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| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|
| Goddess name "Aditi (the free one)" | Hindu / Vedic | Archaic mother goddess. According to the Rg Veda Aditi is said to be the wife of KASYAPA or of BRAHMA and mother of the ADITYAS, a group of minor gods including MITRA, ARYAMAN, BHAGA, VARUNA, DAKSA and Anisa. No other consort is mentioned in the literature. She is also accounted as the mother of HARI. Other legends account her as the mother of the Rain god INDRA. No human physical features are drawn, though she is sometimes identified in the guise of a cow. Aditi is also perceived as a guardian goddess who brings prosperity and who can free her devotees from problems and clear away obstacles. She disappears largely from later Hindu traditions.... |
| Goddess name "Amaunet (the hidden one)" | Egypt / Upper | Fertility goddess. Amaunet seems to have a taken a role as an early consort of AMUN, one of the eight deities of the OGDOAD and representing hidden power. In that context she is depicted anthropomorphically but with the head of a snake. She is shown in reliefs and as the subject of a notable statue from the Record Hall of Tuthmosis III at the Karnak complex of Thebes, where she was recognized as a benign protective deity especially called on at times of royal accession. As a fertility goddess she was largely eclipsed by the goddess MUT. She is sometimes equated with NEITH, the creator goddess of Sais, and her attributes may include the red crown of the Delta.... |
| 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 "Atargatis" | Northern Syrian | Mother goddess. She enjoyed major cults at Khirbet Tannur, where she is depicted as the vegetation goddess in nine separate variations, and at Khirbet Brak, where she is åśśociated with dolphins. She often carries a cornucopia linking her with the goddess TYCHE (fortune) and may commonly be flanked by lions. She sometimes carries a rudder or wears the mural crown of a city guardian. There are hints of sky affinities in some depictions, with a sign of the zodiac or a nimbus-like veil.... |
| Goddess name "Bendis" | Greece | A Thracian divinity in whom the moon was worshipped. Hesychius says "that the poet Cratinus called this goddess Two Spears, either because she had to discharge two duties, one towards heaven and the other towards the earth, or because she bore two lances, or lastly, because she had two lights, the one her own and the other derived from the Sun. In Greece she was sometimes identified with Persephone, but more commonly with Artemis. |
| Goddess name "Bera Pennu" | Northern Indian | vegetation goddess. Worshiped by the Khonds in Bengal. She was the recipient of human sacrifice to ensure good harvest, particularly of the spice turmeric, and as a protection against disease and infirmity. The sacrificial victim or meriab was youthful, often kept for years as a holy person before death and was always either the offspring of a previous sacrificial victim, or purchased from impoverished families for the purpose. He or she was generally strangled, sometimes in the fork of a tree, after days of festivities. In other instances the victim was cut up alive.... |
| Goddess name "Bibi the Child-Strangler" | Bibi | Sometimes affectionately known as "Aunty Bibi," is a Romany witch-goddess. Bibi is an old crone who either wears torn black garments or is entirely naked. Like the Romanian goddess Dschuma, Bibi is disease incarnate, particularly cholera. She is referred to as "the child-strangler" because it is believed that disease often effects children, who are young and weak. |
| Goddess name "Buddhi (perception)" | Hindu / Puranic | (1) Minor goddess. Sometimes identified as consort of the MAHA-GANAPATI form of the elephant god GANESA, depicted seated on his knee.(2) Minor goddess. Jain.... |
| Goddess name "Camenae" | Roman | Goddesses of springs, wells and fountains, or water nymphs of Venus . They were wise, and sometimes gave prophecies of the future. There were four Camenae: Carmenta, Egeria, Antevorta, and Postvorta. Roman |
