List of mythological places

A list of mythological places encompasses the legendary and often symbolic locations that appear in the myths, folklore, and religious narratives of cultures worldwide, functioning as key settings for tales of gods, heroes, creation, and the afterlife. These sites, ranging from divine realms and underworlds to paradises and vanished utopias, illustrate humanity's attempts to map the unseen aspects of existence, blending geography with cosmology to explain natural phenomena, moral orders, and cultural identities.^[1] Prominent examples span diverse traditions and highlight the imaginative scope of global mythology. In Greek mythology, Mount Olympus serves as the majestic home of the Olympian gods, presided over by Zeus, symbolizing divine authority and the separation between mortals and immortals.^[2] Similarly, in Norse mythology, Asgard represents the fortified realm of the Aesir gods, a celestial domain connected to the human world by the rainbow bridge Bifrost, embodying themes of valor and cosmic order.^[3] Egyptian mythology features the Duat, an intricate underworld traversed by the sun god Ra and deceased souls, where judgment and renewal occur amid perilous realms guarded by deities like Anubis.^[4] Beyond these, the fabled island of Atlantis, depicted by the philosopher Plato as an advanced naval power sunk by divine wrath, exemplifies a lost paradise that has inspired quests for hidden knowledge and critiques of hubris.^[5] Mythological places transcend mere backdrops, often carrying profound cultural and psychological significance by embodying ideals, fears, and transitions between worlds. They influence rituals, literature, and even modern storytelling, preserving ancient worldviews while adapting to contemporary interpretations, and underscore the shared human impulse to envision realms beyond the tangible.^[6]

African mythologies

Egyptian mythology

In ancient Egyptian cosmology, mythological places played a central role in understanding the universe's origins, the cycle of life and death, and the divine order (ma'at). These realms encompassed primordial chaos, sacred landscapes of creation, and structured domains of the afterlife, reflecting the Egyptians' preoccupation with eternity, renewal, and judgment. Key among them were the Duat, Aaru, Nun, and Ta-netjer, each embodying motifs of transition from chaos to order and the soul's journey beyond mortal existence.^[7] The Duat, often rendered as the vast underworld or netherworld, served as the perilous domain navigated by the deceased en route to eternal reward or oblivion. Depicted in funerary texts like the Book of the Dead, it featured a labyrinthine structure with twelve guarded gates, each overseen by fierce deities and serpents, and serpentine paths or caverns that mirrored the sun god Ra's nocturnal voyage. The deceased, aided by spells and protective amulets, undertook this journey on a solar barque, confronting obstacles such as demons and illusory lakes of fire, before reaching the Hall of Judgment where Osiris presided. There, the heart was weighed against the feather of Ma'at by Anubis, determining the soul's fate amid Osiris's divine court. This realm underscored the Egyptian belief in death as a transformative trial, integral to maintaining cosmic balance.^[7][8][9] Beyond the Duat lay Aaru, known as the Field of Reeds or Sekhet-Aaru, the paradisiacal afterlife reserved for the righteous whose hearts passed judgment. This idyllic realm was envisioned as an eternal mirror of earthly Egypt, with lush, fertile fields along waterways where crops grew abundantly without toil, fish teemed in streams, and the deceased enjoyed leisure, family reunions, and the fruits of their mortal labors. Free from suffering, hunger, or aging, Aaru represented unending harmony under Osiris's benevolent rule, often depicted in tomb paintings as a verdant paradise sustained by the Nile's perpetual bounty. Its imagery, drawn from Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts, emphasized renewal and the soul's (ba and ka) reintegration into divine existence.^[10][11] Nun embodied the primordial chaotic waters that predated and encircled creation, a formless, infinite abyss personified as a deity and the source of all potentiality in Egyptian myth. As the inert, watery void, Nun surrounded the created world, from which the Ogdoad—eight deities including Nun and Naunet (water), Amun and Amaunet (air), Heh and Hauhet (infinity), and Kek and Kauket (darkness)—emerged to facilitate cosmic birth. At Hermopolis, creation began when these forces coalesced, prompting the benben mound, a pyramidal hill of first land, to rise from Nun's depths, upon which the creator god Atum or Ptah manifested order from chaos. This motif highlighted Nun's dual role as both destructive potential and nurturing origin, invoked in hymns to affirm the world's ongoing emergence from pre-creation depths.^[12][13] Ta-netjer, or "God's Land," designated a mythical eastern realm symbolizing divine origins and the sunrise's regenerative power, blending geographical and cosmographic elements in Egyptian worldview. Positioned beyond the Nile Valley in the Eastern Desert and extending to distant lands like Punt, it was revered as the abode of gods and source of sacred imports such as incense and myrrh, evoking the solar cycle where Re renewed daily. Texts from the Old to New Kingdoms, including temple inscriptions, portrayed Ta-netjer as a liminal space where earthly and divine realms converged, with Punt as a key toponym embodying its exotic, god-favored fertility and spiritual significance. This concept reinforced Egypt's identity as a mediated center between chaos and divinity.^[14][15]

