Dangun
Dangun Wanggeom is the legendary founder of Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom, and the central figure of Korea's national origin myth. According to the Samguk Yusa (13th-century Korean chronicle), Dangun was born from the union of Hwanung, the heavenly prince who descended to Mount Taebaek, and Ungnyeo, a bear who transformed into a woman after enduring a grueling trial of garlic and mugwort in a cave for one hundred days. Dangun founded Gojoseon in 2333 BCE under the ideal of Hongik Ingan ('to broadly benefit the human world') and ruled for over a thousand years before becoming a mountain sp