Why the Boundary Matters

Where a tradition places a figure (god, intermediary, exalted human), is rarely neutral; it is often the point on which whole theologies turn. The same person may be a god in one community and a revered but wholly human teacher in another, and figures who are dual-modelled in this atlas (worshipped as a deity in one setting, remembered as a historical or scriptural person in another) carry a page in more than one category so each perspective can be given its due.

The entries describe the myths, domains, symbols and associated animals, plants and planets of each figure, and note where a tradition's own account differs from the historical-critical reconstruction of scholars. The aim throughout is to report what each tradition holds without adjudicating between them.