Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. And you lift up your rod and hold out your arm over the sea and split it, so that the Israelites may march into the sea on dry ground."
It's not known why it attracts such attention. It could be the phenomenon of water actually standing still in the air, being able to get an up-close view of sea creatures within their home environment without getting wet, or perhaps just the thrill of being able to walk along the seabed. Whatever the case, ever since Moses, the concept of the ocean being parted has intrigued all forms of fiction.
Usually, the means by which this deed is accomplished varies. Most of the time, it's the cause of a magical spell, like from a mystical trident. It can also be done by someone who can control water. Other times, it can be caused by a machine that can manipulate gravity. Even more amazing, it can be a natural event that occurs every millennium or so. And of course, let's not forget the most notable cause, that of Divine Intervention.
Of course, the biggest risk comes when whatever caused the parting ends, resulting in the sea collapsing and returning to its normal state...while there are still people in the space between the parted waves! If one knows in advance that there is a set time to before the phenomenon wears off, that will drive them to hurry as fast they can. Of course, if one is being chased through the pathway, they may take steps to make sure their pursuer is still on it when the water returns to normal.
Naturally, the Book of Exodus is the Trope Codifier. For other ocean anomalies, see Mega Maelstrom and Sea Sinkhole. See also Floating Water for other gravity-defying bodies of moisture.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Azumanga Daioh: When Yukari shows off her English skills to the students, there is a visual of a parting sea in the background, the implication being that her English skills are godly. Tomo, Osaka, and Kagura even start prostrating.
- In Digimon Adventure 02, to get at a Destiny Stone that's underwater, BlackWarGreymon uses his Terra Destroyer to create a path to it through the water. The dub even has Davis lampshade it by asking if BlackWarGreymon thinks he's Moses.
- The 1990s animated adaptation of Journey to the West, had Zhu Bajie using his rake to spread the surface of the water out into two walls of wave so that he could flush Sha Wujing out of the water.
- In Make the Exorcist Fall in Love, Father recreates the parting of the Red Sea to protect civilians at an aquarium when Mammon and Leviathan drive the marine life on display mad to attack the attendees.
- In Beyblade Metal Fusion, Moses' parting of the Red Sea was accomplished with the help of a Beyblade.
- Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Lucoa is my xx: Lucoa does this in order to save a drowning student at the school pool. The rest of the class more or less ignores this display of magic due to her having cast a "fuzzy spell" on them.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi: When Negi is seemingly attacked by sharks (actually people in costumes), Asuna saves him by hitting water with her sword so hard that the sea temporarily splits, sending the "sharks" flying.
- In One-Punch Man, the eponymous hero parts the ocean... by punching it.
- Parallel World Pharmacy: Falma saves his sister Blanche from drowning by splitting the sea. The witnesses are shocked when they realize he didn't move the water, he deleted it from existence.
Comic Books
- Wonder Woman (1987): The opening giving the re-imagined backstory of the Amazons has Poseidon splitting a sea to create a path for the Amazons to get to Themyscira.
Comic Strips
- The Farside:
- One strip had Moses as a kid, parting a glass of milk.
- Another strip was titled "Moses parting his hair".
Films — Animation
- In Aladdin and the King of Thieves, the Forty Thieves' hideout is a hidden cave in an offshore rock formation. The phrase "Open Sesame" creates a pathway across the bay to enter the cave.
- In the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment of Fantasia, when Mickey is in danger of drowning due to the excess water the brooms keep fetching, Yen Sid arrives and waves his hands to part the flood waters, until the whole castle is dry.
- In the beginning of Moana, when Moana is still a toddler, the Ocean plays with her, opening up where she walks. It happens again in the finale, when Moana figures out Te Ka's true identity, and asks the ocean to let her walk to Te Ka and return the Heart of Te Fiti to her.
- As a version of the story of Moses, The Prince of Egypt has this happen in its climax. For extra wonder, it outlines several sea creatures stuck on either side.
Films — Live-Action
- In Bruce Almighty, after receiving God's powers, Bruce tests it by causing a bowl of tomato soup to part.
- The Ten Commandments, both 1923 and 1956 versions, has the biblical depiction of Moses parting the waters of the Red Sea to led the Israelites out of their bondage in Egypt.
- In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the island where Poseidon's Trident is hidden parts the waters when its missing gemstone is returned, allowing access to the Trident's home on the ocean floor. Shattering the Trident causes the magic to unravel, which causes a bit of difficulty.
- X2: X-Men United: The X-Men have escaped from the enemy stronghold, they are in their ship, ready to depart; but the ship was broken when it landed. And the dam is breaking, and the river will soon flood the whole area. Jean Grey leaves the ship and uses her telekinesis to both raise the ship to the air and keep the flooding river at bay; but it's eventually too much and the river falls over her. And then, she died. Or did she?
