Guide to the Gods 1.0
Aa... to Ad...
A-a
(Aya)
Babylonian-Akkadian sun goddess. Consort of sun god Shamash.
Aah
(Aah-te-Huti)
A minor Egyptian moon god. An manifestation of Thoth in the form of an ibis.
Aapep
Egyptian serpent-god.
A'as
Hittite/Hurrian god of wisdom, keeper of the tablets of fate. Modelled after the Mesopotamian Enki/Ea.
Aatxe
Basque evil spirit in the form of a bull.
Aba
Choctaw (Louisiana) creator deity.
Abaddon
Christian angel of hell in Revelations 9: 7-11.
Abandinus
Romano-Celtic god known from an inscription in Cambridgeshire, England. Little else is known.
Abarta
"Performer of Feats". Irish (Celtic) god, member of the Tuatha De Danann.
Abassi
Efik (African) sky god. On the advice of his consort Atai he set the first human couple on the earth.
Abathur
(B'haq Ziva)
Gnostic Uthra, a divine being of the rank of an angel.
Abatur
(Abattur)
Mandaean (Gnostic) judge of the dead.
Abellio
Gallic (Celtic) local deity of the Garonne valley, possibly a god of apple-trees.
Abeona
Roman protective goddess of children. Associated with the goddess Adeona.
Abere
Melanesian demoness.
Abgal
(Apkallu)
Seven Sumerian minor attendant spirits. Subordinate to Enki, they reside in the primeval water Abzu. Sometimes depicted as fish-men.
Abgal
Pre-Islamic north Arabian desert god. In particular, a tutelary god of the Bedouins.
Abhean
Irish god, harper of the Tuatha De Danann.
Abhijit
Hindu goddess of fortune. Daughter of Daksa and consort of Candra (Soma).
Abhijnaraja
Buddhist-Lamaist physician god of Tibet. One of the medicine buddhas (sMan-bla).
Abhimukhi
Buddhist (Vajrayana) goddess. 1 of 12 bhumis.
Abhiyoga
Jain servant gods who assist the supreme gods in the creation of rain and darkness.
Ab Kin Zoc
Mayan god of poetry.
Abnoba
Romano-Celtic forest and river goddess (Black Forest area). Source of the English river name "Avon" and its cognates in continental Europe.
Abonsam
Malevolent spirit of West Africa (Gold Coast).
Abora
Supreme god of the heavens among the Canary Islanders on the island of Palma.
Abore
God of Warrau people of Guyana.
Abraxas
(Abrasax, Abraxis)
Occult Gnostic name of god, the letters in Greek numerology adding up to 365, equalling the number of days in the year. The seven letters were also associated with the seven planets. Viewed as supreme deity annd source of the divine emanations, including the 365 orders of spirits. Abraxas stones were commonly worn as amulets, depicting the deity with the head of a cock, the body and arms of a man, and with serpent legs.
Abu
Sumerian god of vegetation. He was said to have been born from the head of Enki, symbolizing plants springing from the earth.
Abundantia
Roman goddess of abundance, prosperity and good fortune. She was commonly portrayed with a horn of plenty, distributing grain and money. After the end of the Roman occupation, she continued in French folklore as Lady Habonde (Abundia).
Abyrga
Central Asian giant snake.
Abzu
'The watery deep', the personification of the primordial underground waters.
Acacila
Animistic spirit of the Aymara people of Peru and Bolivia, said to have control over the weather.
Acala
Minor deity of Vajrayana and Mahayana Buddhism.
Acan
Mayan god of wine.
Acat
Mayan god of tatooers.
Acaviser
See Lasas.
Acca Larentia
(Acca Larentina, Acca Laurentia)
Roman goddess whose gift of land to the early Romans in the days of Romulus and Remus (according to one account) was celebrated in the festival of Larentalia (or Larentinalia) on December 23. She is variously given as the wife of Faustulus or of Carutius, and as the mother of the Lares, the Fratres Arvales, Hercules, or as the nurse and adopted mother of Romulus.
Acchupta
Jain goddess of learning.
Achamoth
Gnostic fallen god.
Achelous
(Acheloos)
The most important of the Greek river gods, associated with the modern Aspropotamos, flowing through Boeotia into the Ionian sea. Traditionally the son of Oceanus and Tethys (as are the other river gods), although other traditions make him the son of Helios and Gaia, or a son of Poseidon. Fathered the Sirens by the Muse Melpomene. Achelous was defeated by Heracles in a fight for the hand of Deianeira.
Acheron
"River of Woe". Greek river god of one of the five rivers of Hades. Identified with the Acheron river in Epirus, Greece, which flows underground in several places, and was thought to flow through Hades.
Achilles
(Achilleus)
Greek hero famous for his deeds and death in the Trojan War. He was later deified, and his worship was particularly prominent in the Black Sea area. Son of Peleus, King of the Myrmidons, and the Nereid Thetis. As a child, Thetis dipped him in the River Styx in an attempt to protect him against harm, leaving only the heel by which she held him vulnerable. Achilles was eventually killed by Paris, whose arrow was guided by Apollo to the vulnerable heel.
