What do Odin (Wotan), Shiva, the dancing god, Lucifer, and Dionysus have in common?

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• User is asking for a list of motifs/tropes/archetypes in world mythology that appear frequently within a culture’s mythology or inter-mythologically across cultures.
• User is specifically looking for something like an ATU index but for mythology instead of folklore.
• Examples of specific tropes are: the Coyote in western North American peoples’ mythology, the Divine Twins in Indo-European mythologies, monsters being bound until the end of the world in Norse mythology, the world being made from a supernatural body such as Pangu or Tiamat, the many versions of sea serpents or other chaoskampf-y sea creatures.
• Another user recommends that the user looks into “Comparative Mythology.”
• Another user recommends Stith Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature and says that the larger the size of the net, the less detail one gets. Thompson’s index is massive and includes tens of thousands of motifs, but the detail that may be wanting is in the thousands of sources he considered. Volume 6 is particularly valuable as an index to the previous five volumes.
• User mentions some common motifs in Mesoamerican mythology, such as feathered serpent gods, goggled/fanged rain gods, and cyclical creation myths.
• Another user recommends Mircea Eliade’s “The Myth of the Eternal Return” and “The Golden Bough” for cross-cultural comparisons of rituals and ways of getting rid of the evil.
• There is a brief discussion about the definition of “global” motifs, with some users arguing that there are no such things, while others argue that certain motifs are only “global” in Eurasia.
• There is no mention of Odin (Wotan), Shiva, the dancing god, Lucifer, and Dionysus within the text of the page.

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• Many myths from different cultures share similarities in how stories are told, due to trade routes and cultures mixing. (user, 4 karma)
• Similar to how comic book franchises like DC and Marvel have overlapping superheroes with matching superpowers and appearance, there are similar themes and motifs in mythologies across cultures. (user, 4 karma)
• Flood stories from different cultures like Ziusudra, Atra-Hasis, Utnapishtim, Manu, and Moses share similarities due to the influence of Sumerian/Akkadian sources on Babylonian culture, extensive trade connections of the Indian subcontinent, and significant alterations to mythology as a result of Babylonian exile among the Hebrews. (user, 2 karma)
• Greeks borrowed themes from Mesopotamian cultures like Adonis from Dumuzid and Aphrodite from Inanna/Ishtar. The Gigantomachy connects to the conflict between the gods and Tiamat, while similarities between flood stories from different cultures can be attributed to borrowing. (user, 2 karma)
• Proto-Indo-European mythology shows similarities in events across different cultures. (user, 1 karma)
• Folklore connects dogs to death, passage to the underworld, and ritualistic purposes in various cultures from Ireland to India, potentially going back thousands of years. Dog sacrifices were part of the Koryos war parties. (user, 2 karma)
• Dog sacrifices from 4,000 years ago done by Proto-Indo-European peoples likely led to the Lupercalia festival held every year in Rome, which included dog sacrifices, young men running naked around the city and striking each other with strips of dog skins meant to purify the city and bring fertility to women. The festival had themes of sex/romance/love, and was held on the same day as Valentine’s Day. (user, 2 karma)
• Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” offers a psychological concept of why myths across the world share roots in their motifs and structures. Campbell has a video series called “Mythos.” (user, 1 karma)
• Similarities between myths from faraway places like Thor vs. Jormungandr in Norse mythology and fighting gods in Indian mythology (Indra vs. Vritra) can be attributed to a similar theme showing up in a lot of Proto-Indo-European derived mythology. (user, 1 karma)
• Zeus wasn’t hunted by Typhon, whom the Greeks equated to Set

Here are my notes from the webpage:

