A Lost Creation Myth: The Horse, The Dog, and Man

How do we trace a ancient myth that has been lost from its homeland? This video shows how we can look at folklore to obtain pieces of myth, to recreate a story that disappeared for thousands of years. This is an creation myth of the Indo-Europeans, where man was made from mud.

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🧡 Please respect other's cultures and beliefs. Racism, discrimination or threatening speech will not be tolerated.

📚 References
Devyatkina, Tatyana 2004. Mordvinian Mythology. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC Publishing.
Diffloth, Gérard 2005. The Contribution of Linguistic Palaeontology to the Homeland of Austro-Asiatic. The Peopling of East Asia. London & New York: Routledge Curzon, pp. 79–82.
Hermanns, Matthias P. 1954. The Indo-Tibetans. Bombay: Fernandes.
Howey, M. Oldfield 1923. The Horse in Magic and Myth. London & Aylesbury: William Ridey & Sons.
Kapp, Dieter B. 1986. A parallel motif in Lepcha and Barela-Bhilala mythology. Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2, pp. 259–285.
Kerbelyte, Bronislava 2001. The Types of Folk Legends. Saint Petersburg: Evropeiskiy Dom.
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Kriukova, Viktoria Yu. 2005. Zoroastrism. [The Zoroastrinism.] Saint Petersburg: Azbuka-Klassika, Peterburgskoe Vostokovedenie.
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[Crecganford]

Do you like these type of videos, if so I'll reconstruct more older myths that have been lost to their original regions...

[PatrickORourke]

I feel like your channel is so very important in keeping our human stories alive.

[lushbIood]

It seems like a common thread is the dog is a good boy no matter the situation.

[markconner]

I just want to thank you. i’m going into my senior year of college studying anthro and last summer i found your channel. Once you opened up the world of proto indo european and mythologies to me i was fascinated. Now i’ve read many books and articles and am pursing this as my anthropological focus in the career that i hope to develop. Thanks man!

[TheAdeybob]

reconstructed myths could really help give us insights into prehistoric societal structures...especially if included (as standard) as part of the greater paleontological toolbox.

[gaufrid]

My Filipina wife is Higaonon. The Higaonon tribe is one of the seven Lumad (Native) tribes in Bukidnon province of Northern Mindanao Philippines. The Bukidnon creation myth says that the Creator, Diwata Magbabaya, made seven figures from clay. The clay was from the second Diwata involved in the creation. As well, this Diwata had ten heads that always drooled saliva, which was used to work the clay. There was a third Diwata as well, who had wings and acted as an adjudicator when the other two disagreed. The story goes that Magbabaya asked the other Diwata not to touch the seven figures, while he went away for a while. Of course, the second Diwata couldn't resist, and brought the other figures to life, but Magbabaya returned before the last figure was brought to life. The last figure was given life by Magbabaya himself, which was of course man. The others became animals and plants. I have a feeling that the story may have Hindu influences, as the trio involved in creation are very much like the Hindu trinity of Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu. For a long time there was a strong Rajanate of Butuan, just to the northeast of Bukidnon. No horses or dogs in that story, but there is saliva.

[DogMechanic]

I'm a simple fella, I see mythology involving dog, I like.

[kariannecrysler]

I love how you take us step by step through the reconstruction process. You have me wondering about the Wild Hunt & potential connections now💗

[MatthewCaunsfield]

I've never heard these stories about aggressive winged (possibly two legged) horses!
Great stuff 👍

[AbhishekBilkanAind]

Your videos are not only infromative and well researched, the presentation itself is lecture class worthy. Thank you sir.


I am always amazed at the common threads of old myths throughout vast distances of time and space. Your Pleaides video was the one that made me aware of timelines of myth and now with this, you have given me a goldmine.

You see, I am an independent researcher documenting our oral traditions and linguistics dispersion which have not yet been documeted since the time of German Missionaries (Father Hoffman) because most researcher are only interested in linguistics and seems adamant to prove Eastern migration. The field is highly controversial here owing to political atmosphere.

I am from the core Munda branch of the Northern family. You might be correct in deducing the timeline of the language split because our own oral timer myths records these split, though most are not well documented. By timer myth, I mean literally. We remember in our stories, the split of long distant Korkus and Cheros as lost ones on the Gangetic plain (aptly named Huang - Separated banks), the Äsur Mundas near present day Benaras and the separation of Northern branch into sub branches-Munda, Santal and Ho at Rajmahal Hills, before entering the Chotanagpur plateau. The Southern branches are most interesting because they are "those who left" because they refused a new code of social organization with the advent of farming.

You were pondering on the pathway of transmission so I might add here a little tidbit as well. Although, this will be highly controversial because present day scholars have different model of Munda Ethnogenesis (by largely neglecting our own myths).

