Assignment 6- Hannah Whaley- Ancient Mythologies and Archetypes

Stories have always been my favorite way to spend time. Considering that mythology is simply thousands of stories intricately spun into a belief system- it's no surprise I was drawn to it at a young age. However- flipping between Roman, Greek, Japanese, and Chinese myths- I quickly saw similarities across the ancient tales. I noticed archetypes- a word I didn't stumble upon until long after I had discovered them. There's always the heroes, some sort of heaven, some sort of hell. For Greeks, it's Mt. Olympus and the Underworld. For the Japanese, there's a type of heaven and "Hell" is Jigoku - home to demons. And heroes especially dominate myths - which are often related to nature. There's Hercules from Greek culture, Shen- Yi from Chinese, Yamato Tekeru from Japanese, etc. They always have legendary power and always save the world and always have sidekicks. I could go on and pick specific examples from hundreds of tales to show you they are all so incredibly similar while different at the same time. However, I find that it is much more fun to read and discover them yourself, so here are some books to read to find these archetypes:
-Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
- Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa
-Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao