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| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
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| Goddess name "Zaramama" | Peru | ("grain mother") or Mama Zara was the Inca mythology goddess of grain. She was åśśociated with maize that grew in multiples or were similarly strange. These strange plants were sometimes dressed as dolls of Zaramama. She was also åśśociated with willow trees. Peru |
| 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 "Sri(devi) (prosperity)" | Hindu / Epic / Puranic | (1) Goddess. An early name which was syncretized with that of LAKSMI to form Sri-Laksmi.(2) Goddess. Buddhist-Lamaist [Tibet]. One of a group of DHARMAPALA with terrible appearance and royal attire who protect the Dalai Lama. A manifestation of the goddess DEVI sometimes seen in company with VIS NU, when conventionally she stands on his right. Her breasts are covered by a narrow band of cloth. She may be invoked to provide wealth (see also Laksmi). Her retinue includes the goddesses of the seasons and her animal is a mule. Color: blue. Attributes: chiefly cup and staff but on occasion several other objects including a pink lotus. Three-eyed and may be three-headed. Also LHA MO.(3) Goddess. Jain.... |
| 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 "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 "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 "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 "Muso Koroni (the pure woman with the primeval soul)" | Bambara / Mali, West Africa | Chthonic fertility goddess. The mother of all living things, she introduced mankind to the principles of farming. She has a terrifying appearance, depicted either in human form, sometimes with many breasts (cf. ARTEMIS at Ephesus), or as a panther. In the latter guise she uses her claws to bring on menstruation in women and to cirçúɱcise both sexes. Prior to cirçúɱ cision a youth is said to possess wanzo, an untamed wildness. Muso Koroni is pursued by the Sun god, PEMBA, who impregnates her in the form of a tree (Acacia albida). Also Mousso Coronie.... |
| 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 "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 "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 "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 "Onuris [Greek]" | Egypt | God of hunting and war. Onuris is first known from This, near Abydos in Upper Egypt. In later times his main cult center was at Samannud in the Nile delta. His consort is the lion goddess Mekhit. Onuris is generally depicted in human form as a bearded figure wearing a crown with four plumes and wielding a spear or occasionally holding a rope. He is sometimes accompanied by Mekhit in iconography. Seen as a hunter who caught and slew the enemies of RE, the Egyptian Sun god, some legends place him close to the battle between HORUS and SETH. In clåśśical times, Onuris became largely syncretized with the Greek war god ARES. Also Anhuret (Egyptian).... |
| Goddess name "Ses'at" | Egypt | Goddess of libraries and the art of writing. Known from 2500 BC, or earlier, until the end of Egyptian history circa AD 400. She is depicted anthropomorphically bearing a seven-pointed star or rosette on her head, sometimes atop a wand and below a bow-shaped object. Early in her career she was åśśociated with the ritual of stretching the cord during which boundary poles were rammed into the ground by the king before measuring out the foundations of a sanctuary. As a scribe she recorded the lists of foreign captives and their tributes. At Karnak in Upper Egypt and at Dendara she recorded the royal jubilees on a notched palm stem.See also SEFKHET-ABWY.... |
| 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 "Usas" | Hindu / Vedic | Goddess of the dawn. The daughter of Dyaus and, according to some texts, the consort of the Sun god SURYA. An auspicious deity, Usas brings the dawn, heralding Surya, and drives away darkness. She is the all-seeing eye of the gods. In the Rg Veda she is depicted as a beautiful young virginal figure who rides in a hundred chariots. She sets all things in motion and can render strength and fame to her devotees. In addition to being perceived as a sky goddess, she is also drawn as a mother goddess in the guise of a cow. Epithets include mother of the gods and mother of cows. She is invoked to give the boon of longevity, but a more malignant aspect reveals her as a huntress who wastes human life. Usas sometimes enjoys a domestic worship as a guardian hearth goddess who drives away darkness and evil spirits. She disappears, however, from the later traditions of Hinduism.... |
| Goddess name "Sitapatra (with a white umbrella)" | Buddhist / Mahayana | Goddess. An emanation of VAIROCANA and a female BODHISATTVA or buddhadesignate. Color: white. Attributes: arrow, bow, hook, noose, parasol, prayer wheel and white staff. Sometimes three-eyed and three-headed.... |
| Goddess name "Vajravarahi (diamond sow)" | Buddhist / Mahayana / / Lamaist / Tibet | Goddess. An emanation of VAIROCANA and sometimes identified as the SAKTI of HEVAJIRA. In Lamaism she accompanies VAJRADAKA. She is depicted treading on a man. Color: red. Attributes: principally club, cup, image of Vairocana on the crown and knife, but with an åśśortment of other attributes from time to time. Three-eyed and three-headed.... |
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