Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
---|---|---|
Demon name "Matsya" | Hindu / Epic / Puranic | Incarnation of the god VIS'NU. In this first avatara Vis'nu appears as a fish which, according to one legend, tows a ship carrying the law-giver MANU to safety after the primal flood. Matsya engages in an epic battle with the demon HAYAGRIVA who stole the Vedas from a sleeping BRAHMA. Usually depicted with a human torso carrying symbols, e.g. wheel and conch, on a fish's body.... |
Goddess name "Mayahuel" | Aztec / Mesoamerican / Mexico | Minor fertility goddess. One of the group clåśśed as the Ometochtli complex åśśociated with the maguey plant from which pulque is brewed. She may be depicted seated upon a tortoise beside an agave plant in bloom. According to legend she was abducted by QUETZALCOATL and subsequently dismembered by wild animals. From the fragments grew the first agave plants.... |
God name "Mehen" | Egypt | Minor chthonic underworld god. The guardian of the barque of the Sun god RE during its påśśage through the underworld at night. Depicted in the form of a coiled snake.... |
Goddess name "Mehet-Weret (great flood)" | Egypt | Minor goddess åśśociated with creation accounts. In some versions of the story she epitomizes the primeval ocean, while in others she is the waterway on which the barque of the Sun god RE travels. She is depicted as a cow bearing a Sun disc between its horns and lying on papyrus reeds.... |
Goddess name "Menchit" | Egypt | Originally a foreign war goddess, and the female counterpart, and thus wife, to Anhur. It was said that she had come from Nubia with Anhur. Her name depicts this warrior status, as it means she who måśśacres. Egypt |
Goddess name "Meretseger" | Egypt | Localized chthonic goddess åśśociated with the underworld. At Thebes she acted in either benign or destructive fashion against workers building tombs in the Valley of the kings. She is generally depicted as a coiled cobra which may possess a human head and arm. One of the best representations is on the sarcophagus of Rameses III. She lost her popularity when the use of Thebes as a royal cemetery was discontinued early in the first millennium BC.... |
Goddess name "Mictlantecuhtli" | Aztec / Mesoamerican / Mexico | Chthonic underworld god. The creator of the underworld, Mictlan. Depicted with a skull-like appearance and protruding teeth. Also one of a pair of deities with MICTECACIHUATL. In the primeval waters of the cosmos, they generated the monstrous goddess CIPACTLI, from whom the earth was formed. In alternative traditions he is the god of the sixth of the thirteen heavens, Ilhuicatl Mamalhuazocan (the heaven of the fire drill), or he is one of the gods who support the lowest heaven at the four cardinal points. Mictlantecuhtli is perceived to reside in the south (codices Borgia and Vaticåñuś B). He is also one of the four great temple deities (codices Borgia, Cospi and Fejervery-Mayer).... |
Goddess name "Mihos" | Egypt | Lion god. The son of the goddess BASTET. Depicted in leonine form and originating from a cult center at Leontopolis [Tell el'Muqdam] in Lower Egypt. A sanctuary in his honor was built at Bubastis. Also Miysis (Greek).... |
Demon name "Mohini (illusion)" | Hindu / Epic / Puranic | Minor incarnation of VIS'NU. Mohini is an avatara who appears in the form of an enchantress whose form Vis'nu adopted briefly to deceive demons attempting to remove the ambrosia created by churning the primeval ocean of milk (see also GARUDA). Vis'nu used the same guise to dupe and seduce the god SIVA.... |
Goddess name "Moirai" | Greek | Collective name for a group of goddesses. The Fates of human life: KLOTHO, the spinner, LACHESIS, the caster of lots, and ATROPOS, the unturnable inevitability of death. The daughters of ZEUS and THEMIS, depicted with spindle, scroll and scales respectively. Also Moires.... |
God name "Montu" | Egypt | Local god of war. Worshiped in and around the district of Thebes in Upper Egypt. He is known from circa 2000 BC and possibly earlier, but came to special prominence overseeing the aggressive posture of Theban kings from the XI to XVIII Dynasty (2133-1320 BC). Montu is depicted in human form but with a falcon's head surmounted by twin plumes, a Sun disc and the uraeus (cobra). At some stage, probably as Month (Greek), he became identified with a sacred bull, Buchis.... |
Goddess name "Mors" | Roman | Minor god of death. Mors replaces the Greek THANATOS and, according to legend, is one of the twin sons of NYX, goddess of the night. He lives in part of the remote cave occupied by SOMNUS, god of sleep, beside the river Lethe. Ovid depicts him as a hideous and cadaverous figure dressed in a winding sheet and holding a scythe and hour glåśś. Known particularly through Lacedaemonian culture where twin statues of Mors and Somnus were placed side by side.... |
Goddess name "Mrgasiras (head of a gazelle)" | Hindu / Epic / Puranic | Minor goddess of fortune. A benevolent NAKSATRA; daughter of DAKSA, wife of CANDRA (SOMA).... |
Goddess name "Mula" | Hindu / Epic / Puranic | Minor goddess of fortune. A malevolent NAKSATRA; daughter of DAKSA and wife of CANDRA (SOMA).... |
"Muses" | Greek | Daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, presided over the liberal arts particularly, were nine in number, and dwelt along with Apollo near Parnåśśus, Pieria, and Helicon; Clio presided over history, Euterpe over music, Thalia over comedy, Melpomene over tragedy, Terpsicpéñïś over choral dance and song, Erato over erotic poetry and elegy, Polyhymnia over lyric poetry, Urania over astronomy, and Calliope over eloquence and epic poetry. Greek |
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 "Mut" | Egypt | The patron goddess of Thebes. In Upper Egypt she is the counterpart of SAKHMET, the Lower Egyptian goddess from Memphis. After superseding the goddess AMAUNET, she became locally the consort of the Sun god AMUN, in which capacity she is the mother of the moon god KHONSU. She was also regarded as the Divine mother of the Theban kings. Mut is depicted in human form wearing a vulture headdress sur mounted by the twin crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. She is typically dressed in a bright red or blue patterned gown. Less frequently she is drawn with a lion's head. She enjoyed a cult center at Thebes where her sanctuary was known as the Iseru.... |
God name "Mutinus" | Roman | Minor fertility god. Depicted as strongly ithyphallic and invoked by women seeking to bear children.... |