A Small Dictionary of Pagan Gods and Goddesses, pt. 2

by D.W. Owens

Copyright 1994. This work may be reproduced without permission, in its entirety and without alteration, together with the other four parts which make up the whole work, for free distribution. For any other distribution, please contact the author.

Part 2 : CHINA / EGYPT / GREECE

CHINA

AO The Four Dragon Kings Ao Chi'in, Ao Kuang, Ao Jun, and Ao Shun, gods of rain and the sea. Subjects of the Jade Emperor.

CH'ENG-HUANG God of moats and walls. Every village and town had its own Ch'eng-Huang, most often a local dignitary or important person who had died and been promoted to godhood. His divine status was revealed in dreams, though the gods made the actual decision. Ch'eng-Huang not only protects the community from attack but sees to it that the King of the Dead does not take any soul from his jurisdiction without proper authority. Ch'eng-Huang also exposes evil-doers in the community itself, usually through dreams. His assistants are Mr. Ba Lao-ye and Mr. Hei Lao-ye -- Mr. Daywatchman and Mr. Nightwatchman.

CHU JUNG God of fire. Chu Jung punishes those who break the laws of heaven.

KUAN TI God of war. The Great Judge who protects the people from injustice and evil spirits. A red faced god dressed always in green. An oracle. Kuan Ti was an actual historical figure, a general of the Han dynasty renowned for his skill as a warrior and his justness as a ruler. There were more than 1600 temples dedicated to Kuan Ti.

KWAN YIN also KWANNON Goddess of mercy and compassion. A lady dressed in white seated on a lotus and holding an infant. Murdered by her father, she recited the holy books when she arrived in Hell, and the ruler of the underworld could not make the dead souls suffer. The disgruntled god sent her back to the world of the living, where Kwan Yin attained great spiritual insight and was rewarded with immortality by the Buddha. A popular goddess, Kwan Yin's temple at the Mount of the Wondrous Peak was ever filled with a throng of pilgrims shaking rattles and setting off firecrackers to get her attention.

LEI KUNG God of thunder. Lei Kung has the head of a bird, wings, claws and blue skin, and his chariot is drawn by six boys. Lei Kung makes thunder with his hammer, and his wife makes lightening with her mirrors. Lei Kung chases away evil spirits and punishes criminals whose crimes have gone undetected.

PA HSIEN The Eight Immortals of the Taoist tradition. Ordinary mortals who, through good works and good lives, were rewarded by the Queen Mother Wang by giving them the peaches of everlasting life to eat. They are:

LI TIEH-KUAI Li of the Iron Crutch. A healer, Li sits as a beggar in the market place selling wondrous drugs, some of which can revive the dead.

CHUNG-LI CH'UAN A smiling old men always beaming with joy, he was rewarded with immortality for his ascetic life in the mountains.

LAN TS'AI-HO A young flute-player and wandering minstrel who carries a basket laden with fruit. His soul-searching songs caused a stork to snatch him away to the heavens.

LU TUNG-PIN A hero of early Chinese literature. Renouncing riches and the world, he punished the wicked and rewarded the good, and slew dragons with a magic sword.

CHANG-KUO LAO An aged hermit with miraculous abilities. Chang owned a donkey which could travel at incredible speed. The personification of the primordial vapor which is the source of all life.

HAN HSIANG-TZU A scholar who chose to study magic rather than prepare for the civil service. When his uncle chastised him for studying magic, Han Hsiang-Tzu materialized two flowers with poems written on the leaves.

TS'AO KUO-CHIU Ts'ao Kuo-Chiu tried to reform his brother, a corrupt emperor, by reminding him that the laws of heaven are inescapable.

HO HSIEN-KU "Immortal Maiden Ho." A Cantonese girl who dreamed that she could become immortal by eating a powder made of mother-of-pearl. She appears only to men of great virtue.

P'AN-CHIN-LIEN Goddess of prostitutes. As a mortal, she was a widow who was much too liberal and inventive with her favors, and her father-in-law killed her. In death she was honored by her more professional associates and eventually became the goddess of whores.

