Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
---|---|---|
Goddess name "AEGIR (water)" | Icelandic / Nordic | God of the ocean. A lesser known AESIR god of Asgard concerned with the moods of the sea and their implications for mariners. The river Eider was known to the Vikings as Aegir's Door. Aegir is also depicted in some poetry as the ale brewer, perhaps an allusion to the caldrons of mead which were thought to come from under the sea (see also the Celtic deities DAGDA and GOBNIU). There are references in literature to Saxons sacrificing captives, probably to Aegir, before setting sail for home. Linked in uncertain manner to the goddess RAN he was believed to have sired nine children, the waves of the sea, who were possibly giantesses.... |
Goddess name "Abnoba" | Celtic | Goddess of the hunt, similar to the Roman Diana. Celtic |
Goddess name "Abnoba" | Roman / Celtic / European | Forest and river goddess. Known locally from the Black Forest region of Germany. The name Avon, åśśociated with many rivers, derives from her name.... |
Goddess name "Adrastea" | Hellenized Phrygian / northwestern Turkey | mountain goddess. Probably derived from a local... |
Goddess name "Akewa" | Toba | Sun and war goddess Toba |
Goddess name "Andarta" | Celtic / Gallic | Fertility goddess (probable). Patron goddess of the Vocontii tribe. Her name seems to have derived either from artos (bear) or ar (ploughed land).See also ANDRASTA.... |
Goddess name "Arinna (sun goddess)" | Hittite / Hurrian | Solar deity. May have taken androgynous form, but also identified as the consort of the weather god TESUB. Probably the head of the Hittite state pantheon. There is little detail because the religious center of Arinna is knownonly from texts. The Sun goddess was also perceived to be a paramount chthonic or earth goddess. She becomes largely syncretized with the Hurrian goddess HEBAT.... |
Goddess name "Asnan" | Mesopotamian / Sumerian / Babylonian - Akkadian | vegetation goddess. Minor deity probably known to the Sumerians from circa 3500BC or earlier. She is concerned with the abundance of grain in the fields, sent as its protectress by the gods ENLIL and ENKI. According to creation accounts, she and the cattle god LAHAR were first intended to serve the needs of the Annunaki, the celestial children of AN, but when the heavenly creatures were found unable to make use of their products, humankind was created to provide an outlet for their services. Attributes: ears of corn sprouting from her shoulders.... |
Goddess name "Aspalis" | Western Semitic | Hunting goddess. There is scant mention of Aspalis from Melite in Phthia and she is probably a local version of ARTEMIS. As in certain Artemis mythology, she hanged herself and her body disappeared.... |
Goddess name "Asratum" | Western Semitic / Canaanite | Fertility goddess. Probably a corruption of the Semitic ATHIRAT or ASERAH. Also mentioned in Babylonian texts from the Hellenistic period. Also Asrat (Akkadian).... |
Goddess name "Atete" | Kafa / Ethiopia, northeastern Africa | Fertility goddess. She was åśśimilated into the Christian cult of the Virgin Mary, but is probably the subject of an ancient fertility rite performed by women who collect various sacred plants and throw them into the river. The festival is known as Astar yo Mariam (Epiphany of Mary).... |
Goddess name "Bat" | Egypt / Upper | cow goddess of fertility. She was probably well known in the Old kingdom (circa 2700 BC onward). Associated principally with Upper Egypt, for a while she may have rivaled Hathor in Lower Egypt but by the time of the New kingdom (sixteenth century BC) her influence had waned. She may be represented on the Narmer Palette (Cairo Museum) which com memorates the unification of the two kingdoms. Bat is only rarely found in large sculptures and paintings, but is often the subject of Egyptian period jewelry, including amulets and ritual sistrum rattles. Depicted as a cow or anthropo morphically with bovine ears and horns. Also Bata.... |
Goddess name "Belet-Ili (lady of tbe gods)" | Mesopotamian / BabylonianAkkadian | Mother goddess. Known in Babylon and probably modeled on NINHURSAG A.... |
Goddess name "Bellona" | Greek | The goddess of war among the Romans. It is very probable that originally Bellona was a Sabine divinity whose worship was carried to Rome by the Sabine settlers. Greek |
Goddess name "Bellona" | Roman | Goddess of war and mother goddess Roman the goddess of war among the Romans. It is very probable that originally Bellona was a Sabine divinity whose worship was carried to Rome by the Sabine settlers. She is frequently mentioned by the Roman poets as the companion of Mars, or even as his sister or his wife. Virgil describes her as armed with a bloody scourge. (The Aeneid Book VIII) |
Goddess name "Cailleach Bheur" | Celtic / Scottish | Goddess of Winter. Depicted as a blue-faced hag who is reborn on October 31 (Samhain). She brings the snow until the goddess BRIGIT deposes her and she eventually turns to stone on April 30 (Beltine). In later times the mythical, witch-like figure of Black Annis probably derived from her.... |
Goddess name "Cathubodua" | Celtic / Continental / European | war goddess. Known only from inscriptions and probably comparable with the Irish Celtic Badb Catha.See also MORRIGAN.... |
Goddess name "Dzivaguru" | Korekore / Shona / northern Zimbabwe, southern Africa | Chthonic mother goddess. Originally said to have ruled both heaven and earth and lived in a palace by a sacred lake near Dande. She is depicted wearing goatskins and bearing a cornucopia holding magical substances. Her sacred creatures are mythical golden Sunbirds, probably modeled on swallows, a pair of which were actually discovered in Zimbabwe.... |