Interactive Attestation Timeline
Journey across 5,000 years of recorded human belief. Discover synchronistic parallels: see what was being written in Mesopotamia while the Pyramid Texts were carved in Egypt, or which Greek plays coincided with the compilation of the Mahabharata.
Bronze Age Antiquity & Primeval Inscriptions
The dawn of recorded mythology. Cuneiform tablets on clay and hieroglyphs in stone tombs preserve the earliest cosmogonies, flood legends, and royal divine ascents in Sumer, Akkad, Egypt, and the Indus Valley.
Rigveda
The oldest of the four Vedas, containing 1,028 hymns to the Vedic deities including Indra, Agni, and Varuna. Foundation of Hindu religious tradition.
Pyramid Texts
The oldest known religious texts in the world, carved on pyramid walls. Primary source for early Egyptian mythology and solar worship.
Enuma Elish
The Babylonian creation epic describing the rise of Marduk to supremacy among the gods and his creation of the world from the body of Tiamat.
Epic of Gilgamesh
The oldest known epic literature, following the hero-king Gilgamesh and his companion Enkidu. Contains the earliest flood narrative and themes of mortality.
Archaic Epics & Classical Golden Ages
The composition of foundational world epics. Homer and Hesiod canonize the Olympian pantheon, Vedic sages compose the Upanishads and early Mahabharata, and pre-Qin scholars record the Shanhaijing.
Iliad
The foundational epic of Greek literature, depicting the wrath of Achilles during the final year of the Trojan War. Primary source for Greek gods' involvement in mortal affairs.
Odyssey
The epic tale of Odysseus's ten-year journey home from Troy, featuring encounters with gods, monsters, and mortals. Essential source for Greek mythology and religious practices.
Theogony
A systematic account of the origin and genealogy of the Greek gods, from primordial Chaos to the reign of Zeus. The definitive source for divine genealogy.
Works and Days
A didactic poem containing the myth of Prometheus, Pandora, and the Five Ages of Man. Provides insight into Greek religious and moral philosophy.
Mahabharata
The longest epic poem in existence, containing the Bhagavad Gita. Chronicles the Kurukshetra War and includes extensive Hindu mythology and philosophy.
Ramayana
The epic tale of Prince Rama, his exile, the abduction of his wife Sita by demon king Ravana, and his alliance with the monkey god Hanuman.
Hellenistic Synthesis & Imperial Rome
The era of syncretism. Alexander’s conquests blend Mediterranean and Near-Eastern lore, while Roman poets Virgil and Ovid codify enduring transformations and genealogical compendiums.
Book of the Dead
A collection of funerary spells intended to assist the deceased in the afterlife. Major source for Egyptian underworld mythology and the weighing of the heart ceremony.
Aeneid
The Roman national epic following Trojan hero Aeneas from the fall of Troy to the founding of Rome. Primary source for Roman mythology and religious practice.
Metamorphoses
A narrative poem of transformations spanning from the creation of the world to the deification of Julius Caesar. Contains over 250 Greek and Roman myths.
Early Medieval Codices & East Asian Chronicles
The imperial consolidation of oral state mythologies. Imperial courts in Japan record the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Anglo-Saxon bards recite Beowulf, and Maya kingdoms erect monumental stelae.
Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters)
The oldest surviving chronicle of Japan, containing myths of creation, the divine couple Izanagi and Izanami, and the sun goddess Amaterasu.
Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan)
The second-oldest book of classical Japanese history, providing alternative versions of myths found in the Kojiki and additional material.
Viking Eddas & Celtic Manuscripts
The preservation of pagan European memories in Christian scriptoriums. Snorri Sturluson compiles the Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is written in Iceland, and Welsh and Irish monastic scribes preserve the Celtic cycles.
Poetic Edda
A collection of Old Norse poems from the medieval Icelandic manuscript Codex Regius. Primary source for Norse mythology including the Voluspa prophecy and Havamal.
Prose Edda
A manual of poetics that preserves Norse mythology through three sections: Gylfaginning (mythology), Skaldskaparmal (poetic diction), and Hattatal (verse forms).
The Mabinogion
Eleven Middle Welsh prose tales, among them the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, preserved in the White Book of Rhydderch and the Red Book of Hergest.
Mesoamerican Codices & Renaissance Folklore
Indigenous scribes transcribe ancient oral memory in European alphabets to save it from extinction, creating masterworks like the Popol Vuh, the Aztec Sun Stone, and monumental Chinese folk epics.
Popol Vuh
The creation narrative of the K'iche' Maya, telling of the Hero Twins and multiple attempts by the gods to create humanity. The most important text of Mesoamerican mythology.
Journey to the West (Xiyouji)
The Ming novel of the monk Xuanzang's pilgrimage to India with Sun Wukong and his companions, including the Monkey King's rebellion against Heaven and his imprisonment under the Five Elements Mountain.