| Goddess name "Camunda" | Hindu / Epic / Puranic | (1) Goddess. A distinct form of DURGA. The name is said to be a contraction of the names of the demonic beings Camda and Munda killed by her. She is also recognized among the SAPTAMATARA and ASTAMATARA mothers as well as sometimes being regarded as a NAVASAKTI. She stands variously on a lion, an owl and a corpse. Attributes: a large and varied åśśortment of objects are held. Three-eyed. Also YAMI.(2) Goddess. Buddhist. She stands upon a corpse. Color: red. Attributes: cup and knife.... |
| Goddess name "Catha aka Cautha" | Etruscan | Goddess of the Sun who is sometimes shown as male and equated with the Greek Sun god Helios. Etruscan |
| Goddess name "Eriiys" | Greek | Chthonic goddess of wrath. According to legend she was a consort of POSEIDON by whom she bore the fabulous horse Areon. By implication she may also have been a grim maternal figure who engendered all horses. She may be equated with a wrathful DEMETER who is sometimes given the epithet Erinys. Erinys appears in the collec tive form of three Erinyes, their heads covered with snake locks and bearing torches from the underworld. In the Iliad they are described as those who beneath the earth punish dead men, whoever has sworn a false oath. In Roman mythology they are the Furies.... |
| Goddess name "Hariti (green or stealing)" | Hindu / Epic / Puranic | (1) Mother goddess. One of the group of MATARAS (mothers) who are the patrons of children. Considered by some to be identical with the goddess Vriddhi. Her consort is Pancika, alternatively KUBERA. In her destructive aspect she steals and eats children. Particularly known from the north and northwest of India. Attribute: a child may be held at her hip, sometimes being eaten.(2) Plague goddess. Buddhist. Associated with smallpox. Also regarded in some texts as the goddess of fertility.... |
| Goddess name "Heret-Kau" | Egypt / Lower | underworld goddess. Very little is known of Heret-Kau. She was recognized chiefly in the Old kingdom (27th to 22nd centuries BC), apparently concerned with guardianship of the deceased in the afterlife and sometimes appearing as a figurine in attendance on ISIS in building foundations.... |
| Goddess name "Hesperides" | Greek | These goddesses of evenings and the golden light of Sunset were the famous guardians of the golden apples which Ge had given to Hera at her marriage with Zeus. Their names are Aegle, Erytheia, Hestia, and Arethusa, but their descent is not the same in the different traditions; sometimes they are called the daughters of night or Erebus (Theogony of Hesiod 215), sometimes of Phorcys and Ceto, sometimes of Atlas and Hesperis, whence their names Atlantides or Hesperides, and sometimes of Hesperus, or of Zeus and Themis Greek |
| Goddess name "Hours" | Egypt | underworld goddesses. The twelve daughters of the Sun god RE. They act in concert against the adversaries of Re and control the destiny of human beings in terms of each person's life span, reflecting the supremacy of order and time over chaos. The Hours are sometimes represented on the walls of royal tombs in anthropomorphic form with a five-pointed star above the head. Also Horae (Greek).... |
| Goddess name "Inar (rice-grower)" | Shinto / Japan | God (Goddess) of foodstuffs. The popular name of a god(dess) worshiped under the generic title Miketsu-No-Kami in the Shi-Den sanctuary of the imperial palace, but rarely elsewhere. The deity displays gender changes, develops many personalities and is revered extensively in Japan. Inari is often depicted as a bearded man riding a white fox but, in pictures sold at temple offices, (s)he is generally shown as a woman with long flowing hair, carrying sheafs of rice and sometimes, again, riding the white fox. Inari sanctuaries are painted bright red, unlike most other Shinto temples. They are further characterized by rows of wooden portals which form tunnels leading to the sanctuary. Sculptures of foxes are prolific (an animal endowed, in Japanese tradition, with supernatural powers) and the shrines are decorated with a special device, the Hoju-No-Tama, in the shape of a pear surrounded by small flames. Often identified with the food goddess TOYO-UKE-BIME.... |
| Goddess name "Kala-Bhadra" | Hindu / Puranic | Minor goddess of death. An auspicious attendant of funerals who is invoked in burial grounds in order to safeguard the påśśage of the dead to the otherworld. She is sometimes referred to as Karala-Bhadra.... |
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