Akan
Ashanti, Fante, Akyem and Akuapem — Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire
World Mythology is the world’s stories, gathered people by people and tribe by tribe, each with the source it comes from. Where a people has an entry in the Cultural Origin Library, its name leads there. Where a people's sacred stories are theirs to keep, we say so and do not retell them; in their place stand original stories, invented out of respect and marked as such.
Ashanti, Fante, Akyem and Akuapem — Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire
The Nile Valley, from the First Cataract to the Delta
Kongo, Vili, Yombe and Woyo — the Congo River Basin
Lesotho and the Free State
Cattle-keeping peoples of South Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania
The Bandiagara Escarpment, Mali
Mandinka, Bambara, Dyula and Soninke — Mali, Guinea, Senegal and the Gambia
Forest peoples of the Ituri and the Congo Basin rainforest
Jengi, the great spirit of the Baka forest, and the initiation that belongs to him are kept by the Baka; they are not retold here.
Southern Africa — the Kalahari and beyond
Oyo, Egba, Ijebu, Ife and Ekiti — southwestern Nigeria and Benin
The Zulu people of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
The Aegean world of the Homeric epics
The rune-singers of Finland and Karelia
Medieval Iceland and the wider Scandinavian world
East, West and South Slavic peoples
The Celtic peoples of Wales and Ireland
The storytellers of Baghdad, Cairo and Persia
Akkadian-speaking central Mesopotamia
The world of Rumi — Persia and Anatolia
Uruk, Ur, Nippur and Eridu — southern Mesopotamia
The classical Sanskrit stage
The Mahabharata, attributed to the sage Vyasa
Tamilakam — the ancient Tamil country of southern India
The tales of the outlaws of the marsh
The Zhuangzi, of the Warring States period
The tales of the Tang dynasty
The Kojiki, the folk tale and the Noh stage
The sung epics of the Joseon era
Northern Luzon
Java, where the shadow-puppet plays are performed through the night
Central and southern Luzon
The Sulodnon of the Panay highlands
Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara — the Western Desert of Central Australia
The restricted layers of the songline belong to its custodians and are not retold here.
North-western New South Wales
Hawaiʻi
Aotearoa New Zealand
Sāmoa
Tahiti and the Society Islands
Tonga
Kiriwina and the Milne Bay islands, Papua New Guinea
North-east Arnhem Land
The Djan'kawu and Wagilag Sisters are sacred to the Yolŋu, whose ceremonies keep them; they are not retold here.
Invented out of respect, where the sacred stories are not ours to tell
An original story, invented out of respect — it shows the structure without taking a story that is not ours to tell.
The highlands of Guatemala
The Valley of Mexico
Be'ena' Za'a — the Valley of Oaxaca
Invented out of respect, where the sacred stories are not ours to tell
An original story, invented out of respect — it shows the structure without taking a story that is not ours to tell.
A Tukanoan people of the Uaupés (Vaupés) river, Brazil and Colombia
Mbyá, Avá and Paĩ — Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina
The Ayvu Rapyta, the sacred 'beautiful words' of the Mbyá, is cited here and not retold.
The Andes, from Cusco
Arekuna, Taurepang and Kamarakoto — the Gran Sabana of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana
The highlands between Brazil and Venezuela
The ways of the xapiri spirits belong to Yanomami shamans and are not retold here.
Invented out of respect, where the sacred stories are not ours to tell
An original story, invented out of respect — it shows the structure without taking a story that is not ours to tell.
Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi — the Great Lakes
The teachings of the four directions are carried by Anishinaabe elders; the ceremonies are not retold here.
Siksiká, Kainai and Piikani — the northern Plains
The Sun Dance itself belongs to its keepers and is not retold here.
Tsitsistas and Suhtai — the central Plains
The ceremony of the Sacred Arrows belongs to its keepers and is not retold here.
Plains and Woodland Cree — the northern Plains and the boreal forest
Apsáalooke — the Yellowstone and Bighorn country
Yankton, Santee and the other Dakota bands — the eastern Plains and woodlands
Dinétah — the Four Corners of the American Southwest
The Six Nations — Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora
Oglala, Sicangu, Hunkpapa and the other Titonwan bands — the northern Plains
The Sun Dance, the vision seeking (hanbleceya), and the White Buffalo Calf Woman and the Sacred Pipe belong to their keepers, who tell them; they are not retold here.
