Legendary progenitors

Roman goddess of love, sexuality, procreation and pleasure

Ra (; ; also transliterated , ; cuneiform: ri-a or ri-ia; Phoenician: 𐤓𐤏, romanized: rʿ) or Re () was the ancient Egyptian deity of the Sun. By the Fifth Dynasty, in the 25th and 24th centuries BC, Ra had become one of the most important gods in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the noon-day Sun. Ra ruled in all parts of the created world: the sky, the Earth, and the underworld. He was believed to have ruled as the first pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. He was the god of the Sun, order, kings and the sky.

thumb|Aeneas flees burning Troy, Federico Barocci, 1598 ([[Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy)]]

first man and woman in Abrahamic creation myth

thumb|upright=1|Lilith (painting)|Lilith (1887) by John Collier Lilith (; ; also spelled Lilit, Lilitu, or Lilis) is a feminine figure in Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology. According to accounts in the Talmud she is a primordial she-demon. Based on Medieval Jewish folklore, Lilith is said to have fled from the Garden of Eden because she did not want to submit to Adam.

In the biblical Book of Genesis, Ishmael (; ; ; ) was the first son of Abraham. His mother was Hagar, the handmaiden of Abraham's wife Sarah. He died at the age of 137.

thumb|Shem, Ham (son of Noah)|Ham and [[Japheth by James Tissot 1900. Shem is on the left with a similar skin color to other Biblical figures painted by Tissot.]]

, often called Amaterasu () for short, also known as and , is the goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology. Often considered the chief deity (kami) of the Shinto pantheon, she is also portrayed in Japan's earliest literary texts, the () and the (720 CE), as the ruler (or one of the rulers) of the heavenly realm Takamagahara and as the mythical ancestress of the Imperial House of Japan via her grandson Ninigi. Along with two of her siblings (the moon deity Tsukuyomi and the impetuous storm-god Susanoo) she ranks as one of the "Three Precious Children" (, ), the three most important offspring of

Legendary Chinese ruler, one of the Five Emperors, later worshipped as a god

According to the Book of Genesis, Hagar is an Egyptian slave, a handmaiden of Sarah (then known as Sarai), whom Sarah gave to her own husband Abram (later renamed Abraham) as a wife to bear him a child. Abraham's firstborn son through Hagar, Ishmael, became the progenitor of the Ishmaelites, generally taken to be the Arabs. Various commentators have connected her to the Hagrites (sons of Agar), perhaps claiming her as their eponymous ancestor. Hagar is alluded to, although not named, in the Quran, and Islam considers her Abraham's second wife.

legendary first emperor of Japan

Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.

Cybele ( ; 'Kubeleya Mother', perhaps 'Mountain Mother'; ; Kybélē, Kybēbē, Kybelis) is an Anatolian mother goddess; she may have a possible forerunner in the earliest Neolithic at Çatalhöyük. Greek colonists in Asia Minor adopted and adapted her Phrygian cult and spread it to mainland Greece and to the more distant western Greek colonies around the sixth century BC.

thumb|The Rällinge statuette from [[Södermanland, Sweden, believed to depict Freyr, Viking Age]] In Norse mythology, Freyr (Old Norse: "(the) Lord") is the god associated with kingship, fertility, peace, prosperity, fair weather, and good harvest. Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was especially associated with Sweden and seen as an ancestor of the Swedish royal house. According to Adam of Bremen, Freyr was associated with peace and pleasure, and was represented with a phallic statue in the Temple at Uppsala. According to Snorri Sturluson, Freyr was "the most renowned of the æsir",

first human being in Hindu tradition

Izanagi (イザナギ/伊邪那岐/伊弉諾), formally referred to with a divine honorific as , is the creator deity (kami) of both creation and life in Japanese mythology. He and his sister-wife Izanami are the last of the seven generations of primordial deities that manifested after the formation of heaven and earth. Izanagi and Izanami are held to be the creators of the Japanese archipelago and the progenitors of many deities, which include the sun goddess Amaterasu, the moon deity Tsukuyomi, and the storm god Susanoo. He is a god that can be said to be the beginning of the current Japanese imperial family.

