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| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|
| Goddess name "ASERAH" | Amorite, Canaanite,Phoenician, Lebanon, Syria | Mother goddess. Aserah is the great mother goddess of Canaan. Known as Lady Aserah of the sea, she seems to have lived close by the place of IL, the Canaanite creator god, and is said to have had many sons. She is described as the creatress of the gods and the matron of a number of other goddesses who oversee the natural world. She is also ambiguous in her attitude to BAAL. She intercedes with Il when Baal wishes to build a palace of his own yet, when he is vanquished, she attempts to place one of her own offspring on the throne.... |
| Goddess name "ATTIS" | Phrygia / northwestern Turkey | vegetation god. Attis is a dying and rising fertility god modeled on the Mesopotamian DUMUZI. He is considered to have originated as a shepherd. In alternative traditions, KYBELE, the great mother, is either his mother or purely his consort. Another legend suggests he was conceived immaculately by the demigoddess NANA when she placed a ripe almond in her bosom.... |
| Goddess name "Anu aka Anann" | Ireland | Dana, Dana-Ana, Catana. Mother earth, Great Goddess, Greatest of all Goddesses. Another aspect of the Morrigu. The fertility Goddess, sometimes she formed a trinity with Badb and Macha. Her priestesses comforted and taught the dying. Fires were lit for her on Midsummer. Guardian of cattle and health. Ireland |
| Goddess name "Asherat-of-the-sea" | Phonecian | Great Goddess of wisdom and the sea. Mother of the Gods and mistress of the Gods in wisdom. El's wife and counsellor, said to have 70 children, including Baal. Phonecian |
| Goddess name "CERES" | Roman | Mother goddess. Mother goddess. Ceres is arguably the most recent model of the great mother whose predecessors include INANA, IS TAR, ARTEMIS, KYBELE and Demeter on whom she is directly modeled. She is the daughter of KRONOS (Cronus) and RHEA and one of the more important consorts of JUPITER. Ceres was worshiped through the festivals of Thesmophoria and Cerealia in sanctuaries throughout the Greco-Roman empires.... |
| Goddess name "CIPACTLI (great earth mother)" | Aztec / Mesoamerican / Mexico | Primordial goddess. Not strictly a goddess, but significant enough in Aztec cosmogony to be included here. According to tradition she was created in the form of a huge alligator-like monster by the underworld deities MICTLANTECUHLTI and MICTECACIHUATL. She may equate with TLALTECUHTLI, the toad-like earth monster torn apart to form heaven and earth. According to one tradition she emerged from the primordial waters and engaged in a fierce struggle with the Sun god TEZCATLIPOCA during which he tore off her lower jaw to prevent her sinking back into the depths and she bit off his right foot. The mountains are said to be the scaly ridges of her skin.... |
| Goddess name "Coyolxauhqui (golden bells)" | Aztec / Mesoamerican / Mexico | Astral goddess. A deification and incarnation (avatara) of the moon. According to tradition she is the half-sister of the Sun god HUITZILOPOCHTLI. The god sprang, fully armed, from his decapitated mother, COATLICUE, and engaged all his enemies who, by inference, are the 400 astral gods, his half-brothers. He slew his sister and hurled her from the top of a mountain. Alternative tradition suggests his sister was an ally whom he was unable to save, so he decapitated her and threw her head into the sky, where she became the moon. She was represented in the Great Temple at Tenochtitlan, where she was depicted in front of successive Huitzilopochtli pyramids. She is also a hearth deity within the group clåśśed as the XIUHTECUHTLI complex.... |
| Goddess name "Echtghe" | Ireland | Believed to be another form of Dana, the first Great Mother Goddess of Ireland. |
| Goddess name "Estsanatlehi (woman that changes)" | Navaho / USA | Fertility goddess. Probably regarded as the most powerful deity in the Navaho pantheon, she has powers of endless self-rejuvenation. According to tradition, she was created from a small turquoise image into which life was infused through a ritual of the great gods and she is the sister of the goddess YOLKAI ESTAN. She is also the consort of the Sun god TSOHANOAI and the mother of the war god NAYENEZGANI. She is said to live in the west and is benevolent in nature, sending the gentle Rains of summer and the warm thawing winds of spring.... |
