DHANVANTARI: Hindu. Physician of the gods; possibly inventor of amrita, the ambrosia of the gods.

DHARMA: Hindu. Husband of Sradda ('Confidence'), goddess of faith, or of Samnati (Sannati), or of Medha ('Understanding'), and also cohabited with Pritha (Kunti).

DHARME: Hindu. Sun god of the Oraons of Bengal, who annually celebrate his mating with the Earth Mother.

DHRTARASTRA - see MO-LI, THE.

DHYANI-BUDDHAS, THE: The five Buddhas of Meditation: Vairocana, solar, colour white; Ratnasambhava, ruling the South, yellow; AMITABHA (Infinite Light) or AMITAYUS (Infinite Duration), ruling the West and its paradise Sukhavati, offers happy rebirth, red; Amoghsiddhi, ruling the North, green; and Akshobhya, ruling the East, blue.

DIANCECHT: Irish. Healer god of the Tuatha Dé Danann. His son MIACH and daughter Airmid made the silver hand which replaced the one lost by NUADA at the First Battle of Maigh Tuireadh (Moytura).

DIANUS: Early Roman oak god, from whom JANUS evolved.

DIARMAID, DIARMUID: Irish. Hero of the archetypal love story of Diarmaid and Gniinne. Gniinne, daughter of the King of Ireland, was betrothed to FIONN MAC CUMHAL but at a feast in her father's house fell in love with Diarmaid O'Duibne and pursuaded him to run away with her. Fionn pursued th'em for seven years (or, in other versions, a year and a day), finally pretending to make peace with them but trapping Diarmaid into being killed by a boar. The pursuit is commemorated by many dolmens in Ireland being known as 'Diarmaid and Gráinne's Bed'. The dead Diarmaid was taken to Brugh na Boinne (Newgrange) by the love god AENGUS MAC ÓG, who 'breathed aerial life' into him.

DIONYSUS: Greek, originally Thracian. God of vegetation, fertility and wine. Son of ZEUS and Semele, daughter of King Cadmus of Thebes. Jealous Hera destroyed Semele with divine fire while she was carrying him, but Zeus rescued the foetus and embedded it in his own thigh till it was ready for birth; hence Dionysus's title Dithyrambos, 'Twice-born'. Educated by SILENUS. He married Ariadne, whom he found on Naxos, where THESEUS had abandoned her. His legends include many travels, to all parts of Greece and to Asia Minor; even to the Underworld to rescue his mother, Semele, whom he renamed Thyone and brought to immortality on Olympus. He brought civilization and viniculture to many countries. Widely worshipped, often with ecstatic rituals; his female followers the Maenads (also called Bacchantes) sang and danced in orgiastic frenzy, in early times involving human sacrifice and later mere flagellation. His retinue also included SATYRS. He had many festivals, varying from place to place, including the Lenaea in December, when he was offered the new wine, the Anthesteria at the end of February, when the last year's vintage was tasted, and the Greater (or Urban) Dionysia at the beginning of March. Dionysys absorbed many other regional deities, including the Phrygian SABAZIUS, the Lydian BASSAREUS and the Cretan ZAGREUS (in which identification he was the son of Zeus and Demeter or Persephone). In Orphie philosophy, his bucolic nature was underplayed and he became the god of immortality, 'who is destroyed, who disappears, who relinquishes life and then is born again' (Plutarch).

DIOSCURI, THE - see CASTOR AND POLLUX.

DIS: Roman Underworld god, identified with ORCUS and with the Greek PLUTO and HADES. According to Julius Caesar, the Gauls claimed descent from him.

DJEVS, DEIVOS: The probable original Indo-European name of the Sky Father god, from which such forms as ZEUS, JOVIS and DYAUS (this page) derive.

DOGODA: Slavonic god of the West Wind, gentle and caressing.

DOMOVOI: Slavonic house-god, generally ape-like, but could. take many forms, including human. Helpful and protective and could warn of coming trouble but had to be propitiated and treated kindly. His counterparts in the yard were the Dvorovoi, who detested animals with white fur and had to be placated with small offerings; in the bathhouse, the Bannik; and in the barn, the Ovinnik.

DONAR: Teutonic thunder god. Inferior to ODIN, a god of peasants rather than warriors - though in Scandinavia he became much more important as THOR. Known as THUNAR to the Anglo-Saxons; Thursday is 'Thunar's day'. A fertilizing god, because of the rain he brings. His tree was the oak.

DONN: Irish lord of the dead.

DUA: ('Today') Egyptian personification of 'today', together with his brother the lion god SEF ('yesterday').

DUAMUTEF - see HORUS, FOUR SONS OF.

DUMUZI: Sumerian vegetation god, equivalent of ADONI / ADONIS / TAMMUZ.

DWYVAN: The Welsh Noah, who with his wife Dwyfach built their ark Nefyed Nav Nevion, filled it with animals and survived the flood caused by ADDANC. A Celtic myth distorted by Christian additions.

DYAUS, DYAUS-PITAR: Hindu sky or Sun god. Husband of Earth and creator goddess Prithvi, and father of INDRA, AGNI, BHAGA, VARUNA, the dawn goddess Ushas and the night goddess Ratri. A ,primitive Aryan sky-father god who had already receded by the time the Vedas were written. May originally have been a Sun-mother goddess.

DYLAN: Welsh sea god. Son of Arianrhod by her brother GWYDION, and brother to LLEU LLAW GYFFES. According to the Mabinogion, as a baby, 'he immediately made for the sea, and when he came to the sea he took on its nature and swam as well as the best fish. . . no wave ever broke beneath him.' Known as Dylan Eil Ton, 'Son of the Wave'. He married the Lady of the Lake, who bore him Vivienne (or Nimue), mistress of MERLIN. Cf. DYONAS (below).

DYONAS: Breton. Named incthe courtly romance Vivienne and Merlin as 'god-son of Diana, goddess of the woods', and father of Vivienne, the mistress who enchanted MERLIN in the Forest of Broceliande - where there is still a Lake of Diana. Cf. DYLAN (above).