Guide to the Gods 1.0
Me... to Mm...
Medb
(Medhbh)
Celtic goddess of war.
Medeia
(Latin Medea)
Likely version of ancient Thracian goddess.
Medeine
(Mejdejn)
Lithuanian goddess of the woods.
Meditrina
Roman goddess of healing. Her festival was the Meditrinalia held on October 11.
Medr
Old Ethiopic earth spirit.
Medusa
See Gorgons.
Mefitis
Roman goddess of sulphur springs.
Megaira
See Erinyes.
Meghamalin
See Parsva.
Mehen
Egyptian serpent god. Mehen defended the solar barque of Re during its night passage through the underworld. He was depicted as a snake coiled about the solar barque.
Mehet-Weret
(Mehet-uret)
"Great Flood". Egyptian sky goddess in the form of a cow. She was early regarded as the waterway of the heavens upon which the solar barque of Re travelled. Later she came to be equated with the primeval waters from which Re emerged, in consequence of which she earned the epithet 'mother of Re'. She was depicted as a cow with the sun disk between its horns lying on a mat of reeds.
Mehit
(Mechit)
Egyptian lion-goddess.
Meke Meke
See Make Make.
Melete
Boeotian Muse of practice. The other Boeotian Muses were Aoide (Aeode) and Mneme.
Melicertes
Greek Palaemon (qv); adopted from the Phoenician Melkart.
Melili
Babylonian mother of the Monsters of the Night who fought under Tiamat against Marduk.
Melkart
See Melqart.
Mellonia
Roman goddess of bees.
Melpomene
Greek Muse of tragedy. Daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Her attributes include the tragic mask and the cothurnus (pl. cothurni), the boots traditionally worn by tragic actors.
Melqart
(Melkart)
"God of the City". Chief god of Tyre and of Carthage; the Phoenician equivalent of the Greek hero-god Hercules.
Men
Phrygian equestrian moon god.
Mena
Roman goddess of menstruation.
Meness
Old Latvian moon-god.
Meng
(Meng P'o)
Chinese goddess of underworld, prepared the broth of oblivion.
Meng-T'ien
Chinese god of the writing brush.
Menhit
(Menchit)
Egyptian lion-goddess.
Menrva
(Menerva)
Etruscan goddess, equivalent to the Greek Athena, and predecessor of the Roman Minerva. She was part of the Etruscan triad with Tinia and Uni.
Men Shen
Chinese gods of the door.
Menthu
See Montu.
Menu
See Manu.
Menulis
Lithuanian moon-god.
Mephistopheles
(Mephisto)
Medieval name for the devil.
Mercury
(Mercurius)
Roman messenger god and god of merchants and travellers. Equated with the Greek Hermes. Son of Jupiter and Maia. He had a temple on the Aventine Hill in Rome, said to date from 495 BC, as well as a shrine in the Circus Maximus. His festival was the Mercuralia, observed on May 15. Mercury is depicted as holding a purse, symbolic of his association with commerce, as well as the winged sandals (talaria), winged cap (petasus) and staff (caduceus) taken over from the Greek Hermes. According to Juvenal, posts topped by marble heads of Mercury were placed at the intersections of Roman roads.
Meret
(Mert)
Egyptian goddess of song and rejoicing.
Meretseger
(Mertseger, Meresger)
"She who loves silence". Egyptian cobra goddess and protective deity of the Theban necropolis. She was believed to live on a mountain overlooking the Valley of the Kings. Worshipped by the workers at the necropolis, she was believed to poison or blind anyone who commited a crime. Presumably, this belief was intended to reinforce the taboo against desecrating or robbing the tombs. She was depicted either as a coiled cobra or as a cobra with the head of a woman and a single human arm. Her cult died out when the Theban necropolis was abandoned during Dynasty XXI (ca. 1000 BC).
Meri and Ari
Sun and moon of Tupinamba of Brazil.
Mesaru
See Shamash.
Mese
In Greek mythology, the Delphic Muse associated with the middle string of the lyre. The other Delphic Muses were Hypate and Nete.
Mesede
Melanesian god of archery.
Meskhenet
(Meskhent, Meshkent, Mesenet)
Egyptian goddess of childbirth.
Meslamtaea (Meslamta'ea)
Sumerian underworld god.
Messor
Minor Roman god of agriculture.
Mesta
(Imseti)
Egyptian protector of the liver of mummified dead.
Metatron
Benevolent demon in the Kabbala.
