Tradition

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Cosmic Event Myths gathers twelve narratives in which a single dramatic event, rather than the world's original making, reshapes the cosmos, explains one of its lasting features, or nearly ends it and is then repaired.

Several explain a specific natural cycle. Persephone's Abduction, told in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, explains the agricultural year through her mother Demeter's grief withholding the earth's fertility during her time below. Amaterasu and the Heavenly Rock Cave, recorded in Japan's Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, explains the daily return of sunlight through the sun goddess's withdrawal and coaxing back into the sky. The Fall of the Watchers, from the Book of the Watchers in 1 Enoch, and The Destruction of Mankind both describe a near catastrophic divine judgment on a corrupted world, the first through angelic corruption and giants later bound by the archangels.

Others repair damage to the cosmos itself. Nuwa Mends the Sky tells how the creator goddess patches a hole torn in the heavens after a catastrophic battle, propping the sky's corners with a giant turtle's legs. Houyi and the Ten Suns and The Five Suns each address a disorder of the sun across cosmic ages, the first shooting down nine of ten suns scorching the earth, the second recounting a succession of world ages each ended and renewed under a different sun. The Churning of the Ocean of Milk has the devas and asuras jointly labor to recover amrita, the nectar of immortality, releasing both treasures and poison along the way.

What unites the twelve is scale: none founds the world from nothing, each instead marks the moment something at the level of the whole cosmos broke, changed permanently, or was set right.