culture-hero

Updated: June 25, 2025

+830+. In all these cases the creation is out of already existing material and the creator is really a culture-hero or transformer, a character that clings to deities in the most advanced religions, as the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek. The character of these early transformers and creators is that of the communities in which they originate.

Crawford Howell Toy - Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV

In other cases, as also to some extent in the Thompson River region, he appears in a more dignified form as a benevolent organizer. This growth of the trickster into the real culture-hero may be referred to a progress in thought and refinement.

Crawford Howell Toy - Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV