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Four Corners of the Sky: Creation Stories and Cosmologies from Around the World
What is the universe? How did it get that way? Here are thought-provoking answers from throughout history and around the world.
"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." - King James Bible
"In the beginning, before men, before the Gods, all was chaos." - Greek myth
Folklorist Steve Zeitlin gives answers to the questions everyone asks about the nature of the What is it? Where did it come from? Will it end? A picture of the universe is a cosmology, and every culture has its own. People build these stories from the world around them. The ancient Egyptians who saw the Nile flood yearly told stories of gods who rise, die, and are reborn. The Maori living on the wind and sea-battered island of New Zealand tell of sea, land, and sky gods in eternal combat.
Readers will discover the Iroquois who pictured the world on a turtle's back; the Southeast Asians who described the world as a flat disc held up by three elephants; even Genesis and the Big Bang theories are included. Zeitlin retells each myth, legend, folktale or theory as a story filled with wonder and imagination.
Now every child who tries to build a picture of the universe will see how he or she fits in the grand tradition of human thought and imagination.
"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." - King James Bible
"In the beginning, before men, before the Gods, all was chaos." - Greek myth
Folklorist Steve Zeitlin gives answers to the questions everyone asks about the nature of the What is it? Where did it come from? Will it end? A picture of the universe is a cosmology, and every culture has its own. People build these stories from the world around them. The ancient Egyptians who saw the Nile flood yearly told stories of gods who rise, die, and are reborn. The Maori living on the wind and sea-battered island of New Zealand tell of sea, land, and sky gods in eternal combat.
Readers will discover the Iroquois who pictured the world on a turtle's back; the Southeast Asians who described the world as a flat disc held up by three elephants; even Genesis and the Big Bang theories are included. Zeitlin retells each myth, legend, folktale or theory as a story filled with wonder and imagination.
Now every child who tries to build a picture of the universe will see how he or she fits in the grand tradition of human thought and imagination.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published September 26, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 10, 2013
The book The Four Corners of the Sky, written by Steve Zeitlin focuses on creation stories and cosmologies from different religions and places all around the world. Being a student in HKIS, allows me to be able to learn about creation stories and cosmologies from the big 5 religions: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. However, other than these religions, I really had no idea what other religions thought about on the creation of the world and how the universe came to be. Although a book with different types of cosmologies might sound boring, it really is not. The different stories are very engaging and makes you appreciate the world you live on. Some of my favorite stories from the book are: “The Sky Tossed Universe of the Maori People,” and “The Beautiful Gods of the Ancient Greek Universe.”
“The Sky Tossed Universe of the Maori People” is a story based on the beliefs of a group of aboriginal people of New Zealand. The Maori sky God is called Rangi, the movement of the sun was on his body. Each day the sun rises to Rangi’s left in the East and sets on Rangi’s right on the West. In the beginning, Rangi laid upon Papi, the Earth God. Because of this, it was always dark between them. The children, who lay between the two giants were upset with the never ending darkness. One of the children, Tane Mahuta placed his shoulders to the Earth and feet to the sky and as a tree, began to grow slowly. Over many years, the two giants were slowly separated and finally, there was light. “The Beautiful Gods of the Ancient Greek Universe” is a story based on the beliefs of the Greeks. In the beginning, there was only Darkness. It then separated itself into Night and Tatarus, which is hell. There was an egg in the bosom of Tatarus, and it gave birth to Gaia and Uranus. They were Mother Earth and Father Sky.
In conclusion, the book Four Corners of the Sky is an amazing book, as it has a collection of interesting and over the top stories of creation and cosmology. There are many other stories in the book, ranging from the beliefs of early Western scientists, to stories where Jains believe that the universe took the form of a human being. The book is also written in a way that any type of reader can enjoy. It doesn’t bombard the audience with unnecessary details and delivers each story successfully. This is definitely a book that I recommend to people who enjoy books of aventure, and of course reading! This allows the reader to not only understand more about the culture and beliefs of other people, but to also appreciate the world they live on. I give this book an 8.5/10.