Nüwa, also read Nügua, is a mother goddess, culture hero, and/or member of the Three Sovereigns of Chinese mythology. She is a goddess in Chinese folk religion, Chinese Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. She is credited with creating humanity and repairing the Pillar of Heaven.

thumb|upright=1.35|Ymir sucks at the udder of Auðumbla as she licks [[Búri out of the ice in a painting by Nicolai Abildgaard, 1790.]]

first two humans, created by the gods in Norse mythology from trees

Hayk (, ), also known as Hayk Nahapet (, , ), is the legendary patriarch and founder of the Armenian nation. He is a central figure in Armenian mythology and national identity, and is traditionally regarded as the eponymous ancestor from whom the Armenian people, the "Hay", derive their name. His tale is recounted in the History of Armenia attributed to the 5th-century historian Movses Khorenatsi, as well as in the Primary History attributed to Sebeos. Additional fragments of his legend survive in other medieval sources and continue to be echoed in Armenian oral tradition and epic poetry.

'''Tan'gun (), also known as Tan'gun Wanggŏm''' (), was the legendary founder and first king of Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom. He founded the first kingdom around the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. He is said to be the "grandson of heaven", "son of a bear", and to have founded the first kingdom in 2333 BC.

, formally referred to with the honorific , is the creator of both creation and death in Japanese mythology, as well as the Shinto mother goddess. She and her brother-husband Izanagi are the last of the seven generations of primordial deities that manifested after the formation of heaven and earth. Izanami and Izanagi are held to be the creators of the Japanese archipelago and the progenitors of many deities, which include the sun goddess Amaterasu, the moon deity Tsukuyomi and the storm god Susanoo. In mythology, she is the direct ancestor of the Japanese imperial family. In Shinto and Japane

3 legendary brothers, each the mythical founder of the 3 Slavic peoples (Poles, Czechs, and the Rus'), appearing in the Wielkopolska Chronicle

son of Ham and grandson of Noah in the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 10)

Biblical figures Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac's son Jacob, or the ancestor-figures between Adam and Abraham

mythical character, son of Lynceus

River goddess of life in Hinduism

thumb|Latinus from Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum Latinus (; Ancient Greek: Λατῖνος, Latînos, or Λατεῖνος, Lateînos) was a figure both in Greek and Roman mythology. He is often associated with the heroes of the Trojan War, namely Odysseus and Aeneas. Although his appearance in the Aeneid is irreconcilable with his appearance in Greek mythology, the two pictures are so different that he cannot be seen as one character.

Adnan () is traditionally regarded as the patriarch of the Adnanite Arabs, a major Arab lineage that historically inhabited Northern, Western, Eastern, and Central Arabia. The Adnanites are distinct from the Qahtanite Arabs of Southern Arabia, who trace their lineage to Qahtan.

Roman god of the underworld

or , is a god in Japanese mythology. (no-Mikoto here is an honorific title applied to the names of Japanese gods; Ninigi is the specific god's name.) Grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu, Ninigi is regarded according to Japanese mythology as the great-grandfather of Japan’s first emperor, Emperor Jimmu. The three sacred treasures brought with Ninigi from Heaven and divine ancestry established the Japanese Imperial Family. The three generations of kami starting with Ninigi are sometimes referred to as the Three Generations of Hyūga, they are said to represent a transitional period between the

Keyumars or Kiomars is a legendary figure from Iranian mythical history, appearing in both the Avesta and the Shahnameh.

Inca god creator and animator of all the universe, worshiped mainly on the coast

parents of mankind in Norse mythology

primordial parents in Māori mythology

thumb|A Māori people|Māori man painting a tattoo on a carved wooden tiki at [[Whakarewarewa model village, New Zealand, ]] thumb|upright|Hawaiian kii at Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park thumb|upright|Tiki statuette from the [[Marquesas]]

right|thumb|300px|Map showing the approximate locations of the major Germanic tribes in and around the geographical region of Germania as mentioned in Tacitus' work, the Germania

