Cultures and mythologies
The symbols of past cultures and their myths, and what the sources say they meant.
- Adinkra symbolsThe designs stamped on adinkra cloth by the Akan of Ghana, each tied to a proverb or saying, and what Ghanaian scholars, printers and museums record of their meanings.20 entries
- Andean and Inca symbolsSymbols of the Andes from the Nazca lines and Tiwanaku to the Inca sun, the khipu and the chakana, and the Quechua and Aymara traditions that keep Pachamama and Inti Raymi today.13 entries
- Aztec symbols and godsThe gods of the Mexica (Aztecs) and the symbols of Tenochtitlan, from Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc to the Sun Stone and the eagle on the cactus.10 entries
- Celtic symbolsThe knots and spirals of Celtic art, where each form comes from, and what it has been taken to mean since.7 entries
- Chinese mythology and symbolsThe qilin, the dragon and the phoenix, the guardian lions at the gate, the Four Symbols of the sky, and the double happiness, bats and knots of Chinese weddings and festivals, and what each one means.14 entries
- Chinese zodiacThe twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, the five elements that turn them into a sixty-year cycle, and the years each one rules, from the lunar calendar.14 entries
- Cryptids and folklore creaturesSea monsters, snowmen and tall-tale beasts: where each story began, who reported what, and how the sources explained it.18 entries
- Greek gods and their symbolsThe Olympian gods and the attributes that identify them in Greek art, from Zeus’s thunderbolt to Hades’s helmet, and Medusa, whose face guarded shields and doorways.16 entries
- HeraldryHeraldry’s charges, colours and their meanings: the fleur-de-lis, the lion rampant, the tinctures, the ordinaries and the rest, and what the heralds and the heraldry books say each one meant.15 entries
- Historical flagsFlags and standards from history, from the Roman eagle to the Jolly Roger and the first flags of the United States: what each one was, who carried it, and what the record shows against the legend.23 entries
- Hobo symbolsThe chalk marks American tramps and hobos were said to leave on fences and gateposts, what each was reported to mean, and what the record shows about how widely they were used.13 entries
- Mesopotamian symbols and godsCuneiform, the gods of Sumer, Babylon and Assyria and their emblems, from the star of Inanna to the lamassu that guarded the palace gates.10 entries
- Mythical creatures of Greece and EuropeGriffins, sirens, selkies and Baba Yaga: what the oldest texts and folk collections say about each creature, how its picture changed, and where it turns up in heraldry.20 entries
- Norse and Viking symbolsThe signs of Norse myth, Viking Age art and later Scandinavian and Icelandic magic, and when each is first recorded.16 entries
- Norse gods and their symbolsThe gods of Norse myth as the Eddas describe them, and the objects and place names that show they were worshipped, from Odin and Thor to Freyja, Loki and the Norns.16 entries
- Symbols of medicineWhere the emblems of medicine, nursing and pharmacy come from: the rod of Asclepius, the caduceus often used in its place, the bowl of Hygieia, the show globe, Florence Nightingale’s lamp, and the red cross and red lion and sun of the Geneva Conventions.7 entries
- Taíno symbolsThe zemís, petroglyphs and ceremonial objects of the Taíno of the Caribbean, from the sun of Jayuya and the coquí to Atabey and the hurricane, and how the Taíno movement keeps them today.10 entries
- Yōkai and creatures of Japanese folkloreKitsune, tanuki, tengu, kappa, oni and the other yōkai of Japanese folklore, as Edo-period books and prints drew them and as the stories tell them, and where modern anime and games depart from that record.12 entries
- Cave and rock artThe oldest pictures people made: the painted caves of Lascaux, Chauvet and Altamira, hand stencils, carved figurines, petroglyphs, and the signs painted beside them.8 entries
- Japanese symbolsThe torii, the guardian lion-dogs and the kami of Shinto, family crests and the imperial chrysanthemum, Mount Fuji, and the dragon, koi, crane, hannya mask and daruma of Japanese art and custom.12 entries
- Maya symbols and godsThe gods and signs of the ancient Maya, from Kukulkan and Chaac to the calendar and the bar-and-dot numbers, and how Maya communities keep them today.26 entries
- Protective and luck symbolsCharms and signs people have used to ward off harm and bring luck, and where each belief comes from.6 entries
- Olmec symbolsThe colossal heads and the were-jaguar of the Olmec, the earliest of the great Mesoamerican cultures.7 entries
- Symbols across culturesShapes that many peoples made their own, the tree of life, the labyrinth, the crescent moon, the spiral and the cosmic egg, and what each one meant where.19 entries
About cultures and mythologies
Symbols of past cultures, and the beliefs and stories told about them. Each page says whose symbol or story it is and when it is first recorded.
