Holy egg
A sacred egg or primordial egg stands in some Asian myths of creation history for the origin of the universe .
In India a detailed, religiously shaped cosmology arose around 1000 BC. In it the sacred egg consisted of two shells: the lower shell made of silver became the primordial earth , the upper one made of gold became the vault of heaven . After these two areas were divided, the air envelope emerged as an intermediate layer .
In the further development the sun becomes the wheel of the world or the eye of the universe and the moon the giver of time and life (see female cycle ).
A similar idea of an original egg arose in Japan from Chinese roots: the myth of Izanagi and Izanami . It describes the original unity of heaven and earth and their separation in the course of the creation of the world. The divine siblings Izanagi and Izanami then descend from the sky and create the mainland from the initial chaos .
Ancient Egyptian hymns call a "Holy Egg of the Almighty" in connection with Horus , son of Re, the protector of all gods. The Sphinx stele of Amenophis describes the Pharaoh as the son of Amun , sacred egg of the members of God and useful seeds.
Other ancient cultures also know myths of a world egg as the egg in which the world was enclosed before it came into being. Some researchers see this as the basis for the custom of the Easter egg .
literature
- Volker Bialas : From heavenly myth to world law. A cultural history of astronomy, chapter India. Iber-Verlag, Vienna 1998
- Documents of Egyptian antiquity of the 18th dynasty , Wolfgang Helck , Berlin 1961
- At Easter, World Egg and Easter Egg , according to Alexander Hislop