Hitchhiker's Guide to Religion
Comparative Archetypes

Patterns

The figures religion keeps reinventing — thunder gods, mother goddesses, tricksters, dying gods, sun kings, sacred twins. Same role, different masks.

10 patterns
10 traditions

Thunder Gods

The lightning-wielders who rule the storm

Greek Norse Hindu Mesopotamian Slavic +4
8 traditions

Dying-and-Rising Gods

The god who is killed and comes back

Egyptian Greek Mesopotamian Canaanite Aztec +1
9 traditions

Underworld Descents

The hero who goes down and (sometimes) comes back

Mesopotamian Greek Roman Japanese Christian +2
9 traditions

World Trees & the Axis Mundi

The vertical pole that links earth, heaven, and underworld

Norse Hindu Jewish Maya Native American +1
9 traditions

Flood Myths

The waters came everywhere

Mesopotamian Jewish Hindu Greek Chinese +3
9 traditions

Tricksters

The thief who stole fire and the spider who bought stories

Greek Norse Native American Yoruba Chinese +2
10 traditions

Mother Goddesses

The great female who gives birth to the world

Egyptian Greek Roman Canaanite Hindu +5
10 traditions

Sun Gods

The chariot, the disk, and the daily resurrection

Egyptian Greek Hindu Inca Aztec +3
8 traditions

Divine Twins

The pair born together who travel together

Greek Roman Hindu Maya Haitian Vodou +2
6 traditions

Sacrificed Gods

The god who suffers for humans, on a cross or a tree

Christian Norse Aztec Greek Hindu +1