Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
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This page groups mythical creatures by the idea or figure they symbolize. Wikipedia notes that "in Christian art, animals carried symbolic meanings, where, for example, the lamb symbolized Christ, a dove indicated the Holy Spirit, and the classical griffin represented a guardian of the dead." Browsing by associated-with lets a visitor find every creature carrying the same symbolic meaning.

Facts
Overview
What Defines This Grouping
Great or wondrous birds, collected by body-form as the comparative folklore indexes collect them. Their functions in their own traditions differ completely. 2
Peoples and Traditions Covered
Chinese: the fenghuang is an emblem of auspicious rule and of the empress. Translating it "phoenix" imports a death-and-rebirth-in-fire story that is no part of it. 3
Peoples and Traditions Covered
Greek and Egyptian: the phoenix enters Greek literature as a report about an Egyptian bird, which Herodotus says he knows only from pictures. 4
Peoples and Traditions Covered
Hindu: Garuda is Vishnu's mount and the enemy of the nagas - a divine being who receives worship, not a fabulous animal of story. 5
Peoples and Traditions Covered
The thunder beings belong to particular nations, in their own languages and their own terms - Basil Johnston writes of the Anishinaabe. "Thunderbird" is an English cover word across unrelated traditions, not the name of one being. 6
Directory
Category
Mythical Creatures 1
Learn More
The mythical birds

This group gathers mythical birds, the great and wondrous birds of world mythology, from the fire-reborn phoenix to the storm-bringing thunderbird and the vast birds of Persian and Indian legend. Birds often serve as messengers between earth and sky, or as emblems of renewal and the soul.

The browser will find the bird figures the atlas gathers. The entries describe each creature's form, powers and mythological role across the traditions that tell of it.

Associated With
Filter Results3 entries

Manidoo

Associated With
1 entry

Ra

Associated With
1 entry

Vishnu

Associated With
1 entry
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
  • Category: Mythical Creatures
2. Motif-Index of Folk-Literature: A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books and Local Legends
Stith Thompson, Indiana University Press, 1958B0-B99, Mythical Animals
3. Chinese Mythology: An Introduction
Anne Birrell, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993on the fenghuang and the mythical birdsView the Source
4. Histories
HerodotusBook 2.73View the Source
5. Encyclopedia of Hinduism
Denise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.), Routledge, 2008the article on GarudaView the Source
6. The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the Ojibway
Basil Johnston, HarperCollins, 1995on Anishinaabe thunder-beingsView the Source
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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