The creation of the Universe.

歡迎收看《神話速成班》

This is the first of several episodes on creation stories,

今天的題目非常非常簡單

and this one will center on myths that imagine a universe created out of nothing.

「宇宙是怎麼創造的」

Or possibly something.

這是數集創世神話中的第一集

Sometimes out of water–

會著重在「無中生有」的創世神話

Probably water, but it's magical water.

也不是完全什麼都沒有... 有時候會有水

It's primordial water.

可能就是水...但是是神水 是上古神...水

Hey Thot, do Egyptian gods drink water?

ㄟㄟ～圖特！ 埃及眾神喝不喝水？

[Intro Music]

《神話速成班》

Myths that describe creation as coming out of nothing are some of the hardest to get our heads around.

探討「無中生有」的神話 是最難去理解的神話

In Latin, the phrase "ex nihilo" is used to describe this type of creation,

拉丁文 Ex Nihilo 正是用來形容 此類的創世神話

and it can cause a bit of existential dread for people who are uncomfortable

對有些人來說，完完全全的「真空」 會導致「存在恐懼」

with the idea of absolute nothing.

沒有時間、沒有空間

No time, no space, just an infinite void.

就像網路突然斷線一樣的無限空虛

Like when the Wi-Fi suddenly goes down.

但是比沒有網路還要空虛

But just, much, much worse.

不信就問問希臘的科技之神赫菲斯托斯

Just ask Hephaestus, Greek god of technology.

他透徹瞭解路由器的不穩定架構

That guy knows about unstable rooter architecture. And hammers.

還有鎚子

The ex nihilo creation story that's probably the best known in the West comes from the Book of Genesis.

西方世界最熟悉的「無中生有」神話 莫過於聖經創世紀裡的神話

In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth. And the Earth was without form, and void;

「起初，神創造天地。

and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

地是空虛混沌，淵面黑暗。

So, in this story, the main character is God.

神的靈運行在水面上。」

And hey, let's take just a quick minute to remember that this is mythology not religious studies,

在這個故事當中，主角就是神

so we're gonna be refering to the judeo-christian God as a character.

記得嗎？我們在討論神話，不是宗教論述

So take a second, to just get confortable with that... And now let's move on.

所以我們將猶太/基督教的神稱為「角色」

So, this character exists before anything we would call "the world."

深呼吸，平靜下來 接著討論下去...

Where does God exist? It's unclear. There's a void, there's water,

這個角色比我們所謂的世界還要早存在

which are handy if God needs storage space or is thirsty but... that's about it.

那麼神存在哪裡？

Ex nihilo creation stories are common in the ancient Near East,

不清楚

the Mediterranean world where the Abrahamic religions–Judaism, Christianity, and Islam–originated.

有虛空、有水

Egypt was part of an interconnected Mediterranean system, and one of its creation myths

如果神口渴了，或是需要儲存空間 那就十分方便

also posits a universe coming from nothing, as we can see in this fragment.

但...僅此而已

"I am the eternal spirit, I am the sun that rose from the primeval waters.

無中生有神話在古近東很普遍

My soul is God, I am the creator of the word. Evil is my abomination, I see it not.

也就是亞伯拉罕諸教（猶太教、基督教、伊斯蘭教） 所發源的的地中海地區

I am the creator of the order wherein I live, I am the word, which will never be annihilated

埃及也處在這個交互連結的地帶

in this my name of "soul."

而埃及的創世神話也包含了這類 「無中生有」的元素

Take away the first person pronoun and the bold claims, and you can see the similarities to the Genesis story.

例如下面這段：

There is an eternal God who creates the world, and then there are waters out of which rise...

「我是永恆的靈。

well, in this case it's the sun, which is nice. Just ask Ra, Egyptian sun god.

我是由初始之水升起的太陽。

Cause eventually humans would realize that some of us look better with a tan, me especially.

我的靈魂是神，我創造了道。

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time conceiving of nothingness.

我的眼中容納不下邪惡。

I'm a lot more accustomed to... "thingness".

我創造了我所在的秩序。

I mean isn't nothingness... a thing, in and of itself?

我就是不可磨滅的道。 此是我靈魂之名。」

And hey even more importantly, can we really call it "nothingness" with all this water around?

去掉第一人稱的「我」 還有各種「狂言」

Fortunately for people like me, there's a word to describe the condition before creation: Chaos.

就能夠發現它與《創世紀》故事的相似之處

Which mythologist David Leeming defines as "the primal void or state of uniform nondifferenciation

有個永恆之神創造了天地

that precedes the creation of the world in most creation myths."

然後從水中升起了...

Chaos is something of a background in many of these myths.

