New knowledge: Why is learning about mythology important for us today in the 21st century?

Myths are stories that define Reading myths helps us to We can learn a lot about the
us. understand narrative importance of narrative
traditions. through the reading of myths.
Reading myths helps to But why is learning about Reading mythology is
develop our cultural capital. mythology important for us enjoyable.
today in the 21st century?
The tropes and characters Understanding myths helps us Mythology reflects the needs
that exist in myths will to understand the origin of of society to explain things.
become recognisable in storytelling – especially
future texts. orally.
New knowledge: What is the difference between a concrete noun and an abstract noun?
A concrete noun is a noun that can be seen, heard, touched, smelt or tasted. For example, ball,
cat, man.
An abstract noun is a concept, belief, idea or emotion. For example, love, fear, happiness.

Pen to Paper
Identify whether the following nouns, taken from our first ‘myth’, are examples of proper nouns,
common nouns, concrete nouns or abstract nouns. (HINT: they can be more than one)
Proper Common Concrete Abstract
Pangu

disorder

Wind

Earth

Egg

satisfaction

Sky

New knowledge: Pangu and Nuwa (China)

In today’s lesson we are going to read our first myth – Pangu and Nuwa from China.
Pangu and Nuwa from Chinese mythology

1 From the middle of the dark and vast universe swirling with stars and
2 rocks, a giant black egg emerged. It glittered like the cosmos itself,
3 twinkling with constellations but also roiling with disorder. Inside the
4 egg, the conflicting forces of yin and yang mixed and tumbled, swirling
5 together and apart by a raging wind. Yin: dark, lunar, cold and feminine.
6 Yang: light, solar, warm and masculine.

7 In the middle of this black egg, a creature was born: Pangu, a giant
8 covered in hair, with two horns on top of his head and two tusks
9 protruding from his face. He remained curled in the fetal position, with a
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10 magical axe lying at his side. There Pangu lay and grew bigger over
11 18.,000 years, with yin and yang becoming more ordered as time passed.

12 After thousands of years, Pangu awoke inside the egg. It was dark and
13 silent as night. The nascent giant felt enclosed within something but did
14 not know what it was. So he began stretching his arms and legs until
15 something cracked. It was the egg’s shell! Pangu continued pushing the
16 shell apart more and more, expanding outward, and even used his
17 magical axe to help. He swung his blade to and fro, splitting yin and
18 yang apart. The darker half, yin, sank down and became the Earth. The
19 lighter half, yang, became the sky. Pangu was pleased with this, as
20 Earth and sky felt as though they should be two separate things.

21 At this point, the Earth and sky were still very close together. Pangu
22 was worried the two halves would collapse onto each other and seal up
23 again, so he came between them and pushed them apart – his arms
24 sending yang upwards and his feet sending yin downwards. With his
25 efforts, the two halves moved away from each other over time: with
26 each day, the sky rose 10 feet and the Earth lowered 10 feet. And each
27 day, Pangu grew 10 feet longer. For another 18,000 years, Pangu pushed
28 upwards and downwards, growing and expanding the world to what we
29 now know it to be. He was a dedicated soul.

30 When Pangu was absolutely certain that the Earth and sky were far
31 enough apart that they would not fall onto one another, he considered
32 his job done. Pangu had finally settled both yin and yang into their
33 rightful places and secured them. And with the satisfaction of a job well
34 done, Pangu collapsed. As he lay dying, his final breath morphed into
35 the rushing wind and dewy clouds. His voice boomed into thunder and
36 the glint from his eyes became lightning. In his death, Pangu’s left eye
37 rose into the sky and became the sun, while his right eye circled the
38 Earth as its moon. Then Pangu’s body broke into parts – arms, legs,
39 hands, feet and torso – and became mountains and hills. The blood that
40 had once coursed through his veins turned into rivers flowing between
41 those hills. His flesh covered the Earth and became fertile land, budding
42 with trees, grasses and flowers. Pangu’s sweat turned into rainwater
43 and fell upon the fertile land. His bones sank into the ground to become
44 prized jewels and mineral deposits; his teeth soon followed and turned
45 into precious metals underground. Pangu’s hair, horns and tusks
46 whirled into outer space, becoming galaxies.

