Comparative mythology corpus
Canonical motif families as evidence-backed research pages, generated from the normalization taxonomy and extraction records.
4382 occurrences across 21 traditions; 251 mapped child motifs.
2630 occurrences across 21 traditions; 432 mapped child motifs.
2037 occurrences across 17 traditions; 169 mapped child motifs.
1807 occurrences across 19 traditions; 164 mapped child motifs.
1513 occurrences across 22 traditions; 158 mapped child motifs.
The acquisition, transmission, protection, or concealment of sacred or transformative knowledge. Includes wisdom teachings, forbidden knowledge, stolen fire/knowledge, divine instruction, and the paradox of knowledge tha
Greek (972), Sufi (954), Islamic (642), Daoist (375), Buddhist (357)
The weighing, testing, or evaluation of souls, deeds, or peoples by divine authority. Includes afterlife judgment, earthly punishment for transgression, plagues as retribution, and the moral accounting that follows death
Islamic (1363), Greek (348), Roman (233), Sufi (229), Hindu (132)
The spiritual seeker's journey toward union, knowledge, or liberation. Includes the Sufi path of stations, the hero's journey in its contemplative form, and quests where the seeker discovers they are what they sought.
Sufi (1195), Greek (122), Celtic Irish (121), Roman (102), Hindu (100)
The narrative arc of departure, trial, transformation, and return. Includes the call to adventure, threshold crossing, the abyss, the boon, and the return with knowledge or power.
Greek (333), Hindu (317), Celtic Irish (196), Sufi (140), Islamic (134)
The pattern of death followed by return, renewal, or transformation into a new state. Includes literal resurrection, symbolic rebirth, dying-and-rising figures, and metamorphosis through death.
Islamic (423), Comparative (259), Sufi (254), Roman (134), Greek (74)
The principle of reciprocal giving between humans and the divine, or between sacred parties. Includes gift exchange, hospitality obligations, filial duty, and the idea that sacred relationship requires mutual offering.
Greek (262), Islamic (189), Hindu (181), Comparative (143), Celtic Irish (114)
The giving up of something precious # life, status, possession, self # to the sacred. Includes burnt offerings, self-sacrifice, the scapegoat, and sacrificial death that creates or renews.
Comparative (399), Hindu (176), Greek (133), Roman (108), Islamic (86)
The establishment, maintenance, or transfer of legitimate rule through divine sanction, lineage, ordeal, or sacred objects. Includes coronation, succession, regency, and the king as axis mundi figure.
Hindu (332), Greek (167), Comparative (102), Roman (82), Celtic Irish (80)
The child born under extraordinary circumstances # virgin birth, divine parentage, threatened infancy, hidden upbringing. Includes the divine child who must be protected, the child who speaks wisdom, and the child whose
Greek (237), Roman (199), Hindu (148), Islamic (120), Greek/Roman (96)
Love as a cosmic or mystical force # the love between divine and human, the love that transcends death, the longing for return to source. Includes the Sufi divine beloved, sacred marriage, and love as the driving force o
Hindu (223), Roman (139), Greek (124), Celtic Irish (116), Sufi (58)
The figure who changes form # human to animal, god to mortal, one being to another. Includes voluntary transformation, punishment-transformation, and metamorphosis as escape or transcendence.
Roman (360), Greek (90), Celtic Irish (89), Hindu (83), Norse (44)
The ordering of time through sacred rhythm # sabbath, seasonal ceremonies, jubilee, annual purification. The distinction between sacred time (cyclical, renewable, connected to origins) and profane time (linear, entropic)
Comparative (513), Sufi (67), Norse (54), Islamic (49), Greek (43)
The passage from one state of being to another through ordeal, instruction, or encounter. Includes rites of passage, tests, encounters with death as teacher, and the crossing of thresholds that permanently change the ini
Sufi (146), Greek (118), Hindu (78), Celtic Irish (67), Comparative (65)
Warfare, raiding, or single combat as a sacred or ritually significant activity. Includes cattle raids as cosmic catalysts, single combat at fords, and battles that determine cosmic order.