Norse and Viking symbols are the attributes of the Norse gods, the emblems and animal art of the Viking Age, and the later magical staves of Iceland. The National Museum of Denmark describes our knowledge of the old Nordic religion as “a patchwork quilt of information from many places, periods and people”, and the pages say which piece of the patchwork each symbol comes from. The runes the same peoples wrote with are under the Elder Futhark, with the other ancient scripts. Celtic symbols are the knots and spirals of Celtic art: the Celtic knot, whose early makers left no record of what it meant, and the triskele, whose oldest Irish examples are carved at Newgrange, built about 3200 BC.
Protective and luck symbols are charms against harm, beginning with the evil eye bead, worn against the harm an envious or admiring look is believed to do. Cryptids and folklore creatures are the sea monsters, snowmen and tall-tale beasts of sightings, newspapers and logging camps, from the kraken to the hodag. Symbols of medicine trace the rod of Asclepius, the caduceus and the bowl of Hygieia from Greek myth and cult to the emblems of medicine and pharmacy.
Aztec symbols and gods, Maya symbols and gods and Olmec symbols are the images of Mesoamerica, from the Olmec colossal heads to the Mexica Sun Stone and the Maya calendar. Their peoples are living: in Mexico’s 2020 census, Nahuatl, the language of the Mexica, was the Indigenous language most spoken.
How old is it?
The answer differs from one collection to the next. The Danish encyclopedia Lex dates Viking art from about 800 to the first half of the 1100s, but the vegvísir is first recorded in an Icelandic manuscript composed in 1860. Some creatures began as jokes: a Rhinelander postcard says loggers spun many a tale about the hodag and that “a great number were taken in by the hoax”. Of the evil eye, Frederick Elworthy wrote in 1895 that the origin of the belief “is lost in the obscurity of prehistoric ages”.
Beliefs held today
Some of these beliefs are living ones. The old Norse religion has followers again: the National Museum of Denmark calls it a revival and reinterpretation, and Denmark’s largest society, Forn Sidr, was officially approved in 2003. Among Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews, the Jewish Virtual Library records, it is customary to qualify praise with keyn ayen hore, “may there be no evil eye”, while an Islamweb fatwa holds that hanging a hand-shaped amulet to repel the evil eye is impermissible. Creatures that belong to living Indigenous traditions, such as the wendigo and the thunderbird, are not treated here as monsters of folklore.
Sources
- The old religion, National Museum of Denmark
- The old Nordic religion today, National Museum of Denmark
- Vikingekunst (Lex), Lex, Danmarks Nationalleksikon
- Origins of the “vegvísir” symbol, Tomáš Vlasatý, 5 April 2019, Projekt Forlǫg
- Nazar (TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi), Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı
- The Evil Eye (Elworthy, 1895), Frederick Thomas Elworthy, 1895, John Murray
- Evil Eye, Encyclopaedia Judaica, via the Jewish Virtual Library (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise)
- Hanging amulets is prohibited regardless of the person’s intention, Fatwa 262186, Islamweb
- The Hodag from Rhinelander, Wisconsin (postcard, North Wisconsin Post Card Co.), Postcard, The Hodag from Rhinelander, Wisconsin, North Wisconsin Post Card Co., Rhinelander, Internet Archive, reverse
- In Search of Meaning: Symbolism of Celtic Knotwork (part 4), Stephen Walker, 18 January 2001; published in Dalriada Magazine, Walker Metalsmiths (via the Internet Archive)
- Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre: Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, Heritage Ireland (Office of Public Works)
- Estadísticas a propósito del Día Internacional de los Pueblos Indígenas (INEGI, 2022), Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, comunicado de prensa núm. 430/22, 8 August 2022, from the Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI), p. 1; p. 4
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 3, 2026. How we research