Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
---|---|---|
"Macha" | Ireland | One of the greatest of the women of the Tuatha de Danaan, she fed on the heads of men slain in battle. She, along with Badb and Morrigu, used powers of enchantment to bring mists, clouds of darkness, and showers of fire and blood over the Firbolgs at Teamhair for three days. The daughter of Emmåśś, she was killed by Balor in the second battle of Mag Tuireadh. Ireland |
Goddess name "Macha" | Celtic / Irish | Fertility goddess. One of the aspects of the MORRIGAN (a trio of warrior goddesses with strong sexual connotations), she appears as the consort of Nemed and of Crunnchu. She is also a warrior goddess who influences the outcome of battle by magical devices. She can change shape from girl to hag and is generally dressed in red. She is depicted with red hair. She appears thus to the Irish hero, Cu Chulainn, before the Battle of Moytura when she suddenly changes herself into a crow, the harbinger of death. heads of slaughtered soldiers were fixed on the so-called Pole of Macha, and the ancient religious center of Emain Macha in Ulster is named after her.See also Banbha, ERIU and Fodla.... |
Goddess name "Mahacinatara (Tara of Tibet)" | Buddhist / Mahayana / / Lamaist / Tibet | Goddess. An emanation of AKSOBHYA and, in Lamaism, a fearsome form of the Vajrayana goddess, EKAJATA, who may be depicted with up to twelve heads and twenty-four hands. She stands upon a corpse. Attributes: arrow, ax, blue lotus, bow, cup, image of Aksobhya on crown, knife, skull, snake, staff, sword, tiger skin and trident. Three-eyed.... |
God name "Mahadeya (mighty god)" | Hindu / Puranic | God. An important epithet of SIVA with three heads (two male, one female) signifying the three aspectsAghora (right), Saumya (center) and Sakti (left). Attributes: ax, bell, hook, mirror, noose, staff, sword, tree and trident. Also identified as a manifestation of Siva and one of the EKADASARUDRAS (eleven forms of RUDRA). In northern India among tribes including the Gonds, the expression Mahadeo (great god) is directed toward Siva as the supreme deity.... |
Goddess name "Mahakali" | Hindu | Represent the ten Mahavidyas or "Great Wisdom Goddesses". She is depicted in this form as having ten heads, ten arms, and ten legs. Hindu |
Goddess name "NINURTA (lord plough)" | Mesopotamian / Sumerian / Babylonian - Akkadian / Iraq | God of thunderstorms and the plough. Ninurta is the Sumerian god of farmers and is identified with the plough. He is also the god of thunder and the hero of the Sumerian pantheon, closely linked with the confrontation battles between forces of good and evil that characterize much of Mesopotamian literature. He is one of several challengers of the malignant dragon or serpent Kur said to inhabit the empty space between the earth's crust and the primeval sea beneath. Ninurta is the son of Enlil and Ninhursaga a, alternatively Ninlil, and is the consort of Gula, goddess of healing. He is attributed with the creation of the mountains which he is said to have built from giant stones with which he had fought against the demon Asag. He wears the horned helmet and tiered skirt and carries a weapon Sarur which becomes personified in the texts, having its own intelligence and being the chief adversary, in the hands of Ninurta, of Kur. He carries the double-edged scimitar-mace embellished with lions' heads and, according to some authors, is depicted in nonhuman form as the thunderbird lmdugud (sling stone), which bears the head of a lion and may represent the hailstones of the god. His sanctuary is the E-padun-tila. Ninurta is perceived as a youthful warrior and probably equates with the Babylonian heroic god Marduk. His cult involved a journey to Eridu from both Nippur and Girsu. He may be compared with Iskur, who was worshiped primarily by herdsmen as a storm god.... |
"Naigameya" | Hindu | That child of fiery splendour, who was the leader of an octad of armed Goat-heads, appears to represent the eight Vasus as reflexes of their leader. Hindu |
God name "O-Toshi-No-Kami" | Japan / Shinto | He heads the pantheon of agricultural gods but generally is the guardian of rice fields |
Deities name "O-Toshi-No-Kami" | Shinto / Japan | God of harvests. The son of SUSANO-WO and Kamu-O-Ichi-Hime, he heads the pantheon of agricultural deities and is generally the guardian of rice fields.... |
God name "Pakrokitat" | California | Creator god who made people with a face at the front and back of their heads. After a hissy fit, he decended to the middle of the earth. The Serrano Indians, California |
Goddess name "Parna-Savari (dressed in leaves)" | Buddhist / Mahayana | Goddess. An emanation of AKSOBHYA and BODHISATTVA or buddha-designate. Also one of a group of DHARANIS (deifications of literature). She is particularly recognized in the northwest of India. Her vehicle is GANESA surmounting obstacles. Color: yellow or green. Attributes: arrow, ax, bow, flower, noose, peaçõçk feather, skin and staff. She is depicted as having three eyes and three heads.... |
"Raumas or Raumyas" | India | Hairy; a race sweated from the pores of Virabhadra, one of the avataras of Siva. They had a thousand heads and a thousand arms. India |
God name "Rugievit" | Slav | Local tutelary and war god. Identified by the historian Saxo Grammaticus as inhabiting the island of Rugen, depicted with seven heads and carrying a sword.... |
God name "S e ab" | Egypt | Minor god of wine and oil presses. Known from circa 3000 BC until the end of Egyptian history, circa AD 400. In later iconography he is depicted as a lion, but more generally is in human form. Sezmu had a definite cult following in the fertile Faiyum region of the Nile valley, but was probably represented in most sanctuaries, particularly where ritual unguents were made and stored. He is recognized in both benign and malevolent roles. In the latter he is reputed to squeeze human heads like grapes, but in beneficent mood he provides aromatic oils and ointments.... |
Goddess name "Sala" | Mesopotamian / Babylonian - Akkadian | war goddess. A consort of ADAD, she carries a doubleheaded mace-scimitar embellished with lion heads.... |
Goddess name "Satarupa (with a hundred forms)" | Hindu / Puranic | Minor goddess. The daughter of BRAHMA with whom he committed incest and whose beauty caused him to generate four heads so that he might view her from all directions.... |
Goddess name "Sequana" | Roman / Celtic / Gallic | River goddess. The tutelary goddess of the Sequanae tribe. A pre-Roman sanctuary northwest of Dijon near the source of the Seine has yielded more than 200 wooden votive statuettes and models of limbs, heads and body organs, attesting to Sequana's importance as a goddess of healing. During the Roman occupation the site of Fontes Sequanae was sacred to her and was again considered to have healing and remedial properties. A bronze statuette of a goddess was found wearing a diadem, with arms spread and standing in a boat. The prow is in the shape of a duck, her sacred animal, with a cake in its mouth. Also found were models of dogs, an animal specifically åśśociated with healing through its affinity with the Greco-Roman physician deity AESCULAPIUS.... |
King name "Sesha" | Hindu | king of the serpent race, on which Vishnu reclines on the primeval waters. It has a thousand heads, on one of which the world rests. The coiled-up sesha is the emblem of eternity. Hindu |