The World Turtle, also called the Cosmic Turtle or the World-Bearing Turtle, is a mytheme of a giant turtle (or tortoise) supporting or containing the world. It occurs in Hindu mythology, Chinese mythology, and the mythologies of some of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The comparative mythology of the World-Tortoise discussed by Edward Burnett Tylor (1878:341) includes the counterpart World Elephant.
The World Turtle in Hindu mythology is known as Akūpāra (Sanskrit: अकूपार), or sometimes Chukwa. An example of a reference to the World Turtle in Hindu literature is found in Jñānarāja (the author of Siddhantasundara, writing c. 1500): "A vulture, whichever has only little strength, rests in the sky holding a snake in its beak for a prahara [three hours]. Why can [the deity] in the form of a tortoise, who possesses an inconceivable potency, not hold the Earth in the sky for a kalpa [billions of years]?" [1] The British philosopher John Locke made reference to this in his 1689 tract, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding , which compares one who would say that properties inhere in "substance" to the Indian, who said the world was on an elephant, which was on a tortoise, "but being again pressed to know what gave support to the broad-backed tortoise, replied—something, he knew not what". [2]
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable lists, without citation, Maha-pudma and Chukwa as names from a "popular rendition of a Hindu myth in which the tortoise Chukwa supports the elephant Maha-pudma, which in turn supports the world". [3]
In the Chinese mythology, the creator goddess Nüwa cut the legs off the giant sea turtle Ao (simplified Chinese : 鳌 ; traditional Chinese : 鰲 ; pinyin :áo) and used them to prop up the sky after Gong Gong damaged Mount Buzhou, which had previously supported the heavens. [4]
The Lenape creation story of the "Great Turtle" was first recorded between 1678 and 1680 by Jasper Danckaerts. The belief is shared by other indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, most notably those of the Haudenosanee confederacy, [5] and the Anishinaabeg. [6]
The Jesuit Relations contain a Huron story concerning the World Turtle:
"When the Father was explaining to them [some Huron seminarists] some circumstance of the passion of our Lord, and speaking to them of the eclipse of the Sun, and of the trembling of the earth which was felt at that time, they replied that there was talk in their own country of a great earthquake which had happened in former times; but they did not know either the time or the cause of that disturbance. 'There is still talk,' (said they) 'of a very remarkable darkening of the Sun, which was supposed to have happened because the great turtle which upholds the earth, in changing its position or place, brought its shell before the Sun, and thus deprived the world of sight.'" [7]
The usilosimapundu of Zulu folklore also bears some similarities to the world turtle. It is a creature so large that it contains many countries and that one side of it experiences a different season than the other side. [8]
The Discworld book series, created by Terry Pratchett, takes place on a fictional world that is a flat disc sitting on top of four elephants astride the shell of a giant turtle named Great A'Tuin.
In the book Monday Begins on Saturday by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, a disc upon elephants on a turtle is said to have been discovered by a pupil who entered an ideal world of imagination.
In the book It by Stephen King, Pennywise's archenemy is a giant turtle named Maturin. Maturin also appears in King's Wizard And Glass, the fourth book in The Dark Tower series.
In the start of the first chapter of the book A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, an old woman says, "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." [9]
The film Strange World is revealed to take place on and inside a World Turtle, with the characters trying to stop an infection from killing it. [10]
In the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet videogame expansion, The Indigo Disk, the legendary Pokémon Terapagos can undergo terastallization bearing the Stellar Type. In this form, Terapagos resembles the world as the ancients saw it.
In Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer a giant turtle is carrying the world which is in some sort of time knot.
In the book A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami, the narrator references this idea: "The "world"--the world always makes me think of a tortoise and elephants tirelessly supporting a gigantic disc."
The television series What We Do in the Shadows (TV series) references character Nandor the Relentless's belief in the World Turtle in the episode "The Casino". A B-plot of the episode involves character Colin Robinson teaching Nandor about the Big Bang Theory.
The young adult novel Turtles All the Way Down and subsequent film adaptation derives its name from the World Turtle and discusses it.
The television series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia references this idea in the episode “Charlie Rules the World”, as Frank Reynolds, arguing with Dennis Reynolds about what is real, claims that they could be in “a turtle’s dream in outer space.”
Sturgill Simpson’s “Turtles All the Way Down” is a modern country psychedelic ballad from his 2014 album, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. Sturgill comes to a conclusion, choosing to encourage listeners to live their life the way they please, and don’t waste their time trying to find the answers, because “it’s turtles all the way down the line.”
The regress argument in epistemology and the infinite regress in philosophy often use the expression "turtles all the way down" to indicate an explanatory failure based on an explanation that needs a potentially infinite series of additional explanations to support it.[ citation needed ]
Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira and Cryptodira, which differ in the way the head retracts. There are 360 living and recently extinct species of turtles, including land-dwelling tortoises and freshwater terrapins. They are found on most continents, some islands and, in the case of sea turtles, much of the ocean. Like other amniotes they breathe air and do not lay eggs underwater, although many species live in or around water.
Kurma, is the second avatar of the Hindu preserver deity, Vishnu. Originating in Vedic literature such as the Yajurveda as being synonymous with the Saptarishi called Kashyapa, Kurma is most commonly associated in post-Vedic literature such as the Puranas. He prominently appears in the legend of the churning of the Ocean of Milk, referred to as the Samudra Manthana. Along with being synonymous with Akupara, the World-Turtle supporting the Earth, Kurma is listed as the second of the Dashavatara, which are the ten principal incarnations of Vishnu.