47 Pangu’s death had given life to the Earth, but for thousands of years, the
48 world was a beautiful but lonely place, as there were no people to enjoy
49 its bounty. That is until the goddess Nuwa roamed the wild and dazzling
50 Earth.

51 Nuwa was formed from the yin and yang that Pangu had once separated.
52 Bits of sky and bits of Earth had combined to form this strong goddess,
53 and she felt right at home in her environment. But just like Pangu had
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54 been, Nuwa was alone in the world and eventually wanted some
55 company.

56 At first, the sun and moon, wind and water were her happy companions,
57 but one day she walked to the muddy banks of the Yellow River and saw
58 her reflection. She realised there was no one in the world who looked
59 like her, or who could talk or think like her. She longed to laugh with
60 friends, to share ideas with companions, to love someone.

61 Out of the mud from the Yellow River’s banks, Nuwa began forming little
62 figures, then animating them with her powers. She patted the first
63 figure until it was fully moulded, and placed it down on the ground. The
64 tiny mud woman did a jig, so happy was she to be alive.

65 “Thank you, goddess Nuwa, for creating me!” the little woman said.
66 Nuwa smiled and felt a happy satisfaction throughout her body. She set
67 to work, making more humans in this way. Little men and women of
68 clay hopped out of her hands and mingled with each other, each one
69 thanking her for the privilege of being alive. With this, Nuwa began
70 populating the Earth.

71 After creating the first hundred, she set to work making more, but her
72 hands were getting very tired. Nuwa realised that it would take an
73 eternity for her to make enough people to fill up the vast Earth. And so
74 she grabbed a branch from a nearby tree, dragged it along the muddy
75 banks and flung drops of mud onto the land. As they hit the ground, they
76 sprang little feet and began running this way and that, turning into
77 thousands more little humans. With a few more flicks of her wrist,
78 Nuwa had populated the entire Earth! However, she saw that as her
79 humans died, there would be the need to make more of them. So clever
80 Nuwa split the humans into female and male. This way they could
81 reproduce themselves, allowing her to enjoy and admire what she had
82 created for all time.

Pangu and Nuwa: Glossary

L1 vast adjective Something that is vast is extremely large

L3 roiling verb Something that is roiling is full of violent movement and is
extremely rough
L5 lunar adjective The word lunar means relating to the moon.
L9 protruding verb If something is protruding, it means it is sticking out.
L13 nascent adjective Nascent things are just beginning and are expected to become
stronger or to grow bigger
L17 to and fro idiom If you go to and fro, you move backwards and forwards.
L34 morphed verb If something morphs into another thing, especially something
very different, the first thing changes into the second.
L35 dewy adjective Something that is dewy is wet with dew – small drops of water.
L40 coursed verb If something is coursing, it is moving quickly.
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L41 fertile adjective Land that is fertile is able to support the growth of a large
number of strong healthy plants.
L44 deposits noun A deposit is an amount of a substance that has been left
somewhere.
L49 bounty Noun A bounty is something that is provided in large amounts.
L68 mingled verb When you mingle, you move around and mix with people.
L73 eternity noun Eternity is a time without any end. It lasts forever.

Pen to paper
What have I understood?

1. What was the first

thing inside the
egg to emerge?

2. What did Pang do

to Yin and Yang?

3. As he lay dying,
what did Pang’s
body become?

4. How was Nuwa

formed?

5. What did Nuwa

long for and what
did she do as a
result?
6. How did she
ensure that the
Earth never ran
out of humans?
7. What type of myth is
this myth? Aetiological?
Historical?
Psychological? Why do
you think what you do?

New knowledge
This term you are going to be tasked with writing your own myth. One of the key aspects of
writing is thinking about how we structure our writing.
1. What does the term ‘structure’ mean?
2. How is this myth ‘structured’?