Ancient ✦ Wisdom ✦ Atlas

Motif family

Divine Warrior and Sacred Combat

The god or hero who fights cosmic battles # against chaos monsters, demons, rival gods, or the forces of darkness. Includes the warrior whose combat establishes or maintains cosmic order.

47 traditions

1,262 occurrences

1,225 mapped motifs

10 sub-families

  • ainu
  • arctic inuit
  • arthurian
  • biblical
  • buddhist
  • caucasian
  • celtic
  • celtic irish
  • celtic welsh
  • christian apocrypha
  • confucian
  • egyptian
  • estonian
  • filipino
  • finnish karelian
  • germanic
  • greek
  • greek roman
  • hawaiian
  • hindu
  • hopi
  • inuit
  • islamic
  • islamicate folklore
  • japanese
  • jewish christian
  • jewish pseudepigrapha
  • mesopotamian
  • nahua
  • nahua maya inca
  • native american northwest coast
  • native american plains
  • native american southeast
  • native american southwest
  • navajo
  • norse
  • persian
  • roman
  • romanian
  • samoan
  • san
  • shan
  • slavic
  • sufi
  • taoist
  • zoroastrian
  • zuni

Conserved neighbors: sacrifice · divine judgment · royal legitimacy · conditional invulnerability hidden weakness

Sub-families · the next landing down

Divine Aid in Battle

57 motifs

Monster, Demon, and Giant Slaying

62 motifs

Battle Fury and Aristeia

38 motifs

Lone Hero Against Many

21 motifs

Wounded, Fallen, and Avenged

75 motifs

War Deity and War Goddess

30 motifs

Storm, Thunder, and Cosmic Combat

16 motifs

Warrior Imagery and Radiance

76 motifs

Arms, Spoils, and Trophies

21 motifs

Boasts, Taunts, and Exhortations

30 motifs

Not yet placed in a sub-family

799 motifs, showing the 60 most attested

Each motif link opens its evidence page: every tagged passage with its quote, and a path into the book where the passage lives.