Chaui, Kitkehahki, Pitahawirata and Skidi — the Platte River country
Lingít Aaní — Southeast Alaska
Invented out of respect, where the sacred stories are not ours to tell
An original story, invented out of respect — it shows the structure without taking a story that is not ours to tell.
125 gods, ancestors, tricksters and heroes who walk through these stories. Open a name to read who they are.
the lesser god, associated with death and misfortune. Also called "the death that appears from below." Can cause illness and death but can sometimes be persuaded.
Mantis creator-trickster. Son-in-law of Dassie (rock hyrax). Has magical shoes, bow, and quiver. Creates life carelessly and then mourns what is destroyed.
"the one who created himself" in some northern San traditions
the ancestors (different names in different Bantu languages). The dead who remain in the web of community relationship and can be called upon.
the sun goddess, the most exalted kami, ancestress of the imperial line; her withdrawal into the cave and return is the central myth.
the kami of dawn and mirth, whose dance lures Amaterasu from the cave.
the supreme deity who created the universe. Present everywhere, in everything. The source of the cosmic vibration (kize uzi) from which all things emerged.
jackal-headed god of embalming and the dead. Oversees the Weighing of the Heart.
his plan to silence the young gods brings the first irreversible act.
Earth Goddess. Mother of Anansi. Associated with fertility and truth.
the ambiguous, fearsome, wise old woman of the folktales, who lives in a hut on chicken legs deep in the forest; she may devour the unwary or aid the worthy, a liminal figure of the threshold between worlds, embodying the forest's danger and wisdom. Various folktale tricksters and helpers also appear.
the ancestors, the honored dead on the far side of the Kalunga, who guide and protect the living and return through rebirth.
Sundiata's griot, who became Sumanguru's griot and discovered his secret vulnerability. The first griot of the Kouyaté family, whose descendants still perform the Sundiata epic today.
the great, tragic warriors whose divided loyalties give the epic its moral depth.
The scarred boy whose fasting on the mountain is told with the Bighorn Medicine Wheel.
the most beloved Holy Person, associated with the earth, the seasons, fertility, and renewal; she who established the Blessingway and gave rise to the Hero Twins. She ages and grows young again with the seasons — the very image of balanced renewal.
(from Chunhyangga) — the faithful woman who endures torture rather than betray her love, the supreme model of fidelity.
the great power of rain and storm whose visitations turn the agricultural year.
The emu of the Euahlayi stories, tricked by the bustard Goomblegubbon.
the Pandavas' shared wife, whose humiliation in the Kaurava court is a central wound driving the war.
slays Apsu by incantation; father of Marduk.
the collective ancestor masquerade. Personal ancestral shrines (ile orisha) in every home. The Babalawo (Ifá priest) channels ancestral wisdom through the divination system.
the black God of rain and blessing, the red God of drought and wrath.
the wise god, friend to humanity, who warns Utnapishtim of the flood and devises clever solutions.
queen of the underworld, Inanna's sister, ruler of the land of no return.
the crossroads, communication, the divine messenger. Nothing begins without Eshu. Every ceremony honors him first. The force that allows all other forces to move.
two-thirds god, one-third man, king of Uruk; not a trickster but the archetypal hero who undergoes a sequence of trials in pursuit of glory and then of immortality. Enki plays a clever, quasi-trickster role among the gods.
(from Heungboga) — the poor, virtuous brother rewarded, against his greedy brother Nolbo.
the grief-stricken leader whom the Peacemaker consoled, becoming the great spokesman of the Great Law.
sky god, divine kingship. Son of Osiris and Isis. The living pharaoh is Horus; the dead pharaoh becomes Osiris.
the Hero Twins, the central figures, clever and brave, who avenge their father, endure the trials of Xibalba, and defeat the Lords of Death.
The spider trickster of the Lakota and Dakota, clever, greedy and often undone by his own tricks.
goddess of love, war, and sovereignty; the great female power, whose Descent to the underworld is a foundational myth of death and return.
the great storm serpent.