呃...在本文中是太陽，很好

As it is in the Greek version of creation found in The Theogony by Hesiod, a poet and sheep farmer,

不信就問問埃及太陽神：拉

who probably lived in the 8th century BCE.

人類最終會發現，有些人曬成小麥色比較帥 尤其是我...

According to this version, "Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth."

我不知道你是怎麼想的，但是我...

Not much to go on there, but as we can see,

我很難理解「無」的概念

Chaos is what we have before a deity or deities roll up, and provide order.

我比較習慣...看得見的東西

And also the Earth apparently has breasts. Mother Earth, I guess? Makes sense.

「無」本身是個東西...嗎？

In many myths, an augural way to put things in order is to bring light out of darkness.

更何況有這麼多的水，能叫做「無」嗎？

In one creation myths from the Kono people of Guinea,

幸好，還有一種方式來詮釋創世前的狀態：

the darkness before creation is inhabited by Death, his wife and his daughter.

「渾沌」

In the beginning, there was darkness.

神話學家大衛‧李明定義「渾沌」如下：

And in it lived Death called Sa with his wife and daughter.

多數創世神話中，在創造之前， 矇昧不明、混一虛無的狀態

The three of them were all that was.

許多的神話中，渾沌就是故事的背景設定。

There was nowhere for them to live comfortably, so Sa started it.

例如在赫西俄德所著的《神譜》中 所描述的希臘創世神話

He used magic power and he made an endless mud sea.

（赫西俄德是約在公元前8世紀的牧羊詩人）

In this mud place Sa built his house.

在此版本中說：「確實，卡俄斯（渾沌）出現了， 此後是大胸脯的大地。」

After that the god Alatangana came to visit Sa.

才剛開始而已，但是我們可見有任何神或眾神出現 設立秩序前，混亂（或渾沌）就已存在

He found Sa's house dirty and dark. Alatangana thought Sa should do better than that and he said so.

還有大地有「咪咪」！？

"Nothing can live in such a place," the god told Sa.

大地～之母？ 地母，合理吧？

"This house needs fixing up, everything is too dark."

在許多神話中，帶來秩序最簡單的莫過於照亮黑暗

So Alatangana thought he'd better take things in hand.

幾內亞的科諾人的創世神話中

He made the mud solid– we now know it as Earth.

創世前的黑暗中住著死神、他的妻子和女兒

"The Earth feels sad," God said. "I will make plants and animals to live on it." So he did.

起初只有黑暗，黑暗中住著死神「薩」

And that... is how we got Home Renovation–just kidding, I love this myth.

薩與他的妻子、女兒同住在一起

I love that God thinks that the earth is sad and so he gets the earth a puppy to cheer it up.

全世界就只有他們三個

A puppy, and some plants. You know, spruce up the joint.

因為住得不太舒適，所以薩就動手了。

But notice that there are a lot of similarities between this myth and the Egyptian myth.

他用他的法術變出了無垠的泥海

In that both describe a vast sea. One of mud, one of water,

在泥海中，薩建起了他的房子。

and that there is a god who exist previous to, and outside of the void, and the darkness.

之後，阿拉坦嘉納神來探望薩

Though the Kono myth differs, and that implies that Death is the one constant in the universe.

他覺得薩的房子又髒又暗

Oh no! And now i'm worried about the puppy.

阿拉坦嘉納神覺得薩可以住的好一點，就說了：

But, why all this talk about water?

「沒有人能住在這樣的地方，

Well, we don't know exactly, but if you're living in an ancient society,

這個房子需要改建，

and you try to think through something as big as the creation of the universe,

到處都黑濛濛的。」

you probably turn your thoughts to the vastest thing you were aware of:

阿拉坦嘉納神覺得他應該來動手修改

the sky, and the sea.

他將泥海凝固成大地

Even if you only experience the ocean from the relative safety of the shore,

「大地太寂寞了，我要將植物與動物佈滿大地」

there is something unknowable and eternal about it,

然後他就這樣做了，這才叫房屋改建...開開玩笑

that makes it possible to imagine the sea existing for all time. And even before time itself.

我愛死了這則神話

And according to theories of evolution, the idea that all life came from the sea is fairly accurate.

我喜歡這神話中神覺得大地太寂寞了， 就給他隻狗狗陪伴他。

But let's not get into evolution here, we'll leave that to Hank and the scientists over at Crash Course Biology.

狗狗還有盆栽。好好裝飾一番

Hey fun fact, though: the western hemisphere has water too.

但你有沒有注意到這則神話與埃及神話的相似之處？

And we have some ex nihilo creation stories of our own

兩者都描述了廣大的海洋 一個是泥海、一個是水海

One of the most difficult and fascinating comes from the Maya of Guatemala,

還有在虛空與黑暗之外、之前就存在了一位神

and is recorded in the Popul Vuh, or "the book of the community."

