Tuesday, September 17, 2013

The Creation Myth of the Ancient Philippines


In the very beginning there was just the water and the sky. Everything was pitch black, there was no sun, no moon, and no stars. There were two gods that ruled the water and the sky. Maguayan was the god of water and Captan was the god of the sky.

Captan had a son, Lihangin, who was in control of the winds; ad Maguayan had a daughter, Lidagat, who ruled the sea. Both Captan and Maguayan agreed that they should marry, and they did. Lihangin and Lidagat had three sons and one daughter.

Licalibutan, the oldest son, was always brave and mad. Libulan was the middle son; he was made of gold and was always happy. The youngest son, Liadlao, was made of copper and was weak. Lisuga was the daughter, she was very beautiful, made of silver, and was very gentle.

After a while, Lihangin and Lidagat died, and the power of the winds was left to the oldest son, Licalibutan. Their grandfathers, Captan and Maguayan were left to take care of them.

After a while Licalibutan grew envious of Captan for his power over the sky, as he was growing bored with just having the winds. He convinced his brothers to come with him on his attack, as Libulan didn’t want to upset him and Liadlao was too scared to disagree.

They rushed up to the sky and were met with the huge gate that guards Captan’s kingdom, and none of them could push or pull it open no matter how hard they tried. Eventually Licalibutan let out the most powerful wind he or his father, Lihangin, had ever created, which broke down the gate to Captan’s kingdom.
 
They went in and Captan was so enraged at the intrusion he immediately sent out three bolts of lightning at them.  Libulan was the first to get struck, his gold body melted down into a ball. The same happened to Liadlao. Licalibutan was struck last and his body, being made of stone, didn’t melt, but was shattered into many different pieces. The remains of his body fell down to the sea, and became the land.

Lisuga was all alone, and after a while missed her brothers and went to go searching for them. She went to the sky and saw the busted gate and decided to go inside to see if they were there. Captan was still infatuated with his anger he didn’t stop to see who was coming, he just shot another bolt of lightning at the approaching figure.

Upon being struck, the beautiful Lisuga was shattered into a thousand pieces, which spread out across the sky. Captan was still in such a rage that he went down to the sea looking for Maguayan, as he thought he was the one behind the attack.

Maguayan was able to calm down Captan after a while, and they both realized that it was Licalibutan who had planned the assault.

In order to remember their grandchildren in a proper way, they gave each one a bright light that would shine forever. Libulan, made of gold, became the sun. Liadlao, made of copper, became the moon, and Lisuga, made of all those thousands of shards of silver, became all the stars in the sky.


Licalibutan was the only one who didn’t receive the gift of light. Instead, they made his body support the race of human beings, and that is how human came into the world with the sun, moon and stars. 

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