The supernatural powers possessed by the divinities of myth fall into a wide range of categories. Creator deities, for example, are the shapers of the cosmos while rain or fertility gods are invested with the power to nurture life in the world. In some myth traditions various tutelary gods oversee domestic or business affairs, and many cultural traditions feature a war god, a fire deity, or a lord of the underworld. Additionally, the figures of the dying god, the divine child, or the deity as culture hero frequently recur. Although both goddesses and gods number among the creators, the personal guardians, the fertility deities, the culture heroes, and the underworld rulers of the world’s myth traditions, some divine functions are served primarily by male deities. For example, the trickster, the thunder god, and the blacksmith god are all almost universally represented as male, and many more gods than goddesses personify the sky and the sun. Furthermore, the supreme being or ruler of the gods—who is often a sun or a sky god—is most commonly a male deity.
The creator gods of myth bring the universe into being in a variety of ways. When Bumba, the creator deity among Africa’s Boshongo people, feels pains in his stomach, he produces the sun and the moon and then the plants and the animals by vomiting them up. Baiame, the creator in the myths of Australia’s Wiradyuri people, first creates himself and then the rest of the cosmos, and Nareau, a Melanesian creator god, shapes the heavens and the earth from a mussel shell. According to the Bena Lulua people of Zaire, the sun is produced from the right cheek of the creator Fidi Mukullu, and the moon comes from the left cheek of the god. In one version of the creation myths told by the Dogon people of Mali, the creator Amma is the artisan who crafts the sun and the moon on his potter’s wheel. Kun-tu-bzan-po, the creator in Tibet’s Bon tradition, forms the world from a ball of mud and creates the cosmic egg from which all living beings then come forth. In the accounts of the Bambuti people of the Congo, the creator Arebati molds the first man from clay, covers his creation with a skin, and then pours blood into the form he has shaped, and Imra, creator among the Kati people, churns people into being within the udder of a golden goat. Quat, another Melanesian creator god, decides to make stones, trees, pigs, and human beings simply because he grows bored with the emptiness around him.
In many myth traditions the creator deities are remote figures. Baiame, for example, is said to be an invisible god who dwells high in the heavens and whose presence can only be recognized in the sound of thunder. Cghene, the creator deity of Nigeria’s Isoko people, is an even more remote being, one who is accessible only through the mediation of a pole carved from a tree. In some cultures the ancient creator deities seem to have grown distant because they have been superseded or in fact usurped by other gods, or because they have passed the responsibility for completing the creation to a younger generation. Moreover, in the myths of certain traditions, the creator simply disappears when his work is finished. After Nareau shapes earth and heaven from a mussel shell, he is killed by his son, Nareau the Younger, who makes the sun and moon from his father’s eyes and then uses his father’s spine to create the tree of life that gives birth to human beings. Ometeotl, the Aztec creator god who dwells in the highest reaches of heaven, remains aloof from the process of creating the world and its people, for that task is undertaken by Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, and Ometeotl’s other offspring. The Native American tradition of the Iroquois offers an example of the creator who disappears in its tale of Good Twin—who vanishes after making people, the last of his creations.
With such notable exceptions as Odin, Zeus, and Marduk, gods from the Norse, Greek, and Babylonian traditions, the supreme deities of myth often resemble the numerous ancient creator gods who are depicted as remote and sometimes inaccessible figures. Indeed, in many cultures the ancient creator, the father of the cosmos, is also recognized as the supreme being. Like Odin, Zeus, and Marduk, the supreme deity is generally regarded as the king of the gods and is most commonly a celestial figure, a sky god or a sun god; in some instances, as in that of Ngai, chief god of East Africa’s Masai people, the supreme being is the provider of rain. As the progenitor of living beings or the ruler of the pantheon, the supreme deity is invested with paternal authority, and thus “father” is the epithet that is frequently assigned to this figure. While characteristics of the natures and personalities of such gods as Zeus or Odin emerge in the many myths that recount their exploits, some other gods are more abstractly conceived and do not necessarily play a role in a culture’s storytelling. Kitanitowit, the invisible supreme deity of North America’s Algonquian peoples, is represented as an all-embracing circle, and Watauinewa, the supreme lord among the Yamana people of Tierra del Fuego, is not portrayed in the people’s myths. Among Australia’s Kulin people, it is customary to use the epithet “father” rather than to speak the name of Bunjil, the supreme creator.
