History Main / SpontaneousGeneration

* Greek philosopher {{Aristotle}}, and by extension, his massive slavish medieval following, believed that insects had no parents, but were born right out of mud, corpses, etc.

<<|YouFailBiologyForever|>>

* Pegasus and his less popular, human (!) (or winged bull) brother Chrysaor were born from Medusa post-mortem, and depending on the version, are either her children by Poseidon or an example of SpontaneousGeneration. In one, her blood falls in the sea and spawns them, Aphrodite-style.

* OlderThanDirt: All Ancient Egypt}}ian creation myths start with spontaneous generation.

It should be noted that the ''extremely'' simple chemical processes scientists propose as the origins of life are ''not'' the same as maggots forming from rotting flesh, let alone a chicken popping out of a pile of primordial sludge. So don't even go there. Just don't.

* In TronLegacy, the Isos spontaneously generated themselves from the Sea of Simulation and became an unknown, uncontrollable factor on the Grid. Flynn was thrilled, but his administrator / counterpart Clu viewed them as a threat, setting into motion the events of the film.

* OlderThanDirt: All Ancient Egyptian creation myths start with spontaneous generation.

* OlderThanDirt: Gaia, the goddess and personification of the earth, just sort of... forms from the dark, shapeless nothing that was primordial Chaos.

* OlderThanDirt: In the creation myth of the Ogdoad, one version has Hathor, the Milky Way and a divine bovine goddess, created from a cosmic imbalance of primal forces. Then Ra hatches from an egg laid on top of Hathor by a [[strike:space goose]] [[strike:Ibis]] ''big bird'' from, um, [[{{Hammerspace}} somewhere]]. Alternatively, Ra arises, weeping, out of a lotus bloom whose bud was formed from said prior imbalance, rather than Hathor. He may or may not have been a beetle when he first came out.
** This is because ancient Egypt couldn't seem to decide what its creation myths were. One version has the universe being masturbated out by Atem.

* According to TheOtherWiki, in NorseMythology, life began when the warm air of Muspelheim hit the cold ice of Niflheim, creating the giant Ymir and the icy cow Audhumla. Surtr the fire giant was created from Ymir's sweat and Búri, the first of the gods, appeared from Audhumla's salt lick. Fun times.

* OlderThanDirt: Gaia the goddess and personification of the earth just sort of...forms from the dark, shapeless nothing that was primordial Chaos.

Funny aside: SpontaneousGeneration is an OlderThanDirt example of YouFailBiologyForever. It makes it possible for living things to spring up from non-living-- or at least non-''fecund''-- things through [[AWizardDidIt a vague and inexplicable process]]. It's most noticeable in myths-- creation myths generally have no choice but to resort to this explanation for the First Mover that comes into existence after chaos. However, some scientists continued to believe in spontaneous generation of small creatures (e.g., flies appearing on carrion) up until the 18th century or so, when experiments with sterile, vacuum-sealed containers disproved it for good.

* In the creation myth of the Ogdoad, one version has Hathor, the Milky Way and a divine bovine goddess, created from a cosmic imbalance of primal forces. Then Ra hatches from an egg laid on top of Hathor by a [[strike:space goose]] [[strike:Ibis]] ''big bird'' from, um, [[{{Hammerspace}} somewhere]]. Alternatively, Ra arises, weeping, out of a lotus bloom whose bud was formed from said prior imbalance, rather than Hathor. He may or may not have been a beetle when he first came out.

* Gaia the Titan-goddess and personification of the earth just sort of...forms from the dark, shapeless nothing that was primordial Chaos.

** A few drops of blood were also spilled in the process, from which sprouted the Furies. You'd be pissed too.

** Pegasus and his less popular, human (!) (or winged bull) brother Chrysaor were born from Medusa post-mortem, and depending on the version, are either her children by Poseidon or an example of SpontaneousGeneration. In one, her blood falls in the sea and spawns them, Aphrodite-style.
* The teeth of Ares's water-dragon that Cadmus killed, once sown in the ground, grow into sentient warriors. In Cadmus's story, five of them help to found Thebes and produce offspring.
** In Jason's far more famous adventure, the remaining teeth's newborn warriors are all killed.

