The ancient world was full of mysteries, with no scientific explanations for the structure of the world, the existence of humans, or the meaning of life. To explain these dilemmas, they turned to religion and mythology. However, because they were often geographically isolated, there was no universal answer to any of these questions. However, many cultures found related solutions to certain questions, despite being separated by large physical distances, as was the case with the Greeks and Egyptians. Although there are small differences, Greek and Egyptian mythologies share many similarities. A parallel between the Greek and Egyptian creation stories is that they both began with the creation of one or more Gods from the universe. The creation of the Greek world began when Eros (Cupid) was born from the great shapeless mass of chaos and was later followed by Gaea (Earth), Erebus (darkness) and Nox (night). These later deities would become the ancestors of all other Greek gods and goddesses. Similarly, in Egyptian mythology, Ra came into being and gave birth to other gods: “After I became the one God, there were three gods besides me [Shu, Tefnut, and Nun].” Ultimately, Shu and Tefnut created Geb and Nut, who in turn created Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. Creation from the universe is a common factor in both Greek and Egyptian stories. Another parallel between Greek and Egyptian creation stories is the concept of birth involving a single parent. For example, Athena is commonly described as having “come to life, fully armed, from the head of Zeus. . .” Some myths also describe Aphrodite's birth as involving one parent, Uranus. In Egyptian mythology, Ra brought Shu to life by masturbating: “It was I who aroused desire with my fist; I masturbated with my hand and spit it out of my own mouth. I spat it out like Shu. . .” In both Greek and Egyptian mythology