Subject

World Mythology

Gods, heroes, monsters and creation stories from every corner of the world - the tales humans have told for thousands of years, one tiny step at a time.

This track covers Greek, Norse, Egyptian and other mythologies as bodies of story with their own internal logic, structure and history. It looks at gods and heroes, but also at where the stories come from, how they were transmitted and how versions differ.

Mythology rewards attention to sources. The version of a myth most people know is often a late retelling rather than the earliest one, and knowing which is which changes how the story reads. That distinction runs through the whole track.

Myths are the oldest surviving evidence of what people thought mattered, and they are also the load-bearing structure under an enormous amount of later literature, art and language.

Units: 18
Steps: 338
Questions: 2,023

Who this track is for

Approachable from primary level, with the comparative and source-critical units suited to secondary and beyond.

How to approach it

Learn the family relationships first, they unlock most Greek and Norse stories
Notice which version of a myth you are reading and when it was written
Compare traditions rather than learning each in isolation

Study guide · 8 min readHow to Learn World MythologyMythology is not a list of gods to memorise. A guide to reading myths as evidence about the people who told them, why the same stories recur without contact, and how to handle sources written by outsiders.

What you will be able to do

Identify a Greek god from the symbols in a painting
Say what a trickster figure is for, across several unrelated traditions
Explain why flood myths appear worldwide without assuming contact
Read a modern film and see the hero pattern it is working with

The thing people get wrong

That myth means something false. In this subject it means a traditional story that carried weight for a culture, and whether it describes real events is usually the least interesting question you can ask about it.

If you only do 3 units

The first supplies the vocabulary, the second is the tradition most referenced in western art and language, and the third is the comparative unit where the subject stops being a collection of stories and starts being an argument.

What the questions look like

8 real questions from across the World Mythology track, easiest first, each with the answer and the reason behind it. Every unit page below has thirty more.

Choose all that applyLevel 1
1. Which things do gods often do in myths? Pick all that apply.
- Use magic powerscorrect
- Look after a part of naturecorrect
- Do school homework
- Drive a bus
Myth gods use magic powers and take care of parts of nature.
Fill the blankLevel 1
2. Hermes could run and fly quickly because he wore winged ____.
- sandalscorrect
- gloves
- scarves
- belts
Winged sandals made Hermes the fastest of the gods.
Choose all that applyLevel 1
3. Which of these are Greek monsters? Pick all that apply.
- Hydracorrect
- Sphinxcorrect
- Chimeracorrect
- Pegasus
The Hydra, Sphinx and Chimera are Greek monsters. Pegasus is a friendly winged horse.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
4. What do dragons in European stories usually breathe out?
- Firecorrect
- Snow
- Bubbles
- Music
European dragons are famous for breathing fire.
Fill the blankLevel 2
5. As punishment, Loki was tied beneath a dripping ____.
- serpentcorrect
- waterfall
- cloud
- candle
A serpent dripped venom on Loki, while his wife Sigyn caught it in a bowl.
Fill the blankLevel 2
6. The ram-headed god ____ was said to shape people on a potter's wheel.
- Khnumcorrect
- Geb
- Shu
- Horus
Khnum moulded human bodies from Nile clay.
Build the sentenceLevel 2
7. Build a sentence about the founder of the Roman line.
Answer: Aeneas escaped Troy and sailed to Italy
Aeneas escaped Troy and sailed to Italy.
Fact or fibLevel 2
8. Cu Chulainn was trained in warrior skills by a woman.
Answer: True
True. The warrior woman Scathach trained him and gave him his deadly spear.

Units in World Mythology

Listed in the order they are meant to be worked through.

Practise World Mythology

2,023 questions, in tiny sessions you can finish in a few minutes.

Start playing

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.