Sub-Saharan African mythologies

Sub-Saharan African mythologies, drawn from diverse oral traditions across West, East, and Southern Africa, emphasize places that connect communities to their origins, spirits, and ancestors through natural landscapes and communal rituals. These realms often blend the earthly and spiritual, portraying the world as interdependent layers where humans, deities, and nature interact to maintain harmony and fertility. Unlike more individualized afterlives, these mythological sites highlight collective ties to land and lineage, with rituals like libations reinforcing bonds between the living and the unseen. Key examples from Yoruba and Akan traditions in West Africa, alongside Bantu influences in the east, illustrate sacred origins and spirit domains that underpin social order and cosmic balance. In Yoruba mythology, Ilé-Ifẹ̀ stands as the sacred city of origin, where Oduduwa descended from the heavens on a chain to establish the first land amid primordial waters, marking it as the cradle of humanity and kingship.^[16] Accompanied by items like sand in a snail shell and a rooster, Oduduwa scattered earth to form solid ground, planting a palm tree whose branches symbolized the spread of Yoruba clans.^[17] Later, Obatala molded the first humans from clay in this locale, breathing life into them under divine command, thus positioning Ilé-Ifẹ̀ as the spiritual and political heart from which Yoruba civilization radiated.^[18] The Yoruba cosmos divides into Orun, the upper heavenly realm of orishas—divine beings embodying natural forces—and Aye, the earthly domain of the living, with the two interconnected through rituals and ase, the vital life force.^[19] Orun serves as the abode of over 400 orishas, ancestors, and spirits, inaccessible to ordinary mortals but reachable via divination, sacrifices, and trance states that bridge the visible and invisible worlds.^[19] This duality underscores Yoruba beliefs in balance, where earthly actions in Aye influence heavenly harmony in Orun, fostering communal prosperity and moral guidance. Among the Akan people of Ghana, Asamando represents the shadowy underworld beneath the earth, a domain where the dead transition into nsamanfo—ghosts or spirits—and ancestors reside to oversee the living's affairs.^[20] Upon death, the soul (okra) enters this subterranean realm, maintaining influence over descendants through dreams, omens, and ritual communications.^[21] Libations of palm wine or water poured onto the ground serve as offerings to invoke ancestral blessings, ensuring fertility, protection, and justice, while reinforcing the Akan view of death as a communal continuum rather than severance.^[20]

Near Eastern mythologies

Mesopotamian mythology

In Mesopotamian mythology, spanning Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian traditions, mythological places often represent primordial realms that establish cosmic order, divine abodes, and the boundaries between life, chaos, and the afterlife. These locales, drawn from cuneiform texts, underscore themes of creation, fertility, and cataclysmic renewal, including flood narratives that echo later Abrahamic stories like Noah's ark. Key sites include paradisiacal islands, subterranean domains, watery abysses, and ancient urban centers, each tied to specific deities and the maintenance of harmony in the universe.^[22] Dilmun appears in Sumerian lore as an Eden-like paradise island, a pristine realm untouched by corruption or suffering, serving as the original home of the gods and a site of eternal youth. In the myth Enki and Ninhursag, Dilmun is depicted as a pure land without disease, death, or natural strife: "In Dilmun the raven was not yet cawing, the partridge not cackling. The lion did not slay... The land of Dilmun did not have a name." Enki, the god of fresh waters and wisdom, transforms it by creating flowing rivers and springs, introducing fertility and life while ensuring its inhabitants' immortality through divine intervention. This idyllic state persists until later narratives, such as the flood survivor Ziusudra's relocation there, where it becomes a post-cataclysm sanctuary of everlasting life.^[23][22] Kur, also known as Irkalla, functions as the dark underworld in Sumerian and Akkadian texts, a vast, dusty cavern realm ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal, where deceased souls wander eternally without hope of return. Described as a shadowy domain beneath the earth, it enforces inexorable separation from the living world, with souls subsisting on dust and clay in perpetual gloom. The myth Inanna's Descent to the Underworld details its structure, featuring seven gates guarded by the gatekeeper Neti, through which intruders like Inanna must pass, shedding garments and power at each threshold: "Neti, the chief gatekeeper of the kur... [leads to] the palace of Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Underworld." This multi-gated barrier symbolizes the irreversible finality of death, reinforcing Kur's role in upholding cosmic boundaries.^[24] Apsu embodies the fresh water abyss in Babylonian cosmology, personified as a primordial deity representing the chaotic depths from which the universe emerges, paired with the salty sea goddess Tiamat. In the creation epic Enuma Elish, Apsu and Tiamat mingle as the singular watery void before named existence: "When on high the heaven had not been named... Naught but primordial Apsu, their begetter, (And) Mummu-Tiamat, she who bore every living thing, Their waters commingling as a single body." As the birthplace of the gods, Apsu fathers the first divine pair, Lahmu and Lahamu, initiating theogony amid turbulent chaos, until younger gods' noise provokes conflict, leading to Marduk's triumph and ordered creation. This watery origin highlights Apsu's dual nature as both generative source and disruptive force in establishing cosmic order.^[25][26] Eridu stands as the mythical first city in Sumerian tradition, founded by Enki as the cradle of civilization and the origin point of divine kingship, symbolizing humanity's structured ascent from primordial times. The Sumerian King List proclaims it the initial seat of rule: "After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridug," where antediluvian kings like Alulim reigned for 28,800 years, establishing governance under Enki's patronage. As Enki's cult center, Eridu housed the god's temple, E-abzu, linking urban foundations to watery wisdom and fertility, and it served as the hub for early laws, arts, and societal order before the flood's disruption.^[27][28]

