Water in Mythology Michael Witzel Abstract: Water in its various forms–as salty ocean water, as sweet river water, or as rain–has played a major role in human myths, from the hypothetical, reconstructed stories of our ancestral “African Eve” to those recorded some ½ve thousand years ago by the early civilizations to the myriad myths told by major and smaller religions today. With the advent of agriculture, the importance of access to water was incorporated into the preexisting myths of hunter-gatherers. This is evident in myths of the ancient riverine civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China, as well as those of desert civilizations of the Pueblo or Arab populations. Our body, like the surface of the earth, is more than 60 percent water. Ancient myths have always rec- ognized the importance of water to our origins and livelihood, frequently claiming that the world began from a watery expanse. Water in its various forms–as salty ocean water, as sweet river water, or as rain–has played a major role in human tales since our earliest myths were re - corded in Egypt and Mesopotamia some ½ve thou- sand years ago. Thus, in this essay we will look to - ward both ancient and recent myths that deal with these forms of water, and we will also consider what influence the ready availability (or not) of water had on the formation of our great and minor early civi- lizations. Many of our oldest collections of myths introduce the world as nothing but a vast salty ocean. The old - MICHAEL WITZEL, a Fellow of the est Indian text, the poetic Ṛgveda (circa 1200 BCE), American Academy since 2003, is asserts: “In the beginning, darkness was hidden by the Wales Professor of Sanskrit at darkness; all this [world] was an unrecognizable Harvard University. His many pub - salty ocean [salila].”1 This phrase is frequently re - lications include The Origins of the peated by later Vedic texts with the mythic formula: World’s Mythologies (2012), Linguistic Evi dence for Cultural Exchange in Pre- “In the beginning there was just the salty ocean.” historic Western Central Asia (2003), Mesopotamian mythology, in its Babylonian form, and On Magical Thought in the Veda differs somewhat: there was both salty wa ter and (1979). sweet water, which mingled to produce the gods. © 2015 by Michael Witzel doi:10.1162/DAED_a_00338 18 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00338 by guest on 27 September 2021 “When on high heaven had not been of a primordial ocean (or void) is followed Michael named . Nought but primordial Apsu [the by stages that lead to the emergence of Witzel watery abyss], their begetter, and Mummu- the inhabitable world and ½nally the ½rst Tiamat, she who bore them all, their wa - humans. ters, commingling as a single body . then The myths of sub-Saharan Africa (and it was that the gods were formed within Australia) are structured differently from them.”2 those mentioned in that they stress fore- Ancient Maya mythology, as recorded most the origins of humans, not of the in the sixteenth-century Popol Vuh, reflects world.9 Even then, rather exceptionally, the same concept: “Only the sky alone is the Boshongo in the Luanda area of Angola there . Only the sea alone is pooled un - let the world begin with water and a preex - der all the sky. Whatever there is that isting deity: “In the beginning, in the dark, might be is simply not there: only the there was nothing but water. And Bumba pooled water only the calm sea, only it was alone . he vomited the sun.”10 alone is pooled.”3 Or, according to the ½rst chapter of the Clearly, distinct from such concepts as Hebrew Bible: “In the beginning the gods4 pri mordial chaos (Greece) or darkness created heaven and earth . and the spirit (Poly nesia), the concept of water pervades [ruah] of the gods5 hovered over water.” many ancient and recent creation mythol - The Christian King James Bible revised this ogies. Questioning the universality of why to read: “In the beginning God created leads to psychology and, perhaps, to Jung - the heaven and the earth. And the spir- ian archetypes, though we cannot here it of God moved upon the face of the wa - ex plore the psychic origins of myths, ters.” whether due to universal characteristics In ancient Egypt, in the book of over- of the mind or other human factors. Eth- throwing the dragon of the deep, Apophis,6 nologist Leo Frobenius and anthropologist the “Lord of All,” explains, “I am he who Hermann Baumann pointed toward other came into being as Khepri . I was . in the explanations: namely, the spread of many Watery Abyss. I found no place to stand.” myths by diffusion from an ancient cen- Here and in the Biblical case, one or more ter. More likely still is the