Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
---|---|---|
Goddess name "Anunnaki" | Mesopotamian / Sumerian / Babylonian - Akkadian | Children and courtiers of the god of heaven. Known from at least 2500 BC until circa 200BC (in Babylon). The Anunnaki originate as chthonic fertility deities but later feature as the seven fearsome judges of the underworld who answer to Kur and ERES KIGAL and who are responsible for påśśing sentences of death including that placed on the goddess INANA. They are often closely identified with the IGIGI.... |
Goddess name "CERES" | Roman | Mother goddess. Mother goddess. Ceres is arguably the most recent model of the great mother whose predecessors include INANA, IS TAR, ARTEMIS, KYBELE and Demeter on whom she is directly modeled. She is the daughter of KRONOS (Cronus) and RHEA and one of the more important consorts of JUPITER. Ceres was worshiped through the festivals of Thesmophoria and Cerealia in sanctuaries throughout the Greco-Roman empires.... |
Goddess name "Gestin-Ana" | Mesopotamian / Sumerian | Chthonic goddess. The sister of DUMUZI and consort of Ningisida. The so-called heavenly grape-vine, this minor goddess is involved in the account of Dumuzi trying to escape from his fate at the hands of INANA and ERESKIGAL. In her house he is changed into a gazelle before being caught and finally transported to the underworld.... |
Goddess name "Gugulanna" | Mesopotamian / Sumerian | Minor underworld deity. The consort of the goddess ERESiKIGAL, mentioned as the pretext on which the fertility goddess INANA descends to the netherworld.... |
Goddess name "Inana" | Mesopotamian / Sumeria | A goddess of fertility, of love & war |
Goddess name "Inana, Istar,Ishtar" | Akkadian / Sumerian | The most important of all Mesopotamian goddesses, and a multi-faceted personality, occurring in cuneiform texts of all periods. The Sumerian name probably means "Lady of heaven", and the Akkadian name Ishtar is related to the Syrian Astarte and the biblical Ashtaroth is usually considered as a daughter of Anzu, with her cult located in Uruk, but there are other traditions as to her ancestry, and it is probable that these reflect originally different goddesses that were identified with her. Ishtar is the subiect of a cycle of texts describing her love affair and ultimately fatal relationship with Tammuz. |
Goddess name "Inanna" | Mesopotamia | Inana, the original "Holy Virgin," as the Sumerians called her, is the first known divinity åśśociated with the planet Venus. This Sumerian goddess became identified with the Semitic goddesses Ishtar and later Astarte, Egyptian Isis, Greek Aphrodite, Etruscan Turan and the Roman Venus. Mesopotamia |
Goddess name "Lilith" | Mesopotamian / Sumerian | Goddess of desolation. She is perceived as a demonic figure who, in the epic legend of Gilgames and the Huluppu Tree takes up residence in INANA'S holy tree growing on the banks of the Euphrates in Unug. When the hero Gilgames attacks Lilith she escapes into the desert wastes.... |
Goddess name "MORRIGAN (queen of demons)" | Celtic / Irish | war, fertility and vegetation goddess. A complex goddess displaying various characteristics which are both generative and destructive (see also ANAT, INANA, IS'TAR, ATHENE). At the festival of Samain, she mates with the DAGDA to ensure the future prosperity of the land and as queen Maeve (Medb) of Connaught she was ritually wedded to the mortal king whose antecedent was Ailill. As Nemain (panic) and Badb Catha (raven of battle), she takes on a more warlike and destructive aspect. Rather than engaging directly in conflict, she uses her supernatural powers to spread fear and disarray. The Irish hero Cu Chulainn was thus visited on the battle field by BADB driving a chariot and dressed in a red cloak and with red eyebrows presenting an intimidating appearance. She is capable of changing her shape into various animal forms and in the guise of a raven or a crow is able to foretell the outcome of battle.... |
Goddess name "Neti" | Mesopotamian / Sumerian / Babylonian - Akkadian | Chthonic underworld god. Chief gatekeeper of the netherworld. The servant of the goddess ERES KIGAL. Neti features prominently in the epic legend of Inanas Descent into the underworld when he opens the seven gates of the realm and admits the goddess, removing one emblem of her power at the threshold of each gate.... |
Goddess name "Ninni" | Mesopotamian / Sumerian | Goddess. A modern mis-reading of Innin, which is itself an outmoded version of the name Inana.... |
Goddess name "Nins ubur" | Mesopotamian / Sumerian / Babylonian - Akkadian | Messenger God (Goddess). The servant of the goddess Inana, she is particularly prominent in the legend of Inana's Descent and the death of Dumuzi. In Akkadian texts the sex changes to a male personality, the minister of Anu.... |
Goddess name "Ninsubar" | Sumeria | Messenger goddess not to be consused with the goddess Inana. Sumeria |
Goddess name "Quades (the holy one)" | Western Semitic | Fertility goddess. probably originating in Syria. She epitomizes female sexuality and eroticism in the mold of ASTARTE. She was adopted by Egypt with the fertility gods MIN and RESEP and became partly åśśociated with the goddess HATHOR. She is usually depicted nude standing on the back of a lion (see also INANA and NINHURSAG A) between Min to whom she offers a lotus blossom, and Resep for whom she bears snakes. Her cult followed the typically ancient Near Eastern pattern of a sacred marriage carried out by her votary priestesses and their priests or kings.... |