| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|
| Goddess name "Ala" | Ibo / eastern Nigeria, West Africa | Chthonic fertility goddess. A popular deity who is also goddess of the underworld linked with a cult of the dead (which rest in her womb). Her temple is the Mbari which contains a cult statue depicting the goddess seated with a child in her arms and adorned with the crescent moon. She is flanked by attendant deities. She enjoys a profusion of local shrines which are well supplied with votive offerings. Serious crimes including murder are considered to be offenses against her. An annual yam festival is celebrated in her honor. Also Ale, Ana, ANI.... |
| Goddess name "Anat" | Hebrew / Israel | The goddess Anat is never mentioned in Hebrew scriptures as a goddess, though her name is apparently preserved in the city names Beth Anath and Anathoth. Anathoth seems to be a plural form of the name, perhaps a shortening of bêt anatôt 'House of the Anats', either a reference to many shrines of the goddess or a plural of intensification. The ancient hero Shamgar son of Anat is mentioned in Judges 3.31;5:6 which raises the idea that this hero may have been imagined as a demi-god, a mortal son of the goddess. |
| Supreme god name "Bagisht" | Kafir / Afghanistan | God of flood waters and prosperity. The son of the supreme goddess DISANI, conceived when she was raped from behind by an obscure demonic entity in the shape of a ram who violated her while she was milking cows by a lakeside. Bagisht is said to have been born in the current of the Prasun river whereupon the turbulent waters became smooth-flowing and parted to allow the infant to reach the bank. There seem to have been no elaborate sanctuaries but rather an abundance of simple shrines always placed close to water. The god was celebrated at the main festivals of the Kafir agricultural year and received sacrificial portions of meat. Also Opkulu.... |
| Goddess name "Benten-San" | Shinto / Japan | Goddess of luck. One of seven deities clåśśed as gods of fortune and the only goddess in the group. A popular deity with many sanctuaries dedicated to her, she is a patron of music and holds a biwa instrument in her hand. Snakes, believed to stand for jealousy, are often coiled around her statues. Because of this, married couples are reluctant to visit her shrines together. Her priesthood is both Shinto and Buddhist and she is closely linked with the goddess SARASVATI.... |
| Goddess name "Bharat Mata (Mother India)" | Modern Hindu | Mother goddess. Evolved from the writings of the nineteenth century Bengali, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Shrines are designed in the form of a map of India.... |
| Goddess name "Daphne" | Greek | Oracular goddess. A number of oracular shrines were dedicated to her in various places in Asia Minor, including Antiocheia, Mopsuestia (Cilicia), Sura and Patara (Lycia), Telmessos (Caria). Represented by the laurel Dapbne she is linked with the Dapbnepboria festivals honoring APOLLO. Tradition has it that she was changed into the laurel to avoid sexual submission to the god.... |
| 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 "Kana-Yama-Hime-No-Kami" | Shinto / Japan | Goddess of miners. Born from the vomit of IZANAMI and worshiped in the Nangu-Jinja and other shrines. Her consort is KANA-YAMA-BIKO-NO-KAMI. One of the KAMIS of the so-called metal mountain.... |
| Goddess name "Kubaba" | Hurrian | gave bread to the fisherman and gave water, she made him offer the fish to Esagila Shrines in her honour spread throughout Mesopotamia. In the Hurrian area she may be identified with Kebat, or Hepat, one title of the Hurrian Mother Goddess Hannahannah |
| Goddess name "Osun" | Yoruba / Nigeria, West Africa | River goddess. The daughter of Oba Jumu and Oba Do and the consort of the god SHANGO. The guardian deity of the river Osun, revered particularly in the towns and villages along the banks of the river where sacred weapons are kept in her shrines. Also a goddess of healing. She is worshiped particularly by women and is honored in an annual festival, the Ibo-Osun, during which new cultic priestesses are selected.... |
| Goddess name "Roma" | Greek / Roman | Tutelary goddess. The deity was actually conceived by the Greeks and shrines were set up at centers including Smyrna and Ephesus.... |
| Goddess name "Suijin" | Shinto / Japan | Collective name for water gods. These deities are worshiped at shrines at the sources of irrigation canals, lakes and ponds. They are depicted as snakes, eels and fish and invoked particularly by women. Chief among them is the goddess MIZU-HA-NO-ME.... |
| Goddess name "Susano-Wo ascends with her to heaven but is thrown out after trying to enter her house and committing various excesses. Amaterasu refuses to be sullied and obstinately hides herself away in a cave. It requires the combined diplomacy and craft of many other deities to persuade her to come out. The lure is the perfect divine mirror in which she sees her reflection. The birth of the two deities is considered to mark the transition between cosmic and material genesis." | Sometimes her shrines are placed adjacent to those of Susano - Wo | The Ise Naiku sanctuary is visited by about five million devotees each year and Amaterasu takes pride of place in every family shrine. She is also the tutelary goddess of the emperor. Hers tends to be a monotheistic cult in which all other deities take a subservient place. Though powerful she does not always succeed and is often subject to attack. She has been arguably identified with the god VAIROCANA in Buddhist religion.... |
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