How the Atlas is built
The standard: no invented claims
Every nontrivial claim in this Atlas carries a source marker like [S1] that resolves to a real, named source — a translated primary text, a museum object page, an academic monograph, or an archaeological record. Where a claim is a scholarly reconstruction rather than an attestation, it is badged as such (dotted lines in the graph, an evidence badge on profiles). This is enforced at build time by a validation script, not by good intentions.
The graph, not the family tree
Mythology is modeled as a typed graph: 12 relationship types (parent, partner, creation, killing, alliance, rule, succession…) with per-edge confidence. The familiar “family tree” is just one filter over that graph. That is why, for example, Marduk appears connected to Tiamat by three distinct edges — fought, killed, and created the world from her body — and why Slavic Perun’s links to a storm-serpent are dotted (reconstructed), while Greek Zeus’s are solid (attested).
Variants are data
When scholars disagree, the Atlas shows the disagreement. Egyptian creation is presented as three parallel traditions (Heliopolitan, Memphite, Hermopolitan) rather than one invented genealogy. Greek parentage disputes (Eos vs. Thetis as Aphrodite’s mother) are stored as competing edges with an explanation of each position.
Living traditions are not fiction
Japanese Shinto is a living religious tradition. It is framed as such on every page: the narratives are the tradition’s own mythic heritage, the historical layers (Kojiki 712 CE, Nihon Shoki 720 CE, shrine engi) are made visible, and modern state-Shinto and pop-culture readings are labeled separately from the primary texts.
Artwork licensing
All 71 artworks are public domain or openly licensed, drawn from museum open-access programs (Met, Rijksmuseum) and Wikimedia Commons. Every URL was fetched and verified live. Attribution (title, artist, date, museum, license) is always visible. Nothing is scraped; no copyrighted contemporary art is used.
The expansion path
The architecture is built so that a new culture is a new data folder plus one registry entry — no migrations, no schema changes. Eleven more traditions are already named in the registry; their galleries open as the sources are verified.