Just as the earth is most frequently personified in the form of a goddess throughout myth tradition, the sky is generally represented as a male deity. Geb, the Egyptian earth god, is a well-known exception to the pattern, and his consort, Nut, is one of a few goddesses who rule the sky. While other celestial deities indeed include many of the primal creators and supreme gods, the recurring pattern of sky father and earth mother is a widespread one. In Greek tradition Uranos, the original sky god and consort of the earth goddess Gaia, is succeeded first by Kronos and then later by Zeus as each of these sons in turn usurps his father’s authority. Dyaus, India’s ancient sky god, is mated with Prthivi, the embodiment of mother earth, and in the myths of the Maori people, the sky father Rangi and the earth mother Papa are the primal parents at the beginning of creation. Among West Africa’s Krachi people, the sky god Wulbari at first dwells just above Asase Ya, the earth mother who is his consort, but eventually he retreats high into the heavens, leaving earthly beings space to move about more freely. Indeed, most of the myths that feature a sky father and earth mother describe their necessary separation: for example, Greek tradition includes an account of Uranos’ separation from Gaia, and the Maori creation story recounts the efforts made by their sons to move Rangi and Papa apart from one another.
Deities associated with the sun and the moon commonly appear within myth traditions, and, while the sun is frequently represented by a god and the moon by a goddess, many exceptions to this pattern also occur. The ibis-headed Thoth, for example, is the Egyptian lord of the moon, and in myths from ancient Phrygia, Syria, and India, the gods Men, Aglibol, and Candra are all moon deities. Like the moon gods, sun gods can include those divinities that personify the sun as well as those who oversee, rule, or represent the life-giving powers of the celestial orb. Inti, the Incan deity who embodies the sun, is described as crossing the heavens each day and then diving into the primal waters that lie beneath the earth before once again emerging in the eastern sky. Among the ancient Incas, the sacred emblem of Inti takes the form of the Punchao, a golden human face surrounded by shining solar rays. In many cultural traditions the sun and moon deities bear a close relationship to one another; in Incan myths, for example, Inti’s consort is the moon goddess, Mama Kilya. Apollo and Artemis, the sun god and moon goddess of many myths from Greece, are twin deities, and Malakbel, the ancient Syrian sun god, is frequently depicted as accompanied by Aglibol, the god of the moon.
Like Inti, who is said to be the direct ancestor of the Incan people’s rulers, the Egyptian sun god Ra is an especially important deity; indeed, not only is the pharaoh regarded as the son of Ra, but he is also considered to be the living incarnation of the sun god. In other words, the kings of the ancient Incan and Egyptian peoples possess an authority vested them through their identification with the sun deity who keeps his watchful eye on the earth as he travels daily through the sky. Whereas Ra crosses through the heavens riding in his barque, Helios and Surya, the all-seeing sun gods of Greek and Indian myths, both drive chariots through the sky. Marduk, another powerful sun god, rises to supremacy in the Babylonian pantheon after defeating the primordial goddess Tiamat, the embodiment of chaos. As the god of order and light, Marduk, the “bull calf of the sun,” completes the creation of the world by constructing the heavens and the earth from the remains of Tiamat’s dismembered corpse. Another watchful sun god, Marduk is represented as a double god, one whose powers are strengthened through his possession of four eyes and four ears.
In addition to the sky and sun gods, other celestial deities include myth’s many weather gods, the deities associated with rain, wind, or storms, or specifically with lightning or with thunder. In some traditions weather gods oversee multiple related functions: rain gods, for example, are sometimes also regarded as fertility gods, and thunder gods are often recognized and honored as the bringers of rain. Moreover, storm gods—particularly those deities who command the tremendous powers of lightning and thunder—are sometimes also war gods whose mighty thunderbolts are their weapons in battle. The sky god Zeus, for example, is not only the supreme deity within the Greek pantheon, but he is also the thunder god as well as the provider of rain. In Indian tradition, the sky god Indra is also a weather god and, as the wielder of thunderbolts, the god of war. Thor, the thunder god of Norse tradition, is both a god of war and a fertility deity who provides life-sustaining rain, and Enlil, the Mesopotamian god of air, wind, and storms, is a war god too. Although weather gods serve humankind when they cause the crops to grow, in some accounts they are also the agents of destruction, for both Enlil and Zeus use their powers to command the rainfall to completely flood the earth.
Whereas gods who rule the winds are particularly important to sea-faring peoples (the Greek god Aiolos gives Odysseus a bag of winds to assist him in his voyage homeward), rain gods play an especially significant role in the traditions of such agricultural societies as those of the Aztecs and the Mayans. In Aztec myths, Tlaloc, the jaguar-toothed god of lightning and rain, rules the third world until Quetzalcoatl destroys it in a rain of fire. As the provider of rain, Tlaloc produces the gentle showers for planting, the heavy, crop-nourishing rainfall, and sometimes the destructive hail. According to tradition, the tears shed by infants sacrificed to Tlaloc are symbolic of his gift of rain. Interestingly, the rain god assumes an unusual position within the Aztec conception of the afterlife, for, although most of the dead must make a grim journey to Mictlan, the terrifying underworld, those people who are struck by lightning or who die of drowning, leprosy, or a contagious disease are welcomed to Tlaloc’s realm, an earthly paradise filled with butterflies, flowers, and rainbows. Although there are similarities between accounts of Tlaloc and Chac, the Mayan god of rain and fertility, Chac is conceived as an unambiguously benevolent deity who spouts forth the life-sustaining rain through his elongated nose.