Celtic Irish (364), Greek (100), Hindu (97), Roman (61), Celtic Welsh (27)
The figure who violates boundaries, steals from the gods, deceives authority, and operates at the edges between order and chaos. Often a culture hero who brings gifts through transgression.
Greek (153), Buddhist (55), Celtic Irish (47), Islamicate Folklore (39), Roman (39)
The direct action of gods or sacred powers in human affairs # sending plagues, parting seas, appearing in dreams, providing animal guides, or redirecting events through supernatural means.
Islamic (181), Greek (109), Hindu (44), Roman (37), Sufi (36)
The vertical axis connecting heaven, earth, and underworld. Manifests as world tree, sacred mountain, cosmic pillar, temple, ladder, or any structure that marks the center of the cosmos and enables communication between
Comparative (85), Hindu (77), Islamic (73), Greek (53), Roman (47)
The fundamental pairing of opposites # light/dark, order/chaos, life/death, yin/yang, good/evil # as structural principle of the cosmos. Includes Zoroastrian dualism, Daoist complementarity, and the tension between oppos
Greek (180), Sufi (104), Islamic (73), Daoist (59), Greek/Roman (14)
The upward journey toward the divine # climbing the mountain, ascending through heavens, rising to receive revelation or divine knowledge. The complement of descent.
Sufi (96), Greek (95), Islamic (67), Hindu (59), Roman (54)
The dead person's journey through the afterlife as a navigable landscape with stages, gates, guardians, and instructions. Includes knowledge of sacred names or words of power as requirements for passage.
Islamic (121), Greek (75), Sufi (54), Roman (53), Hindu (44)
The divine origin of law, ethical codes, and social obligations. Includes dietary laws, purity codes, social care mandates, and the idea that the moral order reflects the cosmic order.
Islamic (158), Comparative (93), Greek (80), Hindu (38), Roman (15)
The god or hero who fights cosmic battles # against chaos monsters, demons, rival gods, or the forces of darkness. Includes the warrior whose combat establishes or maintains cosmic order.
Celtic Irish (115), Greek (114), Hindu (101), Roman (37), Norse (20)
A binding agreement between the human and the divine, or between sacred parties. Includes conditional and unconditional covenants, covenant renewal, and the breaking and restoration of sacred bonds.
Islamic (235), Greek (34), Celtic Irish (30), Hindu (30), Roman (22)
The emergence of the cosmos from void, water, darkness, word, or primordial substance. Includes creation by speech, creation from nothing, and the initial separation of elements.
Islamic (88), Greek (45), Hindu (38), Roman (37), Norse (32)
The serpent as guardian of sacred knowledge, threshold between worlds, or embodiment of danger-and-wisdom. Includes the serpent at the tree, the serpent at the root of the world, and the serpent as both threat and teache
Roman (81), Hindu (49), Greek (38), Greek/Roman (31), Norse (28)
Objects of divine origin or power # swords, spears, stones, rings, feathers, sandals # that confer authority, protection, or sacred ability on their bearer.
Celtic Irish (60), Greek (38), Roman (32), Hindu (29), Islamic (25)
The destruction of the world or the old order by water, fire, or catastrophe, followed by renewal and the establishment of a new world. Includes the flood narrative, the ark/vessel of survival, and the survivor pair who
Islamic (103), Roman (55), Hindu (31), Greek (24), Norse (20)
The figure who brings civilization, law, fire, agriculture, or sacred knowledge to humanity. Often overlaps with trickster (Prometheus, Maui) but distinguished by the emphasis on founding or establishing human culture.
Roman (46), Finnish/Karelian (41), Celtic Irish (39), Greek (35), Greek/Roman (35)
Water as boundary, purifier, destroyer, and medium of transformation. Includes baptismal waters, parted seas, rivers of the underworld, and the primordial waters before creation.
Roman (45), Hindu (33), Islamic (33), Greek (32), Celtic Irish (22)
The expression of grief, loss, and tragic awareness. Includes mourning songs, laments for fallen heroes, the recognition of what has been lost, and grief as a transformative force.
