Myth Graphic Organizer PDF – Read a Myth or Write One

How it works

A myth is read for more than its plot: who holds power, what goes wrong, and what the story accounts for. This myth graphic organizer gives each of those a box, for a myth from any culture a class is reading.

Read the full guide

Ask what the myth explains first

An origin myth answers a question: where a river’s gold came from, how a custom began. Find that answer and the other boxes fill faster, because the gods, the problem and the ending all lead to it.

Writing a myth graphic organizer

For a myth of the writer’s own, pick something in nature to explain, then invent who caused it. Tie the ending to the world today, so the last line can begin "And ever since".

On these sheets myth means a traditional story. It does not mean something untrue.
The sample follows one poet’s telling. A later telling adds a daughter who turns to gold, so two readers may fill the boxes differently.

Questions and answers

What is a myth?

A traditional story that plays a fundamental part in the society that tells it. Its main characters are usually gods, demigods or other supernatural figures, and it is set in a remote past, in a world very different from the present.

What is an origin myth?

A myth that explains the beginnings of a natural or social part of the world, such as how an object or a custom came to be. A creation myth is one kind: it tells how the universe was formed.

What is an example of a myth?

The golden touch of King Midas. A god grants the king’s wish that all he touches turn to gold, his food included. To lose the gift he washes in a river, and the myth says that is why its sands held gold.

All 11 organizers

Reading a myth 4

Myth exit slips, two to a page Two half sheets with a cut line between them. The 3rd grade Common Core standard asks readers to find the lesson of a myth and explain how key details convey it.
Myth graphic organizer: what it explains, who, where, problem, lesson A wide box for what the myth explains, boxes for its gods and heroes, its setting, the problem and the ending, and a box at the foot for the lesson.
Origin myth: before, what happened, ever since Three boxes joined by arrows for a myth that explains how something began: the world before, what happened, and what has been true ever since.
Quest myth: hero, task, helpers, tests, ending Five boxes down the page for a myth built on a journey: who sets out, the task, the help they get, the tests on the way and how it ends.

Show all 11 organizers (7 more)

Gods, heroes and mortals 2

One character in a myth: powers, flaw, fate For one god, hero or mortal: the kind of being, their powers, what they want, a flaw or a mistake, and what happens to them in the end.
Who is who: a cast chart for a myth One row for each name in the myth: whether it is a god, a hero, a mortal or a creature, its powers and what it wants. For a myth with many names to keep straight.

Comparing myths and their words 2

Two myths side by side: themes and patterns Two myths from different cultures, row by row. The 4th grade Common Core standard asks readers to compare themes, topics and patterns of events, such as the quest, in myths from different cultures.
Words from myths: an allusion chart For words and phrases that come from the characters of myths. The 4th grade Common Core standard asks readers to work out such words, and gives Herculean as its example.

Writing a myth 2

Invent a god or a creature: draw it, then describe it A space to draw at the top and four boxes under it: a name and title, powers, a weakness and what the god or creature wants.
Writing a myth graphic organizer: plan your own myth Five boxes joined by arrows for a myth of the writer’s own, from what it explains to how the world is different ever since.

Filled-in sample 1

Sample myth organizer, filled in: King Midas and the golden touch The boxes of the opening sheet done for the Greek myth of the king whose touch turned things to gold, as the Roman poet Ovid tells it.

How this list was compiled: Our own layouts and wording; no publisher’s organizer is copied. What a myth is and what an origin myth is were checked against the Wikipedia articles Myth and Origin myth, and the 3rd and 4th grade wording against the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, reading standards for literature, read October 13, 2026. The sample retells the myth of Midas in our own words from the Wikipedia article Midas and from Thomas Bulfinch’s The Age of Fable, in the Project Gutenberg edition. Licence: own work