| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|
| God name "Ebisu" | Shinto / Japan | God of luck. The most popular of seven gods of fortune recognized in Shintoism and frequently linked with the god DAIKOKU. He is depicted as a fat, smiling and bearded fisherman holding a fishing rod in one hand and a sea bream in the other. The name does not appear in the clåśśical sacred texts Nibongi and Kojiki, but Ebisu is known to have been worshiped in ancient times among fishermen. From about the sixteenth century his character changed and he became a deity åśśociated with profit. Thus he is a patron of commerce and his picture hangs in most establishments. He is perhaps syncretized with the gods HIRUKO and KOTO-SHIRO-NUSHI. He may also be identified with Fudo, the god of knowledge. He does not join the rest of the Shinto pantheon in the great October festival at Izumo because he is deaf. His festival is celebrated concurrently in his own temple.... |
| Deities name "Ehecatl" | Aztec / Mesoamerican / Mexico | Creator god. The Sun deity representing the second of the five world ages, each of which lasted for 2028 heavenly years, each heavenly year being fifty-two terrestrial years. Assigned to the air or wind and presided over by QUETZALCOATL, to whose complex of deities he belongs. According to tradition, the age ended in a cataclysmic destruction caused by hurricanes. All humanity turned into monkeys. Illustrated by the Stone of the Four Suns [Yale Peabody Museum]. Also (4) Ehecatl; Ehecatonatiuh.... |
| God name "Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl" | Aztec / Mesoamerican / Mexico | Primordial god. A syncretization of EHECATL and QUETZALCOATL, one of four gods who support the lowest heaven at each cardinal point. He is perceived as residing in the west (codices Borgia and Vaticåñuś B). He is the deity who rules over the ninth of the thirteen heavens, Itztapal Nanatzcayan (where the stone slabs crash together). In a separate tradition, EhecatlQuetzalcoatl executed the monstrous god XOLOTL when he declined to offer his blood in self-sacrifice for the creation of mankind.... |
| God name "Ek Chuah" | Mayan / Mesoamerican / Mexico | God of merchants. Also the deity responsible for the cacao crop. (The cacao bean was traditionally the standard currency throughout Mesoamerica.) Probably of Putun origin, he is typically depicted painted black, except for a red area around the lips and chin. He has a distinctive downwardly projecting lower lip, horseshoe shapes around each eye and a highly elongated nose. He may also bear a scorpion's tail. Other attributes include a carrying strap in his headdress and sometimes a pack on his back. Also God M.... |
| God name "Elagabal (lord of the mountain)" | Syrian | Local tutelary god. Probably originating as a mountain deity with strong solar links. His sacred animal is the eagle. His cult was based on the town of Emesa [Homs], where he was worshiped in the form of a dome-shaped, black stone obelisk. His name became Hellenized as Heliogabalos.... |
| God name "Erkilek" | Inuit / North America | Hunting god. A malev olent deity with the head and nose of a dog and the body of a man. He carries a bow, with arrows contained in a quiver, and is an expert archer.... |
| God name "Faro" | Bambara / Mali, West Africa | River god. Regarded as the deity who brought order to the world at the time of creation. He impregnated himself and gave birth to twins who were the first human beings. He is also the progenitor of fish stocks in the river Niger. His chief adversary is the god of the desert wind, TELIKO. Faro is propitiated annually by a Komo society of men in a ritual of dancing. They use a special mask which is created anew each year. According to legend Faro came to earth after a long period of drought during which most of the living things died. He also gave mankind the gift of speech.... |
| God name "Ganapati (lord of hosts)" | Hindu / Puranic | (1) God. The more commonly recognized name of the elephant god GANESA, particularly favored in western India.(2) God. Buddhist (Mahayana). The name of a deity influenced by the Hindu god Ganesa. Depicted riding upon a rat or mouse and carrying an åśśortment of attributes.... |
| Demon name "Garuda (the devourer)" | Hindu / Vedic | Archaic Sun god and Divine vehicle. Originally depicted as a solar deity, Garuda evolved into a bird-like human hybrid who became the deified mount of VIS'NU. Also a chief adversary of nagas (snake-like demons), which he devours. In early depictions Garuda has a parrot's beak. Said to have been born from an egg, the son of Vinata and KASYAPA. Epithets include Amrtaharana, Garutman, Tarksya. Attributes: conch, club, lotus and nectar, but may also bear the attributes of Vis'nu.(2) Mount or vahana of VAJRAPANI. Buddhist. Attributes: flower, horse-head, noose, skin and staff. Three-eyed and three-headed.... |
