The World on Turtle's Back

Like many myths, “The World on Turtle’s Back” lends itself to a variety of interpretations. Most straightforwardly, it is an attempt to explain the state of the world as humans know it. This entails providing origin stories not only for the world’s physical features—stars, oceans, plants, etc.—but also for its moral character, or rather the lack of it. By the time ordinary humans appear in the story, things have already gone awry due to the actions of Enigonhahetgea, who is the source not only of malice but also of various physical realities that humans experience as “evils”—e.g., landscapes and animals that can hurt or kill a person.

Through the brothers Enigorio and Enigonhahetgea, the myth dramatizes The Nature of Good and Evil and the associated dichotomies of order versus chaos and light versus darkness. Enigorio is the “good mind” and a symbol of light, order, creation, and strength through kindness. Everything he does is for the good of the Earth. He creates light itself by using his mother’s body and transforming it into a source of life-sustaining warmth and power. He creates greenery and game animals to sustain the humans he made from the earth.