Ancient ✦ Wisdom ✦ Atlas

Currents

The families flowing through time

Each band below is a canonical motif family; its thickness is the density of dated evidence in each era of the corpus. The figure is drawn at build time from the era-flow index — as the corpus and its dating grow, the currents redraw themselves. The 14 best-attested families are shown.

Duality and Cosmic Opposition — first dated ca. 1,700 BCE — per era: 15 · 4 · 321 · 168 · 212 · 114 · 349 Ascent and Heavenly Journey — first dated ca. 1,310 BCE — per era: 0 · 4 · 221 · 240 · 239 · 99 · 488 Initiation and Transformative Ordeal — first dated ca. 1,700 BCE — per era: 15 · 2 · 195 · 195 · 189 · 270 · 625 Sacrifice and Offering — first dated ca. 1,310 BCE — per era: 0 · 4 · 372 · 474 · 174 · 92 · 532 Death, Rebirth, and Transformation — first dated ca. 1,700 BCE — per era: 1 · 11 · 108 · 174 · 742 · 195 · 732 Sacred Exchange and Reciprocity — first dated ca. 1,700 BCE — per era: 4 · 6 · 446 · 443 · 379 · 352 · 969 The Hero's Journey — first dated ca. 1,700 BCE — per era: 11 · 1 · 558 · 673 · 353 · 541 · 1433 Sacred Knowledge and Wisdom — first dated ca. 1,700 BCE — per era: 20 · 14 · 1015 · 843 · 1184 · 891 · 2200 Divine Judgment and Moral Reckoning — first dated ca. 1,700 BCE — per era: 3 · 14 · 665 · 500 · 1296 · 272 · 666 Mystical Quest and Interior Journey — first dated ca. 1,700 BCE — per era: 12 · 1 · 198 · 477 · 110 · 555 · 1157 Royal Legitimacy and Sacred Kingship — first dated ca. 1,700 BCE — per era: 5 · 14 · 244 · 619 · 123 · 267 · 664 Miraculous Child and Sacred Birth — first dated ca. 1,700 BCE — per era: 4 · 10 · 320 · 380 · 152 · 143 · 573 Shapeshifter and Transformation — first dated ca. 1,310 BCE — per era: 0 · 3 · 143 · 380 · 49 · 194 · 699 Sacred Love and Longing — first dated ca. 1,700 BCE — per era: 2 · 0 · 134 · 448 · 7 · 144 · 548 before 1500 BCE1500-800 BCE800-300 BCE300 BCE-200 CE200-800 CE800-1500 CE1500 CE onward
Band thickness is dated extraction records per era (raw counts; eras are not equal spans of time). Hover a band for its numbers; click to open the family.

First attestations

Where each current first surfaces

The earliest dated appearance of each family in the corpus so far. “First here” means first in our dated evidence, not first in history.

FamilyEarliest dated evidenceTradition
Sacred Knowledge and Wisdom ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
The Hero's Journey ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Divine Judgment and Moral Reckoning ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Sacred Exchange and Reciprocity ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Mystical Quest and Interior Journey ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Death, Rebirth, and Transformation ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Royal Legitimacy and Sacred Kingship ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Miraculous Child and Sacred Birth ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Initiation and Transformative Ordeal ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Sacred Love and Longing ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Duality and Cosmic Opposition ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Afterlife Navigation and Passage ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Serpent and Serpent Guardian ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Sacred Time and Ritual Cycle ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Culture Hero and Founder ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Sacred Twins and Sibling Pairs ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Flood, Fire, and Cosmic Renewal ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Cosmic Origin and Creation ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Descent and Underworld Journey ca. 1,700 BCE mesopotamian
Sacrifice and Offering ca. 1,310 BCE egyptian
Shapeshifter and Transformation ca. 1,310 BCE egyptian
Ascent and Heavenly Journey ca. 1,310 BCE egyptian
Covenant and Sacred Bond ca. 1,310 BCE egyptian
World Axis and Sacred Center ca. 1,310 BCE egyptian
Sacred Feminine and Mother Goddess ca. 1,150 BCE mesopotamian
Sacred Waters and Passage Through Water ca. 1,150 BCE mesopotamian
Trickster and Boundary Crosser ca. 700 BCE greek
Sacred Fire and Divine Light ca. 700 BCE greek
Sacred Law and Social Order ca. 650 BCE biblical
Sacred Treasures and Power Objects ca. 650 BCE biblical
Divine Warrior and Sacred Combat ca. 650 BCE biblical
Sacred Vessel and Container ca. 650 BCE biblical

Honest coverage note

95 texts currently carry scholarly composition-date ranges; 255 texts (46,305 extraction records) await dating and are excluded rather than guessed. Recorded oral traditions appear at their recording date, which vastly understates their age — treat the rightmost era as “when writing caught up,” not “when the stories began.”