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 "AENGUS" | Celtic / Irish | KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 500 BC . The son of the DAGDA by the wife of Elcmar (one of the kings of Tara) who may have been the goddess BOANN, Aengus lived in the Valley of the Boyne and was closely linked with the ancient funerary tumuli in the region. According to legend, Aengus fell in love with a maiden whose identity he sought in vain. As he wasted away, his father and mother made enquiries until they located Caer, daughter of the king of Cannaught, who lived on Loch Bel dragon in the shape of a swan with 150 attendant swans. Aengus eventually found her and he also changed into a bird.... |
Goddess name "BAAL (lord)" | Western Semitic / Canaanite / northern Israel, Lebanon / later Egypt | vegetation deity and national god. Baal may have originated in pre-agricultural times as god of storms and Rain. He is the son of DAGAN and in turn is the father of seven storm gods, the Baalim of the Vetus Testamentum, and seven midwife goddesses, the SASURATUM. He is considered to have been worshiped from at least the nineteenth century BC. Later he became a vegetation god concerned with fertility of the land. From the mid-sixteenth century BC in the Egyptian New kingdom, Baal enjoyed a significant cult following, but the legend of his demise and restoration was never equated with that of OSIRIS. In the Greco-Roman period, Baal became åśśimilated in the Palestine region with ZEUS and JUPITER, but as a Punic deity [Carthage] he was allied with SATURNUS, the god of seed-sowing.... |
God name "Dagan (1)" | Mesopotamian / Babylonian - Akkadian | Grain and fertility god. Generally linked with ANU in giving status to cities e.g. the dedications by the ninth-century BC Assyrian king Assur-nasir-apli at Kalakh. Cult centers existed at Tuttul and Terqa.... |
King name "Dagonet" | Britain | In the romance La Mort d' Arthure he is called the fool of king Arthur, and was knighted by the king himself. Britain |
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.... |
God name "Yamandaga" | Kalmuck | One of the senior gods. Depicted with six hands, holding a scepter, a pair of ropes, two drinking vessels and an animal skin. Coloured blue with red palms and soles, he has snakes coiled around ankles and wrists and another forming a necklace; another necklace is made up of human heads. His crown is made of flowers and skulls. Kalmuck |
King name "Yang Dag Rgyal Po" | Tibet | The power-granting king and an epithet of the wish-fulfilling gem. Tibet |