List of culture heroes
Mythological savory, creators, teachers and inventors.
A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group (cultural, ethnic, religious, etc.) who changes the world through invention or discovery. A typical culture hero might be credited as the discoverer of fire, or agriculture, songs, tradition, law or religion, and is usually the most important legendary figure of a people, sometimes as the founder of its ruling dynasty.
Abenaki mythology
- Bedig-wajo (southern)
- Glooscap
- Ktaden (western)
Abrahamic Mythology (Judaism, Christianity, Islam)
Ainu mythology
Albanian mythology
Armenian mythology
Ashanti mythology
Australian Aboriginal mythology
Aztec mythology
Banks Islands mythology
- Qat
Buddhist mythology
- Avalokiteśvara/Guanyin
- Bodhisattvas
- Bramha/Sahampati
- Buddha
- Kṣitigarbha
- Maitreya
- Mañjuśrī
- Śakra
Caroline Islands mythology
Celtic mythology (Irish, Welsh, Scottish)
- King Arthur (Also English/British)
- Bendigeidfran (Welsh)
- Cúchulainn (Irish)
- Diarmuid Ua Duibhne (Irish)
- Fionn mac Cumhail (Finn McCool) (Irish)
- Gwydion (Welsh)
- Lugh (Irish) or Lleu Llaw Gyffes (Welsh)
- Oisín (Irish)
- Pryderi (Welsh)
- Pwyll (Welsh)
Chinese mythology
- Fuxi & Nüwa (first people)
- Suiren (fire)
- Shennong (agriculture, tea, & medicine)
- Shujun (animal husbandry)
- Zhuanxu (sacrifice)
- Chiyou (metal weaponry & Chinese wrestling)
- Ling Lun & Kui (music)
- Yellow Emperor (elegant clothing, zithers, mathematics, astronomy & time-keeping, chariots, kung fu, Chinese culture generally)
- Leizu (silk)
- Cangjie (writing)
- Ning Feng (pottery)
- Hui (揮, Huī) and Yimou (夷牟, Yímóu, archery)
- Yao & Shun (ideal rulership)
- Yu the Great (flood control)
- Duke of Zhou, Confucius, & Mencius (classic texts)
- Zhang Sanfeng (Tai Chi)
Egyptian mythology
English mythology
- King Arthur (Also Celtic)
- Beowulf
- Hengist and Horsa
- Lud son of Heli (Also Celtic)
- Robin Hood
- Sceafa
Etruscan mythology
Finnish mythology
Germanic mythology
Greek mythology
- Abderus
- Achilles
- Aeneas
- Ajax the Great
- Ajax the Lesser
- Amphitryon
- Antilochus
- Bellerophon
- Cadmus
- Castor and Pollux
- Cecrops
- Chrysippus
- Daedalus
- Dido
- Diomedes
- Eleusis
- Eunostus
- Ganymede
- Hektor
- Heracles
- Icarus
- Iolaus
- Jason
- Lycaon (king of Arcadia)
- Meleager
- Odysseus (Ulysses)
- Orpheus
- Palamedes
- Pandion
- Parthenope
- Perseus
- Phoroneus
- Prometheus
- Theseus
- Triptolemos
- Zeus
Hungarian mythology
Inca mythology
Indian Mythology
- Arjuna
- Ashoka
- Barbarika
- Bharata
- Bharat
- Bhima
- Bhishma
- Draupadi
- Ganesha
- Guru Nanak
- Hanuman
- Harishchandra
- Karna
- Krishna
- Mahavira
- Manu
- Mamuni Mayan
- Meghnad
- Nakul
- Parashurama
- Rama
- Rishabha
- Sahadeva
- King Shivi
- Sita
- Vikramaditya
- Yudhishthira
Ho-Chunk mythology
Inuit mythology
Japanese mythology
- Amaterasu
- Ame-no-tajikarao
- Fujiwara no Hidesato
- Izanagi
- Izanami
- Emperor Jimmu
- Empress Jingū
- Kibitsuhiko-no-mikoto
- Kintarō
- Kotoshironushi
- Minamoto no Yorimitsu
- Minamoto no Yoshimitsu
- Minamoto no Yoshitsune
- Minamoto no Yoshiie
- Miyamoto Musashi
- Momotarō
- Nomi no Sukune
- Emperor Ōjin (Hachiman)
- Ōkuninushi
- Ōmononushi
- Ono no Komachi
- Sakanoue no Tamuramaro
- Susanoo
- Taira no Sadamori
- Takemikazuchi
- Takeminakata
- Takenouchi no Sukune
- Takezaki Suenaga
- Takeda Shingen
- Tsukuyomi
- Ukanomitama (Inari Ōkami)
- Urabe no Suetake
- Urashima Tarō (Urashima-no-ko)
- Usui Sadamitsu
- Watanabe no Tsuna
- Watatsumi
- Yamato Takeru
Lakota mythology
Maya mythology
Mesopotamian mythology
Muisca mythology
- Changing Woman
- The Diyin Dine
- Nayenezgani
Norse mythology
- Arngrim
- Bödvar Bjarki
- Egil
- Helgi
- Hothbrodd
- Loki
- Odin
- Ragnar Lodbrok
- Sigurd Fafnersbane
- Starkad
- Svipdagr
- Thor
- Vili and Vé
Ohlone mythology
Ojibwe mythology
Persian mythology
- Arash
- Babak Khorramdin
- Esfandiyār
- Fereydun
- Garshasp
- Giv
- Kaveh the Blacksmith
- Rostam
- Sām
- Siyâvash
- Sohrab
- Zoroaster
Polynesian mythology
Roman mythology
- Aeneas
- Dido
- Egeria
- Caeculus
- Cloelia
- Evander of Pallene
- Founding of Rome
- Gaius Mucius Scaevola
- Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus
- Hercules
- Horatii and Curiatii
- Horatius Cocles
- Janus
- Lucius Junius Brutus
- Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
- Lucretia
- Manius Curius Dentatus
- Marcus Curtius
- Marcus Manlius Capitolinus
- Numa Pompilius
- Publius Decius Mus
- Romulus and Remus
- Romulus/Quirinus
- Servius Tullius
- Silvius
- Sibylline Books
- Tarpeia
- The Rape of the Sabine Women
- Titus Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus
- Verginia
Serbian mythology
- Saint Sava[1]
- Thracian horseman
- Svevlad
Slavic mythology
- Alyosha Popovich
- Dažbog
- Dobrynya Nikitich
- Ilya Muromets
- Ivan Tsarevich
- Juraj Jánošík
- Krakus
- Mikula Selyaninovich
- Misizla
- Nikita
- Vasily Buslayev
- Volga Svyatoslavich
Solomon Islands mythology
- To-Kabinana
Talamancan mythology
Tibetan mythology
Ugarit mythology
Ute mythology
Vietnamese mythology
Weenhayek mythology
- Ahutsetajwaj
- Tapiatsa
Zuni mythology
See also
References
- ^ Žikić, Bojan (1997). Културни херој као "морални трикстер": Свети Сава у усменом предању Срба из БиХ [Culture hero as "moral trickster": Saint Sava in oral traditions of Serbs in BiH] (PDF). Bulletin of the Ethnographical Institute SASA (in Serbian). XLVI. Belgrade: 122–128. Retrieved 2010-07-05.