• Reddit post from 2 years ago searching for detailed resources on common archetypes across different cultures in mythology. (4 points)
• The post refers to a self-initiated design/visual storytelling project comparing common mythological archetypes portrayed differently across different cultures.
• Two Reddit users provide links to relevant resources:
  • A Wikipedia page on the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (3 karma)
  • A Wikipedia page on the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index (2 karma)
• Another user mentions difficulties in finding resources directly comparing archetypes across ancient religions, and suggests finding resources on similar gods instead. (2 karma)
• Another user describes difficulties finding relevant information and the need for evidence to back up their own understanding of mythology. (2 karma)
• A user provides a link to a website they created on mythology, which includes a section on different common themes found in different cultures. (1 karma)
• Another user suggests checking out books by Joseph Campbell for a comparative mythology course. (1 karma)
• The post refers to the themes of Jung’s collective unconscious and structuralist views on comparative mythology.
• The masks of Gods by Joseph Campbell is mentioned as a book recommended by a comparative mythology professor.
• The Reddit users mention difficulties in finding specific information on certain ancient religions and a lot of scrolling and reading required to find what they needed.
• The website linked in the post contains information on common themes in different cultures, including the hero, underworld, creation, nature, trickster, and divine animal.
• The information on the website is not very in-depth, but does provide brief examples of each theme.
• Other users mention difficulties in finding detailed information on specific archetypes or gods across various cultures.

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• The post on r/Norse is titled “Odin and Christ; An Unorthodox Question”
• The author of the post has a question regarding the similarities between Odin and Christ with respect to their association with a gallows tree.
• The author is aware of the controversy surrounding Christianity/Paganism and has spent some time studying both a little bit.
• The post mentions a few similar “roots”, including trees being compared to nations in the Bible and Odin being associated with a gallows tree.
• The author notes that salvation in the Bible is associated with yew trees and that Christ was hung from a tree (a yew or a cross, depending on interpretation).
• The author asks whether Christ’s quote regarding salvation being of the yews is a reference to Odin’s tale or if it is plagiarism from Norse mythology.
• The author also asks whether Odin is Adam or an All-father and whether Adam and Eve are present in one version of Ragnarok.
• The post mentions the etymology of the word Jehovah and how it has ties to meaning “fallen one”.
• A user comments that yews and Jews have nothing to do with each other and that Norse mythology is about a millennium younger than the New Testament, although self-sacrifice and self-hanging as an initiation rite is common to several archaic societies.
• Another user comments that the Norse myths may have some Christian elements if their ancestors interacted enough with Christian ideology but that many Christian elements in Norse mythos would have been introduced well after the Viking Age when Christian scholars wrote down the Norse stories.
• One user recommends studying the science of linguistics to better understand the similarities and potential diffusion between various mythologies.
• Another user recommends looking into the concept of “motifs” in folklore studies to understand similarities between mythologies and the index of motifs called Aarne-Thompson-Uther to categorize motifs.

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• The Norsemen and the Greeks were distant cousins, and their cultures derived from the same ultimate source: Proto-Indo-European, the very ancient “mother” culture which dwelt (probably) on the Eurasian steppes in the 4th and 3rd millennium BCE, innovated the plow and the domesticated horse, and spread into every corner of the then-known world, east to the deserts of China, southeast into India, southwest into the Caucauses and the Middle East, and westward into Europe and the Mediterranean littoral.

• PIE culture birthed those who would eventually develop to speak many ancient and modern languages, including Norse and Greek.

• Virtually everything we know about PIE culture is derived from her daughter cultures, especially the daughter languages.

• Comparison of the languages which survive allows reconstruction of aspects of the PIE language and from there infer aspects of PIE culture, called historical linguistics.

• PIE associated gods with the sky, the world up there, and there is a word associated with this very basic concept in virtually every one of the dozens of daughter languages.

• PIE root: diw/dyu (sky, light) has a derivatives in words for sky god in daughter languages.

• Norse and Greek mythology have similarities due to their common Proto-Indo-European ancestor culture, including similarities in their gods, their immortality, male-female pairs, and their association with domains such as sky, fire, water, love, liminal space, animals/hunt, motherhood, death, justice, and ruling power.

• Some other commonalities: with very few exceptions, PIE gods are immortal, in direct contrast to those who dwell on the Earth (humans, mortals). They are male and female, and there is a strong association with “mother” gods and their offspring.

