ASAR-HAP - see SERAPIS.
ASCLEPIUS: Greek god of healing and medicine. Known to the Romans as Aesculapius. Son of APOLLO and Coronis. He was brought up by the centaur CHIRON, who taught him the arts of healing; he became a skilled physician, even bringing the dead to life. This was leaving the Underworld underpopulated, so ZEUS killed him with a thunderbolt. In due time he became a god. Father of Hygeia, goddess of health. His symbol was the snake. His sanctuaries were places both of worship and of medical treatment.
ASGAYA-GIGAGEI: Amerindian, Cherokee. Bisexual thunder god, known as the Red Man or Red Woman.
ASH: Egyptian god of the Western Desert, including its fertile oases. Normally human-headed, sometimes hawk-headed, sometimes three-headed - lion, snake and vulture. Apparently the original god of Ombos (Nebut) in Upper Egypt (near the modern Qena) before SET took over that role.
ASHA, ASHA-VAHISHTA - see AMESHAS SPENTAS.
ASHI-NADZUCHI: Japanese Earth god. His wife was the Earth goddess Tenazuchi-no- Kami.
ASIA-BUSSU - see NYAMIA.
ASK, ASKR: ('Ash') The Scandinavian Adam. His Eve was Embla ('Vine'). After the Flood, the gods ODIN, HOENIR and LODUR made them out of lifeless tree-trunks, in his case from an ash tree.
ASMODEUS: Hebrew. Possibly from Aesmadaeva, 'Furry demon'. In the Talmud, king of the Shedin demons. His story in the Book of Tobit comes from a Median, and ultimately from a Persian, one - see AESMA.
ASOPUS: Greek. A river god of Boeotia, also found in Thessaly and the Peloponnese. His wife was Merope. Their daughter Aegina was ravished by ZEUS.
ASSORUS - see ANSAR.
ASSUR, ASSHUR: Assyrian supreme god, taking the place of MARDUK and identifying with the Babylonian ANSHAR. Primarily a war but also a fertility god. Originally a war and Moon god of the city of the same name. In later versions his wife was the Chaldaean and Sumerian grain goddess Ninlil; also named as a husband of Ishtar. Usually portrayed as a winged disc, but sometimes in human form riding a bull. His emblem, a god in a horned cap using a bow and arrow, was the Assyrian battle standard, and he was the patron of soldiers. As a fertility god, his emblem was a female goat.
ASTRAEUS: Greek. Titan, son of Crius and Eurybia, and first husband of the dawn goddess Eos, who bore him the four winds BOREAS (North), ZEPHYRUS (West), EURUS (East) and NOTUS (South), and, according to some versions, Astraea, goddess of justice and purity. Also said to be the father of the stars.
ASURAS, THE: Hindu. Powerful negative beings, in contrast to the positive DEVAS.
ASVINS, THE - see NASATYAS, THE.
ATAKSAK: Eskimo god of joy. He lives in Heaven and looks like a sphere, wearing shining cords.
ATAOKOLOINONA - see NORIANANAHARY.
ATAR (1): Persian. In Zoroastrian myth, son of AHURA MAZDA, and one of the YAZATAS. Genius of fire, protector of the Earth against evil, and bringer of gifts to mankind. The ninth month and the ninth day of each month were named after him.
ATAR (2): Phoenician. Son of EL and Asherah, chosen to rule the world for a time after BAAL had been killed by MOT. Known as 'the Terrible', Overlaps with ATTER (this page).
ATATARHO: Amerindian, Iroquois. A culture hero who always wore a garment of living snakes to symbolize his powers as a warrior and a magician.
ATEN, ATON: Egyptian. A name given to the Sun's disc.
ATHAR: Southern Arabian. Masculinization of Ishtar on the upsurge of patriarchy.
ATHTAR: Phoenician. Originally god of the star Venus, also associated with vegetation. Appealed to by the goddess Anat after the death of BAAL.
ATIUS-TIRAWA - see TIRAWA.
ATLAS: Phoenician and Greek. Son of URANUS and Gaia; in other versions, of IAPETUS by Clymene or Asia. After the war with the Titans,in which Atlas sided with the rebels, ZEUS punished him by ordering him to stand at the western end of the world and support the sky on his shoulders. In Phoenician tradition, brother of Astarte, BAITULOS, DAGON, EL, PONTUS and ZEUS DEMAROS, and in Greek tradition of PROMETHEUS and EPIMETHEUS. Father, by Pleione or Aethra, of the Pleiades, the Hyades and the Hesperides, and of Maia (mother by Zeus of HERMES), DARDANUS, Electra and Taygete; and, in one version, of the nymph-sorceress Calypso.
ATLI: ('Grandfather') Scandinavian. The name of Attila, King of the Huns, in Scandinavian legend. In the Volsung Saga, he is Brynhild's brother and Gudrun's second husband. He fought and killed Gudrun's brothers for the treasures of Nibelungen, and she killed him in revenge. Sometimes also a name for THOR. Called Etzel in the Niberlungenlied.