(Zulu) — the princess of the sky, associated with rain, agriculture, and feminine wisdom. Sometimes the spirit of maidenhood.
goddess of magic, healing, motherhood. Wife of Osiris, mother of Horus. The supreme magical practitioner.
the creator pair.
the poet-saint, author of the Masnavi and the Divan-e Shams.
the god of spring, fertility, and the returning life, whose return is the rebirth of the world.
the great forest spirit, the guardian and embodiment of the forest, who appears in the most sacred Baka ceremonies. Jengi is the forest made present to the community.
the creator who made all and withdrew, leaving the forest as the living divine presence. The forest itself functions as the effective supreme being — addressed directly, sung to, trusted as parent.
the divine charioteer and counselor, avatar of Vishnu.
the Spider. Son of Nyame and Asase Ya. Clever, not powerful. Won all stories from Nyame through wit. Born on Wednesday (Kweku = Wednesday-born). The trickster who owns all knowledge.
the traditional founder of Taoism, author of the Dao De Jing, the "Old Master."
the first ancestor to die and be resurrected. His bones, swallowed by a Nommo and reconstituted, gave the Dogon their agricultural knowledge.
the trickster of the Norse gods, whose cunning both aids and dooms the Æsir, and whose deeds drive toward Ragnarök.
the epic’s great counterforce, setter of trials and driver of bargains.
goddess of truth, justice, cosmic order. Daughter of Ra. The feather she wears is the measure of the heart. Without Ma'at, creation dissolves.
The Pemon culture hero and trickster, who felled the tree of life.
bargains supremacy for battle, divides Tiamat, builds the ordered world from her body, receives fifty names.
the great goddess of the earth, women, weaving, and fate.
the goddess of winter, death, and the dying of the world, ritually destroyed at winter's end.
later historical figures whose deeds the griots preserved.
the great culture-hero and trickster, who fished up the North Island, snared the sun, and sought immortality for humankind.
The Anishinaabe culture hero who remade the earth after the flood.
the ancestral elders collectively. Each abusua (clan) has its own line of ancestors. Sacred stools of chiefs hold ancestral power after death.
The Blackfoot maker and trickster who shaped the land and its creatures.
the primordial water beings, born as twin pairs. Embodiment of perfection, complementarity, and life force. They sacrificed themselves to give knowledge to humanity and were resurrected. Their ark brought civilization to Earth.
the Sky God. Distant, powerful, the ultimate source. Asase Ya — the Earth Goddess, Nyame's wife, mother of Anansi. Both are above the human world but reached through Anansi's mediation.
the supreme God, creator and source, transcendent and distant from daily human affairs, working through the lesser powers and the ancestors.
purity, creation, wisdom, the elderly. First to touch earth.
iron, war, labor, technology, the forest. Patron of all who use iron. Raw, direct, uncompromising.
The Crow maker of the world, who sent the ducks diving for mud.
distant, unknowable, too vast for direct approach. All Orisha are expressions of Olodumare's aspects.
The Yanomami creator of the forest and its people.
the Twins' father and uncle, the first ballplayers, summoned and killed by the Lords of Xibalba.
wisdom, knowledge, divination. Witnessed all human destinies at creation.
rivers, love, fertility, beauty, wealth. Sweet water. Negotiation and sensuality.
god of the dead, resurrection, and the afterlife. First being to die and be resurrected. Judge of the dead. His resurrection is the model for all human hope of afterlife.
the thunder-god, wielder of lightning, god of the sky, order, war, and the heights; the "high" pole of the cosmic contest.
the harvest’s recurring gift.
not a deity but the sacred star: the smallest, densest, most powerful star in the Dogon cosmological system. Invisible to the naked eye but known to the Dogon through oral tradition. "It acts on all the other stars."
the Sun God, supreme deity of the New Kingdom. Atum — the self-created, the All. Amun — "the Hidden One," supreme deity of the Theban tradition. These are aspects of the same ultimate divine principle rather than competing deities.
the Sky Father, and **Papatūānuku (Papa)** — the Earth Mother, the primal parents whose separation lets in the light.
The trickster who stole the daylight and set the sun, moon and stars in the sky.
thunder and lightning. Former king of Oyo Empire. Justice, power, and morality.
Sundiata's father's first wife, whose jealousy drives Sundiata and Sogolon into exile. The force that makes the exile necessary.
The young man who journeyed to the lodge of the Sun.
lioness goddess of war, destruction, and medicine. The force that punishes Ma'at violations.
The boy who killed the Kholumolumo and freed the swallowed people.
god of chaos, storms, and foreigners. Not purely evil but the necessary force of disruption. The antagonist of Horus.
the wandering mystic whose meeting with Rumi transformed him from a scholar into a lover of God; their bond and Shams's disappearance are the biographical heart of Rumi's poetry, the human love that opened onto the divine.