但是科諾神話中不同的是， 它指出「死亡」是宇宙中唯一不變的定理

It's not as catchy in translation.

完了，狗狗怎麼辦？

In this complex story, creation occurs four times.

但是為什麼總是有水呢？

But it begins, like the Gospel of John in the New Testament, with the Word.

ㄚ知？我們也不知道為什麼

And just because I think it's going to be fun to watch Thought Bubble animate nothingness,

但是如果你活在古代社會

let's see this myth there.

你想要理解像「宇宙創造」這樣的大課題

Hey, Thoth. Pass the popcorn.

你可能會去想你所認知最廣最大的東西：

The world began long ago in a place called Quiché, where the Quiché people lived.

天與海

There no one, at first. There was not one animal yet.

就算你只從安全的海岸上觀察大海

And no bird fish or tree. There was no rock, or forest, no canyon, no meadow.

大海還是最未知、無窮的事物

There was Sky, separated from all things. The face of the Earth was invisible.

所以很自然會將大海想像成自古就存在， 甚至在時間之前就存在

There was nothing that could make a sound. There was the sea, so calm and all alone.

而且根據演化論，「生命出自海洋」 是很正確的說法

There was dark, and night, and sea murmurings, ripplings.

不過我們不用去講演化論 那是杭克跟《生物速成班》那群科學家他們的事

Yet within the dark, and night, and sea, there was the maker, and there was the feathered serpent.

你知道嗎？西半球也有海洋

And they brought their words together.

所以這邊也有自己的「無中生有」創世神話

Joined them with their thoughts. Planned creation.

其中最有趣、最迷人的是瓜地馬拉的瑪雅神話

Their words and thoughts were so clear, that whatever they said, came to be.

出自《波布.兀》，即「社群之書」

And the serpent and the maker thought about the nature of the world.

翻譯出來感覺比較俗

What would be light and dark, who would bring food, and what everything should look like.

在這個比較複雜的神話中，創世發生了四次

And then by speaking their thoughts, they brought the world into existence.

不過開頭就像新約《約翰福音》一樣 從「道」（或譯「聖言」）開始

Starting with Earth, and then moving on to its features like mountains, and trees.

我覺得看看〈思想泡泡〉要怎麼畫「無」

Followed by wild animals.

我們就進入〈思想泡泡〉來看看這則神話

But there was a problem:

嘿！圖特，我也要吃爆米花。

the wild animals were unable to speak the names of the maker and a feathered serpent.

很久很久以前，世界從一個叫做 「奇切」的地方開始誕生

As well as the other gods who helped bring about creation. And they were unable to praise the gods.

起初，什麼都沒有

Thus the first creation was a failure.

沒有動物，沒有鳥、魚、或樹

The maker had to start over again,

沒有岩石、叢林、峽谷、或草原

but not before explaining to all the wild animals their lot was to be brought low.

只有天空與眾物分離

Which, considering the fact that the maker and the feathered serpent organized things this way,

沒辦法看見地面，什麼聲音都沒有

seems at least a little unfair.

只有平靜、孤獨的海洋

You–bird, deer, you will stay where you are,

只有黑暗、黑夜、海洋咕嚕咕嚕的聲音、漣漪

where you sleep and eat, in the forest and canyons, among the tree and bush.

然而在一切黑暗、黑夜、黑水中 出現了造物者和羽蛇

You will be eaten, you will kill and be killed.

他們一起討論

You will stay low and serve, since you cannot talk and praise your god.

合併他們的想法 計畫如何創造

Thanks Thought Bubble.

他們的言語與思想非常清晰 所以口說即事成

This particular myth is fascinating for a number of reasons.

羽蛇與造物者思考世界的各種型態

First of all, it reminds me of the story in Genesis, of Adam giving names to all the animals,

何謂光和暗？誰應該收集食物？ 事物的樣貌？

and establishing humanity's dominion over all non-speaking creatures,

他們一邊討論，世界就一邊成形。

providing a single reason why humans should be considered special among all animals:

大地先形成，然後是 大地的樣貌：山川、樹林

we have the power of speech, and by extension, the power to invent and tell creation stories of our own.

還有各式飛禽走獸

Just ask Anansi, African spider god of stories– Thot, don't eat him. This is not Australia.

但有個問題：這些禽獸不會說話 無法稱呼造物者和羽蛇的名字

Even though this myth doesn't focus on Chaos, or the void or nothingness,

以及其他幫忙創世的眾神

it does have the idea that before creation, there was nothing. Except God, or the Word.

所以他們無法詠讚牠們的神

And like the creation myths we looked at earlier, it include an endless sea.