| 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.... |
| Spirit name "Gunnodoyak" | A youthful heroic deity who was once mortal | Iroquois (North American Indian). He was empowered by the spirit of thunder, Hino, to conquer the Great water Snake, enemy of humankind. The serpent devoured Gunnodoyak but was then slain by Hino, who cut open the snake, recovered the body of Gunnodoyak and returned him to his rightful place in heaven.... |
| God name "HERYSAF (he who is upon his lake)" | Egypt | Primeval deity åśśociated both with Osiris and Re. Herysaf is a ram god said to have emerged from the primeval ocean, possibly recreated in the form of a sacred lake at Hnes, the capital of Lower Egypt for a time at the beginning of the third millennium (during the First Intermediate Period). The god is depicted with a human torso and the head of a ram wearing the atef crown of Lower Egypt. Herysaf began as a local deity but took on national importance as the soul (ba) of RE, and of OSIRIS. Herysaf's sanctuary was enlarged by Rameses II and the god is said to have protected the life of the last Egyptian pharaoh when the Persian and later Macedonian dominations began. He eventually became syncretized with HERAKLES in Greco-Roman culture and Hnes became known as Herakleopolis ... |
| God name "Hachiman" | Shinto / Japan | God of war and peace. A deity whose origins are confused. The name does not appear in either of the sacred texts of Shintoism, but such a deity was probably worshiped in the distant past with the alternative title of HimeGami or Hime-O-Kami. The cult center was on the southern island of Kyushu at Usa. In modern Shintoism, Hachiman originates as a member of the imperial dynasty. Named Ojin-Tenno and born in AD 200 to the empress Jingu-Kogo, he greatly improved the living standards and culture of Japan during his remarkable reign. The place of his birth was marked by a sanctuary and several centuries after his death, a vision of a child KAMI appeared there to a priest. The kami identified himself by the Chinese ideogram representing the name Hachiman, and thus the link developed. The site is, today, the location of a magnificent shrine, the Umi-Hachiman-Gu, where Hachiman has been perceived as a god of war. Soldiers departing for battle once took with them relics from the shrine. Hachiman is also a deity of peace and a guardian of human life and, when pacifism dominated Japan during the post-war era, he became more strongly identified in the latter context.... |
| Goddess name "Hadad" | Western Semitic / Syrian / Phoenician | weather god. Derived from the Akkadian deity ADAD. In texts found at the site of the ancient Canaanite capital of Ugarit [Ras Samra] , the name of Hadad apparently becomes a substitute for that of BAAL. His voice is described as roaring from the clouds and his weapon is the thunderbolt. His mother is the goddess ASERAH. During Hellenic times he was predominantly worshiped at Ptolemais and Hierapolis. His Syrian consort is ATARGATIS, who overshadowed him in local popularity at Hierapolis. Statues of the two deities were carried in procession to the sea twice yearly. According to the Jewish writer Josephus, Hadad also enjoyed a major cult following at Damascus in the eighth and ninth centuries BC. By the third century BC the Hadad-Atargatis cult had extended to Egypt, when he becomes identified as the god SUTEKH. In the Greek tradition his consort becomes HERA.See also ADAD.... |
| Deity name "Hansa" | Hindu / Puranic | The name, according to the Bhagavata Purana, of the "One Caste" when there were as yet no varieties of caste, but verily "one Veda, one deity and one Caste". Hindu / Puranic |
| Deity name "Hari" | India | A name of Vishnu as a solar deity. India |
| God name "Haroeris [Greek]" | Egypt | Form of the god HORUS as a man. The name distinguishes the mature deity from HARPOKRATES, the child Horus. In this form he avenges his father, OSIRIS, and regains his kingdom from SETH, his uncle. He is depicted as the falcon god. Also Harueris; Har-wer (both Egyptian); HARENDOTES.... |
| God name "Hazzi" | Hittite / Hurrian | mountain god. Invoked in Hittite treaties as a deity responsible for oaths. A deity of the same name was worshiped by the Hurrians, but not necessarily in the same context.... |
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