Patterns across cultures

Similar, but not identical.

Recurring motifs

Floods, dying and rising figures, tricksters, world trees and journeys to the underworld appear widely, sometimes through contact, sometimes independently.

Shared human concerns explain some overlap; trade routes explain more.
Jung and Campbell proposed universal archetypes; scholars now treat those claims cautiously.

Against flattening

Emphasising similarity can erase what makes each tradition specific. The differences usually carry the local meaning.