Tortoises are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines. Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like other members of the suborder Cryptodira, they retract their necks and heads directly backward into the shell to protect them.
Small Gods is the thirteenth of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, published in 1992. It tells the origin of the god Om, and his relations with his prophet, the reformer Brutha. In the process, it satirises philosophy, religious institutions, people, and practices, and the role of religion in political life.
Pangu or Pan Gu (Chinese: 盤古, PAN-koo) is a primordial being and creation figure in Chinese mythology and in Taoism. According to legend, Pangu separated heaven and earth, and his body later became geographic features such as mountains and roaring water.
"Turtles all the way down" is an expression of the problem of infinite regress. The saying alludes to the mythological idea of a World Turtle that supports a flat Earth on its back. It suggests that this turtle rests on the back of an even larger turtle, which itself is part of a column of increasingly larger turtles that continues indefinitely.
The Discworld is the fictional world where English writer Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels take place. It consists of an intersteller planet-sized disc, which sits on the backs of four huge elephants, themselves standing on the back of a world turtle, named Great A'Tuin, as it slowly swims through space.
The Black Tortoise is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. It is usually depicted as a tortoise intertwined with a snake. The character '武' can mean 'martial' or 'warrior.' The two characters 玄 and 武 do not have any literal meaning of tortoise and snake. But both tortoise and snake are known to hibernate during winter. The image of intertwined tortoise and snake likely symbolizes a state of inner struggle or a state of hibernation, and thus implies the season of winter. So the English translation Black ~ Dark ~ Mysterious Warrior is a more faithful translation.
The Sedgwick County Zoo is an AZA-accredited wildlife park and major attraction in Wichita, Kansas, United States. Founded in 1971, with the help of the Sedgwick County Zoological Society, the zoo has quickly become recognized both nationally and internationally for its support of conservation programs and successful breeding of rare and endangered species. Having over 3,000 animals of nearly 400 species, the zoo has slowly increased its visitors and now ranks as the number one outdoor tourist attraction in the state.
The Ashtadiggajas is a group of eight legendary elephants that appear in Hindu cosmology, serving as the guardians of the eight zones of the universe. There are also eight female elephants that stand beside the Ashtadiggajas, referred to as the Ashtadikkarinis.
Sukuh is a 15th-century Javanese-Hindu temple (candi) that is located in Berjo, Ngargoyoso district, Karanganyar Regency, Central Java, Indonesia on the western slope of Mount Lawu . This temple has a height of 8,7 meters. Sukuh temple has a distinctive thematic relief from other candi where life before birth and sexual education are its main themes. Its main monument is a simple pyramid structure with reliefs and statues in front of it, including three tortoises with flattened shells and a male figure grasping his penis. A giant 1.82 m (6 ft) high of Shishna with four testes, representing penile incisions, was one of the statues that has been relocated to the National Museum of Indonesia.
Turtles are frequently depicted in popular culture as easygoing, patient, and wise creatures. Due to their long lifespan, slow movement, sturdiness, and wrinkled appearance, they are an emblem of longevity and stability in many cultures around the world. Turtles are regularly incorporated into human culture, with painters, photographers, poets, songwriters, and sculptors using them as subjects. They have an important role in mythologies around the world, and are often implicated in creation myths regarding the origin of the Earth. Sea turtles are a charismatic megafauna and are used as symbols of the marine environment and environmentalism.
Turtle Island is a name for Earth or North America, used by some American Indigenous peoples, as well as by some Indigenous rights activists. The name is based on a creation myth common to several indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of North America.
Bixi, or Bi Xi, is a figure from Chinese mythology. One of the nine sons of the Dragon King, he is depicted as a dragon with the shell of a turtle. Stone sculptures of Bixi have been used in Chinese culture for centuries as a decorative plinth for commemorative steles and tablets, particularly in the funerary complexes of its later emperors and to commemorate important events, such as an imperial visit or the anniversary of a World War II victory. They are also used at the bases of bridges and archways. Sculptures of Bixi are traditionally rubbed for good luck, which can cause conservation issues. They can be found throughout East Asia and the Russian Far East.
"Turtles All the Way Down" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Sturgill Simpson. It was released in April 2014 as the second single from his album Metamodern Sounds in Country Music.
Human uses of reptiles have for centuries included both symbolic and practical interactions.
The spirit turtle or spirit tortoise is a turtle originated from Chinese mythology and spread with East Asian cultural sphere. It is believed by East Asian cultures, like other turtles in mythology, to represent longevity (壽命).
Peltocephalus maturin is an extinct species of podocnemidid river turtle closely related to the big-headed Amazon River turtle that lived during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene in what is now Brazil. P. maturin is known from a singular lower jaw of enormous size, with estimates suggesting its carapace may have reached lengths of around 1.70 m. This would make it one of the largest freshwater turtles in history, comparable in size to the Paleocene podocnemidid Carbonemys and only exceeded by the Miocene podocnemidid Stupendemys. Like its closest relative, it was likely an omnivore, the narrow cutting surface of its lower jaw unsuited for strict herbivory or durophagy.
For some Indigenous peoples, Turtle Island refers to the continent of North America. The name comes from various Indigenous oral histories that tell stories of a turtle that holds the world on its back. For some Indigenous peoples, the turtle is therefore considered an icon of life, and the story of Turtle Island consequently speaks to various spiritual and cultural beliefs.
