| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|
| 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 "Haumea" | Hawaiian | Mother goddess. ] She is the daughter of PAPATUANUKU, the primordial earth mother, and is revered by many people of Polynesia and by the Maori of New Zealand. Her more notable children include PELE, the volcano goddess of Hawaii, and HI'AIKA, the goddess of the dance. As a deity responsible for birth, Haumea possesses a magical wand that she used at the time of creation to engender fruit trees and fish. From time to time she uses it to replenish stocks. Mythology also identifies her as a heroine who saved herself and her consort from enemies at the time of creation by hiding in a breadfruit tree and fending off the attackers with poisonous sap and wood splinters.... |
| Goddess name "Helen" | Helen is frequently alleged, in Homeric tradition, to have been a mortal heroine or a demigoddess | Goddess [Greek] åśśociated with the city of Troy. In his Catalogues of Women Hesiod, the Greek contemporary of Homer and author of the definitive Theogony of the Greek pantheon, confounds tradition by making Helen the daughter of ZEUS and Ocean. Other Greek authors contemporary with Hesiod give Helen's mother as NEMESIS, the Greco-Roman goddess of justice and revenge, who was raped by Zeus. The mythology placing Helen as a demigoddess identifies her mother as Leda, the mortal wife of Tyndareus, also seduced by Zeus who fathered POLLUX as Helen's brother. However Hesiod strongly denied these claims. Homeric legend describes Helen's marriage to king Menelaus of Sparta and her subsequent abduction by Paris, said to have been the catalyst for the Trojan war. After her death, mythology generally places her among the stars with the Dioscuri (sons of Zeus), better known as Castor and Pollux, the twins of the Gemini constellation. Helen was revered on the island of Rhodes as the goddess Dendritis.See also DISKOURI.... |
| God name "Hinkon" | Tungus / Siberian | Hunting god. Revered as the lord of all animals and controller of the chase.... |
| God name "Ika ere" | Polynesian | Fish god. The son of Punga and grandson of TANGAROA, the sea and creator god, he is revered in various regions of Polynesia as the progenitor of all life in the sea, especially fish. His brother is Tu-Te-Wanawana, the deity responsible for the well-being of lizards, snakes and other reptiles. When fierce storms arose at the time of creation under the control of TAWHIRIMATEA, the god of winds, mythology records that Tu-Te-Wanawana went inland to escape the devastation while Ikatere took to the safety of the sea. The incident became known as the schism of Tawhirimatea and has resulted in an eternal conflict between TANE(MAHUTA) the Forest god and Tangaroa, the sea 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.... |
| God name "Khadir" | Pre - Islamic north African | vegetation god. He wanders the earth returning to the same spot once in every 500 years and is said to have gained his immortality by drinking from the well of life. Similar in some respects to the Syrian god ADONIS and revered by Alexander the Great. Normally referred to as Al-Khidr (the green one).... |
| Goddess name "Laka" | Polynesian / Hawaii | Goddess of dancing. A minor deity who is nonetheless greatly revered by islanders in a hedonistic cult of song, dance and sexual liberality.... |
| Deities name "Lares" | Roman | Hearth deities. The lares are a peculiarly Roman innovation. Two children, born of a liaison between the god Mercury and a mute naiad, Lara, whose tongue had been cut out by Jupiter, became widely revered by Romans as house guardians. Iconographically they are depicted in the guise of monkeys covered with dog skins with a barking dog at their feet.See also LARUNDA, MERCURIUS.... |
| God name "Lu Pan" | Chinese | God of artisans. The deity concerned with builders, bricklayers, housepainters and carpenters. He is particularly revered in Hong Kong. According to tradition he was born in 606 BC in the kingdom of Lu, where he became a skilled carpenter. He turned into a recluse on the Li Shan mountain, where he perfected his skills. He is said to have constructed the palace of the queen of the western heaven. Because of his powers he was murdered. He is also an invoker of harmonious relationships. His festival takes place on the thirteenth day of the sixth month, when the Rains are due. Attributes include a set square and carpenter's plane. He is also depicted with an ax, the symbol of a marriage go-between.... |
| Goddess name "Mandulis [Greek]" | Nubian | Sun god. Mandulis was chiefly revered in a Greco-Roman cult. His most important sanctuary was at Kalabsha, close to the Aswan High Dam, and now relocated. A sanctuary was also constructed on the Greek island of Philae where he seems to have enjoyed an åśśociation with the goddess ISIS. Also Merwel (Egyptian).... |
| Demon name "Maru" | Polynesian / Maori | God of war. One of the important deities revered by Maori clans in New Zealand in times of war, he may be represented in totems as an aggressive face with a prominent tuft of hair, staring eyes and tongue protruding, though these totems generally represent ancestors rather than deities. Maru may be invoked in the familiar Maori war dances and chants demonstrated popularly by the All Blacks before rugby matches all over the world.... |
"Miryai dMagdala aka Mary Magdalene" | Nazorean | Miryai dMagdala aka Mary Magdalene, revered by the Order of Nazorean Essenes as the earthly spouse and chief disciple of Yeshu the Nazorean (Jesus) and as an incarnation of the Maiden of Light. Early Nazorean |
| God name "Mulungu" | Africa | A creator God of the Nyamwezi people of Tanzania in eastern Africa. Despite being the creator and protector of the world, he is distant and has little contact with anyone. It is said that he once lived on earth, but when someone set fire to the landscape he asked a spider to spin him a web to climb up into the sky, where he lives today. He is revered now as a sky god, with thunder as his voice. |
| God name "Mungan Ngour" | Australian aboriginal | Creator god. Chiefly revered among the Kurnai Koori aborigines in Victoria State. The Southern Lights or Aurora australis are regarded as a sign of his displeasure when the law and order given to humankind by the gods are abused. His son is Tundun, who is responsible for the secret ceremonies originally divulged only to men and including the initiation rights of påśśage from boyhood to maturity. When these were revealed to women, the Dreamtime ended, a period of chaos ensued and Mungan Ngour elected to live henceforth in the sky.... |
| God name "Ni" | Chimu Indian / pre - Columbian South America / coastal areas of Peru | Sea god. A significant deity in the pantheon, revered by fishermen. Often linked with SI, the moon god.... |
| God name "Nurelli (Nooralie)" | Australian aboriginal | Creator god. Chiefly revered among the Wiimbaio aborigines living in the area of the Murray River, he is believed to have created the land of Australia and then brought law and order to humankind. His son is Gnawdenoorte.... |
| God name "O-lwa-Dai-Myojin" | Shinto / Buddhist / Japan | God of stoneworkers. Probably more a Buddhist deity, but also revered in Shintoism.... |
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