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| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|
"Momus" | Greek | A son of Nyx, is a personification of mockery and censure. Thus he is said to have censured in the man formed by Hephaestus, that a little door had not been left in his breast, so as to enable one to look into his secret thoughts, Greek |
"Momus's Lattice" | Greek | Momus's Lattice or window. Momus blamed Vulcan because he did not set a window or lattice in the human breast for discerning secret thoughts. Greek |
| God name "Mungan Ngour" | Australian aboriginal | Creator god. Chiefly revered among the Kurnai Koori aborigines in Victoria State. The Southern Lights or Aurora australis are regarded as a sign of his displeasure when the law and order given to humankind by the gods are abused. His son is Tundun, who is responsible for the secret ceremonies originally divulged only to men and including the initiation rights of påśśage from boyhood to maturity. When these were revealed to women, the Dreamtime ended, a period of chaos ensued and Mungan Ngour elected to live henceforth in the sky.... |
"Nesrem" | Arabia | A statute some fifty cubits high, in the form of an old woman. It was hollow within for the sake of giving secret oracles. Arabia |
| King name "Nibelungen Hoard" | German | A mythical måśś of gold and precious stones, which Siegfried obtained from the Nibelungs, and gave to his wife Kriemhild as her marriage portion. It was guarded by Albric the dwarf. After the murder of Siegfried, his widow removed the hoard to Worms; here Hagan seized it, and buried it secretly beneath "the Rhine at Lochham," intending at a future time to enjoy it, "but that was ne'er to be." Kriemhild married Etzel with the view of avenging her wrongs. In time Gunther, with Hagan and a host of Burgundians, went to visit king Etzel, and Kriemhild stirred up a great broil, at the end of which a most terrible slaughter ensued. Volsunga Saga |
"Nosenga" | Zimbabwe | The Sun, the primal source of light, has to be captured so that people may have light to live by. The secret of the Sun is that its light penetrates even in the darkest room, just as a swallow can fly through a house before anyone can catch it. Nosenga caught the Sunbirds in his trap, and so day broke. Zimbabwe |
| Goddess name "Nyavirezi" | Rwanda / central Africa | Lion goddess. According to legend she was originally a mortal daughter of the tribal chief. While walking, she was trans formed into a lioness. Though returning to human form, she occasionally became leonine again and, in this guise, slew at least one husband who discovered her secret.... |
| God name "Rahu" | Blavatsky | The seizer supposed to seize the Sun and moon and thus cause eclipses. "A giant, a Demi-god, the lower part of whose body ended in a dragon or serpent's tail. During the churning of the Ocean, when the gods produced amrita -- the water of Immortality -- he stole some of it, and drinking, became immortal. The Sun and moon, who had detected him in his theft, denounced him to Vishnu, who placed him in the stellar spheres, the upper portion of his body representing the dragon's head and the lower the dragon's tail; the two being the ascending and descending nodes. Since then, Rahu wreaks his vengeance on the Sun and moon by occasionally swallowing them. The secret Doctrine, by H. P. Blavatsky |
| God name "Rudra" | Blavatsky | The father of Vedic storm gods. "To receive a name Rudra is said to have wept for it. Brahma called him Rudra; but he wept seven times more and so obtained seven other names -- of which he uses one during each 'period'" The secret Doctrine, by H. P. Blavatsky |
| Spirit name "Sarpa-rajni" | Blavatsky | The queen of the serpents; "Before our globe became egg-shaped (and the Universe also) 'a long trail of Cosmic dust (or fire mist) moved and writhed like a serpent in Space.' The 'Spirit of God moving on chaos' was symbolized by every nation in the shape of a fiery serpent breathing fire and light upon the primordial waters, until it had incubated cosmic matter and made it åśśume the annular shape of a serpent with its tail in its mouth -- which symbolises not only Eternity and Infinitude, but also the globular shape of all the bodies formed within the Universe from that fiery mist. The Universe, as well as the earth and Man, cast off periodically, serpent-like, their old skins, to åśśume new ones after a time of rest " The secret Doctrine, by H. P. Blavatsky |
| God name "Utnapishtim" | Sumerian | Utnapishtim is the wise king of the Sumerian city state of Shuruppak who, along with his wife, survived a great flood sent by Enlil to drown every living thing on earth. Utnapishtim was secretly warned by the water god Ea of Enlil's planned and constructed a great boat or ark to save himself, his family and representatives of each species of animal. |
"White Buffalo Woman" | N American | The sacred woman who brought secret knowledge to the Oglala. She reminded them of the mysteries of their mother, the earth. Urging them always to honour her, she disappeared in the shape of a white buffalo. |
| God name "Willow Pattern" | s | The tradition. The mandarin had an only daughter named Li-chi, who fell in love with Chang, a young man who lived in the island home represented at the top of the pattern, and who had been her father's secretary. The father overheard them one day making vows of love under the orange-tree, and sternly forbade the unequal match; but the lovers contrived to elope, lay concealed for a while in the gardener's cottage, and thence made their escape in a boat to the island home of the young lover. The enraged mandarin pursued them with a whip, and would have beaten them to death had not the gods rewarded their fidelity by changing them both into turtle-doves. The picture is called the willow pattern not only because it is a tale of disastrous love, but because the elopement occurred "when the willow begins to shed its leaves." |
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