Celtic Irish (55), Greek (54), Hindu (46), Roman (33), Finnish/Karelian (16)
The journey downward into the underworld, the land of the dead, or the depths of consciousness. Includes the stripping of identity, trials below, navigation of the afterlife, and the encounter with death or darkness as a
Roman (39), Greek (31), Hindu (20), Finnish/Karelian (18), Celtic Irish (14)
The pair of twins or siblings # often one mortal and one divine, or one light and one dark # whose relationship drives the mythic narrative. Includes hero twins, divine siblings, and fratricidal pairs.
Hindu (71), Greek (33), Roman (28), Greek/Roman (14), Celtic Irish (11)
Fire as divine presence, purifying force, sacrificial medium, or cosmic principle. Includes the burning bush, Agni, sacred hearth fires, and fire as the element that mediates between human and divine.
Comparative (28), Hindu (24), Islamic (20), Greek (17), Roman (15)
Rites, contests, burial honors, and memorial acts performed for a dead hero, companion, ruler, or kin figure to honor the dead and reaffirm social order.
Greek (83), Roman (24), Celtic Irish (19), Greek/Roman (6), Hindu (6)
The figure who guards the boundary between worlds, states, or levels of reality. Must be confronted, appeased, or outwitted before passage is possible.
Celtic Irish (35), Greek (24), Roman (24), Hindu (16), Celtic Welsh (8)
The pattern of overreaching pride followed by destruction or humbling. Includes failed towers, punished transgressors, kings brought low, and the moral that power without wisdom or humility leads to ruin.
Greek (79), Roman (11), Sufi (10), Islamic (8), Hindu (7)
Dreams, visions, and altered states as sources of sacred knowledge, prophecy, or revelation. Includes prophetic dreams, the dream-reality boundary, opened perception, and the idea that ordinary consciousness conceals a d
Greek (29), Celtic Irish (25), Hindu (21), Roman (14), Sufi (8)
The other world # fairyland, the Country of the Young, the enchanted island, the hidden realm # that exists alongside or beneath ordinary reality. Distinguished from the underworld of the dead by its quality of timelessn
Celtic Irish (61), Hindu (12), Greek (11), Greek/Roman (9), Islamicate Folklore (7)
Oracles, seers, omens, augury, divination methods, lot-casting, soothsaying, and systematic access to hidden or future knowledge. Distinct from dream_and_vision because prophecy involves established methods and roles rat
Celtic Irish (25), Greek (23), Roman (20), Islamic (14), Greek/Roman (12)
Death understood as fated, destined, or determined by forces beyond human control. The warrior who cannot escape the death assigned to them. Includes the Norse concept of wyrd, Greek moira, and Islamic qadar.
Greek (30), Celtic Irish (24), Sufi (21), Roman (17), Hindu (10)
The act of telling stories as a means of survival, transmission of wisdom, or sacred power. Includes frame narratives, stories within stories, and oral transmission as a technology of cultural memory.
Greek (33), Celtic Irish (15), Islamicate Folklore (13), Sufi (9), Buddhist (7)
A being's life, soul, vulnerability, shadow, reflection, or vital force is separable from the body and bound to an external object, animal, plant, body part, hidden place, or token whose capture, loss, damage, or restora
Comparative (93), Roman (5), Islamicate Folklore (3), Greek/Roman (2), Hindu (2)
The divine mother, earth goddess, source-feminine, or nurturing-and-terrible goddess figure. Includes the mother who gives birth to the cosmos, the mourning mother, the goddess of fertility and death, and the sacred femi
Greek/Roman (24), Greek (22), Roman (15), Comparative (14), Finnish/Karelian (13)
Curses, blessings, oaths, vows, geasa, taboo pronouncements, adjurations, and spoken words that bind or transform through their utterance. Distinct from storytelling_as_power because the power is in the single speech act
Hindu (20), Celtic Irish (18), Islamic (9), Greek (7), Roman (7)
Building, crafting, or constructing as a sacred act # the bridge built with divine aid, the temple constructed by the gods, the weapon forged with cosmic fire.
Finnish/Karelian (19), Islamic (12), Hindu (11), Greek (10), Norse (8)
Sacred food, drink, plants, potions, and consciousness-altering substances used in ritual, myth, or mystical practice. Includes soma, the mead of poetry, wine, kykeon, manna, ambrosia, sacred honey, divine nectar, ritual
Sufi (20), Islamic (10), Celtic Irish (8), Greek/Roman (8), Comparative (6)
The direct manifestation or revelation of the divine to a human witness. Includes cosmic visions, burning bushes, universal forms, and overwhelming encounters with sacred presence.
