• Sunjata:An oral epic which celebrates the founder of the thirteenth-century Mali empire of West Africa.
• Plot Summary (Edan Dekel)
• Background: Interview with Edan Dekel
1. Storyteller: How was the epic transmitted?
2. Birth: How is the hero's pedigree mythically established?
3. Call: What calls the hero to take action?
4. Tests: What are the qualities of a hero revealed during the tests?
5. Helpers/tools: Where does the hero's power come from?
6. Return/Elixer-prize: What does the hero accomplish?
• Setting
• Characters
• Teachers' Page (Nick Bartel)
• Chart for Comparing Heroes (PDF)
• Retelling of Sundiata for 7th grade 
• Bibliography/Links
• Video Performance (Yacine Kouyate)
• Sundiata Introduction
• Baobab Leaf Song
• Walk Song

Ramayana: An ancient Sanskrit epic of South Asia celebrating the legendary adventures of Prince Rama, exemplary hero and incarnation of Vishnu.

Plot Summary

Background: Interview with Robert Goldman

1. Storyteller: How was the epic transmitted?
2. Birth: How is the hero's pedigree mythically established?
3. Call: What calls the hero to take action?
4. Tests: What are the qualities of a hero revealed during the tests?
5. Helpers/tools: Where does the hero's power come from?
6. Return/Elixer-prize: What does the hero accomplish?

Setting

Characters

Teachers' Page (Donna Kasprowicz)

• Overview
• Story Analysis, Part 1 (PDF)
• Story Analysis, Part 2 (PDF)
• Dialectical Journal (PDF)
• Complex Dialectical Journal (PDF)
• Ramayana Shadow Play: Student Script
  • Ramayana Shadow Play Instructions (Dede Tisone-Bartels)
  • Ramayana scenes 4-5
  • Ramayana scene 9

Bibliography/Links

Video:

• Interview with Jyoti Rout: How I became a dancer.
• Interview with Jyoti Rout: Ramayana in dance

  
  The Dance: From Ramayana in Nine Moods

  • Mood of Love: Demonstration
    • Love: Final Performance
  • Mood of Virtue: Demonstration
    • Virtue: Final Performance

• The story of Prince Rama is also told in many variations through Southeast Asia. For lessons and resources to explore these variations see The Ramayana in Southeast Asia.

Yamato: Legendary and archetypal hero of ancient Japan.

• Plot Summary
• Background: Interview with Stephania Burke
1. Storyteller: How was the epic transmitted?
2. Birth: How is the hero's pedigree mythically established?
3. Call: What calls the hero to take action?
4. Tests: What are the qualities of a hero revealed during the tests?
5. Helpers/tools: Where does the hero's power come from?
6. Return/Elixer-prize: What does the hero accomplish?
• Setting
• Glossary/Characters
• Teachers' Page
• Bibliography/Links

Monomyth circle: The Journey of the Hero based on Joseph Campbell's monomyth provides a model for comparing heroic stories.

Print journey stages (pdf)

This website is maintained by the Office of Resources for International and Area Studies (ORIAS), a unit of International and Area Studies (IAS) at the University of California, Berkeley.