10 Examples of Foundational Myths

Foundational myths

The founding myths are those myths that narrate the origin of cities, societies, rites and customs. For instance: The myth that narrates the rise of Egypt.

The myths are narratives of oral transmission that include supernatural events and that are taken as true by certain civilizations or religions, because they arose to respond to different questions.

Depending on what phenomenon they explain, myths can be cosmogonic (they narrate the creation of the world), anthropogonic (they narrate the origin of human beings), theogonic (they narrate the origin of the gods), etiological (they narrate the origin of other beings and phenomena), foundational (they narrate the foundation of places) or eschatological (they describe what the end of the world will be like).

The founding myths explain the origin and existence of cities, towns, traditions and rituals, it is that is, they are narratives that give meaning to the identity and to certain practices of different civilizations.

In addition, in many cases, these myths served to maintain that a civilization had divine origin, because the founder of a city or the initiator of a ritual was a god or a human being linked to a God.

Characteristics of the founding myths

Examples of founding myths

1. The origin of Rome (Roman myth)

According to this myth, Romulus was the one who founded the city of Rome. The story begins a little before the founding of the city, Numitor was the king of Alba Longa, but was dethroned by his brother, Amulio. Rea Silvia, daughter of Numitor and descendant of Aeneas (a Trojan hero), had two sons, Romulus and Remus, with Mars, the god of war.

Since Rea Silvia was afraid that her uncle would kill the twins, she placed them in a basket and then in a river to save them. A wolf found them and raised them as if they were her children. Later they were found by two peasants who took care of them. One day, the twins found out what his story was and went to Alba Longa to kill Amulio and to return the throne to Numitor.

His grandfather was very grateful for the feat of the two twins and gave them land in Lazio. The twins wanted to found a city where the she-wolf had found them, but Romulus wanted to build the city on the Palatine Hill and Remus on the Aventine. To resolve this dispute, they decided that the decision would be made by the one who saw the most birds; Romulus saw more, so he was the one who won the challenge and therefore would also be the king.

Following an old ritual, Romulus marked the city limits and said that he would kill everyone who crossed them. Remus disobeyed him, crossed the line and Romulus killed him, because those lines were sacred. Romulus buried his brother and named the city Rome in homage to his brother.

This myth explains the origin of Rome and, in addition, connects the Roman origin with the Trojan people, since the two twins would have been descendants of Aeneas, and with the gods, since the twins were the children of Mars.

1. The origin of Athens (Greek myth)

The name of the city is due to the name of the goddess Athena. According to this myth, the origin of this city began with a dispute between Poseidon, the god of the seas, and Athena, goddess of war, civilization, justice and science, since both gods wanted to be the guardians of the town.

To resolve the dispute, each god gave the villagers a gift; Poseidon gave them a spring, and Athena created an olive tree. Cecrops, the king of the settlers, decided that Athena's gift was the best and, thus, she became the protector of the city and the city took her name to honor her.

But Poseidon was very angry, so to calm him down, Cecrops established that Athenian women would not have the same rights as men.

1. The origin of Thebes (Greek myth)

According to this myth, Cadmus, the son of the king of Phenicia, received an oracle that said that he had to found a city in the place where a cow fell. The animal fell in the place that later was Thebes and Cadmus founded the city.

After Cadmus killed a dragon and Athena, the goddess, told him that he had to bury his teeth in the lands of the newly founded city. From these teeth came the first inhabitants of the city, who helped to build and protect it.

This myth explains the divine origin of the city, because through the oracle the gods explained to Cadmus where he should build a city. In addition, the first settlers also had a divine origin.

1. Founding of Tenochtitlan (Aztec myth)

According to this myth, there was a people, the Nahuas, who came from Aztlán. Huitzilopochtli, the king of the gods, ordered the Nahuas to leave that city and that from that moment they would no longer be Aztecs, but Mexica. In addition, he ordered them to found a kingdom in a place where there was an eagle eating a snake on a cactus.

The Mexica walked and walked to find the place, passing through other towns, until finally they found the site indicated by the god and founded the city.

Although myths do not usually occur in historical time, according to archaeological sources, the founding of Tenochtitlan occurred in 1325.

1. Cusco Foundation - Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo (Inca myth)

According to this myth, Inti, the Sun god, sent two of his sons, Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo, to earth to found a city. The gods arrived at Lake Titicaca with a gold stick, which would help them determine where they had to found the city, since the stick would only be buried in the designated place.