* The aspect of the Big Bang theory that draws the most questions is where the original particle came from. Since the possibility of eternal recurrences became widely acknowledged, consensus among proponents is that it came from the Big Crunch at the end of a previous universe.

Funny aside: SpontaneousGeneration is an OlderThanDirt example of YouFailBiologyForever. It makes it possible for living things to spring up from non-living-- or at least non-''fecund''-- things through [[AWizardDidIt a vague and inexplicable process]]. It's most noticeable in myths-- creation myths generally have no choice but to resort to this explanation for the First Mover that comes into existence after chaos. However, some scientists continued to believe in spontaneous generation of small creatures (eg, flies appearing on carrion) up until the 18th century or so, when experiments with sterile, vacuum-sealed containers disproved it for good.

* Fictional example. In [[BabylonFive Babylon 5]] Lorien claims that his entire super advanced species was created spontaneously by the universe.
** He might have just been metaphorical about it, though.

*** Without any research, I would call this one being at least vaguelly connected to creation of waters in Mezopotamia by Enki. This tropes guesses that this myths are probably not popular it "every masturbation is mass murder" branch of...lets call it feminism. YMMV.

** Pegasus and his less popular, human (!) brother Chrysaor were born from Medusa post-mortem, and depending on the version, are either her children by Poseidon or an example of SpontaneousGeneration. In one, her blood falls in the sea and spawns them, Aphrodite-style.

* Athena lept fully formed and fully clothed and just about smarter than anybody around her when Zeus had a [[IncrediblyLamePun splitting headache.]]

* JourneyToTheWest gives us Sun Wukong, who hatched full-grown from a giant stone egg. [[BellisariosMaxim Not much detail is given as to how or why this happens.]]

* In the creation myth of the Ogdoad, one version has Hathor, the Milky Way and a divine bovine goddess, created from a cosmic imbalance of primal forces. Then Ra hatches from an egg laid on top of Hathor by a [[strike:space goose]] [[strike:Ibis]] ''big bird'' from, um, [[{{Hammerspace}} somewhere]]. Alternatively, Ra arises, weeping, out of a lotus bloom whose bud was formed from said prior imbalance, rather than Hathor. (He may or may not have been a beetle when he first came out.)

** Interestingly, quantum physicists now consider it possible for matter and energy to spontaneously generate in the quantum foam that encompasses what we usually consider empty void (actually filled to the brim with low-grade energy) over the span of trillions of years. Even in the more conventional astronomy Earth was formed out of tiny particles colliding with each other over time. This could almost be considered a myth with a scientific backing, if taken as a metaphor.
* Aphrodite, among others, sprung into existence when sky-god Uranus' newly liberated ballsack hit sea foam. '''Ouch.''' (Thanks to his son/brother Cronus.)

** A few drops of blood were also spilt in the process, from which sprouted the Furies. You'd be pissed too.

** Pegasus and his less popular, human (!) brother Chrysaor were born from Medusa post-mortem, and depending on the version, are either her chldren by Posieden or an example of SpontaneousGeneration. In one, her blood falls in the sea and spawns them, Aphrodite-style.
* The teeth of Ares' water-dragon that Cadmus killed, once sown in the ground, grow into sentient warriors. In Cadmus' story, five of them help to found Thebes and produce offspring.

** Pegasus and his less popular, human (!) brother Chrysaor were born from Medusa post-mortem, and depending on the version, are an example of SpontaneousGeneration. In one, her blood falls in the sea and spawns them, Aphrodite-style.

Funny aside: SpontaneousGeneration is an OlderThanDirt example of YouFailBiologyForever. It makes it possible for living things to spring up from non-living-- or at least non-''fecund''-- things through [[AWizardDidIt a vague and inexplicable process]]. It's most noticeable in myths-- creation myths generally have no choice but to resort to this explanation for the First Mover that comes into existence after chaos.

** He might have just been metaphorical about it, though.

* Gaia the Titan-goddess and personification of the earth just sort of...forms from the dark, shapeless nothing that was primordial Chaos.

* Fictional example. In [[BabylonFive Babylon 5]] Lorien claims that his entire super advanced species was created spontaneously by the universe.