Canaanite mythology

In Canaanite mythology, as preserved in the Ugaritic texts from Ras Shamra (modern Syria), mythological places are intricately tied to the Baal Cycle, a series of epic narratives depicting the storm god Baal's struggles against forces of chaos and death to ensure fertility and seasonal renewal. These locations—sacred mountains, abyssal seas, and subterranean realms—symbolize the cosmic order upheld by divine conflict, reflecting the agricultural concerns of ancient Levantine societies. Central to fertility cults, such places underscore Baal's role as a victorious king whose dominion brings rain and prosperity.^[29] Mount Zaphon (Sapon), a northern divine mountain often identified with Jebel al-Aqra overlooking the Mediterranean, served as Baal's throne and the primary site of divine assemblies in Ugaritic lore. Shrouded in clouds to evoke the storm god's presence, it was the arena for Baal's battles against sea chaos, where he established his kingship after constructing a grand palace of cedar, gold, and lapis lazuli. This holy peak, revered in both mythological and ritual texts, represented the axis of divine authority and cosmic stability.^[29] Yam's Abyss, the primordial realm of the chaos god Yam (also called Nahar, meaning "River"), embodied the unruly and destructive waters threatening ordered creation. In the Baal Cycle, this abyssal sea domain challenged Baal's supremacy, leading to a fierce confrontation where Baal, armed with clubs forged by the craftsman god Kothar, subdued Yam to impose fertility upon the land. The abyss symbolized untamed primordial forces, essential to myths of divine victory over disorder.^[29] Mot's Underworld, the barren subterranean domain ruled by the death god Mot, represented sterility, drought, and the cessation of life, mirroring the dry summer season in the Levant. Baal's descent into this desolate realm—depicted as a place of filth and insatiable hunger—led to his temporary death and the earth's infertility, but his revival, aided by the warrior goddess Anat, restored rain and vegetation, enacting the cycle of seasonal rebirth central to Canaanite fertility rites.^[29]

European mythologies

Greco-Roman mythology

In Greco-Roman mythology, mythological places often intertwine divine residences, realms of the afterlife, and idealized or cautionary lost lands, reflecting themes of cosmic order, heroism, and human folly as depicted in epic poetry and philosophical dialogues. These locales, drawn from Homeric epics and Hesiod's works, portray a structured universe where gods convene in lofty heights, the dead are sorted by merit in subterranean domains, and distant utopias symbolize unattainable perfection. Such sites not only anchor narratives of divine politics and mortal destinies but also influenced later philosophical inquiries into ideal societies and the geography of the soul. Mount Olympus served as the exalted, ethereal abode of the Olympian gods, envisioned as a snow-capped peak floating above the earth where Zeus and his kin held councils amid palaces of marble and gold, feasting on nectar and ambrosia. In Homer's Iliad, Olympus is frequently invoked as the gods' unassailable home, from which they observe and intervene in Trojan War events, emphasizing its role as the center of divine authority and familial intrigue.^[30] Hesiod's Theogony further elaborates on its inaccessibility, reachable only by the gods' will, underscoring the separation between mortal realms and immortal privilege. Hades, the vast Underworld ruled by the god of the same name, comprises a multi-layered subterranean domain that processes souls according to their earthly deeds, blending judgment with eternal geography. The Elysian Fields form its paradisiacal upper region, reserved for heroes and the virtuous where they enjoy perpetual ease without toil or strife, as described in Homer's Odyssey where Achilles resides in bliss.^[31] Below lies the Asphodel Meadows, a neutral expanse for ordinary souls who wander as shades, neither rewarded nor punished, evoking a muted existence reflective of average mortal lives in Hesiodic cosmology. Deepest is Tartarus, a gloomy abyss encircling the world like a moat, imprisoning Titans and other primordial foes in perpetual darkness, its vast chasm measuring nine days' fall from earth as per Hesiod's account of cosmic structure. These divisions highlight the Underworld's role in maintaining divine justice, with Titan confinements paralleling mythic bindings of chaotic forces in broader Indo-European traditions. Atlantis, a legendary island empire beyond the Pillars of Hercules, represents a pinnacle of ancient advancement felled by hubris, its concentric canals and grand temples symbolizing hubristic excess against natural and moral order. Plato details in Timaeus how Atlantis spanned larger than Libya and Asia combined, governed by Poseidon-descended kings who amassed power through naval might and opulent architecture until earthquakes and floods submerged it in a single day.^[32] In Critias, the dialogue expands on its utopian origins—blessed with fertile plains, hot and cold springs, and divine metals—contrasting its moral decline with Athens' virtuous defense, framing Atlantis as a philosophical allegory for societal decay.^[33] Hyperborea, the fabled northern land "beyond the north wind," embodies an idyllic utopia of eternal spring, free from disease and war, where a pious race worships Apollo in unending harmony. Pindar's Pythian Odes portrays it as a circular paradise encircling the world, home to long-lived Hyperboreans who send sacred offerings to Delos, linking it to Apollo's cult through myths of his annual sojourns.^[34] Herodotus in his Histories locates it beyond Scythia, describing its inhabitants' straw-wrapped gifts passed tribe to tribe, evoking a remote, enlightened society untouched by Greek strife.^[34]

