Comparing Arapaho and Yoruba Creation Myths

Introduction to Creation Myth Types

The Arapaho story of creation is an example of the earth-diver myth, a widespread type of creation narrative in which a being descends into primordial waters to retrieve material from which the earth is formed. In the Arapaho myth, a man is focused on protecting the "Flat Pipe" and seeks to find land on which the Pipe can rest. In order to achieve his goal of creating the Earth, he tries a variety of different approaches: he first calls on the four directions, then summons seven cottonwood trees, with no luck. Later he calls forth creatures of the air and of the sea, and seven total creatures dive for sod at the bottom of the ocean before the Turtle finally accomplishes the quest.

The Arapaho Earth-Diver Creation Story

The Arapaho creation myth centers on the effort to bring solid ground out of a world covered entirely by water. The central figure's devotion to the Flat Pipe drives the narrative forward — the Pipe requires land, and so land must be created. The repeated failure of creature after creature before the Turtle succeeds reflects a pattern common to earth-diver myths worldwide, in which persistence and the right agent are required to accomplish cosmic creation. The large number of animals involved — including the grebe, waterfowl, kingfisher, otter, beaver, garter snake, black snake, ducks, goose, and crane — signals how central the animal world was to Arapaho cosmology and daily life.

The Yoruba Creation Myth and Obatala

The Yoruba creation myth is more complex than the Arapaho story, yet it begins with essentially the same premise: in the beginning, there was only water, with no land. A god of air and water exists, but the earth has yet to be formed. It is Obatala who wishes to create land. He is instructed by the other gods to gather specific possessions — a gold chain, a white hen, a snail's shell filled with sand, a black cat, and a palm nut. He then climbs down from the sky using the chain and pours the sand, which the white hen scatters, and wherever the hen spreads the sand, land is created. The palm nut subsequently creates vegetation on the new land, and the cat serves as Obatala's companion.

Interestingly, Obatala makes wine from the vegetation and, after becoming drunk, creates humans — a detail meant to explain humanity's imperfections. After creating both land and humankind, he returns to the sky to visit the other gods.

Shared Themes: Land Emerging from Water

The two stories share a number of significant commonalities. Most fundamentally, both depict the creation of the Earth out of water. Before land capable of supporting life exists, there is only water and air. Although each story uses slightly different methods to create land, in both cases the earth emerges from the water. In the Arapaho story, land is created from below — animals dive into the ocean to retrieve sod from the bottom. In the Yoruba story, by contrast, Obatala creates land from above, descending from the skies and using a shell of sand as the basis for the earth's surface. Each story thus arrives at the same destination — solid ground — from opposite directions, reflecting different but parallel imaginative frameworks for understanding the world's origins.