| Goddess name "Gish" | Kafir / Afghanistan | God of war. Known chiefly among the Kati people in the southern Hindukush. Gish seems partly modeled on the Aryan (Vedic) god INDRA (see also INDR). One of the offspring of the creator god IMRA, his mother is named as Utr; she carried him for eighteen months before he wrenched himself from her belly, stitching her up with a needle. His consort is the goddess SANJU. He slaughters with great efficiency but is considered lacking in graces and intellect, emerging in a generally boorish light (see also THOR). His home is a fortress of steel atop a mythical walnut tree propped up by his mother which provides nourishment and strength for his warriors. The Rainbow is a sling with which he carries his quiver. Gish is åśśociated chiefly with the villages of Kamdesh and Shtiwe but has been worshiped throughout the Kafir region with the sacrifice of hornless oxen, particularly prior to combat. A feast was given in his honor if the outcome was successful. Also Giwish.... |
| Goddess name "Great Mother" | Celtic | Represents the female principle of creation. Goddess of fertility, the moon, summer, flowers, love, healing, the seas, water. Celtic |
| Goddess name "Gunabibi" | Australian aboriginal | Creator goddess. Also known as Kunapipi, she is extensively revered by aborigines in northern Australia, including the Yolngu people. Her cult bears some similarity to that of the Greek mother goddess DEMETER and to Tantric cults in India. For this reason the cult is thought to have been introduced from Asia to Arnhem Land and then to other parts of the Australian continent as early as the sixth century. Mythology indicates that Gunabibi has been perceived as a deity who came from the sea or the rivers during the Dreamtime but who reigns now over dry land. Among modern aborigines she is the subject of esoteric rituals which also involve the great serpent Yulunggul with whom Gunabibi has been closely involved.... |
| Goddess name "Hannahannas" | Hittite / Hurrian | Mother goddess. Described as the great mother. In the legend of TELEPINU, the missing god, she sends a bee to locate him. When the bee stings Telepinu to awaken him, the god vents his rage on the natural world. NOTE: the priestesses of the Phrygian mother goddess KYBELE were, according to the Roman writer Lactantius, melissai or bees.... |
| Goddess name "Huruing Wuhti" | Hopi | In the Hopi Indian creation story, they were a pair of women who survived the Great Flood. The Huruing Wuhti were later venerated as mother goddesses, because they gave birth to the Hopi people. |
| Goddess name "Kubai-khotun" | Anatolian | 'Great Mother'; she dwells in the 'tree of life' or under its roots and protects and supports humans and animals. Her milk is the origin of the milky Way. She was the primordial mother-goddess. Anatolian |
| Goddess name "Magna Mater" | Roman | The queen of heaven, Mother of All the Gods, Great Mother of the gods, Creatrix of the Universe, etc. Mother goddess from the beginning of time and exists in almost every ancient mythology. She is the earth or bears the planet and beings out of herself. |
| Goddess name "Mama-Kilya (mother moon)" | Inca / pre - Columbian South America / Peru, etc | moon goddess. The consort of the Sun god INTI, she is important in the calculation of time and regulating the Inca festival calendar. The Indians consider that an eclipse of the moon is a time of great danger, caused by a mountain lion or snake eating the moon, and perform a ritual making as much noise as possible to frighten the predator off.... |
| Goddess name "Mata (great mother)" | Hindu | Primeval mother goddess. The archetypal progenitrix of all living things. She becomes the tutelary goddess of every village in northern India, but is also seen as a plague goddess åśśociated with smallpox, in which case her epithet becomes Maha Mai. Her Tamil counterpart is Amman.... |
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