Metis
Greek goddess of wisdom. Daughter of Okeanos and Tethys. The first wife of Zeus whom he swallowed when he discovered that she was pregnant, fearing that she might give birth to a son mightier than he. Subsequently, Athena sprang fully armed from the head of Zeus. Metis is thus given as the mother of Athena, although some sources consider that, given the circumstances, she was the daughter of Zeus alone.
Metztli
Aztec moon god.
Meuler
Araucanian (Chile) god of whirlwinds and typhoons.
Meza mate
Latvian nature deity.
Meztli
Mexican moon god.
Mezzulla
Anatolian goddess.
Michabo
"Great hare". Algonquin founder of the human race.
Michael
Biblical archangel.
Mictanteot
Niquiran (Nicaragua) goddess of the Underworld.
Mictlancihuatl
Goddess of the Aztec underworld of Mictlan. Wife of Mictlantecuhtli.
Mictlantecuhtli
Aztec god of the underworld (Aztec Mictlan). Husband of Mictlancihuatl.
Midir
(Mider)
Irish chieftain god of the Underworld. Son of Dagda, husband of Etain.
Mihr
(Mehr, Meher)
Armenian sun-god.
Mi-Hung-T'ang
Chinese: the broth of oblivion prepared by underworld deity, Lady Meng.
Mikal
Phoenician god of Cyprus.
Milkom
Chief god of Ammonites.
Mi-lo Fo
(Pu-Sa)
Chinese name of the Bodhisattva Maitreya.
Mimi
Australian spirits who eat men.
Miming
Norse forest-god.
Mimir
Nordic giant who guarded the well of wisdom under the world tree Yggdrasill.
Min
(Minu, Egyptian Menu)
Egyptian fertility god. Sometimes given as either the son or consort of Isis. He was depicted in human form with an erect penis. He generally held a flail in his raised right hand and wore a crown surmounted by two tall plumes. Min was preeminently a god of male sexuality, and in the New Kingdom (1567-1085 BC) he was honoured in the coronation rites of the pharaohs to ensure their sexual vigour and the production of a male heir. The "White Bull" appears to have been sacred to him, as was a type of lettuce which bore a resemblance to an erect penis and had a white sap that resembled semen. His most important sanctuaries were at Koptos (Qift) and Akhmim (Panoplis). Min was also worshipped as a god of desert roads and of travellers. In addition to his role in coronation rites, Min was honoured in harvest festivals during which offerings of lettuce and sheaves of wheat.
Minaksi
(Minaci)
Hindu goddess.
Minerva
Roman goddess of war, and secondarily a goddess of wisdom and the arts and trades. As Minerva Medica she was regarded as a patroness of physicians. Equated with the Greek Athena, though she may derive originally from the Etruscan Menrva. Daughter of Jupiter. Her main festivals were the Minervalia and Quinquatria (March 19- 23). She shared the main temple on the Capitoline Hill as part of a triad with Jupiter and Juno, and also had a temple on the Aventine Hill in her capacity as Minerva Medica.
Minerva, Gallic
Gallic goddess of handicrafts and arts.
Minos
One of the three Greek judges of the underworld, along with Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon. He was originally a king of Crete. His cult involved the worship of bulls or of Minos in the form of a bull.
Miroku
Japanese name for Buddha Maitreya.
Mirsa
Georgian lord of light.
Miru
(Milu)
Mangaia (Polynesian) god of the underworld.
Misca
Niquiran (Nicaragua) god of merchants.
Mishor
Ugaritic: "justice".
Misor
Phoenician god credited with discovery of salt.
Mithra
Iranian god of light, and of contracts and friendship. He was given the status of an Amesha in early Iranian religion, but in Zoroastrian religion he was reduced to the status of a Yazata who assisted in the saving of souls. Eventually the religion of Mithraism emerged around Mithra himself. Mithraism was an ascetic religion which enjoyed considerable popularity among the soldiers of the Roman Empire. Mithra was usually depicted in the act of sacrificing a bull, an act which became a central rite of Mithraism.
Mithras
Greco-Roman name of Mithra. Mithras became popular as a god of soldiers in the Roman Empire beginning in the first and second centuries AD. He was regarded as a god of loyalty and truth, and of the struggle aginst evil. The cult of Mithraism excluded women, and its rites were conducted in underground temples known as mithraea (sing. mithraeum). The central rite involved the ritual slaughter of a bull, symbolizing the regeneration of life and the world.
Mitra
Vedic solar deity, and god of friendship and contracts.
Mixcoatl
Aztec god of hunting, later a stellar god. He was the son of Cihuacoatl, and the father of Quetzalcoatl by Xochiquetzal, and of Huitzilopochtli by Coatlicue.
Retour