Guide to the Gods 1.0
Ra... to Rz...
Ra
(Re)
Egyptian sun god. See Re.
Ragno
Mother goddess of the Pomo people of California. She twice rescued the earth from the attempts by Kuksu and Marumda to destroy it by fire and by flood.
Radha
Indian wife of Krisna.
Rahab
Old Testament monster.
Rahu
Indian demon of eclipses.
Raiden
Japanese god of thunder. Usually depicted as a red demon carrying a drum.
Rainbow Snake
Australian aboriginal spirit of rain and of revival of flowers and trees in spring.
Raini
A god of the Mundruku tribe of the Brazilian Tupi-Guarani. He created the world in the shape of a flat stone and placed it on the head of another god.
Rakshasas
(Raksasas, Raksas)
Hindu evil spirits, identical with the Yakshas. In the Ramayana they are led by Ravana.
Raktavija
Hindu general of the demon army.
Raluvumbha
(Raluvimbha?)
Supreme god of Baventa of Transvaal.
Rama
Hindu hero-god, an avatar of Vishnu.
Ramachandra
"Rama the Moon". The seventh avatar of Vishnu, in the form of the hero Rama. In this form he vanquished the demon Ravana, king of the Rakshas.
Ran
Nordic goddess of the sea, wife of the sea god Aegir. She was said to gather up all drowned sailors in a net. Sailors propitiated her by throwing money and other offerings overboard.
Ran-deng
Chinese beggar-woman & future Buddha.
Rangi
Polynesian sky god.
Raphael
Judeo-Christian archangel.
Rapithwin
Old Iranian god of midday.
Rashnu
(Rasnu)
Old Iranian personification of righteousness. He was said to be the guardian of the Cinvat bridge leading to the otherworld. Along with Mithra and Sraosha, he judges the souls of humans after death.
Rata
Polynesian hero god.
Rati
Hindu goddess of sexual desire. She was the daughter of the sun god Daksha and the wife of Kama, the god of love.
Ratnapani
A minor Dhyani-Bodhisattva.
Ratnasambhava
A Dhyani-Buddha.
Ratri
Indian goddess of night.
Rat-taui
Egyptian goddess.
Raudna
Lappish goddess.
Rauni
Finnish goddess.
Ravana
Hindu fallen angel, the demon king of the Rakshasas who figured prominently in the Ramayana. He was defeated by Vishnu in his Rama avatar, having abducted Rama's wife Sita.
Raven
Pacific coast creator/trickster.
Ravi
One of the twelve Adityas (sons of the goddess Aditi) in Vedic Hinduism.
Re
(Ra)
Egyptian sun god and creator god. He was usually depicted in human form with a falcon head, crowned with the sun disc encircled by the uraeus (a stylized representation of the sacred cobra). The sun itself was taken to be either his body or his eye. He was said to traverse the sky each day in a solar barque and pass through the underworld each night on another solar barque to reappear in the east each morning. His principal cult centre was at Heliopolis ("sun city"), near modern Cairo. Re was also considered to be an underworld god, closely associated in this respect with Osiris. In this capacity he was depicted as a ram-headed figure.
By the third millennium B.C. Re's prominence had already become such that the pharaohs took to styling themselves "sons of Re". After death, the Egyptian monarch was said to ascend into the sky to join the entourage of the sun god. According to the Heliopolitan cosmology, Re was said to have created himself, either out of a primordial lotus blossom, or on the mound that emerged from the primeval waters. He then created Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), who in turn engendered the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut. Re was said to have created humankind from his own tears and the gods Hu (authority) and Sia (mind) from blood drawn from his own penis. Re was often combined with other deities to enhance the prestige of the latter, as in Re-Atum, Amun-Re, or in the formula "Re in Osiris, Osiris in Re".
Reahu
Khmer dark demon.
Remanta
Buddhist king of the horse-gods.