Norse mythology

In Norse mythology, the cosmos is envisioned as nine interconnected worlds sustained by Yggdrasil, the immense ash tree that serves as the axis mundi, binding realms of gods, humans, giants, and primordial forces together in a structure foretelling cycles of creation, fate, and apocalyptic renewal known as Ragnarök. This cosmological framework is primarily outlined in the Eddic poems, such as Völuspá from the Poetic Edda, where a seeress recounts the origins of the worlds from the void of Ginnungagap and their eventual doom, emphasizing themes of inevitable destiny woven by the Norns at Yggdrasil's roots. The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson further elaborates on this map in its Gylfaginning section, depicting Yggdrasil as gnawed by creatures like the serpent Níðhöggr and nourished by sacred wells, with the worlds arrayed along its branches and roots to reflect a balanced yet tense harmony between order and chaos. Asgard stands as the fortified celestial realm of the Æsir gods, perched atop Yggdrasil's branches and protected by high walls forged by the builder-god after Loki's trickery. Within Asgard lie prominent halls such as Valhalla, Odin's vast mead-hall where fallen warriors known as einherjar feast and train daily for the battles of Ragnarök, and Gladsheim, the golden council hall where the gods assemble to deliberate fates and oaths. This divine stronghold symbolizes the Æsir's authority and preparation for cosmic conflict, connected to the mortal world via the shimmering rainbow bridge Bifröst, guarded by the god Heimdall. Midgard, the central world of humanity, occupies the trunk of Yggdrasil and is encircled by the vast body of Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent, whose coils form an impassable ocean barrier against chaos. Created from the body of the primordial giant Ymir, Midgard was shaped by Odin and his brothers as a safe enclosure for mortals, fenced by the eyebrows of Ymir and linked to Asgard by Bifröst to allow divine intervention in human affairs. It represents the ordered realm of fate-bound lives, where humans dwell amid the struggles foreshadowed in Ragnarök prophecies, including the serpent's fatal clash with Thor. Niflheim endures as the ancient icy realm in the north, one of the primordial voids from which creation emerged, characterized by freezing mists, fog, and the well Hvergelmir that spawns eleven venomous rivers flowing through the cosmos. Bordering the underworld domain of Hel, where the goddess Hel rules over the dishonored dead, Niflheim's chill essence contrasts with fiery opposites and contributes to Yggdrasil's nourishment via one of its roots, underscoring the mythic balance of cold stasis and inevitable dissolution in Ragnarök's floods and fires. Muspelheim blazes in the south as the fiery counterpart to Niflheim, a scorching domain of flame and embers inhabited by fire giants and ruled by the sword-wielding Surtr, whose forces guard the world's southern edge. Originating from the sparks of Muspelheim's heat in Ginnungagap, this realm's role culminates in Ragnarök, where Surtr leads his hordes across Bifröst to engulf the worlds in purifying fire, slaying the god Freyr and reducing Yggdrasil's domains to ash before a new creation arises. Its destructive primacy highlights Norse views of fate as a fiery rebirth from primordial antagonism.

Celtic mythologies

In Celtic mythologies, particularly those from Irish and Welsh traditions, mythological places often manifest as enchanted otherworlds—timeless realms of eternal youth, abundance, and supernatural beauty—accessible through seas, mists, or hidden portals, and inhabited by gods, fairies, and heroic figures. These locales, drawn from medieval manuscripts and oral lore, emphasize themes of transcendence over mortality, magical hunts, healing, and joyous feasting, serving as destinations for select mortals who embark on voyages of adventure or love. Unlike more structured divine domains in other traditions, Celtic otherworlds are fluid and intertwined with the natural landscape, reflecting a worldview where the boundary between the living and the divine is permeable. Tír na nÓg, or the "Land of the Young," is a prominent Irish otherworld depicted as an idyllic island paradise of perpetual youth and beauty, where aging, disease, and death do not exist, and inhabitants enjoy endless pleasures. Reached by crossing the western sea on a magical white horse, it is home to the Tuatha Dé Danann, the divine fairy folk, and features in the Fenian Cycle tale of the warrior-poet Oisín, son of Fionn mac Cumhaill. In this narrative, the golden-haired princess Niamh invites Oisín to Tír na nÓg for a life of love and revelry; after what feels like three years there, his return to Ireland reveals 300 years have passed in the mortal realm, causing him to crumble to dust upon dismounting.^[35][36] Annwn represents the Welsh otherworld, portrayed as an underworld paradise of delights, eternal youth, and inexhaustible bounty, ruled by the king Arawn and accessible via ancient mounds, caves, or perilous journeys. Featured prominently in the First Branch of the Mabinogi, it is the setting for the tale of Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, who exchanges identities with Arawn for a year to hunt a rival king and safeguard Annwn's honor, encountering its magical landscapes during a grand chase. The realm is renowned for its enchanted cauldrons that brew endless feasts and the spectral hounds known as Cŵn Annwn, whose baying heralds otherworldly hunts; Arthur's raid on Annwn in the poem Preiddeu Annwn seeks such a cauldron, highlighting the domain's treasures and defenses guarded by mythical warriors.^[37][38][39] Avalon, an insular otherworld in Arthurian legends with deep Celtic roots, is envisioned as the "Isle of Apples" (Ynys Afallon in Welsh), a mist-shrouded haven of healing, prophecy, and fruit-laden orchards, where the veil between worlds thins to allow mystical interventions. It serves as the final refuge for King Arthur, ferried there by his sister Morgan le Fay and nine fairy sisters after his fatal wounding at Camlann, to recuperate or await a prophesied return; the island's restorative powers are tied to its eternal springs and apple trees symbolizing immortality. Originating in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136), Avalon is also the forge of Arthur's sword Excalibur and a site of druidic wisdom, blending Welsh Insular traditions with broader Celtic motifs of sacred islands.^[40][41][42] Mag Mell, the "Plain of Delight" in Irish mythology, emerges as a serene, sorrow-free otherworld plain of golden meadows, rivers of mead, and grand feasting halls, reserved for warriors who attain glory in battle or heroic deeds, offering perpetual music, hospitality, and rejuvenation. Visited by mortals through invitations from its divine rulers, such as the goddess Fand, it appears in the Ulster Cycle tale Serglige Con Culainn, where the hero Cú Chulainn voyages there amid visions of enchantment and conflict resolution among the fairy host. This realm underscores Celtic ideals of honorable afterlife rewards, akin in concept to heroic paradises in other ancient traditions.^[36][43]

