Darkness as a Concept, Its Presence in Culture

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the darkness that we find in all myths (from Sumer to China). In many ancient mythological texts, darkness appears as the initial stage of the world, known as chaos. The most ancient characteristics of chaos are the role of the womb in which the world is born, the presence of some kind of energy in it, leading to the further construction of the universe.

However, this source of life and creation has another name, which rather than referring to the original structure, refers to the place where the primeval Chaos was located. This is the Abyss. In most mythologies, the abyss is identified with the world Mother, who, without anyone's intervention, generates the next generation of gods, orders the world (such as the Egyptian Chickpeas, the Greek Nyukta), or turns out to be a victim (Tiamat). The Sumero-Akkadian abyss of Abzu, in its inaccessible depths, holds the mysterious powers of «me», without which gods are not gods, and people are not people.

In other words, Darkness is the absence of light sources in general, it is the cause of life and order, it is the state of the world before any light source. In earlier (or later?) According to the ancient Sumerians, Tiamat was a Moon goddess, whose cult was overthrown by sun worshippers (Marduk, who defeated Tiamat, was the sun god). The connection between darkness and the lunar deity can also be traced in the Greek version of the Apocalypse, where the «number of the beast – 666 – ΧΞϚ» in its ending had the letter «tau», symbolizing the Greek goddess of the Moon Selene (ΣEΛHNH).

Since a person is born in the darkness of the mother's womb, but his being reveals light, darkness has received a negative connotation in various cultures, opposite to light, harmony and order. That's why «wandering in the dark» means not seeing the way, losing meaning, remaining alone, dying, sinking into the abyss, and, in other words, falling out of culture, getting forgotten, ceasing to be human. On the other hand, it is the struggle against Darkness (chaos, abyss) that is the deepest, most powerful motivation of a person, forcing him to create a cultural space in order to remain in the memory of future generations.