Across traditions the gods tend to fall into recognisable roles (a sky-father, an earth or mother goddess, a storm or war god, a trickster, a god of the dead, a divine smith), and comparative study has long noted these recurrences without agreeing on why they occur. Each pantheon also has its own internal logic: succession myths, marriages and rivalries, and a division of the cosmos among its members.
The atlas records for each deity the tradition, the domains governed, the principal myths, and the associated symbols, animals, plants and planets. A single deity may appear under several names as a cult spread, and gods were often identified with one another across cultures, a process the Romans called interpretatio, the entries note these identifications where they are attested.