The two brothers walked through many places, where they tried to bury the golden stick, but at first they had no luck. Everything changed when they reached a valley in Cusco, where they were able to bury the stick.

Later, Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo went to find people to live in the city and to pass on all the knowledge they had, since they taught them how to build houses and cultivate.

All the settlers that Manco Capac brought were first-order citizens, because he was the first-born god, and all the settlers that Mama Ocllo brought were second-order citizens.

1. Foundation of Cusco - The Ayar brothers (Inca myth)

According to this myth, after a great flood on earth, four brothers appeared in a cave with their wives: Ayar Manco and Mama Ocllo, Ayar Cachi and Mama Cora, Ayar Uchu and Mama Rahua and Ayar Auca and Mama Huaco. They were in search of fertile land.

Ayar Cachi had a golden sling and with it he turned a mountain into a ravine. His brothers mistrusted him, because he was very strong and they locked him in the cave.

The three brothers and their wives continued searching for fertile lands and one day they passed through a town where there were a stone statue, they did not give it much importance, but when Ayar Auca passed near it, he became stone.

The two remaining brothers and his wives continued their search, but Ayar Uchu grew wings and he became the messenger of the gods, who were in heaven, and men.

Finally, only Ayar Manco remained, to whom Ayar Uchu told that the gods had told him that he had to change his name to Manco Capac.

Manco Capac continued on his way with his wife and the wives of his brothers, until they reached the valley of Cusco. He realized that this was the place where he had to found the city, because it was the only place where he could bury the golden staff (which he had kept for years).

1. Founding of Nicea (Greek myth)

Nicaea was a nymph of the springs and she was the daughter of Sangario, a river-god, and Cybele, goddess of the earth, animals and nature. This goddess liked to hunt and hated her love, so when a shepherd fell in love with her, he killed him.

Eros, the god of love, became angry with the nymph and as punishment for her made Dionysus fall in love with her. She always ran away from him, but Dionisio was very insistent. Finally the nymph acceded to Dionysus's pleas and they had two children.

In honor of his beloved, Dionysus founded a city, named after the nymph.

1. The Eucharist (Christian myth)

In this case, the myth gave rise to a ritual that takes place at mass, a Catholic ceremony. The Eucharist is the ritual in which people ingest a host dipped in wine, since the host represents the body of Jesus and the wine represents his blood.

With this act a myth is commemorated, that of the Last Supper, in which Jesus shared bread and wine with his twelve apostles. In addition, in the Gospel of John reference is made to Jesus' request for his followers to perform this ritual, since in that text it is explained that Jesus would have indicated that everyone who ate that bread and drank that wine would be resurrected in the heaven.

1. Origin of the ball game (Mayan myth)

This game was not considered as a sporting activity by the Mayans, but as a ritual in which war, fertility, life, death and the passage to the Underworld were represented.

According to the myth, two gods who were brothers, Xbalanqué and Hunahpú, wanted to avenge the death of their father, who had been killed by the inhabitants of the Underworld.

The lords of the Underworld challenged the brothers to play a ball game, the brothers agreed and set out on the road to the Underworld. But at one point some bats attacked the brothers, took out Hunahpú's head and took it to the lords of the Underworld. Xbalanqué put a pumpkin on his brother's body to replace his head until he could get the real one back.

Xbalanqué and Hunahpú arrived in the Underworld and began to play against the lords of the Underworld using Hunahpú's head as a ball. But, without the others noticing, Xbalanqué took his brother's head, replaced it with the pumpkin, and Hunahpú recovered his head. The game continued, the pumpkin broke, and the twins were able to win the game.

The lords were very angry, they attacked the brothers, but the brothers were able to defeat the inhabitants of the Underworld. After achieving this victory, Xbalanqué and Hunahpú ascended to heaven and transformed into the sun and the moon.

1. Origin of baptism (Christian myth)

Baptism is a Christian ritual that involves dipping or sprinkling a person with holy water. The purpose of this rite is to purify and convert the person who is baptized to Christianity.

Although baptism is a ritual of many religions, in the Christian religion, according to how it is counted in the New Testament, this ritual originated with the myth of the baptism of Jesus, performed by John the Baptist. After this fact, Jesus indicated to his disciples that they should be baptized to purify themselves. Other baptisms are also narrated in the New Testament, such as that of Cornelius the Centurion, who was a Roman centurion and who wanted to be baptized to adopt the Christian faith.

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