The setting of the Genesis scene, even this story of flying horse, dogs and man of mud, is West of our present day occupancy. This is controversial for both Aryan theorists and Munda scholars, because Munda languages are considered as a remnant from east. Here's the rub, the commonality with other Austroasiatic languages are mostly lexical (that too mostly number and agriculture), the underlying grammatical substrate (including hunter gatherer terminology) is still an unknown and I suspect that it is a remnant of maternal ancestry. I have not yet seen any study regarding the matrilineal genetics (mtDNA). Most studies only pertain to paternal Y-DNA distributions. And we have oral traditions for that too.


The point is, the genesis of man is not a single myth. There are three distinct stages before the closing of primordial time. The horse, dog and mud man is the second half of first stage). In fact, there are two versions - 1. Intact 2. Aryan influenced.

Intact one has Supreme Deity Singbonga creating man as mud figurines and letting them age near the divine lake inside the primordial garden. The haughty king of flying horses arrive and trashes those figurines. This happens almost 6 times. The seventh time, Singbonga creates two predecessors to modern dogs (they are explicitly called Hyenas) "Cãúra" [Biter] and Bãúra [Howler] to guard. They snatch the king horse and Singbonga punishes his kind as follows - " Your wings will be cut off and you shall be bridled. Your hoofs will be laden with Iron so you may never fly again. Man will place saddle upon your back and you will submit to him as a beast of burden". Thus, new beings Sàdóm (Horse) came into existence. The primordial dogs were rewarded with being "good guards with vigilence, so your kind will watch the man and he will provide you with food".

Aryan influenced version introduce 12 Deo (Indo-European Devas) and 13 Asur (Indo-European Asuras) as the instigator of destruction of mud figurines. This is quite clear because linguistically, Äsúr or aspirated Hàsúr (Sesquisyllabic À'súr) is "West". But most researchers conflate the two as one and the same.

I had suspected that the oral tradition was one of the oldest remnant of pre traditions. Thank you for more information.


The 1st stage is the raising of earth mound in the primeval sea by a diving earthworm. A divine lake is bound and a divine garden is planted. Then the story of flying horse occurs. Then, there is introduction of death (via diseases and suffering). The world ends in a rain of fire. Two kids survive by the effort of the primeval spirit of marshlands (Nägé) who hide them in two Golden eggs. The eggs are left on a primeval field of reeds between the nests of ancient Herons by a couple of Golden Herons. The kids emerge from their golden eggs and are nursed by natural herons (thus, many clans call themselves as "children of birds" and largest totems are bird related). These kids are primordial ancestors of our mankind. Mankind proliferate. Third stage and closing of primordial time approaches; the group of Westerners, Hàsúrs are punished for ruining creation by their "Iron smelting". They die and become the spirits presiding over natural creations so that nature's office may function properly. Singbonga disappears from the eyes of Man and primordial time is closed. Man now can only propitiate and offer oblation.

[yat]

I feel like it could be recording that the domestication of dogs enabled the domestication of horses in some way. At this point, humans began breeding animals for probably the first time, and realized that most things didn't have bellybuttons despite having an umbilical cord when they are born.

[julianharris]

The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse. It’s definitely a kind of iteration of this tale. This was an Apple TV animated movie that touched my heart. I was excited to see that it potentially was birthed from this original tale. Thank you!

[igorscot]

A good video, which I found very interesting. The bull being good and the horse being evil is very interesting, especially with the first creation myth about Manu, his Twin Yemo, and their great cow.

[JaneB]

Very interesting. Thank you! Random thoughts... Free running horse is domesticated, losing its wings. Horse becomes a high tech weapon, an evil for those without. The furless dog is domesticated, given a warm place by the fire, like having fur. Dog becomes a defensive weapon against invading horse cultures. Makes sense that the steppe is in the middle of it all.

The stories document culture clashes. Cows and horses have different digestive systems. Different vegetation, different climate and then changes can favor one. A culture may have many more of one than the other.

The sound ma is the Chinese word for horse and also mother. The character for horse is a component of the character for mother. It's fascinating, how much is interrelated.

[alinaanto]

I love comparative mythology! Great video - as are all on this channel!

[parmandil]

36:00
Paleolithic hunters: "Meat derives by other meat. Eating the meat of animal we sustain our own bodies. So the first man was made with Yemo's flesh".
Neolithic farmers: "Meat derives by earth. Growing grain and vegetables we sustain our own bodies. So the first man was made with clay".
Brilliant! I've never look to creation myths in this way, by it made sense.

[georgeoldsterd]

Now we need a video on the relation between dogs and afterlife.

[kittykat]

Please stay safe and well to you also. ❤ your stories are a gift.

[musewinter]

I bloody love this. Falling asleep to you with my cat

[zanbudd]

Not sure where I’ve been, but it’s lovely to be back and having tea while listening to you 🪷