Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
---|---|---|
Goddess name "Nu Kua" | Chinese | Creator goddess. A primordial deity who may be androgynous and who engendered mankind out of lumps of yellow clay. The invention of the flute is also attributed to her. Also NuGua.... |
Goddess name "Sari Chou Niiarig Niiarig" | Chinese | Mother goddess. First deified during the Sung Dynasty (AD 960-1279) to combat the popularity of KUAN YIN, no mortal existence is recognized for this deity who is referred to simply as heavenly mother. By tradition she rules over the islands of the blessed, the three mythical islands which are the home of the gods. She is depicted wearing a yellow robe signifying imperial rank and carries the attribute of a scepter. Typically she displays an enigmatic smile.... |
Goddess name "Sao Ching Niang Niang" | Chinese | Mother goddess. One of the nine dark ladies of the pantheon who adopt a protective role. She removes Rain clouds when they threaten to flood crops.... |
Goddess name "T'ao Hua Hiiinnui (peach blossom girl)" | Chinese | Goddess. The spirit of the peach blossom and the deity of the second spring month.... |
Goddess name "Trmi Mu" | Chinese | Goddess of lightning. She is said to flash her mirror at an intended victim of the god LEI KUNG'S thunderbolts to ensure his aim.... |
Goddess name "Tou Mou" | Chinese | Goddess of measure. Usually depicted with many arms and with a caste mark on her forehead, suggesting that she derives from the goddess of the aurora, MARICI, in Indian Buddhism. She is considered to live in the constellation of Ursa major and may also be an aspect of the astral goddess TIN HAU.... |
Goddess name "Tu (1)" | Chinese | Chthonic earth goddess. A fertility spirit also identified as she who was invoked to bring good harvests by phallic-shaped mounds of earth left in the fields.... |
Goddess name "Tzu Sun Niangniang" | Chinese | Mother goddess. One of the nine dark ladies of the pantheon who are regarded as having a protective role. She was the mortal wife of a minor official and, having borne him five sons and two daughters, committed suicide in order to ensure her future chastity. She is invoked at weddings to provide children, especially sons, and special cakes are eaten by the bride and groom. One of her more famous sanctuaries, on the island of Taiwan, is the Yin Yang Stone.... |
Goddess name "Yen Kuang Niang Niang" | Chinese | Mother goddess. One of a group of nine dark ladies who have a protective function. She cures the eye disease ophthalmia.... |
Goddess name "Kihe Wahine" | Hawaii | Kindly goddess of demons, who from the the goodness of her heart is also a goddess of lizards Hawaii |
Goddess name "Hi'aika" | Hawaiian | Goddess. The daughter of HAUMEA and younger sister of PELE, the volcano goddess, Hi'aika is the mistress of the dance and especially of the hula. Separate traditions identify her with LAKA, the god of the hula and the son of KANE, the god of light; and with a goddess, Na Wahine, the daughter of the primordial creator principle KEAWE. The hula was designed to give a formalized structure to the enactment of myths and among the favorite topics is the romance between Pele and the hero Lohiau. According to mythology Hi'aika was entrusted with a mission to find Lohiau on Pele's behalf and to bring him back to her, a mission that subsequently enflamed the jealousy of Pele over her sister's developing relationship with Lohiau, and brought about his death in Pele's fiery lava.... |
Goddess name "Keawe" | Hawaiian | Creator god. An androgynous though apparently male principle or monad, he lived once in the dark empty abyss of Po. There, Keawe transformed primordial chaos into an orderly cosmos. He fashioned the sky from the lid of his calabash (a water-carrying gourd) and the Sun from an orange disc formerly kept inside the calabash. Keawe's first son was KANE, the god of light, and his daughter was Na Wahine, both created through his own powers of conception. He subsequently entered into an incestuous relationship with Na Wahine to father the chief pantheon of Hawaiian gods and goddesses, including most notably KU, LONO and Kanaloa, who became known, collectively, as the tripartite god.... |
Goddess name "Hine titama" | Maori | Goddess of the dawn Maori |
Goddess name "Hine-Ahu-One" | Maori | Chthonic goddess Polynesia / Maori |
Goddess name "Hine-Ata-Uira" | Maori | Goddess of light Polynesia / Maori |
Goddess name "Hine-Nui-Te-Po" | Maori | Giant goddess of death, of night and of the underworld. She married her father, fled in horror to the underworld when she found out and cursed humanity with death in retribution. Maori |
Goddess name "Tawhaki" | Polynesian / Maori | Heroic god. A descendant of the creator god Rehua and grandson of Whatitiri, the goddess of thunder, Tawhaki is the third child of Hema and Urutonga. He is the younger sibling of the goddess Pupu-mai-nono and the god Karihi. In some Polynesian traditions Tawhaki is thought of as a mortal ancestor whose consort was the goddess Tangotango on whom he fathered a daughter, Arahuta. Tawhaki's father was killed during tribal warfare with a mythical clan known as the Ponaturi and he himself was the subject of jealous rivalry concerning the goddess Hine-Piripiri. During this time attempts were made to kill him. He fathered children by Hine-Piripiri, including Wahieroa, who is generally perceived as being embodied in comets.... |
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.... |