Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
---|---|---|
King name "Acrisius" | Greek | A mythical king of Argos, and a son of Abas and Ocalea (or Aglaea, depending on the author). He quarrelled constantly with his twin brother Proetus, inventing bucklers in the process, and in the end expelled him to Tiryns. |
Goddess name "An i" | Egypt / Upper | Guardian deity. Seems to have become åśśimilated with HORUS and was one of the protectors of the eastern sky in which the Sun rises. According to some texts he is also responsible for the decapitation of the goddess HATHOR in a conflict for the throne of Egypt. Anti is known from Middle kingdom coffin texts (circa 2000 BC). Depicted as a falcon, or a human with a falcon's head, standing on a crescent-shaped barque.... |
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.... |
King name "Draught of Thor" | Norse | The ebb of the sea. When Asa Thor visited Jotunheim he was set to drain a bowl of liquor. He took three draughts, but only succeeded in slightly reducing the quantity. On leaving Jotunheim, the king, Giant Skrymir, told him he need not be ashamed of himself, and showed him the sea at low ebb, saying that he had drunk all the rest in his three draughts. We are told it was a quarter of a mile of sea-water that he drank. Norse |
King name "Geirrod" | Norse | A son of king Hraudung and foster-son of Odin; he becomes king and is visited by Odin, who calls himself Grimner. He is killed by his own sword. There is also a giant by name Geirrod, who was once visited by Thor. Norse |
Goddess name "Gish" | Kafir / Afghanistan | God of war. Known chiefly among the Kati people in the southern Hindukush. Gish seems partly modeled on the Aryan (Vedic) god INDRA (see also INDR). One of the offspring of the creator god IMRA, his mother is named as Utr; she carried him for eighteen months before he wrenched himself from her belly, stitching her up with a needle. His consort is the goddess SANJU. He slaughters with great efficiency but is considered lacking in graces and intellect, emerging in a generally boorish light (see also THOR). His home is a fortress of steel atop a mythical walnut tree propped up by his mother which provides nourishment and strength for his warriors. The Rainbow is a sling with which he carries his quiver. Gish is åśśociated chiefly with the villages of Kamdesh and Shtiwe but has been worshiped throughout the Kafir region with the sacrifice of hornless oxen, particularly prior to combat. A feast was given in his honor if the outcome was successful. Also Giwish.... |
God name "Harsomtus [Greek]" | Egypt | Form of the god HORUS. In this form Horus unites the northern and southern kingdoms of Egypt. He is depicted as a child comparable with HARPOKRATES. At the Edfu temple, he is identified thus as the offspring of Horus the elder and HATHOR. Also Har-mau (Egyptian).... |
Goddess name "Helen" | Helen is frequently alleged, in Homeric tradition, to have been a mortal heroine or a demigoddess | Goddess [Greek] åśśociated with the city of Troy. In his Catalogues of Women Hesiod, the Greek contemporary of Homer and author of the definitive Theogony of the Greek pantheon, confounds tradition by making Helen the daughter of ZEUS and Ocean. Other Greek authors contemporary with Hesiod give Helen's mother as NEMESIS, the Greco-Roman goddess of justice and revenge, who was raped by Zeus. The mythology placing Helen as a demigoddess identifies her mother as Leda, the mortal wife of Tyndareus, also seduced by Zeus who fathered POLLUX as Helen's brother. However Hesiod strongly denied these claims. Homeric legend describes Helen's marriage to king Menelaus of Sparta and her subsequent abduction by Paris, said to have been the catalyst for the Trojan war. After her death, mythology generally places her among the stars with the Dioscuri (sons of Zeus), better known as Castor and Pollux, the twins of the Gemini constellation. Helen was revered on the island of Rhodes as the goddess Dendritis.See also DISKOURI.... |
God name "Hoenir" | Nordic / Icelandic / Identified in the Voluspa / Poetic Edda / as the priest of the Viking gods who handles the blood wands i | God. e. Divines future events. Some authors believe Hoenir to be a hypostasis of the god OTHIN, particularly concerned with giving the human race senses and feelings. Also known in north Germanic culture. He is said to have fled to Vanaheim after the great battle between the AESIR and VANIR gods.... |
Goddess name "Iord" | Nordic / Icelandic | earth goddess. In Viking tradition lord embodies the abstract sacredness of the earth. Said to be the mother of THOR and in some legends, the wife of OTHIN.See also FJORGYN.... |
Goddess name "Khons(u) (wanderer)" | Egypt / Upper | moon god. Recognized from at least 2500 BC but best known during the New kingdom (mid-sixteenth century BC). A significant deity at Thebes, where he is described as an offspring of AMUN and MUT. His sacred animal is the baboon. There is a Khonsu precinct as part of the Temple of Amun in the Karnak complex. From the Greco-Roman period there exists a sanctuary of Kom-ombo where Khonsu is seen as the offspring of the crocodile god SOBEK and the mother goddess HATHOR. Depicted anthropomorphically or with a falcon's head, but in either case enveloped in a close-fitting robe. He wears a crown consisting of a crescent moon subtending a full moon orb.... |
King name "MacCuill" | Ireland | Son of the hazel, one of the last Tuath kings, was so-called because he worshipped the hazel. Fairies danced beneath the hawthorn. Ogham tablets were of yew. Lady Wilde styled the elder a sacred tree; and the blackthorn, to which the Irishman is said to be still devoted, was a sacred tree. Ireland |
Supreme god name "Odin" | Scandinavian | Chief god of the Scandinavians. His real name was Sigge, son of Fridulph, but he åśśumed the name of Odin when he left the Tanais, because he had been priest of Odin, supreme god of the Scythians. He became the All-wise by drinking from Mimer's fountain, but purchased the distinction at the cost of one eye. His one eye is the Sun. The father of Odin was Bor. His brothers are Vile and Ve. His wife is Frigga. His sons, Thor and Balder. His mansion is Gladsheim. His seat, Valaskjalf. His court as war-god, Valhalla. His hall, Einherian. His two black ravens are Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory). His steed, Sleipnir. His ships, Skidbladnir and Naglfar. His spear, Gungner, which never fails to hit the mark aimed at. His ring, Draupner, which every ninth night drops eight other rings of equal value. His throne is Hlidskjalf. His wolves, Geri and Freki. He will be ultimately swallowed up by the wolf Fenris or Fenrir. Scandinavian |
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.... |