clay in creation myth

WP Anderson (andersop@SAIL.CUUG.AB.CA)
Sun, 30 Jan 1994 10:50:21 MST

Dear fellow subscribers,

*Background*

As part of my ongoing research for a novel that has in
part been funded by the Alberta Foundation for the
Arts, and I hope (soon!) by the Canada Council, I
recently benefited from the extraordinarily generous
help of interest group members. You may remember the
query: vomiting creation.


*Present Subject* - clay in creation

that is:

[ CLAY ] in { creation myths }

Certainly, there is Humankind's having been fashioned
from moistened dust in the Bible. Graves very briefly
mentions a Talmudic antecedent in the archangel
Michael, at the behest of Jehovah, forming Adam from
dust.

Wasn't it Prometheus who sculpted creatures in human
form, not yet however animate, from clay and water?

Not confining this to the creation of humanity, there
is an account, which I'm still trying to track down ...

... the primordial ocean's floor, consisting of
*enchanted clay*, is raised to form the land
masses. Out of this clay are made all the things
of the earth ...

Enchanted clay ...

Speculation warmly welcomed. Anecdotes, dreams, and of course
any references, however incomplete ...



WP Anderson clay@sail.cuug.ab.ca
OR, secondarily:
andersop@cuug.ab.ca

--
andersop@sail.cuug.ab.ca (WP Anderson)
writer / student / teacher (on a good day): Calgary, Canada.