While certain weather deities assume the role of fertility god, others father offspring whose task it is to oversee the earth’s fecundity. One such example is that of Njord, the Norse god of wind, sea, and fire whose children Freyr and Freyja are the god and goddess of fertility. Another instance is that of Teshub, the ancient Hittite storm god whose son is Telepinu, the vegetation deity whose disappearance causes the earth to become a barren realm until the fertility god can be found and restored to his duties. The figure of the disappearing god is related to that of another fertility deity, the dying god whose death and resurrection symbolize the annual agricultural cycle of harvesting and replanting. In the story of Osiris, Egypt’s dying god, the resurrection of the vegetation deity signifies not only a renewal of the earth’s fertility, but also the promise of an afterlife for ancient Egypt’s people. Like the human sacrifices offered to the rain god Tlaloc, the dying god—who is often the consort of the earth mother—represents a sacrifice offered to the earth. Dionysos, the god of fertility and wine, is a dying god in the Greek tradition, and Tammuz, vegetation deity and consort of the goddess Inanna, is the sacrificial victim in Mesopotamian myths.
Among yet other ancient cultures, the fertility god is associated with a particular staple food. Egres, for example, is the vegetation deity who provides turnips for the Finnish people, and Cinteotl and Yum Kaax, the Aztec and Mayan gods of maize, are the deified embodiments of Mesoamerica’s most significant crop. In several traditions other nature deities preside over hunting, agriculture, or specific forms of plant or animal life. In Finnish tradition, the forest god Tapio is the patron of the hunt while Hittavainen is the deity who particularly oversees the hunting of hares. In ancient Siberia, the animal master Hinkon is also the god of the hunt—and thus serves the welfare of both animals and people. Silvanus, the Roman deity of forests and fields, is a god of agriculture, and Faunus, another Roman nature god, is the protector of animal herds. In Greek tradition, Pan, the god of meadows, woodlands, pastures, and fields, is both a vegetation deity and the god of flocks and herds, and Dionysos, the dying fertility god, is also the divinity especially associated with the grape-vine and the wine made from its fruit. Another deity of plant life, Abellio, an ancient Gallic tree god, is specifically regarded as the lord of apple trees.
Not only do myth’s gods oversee forests and cultivated lands, they also rule mountains, rivers, and oceans. Tork, an ancient Armenian mountain god, protects mountain animals, and Baal-Karmelos, a Canaanite mountain deity, is revered as the oracle of Mount Carmel. In Indian tradition, Himavat is the god of the mighty Himalayan peaks and the father of Ganga, goddess of the Ganges River. Egypt’s most important river, the Nile, is ruled by the benevolent god Hapi, and Sebek, another Egyptian water deity, assumes the form of the fearsome crocodile to rule the streams and lakes. In the myths from China, the monster god Gong Gong commands the subterranean rivers while the divine He Bo rules those that flow on the surface of the earth. Rome’s Tiber River bears the name of its presiding deity, the river god Tiberinus, and Asopos, a river god in Greek tradition, is, appropriately, the son of Poseidon, the ruler of the sea. Although Poseidon, the “earth-shaker” who is the deity of earthquakes as well, is the most important of the numerous sea gods of Greece, Glaukos, Nereus, Okeanos, Phorkys, Pontos, Proteus, and Triton also number among the ocean deities of that sea-faring people. The sea gods Glaukos and Proteus are known for their gifts of prophecy, Proteus and Nereus are famous as shape-shifters, and Triton, a gigantic deity, is one of myth tradition’s several fish-tailed sea gods.
Sea gods are also especially important to the inhabitants of islands, and in Irish tradition, Manannan, the ocean deity who is the son of another Celtic sea god, Lir, is seen as the guardian of the islands that are encircled and protected by his watery domain. Furthermore, Manannan is also regarded as the ruler of the otherworld, the land that some myths describe as a realm of blessed isles. Watatsumi-no-kami, another sea god of an island people, offers hospitality at his palace in the waters that surround Japan, and Ebisu, one of the seven Japanese gods of good fortune known as the Shichi Fukujin, serves as the patron deity of fishermen as he journeys in his treasure ship. Makemake, the chief deity on Easter Island, is a sea god who is credited with creating the first human beings. Makemake is also regarded as the source of all fertility, and, indeed, the god of the sea often represents the great bounty of the ocean—Olokun and Njord, the sea deities of the Yoruba and the Norse traditions, are also venerated as the gods of wealth.