SHI-TIEN YEN-WANG The Lords of Death, the ten rulers of the underworld. They dress alike in royal robes and only the wisest can tell them apart. Each ruler presides over one court of law. In the first court a soul is judged according to his sins in life and sentenced to one of the eight courts of punishment. Punishment is fitted to the offense. Misers are made to drink molten gold, liars' tongues are cut out. In the second court are incompetent doctors and dishonest agents; in the third, forgers, liars, gossips, and corrupt government officials; in the fifth, murderers, sex offenders and atheists; in the sixth, the sacreligious and blasphemers; in the eighth, those guilty of filial disrespect; in the ninth, arsonists and accident victims. In the tenth is the Wheel of Transmigration where souls are released to be reincarnated again after their punishment is completed. Before souls are released, they are given a brew of oblivion, which makes them forget their former lives.

TI-TSANG WANG God of mercy. Wandering in the caverns of Hell, a lost soul might encounter a smilng monk whose path is illuminated by a shining pearl and whose staff is decorated with metal rings which chime like bells. This is Ti-Tsang Wang, who will do all he can to help the soul escape hell and even to put an end to his eternal round of death and rebirth. Long ago, Ti-Tsang Wang renounced Nirvana so that he could search the dark regions of Hell for souls to save from the kings of the ten hells. Once a priest of Brahma, he converted to Buddhism and himself became a Buddha with special authority over the souls of the dead.

T'SHAI-SHEN God of wealth who presides over a vast bureaucracy with many minor deities under his authority. A majestic figure robed in exquisite silks. T'shai-Shen is quite a popular god; even atheists worship him.

TSAO WANG God of the hearth. Every household has its own Tsao Wang. Every year the hearth god reports on the family to the Jade Emperor, and the family has good or bad luck during the coming year according to his report. The hearth god's wife records every word spoken by every member of the family. A paper image represents the hearth god and his wife, and incense is burned to them daily. When the time came to make his report to the Jade Emperor, sweetmeats were placed in his mouth, the paper was burned, and firecrackers were lit to speed him on his way.

TU-TI Local gods. Minor gods of towns, villages and even streets and households. Though far from the most important gods in the divine scheme, they were quite popular. Usually portrayed as kindly, respectable old men, they see to it that the domains under their protection run smoothyly.

YENG-WANG-YEH "Lord Yama King." Greatest of the Lords of Death. Yeng-Wang-Yeh judges all souls newly arrived to the land of the dead and decides whether to send them to a special court for punishment or put them back on the Wheel of Transmigration.

YU-HUANG-SHANG-TI "Father Heaven." The August Supreme Emperor of Jade, whose court is in the highest level of heaven, originally a sky god. The Jade Emperor made men, fashioning them from clay. His heavenly court resembles the earthly court in all ways, having an army, a bureaucracy, a royal family and parasitical courtiers. The Jade Emperor's rule is orderly and without caprice. The seasons come and go as they should, yin is balanced with yang, good is rewarded and evil is punished. As time went on, the Jade Emperor became more and more remote to men, and it became customary to approach him through his doorkeeper, the Transcendental Dignitary. The Jade Emperor sees and hears everything; even the softest whisper is as loud as thunder to the Jade Emperor.

EGYPT

AMMON Also AMON; AMUN; AMEN "Hidden." King of the gods of Egypt. Patron of the Pharoahs. Originally a god of fertility, a local deity of Memphis. Ammon became linked with the sun god Ra through the royal family, becoming Ammon-Ra.

ANUBIS The jackal-headed god. Anubis can foresee a mortal's destiny and is associated with magic and divination. Anubis supervises the weighing of the soul when the departed are brought to the hall of the dead.

ASTARTE The Assyro-Babylonian goddess Ishtar, inducted into the Egyptian pantheon and made a daughter of Ammon-Ra. Sometimes identified (or confused, which is the same thing) with Isis.

ATUM The first of the gods, the self-created. By sheer will, Atum formed himself out of the stagnant waters of Nun. Atum was bisexual and was sometimes called "the great He-She." The Egyptians had two cosmogonies, one taught by the priests at Heliopolis and the other by the priests at Memphis. The priests at Memphis taught that Nun and Atum, together with Atum's children Shu and Tefnut, were aspects or forms of Ptah.

BAST Also BASTET. The cat-headed goddess, a local deity of the delta. The kindly goddess of joy, music and dancing. Cats were sacred to Bast as a symbol of animal passion. Bast's devotees celebrated their lady with processions of flower-laden barges and orgiastic ceremonies. Her festivals were licentious and quite popular.