Asian mythologies

Indian mythology

In Indian mythology, the cosmos is depicted as a hierarchical structure of realms governed by principles of dharma (cosmic order) and cyclical creation, preservation, and dissolution, as outlined in Vedic and Puranic texts such as the Rigveda and Vishnu Purana. These realms form a vertical axis connecting divine, earthly, and subterranean worlds, where beings experience temporary abodes based on their karma, emphasizing the transient nature of existence within eternal cycles of samsara. Mount Meru stands as the pivotal golden axis mundi at the universe's center, symbolizing stability and divinity, and serving as Brahma's abode amid a landscape of sacred mountains and oceans.^[44] Surrounding it are seven concentric continents—Jambudvipa innermost, followed by Plaksha, Salmali, Kusha, Krauncha, Shaka, and Pushkara—separated by vast seas, forming the foundational geography of the Puranic universe.^[45] Svarga, or Indraloka, represents the heavenly realm ruled by Indra, king of the devas, as a temporary paradise rewarding virtuous deeds and martial valor through pleasures of abundance and sensory delight. Positioned on the slopes of Mount Meru at a distance of approximately 100,000 yojanas (about 800,000 miles) above Earth, it features celestial cities like Amaravati, adorned with divine architecture, gardens, and apsaras (celestial nymphs), where souls enjoy fruits of good karma until rebirth.^[46] This third heaven, known as Tridiva, underscores dharma's role in elevating beings toward higher lokas while reminding of its impermanence, as even Indra's throne cycles among gods based on merit.^[47] Beneath the earthly plane lies Patala, a seven-layered underworld inhabited by nagas (serpent beings), portrayed as luxurious yet shadowed by demonic influences, contrasting Svarga's ethereal joys with subterranean opulence. The layers—Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talatala, Mahatala, Rasatala, and the deepest Patala or Naga-loka—house resplendent palaces embedded with gems and ruled by Vasuki, the naga king who embodies both peril and guardianship, as seen in myths like the churning of the ocean.^[48] These realms, more beautiful than heaven in material splendor, serve as abodes for asuras and nagas, reinforcing the cosmic balance where lower worlds mirror upper ones in hierarchy and karmic consequence.^[49] Lanka emerges as a prominent earthly-mythical site in the Ramayana, depicted as Ravana's golden island fortress, a marvel of opulent architecture symbolizing demonic hubris amid epic conflicts over dharma. Situated across the southern ocean on the Trikuta mountains, this gem-encrusted city with towering walls, moats, and sky-piercing palaces like Ravana's own—adorned with gold, silver, and ivory—serves as the stage for the war between Rama's forces and Ravana's rakshasas, culminating in the demon king's defeat.^[50] Its destruction highlights the Puranic theme of righteousness prevailing over adharma, with the island's enduring allure in texts underscoring cycles of rise and fall in mythological geography.^[51]

Chinese mythology

In Chinese mythology, particularly within Taoist and folk traditions, mythological places emphasize immortal paradises and structured afterlives, reflecting a cosmology where the universe is divided into heavenly, earthly, and underworld realms. These locations often symbolize quests for longevity, moral judgment, and cosmic order, influenced by ancient texts like the Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas). Paradises such as mountain ranges and sea islands represent attainable immortality through elixirs and divine favor, while the underworld enforces bureaucratic retribution akin to imperial justice. The Kunlun Mountains serve as a western paradise, depicted as a majestic range at the world's edge, home to the goddess Xi Wangmu (Queen Mother of the West). In the Shanhaijing, Kunlun is described as a multi-layered cosmic mountain with jade palaces and gardens bearing elixir trees that produce peaches granting eternal life; Xi Wangmu resides there, overseeing immortality and hosting divine banquets.^[52] This realm, accessible via perilous journeys, embodies Taoist ideals of transcendence, where adepts seek elixirs amid auspicious animals and herbs.^[53] Penglai, an eastern sea island, stands as a floating paradise of immortals, shrouded in mist and featuring towers of gold and silver where eternal youth prevails. According to the Shanhaijing, Penglai is one of three sacred isles in the Bohai Sea, inhabited by xian (immortals) who dwell in palaces and consume jade-like fruits for agelessness. Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor, famously dispatched expeditions, including the alchemist Xu Fu, to retrieve immortality elixirs from Penglai, blending mythology with historical quests for longevity.^[54][55] The underworld, known as Diyu, comprises eighteen levels of courts where souls face judgment for earthly sins, administered by ten Yama kings in a bureaucratic system mirroring imperial China. Diyu, influenced by Buddhist Naraka but adapted in Taoist lore, features escalating tortures across its layers, such as boiling in oil for corruption or sawing for deceit, overseen by King Yama (Yanluo Wang) as chief judge.^[56][57] Souls traverse these courts via the Yellow Springs path, enduring punishments before reincarnation, emphasizing moral accountability. Tian (Heaven) functions as a celestial bureaucracy above the clouds, ruled by the Jade Emperor (Yuhuang Dadi), who oversees divine assemblies and cosmic harmony. Modeled on the earthly imperial court, Tian includes hierarchical departments for thunder, stars, and fate, where deities like the Thunder God convene to decree mortal affairs.^[58] Exemplary souls ascend via the Silver Bridge to join this realm, participating in eternal governance.

Japanese mythology

In Japanese mythology, the cosmological structure is articulated through a triad of realms—heavenly, earthly, and underworldly—primarily detailed in the ancient chronicles Kojiki (712 CE) and Nihon Shoki (720 CE), which blend Shinto creation narratives with tales of divine familial conflicts and purification rituals.^[59][60] These texts portray the universe emerging from primordial chaos, where primeval deities give way to creator gods like Izanagi and Izanami, whose actions populate the realms with kami (divine spirits) and establish the boundaries between purity and pollution.^[59] Takamagahara, known as the "High Plain of Heaven," serves as the exalted celestial domain where the sun goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami holds sovereignty over the assembly of kami, marking it as the origin point for many divine births following the separation of heaven and earth from cosmic sediment.^[59] This ethereal plain is linked to the mortal world via the Amenoukihashi, or "Heavenly Floating Bridge," from which Izanagi and Izanami first descended to stir the primordial ocean and form the islands.^[59] In contrast, Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni, translated as the "Central Land of Reed Plains," represents the terrestrial realm of human habitation and transient kami visitations, embodying the fertile, reed-filled expanse of the Japanese archipelago created by the divine couple's spear ritual and later governed through Amaterasu's lineage.^[59][60] The underworld features prominently in myths of loss and exile, with Yomi-no-kuni depicted as a foul, shadowed land of irreversible decay where the dead reside in eternal pollution, exemplified by Izanami's transformation into a rotting corpse after her death, prompting Izanagi's desperate pursuit and horrified retreat, after which he sealed its entrance at Yomotsuhirasaka to preserve the purity of the upper worlds.^[59][60] Similarly, Ne-no-kuni, or the "Root Land," functions as a subterranean domain tied to agricultural abundance and the food kami, such as Ōgetsuhime, whom the exiled storm god Susanoo-no-Mikoto encounters during his banishment from Takamagahara for rampaging against his sister Amaterasu; here, Susanoo's grief-stricken actions lead to the goddess's dismemberment, birthing rice and other staples that sustain Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni.^[59][60] These underworlds underscore Shinto themes of ritual cleansing and the precarious balance between life-giving forces and contaminating decay.^[61]

