Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
---|---|---|
"Wan-Aisa" | Honduras | Dawan. The creator of the world and the father of humankind. Honduras |
"Were-Wolf" | Germanic | A human being, sometimes in one form and sometimes in another. |
"Whaitiri" | Maori | A personification of thunder, and the grandmother of Tawhaki and Karihi, who married a mortal chief. She invented the toilet, showed humans how to use it, and returned to the sky, where she still lives. Maori |
Deities name "Whiro" | Polynesian / Maori | God of death. Regarded as an errant son of the creator deities, RANGINUI and PAPATUANUKU, Whiro stands as the chief antagonist of TANEMAHUTA, the creator god of light. He is, therefore, the personification of darkness and evil. During the time of creation from chaos, Whiro is said to have fought an epic battle against Tanemahuta in the newly formed heavens. He was vanquished and forced to descend into the underworld where he became ruler over the dead and chief among the lesser underworld deities who are responsible for various forms of disease and sickness. In the temporal world the lizard, a symbol of death, embodies him, and various creatures of the night, including the owl and the bat, are earthly representatives from his kingdom, as are such malignant insect pests as the mosquito. This deity is not to be confused with the legendary human voyager and adventurer of the same name whose traditions have, in the past, often been muddled with those of the god.... |
God name "Wiidigo" | Ojibwa / Canada | Ice god. A terrible being formed of ice who symbolizes the starvation of Winter. There are said to be many windigos, but they are always referred to in the singular. Cannibalistic, the windigo appears as an ice skeleton and a human being can be turned into one through possession.... |
"Wintersmith" | Discworld | The personification of Winter. At his core he is the elemental personification of ice. Originally just a shape in the snow, with two violet eyes, he later formed a "snowman" out of all the elements that make a human body. He creates snowflakes and icebergs, and also the patterns of ice on windows. Discworld |
Goddess name "Woyengi" | Africa | Creator Goddess who shaped humans from clay dolls. Africa |
God name "Wu" | Ewe / Benin, West Africa | Sea god. His priest, the Wu-no, invokes the god whenever the weather is too severe for the fishing boats to land. He is propitiated with offerings delivered from the spéñïś and in past times was occasionally appeased with human sacrifice taken out to sea and thrown overboard.... |
Spirit name "Xian" | Chinese | A spiritually immortal, transcendent and super-human celestial being. Chinese |
God name "Xipe Totec" | Aztec | our lord the flayed one, was a life-death-rebirth deity, god of Agriculture, the west, disease, spring, goldsmiths and the seasons. He flayed himself to give food to humanity. Aztec |
"Y" | Greek | Y, called the Pythagorean letter because the Greek letter upsilon was taken represent the sacred triad, formed by the duad proceeding from the monad; and also because it represents the dividing of the paths of vice and virtue in the development of human life. |
God name "Yah" | Egypt | moon god. Yah may have been an import to Egypt brought by Semitic immigrants who based his profile on the Mesopotamian god SIN. He is mentioned largely from the twentieth century BC onward and is depicted in human form, but can also be represented by the falcon and the ibis.... |
"Yahoo" | s | A savage; a very ill-mannered person. In Gulliver's Travels the Yahoos are described as brutes with human forms and vicious propensities. They are subject to the Houyhnhnms, or horses with human reason. |
God name "Yamandaga" | Kalmuck | One of the senior gods. Depicted with six hands, holding a scepter, a pair of ropes, two drinking vessels and an animal skin. Coloured blue with red palms and soles, he has snakes coiled around ankles and wrists and another forming a necklace; another necklace is made up of human heads. His crown is made of flowers and skulls. Kalmuck |
Goddess name "Yhi" | Australian aboriginal | Sun goddess and bringer of light. She is said to have been jointly responsible, with BAIAME, for the creation of humankind and in particular for the Karraur group of aborigines. Mythology records that she was asleep in the darkness of the primordial Dreamtime until she was awakened by a loud roaring or whistling noise from Baiame. As she opened her eyes the world became light and as she walked the earth plants grew in her footprints, to be followed by animals and, finally, humankind.... |
King name "Yima" | Persia | The first human, the first king of the world. His brother divided him, whereby the earth, life and social order were created. Persia |
"Youanni" | Karaiben | The main soul of humans, resides in the head. Karaiben |
God name "Yu-Chiang" | Chinese | God of ocean winds. He is depicted with the body of a bird and a human face.... |