3 - The Mythic Universe

Summary

The changeover from the magic universe to the mythic universe never reached completion in Australasia and other isolated lands secure from assault. The populations in these lands survived until recent times snug in their halfway magicomythic worlds. Elsewhere, the globe was in uproar with the rise of the mythic universe.

Climate changes and cultural conflicts stirred the swirl of tribal movements. Food hunters and food gatherers turned to herding and farming, and farming communities emerged between ten and twenty thousand years ago in the Middle East, India, China, Africa, Europe, and later in Mesoamerica. Tribes multiplied, merged and became nations. Powerful ruling families attained royal status, and professional priests interpreted the will of the gods. The arts burgeoned into professions and the crafts into industries. Irrigation systems connected rivers to farmlands, and large works such as Stonehenge in Britain and the pyramids in Egypt marked the rise of engineering. Trade flourished over great distances, as between the cities of Sumer and Akkadia in Mesopotamia and the far cities of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa in India.

The mythic universe was well under way more than six thousand years ago with the rise of the great gods in the delta civilizations of the Nile, Euphrates–Tigris, and Indus. “Thou art the Sole One who made all that is, the One and Only who made what existeth,” chanted the Egyptian priests of the New Kingdom in adoration of Amun the god of Thebes.