world egg

English

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /wɜːld ˌɛɡ/

Noun

world egg (plural world eggs)

1. (mythology) A mythological motif, found in the creation myths of many cultures and civilizations, of an egg from which the universe or some primordial being is "hatched".
   • 2009, David A. Leeming, Kathryn Madden, Stanton Marlan, Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion: L-Z, page 183:
   • 1868, Johann Peter Lange, Genesis, Or, the First Book of Moses, page 181:

     With this shaping of chaos into a world-egg, or earth-sphere, arises then, according to the representation of these cosmogonies, the first being, the 'first-born,' or the first man.
     In Africa a Dogon myth says that in the beginning, a world egg divided into two birth sacs, containing sets of twins fathered by the creator god, Amma, on the maternal egg.

   • 2010, David Adams Leeming, Creation Myths of the World: Parts I-II, page 313:

     The Mande people say that in the beginning the creator placed various kinds of seed in the world egg.

Synonyms

• cosmic egg

Translations

mythological motif

• Finnish: alkumuna
• Japanese: 梵卵 (ぼんらん, bonran)