• Zeus corresponds to Tyr in Norse mythology, going back to the PIE god Dyeus Phter, or “Father Sky”

• Greek myth also show Near Eastern influence.

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• The post is titled, “What is the cause of mythological similarities between ancient religions, such as the stealing of fire or creation of man from clay?”
• The post was submitted 4 years ago on the subreddit AskHistorians with a score of 8.
• The post discusses how similar stories can be in myths from different cultures and provides explanations for it:
  • There are two ways to explain this sort of similarity. The first group of explanations involve some sort of process that links the diverse stories via migration or diffusion of oral traditions.
  • The second group of explanations focus on the shared human experience.
  • Oral traditions diffuse and it is not surprising to see similar narratives in diverse places because people repeat stories they heard at one place and carry them to the next valley, and this process is repeated endless times so that the same story can appear in diverse places.
  • In the context of the spread of ideas, narratives, and belief systems, we cannot rule out the possibility of considerable diversity in narratives and beliefs among people who share language and culture, but live in “the next valley.” When Egyptian court priests and scribes sought to document a unified Egyptian belief system and pantheon, they were faced with the need to reconcile diversity in a culture that lived along a long, narrow bit of territory - the Nile drainage system.
  • The narrative can change in subtle ways as it travels this long journey, and this results in distinct variants of the narrative.
  • Sorting out similar legendary material of ancient peoples is the question that people attempt to answer with the spread of Indo-European languages, a linguistic diffusion that was accompanied by the diffusion of similar pantheons and oral traditions.
  • The second form of explanation, relying on the shared human experience, is usually even more speculative and harder to prove.
  • Jung postulated a collective unconscious, a primal force and/or pattern that permeates all existence, providing humanity with irresistible archetypes that necessarily manifest in and influence all cultures and their oral traditions/belief systems. Joseph Campbell was able to popularize the rather dense, difficult-to-read works of Jung.
  • As a folklorist, the author would never want to suggest that faith is invalid. It merely points this out so that we understand where we stand.
• A reddit user adds that Jung’s approach prompted a plethora of reinterpretations that were rational, secular, materialist, and determinist, and which often use much of Jung’s own vocabulary.
• The user further explains that the most rigorous

• The webpage discusses the similarities and differences between the Roman and Greek gods.
• Some of the Roman gods are originally Roman and have no Greek counterparts, like Janus and Quirinus.
• The Romans didn’t take Greek gods. They simply adapted their own gods by ascribing stories and attributes of the Greek gods to them, similar to how Greeks did to Egyptians.
• The Romans syncretized gods from various religions, including the Greek, Anatolian, Egyptian, and Levantese religions.
• Minerva, a Latin word meaning “wisdom,” may have referenced a divine principle to the early Romans. Every Roman story that mentions Minerva, however, is just a retelling of a preexisting Athena narrative.
• While many cultures borrowed elements of foreign gods, the Romans were the most notable for doing so.
• The Romans adopted the images of the Greek gods as they adopted Greek art style and other aspects of their culture, leading to the visual representation of their gods being to imitate Greek art.
• The Roman gods’ personalities and ideals changed greatly, with Mars being Rome’s chief god due to Rome’s militaristic nature. In contrast, Athena was respected in Hellenism because of her strategy and wisdom in battle. She was associated with defense and preventing unnecessary bloodshed.
• The website also includes a brief discussion of the syncretism of other gods and pantheons such as the Hindu, Phoenician, Sumerian, and Minoan religions.
• Syncretism is common, and gods’ identities are often mixes of multiple religions and their own former religion.
• There is a comment thread discussing how the Romans syncretize other gods and cultures, including those from Egypt and Gaul.
• One comment discusses how Julius Caesar likened Odin to Hermes and Thor to Hercules while fighting the Gauls.
• The prose throughout the page is informal, with commenters making jokes and engaging in discussion.

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Connections between Western and Eastern mythologies

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Common themes or motifs across mythologies/cultures