- The final scene of Ultra Q The Movie: Legend of the Stars has Wadatuzin, an alien, parting the sea outside Okinawa to reveal her spaceship.
Literature
- An Egyptian papyrus
features a story where a princess loses a pendant while on a boat and cannot get over the loss. The court magician then folds one half of a lake onto the other so as to look for the pendant and quickly finds it.
- Pyramids: This happens briefly during the climax with the river Djel that runs through the kingdom. The inhabitants take advantage to wreak vengeance on the momentarily helpless crocodiles.
Live Action TV
- On My Name Is Earl, Donny apparently got a tattoo of Moses parting the Red Sea on his buttocks after his Heel–Faith Turn in Prison (for a crime that Earl committed). He likes to show it off, and doesn't understand why Earl doesn't want to see it.
Myths & Religion
- Book of Exodus: Moses parts the Red Sea to allow the Hebrews to flee Egyptian armies. Worth mentioning that when the sea returned to normal, the Egyptian army was still in the middle of it.
- The miracle is repeated for Moses' successor Joshua, at the other end of the Hebrews' journey. This time it's the river Jordan that's parted, to allow them to enter the promised land.
- And again in the book of 2 Kings. The prophet Elijah smacks the Jordan with his cloak and parts it. Then Elijah is taken up to Heaven, and his apprentice Elisha picks up Elijah's cloak and repeats the miracle.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons: Part Water is a spell that causes a body of water to part and form a trench. As of fifth edition, this is one of the effects that can be chosen with the more versatile Control Water spell. Both iterations were inspired by the biblical story of Moses.
Video Games
- Golden Sun: The Lost Age: In order to gain access to the final room of Aqua Rock, placing the dungeon's MacGuffin jewel on a pedestal causes the water to pull back in a corridor. Inside the room is the Parch ability used by Piers, which allows him to drain huge amounts of water from certain areas.
- Kid Icarus: Uprising: The majority of Chapter 8's Flight section occurs after Poseidon parts the sea to open a path for Pit to fly to the ocean's floor so that he can enter the Seafloor Palace and defeat Tanatos. Palutena initially takes credit for it in order to troll Pit, but relents after Poseidon reveals himself.
- In Moses Leads His People (1986), an educational Apple ][ game in The Baker Street Kids series based on The Bible, the titular kids of the school play enact Moses dividing the Red Sea so that he and the Israelites would cross the sea safely◊.
- In the ending of Peret em Heru: For the Prisoners, Kyosuke inadvertently uses his newly-gained power of shaping reality with his thoughts to part a massive river, allowing him, Ayuto and any other survivors to escape.
- Sengoku Basara's Hideyoshi did this during his confrontation with Motochika. He didn't need magic powers or the power of God. Just one fist and the power of his badassery!
- Touhou Project: Sanae does this in her spell card Sea Opening "The Day the Sea Split" (or on higher difficulties, Sea Opening "Moses Miracle"), as part of her theme of recreating famous miracles. However, the "sea" in this case is just a mass of blue energy that's conjured as part of the attack.
Western Animation
- In one episode of Aladdin: The Series, Aladdin is tricked by a skeletal creature to blow a magical conch shell, which ends up parting the ocean lead to a sunken ship with a gateway to the Netherworld.
- In Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "The Serpent's Pass", Katara uses her waterbending power to split the water and then build an air bubble around the group in which they pass through a strait.
- In Darkwing Duck episode "Jail Bird", Negaduck steals the powers of the other members of the Fearsome Five. Using Liquidator's powers, he parts the bay to St. Canard to give himself a clear path, leaving Liquidator to wonder why he never did anything like that.
- In the fifth part of the DuckTales (1987) multi-part "Super DuckTales", just when Scrooge discovers his sunken Money Bin, a spaceship with alien robots arrives and parts the ocean to steal the Money Bin themselves.
- Parodied in one episode of Family Guy. When the Hebrews reached the Red Sea, they weren't for swimming across it, so Moses (Peter) had God part the water for them.
- The Futurama episode "The Mutants Are Revolting" has a supposedly mutated Fry part a wave of sewage with the Quantum Force Gemerald.
Bender: (Taking a photo) Neat.
- In the Rugrats "Passover" special, this naturally happens for Moses (Tommy) and his people to pass through. The Pharaoh (Angelica) had the misfortune of being on the path when Moses had the water re-collapse.
- Steven Universe: In "Mirror Gem", after Lapis is released from the mirror, she tries to get Steven to come with her. Knowing Steven can't breathe underwater, Lapis uses her hydrokinesis to part the waves and tells him to follow her. When he hesitates, she angrily closes it, leaving by herself.
- A variant in the short, "ACME Acres Summer Olympics" from the Tiny Toon Adventures episode, "Son of the Wacko World of Sports". As retribution for his high dive being sabotaged by Roderick Rat, Buster dresses like Moses and parts the water in the swimming pool as Roderick does his high dive, resulting in Roderick eating linoleum.
