I'm looking for references to schools in the sky. Was there a school that the Greek gods attended? A university frequented by the Norse pantheon? An academy in Tian? I'd love any pointers you've got.
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3Welcome to SE:Mythology. Can I ask, is this something you've heard of, or something you are investigating the existence of of cannon literature or folklore?– DukeZhouApr 25, 2019 at 20:02
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3Hi @DukeZhou, and thank you! I'm investigating to see whether anything like this exists. I did some searching, but my hoped-for "schools in mythology" results are muddied by "teaching mythology in schools" pages. Any help would be much appreciated!– bill frumptertonApr 26, 2019 at 4:43
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2I can't think of anything off-hand, but you might look at the Chinese Taoist stuff involving the Jade Emperor. (I don't recall any schools specifically, but the Chinese have a tradition of deification of scholars, so, if your intent is creative, that might be a place to extrapolate from.)– DukeZhouApr 26, 2019 at 16:48
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2In Icelandic folklore, there is mention of Svartskóli (lit. Black school), a place where scholars would be instructed by the devil. Similar to the Transylvanian legend of the Scholomance– CodosaurApr 27, 2019 at 10:08
1 Answer
Indo-European deities are generally considered all-knowing (there are exceptions, most commonly knowing the future). There would be little use for an Olympic or Asgardian academy.
It's very different in Buddhism, in particular in its Chinese form, because it blended with autochtone Chinese mythology. In "Journey to the West", the Jade Emperor and immortals like the Monkey King actually receive teaching in the Buddhist texts (usually from Quanyin), because they are (only) deities and not yet elightened. This is one of the most popular stories in China, even today, as shown below.