Oceanian mythologies

Polynesian and Māori mythology

In Polynesian and Māori mythologies, mythological places often serve as ancestral origins and spiritual domains intertwined with themes of oceanic voyaging, genealogy (whakapapa), and the cycle of life and death, preserved through oral chants and narratives. These realms emphasize the interconnectedness of the physical Pacific world and metaphysical spaces, where migrations from distant homelands symbolize cultural dispersal and divine inheritance. Hawaiki, Pulotu (or Avaiki), Rarohenga, and Te Pō exemplify this, representing points of emergence, afterlife paradises, and primordial voids that underpin Polynesian identity and cosmology. Hawaiki stands as the legendary ancestral homeland island in Polynesian traditions, portrayed as a distant, sacred origin point from which the first voyagers departed in great canoes to populate the Pacific islands. It is the source of key cultural elements, including the origins of sacred canoes like the Aotea and Tainui in Māori lore, which carried gods, ancestors, and knowledge across the ocean.^[62] In migration myths, Hawaiki embodies the proto-Polynesian heartland, often idealized as a fertile, spiritually charged land evoking both historical dispersal from regions like Taiwan and Samoa and a mythical cradle of deities such as Tāne and Rongo.^[63] These narratives, recited in chants, tie personal genealogies to this homeland, reinforcing voyaging prowess and divine lineage among island communities.^[62] Pulotu, also known as Avaiki in some eastern Polynesian variants, functions as a vast underworld paradise inhabited by spirits, deified ancestors, and gods, depicted as a shadowy yet bountiful realm beneath the sea or earth. Ruled by figures from Maui's family, such as the goddess Hikule'o in Tongan and Samoan traditions, it serves as the afterlife destination for souls, where the deceased join divine kin in a domain of abundance and continuity rather than punishment. Accessed through watery portals or the horizon, Pulotu mirrors the living world in its social structure, with chiefs and heroes residing in elevated sections, and connects to ancestral migrations by housing the progenitors who voyaged from Hawaiki.^[64] In oral traditions, it underscores the cyclical journey of the spirit, paralleling physical ocean voyages in Polynesian eschatology. Rarohenga represents the Māori subterranean realm of the dead, a misty and shadowy underworld entered primarily through caves or chasms, where souls descend after death to dwell eternally under the guardianship of Hine-nui-te-pō, the great lady of night. This domain, often synonymous with aspects of Te Pō, is characterized by dim twilight, echoing mists, and the absence of return for the living, as exemplified in the myth of Hine-tītama's flight there upon discovering her incestuous union with Tāne.^[65] Spirits of death guide the wairua (soul) to Rarohenga, where Hine-nui-te-pō receives them, emphasizing a genealogy-linked passage tied to earthly caves like those in Te Reinga, sacred sites of departure. Unlike punitive afterlives, it maintains ancestral continuity, with the dead influencing the living through dreams or rituals, rooted in oral whakapapa that link it to broader Polynesian underworld concepts.^[66] Te Pō denotes the primordial night world in Māori cosmology, a vast pre-creation void of darkness and potentiality from which the universe unfolded through layered nights, culminating in the separation of sky father Ranginui and earth mother Papatūānuku by their children, the gods. This generative darkness, encompassing phases like Te Pō-nui and Te Pō-roa, precedes light and form, embodying liminal unknowing where all existence originates in an endless, womb-like expanse.^[67] Chants recite Te Pō as the foundational realm, temporally expansive and tied to whakapapa, where opposites like night and day emerge to birth the world, influencing later spirit realms like Rarohenga.^[68] It symbolizes the oceanic vastness of Māori thought, connecting primordial origins to voyaging genealogies without light's illumination until divine intervention.^[69]