HATHOR A sky goddess, sometimes represented as a woman with cow's horns between which hangs a solar disc, sometimes portrayed as a cow. Hathor concerns herself with beauty, love and marriage, and watches over women giving birth. Mother and wife of Ra. Hathor is also a goddess of death and offers comfort to the newly dead as they pass into the afterworld.

HORUS The falcon-headed god. A complex deity with many aspects. Some of them are: Horus the Elder, a sky god whose eyes are the sun and the moon, continually at war with Set, the god of evil; Horus of the Horizon, symbolized by the rising and setting sun; Horus the Child, whose frequent depictions as a baby at the breast of his mother Isis influenced Christian images of the Madonna and the Christ child; Horus, son of Isis, avenger of Osiris. There were many others.

ISIS Wife and sister of Osiris (the ancients had nothing against a little divine incest). The ideal wife and mother. Generally a goddess of the home and person rather than of the temple and the priest. After the twenty sixth dynasty, Isis is increasingly portrayed as a nursing mother, and her cult eventually spread throughout the Roman empire.

MAAT Goddess of truth and justice. Her symbol is the feather.

MIN A god of fertility and sexual potency. An ancient god of pre-dynastic origins. His symbol is the thunderbolt. As orgiastic festivials were held in his honor, Min was quite a popular god.

NUN God of the primal waters. Nun was a mass of stagnant water which filled all the universe.

OSIRIS At first the god of corn; later the god of the dead. Osiris brought civilization to the Egyptians, teaching them the uses of corn and wine, weaving, sculpture, religion, music and law. Set slew Osiris and dismembered th body; but Osiris' consort, Isis, reassembled the body and brought Osiris back to life. Osiris then retired to the underworld. Osiris is the god of the Nile which rises and falls every year; the god of corn and the vine, which flourish, die, and flourish once more; and the god of the rising and setting sun.

PTAH The artificer. The creator god. According to the priests of Memphis, the fount of all creation. God of artisans and artists, designers, builders, architects, masons, metal workers. Ptah's consort is Sekhmut, goddess of war.

RA God of the sun; sometimes identified or considered synonomous with Atum. Ra created man from his tears. At one time Ra became so digusted with men that he orderd Hathor to kill them all. This Hathor did with such zeal that Ra took pity on men and ordered Hathor to stop. Crazed with blood, Hathor ignored the order, and Ra resorted to chicanery to save humankind. Ra mixed beer with pomegranate juice and left pots of the concoction about the battlefield. Thinking the mixture was blood, Hathor drank it greedily and got too swacked to carry out her mission.

SEKHMUT Goddess of war and battles, consort of Ptah. Hathor took Sekhmut's shape when she made war on men. Sekhmut is usually portrayed as a woman with the head of a lionness, sometimes brandishing a knife in an upraised hand.

SET Red of hair and eyes, pale of skin, Set is the god of evil, of drought, of destruction, thunder and storm. Set tore himself from his mother's womb in his hurry to be born. Every month Set attacks and devours the moon, the sanctuary of Osiris and the gathering place of the souls of the recently dead.

THOTH "Thrice Greatest." God of wisdom, music, magic, medicine, astronomy, geometry, surveying, art and and writing. Historian, scribe and judge. Thoth's priests claimed Thoth was the Demi-Urge who created everything from sound. It was said that Thoth wrote books in which he set forth a fabulous knowldege of magic and incantation, and then concealed them in a crypt.

GREECE

(See also the section on Roman gods in Part 5)

ADONIS Beloved of Aphrodite, the central figure of a widespread fertility cult, god of vegetation and re-birth. Adonis seems clearly linked with Tammuz, the Assyro-Babylonion god who dies and rises again. Adonis is the Greek version of the Phoenician term Adon, which means "Lord."

APHRODITE Goddess of fertility, love and beauty. When Zeus killed his father, Uranus, he cut off his father's genitals and cast them into the sea. The sea foamed and boiled and Aphrodite arose from the waters. As Aphrodite stepped from the ocean, flowers grew wherever her feet touched. Paphos, the place where Aphrodite supposedly rose from the waters, was her most important place of worship, and at Corinth she was worshipped with sacred whores. Aphrodite is clearly related to Ishtar and Astarte and very much loves the company of the male gods. While married to Hephaestus, she also dallied with Ares, Poseidon, Adonis, and Dionysius. Aphrodite is a complex, many faceted deity. Among her many names are Melaina (the Black One), Androphonos (Killer of Men), Epitymbidia (She Upon the Graves), Anadyomene (Rising from the Sea), Urania (Sky Borne), and Pandemos (Goddess of All the People).