legendary khan of the Turkic people, eponymous ancestor of Oghuz Turks

mythical figure from The Secret History of the Mongols

legendary brothers said to have led the invasion of Britain in 5th century

Mannus, according to the Roman writer Tacitus, was a figure in the creation myths of the Germanic tribes. Tacitus is the only source of these myths. thumb|Engraving of the three sons of Mannus (Carl Larsson, 1893): Ingui plays with a model ship (the [[Ingaevones lived by the sea); Irmin wears a helmet and sword (the Irminones were famed as warriors); Istaev/Iscio digs in the earth and has a toy horse (the Istvaeones were horsemen and farmers).]] Tacitus wrote that Mannus was the son of Tuisto and the progenitor of the three Germanic tribes Ingaevones, Herminones and Istvaeones. In discussing t

mythical ancestors of the Huns and the Magyars

alt=|thumb|A statue of Oduduwa Odùduwà (, also pronounced Ooduwa, Odudua or Oòdua) was a Yoruba divine king, an Oriṣa in the Yoruba religion, and the progenitor who ushered in the classical period that later led to the foundation of the Ife Empire. His earthly origins are from the village of Oke Ora. According to tradition, he was the holder of the title of the Olofin of Ile-Ife, the Yoruba holy city. He ruled there briefly and also served as the progenitor of a number of independent royal dynasties in Yorubaland, with the praise names Olofin Adimula and Olofin Ayé.

thumb|150px|Kartlos from The Georgian Chronicles (King [[Vakhtang VI redaction), 1700s.]] Kartlos () is the legendary progenitor and "father of all Georgians" in the Georgian mythology, more specifically of the nation of Kartli, known as the Kingdom of Iberia in the classical antiquity. He was a descendant of Japheth, second son of Targamos (i.e. Togarmah), the common ancestor of the Caucasians, and Kartlos, himself becoming the patriarch of the Georgians. According to the myth, he controlled a large territory in the Caucasus and participated, with his brothers, in a war to free himself from t

En-men-dur-ana (also En-men-dur-an-ki, Enmenduranki) of Zimbir (the city now known as Sippar) was an ancient Sumerian king, whose name appears in the Sumerian King List as the seventh pre-dynastic king of Sumer. He was also the topic of myth and legend, said to have reigned for around 21,000 years.

thumb|upright=1.2|"Yngvi-Freyr builds the Temple at Uppsala|Uppsala temple" (1830) by Hugo Hamilton.

Völsung ( , ) is a figure in Germanic mythology, where he is the eponymous ancestor of the Völsung family (, ), which includes the hero Sigurð. In Nordic mythology, he is the son of Rerir and was murdered by the Geatish king Siggeir. He was later avenged by one of his sons, Sigmund, and his daughter Signy, who was married to Siggeir.

first organized body of progenitors of mankind in a religious story

politician

Targitaos or Scythes, was the ancestral god of the Scythians according to Scythian mythology. The ancient Greeks identified him with their own hero Hēraklēs.

Italus or Italos (from ) was a legendary king of the Oenotrians, ancient people of Italic origin who inhabited the region now called Calabria, in southern Italy. In his Fabularum Liber (or Fabulae), Gaius Julius Hyginus recorded the myth that Italus was a son of Penelope and Telegonus (a son of Odysseus by Circe).

thumb|right|300px|"Rig in Great-grandfather's Cottage" (1908) by W. G. Collingwood

current Manu of Hinduism

the first man and woman in Zoroastrian cosmogony

Skjöldr (Old Norse Skjǫldr, Icelandic Skjöldur, sometimes Anglicized as Skjold or Skiold, Latinized as Skioldus; Old English Scyld, Proto-Germanic *Skelduz ‘shield’) was among the first legendary Danish kings. He is mentioned in the Prose Edda, in Ynglinga saga, in Chronicon Lethrense, in Sven Aggesen's history, in Arngrímur Jónsson's Latin abstract of the lost Skjöldunga saga and in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum. He also appears in the Old English poem Beowulf. The various accounts have little in common.

mythical ancestor of the final inhabitants of Ireland

leader of Xích Quỷ

A hersir was a local Viking military commander of a hundred (a county subdivision), of about 100 men, and owed allegiance to a jarl or king. They were also aspiring landowners, and, like the middle class in many feudal societies, supported the kings in their centralization of power. Originally, the term Hersir referred to a wealthy farmer who owned land and had the status of a leader. Throughout the Viking Age, Hersir was eventually redefined as someone who organized and led raids. In the 10th century, the influence of Hersirs began to decrease due to the development of effective national mona