latter sin#s down to eternal doom&'() giving the hope that evil can be
conquered. *hereas according to the Christian religion, the evil brother, Cain, is the one who
wins the battle resulting in murdering his brother and becoming the first murderer and "bel
becoming the first murder victim.
*hat is more, there is a similarity between the creation of the world by the good brother and
the creation of the world, in Christian religion, by %od. In both stories, the world was at first
dar#, and then the good brother+%od created light and there was the distinction between night
and day. "fter that they created water, and animals to live in it and all over the earth. inally,
they both created a man and a woman from the ground, according to their image, in order to
become masters of the earth and live peacefully. ,evertheless, in the story of the Iroquois the
bad mind&'') made the earth dangerous for the humans by forming numerous high mountains
and falls of water, and great steeps&'') and by creating reptiles. In addition, he tried to create
humans but he only succeeded in creating apes.
-ast but not least, the fact that the evil brother after his defeat descended in the earth and
claimed equal power over the souls&'() after their death is similar with the e!istence of devil
in Christian religion who lives in the underworld and tries to claim the humans. souls after their
death.
/n the whole, there are a lot of similarities between the two stories which I thin# it is very
interesting as they come from completely different social, historical and cultural bac#grounds.