APOLLO God of light, god of prophecy and music, god of medicine, god of flocks and herds, the divine archer, a pastoral god. Wise, beauteous, all-knowing, ever just, ever young. Apollo urges forgiveness to all offenses, even the blackest of crimes, so long as the offender was truly penitent. After Zeus and Athene, the greatest of the Gods. Apollo's most important place of worship was the famous temple at Delphi, where oracles prophesied in his name. The Sybil at Cumae in southern Italy also foretold the future in his honor. Paintings and statuary show him with his bow and lyre, which were a gift from the infant Hermes. Apollo loved young men and young women alike, though his affairs usually ended unhappily. Artemis is his twin sister, and Horus is his counterpart in the Egyptian pantheon.

ARES; to the Romans, MARS God of war. The Greeks detested Ares. Quarrelsome, spiteful, unfaithful, Ares loves only hatred, strife and bloodshed. Ares was the first god to be placed on trial for murder, and the place in Athens where he was supposed to be have been tried was called the Aeropagus, the Hill of Ares. By custom trials for murder were held at the Aeropagus. The Romans believed Ares to be the father of Romulus and Remus

ARTEMIS Also PARTHENOS Fertility goddess, patron of maidens, goddess of childbirth. Identified with the moon, as her brother Apollo is identified with the sun. The Virgin Huntress, Mistress of Beasts, Lady of All Wild Things, A Lion unto Women. Usually benevolent, but stern and demanding, dangerous to cross. Artemis lived in Arcadia with a band of nymphs subject to her strict discipline; those who dallied with men, as did Callisto, might be shot down with an arrow or otherwise punished. No man or god ever gained the love of Artemis. Artemis is virtually unbeatable in combat. The only one of the immortals who ever bested her was Hera, who defeated Artemis on the battlefield at Troy, whipped her with her own bow, and sent her fleeing in tears.

ASCLEPIUS God of medicine and healing, son of Apollo. Originally a mortal. So great was Asclepius' skill that he could revive the dead. Zeus killed Asclepius after Hades complained that he was being cheated of his lawful due, but Asclepius' virtues and good deeds won him a place among the gods. Those who wished a cure of Asclepius would sleep in his temple, where he would appear to them in a dream and advise them. Snakes are his symbol and were allowed to wander freely in his temple at Epidaurus.

ATHENE; to the Romans, MINERVA Goddess of wisdom, of architects and sculptors, of weavers, of oxen and horses. A goddess of war. Like Artemis, an eternal virgin. Often associated with birds, particularly the owl. Athene taught men to tame horses and invented the potter's wheel. Her city is Athens, which she won in a contest with Poseidon.

CHARON The ferryman who carries dead souls across the river Styx to Hades. His fee is one obol, which was placed in the mouth of the dead man before he was buried.

CRONUS The chief of the Titans, the race of giants who preceded the Olympian gods. In very ancient times, Cronus was probably a corn god. Told that he would be overthrown by one of his own sons, Cronus devoured them all as they were born until his wife Rhea deceived him to save Zeus. Wrapping a stone in swaddling clothes, Rhea gave the stone to Cronus and spirited Zeus away to a hiding place. After defeating Cronus, Zeus imprisoned him and the rest of the Titans, thus beginning the age of the Olympian gods.

DEMETER; to the Romans, CERES Goddess of grain and the fruitful earth. An earth mother who was certainly one of, if not the oldest of the gods. Demeter's immensely popular festivals, held twice a year at Eleusis, were so highly revered that no initiate was ever known to break the vow of secrecy. Demeter gave the gift of grain to men and instituted the Eleusinian Mysteries. The nature of these Mysteries has been lost to us, though we know that the mystery cults celebrated the Lesser Mysteries in February of every year and the Greater Mysteries in September of every fifth year. Most likely the rites included processions, ritual cleansing and religious dramas.

