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A cosmic ocean or celestial river is a mythological motif found in the mythology of many cultures and civilizations, representing the
A cosmic ocean or celestial river is a mythological motif found in the mythology of many cultures and civilizations, representing the world
In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...
or cosmos
The cosmos (, ) is another name for the Universe. Using the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity.
The cosmos, and understandings of the reasons for its existence and significance, are studied in ...
as enveloped by primordial waters.
In ancient creation texts, the primordial waters are often represented as originally having filled the entire universe, being the first source of the gods
A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers great ...
cosmos with the act of creation corresponding to the establishment of an inhabitable space separate from the enveloping waters.
Fraxkard Fraxkard (Avestan
Avestan (), or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoine ...
( pal, plʾhwklt, Avestan
Avestan (), or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scri ...
: ''Vourukaša''; also called ''Warkaš'' in Middle Persian) is the cosmic ocean in Iranian mythology.
In the first creation story in the Bible the world is also created as a space inside of the water, and is hence surrounded of it, "And God saith, 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.'" ().
See also
*Abzu
The Abzu or Apsu (Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ), also called (Cuneiform:, ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: — ='water' ='deep', recorded in Greek as ), is the name for fresh water from underground aquifers which was given a religious fertilising quality ...
* Ap (water)
* Arche
''Arche'' (; grc, ἀρχή; sometimes also transcribed as ''arkhé'') is a Greek word with primary senses "beginning", "origin" or "source of action" (: from the beginning, οr : the original argument), and later "first principle" or "element". ...
* Chaos (cosmogony)
* Danava (Hinduism)
* Danu (Asura)
* Erlik
* Firmament
In biblical cosmology, the firmament is the vast solid dome created by God during his creation of the world to divide the primal sea into upper and lower portions so that the dry land could appear. The concept was adopted into the subsequent ...
* Heh (god)
* Heryshaf
* Kshira Sagara
In Hindu cosmology, the Ocean of Milk (',', ''Malayalam: Pālāḻi'') is the fifth from the centre of the seven oceans. It surrounds the continent known as Krauncha. According to Hindu scriptures, the devas and asuras worked together for a mil ...
* Nu (mythology)
Nu ("Watery One") or Nun ("The Inert One") ( Ancient Egyptian: ; Coptic: ), is the personification of the primordial watery abyss which existed at the time of creation and from which the creator sun god Ra arose, in ancient Egyptian religio ...
* Oceanus
In Greek mythology, Oceanus (; grc-gre, , Ancient Greek pronunciation: , also Ὠγενός , Ὤγενος , or Ὠγήν ) was a Titans (mythology), Titan son of Uranus (mythology), Uranus and Gaia, the husband of his sister the Titan Tethy ...
* Rasā
* Samudra
* Sea (astronomy)
The Sea or the Water is an area of the sky in which many water-related, and few land-related, constellations occur. This may be because the Sun passed through this part of the sky during the rainy season.
Most of these constellations are named b ...
* Sea of Suf
* Styx
In Greek mythology, Styx (; grc, Στύξ ) is a river that forms the boundary between Earth (Gaia) and the Underworld. The rivers Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Styx all converge at the centre of the underworld on a great marsh, ...
* Tehom
Tehom ( he, תְּהוֹם ''ṯəhôm'') is a Biblical Hebrew word meaning "the deep". It is used to describe the primeval ocean and the post-creation waters of the earth. It derives from a Semitic root which denoted the sea as an unpersonified e ...
* Unhcegila
Notes
Creation myths Water and religion Chaos (cosmogony) Biblical cosmology {{cosmology-stub