(from Simcheongga) — the daughter who sacrifices herself to the sea to restore her blind father's sight, model of filial piety.
water spirits at the Kalunga boundary, powerful and ambivalent, guardians of the divide between worlds.
who fell from the Sky World and, caught by the birds and set on the turtle's back, becomes the mother of the earth's life.
Sundiata's mother, the "buffalo woman," carrier of the lineage's power. Often considered more powerful than the male heroes of the tradition.
the sorcerer-king antagonist of the Sundiata epic. A blacksmith (nyamakala) who accumulated too much nyama.
the Lion King, founder of the Mali Empire. The central heroic figure of the Mandé tradition. His story is the griot's primary epic.
the personal spirit/soul that each person carries
the storm god, Amaterasu's tempestuous brother, whose violence drives her into the cave and who later slays the eight-headed serpent Yamata-no-Orochi.
The Cheyenne prophet who brought the people their laws.
The creator of the Samoan islands, who sent his daughter as a bird to find land.
(god of the sea), **Tūmatauenga** (god of war and humankind), **Tāwhirimātea** (god of winds and storms, who alone opposed the separation), **Rongo** (cultivated foods), **Haumia** (wild foods) — the divine children.
The creator who broke out of his shell and made the world from it.
the eight primordial ancestors (four male-female pairs) from whom all human social organization derives.
those who knew each day’s character and read lives within the round.
not a spirit within the world but the conscious, benevolent totality; the parent who sleeps and must be woken.
the sacred beings who established the ceremonies and the order of Hózhó.
the griot themselves. The hereditary keeper of memory. Every great family has its griot family that has served it for generations.
the hundred sons of Dhritarashtra, led by Duryodhana, the Pandavas' cousins and rivals.
their coarse (kasar) rivals.
One Death, Seven Death, and their retinue (Flying Scab, Gathered Blood, and others), rulers of the underworld and its trial houses.
Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld, who weave the fates of gods and mortals at the roots of Yggdrasil.
the five noble brothers of the Mahabharata, refined (alus) heroes, in their Javanese forms.
who, with Hiawatha (Ayenwatha), brought the Great Law of Peace and united the warring nations into the Confederacy.
the clown-servants, uniquely Javanese, who accompany the heroes. Semar is secretly a god in humble form, the guardian spirit of Java; the Punakawan carry the tradition's deepest wisdom and humor, balancing the epic nobility with earthy common sense.
the most powerful n|om-carrier, the bridge between the living and the spirit world
the allies Sundiata gathers in exile. The coalition that defeats Sumanguru.
the good-minded (Sky Holder / Teharonhiawako / Sapling) and his brother (Sawiskera / Flint), whose complementary and contending relationship establishes the balance of the world.
god of wisdom, writing, knowledge, the moon, and magic. Divine scribe. Records the Weighing of the Heart. Keeper of the cosmic records.
rises with an army of eleven monsters when Apsu is slain.
(Zulu/Xhosa) — mischievous water spirit associated with misfortune.
the moon kami.
god of the forests and birds, who separated his parents and created the first woman; a central divine figure.
The first ancestor of the Zulu, who sent the chameleon with the message of life.
a princess/goddess figure associated with rain, fertility, and the harvest.
the flood survivor granted immortality, who dwells at the ends of the earth and holds the wisdom Gilgamesh seeks. The dead kings and the shades of the underworld.
the sun god, god of justice, who aids Gilgamesh.
the god of the underworld, cattle, wealth, magic, poetry, and the waters and low places; Perun's eternal adversary, the "low" pole.
born old from the sea, singer and maker. His trials (the Sampo, the wooing, the kantele) reveal rather than build him.
The Cree trickster and culture hero, foolish and wise by turns.
the maiden of Xibalba, impregnated by the severed head of One Hunahpu, who becomes the mother of the Hero Twins.
the ocean, motherhood, women's wisdom. Grandmother of all Orisha.
born incomplete from Amma's first failed creation. The principle of disorder. Runs through the cosmos leaving tracks that diviners read — the Pale Fox's footprints in the divination sand reveal what disorder is occurring and what must be done.
the philosopher-storyteller himself, who appears in his own parables as a character (dreaming he is a butterfly, refusing high office to drag his tail in the mud like a free turtle).