| TADATAGEI: Hindu. A Tamil goddess, wife of Soma sundar a (who may be an avatar of Shiva). Of irresistible strength, unbeatable in knowledge or war, and said to have been born with three breasts. TAILTIU: Irish. Foster-mother of Lugh. Daughter of Magh Mor of the Fir Bolg, King of the Plain, and wife of Duach the Dark of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who built the Fort of the Hostages at Tara. Lugh instituted the Tailtean Games, central event of the Festival of Lughnasadh (1 August), in her memory. Graves (The White Goddess, p.302) says this legend is 'late and misleading', and that the Tailteann Games were 'originally funeral games in the Etruscan style'. The site of the games, Tailtenn, now Teltown, is on the Blackwater halfway between Kells and Navan in Co. Meath. 'Teltown marriages' took place there into medieval times, trial marriages lasting a year and a day; they could be dissolved by the couple returning to the spot and walking away from each other to North and South. TAIT: Egyptian Underworld goddess, apparently responsible for robing the deceased in the 'taau garment'; in one passage of the Book of the Dead she also gives him cakes. TALLAI: Syrian and Canaanite Nature goddess, the Maiden of Dew and Rain, forming a triad with ARSAI and PIDRAI. Daughter and/or wife of Baal. TAMAR: ('Palm Tree') Hebrew equivalent of ISHTAR, according to Graves (The White Goddess, p.190). TAMAYORI-BIME-NO-MIKOTO: Japanese sea goddess, probably oracular. Her youngest son, Waka-mi-ke-nu-no-mikito, later called Jimmu Tenno, is said to have been the first Emperor of Japan. TAMESIS: British and Continental river goddess, who gave her name to the Thames and to the Tamise (ScheIdt). TAMRA: ('Copper-coloured') Hindu, wife of Kashyapa, and ancestress of birds. TANA: 'The old Etruscan name for DIANA, which is still preserved in the Romagna Toscana' (Leland, Aradia: the Gospel of the Witches, p.51). TANIT: The great fertility and Moon goddess of Carthage (a Phoenician colony), consort of Baal-Hammon; she was known as 'the face of Baal'. Baal and Tanit's names suggest a common source with the Irish Balor and DANA and the Welsh Beli and DON. (See also BENE.) According to Cecil Williamson, her worship (as Tanat) is still practised in Cornwall and the West of England. Festival: 1 May. TARA: ('Radiating') Hindu star goddess, wife of Brihaspati (identified with the planet Jupiter), teacher of the gods. Abducted by the Moon god Soma, who was compelled by Brahma to release her; but she was already pregnant by him and gave birth to a son radiant with power and beauty, who was called Budha and considered to be the founder of the lunar dynasties. She rides on a lion and holds the Sun in her hand, and her symbol is a boat: 'From the world ocean of many terrors I will save the creatures.' Overlaps with DOLMA. TARANIS: A Gaulish goddess mentioned by Lucan as being worshipped with human sacrifice. 'Probably a Death-Goddess, namely Tar-Annis, Annis of the West' (Graves, The White Goddess, p.372). TA-REPY: Egyptian name for the constellation Virgo. In the Dendera Zodiac, depicted as a woman carrying a palm branch; in the later Esneh Zodiac, as a sphinx with the head and breasts of a woman and the hinder parts of a lion. TARI PENNU, BERRA PENNU: Hindu, Earth goddess of the Khonds of Bengal. TASHMIT, URMIT, VARAMIT: ('Hearing') Chaldaean and Assyro-Babylonian goddess of letters and of the hearing of prayer; she opened the eyes and ears of those receiving instruction. With her husband Nebo, god of wisdom and teaching, she invented writing. TATSUTA-HIME: Japanese wind goddess. With her male counterpart Tatsuta-Hiko, she is prayed to for good harvests and venerated by sailors and fishermen. TA-URT: Egyptian Underworld goddess of darkness; also a region of the Underworld. MacGregor Mathers links the word Tarot with this name and the Egyptian verb taru, 'to consult, require an answer'. TAUERET: see TUARET. TAUROPOLOS: Cretan bull goddess, the Lady of the Bull. TCHESERT: The Egyptian Elysian Fields of the Underworld, and also the goddess personifying that region. TEA: Irish, goddess of Tara, its co-founder with TEPHI, both described as Milesian princesses. Second wife of Erimon. She chose the mound Drum Chain as her marriage price, and it was named Temair (Tara) after her. (Tea Mur, 'the Wall of Tea'.) TEBUNA~: ('Understanding, Insight') Hebrew: Often personified as feminine in the Bible; 'she is more precious than rubies'. See for example Proverbs ii: 2-5, iii: 13-20, vii:4, and the whole of Proverbs viii. TECCIZTECATL: see METZLI. TEEREE: Hindu, wife of Brahma, by whom she gave birth to an egg, one half of which formed the celestial beings, the other the Earth creatures including mankind. TEFNUT: ('The Spitter') Egyptian, daughter of Ra (Atum-Ra), and twin sister and wife of air god Shu; Ra produced them without female help. By Shu, mother of Geb (the Earth) and NUT (the Sky). (An earlier legend makes her the wife of a god Tefen, of whom nothing is known; and Shu is sometimes brother to Geb and Nut.) Goddess of dew and rain. She helped Shu to support Nut, separating her from Geb, and also helped him escort the newborn Sun each morning as it broke free from the Eastern mountains. Some priestly interpretation made Shu the life principle and Tefnut that of world order (rather like the Cabalistic Chokmah and BINAH). In this aspect Tefnut was sometimes identified with MA' AT. One legend says that, when Ra temporarily lost Shu and Tefnut in the primordial waters, his tears of joy on finding them again became the first men and women. She was the protectress of Osiris and of the dead identified with him. Tefnut is depicted as a lioness or as a woman with a lion's head crowned with the solar disc and uraeus; or in her function as protector of Ra and the Pharoah, as the uraeus itself. Appears as one of the Gemini twins in the Dendera Zodiac. The Greeks equated her to ARTEMIS. TELITA: Babylonian Queen of the Moon. TELLUS MATER: ('Earth Mother') Roman, a very early goddess of fecundity, together with a male counterpart, Telluno. Later associated with Jupiter. Watched over marriage and the procreation of children, and over the fertility of the soil. Festivals: 15 April, at which the Vestal Virgins officiated, and 1-3 June. TENAZUCHI-NO-KAMI: Japanese Earth goddess, wife of Earth god Ashi-Nadzuchi. TENEMIT: Egyptian Underworld goddess, who gave ale to the deceased. TENNIN, THE: Japanese, Buddhist. Female angels of Heaven, beautiful, eternally young, winged, clothed in feather robes, skilled in music, singing. TENTH AUNT, THE: A Chinese village goddess, protectress of crops and other village interests. Married, with great ceremony, to the god of a local shrine, for more effective partnership. TEPHI: Irish, goddess of Tara, its co-founder with TEA. TERPSICHORE: see MUSES. TERTIANA: see FEBRIS. TETEOINNAN: see TLAZOL TEOTL. TETHYS: Greek Titaness, daughter of Uranus and GAIA. A marine goddess, wife of her brother Oceanus; Homer says these two created the gods and all living beings. They had 3,000 daughters (the OCEANIDS) and 3,000 sons, and were also the parents of 3,000 rivers, including the STYX. ©2003 Aradias~Attic [BACK] [NEXT] This document can be re-published only as long as no information is lost or changed, credit is given to the author, and it is provided or used without cost to others. ©1987 Janet & Stewart Farrar | 
