World Culture & Heritage Module
World Mythology & Classical Pantheons
Comparative mythology investigates the cosmological narratives, heroic epics, and religious pantheons of ancient civilizations. Greek mythology centers around the twelve Olympian deities led by Zeus on Mount Olympus, counterparted by Roman mythology with figures like Jupiter, Mars, and Minerva. Norse mythology, preserved in the 13th-century Poetic Edda and Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, details cosmological realms linked by the world tree Yggdrasil, featuring Odin, Thor, and the prophesied battle of Ragnarok. Mesopotamian traditions offer the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of humanity's earliest surviving literary works, while Egyptian mythology focuses on solar cycles and the afterlife, centered on Osiris, Isis, and Anubis.
Key Concepts & Examination Highlights
- The Epic of Gilgamesh, recorded on cuneiform clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia, contains one of the earliest written flood narratives.
- Norse cosmological myths and tales of the Aesir gods were compiled in Iceland in the 13th-century manuscripts known as the Eddas.
- The Roman pantheon adopted Greek deities, renaming Zeus to Jupiter, Hera to Juno, Ares to Mars, and Poseidon to Neptune.
Curriculum & Reference Sources: Smithsonian Institution, British Museum Department of Middle East, Oxford Classical Dictionary