# Myth & Epic Atlas — research notes A Lab app that maps 162 figures, 304 recorded ties, 48 episodes and 12 curated cross-tradition parallels from six public-domain bodies of myth and epic: Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, the Indian epics (Valmiki's Ramayana and Vyasa's Mahabharata, with the devas who appear in them) and the Japanese Kojiki. It replaces the retired Marvel Universe Atlas and uses no third-party art, trademarks or images. ## Files | File | Role | |---|---| | `index.html` | Page, SEO head (JSON-LD between the `seo:ld` markers), layout | | `styles.css` | Lab styling; tradition colours (`.t-*`) and tie colours (`.ty-*`) for dark and light themes | | `data-figures.js` | Traditions, kinds, tie types, 162 figures, and all ties as `a type b \| note` lines | | `data-stories.js` | 48 episodes in narrative order (cycles, participants, sides, places, sources) and 12 parallels | | `atlas-core.js` | Index, family lookup (siblings derived from shared parents), breadth-first shortest path, forgiving search | | `emblems.js` | Original procedural SVG emblems: 115 symbols, six tradition motifs, sigil cards, mini emblems, motif bands | | `universe3d.js` | three.js universe (render on demand, own orbit/pan/zoom, picking, labels) and a 2D canvas fallback | | `family-view.js` | SVG family tree (up to five generations) and "All ties" diagram | | `app.js` | Views, card, timeline, trace, compare, parallels, questions, challenges, readouts, URL hash state | | `tour.js` | Guided tour (10 steps) for `apps/shared/app-tour.js` | | `art/*.webp` | 24 illustrations, each at 1344w and 672w (served with `srcset`) | | `art/tools/` | Build-time only, never loaded by the page: `kit.js` + `scenes.js` (canvas scene generator), `render.cjs` (Playwright renderer), `finish.py` (shared grade and WebP export) | ## Content principles - Every description and summary is original, written for this atlas from the sources below. No text is copied. - Indian epics and Shinto kami belong to living religions. Text uses a neutral voice ("in the Ramayana…"), notes that figures are worshipped today where relevant, avoids jokes and caricature, and never depicts a deity. - Emblems are symbolic objects (bow, lotus, conch, mirror, hammer, ankh…) drawn from simple geometry — never a face or body. - Variants are flagged on the card or episode (`v` field) rather than silently resolved. Where a lineage varies, the atlas follows one main source and says which: Aphrodite (Hesiod), Hephaestus, Týr, Anubis (Plutarch), Ishtar's father (Gilgamesh epic), the Pandavas' human and divine fathers (both shown), Sita's foster father. - Parallels are explicitly labelled as thematic comparisons, not claims of common origin. The only shared-origin statement is the linguistic one (Zeus, Dyaus, Jupiter from *dyēus; Týr from a related word). ## Models and methods - **Ties**: 9 kinds — parent, spouse, sibling, other kin, teacher, ally, rival, mount/animal, avatar/aspect. Directed kinds read left to right. Siblings are also derived from shared parents (full if two or more parents are shared). - **Trace**: breadth-first search over all ties, every tie one step; adjacency is ordered so family ties are tried first. Ties never cross traditions, so cross-tradition pairs report "no chain" and point to shared parallels. - **Universe layout**: realms on a ring; three tiers (heavens / world / underworld) at fixed heights; a deterministic force layout inside each realm; Ramayana and Mahabharata figures pulled to opposite sides of the Indian realm. - **Family tree**: rows by generation; siblings left, partners right on one marriage line (dashed for co-parents who were not spouses); children grouped beneath the partner they share; grandchildren under each child. - **Search**: accent- and case-insensitive; alternative names; consonant-skeleton matching (Kṛṣṇa = Krsna = Krishna); edit distance for small typos. ## Sources (public domain unless marked) - Homer, *Iliad* and *Odyssey*, trans. Samuel Butler (1898, 