Welcome back! Today we’ll be talking about a rather depressing, yet endlessly fascinating topic – the end of the world. And no, we won’t be digging into hypotheses about which country might launch its nuclear missiles first. Today we’ll be talking about the end of the world as it was seen by the ancient world.
Every civilization has had its own “vision” of the end of the world. Some believe it will sink into fire and chaos, others – that it will be swallowed by a flood, others add that after destruction inevitably comes a new beginning.
Vikings, Egyptians, Maya, Hindus, and Christians – all of them, in different ways, tell the same story: a story of the end, which sometimes is also a rebirth.
These myths show us not only the fears of ancient people but also their hopes – because behind every destruction stands the belief that order will be restored. And an awareness that in this world nothing remains the same forever.
Here are some of the most famous myths about the Apocalypse:
Ragnarok
Ragnarok (which literally means “The fate of the gods”) is the Norse vision of the end of the world. It is not just a story of doom, but a battle between order and chaos, which shows that even the gods are not eternal. And no, this is not about the Marvel movie with Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston – this story is much bloodier and more sinister.
According to legend, the end will begin with winter and famine. Brothers will fight against brothers, fathers will kill their sons. Then will come the time of great earthquakes. Mountains will shake and collapse, trees and human buildings will fall. The natural cataclysms will be so powerful that they will break the chains of the wolf Fenrir, who will cause fires and further ruin. The great serpent Jormungandr will awaken, bringing floods and poisoning the air with its breath.
At that very moment, the fire demon Surtr and his armies will cross the rainbow bridge Bifrost and attack the realm of the gods – Asgard.
But they will not be alone. With them will come hordes of frost giants and the dead, led by Loki, the god of trickery.
The battle will be fierce and will lead to the death of the gods – Odin, Freyr, Thor, Heimdall – all of them will perish in battle, but not before dragging their enemies with them.
And when everything is over, the world will be reborn. From the roots of the World Tree will emerge a man and a woman, whose children, like those of Adam and Eve, will once again repopulate the earth. The new rulers will be the surviving gods – Vídarr and Váli, sons of Odin, as well as Magni and Modi, sons of Thor.
The Mayan Calendar
The Mayan idea of the end of the world is one of the most famous – especially because of the hysteria surrounding the date December 21, 2012. But in fact, the myth is quite different from what popular culture presents.
The most important thing to know about is the so-called “Long Count Calendar” – a huge calendar that tracks epochs lasting more than 5,000 years. According to it, the present era began on August 11, 3114 BC. This epoch was supposed to end on December 21, 2012.
Many people interpreted this as “the end of the world,” since this is the last written part of the calendar. In reality, for the Maya this meant the completion of one cycle and the beginning of a new one – similar to how the calendar year ends and a new one begins.
The Maya and related Mesoamerican cultures believed that the world was not created only once, but several times.
In the Popol Vuh (the sacred book of the Mesoamerican peoples), it is told that the gods tried several times to create humans.
The first people were made of mud – they fell apart. The second of wood – they were destroyed because they had no soul. What was left of them turned into monkeys. Only the third attempt, humans made of maize, was successful.
This cyclicity was carried over to time itself: each “world age” ended with catastrophe (fire, flood, earthquakes), after which a new world began.
The Mayan apocalypse, if we can even call it that, is the idea of cyclical time – the world dies and is reborn repeatedly, and 2012 was simply a completed calendar cycle, not annihilation.
The Egyptian Cycle
Although the Egyptians did not have one canonical vision of the Apocalypse, we can say that they too perceived time as a cycle in the which order (Maat) fights against chaos.
According to some texts, in the distant future the god Ra will be defeated by the serpent Apophis, who will drain the waters of the Nile and swallow his Solar Boat – meaning the sun will stop rising.
Other sources add that that creation will return back into the primordial ocean of chaos (Nun), from which it began. But even then the myth speaks of a possible new creation – order can always be restored.
Thus the Egyptians, like the Maya, believed not in a final end but in an eternal cycle of destruction and rebirth.
The Hindus and Kali Yuga
In Hinduism, time is also cyclical. The universe passes through immense cycles (yugas and kali yugas) that repeat. According to tradition, we live in the Kali Yuga – the last, fourth age, marked by decline, moral decay, and suffering.
When this cycle ends, the god Vishnu will appear in his tenth avatar – Kalki, who will destroy evil and restore order. He will be born as a mighty warrior, riding a white horse, and will eradicate all sin.
Even the longest creation has an end, which is why death is called just, and its deity Yama stands within the sphere of Vishnu. Thus the frame of life – birth, living and death – lies within the domain of the supreme god of the Universe.
The Revelation of John and the Day of Judgment in the Abrahamic Religions
Christianity teaches that the Second Coming is the moment when Christ will return at the end of time. This event is different from his first coming as a man in Bethlehem – then he came humbly, to save people through his sacrifice. The second time he comes as judge and king.
It is described in the Book of Revelation, where through the vision of St. John we see the fate of the world.
Before the Second Coming there will be signs in the world – wars, famine, disasters, moral decline, carried by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Antichrist will also appear – a false leader who will seduce many, marked with the number 666. This will be a time of trials for the faithful.
During the final battle (Armageddon) however, Christ will triumph. Then will come the resurrection of the dead. All people – from the beginning of history to the last living – will be gathered before God, who will judge the living and the dead according to their deeds and their faith. The righteous will receive eternal life, and the wicked – punishment.
In the end will come a new creation. The Apostle John speaks of “a new heaven and a new earth,” where there will be no death, suffering, or tears.
In all three Abrahamic religions – Christianity, Judaism, and Islam – the idea of the Day of Judgment is present. And in all three there is the figure of the Savior (the Jewish Messiah, Christ, Isa in Islam). Yet there are significant differences.
In Judaism it is not specified who exactly the Messiah will be, except that he will be a descendant of David. Here his main role is to restore the glory of Israel and bring peace and justice for the Jewish people. There is no “end of the world” in the sense we are talking about.
Islam is closer to the Christian vision in this respect – signs, the appearance of Ad-Dajjal (the Antichrist), the return of Isa (Jesus), the resurrection of the dead, the Day of Judgment. As in Christianity, here there is a final judgment, not cyclical renewal.
If we go back in time, we could assume that the Christian and Muslim versions of the end of the world were inspired by Zoroastrianism – one of the most ancient religions, practiced in the Persian Empire. But this is a vast topic worthy of its own separate article.