American mythologies

Mesoamerican mythology

In Mesoamerican mythologies, particularly those of the Aztec and Maya civilizations, mythological places often represent layered realms of the afterlife and primordial origins, deeply intertwined with calendrical cycles and rituals of sacrifice to sustain cosmic order. These concepts, preserved in codices such as the Aztec Codex Borgia and the Maya Popol Vuh, depict underworlds as treacherous domains where souls undergo trials mirroring the cyclical renewal of time, achieved through blood offerings to gods. Origin sites, meanwhile, symbolize emergence from sacred landscapes, guiding migrations and establishing ethnic identities within the 260-day ritual calendar (Tonalpohualli) and the 365-day solar year (Xiuhpohualli). Such places underscore the interconnectedness of death, rebirth, and divine intervention in maintaining the world's stability.^[70] Mictlan, the Aztec underworld, comprises nine descending layers traversed by most souls after death, ruled by the skeletal god Mictlantecuhtli and his consort Mictecacihuatl. Souls embarking on this four-year journey face perilous trials, including crossing eight rivers of blood and passing through regions of wind, arrows, and obsidian blades, symbolizing purification before reaching eternal rest in the ninth level, Mictlan Opochcalocan. These layers reflect the Aztec cosmology's emphasis on descent and transformation, aligned with sacrificial rites that replenished the sun's energy during calendar endpoints like the New Fire Ceremony every 52 years.^[71][70] Xibalba, the Maya underworld described in the Popol Vuh, serves as a shadowy realm of deceit and death, governed by twelve lords led by One Death and Seven Death. Accessed through cavernous entrances, it features deceptive landscapes such as dark ball courts for fatal ritual games, the House of Bats where razor-toothed creatures lurk, and houses of cold, jaguars, and knives designed to test intruders like the Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque. These trials, involving feigned sacrifices and clever deceptions, parallel the Maya's cyclical view of time in the Long Count calendar, where underworld conquests ensure the sun's daily rebirth through offerings of blood and hearts.^[72][70] Aztlán stands as the mythical northern homeland of the Aztecs (Mexica), envisioned as an island paradise in a lake encircled by reeds, from which seven Nahua tribes departed on a divinely guided migration southward. According to migration codices like the Boturini Codex, the Aztecs left Aztlán under the command of their war god Huitzilopochtli, who promised a destined lake island for their city Tenochtitlan, marking the start of a 200-year journey fraught with omens and battles. This origin site ties into Aztec calendrical prophecies, where the migration's timing aligned with sacred dates foretelling imperial destiny and the need for continuous human sacrifice to honor Huitzilopochtli.^[73] Chicomoztoc, or "Place of the Seven Caves," represents the subterranean birthplace of the Nahua peoples in Aztec and broader Mesoamerican lore, where ancestral tribes emerged from seven interconnected caverns under divine guidance. Led by gods such as Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, the seven tribes—including the Mexica—exited these fertile, womb-like caves to begin their surface migrations, symbolizing creation from darkness into light. This emergence myth connects to sacrificial practices, as cave rituals invoked fertility and renewal, mirroring the calendar's emphasis on periodic world regenerations through offerings to earth deities.^[74][70]

North American Indigenous mythologies

North American Indigenous mythologies feature a diverse array of mythological places that emphasize spiritual connections to the natural world, portraying realms as integral to cycles of emergence, harmony, and sustenance rather than fixed hierarchies. These spirit lands and portals often reflect nomadic tribal lifestyles, where landscapes like rivers, canyons, and skies serve as conduits between worlds, fostering balance with nature through stories of creation, afterlife journeys, and communal responsibilities. Unlike the structured urban afterworlds of Mesoamerican traditions, such as emergence themes akin to Chicomoztoc, North American Indigenous narratives highlight decentralized, nature-infused domains across tribes like the Iroquois, Algonquian, Hopi, and Navajo.^[75] In Iroquois mythology, the Sky World represents an upper realm inhabited by creator gods and supernatural beings, serving as the origin of earthly life and resources. This celestial domain, depicted as a floating island or land above the waters, is home to Sky Woman and her descendants, including the twin brothers—one embodying creation and light (the right-handed twin, known as the Holder of the Sky), and the other disruption (the left-handed twin, called Flint). The twins' actions shape the lower world, with the good twin introducing beneficial elements like corn, which Sky Woman carries as seeds from the Sky World upon her fall through a hole or along a sky rope or vine connecting the realms. This place symbolizes harmony with nature, as the Sky World's gifts of light (from the sun and moon created by the twins) and agriculture sustain human communities below.^[76][77] The Happy Hunting Grounds form a central afterlife concept in Algonquian traditions, envisioned as an eternal, boundless plain teeming with buffalo, elk, and other game, rewarding warriors and hunters with unending abundance. This spirit land lies in the western sky or beyond the setting sun, accessible via a path marked by campfires that guide souls, reflecting the tribes' deep reliance on seasonal migrations and natural cycles for survival. It underscores themes of harmony, where the afterlife mirrors the earthly pursuit of balance through hunting, free from hardship, and serves as motivation for ethical living in tune with the land's rhythms.^[78] Among the Hopi, the Sipapu stands as a sacred underground portal symbolizing emergence from previous worlds into the current Fourth World, often located in the Grand Canyon as a natural spring or hole representing the womb of Mother Earth. In emergence myths, ancestral clans ascend through this sipapu—a small, symbolic opening—from the Third World of strife, guided by spiritual beings, to fulfill prophecies of living in harmony with nature on the surface. This site emphasizes cyclical renewal and environmental stewardship, as the Hopi view the canyon's landscapes as living maps of their migrations, with the sipapu reminding communities of their duty to maintain balance to avoid returning to lower realms.^[75][79] In Navajo mythology, the spirits of the dead (łééchąąʼí) travel to the lower world—the fourth world (Nihodilhil, or Black World) from the creation stories—located in the west, representing endings in their directional cosmology. Due to cultural taboos, details about this realm are rarely discussed, but it is associated with caution toward lingering influences like the chindi, malevolent remnants or ghosts left at the place of death that can cause ghost sickness if not properly ritually managed. Rituals emphasize restoring harmony (hózhǫ́) by honoring boundaries between life and death, preventing disruption from these spirits.^[80]