Islamic (23), Greek (13), Hindu (10), Sufi (8), Buddhist (4)
The sacred container # cauldron, grail, ark, pot, sealed jar # that holds life, death, wisdom, or transformative power. Includes vessels of resurrection, vessels of preservation, and vessels that must not be opened.
Sufi (8), Celtic Irish (7), Islamicate Folklore (7), Roman (6), Japanese (5)
Tokens, scars, scent, voice, talismans, and messenger-borne objects prove identity, kinship, authority, or a denied encounter across traditions.
Greek (13), Islamic (8), Celtic Irish (6), Hindu (6), Islamicate Folklore (5)
Music, song, instrument sound, or voice acts as supernatural force: charming nature, compelling sleep or procession, subduing opponents, summoning powers, or luring hearers across a threshold.
Celtic Irish (10), Finnish/Karelian (5), Norse (5), Greek (3), Greek/Roman (3)
Ritual care, feeding, invitation, appeasement, or dismissal of dead souls or ancestors to maintain proper relations between living and dead.
Hindu (6), Sufi (6), Islamic (4), Comparative (2), Japanese (2)
A supreme ruler figure who descends from above or emerges to rule all lands. Includes the world-emperor, the universal monarch, and the cosmic king.
Islamic (12), Hindu (5), Greek/Roman (2), Sufi (2), Celtic Welsh (1)
The repeated structure is stronger than ordinary combat: apparent invulnerability is limited by an omitted exception, exposed body point, special method, or self-disclosed weakness.
Hindu (9), Roman (6), Celtic Irish (3), Comparative (2), Greek (2)
Protector betrayal and feast/drink betrayal are different scenes, but both make the broken bond itself the mythic engine.
Greek (6), Celtic Irish (4), Roman (4), Finnish/Karelian (2), Islamicate Folklore (2)
The aesthetic and spiritual insight that beauty and suffering, sweetness and danger, are inseparable. The rose and the thorn. The wisdom that comes through wounding.
Sufi (8), Greek (3), Celtic Irish (2), Islamic (2), Greek/Roman (1)
A soul, life-force, or vital double is lost, stolen, wandering, or displaced and must be found, hunted, recalled, or ritually restored to heal or revive a person.
Comparative (12), Daoist (1), Greek (1), Greek/Roman (1), Islamic (1)
The guest or suppliant functions as a sacred test of the host, making hospitality itself the ordeal.
Greek (5), Celtic Welsh (3), Finnish/Karelian (2), Indigenous Australian (2), Buddhist (1)
The recurring schema of successive world ages, yugas, golden ages, metallic ages, and cosmic decline, where a primordial or divine order decays across time.
Greek (4), Roman (3), Ainu (1), Greek/Roman (1), Hindu (1)
Deathlessness, extended life, or escape from death becomes incomplete, burdensome, or defective because youth, vitality, release, or transformation is absent.
Roman (4), Greek/Roman (2), Norse (2), Greek (1), Hindu (1)
The evidence moves beyond death-by-fate into personified or woven destiny that governs time, revolutions, atmosphere, or cosmic order.
Norse (3), Finnish/Karelian (2), Sufi (2), Greek (1), Hindu (1)
The cosmos created through the death, sacrifice, or dismemberment of a primordial being whose body becomes the world.
Norse (3), Finnish/Karelian (2), Greek (1), Islamic (1), Roman (1)
A jealous stepmother, wife, or rival caretaker endangers, falsely accuses, or demands violence against an innocent child; the focus is persecution within the household rather than the child's sacred destiny.
Japanese (4), Ainu (2), Celtic Irish (2)
A race or people of divine or semi-divine origin who arrive, conquer, or settle and bring sacred knowledge, treasures, or civilization. Includes the Tuatha De Danann, the Anunnaki, and the devas.
Celtic Irish (3)
The dead remain active after death through haunting, return, or vengeance when social, familial, or ritual order is unresolved.
Celtic Irish (1), Greek/Roman (1)