Renenutet
(Ernutet, Renenet)
Egyptian cobra goddess. Depicted either as a hooded cobra or in human form with the head of a cobra. Her name seems to have the meaning of nurturing or raising a child, and she was both a goddess associated with motherhood and the tutelary deity of the pharaoh. Her gaze was said to have the power to vanquish all enemies and also to ensure the fertility of the crops and the bounty of the harvest. She was associated with the magical properties believed to inhere in the linen bandages that wrapped the dead and was known at Edfu as the 'mistress of the robes'. She had an important cult center in the fertile Faiyum region, where she was closely associated with the local crocodile god Sobek. In the Greco-Roman period she was worshipped as the goddess Hermouthis, in which form she came to be syncretized with Isis.
Renpet
Egyptian goddess of youth and spingtime.
Rephaim
Ancient Syrian chthonic beings.
Reret
Egyptian hippopotamus goddess.
Reshep
(Resheph, Reshpu, Resef)
Syro-Palestinian god of underworld and pestilence.
Resheph
(Reshpu)
Egyptian version of the Sumerian Aleyin/Amurru, originally a vegetation god, regarded by Egyptians as a warrior.
Rhadamanthys
(Rhadamanthos, Rhadamanthus)
Greek underworld god. Son of Zeus and Europa. Ruler of Crete who was succeeded as king by his brother Minos. After death he became one of the three judges of the dead in the underworld, along with Aiakos and Minos.
Rhea
(Rheia)
Greek mother of the gods. Daughter of Ouranos (heaven) and Gaia (earth). Consort of Kronos. Mother of Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon and Zeus. When Kronos swallowed his children, Rhea spirited Zeus away to a cave on the island of Crete, substituting a stone wrapped in swaddling cloths for the infant. Rhea was later equated with the Anatolian mother goddess Kybele.
Rhiannon
May have been a goddess (Rigantona) in pagan Britain.
Rhibus
(Ribhus)
Hindu craft gods, equestrian and solar deities.
Rigenmucha
Supreme being of Papuan tribe of the Baining.
Riiki and Rigi
Micronesian deities who held up the sky.
Rimmon
(Rammon)
Syrian weather god.
Rind
(Rinda, Rindr)
Nordic goddess. She was the mother of Vali by Odin.
Risabha
Jain first herald of salvation.
Risis
Vedic singers of holy songs before dawn of time.
Robigo
Roman corn goddess.
Robigus
Roman corn god. More specifically the god of mildew or wheat rust who was propitiated to safeguard the wheat crop against this common disease. His festival, the Robigalia, was celebrated on April 25.
Rock-Sene
God of the Serer people of Gambia.
Roma
Roman goddess personifying the city of Rome. Her head was commonly depicted on coins, symbolizing the Roman state.
Romulus
Legendary founder of Rome, later revered as the god Quirinus (qv).
Rongerik and Rongelap
Divine brothers and eponymous gods of two of the Marshall Islands.
Rongo
Polynesian god of cultivated foods.
Rosmerta
Celtic goddess of plenty.
Roua
(Ra)
The father of the stars in the belief of the people of the Polynesian Society Islands.
Ru
Minor Polynesian god.
Rua
Tahitian 'abyss', god of craftsmen.
Ruda
North Arabian goddess.
Rudianos
Gallic local god.
Rudra
"Howler". Ancient Vedic god of storms and the wind. He is generally considered to be a malignant god who fires arrows of sickness at both gods and men. In later Hindu belief his role has largely been taken over by Shiva.
Rugievit
Slavic war god of the island of Rugen in the Baltic. According to Saxo Grammaticus, he had seven heads and carried a sword.
Ruha D'Qudsha
Chief demonic goddess of the Mandean Gnostics.
Rukmini
Hindu wife of Krishna.
Rumina
Roman goddess of nursing mothers and suckling infants (both human and animal).
Rundas
Hittite god of hunting and good fortune
Rusalki
(Rusalka)
Slavonic water and woodland goddesses.
Ru Shou
See Gou Mang.
Ruti
Pair of lions worshipped in Egyptian Letopolis.
Rutu
Lapp devil.
Ruwa
High god of the Djaga of Kilimanjoro.
Ryo-Wo
Japanese dragon-king, god of the sea.
Ryujin
(Ryugin)
Japanese dragon god of the sea. One of the weather gods known as the Raijin, he controlled thunder and rain.
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