Culture hero
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group (cultural, ethnic, racial, religious, etc.) who changes the world through invention or discovery. A typical culture hero might be credited as the discoverer of fire, or agriculture, songs, tradition and religion, and is usually the most important legendary figure of a people, sometimes as the founder of its ruling dynasty. The hero is sometimes said to be still living, but is often instead a star, constellation or purely spiritual in nature.
In many cultures, particularly Native American, the mythical figure of the trickster and the culture hero are combined. To illustrate, Prometheus, in Greek mythology, stole fire from the gods to give it to humans. He is more of a culture hero than a trickster. In many North American Indian mythologies, the coyote spirit stole fire from the gods (or stars or sun) and is more of a trickster than a culture hero. Natives from the Southeastern United States typically saw a rabbit trickster/culture hero. The Western African trickster spider Ananse is also widely-disseminated.
The term is sometimes used to describe great authors or artists in a metaphorical sense (i.e. Mzwakhe Mbuli, a South African poet [1]).
[edit] Partial list
- American mythology
- Abenaki mythology
- Bedig-wajo (western)
- Ktaden (eastern)
- Glooscap
- Aboriginal mythology
- Abrahamic religions (Islam, Christianity, Judaism)
- Ashanti mythology
- Aztec mythology
- Banks Islander mythology
- Celtic mythology (Irish, Welsh)
- Chinese mythology
- Egyptian mythology
- Etruscan mythology
- Tarchon
- Tyrrehenus
- Finnish mythology
- Greek mythology
- Indian mythology
- Inuit mythology
- Lakota mythology
- Maori mythology
- Maya mythology
- Meosamerican Myth:
- Mesopotamian mythology
- Ohlone mythology
- Navaho mythology
- Changing Woman
- the Diyin dine
- Ojibwe mythology
- Persian mythology
- Polynesian mythology
- Roman mythology
- Solomon Islander mythology
- To-Kabinana
- Ute mythology
- Weenhayek mythology
- Ahutsetajwaj
- Tapiatsa
- Zuni mythology
- Yanauluha