Abrahamic traditions

Jewish tradition

In Jewish tradition, mythological places are deeply intertwined with themes of divine covenant, human exile, and the soul's journey, as depicted in the Torah and elaborated in the Talmud. These locations emphasize a monotheistic worldview where sacred spaces serve as sites of origin, revelation, and eschatological hope, rather than tiered realms of reward and punishment. The Garden of Eden represents humanity's primordial harmony with God, disrupted by exile, while Mount Sinai marks the foundational covenant through Torah revelation. In the afterlife, Sheol offers a neutral gathering of souls, contrasting with the anticipated Olam Ha-Ba, a messianic era of restoration. The Garden of Eden, described in Genesis as a paradisiacal garden planted by God in the east, served as the first dwelling place for Adam and Eve, watered by four rivers and featuring the Tree of Life at its center.^[81] This lush origin site symbolized divine provision and intimacy, where humanity was tasked with tending the garden before the expulsion following the consumption of forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.^[82] The narrative underscores themes of covenantal obedience and exile, as Adam and Eve were banished eastward, guarding the way to the Tree of Life with cherubim and a flaming sword.^[83] Sheol, the shadowy underworld referenced throughout the Hebrew Bible, functions as a dim pit or abyss where all souls—righteous and wicked alike—descend after death, devoid of light, judgment, or activity.^[84] Talmudic sources portray it as a neutral realm of silence and forgetfulness, accessible only through descent, without the later developments of differentiated afterlives.^[85] This conception reflects early Jewish views on mortality as a collective human fate, tied to the covenant's emphasis on earthly life and ethical conduct rather than postmortem recompense.^[86] Olam Ha-Ba, or the World to Come, envisions a future messianic paradise where the righteous experience resurrection, divine presence, and eternal peace, fulfilling prophecies of redemption from exile.^[87] Rooted in prophetic texts and expanded in rabbinic literature, it contrasts with the present world by promising spiritual elevation and the ingathering of Israel, where souls bask in God's glory without physical needs.^[88] Talmudic discussions affirm that all Israel has a share in this realm through Torah observance, positioning it as the ultimate restoration of the covenantal bond.^[89] Mount Sinai emerges as the transformative holy ground of divine revelation, where Moses encountered the burning bush and received the Torah tablets amid thunder, lightning, and the sounding of the shofar.^[90] This desert mountain, approached by the Israelites in awe and preparation, became the site of the national covenant, sanctifying the people as a "kingdom of priests" through the Decalogue's proclamation.^[91] Rabbinic tradition holds that the entire Oral and Written Torah was conveyed here, marking Sinai as an eternal symbol of exile's end and divine encounter.^[92]

Christian and Islamic traditions

In Christian and Islamic traditions, mythological places associated with the afterlife emphasize themes of divine judgment, salvation, and eternal reward or punishment, drawing from scriptural visions in the New Testament and the Quran, as well as prophetic traditions like hadiths. These realms include tiered paradises and infernal domains, serving as eschatological destinations where souls experience the consequences of earthly faith and deeds. While sharing roots in Abrahamic eschatology, Christian depictions often highlight union with God amid cosmic renewal, whereas Islamic ones stress sensory delights and moral reckoning in a structured cosmic order.^[93] Christian conceptions of heaven portray it as a multi-leveled spiritual realm centered on God's throne, where the righteous dwell in eternal communion following resurrection and judgment. The New Testament, particularly in Revelation, describes the heavenly city as having twelve pearly gates and streets of pure gold, transparent as glass, symbolizing divine purity and access to the divine presence.^[94] Early Christian thought, influenced by Pauline writings, envisions degrees of glory in heaven, akin to celestial bodies varying in splendor, underscoring hierarchical rewards based on faithfulness.^[95] This paradise represents the ultimate fulfillment of salvation, free from suffering, as God's dwelling merges with the renewed creation.^[96] In Islam, Jannah (Paradise) is depicted as a multi-tiered garden of eternal bliss for the faithful, featuring lush gardens, flowing rivers of water, milk, wine, and honey, and companionship with houris—pure, wide-eyed companions created for the righteous. The Quran promises these rewards as compensation for worldly trials, with levels of Jannah corresponding to deeds, the highest near God's throne.^[97][98] Houris are described as fair maidens with modest gazes, wedded to believers in this realm of forgiveness and fruit-laden abundance.^[99] Unlike the Christian emphasis on spiritual union, Jannah's imagery underscores physical and sensual joys as signs of divine mercy. Hell in Christianity, often termed Gehenna in the New Testament, is a fiery pit of torment and eternal separation from God, reserved for the unrepentant wicked after final judgment. Jesus warns of Gehenna as a place of unquenchable fire, where body and soul face destruction, evoking the Valley of Hinnom's historical associations with judgment.^[100] Revelation expands this to a lake of fire, the second death, where Satan, death, and sinners are cast, emphasizing isolation from divine light.^[101] This realm underscores the consequences of rejecting salvation, with no escape for those outside God's grace.^[102] Islamic hell, known as Jahannam, mirrors this as a multi-gated abyss of fiery punishment for disbelievers and sinners, with seven gates assigning specific groups based on their crimes, leading to boiling waters and scorching winds. The Quran portrays it as a deep chasm where skins are repeatedly burned and renewed for endless torment, contrasting sharply with Jannah's delights. Entry depends on rejecting faith, with hadiths detailing its vast depth—seventy years' fall from the surface—and inescapable chains, reinforcing judgment's finality. Purgatory, a distinctive Christian concept in Catholic doctrine, serves as an intermediate state of purification for souls who die in God's grace but require cleansing from venial sins or temporal punishment before entering heaven. Unlike hell's eternal damnation, this fiery ordeal is temporary, achieved through prayer, almsgiving, and Masses offered by the living, ensuring full holiness for divine vision. Absent in Islam, which lacks such a purifying intermediary, Purgatory highlights mercy's role in salvation's process. In Islamic tradition, Barzakh represents the intermediary realm between death and resurrection, a barrier in the grave where souls await judgment, experiencing a foretaste of their eternal fate. The Quran describes it as an impassable divide preventing return to earthly life, with the righteous finding peace and the wicked facing initial torment.^[103] Hadiths elaborate that angels Munkar and Nakir question the deceased on faith, their Lord, and prophet, widening the grave for believers as a garden path to Jannah or constricting it for hypocrites toward Jahannam.^[104] This phase emphasizes accountability, bridging worldly actions to apocalyptic reckoning.