所以第一次創世是個失敗品

A physical manifestation of things unknown.

造物者要從重新來過

But also of the source of life, since nothing we can see exist without water.

但是造物者先和動物說明 為什麼牠們的地位被降低了

Especially people, but especially fish.

但它們畢竟是造物者和羽蛇所設計出來的 說真的，有點不公平...

We'll spend a little more time in the cosmic ocean in our next episode,

羽蛇：「你們這些鳥群、鹿群就留在你的的位置上。

when we look at eggs, seeds, and Earth-divers.

在叢林裡、峽谷中，在樹木與灌叢間覓食、藏身...

But this creation story is elaborate.

你們會被吃掉，獵食與被獵食， 你們要維持低姿態，並服務眾神

Since creation 1.0 doesn't go so well, the maker and the feathered serpent get back to work,

因為你們無法說話並詠讚你們的神。 」

and they have to get all the way to creation 4.0 before they resolve all of the major glitches.

謝謝〈思想泡泡〉

And even then they're probably still some software updates like ancient, ancient software

這則神話有許多有意思之處。

like service packs but for existence.

首先，這則神話就像《創世紀》中

Before we leave the realm of ex nihilo creation, I want to give one more example: the Big Bang.

亞當為各種動物取名，建立人類 比其餘無法說話的動物更優越的地位

And a lot of you are now staring at your screens in confusion and horror,

提供唯一解釋人類作為「萬物之靈」的理由

and saying that this isn't a myth at all.

因為人類會說話，所以能夠編造、流傳 屬於我們自己的創世故事

But remember, we're talking about significant stories, with staying power which the Big Bang certainly is.

不信就問阿南西 非洲的蜘蛛故事神

So, let's try it out.

圖特，不能吃他 這裡不是澳洲

Hank and Phil Plait have gone over this in detail, over at Crash Course Astronomy,

雖然這則神話沒有渾沌或無

and we've talked about it on Big History.

但是他表明了在創世之前 除了神與道（聖言）...

Here, we're going to use the version related by Brian Swimme in his book The Universe is a Green Dragon

什麼都沒有的概念

"Imagine that furnace out of which everything came forth. This was a fire that filled the Universe–

而且就像我們前面所討論的神話一樣

that was the Universe. There was no place in the Universe free from it.

也有一個無垠的海洋： 未知事物的具體代表

Every point of the cosmos was a point of this explosion of light.

但海洋又同時是生命的起源

And all the particles of the Universe churned in extremes of heat and pressure,

因為我們所能見到的東西 沒有水都活不下去

all that we see about us all that now exists was there at the beginning in that great burning explosion of light."

尤其是人 更尤其是...魚

Hey, that sounds a lot like some of the most ancient myths doesn't it?

下一集再來講世界海

"Like all ex nihilo creation stories the Big Bang start in a time before time

尤其我們會討論到蛋蛋、種子、 以及大地發掘者的神話。

and gives us an origin event, one that seems to conjure light from darkness, heat from cold."

這則神話還能夠更深入探討...

And OK, unlike earlier myths it doesn't supply a god, or water,

因為「創世1.0」的銷售不佳

but you can still appreciate the structural similarities.

造物者和羽蛇必須砍掉重練

And what's so great about fish anyway? Oh! Sorry Thoth.

一直到「創世4.0」才將所有的重要 bug 除掉

So, yes. Ex nihilo creation myths are unsettling.

而且恐怕還有一些「軟體更新」

They ask us to imagine void. Absence. Chaos.

很古老的...軟體更新 創世的...「資料片」

But then we see how each tradition brings some order to that.

在結束「無中生有」創世神話這個題目前

Order and light. And sometimes mud.

我還要再舉一個例子

Thanks for watching. See you next week!

大爆炸理論

Crash Course Mythology is filmed in the Chad and Stacey Emigholz Studio in Indianapolis, Indiana

很多人現在可能準備翻桌 心裡在OS說：「這不算神話！」

and is produced with the help of all of these nice people. Our animation team is Thought Café,

但記得嗎？我們現在在說的是 有重大意義、有流傳性的故事

and Crash Course exists thanks to the generous support of our patrons at Patreon

而「大爆炸理論」確實算是這樣的故事

Patreon is a voluntary subscription service where you can support the content that you love

我們來試試看。杭克和菲爾‧普雷特已經在 〈天文學速成班〉詳細探討過這個題目...

though a monthly donation, to help keep Crash Course free for everyone forever.

我們在〈大歷史〉系列中也講過了

Thanks for watching, and if you can help it, try not to eat any spiders. Especially Anansi.

這裡我要引用布萊恩‧史溫的描述版本 在他的書《宇宙是條青龍》裡是這麼寫的：