development of deities predate the actual act of creation, our original myths (of the “African Eve”) a characteristic shared with other creation in East Africa, which then spread along the mythologies, such as with the Winnebago shores of the Indian Ocean to Australia of Wisconsin: “Our father . began to and South China some sixty-½ve thousand think what he should do and ½nally began years ago, before ½nal ly expanding into the to cry and tears began to flow and fall down rest of Eurasia and the Americas.11 Con- below him . his tears . formed the pres- sequently, all humans have a few myths in ent waters.”7 common (though that is denied for “the- Other Native American peoples agree, oretical reasons” by scholars such as the though not on all details. The Maidu of folklorist Alan Dundes). For example, the Cal ifornia, employing a motif that also flood myth is universal: it is found all over appears in Siberian mythology, state: “In Africa, Australia, Eurasia, and the Ameri - the beginning . all was dark, and every- cas. Further, both the southern and north - where there was only water. A raft came ern versions of the myths share the com- floating . in it were two persons.”8 In all mon theme of shamanism, which is part these examples, which primarily originate and parcel of many smaller local and major from north of the equator, the initial stage religions to this day. 144 (3) Summer 2015 19 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00338 by guest on 27 September 2021 Water in As the Mesopotamian example indi- Dan ube (Danubius; now feminine as Donau Mythology cates, there is an important distinction be - or Dunarea), Tiber/Tevere (Tiberis), Po tween sweet water and salty water.12 Sweet (Padus), as well as the Ebro, Tejo/Tajo, and water is obviously more important for Brahmaputra (India). Closer to home, we the sustenance of humans; thus, from the have the Ol’ Man River, the Mississippi, Ṛgveda onward, the ancient Indian texts the Rio Grande, and the Colorado. praise the flowing sweet waters but not stag nant ponds (“tanks”).13 Indian texts The mythical cleansing power of rivers re gard rivers as goddesses, and the term is perhaps best demonstrated by the “inviolate ladies” refers to their bene½cial bathing festival Kumbh Melā, in which waters (which are believed to carry milk millions of Hindu pilgrims assemble every for women and semen for men). In Indian twelve years at the confluence of the mythology, the cakravāka bird actually dis - Ganges and Jumna rivers with the myth - tinguishes between their water and milk. ical, underground Sarasvatī at Allahabad Rivers are also invoked as sources of (Prayāga).15 The purifying bath delivers heal ing. Closely related is the ancient In - people from their karma and allows them dian and Iranian (Zoroastrian) idea of the to go to heaven after death. This belief has river goddess Sarasvatī, “she who has many a long prehistory: taking a bath at certain ponds.” Sarasvatī is the modern Helmand confluences is followed by a march up - River in Southern Afghanistan, which has stream toward the “world tree” situated in given its name (Haraxvaitī) to the ancient the lower Himalayas.16 The pilgrims be - province of Arachosia. It swells in spring lieve that at the meeting point of the river after the snow melt, while the Sarsuti, its and the sky, one can climb up to heaven. Indian counterpart northwest of Delhi, As a result of these beliefs, a bath at any swells in the monsoon sea son. Haraxvaitī’s confluence of two rivers (triveṇī) is regard- rushing waters–or fur ther downstream, ed as sacred and salvi½c. its murmuring flows–gave rise to the be - Reality obviously differs considerably. lief that Sarasvatī is the goddess of speech By now the Jumna is virtually a sewer due and poetry. Indeed, almost all Indian riv - to the untreated waters of Delhi and ers are regarded as female, with the major other big towns upstream. The Ganges has exception of the male Indus (Sindhu; Greek not fared much better. Its river dolphins Indos), who has given his name to the sub - are fast disappearing, and the organized continent.14 “clean-up campaigns” have not had much Female river names, usually ending in a, success. Nevertheless, local folklore about are found throughout the regions of the the Ganges’ cleanliness persists: the river Indo-European language family, from “cleans itself” in spite of all its garbage, Iceland to Bengal: the Seine (Sequana), sewage, and half-cremated dead bodies. In Thames (Tamesis), the Central European fact, people not only bathe in the river, they Elbe (Albis), Weser (Visara), Saale (Sala), also collect it to carry home over long dis- Wistla/Weichsel (Vistula), and the Vltava/ tances; some habitually drink it.