| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|
| Goddess name "Maui" | Polynesian / Maori / New Zealand | Tutelary god. Not a creator god but one who åśśists mankind in various supernatural ways. According to tradition he was aborted at birth and cast into the sea by his mother, who thought he was dead. He was rescued entangled in seaweed. He is the deity who drew the islands of New Zealand from the floor of the ocean in a net. Maui caught the Sun and beat it into submission, making it travel more slowly across the sky so that the days became longer. He also brought fire from the underworld for mankind and tried, unsuccessfully, to harness immortality for him by entering the vulva of the underworld goddess HINE-NUI-TE-PO while she was asleep. She awoke and crushed him to death. Though a deity, he had been made vulnerable to death by a mistake during his rites of birth (see also Balder). Also Mawi.... |
| Goddess name "Mawu" | Fon / Benin, West Africa | (1) moon goddess. The sister of the Sun god LISA. She is also considered to bestow fertility and motherhood and is generally benevolent in nature.(2) sky god. Ewe [Togo, West Africa]. Among the tribe neighboring the Fon. Mawu is perceived as male and a creator deity. He favors the color white and is also benevolent and generous in nature.... |
| Goddess name "Maya(devi)" | Buddhist | Mother goddess. The mother of the BUDDHA perceived as the world lotus or PADMA from which the Buddha was born. She equates with the Hindu goddess LAKSMI. The term is also applied to the personification of the visible universe and, in Hinduism, as an epithet of the goddess DURGA.... |
| Supreme god name "Mayin" | Tungus / eastern / central Siberia | Supreme god. A benevolent but remote deity who breathes life into newborn children and receives the spirits of the dead.... |
| God name "Menesthius" | Greek | 1. A son of Areithous and Philomedusa, of Arne in Boeotia, was slain at Troy by Paris. 2. A son of the river-god Spercheius or of Borus and Polydora, was one of the commanders of the hosts of Achilles. Greek |
| 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).... |
| God name "Midgard" | Norse | The mid-yard, middle-town, that is, the earth, is a mythological word common to all the ancient Teutonic languages. The Icelandic Edda alone has preserved the true mythical bearing of this old Teutonic word. The earth (Midgard), the abode of men, is situated in the middle of the universe, bordered by mountains and surrounded by the great sea; on the other side of this sea is the Utgard (out-yard), the abode of the giants; the Midgard is defended by the yard or burgh Asgard (the burgh of the gods) lying in the middle (the heaven being conceived as rising above the earth). Thus the earth and mankind are represented as a stronghold besieged by the powers of evil from without, defended by the gods from above and from within. Norse |
| God name "Mikal aka Resheph" | Semitic | A Semitic god of plague and war. He bore the head of a gazelle on his forehead and was an important member of the pantheon of Ugarit though not mentioned in Ugaritic mythological texts. |
| Goddess name "Mizuhanome" | Japan | water goddess who was born from the urine of the primordial creator goddess Honokagutsuti. Japan |
| God name "Morva signifies Locus Maritimus" | Britain | Morva signifies Locus Maritimus. Sea-women and sea-daughters. "The fishermen who were the ancestors of the Church, came from the Galilean waters to haul for men. We, born to God at the font, are children of the water. Therefore, all the early symbolism of the Church was of and from the sea. The carvure of the early arches was taken from the sea and its creatures. Fish, dolphins, mermen, and mermaids abound in the early types, transferred to wood and stone."' cornwall, Britain |
| 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.... |
| Goddess name "NA CHA (here is a loud cry)" | Taoist / Chinese | Guardian god. A somewhat ambiguous god who is generally regarded as benevolent, but whose traditions hint at a more destructive aspect. He was born a god of human parents, the reincarnation of an older deity, Ling Chu-Tzu, the intelligent pearl. According to tradition, his father was Li Ching, who threatened to kill his mother because she claimed she was made pregnant by the mystical actions of a Taoist priest who told her she was to bear the child of a unicorn. Na Cha is said to have fought in the Shang-Chou war on the side of the Chou dynasty circa 1027 BC. His chief adversary was the sea dragon king. Ultimately he became involved with the goddess Shih-Chi Niang Niang, accidentally killed her attendant and, in remorse, committed suicide.... |
| God name "Na Cha/ Li No Cha" | Chinese / Taoist | The guardian god that was born as a god of from human parents |
| God name "Nabu" | Mesopotamian / Babylonian - Akkadian | God of writing and wisdom. The son of MARDUX and ZARPANITU(M), his consort is TASMETU(M). He is symbolized by the inscribing stylus. A major deity in neo-Babylonian times from the eighth century BC onward, with an important sanctuary at Borsippa, near Babylon, known as the Ezida. He is considered a god of mountain regions, described as the firstborn son of Marduk and his image is closely involved in the New Year akitu festival. Also NEBO (Vetus Testamentum).... |
| God name "Ndaula" | Bunyoro / Uganda, East Africa | Plague god. Particularly åśśociated with smallpox. His shrines are usually situated on the edge of a community and on the frontiers of the tribal land so that he may be invoked to keep the disease in neighboring territory.... |
| God name "Nebo" | Babylonian | The god of science and literature, is said to have invented cuneiform writing. His temple was at Borsippa, but his worship was carried wherever Babylonian letters penetrated. Thus we had Mount Nebo in Moab, and the city of Nebo in Judea. |
| Goddess name "Negun" | Mesopotamia | Goddess who was evidently born to be a mother of heroes. Mesopotamia |
| Goddess name "Nemesis" | Greco - Roman | Goddess of justice and revenge. The dreaded deity who, with the Furies, is responsible for transporting the souls of the guilty to Tartarus. She is also described as the deification of indignation. Her presence may be symbolized by the fabulous winged griffon. Her cult was predominantly at Rhamnus (Attica), where a magnificent temple was built in her honor in the fifth century BC, and in Smyrna. She also had a temple at Iconium in Asia Minor. According to legend, ZEUS raped her and she bore HELEN in consequence. In certain respects she provides a parallel with the goddess ERINYS. Her cult became one of morality.... |
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