Stories from ancient cultures
A growing collection of 1,516 stories from the world's oldest mythological traditions: gods and heroes, lovers and tricksters, the founders of cities and the keepers of the dead.
Browse by culture
Arabic 97 stories
Buddhist & Jain 85 stories
Celtic 25 stories
Chinese 91 stories
Egyptian 98 stories
Ethiopian 19 stories
Finnish 20 stories
Greek 132 stories
Indian 186 stories
Indian Tribal 118 stories
Japanese 94 stories
Korean 25 stories
Native American 29 stories
Norse 76 stories
Persian 25 stories
Polynesian 25 stories
Roman 96 stories
Tamil 225 stories
Thai & Southeast Asian 25 stories
West African 25 stories
Featured guides
In-depth articles on the figures and concepts behind the stories
Norse Odin Chief god of the Norse pantheon Greek Zeus King of the Greek gods Egyptian Isis Egyptian goddess of magic Indian Krishna Beloved Hindu deity Chinese Sun Wukong The Monkey King of Journey to the West Japanese Amaterasu Japanese sun goddess Celtic Cu Chulainn Warrior-hero of Ulster West African Anansi The Akan spider trickster
About this site
What started as bedtime stories for a child became a project to gather mythology from many traditions in one place. Each story is told as a story - dropped into the action, shaped to its own culture's voice, free of summary lectures and "themes-of" lists. At the top of every page is a short fact-card so you can see at a glance who the figures are, where the story comes from, and what it left behind in the world.