Myths were born when we tried to resolve some universal mysteries. Where do we come from? How did the universe come to be and why is the sky above and the ground below our feet? Frankly, some of these questions still have no answers but science has taken us close to the truth or, to put it more accurately, the facts of the case.
Still, the joy of some of old myths persists. A Maori myth,which is common to many civilisations, is one such. It explores the relationship between the sky and earth and their children.
The two, the story goes, were caught in a tight embrace. Darkness found itself trapped between the two. It wanted a way out as did the children of sky and earth who were the gods and human beings. They all pleaded with their parents for some air and some light but, sky and earth were unmoved. Finally the great big god (not sure if it was one or many) decided to stand upside down and push the two apart. The head pushed earth down while the feet shoved sky up and the two were separated and are kept that way till date. The two did not take this too well but had to give in to their children and even today, sky and earth pine for each other. Every monsoon, the sky sheds tears of sorrow for his wife, earth while she weeps all summer.
The separation of the earth and sky is said to be the genesis of the eternal separation motif which has found its way into all our stories -- myths, fairy tales and even contemporary fiction. So what if we now know that this is not how things came to be or that the seasons are explained by a water cycle; the story enthralls, perhaps even more today than when it was first told.
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