DIONYSIUS God of religious ecstasy and wine, accompanied always by satyrs and nymphs. The force of life in all growing things. Dionysius is the Greek form of Thracian and Phrygian deities of vegetation and fetility, who followers worked themselves into a frenzy and ritually tore apart their god in the form of a goat, a bull or a man. The cult survived the introduction of the Olympian gods and proved so popular that it finally had to be accepted by the Dorian Greeks. In the dark age which followed the decline of the Myceneans, the cult of Dionysius spread rapidly, especially among women. His followers were known as maenads (mad women) and it was best not to be near when their frenzy came upon them. Animals, and sometimes people, were torn apart and sometimes eaten in the belief that they were devouring the god himself. Drunk, lawless and noisy, not terribly impressed by authority or convention, the followers of Dionysius were often unwelcome. His worshippers danced wildly, and his rites were designed to cleanse men of lowly irrational emotions and desires.

ERIS The dark sister of Eros. Goddess of chaos and discord, Eris loves confusion and conflict. It was Eris who gave the goddesses the golden apple inscribed "To the Fairest," which set in motion the chain of events that led to the Trojan War.

EROS God of love both heterosexual and homosexual, though his domain is not limited solely to sexual love and includes love in all its broadest senses. One of the oldest of the gods, the center of his worship was at Thespiae. The ancient Greeks feared Eros. Eros can cause havoc, and there is an air of maliciousness about him. Eros can drive men and women to noble self-sacrfice, but he can also torture them to madness and drive them to self-destruction. Lacking wisdom, moderns have made Eros contemptibly cute and sweet, and somewhat prankish.

GAIA "Mother of all things." The Earth itself, mother of the Titans, the old gods. Usually represented as a giant woman. Before anything else existed, there was only Chaos (the Void, the Nothingness, the Emptiness) and the Earth. Gaia nurses the ill and watches over marriages. Gaia is an oracle as well, and the temple at Delphi was hers before it was Apollo's. The Greeks had no tales about Gaia, because she belonged to the distant past.

HADES Also PLUTO "The Unseen," "the Rich." God of wealth and the underworld. Hades is stern but perfectly just, and rejects all pleas for mercy, but he is in no sense evil or destructive. His realm is not a place of flames and torment, as is the Christian hell. Most dead souls dwell on the plain of Asphodel, where they wander aimlessly as mere shadows of their earthly selves. The blessed go to the Elysian Fields, a place of great joy and beauty, while the abominably wicked go to the dismal plain of Tartarus. You're born, you live, you die, you go to Hades. End of story.

HEBE Goddess of youth and beauty. An eternally young girl, Hebe helps the gods wash and dress themselves, though her main duty is to serve nectar and ambrosia at their feasts. A minor but charming deity.

HECATE Goddess of black magic and evil ghosts. Often portrayed with three faces: maiden, mother and crone. The poor and down trodden often turned to Hecate for protection or vengance. Hecate defends children and appears with her dogs at crossroads and tombs.

HELIOS God of the sun, the charioteer who drives the sun across the sky. From his great height, Helios sees everything and was often called upon to witness contracts and oaths. From the fifth century onward, Helios was considered identical with Apollo.

HEPHAESTUS; to the Romans, VULCAN The lame blacksmith god, patron of craftsman and metalworkers, god of fire. The centers of his cult could be found wherever metalworkers congregated and near volcanos. Hephaestus was so ugly that his mother Hera kept him out of sight, and the other gods laughed at his lame gait. In revenge, Hephaestus tricked the gods into giving him Aphrodite for his wife, though he never succeeded in keeping her faithful. Some scholars say Hephaestus' lameness was a reflection of an actual practice. A skillful smith was a rare and valuable man, and tribes or villages would often cripple a good smith to keep him from leaving or running away.

HERA; to the Romans, JUNO. Wife of Zeus, queen of the gods. Zeus is quite a randy god, and Hera's domestic life with him is always stormy. Zeus and Hera were on opposite sides during the Trojan War, and they squabble all the way through the Iliad. At first a sky goddess, Hera later became the embodiment of womanliness. Like Dionysius, Hera is a pre-Olympian deity whose cult was so strong that it had to be adopted by the Dorian Greeks. Hera was worshipped in high places, and her temples were built on mountain peaks. Her festival, held at Argos and called the Heraia, involved athletic contests.

(Continued in Part 3)

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