The Turtle with the Weight of the World on it’s Back!
If there’s one thing the internet and I can agree on it’s liking turtles! So if I’m given my choice of creation myths I’m 1000%, going with the ones that says we’re roaming around the aether on the back of a giant MF-ing terrapin!
Now for a subject I rarely hear coming up in conversations, this myth is pretty damn well engrained into multiple cultures. In modern pop culture, Terry Pratchett’s got the Great A’Tuin in his Discworld novels. Going back to olden times the Chinese have Ao, who’s fins support the sky the Indians have Kurma (one of the avatars of Vishnu), the Balinese have the Bedawang and the Native Americans have the Great Turtle. All of which had their own traits but shared the same responsibility of slowly and deliberately getting us to where we are going.
Now some of these legends describe them as sea turtles, some, more tortoise-y. Some tales tell as the turtle always was. Some have the beast Atlas-like slowly walk or swim the earth to where it’s going. Some have the earth built slowly upon their shell one muskrat mouthful of mud at a time as it swims in the river of life (That’s your Great Turtle of course). Some have the world share shell space with a serpent or two… or in the Bedawangs case a tangle of serpents… and a stone which underneath is a gateway to the underworld…
So it’s safe to say you have a few directions in which to go… and I suppose it’s kind of important to keep in mind the prevailing scientific beliefs of the time as the “world” back then could have been about three square miles of forest or a single mountain, but if you wanna make a 1/1000 scale styrofoam ball model of Uranus and add on some turtle feet, I’m not complaining! Just have fun with it!
Our Judge this week is Scott Stephens, some of you may remember him as the judge for the Sea Goat where he went way out of his way and wrote a comment for each entry. Needless to say he had a great time and is eager to put on his judging pants again and the results are posted below!