Achinoin and Couroumon
Star deities of Carib Indians.
Achor
According to Pliny, a Cyrenean deity whose aid was sought for protection from insect infestations.
Acis
Sicilian river-god, the son of Faunus and the Nymph Symaethis. Became a river after being bested and killed by the Cyclops Polyphemus in a competition for the hand of Galatea.
Acolmiztli
Aztec underworld god.
Acolnahuacatl
Aztec underworld god.
Acoran
Supreme god of Canary Islanders on the island of Gran Canaria.
Ac Yanto
Mayan god of white men.
Adad
(Sumerian Ishkur, West Semitic Hadad or Addu)
Weather god of the Babylonian and Assyrian pantheons. As god of storms he was both giver and destroyer of life. Son of Anu (An), the god of heaven. His consort was Shalash. Also a god of oracles and divination. The bull and the lion were sacred to him, as was the number six. The cypress was his symbol.
Adaheli
Sun-god of Surinam.
Adamas
(Adammas)
Primordial creator deity of the gnostic Nassenes in Phrygia (NW Turkey).
Adam Kadmon
First man (androgynous) of the Jewish Kabbala. An emanation of absolute perfection and of God. He is symbolized by the Sephiroth or ten circles of creation.
Adam Kasia
"The hidden Adam". Also Adam Qadmaia, "the first Adam". Mandaean (Gnostic) deity, in which the microcosm and macrocosm were united. Also the soul of Adam and of every man.
Adeona
Roman goddess of passage. Associated with the goddess Abeona.
Adhimukticarya
Buddhist goddess: 1 of 12 deified bhumis.
Adhimuktivasita
Buddhist goddess: 1 of 12 vasitas.
Adibuddha
The original 'primeval Buddha' who existed from the beginning of time and created the five historical Dhyani-Buddhas (the Buddhas of contemplation).
Adidharma
"The Primeval Law". Buddhist-Lamaist (Tibet) primordial goddess.
Adikia
Greek goddess of injustice.
Adimurti
Hindu avatar of Visnu.
Aditi
Indian mother goddess of Vedic Hinduism. Aditi, 'the boundlesss, the infinite', was a personification of both the earth and of infinity.
Adityas
Indian 'sons of Aditi', a group of Vedic gods including Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman, Bhaga, Amsa, and sometimes including Daksa, Indra, Savitr or Dhatr. The number of Adityas was later expanded to twelve.
Adlet
Inuit race of monsters.
Adonis
Greek hero and deity of Syro-Phoenician origin (Semitic adon = "lord" or "master"). The Phoenicians knew Adonis as Eshmun (qv). The Adonis cult was especially prominent in the Phoenician town of Byblos, and later spread to the Greek world through commercial contact.
According to one Greek tradition Adonis was the result of an incestuous liaison in which Smyrna (Myrrha) deceived her father Theias as to her identity (perhaps at the instigation of Aphrodite). Upon discovering the ruse, Theias pursued Smyrna, who was changed by the gods into a myrrh tree, which eventually split open and gave birth to Adonis. (In some versions it was Theias who split the tree open with his sword, in another it was a wild boar which split the tree open with its tusks.) Aphrodite discovered the youth and placed him in a coffer which she entrusted to the underworld goddess Persephone. Acting against Aphrodite's instructions, Persephone opened the coffer and was so smitten by the youth that she refused to return him to Aphrodite. Zeus was called in to arbitrate the dispute and determined that Adonis should spend one third of each year with each goddess, the remaining third left to his own discretion. In the end, Adonis elected to spend the remaining third of the year with Aphrodite.
In another tradition, Adonis was said to have been killed by a boar while hunting and forced to spend a portion of each year in the underworld. In either case, Adonis fits the pattern of dying and resurrected vegetation gods in the eastern Mediterranean region such as the Egyptian Osiris, the Phrygian Attis and the Mesopotamian Dumuzi (Tammuz). Both the Phoenician and Greek myths retain this vegetation aspect. In the Greek world, festivals commemmorating the death and resurrection of Adonis, known as Adonia, were celebrated after the harvest. A common practice during the Adonia was the planting of 'Adonis gardens' in small boxes or bowls, which grew and died quickly.
Adrammelech
Babylonian deity mentioned in II Kings xvii, 31, to whom infants were purportedly sacrificed as burnt offerings.
Adranus
(Hadranus)
God of the Siculi, a pre-Hellenic people of Sicily. Associated with Mt. Etna and the Greek Hephaistos.
Adraste
See Andraste.
Adrasteia
(Adrastea)
Greek mountain deity worshipped in Phrygia, Troy and Thrace -- and later in Greece proper. An avenging goddess of righteousness.
Adro
Tutelary god of the Lugbara, who live on the shores of Lake Albert in East Africa. Adro is the immanent aspect of the sky god Adroa, who is perceived to be remote to human and earthly affairs. Said to live on earth in the vicinity of rivers with his many wives and children.
Adroa
Lugbara sky god. See Adro.
Adsullata
Continental Celtic river goddess.
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