astronomy

Separation of heaven and earth

Separation of heaven and earth is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Separation of heaven and earth rather than just read about it. In short: The separation of heaven and earth is a cross-cultural creation myth event. The separation serves the role of differentiating the chaotic, undifferentiated cosmos (sometimes interpreted as a universal cosmic ocean) into coherent and organized parts.

Key takeaways

Separation of heaven and earth belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Separation of heaven and earth to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Separation of heaven and earth from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The separation of heaven and earth is a cross-cultural creation myth event. The separation serves the role of differentiating the chaotic, undifferentiated cosmos (sometimes interpreted as a universal cosmic ocean) into coherent and organized parts. The mechanics and cause differ from one story to another, but is usually either a spontaneous process, or a result of the agency of a deity. In ancient Near Eastern texts, the original mass that is separated is a solid in older Sumerian literature, but becomes a water in younger Akkadian literature (such as the Enuma Elish). Sumerian literature mentions the separation event most frequently than any other.

By region

Ancient Near East

Heaven and earth are described as being in a cosmic and physical, symbolized as a marriage, in the earliest literature from the ancient Near East (like the Sumerian Song of the hoe), and as a common and recurring mythological motif later (like in the Danaids of Aeschylus). In the 2nd millennium BC, some texts shift emphasis from the union, to the separation, between heaven and earth, an idea that begins to be seen not only in Sumerian but also in Akkadian, Phoenician, Egyptian, and Greek mythologies. One source says that the separation happens over the course of "long days and nights" by Anu, the King of Heaven, and Enlil, the King of Earth. According to one cuneiform tablet (KAR 4): "After heaven was made distant and separated from earth, (its) trusty companion". The event is also mentioned in many other Sumerian sources (including Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave, the Debate between silver and copper, Enki and Ninmah, OIP 99 113 ii and 136 iii, etc). One version, in Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld, says that heaven was carried off from the earth by the sky god Anu to become the possession of the wind god Enlil.

Akkadian sources also have this idea, prominently including the Enuma Elish, where Marduk divides the corpse of the slain primordial goddess Tiamat into two, one stretched out to create heaven, the other to create the earth:135 The Lord [Marduk] rested, examining her [Tiamat's] dead body, 136. To divide the abortion (and) to create ingenious things (therewith). 137. He split her open like a mussel (?) into two (parts); 138. Half of her he set in place and formed the sky (therewith) as a roof....The separation event is also found in Hittite texts. In the Song of Kumarbi, it is implicit. It is explicit in the Song of Ullikummi, where the giant Upelluri, a counterpart of Atlas, say: "When heaven and earth were built upon me I knew nothing of it, and when they came and cut heaven and earth asunder with a cleaver I knew nothing of it."

Arabian Peninsula

In the Quran, the canonical scripture of Islam that comes from the Arabian Peninsula, the separation myth is mentioned as a belief that is held in common between itself and in its existing religious environment. Recently found pre-Islamic inscriptions suggest this belief was inherited from older Arabian religions that are more closely related to ancient Near Eastern creation myths. The Quran says:(21:30) Do those who disbelieve not see that the heavens and the earth were (once) a solid mass [ratq], and We split the two of them apart [fa-fataqnā-humā], and We made every living thing from water?In the Quran, ratq (translated as "solid mass") is a hapax legomenon, a word that only appears one time in the text. In subsequent Arabic dictionaries, it means something that is patched up or sewn together, meaning that heaven and earth were once connected to one another. The separation is described using the verb fataqa, meaning "splitting, cleaving, unstitching, unsewing".

China

In Chinese mythology and in Taoism, heaven and earth are separated. In earlier sources, this is a process that happens spontaneously. Later sources, after a primordial being named Pangu (P'an Ku) had been transformed into a great deity and the creator of heaven and earth, relate the separation of the two to Pangu. In earlier sources, Pangu is originally inside of heaven and earth. The three of them grow over the course of 18,000 years, eventually separating. In the Wuyan Linianji, the growth and separation of heaven and earth occurs naturally, and only later does Pangu begin to grow. In later texts, once Pangu had become transformed into the creator of heaven and earth, the growing body of Pangu is the cause of the separation of heaven and earth. Other late sources have heaven and earth being created out of distinct parts of the corpse of Pangu.

One instance of the Pangu myth involving the separation myth is the Record of Cycles in Threes and Fives (3rd century AD):Heaven and Earth were once inextricably commingled like a chicken's egg, within which was engendered Pan-ku. After 18,000 years, this mass split apart, what was bright and light forming Heaven, and what was dark and heavy forming Earth.The Pangu tale is not the only Chinese tradition with the separation myth. It also occurs in a few texts predating the common era, one being the Classic of History.

Egypt

The separation myth is a familiar motif in the religious literature of Egypt, exemplified by its classic formulation, that "Shu separates the sky (Nut) from earth (Geb)" appearing in many texts.

One of the Pyramid Texts (1208c) refers to "when the sky was separated from the earth". In the Coffin Texts:For I [Shu] am weary at the Uplifting of Shu / Since I lifted my daughter Nut atop me / That I might give her to my father Atum in his utmost extent / I have put Geb under my feet.

Greece

Some have seen hints of the myth of the separation of heaven and earth in Hesiod's Theogony. The separation myth is explicitly described by Euripides, a playwright of the 5th century BC, preserved in a fragment from his lost play Melanippe the Wise, reported by DiodorusAnd the tale is not mine but from my mother, how sky and earth were one form; and when they had been separated apart from each other they bring forth all things, and give them up into light; trees, birds, beasts, the creatures nourished by the salt sea, and the race of mortalsThe idea is also found in the Bibliotheca historica (1.7.1) of Diodorus Siculus and in the Argonautica (1.496) of Apollonius of Rhodes. In the latter, Orpheus sings of "how earth and heaven and sea were once joined together in one form, and by deadly strife were separated each from the other".

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Separation of heaven and earth

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Separation of heaven and earth claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Separation of heaven and earth before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Separation of heaven and earth ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Separation of heaven and earth

In research: Separation of heaven and earth appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Separation of heaven and earth in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Separation of heaven and earth is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Ancient Near Eastern cosmology, Comparative mythology, Creation myths, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Separation of heaven and earth outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Separation of heaven and earth” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Separation of heaven and earth in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Separation of heaven and earth means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Separation of heaven and earth out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Separation of heaven and earth in simple terms?

Why does Separation of heaven and earth matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Separation of heaven and earth?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Separation of heaven and earth.