ATMU -see ATUM (this page).
ATON -see ATEN (this page).
ATRI: Hindu. Son of Brahma, noted for his wisdom.
ATTER: Northern Semitic. Male war god. His female counterpart was Attar. Both were associated with the planet Venus.
ATTILA - see ATLI (this page).
ATTIS, ATYS: Anatolian vegetation god, lover of the Earth, mountain and wild beast goddess Cybele. When he planned to marry a king's daughter, Cybele turned him insane, and he castrated himself, gave her his genitals and died, being later restored to life. (Cybele's priests, the Corybantes, often worked themselves into a frenzy and castrated themselves in her honour.) The rituals of Cybele and Attis, mourning his death and then celebrating his resurrection, reflect the archetypal Earth-goddess and sacrificed vegetation god theme, paralleling those of Ishtar/Astarte/Aphrodite and DUMUZI / TAMMUZ / ADONIS, though in a more savage and frenetic manner than they. The Cybele/Attis cult spread into Greece, though mainly among Phrygian slaves, and to some extent into the Roman Empire, where it survived until Christianity became officially imposed. 777: Tarot: Hermit; gem: peridot; plants: snowdrop, lily, narcissus; animals: virgin, anchorite, any solitary animal or person; perfume: narcissus; magical weapons: Lamp and Wand, Bread.
ATUM, ATMU, TEM: Egyptian. Pre dynastic Sun god of Heliopolis, with two wives, Nebhet Hotep and Iusas. Later identified with RA, especially as the setting Sun (Atum-Ra). See also ATEN (this page).
ATYS - see ATTIS (this page).
AUAHI-TUROA: Australian Aborigine. Culture hero who brought fire to mankind.
AUGUST PERSONAGE OF JADE - see JADE.
AULANERK: Eskimo. He lives naked in the sea and struggles, causing the waves. Regarded as beneficent.
AUMANIL: Eskimo. Lives on land and guides whales.
AURVANDIL, ORVANDIL, EGIL: Aurvandil is mentioned once in Norse Mythology, in the "Skáldskaparmal" section of Snorri Sturluson's Edda: Thor went home to Thrúdvangar, and the hone remained sticking in his head. Then came the wise woman who was called Gróa, wife of Aurvandill the Valiant: she sang her spells over Thor until the hone was loosened. But when Thor knew that, and thought that there was hope that the hone might be removed, he desired to reward Gróa for her leech-craft and make her glad, and told her these things: that he had waded from the north over Icy Stream and had borne Aurvandill in a basket on his back from the north out of Jötunheim. And he added for a token, that one of Aurvandill's toes had stuck out of the basket, and became frozen; wherefore Thor broke it off and cast it up into the heavens, and made thereof the star called Aurvandill's Toe. Thor said that it would not be long ere Aurvandill came home: but Gróa was so rejoiced that she forgot her incantations, and the hone was not loosened, and stands yet in THOR's head. Therefore it is forbidden to cast a hone across the floor, for then the hone is stirred in Thor's head. Guesses as to the identity of this star have included the polestar, the planet Venus, Sirius, the star Rigel which forms the toe of the constellation ORION (this page, above), though if Aurvandil is to be identified with the constellation Orion one would expect to find Aurvandil himself being translated into the sky, not just his toe.
AUSTER: Roman. God of the South Wind, corresponding to the Greek NOTUS.
AVAGDU: Welsh. Son of Cerridwen and TEGID. He was the ugliest boy in the world, and his sister Creirwy was the most beautiful girl.
AVALOKITESVARA, PADMAPANI: Indian Buddhist. A DHYANI-BODHISATTVA. Gifted with complete Enlightenment, he remained in this world for the salvation of mankind and animals. No sufferer appeals to him in vain. Portrayed holding a pink lotus and with an image of AMITABHA bound in his hair.
AVANC - see ADDANC.
AWHIOWHIO: Australian Aborigine god of whirlwinds.
AWONAWILONA: Amerindian, Pueblo and Zunni. He created the Earth and the sky from a green scum on the waters of the Deluge, by causing the Sun to shine on it.
AWUN: Formosan. God of destruction.
AZAZIL: Islamic devil who refused to prostrate himself before Allah after the creation of Adam. Condemned to death, but the sentence postponed to the Day of Judgement. May have been a pre-Hebrew and pre-Islamic goat god.
AZIDAHAKA: Persian, Zoroastrian. Serpent demon who cut YIMA, the first mortal, in two.
AZRAEL: Islamic angel of death. (But see also reference to him on p.59.) BAAL: ('Lord') Phoenician fertility, vegetation and storm god. Baal was also a general name for a god, as Baalat (Belet, Belit, Beltis), 'Lady' , as for a goddess.
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©1989 Janet & Stewart Farrar