1900); *Odyssey*, trans. Butcher & Lang (1879); *Iliad*, trans. Lang, Leaf & Myers (1883). - Hesiod, *Theogony*, *Works and Days*, and the *Homeric Hymn to Demeter*, trans. H. G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914). - Apollodorus, *The Library*, trans. J. G. Frazer (Loeb, 1921); Plutarch, *Life of Theseus*, trans. B. Perrin (Loeb, 1914); Ovid, *Metamorphoses*, trans. Brookes More (1922); Virgil, *Georgics*, trans. J. B. Greenough (1900). - *The Poetic Edda*, trans. H. A. Bellows (1923); Snorri Sturluson, *The Prose Edda*, trans. A. G. Brodeur (1916); *The Story of the Volsungs*, trans. Magnússon & Morris (1888); *Heimskringla*, trans. S. Laing (1844). - Plutarch, *On Isis and Osiris*, trans. F. C. Babbitt (Loeb, 1936); *Book of the Dead*, trans. E. A. W. Budge (1895); Budge, *Legends of the Gods* (1912). - R. Campbell Thompson, *The Epic of Gilgamish* (1928); L. W. King, *The Seven Tablets of Creation* (1902). - *The Rámáyan of Válmíki*, trans. R. T. H. Griffith (1870–74); *The Mahabharata*, trans. K. M. Ganguli (1883–96); *The Song Celestial* (Bhagavad Gita), trans. Edwin Arnold (1885); *Hymns of the Rigveda*, trans. Griffith (1896). - *Kojiki*, trans. B. H. Chamberlain (1882); *Nihongi*, trans. W. G. Aston (1896). - Modern reading (in copyright, consulted for checking only): A. George, *The Epic of Gilgamesh* (1999); S. Dalley, *Myths from Mesopotamia* (1989); M. Lichtheim, *Ancient Egyptian Literature* (1973–80); R. P. Goldman et al., *The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa* (1984–2017); BORI critical edition of the *Mahābhārata* (1919–66). ## Illustrations All 24 images are original artwork made for this atlas. Six realm scenes appear in the universe view (realm strip, realm panel, figure-card backdrop) and 18 episode scenes appear in the Stories view, on episode cards and as "From the story" links on figure cards; question cards use a few of them as faint backgrounds. - **5 AI-generated paintings** (made for this app): Olympus, Yggdrasil, the sun's barque on the Nile, the weighing of the heart, Utnapishtim's flood. Their PNG masters are not shipped (about 8.7 MB); only the finished WebPs are. - **19 code-drawn scenes**: layered canvas matte paintings (gradient skies, noise clouds and fog, rim-lit silhouettes, glows, particles, a brush-stroke pass) from `art/tools/scenes.js`. Re-render with `NODE_PATH= CHROME= node art/tools/render.cjs `. - **One finishing pass for all 24** (`python3 art/tools/finish.py art`): cover-crop to 1344×756, a split-tone grade per tradition, gentle S-curve, vignette, fine seeded grain, then WebP stepped down in quality to stay within 180 KB (1344w) and 60 KB (672w). Total about 2.9 MB for 48 files, lazy-loaded. - Rules followed: no deity's face or body is drawn; people are small silhouettes; Indian and Japanese scenes show places and objects (river, temple spires, torii, chariot, banner), and the leap to Lanka is a distant silhouette. - They are evocations, not reconstructions of ancient art or architecture. ## Honest limits - A selection: 162 figures and 48 episodes from enormous traditions; many figures are only mentioned in passing. - One reading of sources that disagree; tie labels simplify (a "rival" may be a duel or a murder). - Story order is narrative order within a tradition, not historical dating. - 3D positions are decorative geography; only the ties carry meaning. - Illustrations are interpretive mood pieces; architecture, ships and costume are not historically exact. - Some popular details come from later retellings and are flagged as such (Achilles' heel, Ganesha as scribe, Gandhari's gaze, the Uttara Kanda). ## Verification (2026-10) - 1366×900 and 390×844, dark and light; all six questions, six views, pickers, filters, card actions, four challenges (all solvable and checked), tour (10 steps, both widths), keyboard tab order, WebGL-off fallback, reduced motion. - No page errors, no horizontal overflow, no duplicate IDs. `catalog.test.cjs` and discovery tests pass.