“The Sky Tossed Universe of the Maori People” is a story based on the beliefs of a group of aboriginal people of New Zealand. The Maori sky God is called Rangi, the movement of the sun was on his body. Each day the sun rises to Rangi’s left in the East and sets on Rangi’s right on the West. In the beginning, Rangi laid upon Papi, the Earth God. Because of this, it was always dark between them. The children, who lay between the two giants were upset with the never ending darkness. One of the children, Tane Mahuta placed his shoulders to the Earth and feet to the sky and as a tree, began to grow slowly. Over many years, the two giants were slowly separated and finally, there was light. “The Beautiful Gods of the Ancient Greek Universe” is a story based on the beliefs of the Greeks. In the beginning, there was only Darkness. It then separated itself into Night and Tatarus, which is hell. There was an egg in the bosom of Tatarus, and it gave birth to Gaia and Uranus. They were Mother Earth and Father Sky.
In conclusion, the book Four Corners of the Sky is an amazing book, as it has a collection of interesting and over the top stories of creation and cosmology. There are many other stories in the book, ranging from the beliefs of early Western scientists, to stories where Jains believe that the universe took the form of a human being. The book is also written in a way that any type of reader can enjoy. It doesn’t bombard the audience with unnecessary details and delivers each story successfully. This is definitely a book that I recommend to people who enjoy books of aventure, and of course reading! This allows the reader to not only understand more about the culture and beliefs of other people, but to also appreciate the world they live on. I give this book an 8.5/10.
May 2, 2014
The Four Corners of the Sky: Creation Stories and Cosmologies From Around the World by Steve Zeitlin is a wonderful book that enables the reader the learn more about different religions and cultures from around the world. The book introduces 16 different cosmologies from ancient cultures, including Maori, Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Desana, Inca, Jain, Indian, Iroquois, Haitian, Fon, Chinese, and Chumash cosmoses. It also describes a variety of scientific views of creation and the world. By adding in scientific data it gave the reader the ability to see the huge differences between religious and scientific beliefs.
I was intrigued by this book because I have always found cosmologies fascinating as well as different cultural beliefs. I think its wondering learning about different cultures and peoples point of views when it comes to religion. I was also able to learn more about their ancient stories which showed me how their beliefs came to be. The way that the author told the readers about the differences in cultural beliefs was interesting. First he would give a brief introduction to the culture and then he would began to tell the actually teachings and myths. This made it so much easier to understand the stories and what the stories represent. From this I was able to understand these cultures to a new level. Before reading this book I had heard different stories from different countries and religions but I could never truly understand the symbolism or the underlying meaning. But from reading his book I was able to understand these things and also, that not every story has just one meaning. This book gave me the ability to put myself in other cultures, and religions so that I could understand them better and see the vast differences between them. I recommend this book highly. It is a fun and easy to read, and it can teach people a lot about things outside of their own lives.
I was intrigued by this book because I have always found cosmologies fascinating as well as different cultural beliefs. I think its wondering learning about different cultures and peoples point of views when it comes to religion. I was also able to learn more about their ancient stories which showed me how their beliefs came to be. The way that the author told the readers about the differences in cultural beliefs was interesting. First he would give a brief introduction to the culture and then he would began to tell the actually teachings and myths. This made it so much easier to understand the stories and what the stories represent. From this I was able to understand these cultures to a new level. Before reading this book I had heard different stories from different countries and religions but I could never truly understand the symbolism or the underlying meaning. But from reading his book I was able to understand these things and also, that not every story has just one meaning. This book gave me the ability to put myself in other cultures, and religions so that I could understand them better and see the vast differences between them. I recommend this book highly. It is a fun and easy to read, and it can teach people a lot about things outside of their own lives.
January 29, 2012
I wanted my almost nine year old daughter to hear creation stories other than Adam & Eve! It took a while to get her interested in this book, but once we got into it, she was intrigued. I think she did get the idea that if it's the story of someone else, it's called a myth but if it is your story, it's called The Gospel. She loved the Chinese story of the yin and yang egg since she was born in China. At the end of the book there are several pages about current scientific ideas about the beginning of the world like the Big Bang. Makes that sound just about as unlikely as a lot of the other myths go. This is NOT a preschooler book but good for elementary. This is a read together and talk about book.
November 7, 2018
I very much appreciate the curation of this book, but pretty much every story in it is the worst told, least interesting version of that story I've ever encountered. Still, if I'd encountered it when I was 14 I woulda been tremendously excited by the composition, even with its weakness, so... three stars, more if it's shelved with YA, less if shelved with adult.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews