world egg

English

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA(key): /wɜːld ˌɛɡ/

Noun

world egg (plural world eggs)

  1. (mythology) A mythological motif, found in the creation myths of many cultures and civilizations, of an egg from which the universe or some primordial being is "hatched".
    • 2009, David A. Leeming, ‎Kathryn Madden, ‎Stanton Marlan, Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion: L-Z, page 183:
    • 1868, Johann Peter Lange, Genesis, Or, the First Book of Moses, page 181:
      With this shaping of chaos into a world-egg, or earth-sphere, arises then, according to the representation of these cosmogonies, the first being, the 'first-born,' or the first man.
      In Africa a Dogon myth says that in the beginning, a world egg divided into two birth sacs, containing sets of twins fathered by the creator god, Amma, on the maternal egg.
    • 2010, David Adams Leeming, Creation Myths of the World: Parts I-II, page 313:
      The Mande people say that in the beginning the creator placed various kinds of seed in the world egg.

Synonyms

Translations

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.