The presence of blacksmith gods in many cultural traditions signifies the importance of metalworking within people’s lives. In Finnish tradition, the weather god Ilmarinen is also the smith who forges the heavens and its stars and then brings knowledge of metallurgy to the world’s people. Indeed, in teaching human beings to make use of iron, Ilmarinen also assumes the status of a great culture hero. Perkons, the Latvian god of thunder, rain, and fertility, is another weather god who is also a celestial smith, and Teljavelik, the Lithuanian god of smithery, is credited with creating the sun. Goibhniu and Gu, the divine smiths of the Celtic and of the African Fon peoples, are both culture heroes who teach human beings to make tools of iron. In some myth traditions, including those of the Greeks, Romans, and Slavs, the blacksmith deity is also regarded as the god of fire. Deities who are particularly associated with volcanic fire, Hephaistos and Vulcan, the Greek and Roman blacksmith gods, toil in smithies deep within the earth—according to Roman accounts, Vulcan’s underworld forge lies beneath Sicily’s fiery Mount Aetna. Svarog, the divine smith of the ancient Slavs, is also both a sky god and the god of fire.
Although it is often a culture hero, and frequently a trickster, who commonly provides human beings with the gift of fire, many cultures associate the awesome power of fire with a deity. In ancient China, the fire god Zhu Rong (or Li) becomes ruler of the universe when he defeats Gong Gong, the malicious water god. Agni, the fire god of India, oversees sacrificial offerings and purifies the dead when their bodies are burned. In performing these offices, Agni serves as a mediator between the realms of earth and heaven. Similarly, the Aztec fire god, Xiuhtecuhtli, links underworld, earth, and sky as he manifests himself in the subterranean flames of Mictlan, in the fires that flicker on earthly beings’ hearths, and in the fiery Pole Star that burns high up in the heavens; as a psychopompos, a guide of the dead, the Aztec fire god lends help to the spirits that must be absorbed into the earth. Atar, the fire god of ancient Persia, serves his father, the creator Ahura Mazda, as a warrior who represents goodness and light in the cosmic battle with darkness and evil. Other deities who combat the wicked spells of demons include Nusku and Gibil, the father and son who are the ancient Mesopotamian gods of fire and light.
Myth’s gods of death are sometimes also war gods, as in the examples of Black Tezcatlipoca, the powerful Aztec deity whose name means “Lord of the Smoking Mirror,” or the Norse god Odin, ruler of the gods and leader of the dead heroes who gather in Valhalla, the “Hall of the Slain.” Other deities of death preside over the underworld, the traditional land of the dead. For instance, Sulmanu, the Assyrian god of war and death, is also ruler of the underworld. In Greek tradition, Hades is named the king of the underworld when Zeus becomes the god of the sky and Poseidon the ruler of the sea. Because his underground realm contains precious metals, occasionally Hades is also known as Pluto, the deity of wealth. The underworld gods of many traditions are fearsome deities: Mictlantecuhtli, ruler of the Aztecs’ land of the dead, is represented as a skeleton, and One Death and Seven Death, the chief lords of the Mayan underworld, are the malevolent and cunning foes of the Hero Twins who come to play ball with them in the depths of Xibalba. Yama, the lord of the underworld in Hindu tradition, carries a noose that he uses to wrench souls from the bodies of the dead.
Among other deities of death are the ferrymen of the underworld and the gods that sit in judgment on the souls of the dead. In the Egyptian underworld, where Osiris rules the dead, Cherti is the ferryman who transports the souls, and the jackal-headed god, Anubis, then weighs them on a scale. In Hades’ kingdom, Charon ferries the souls whose fates are decided by Rhadamanthys or the other judges within the Greeks’ underworld. In the epic Gilgamesh, Urshanabi is the ferryman who carries the hero across the Waters of Death, and in Mesopotamian accounts of Inanna’s descent to the underworld, the seven judges who preside there refuse to let the goddess leave until she agrees to send a substitute to the realm of the dead. Yama, the king of the underworld, is also the judge of the dead in the myths of India, and in Japanese tradition, Emma-o, the judge and ruler of the underworld, perceives the misdeeds of the dead reflected in his enormous mirror. Another frightening deity, Emma-o carries a flag that bears the image of a human head.
Although thunder gods or gods of death are sometimes gods of war, these deities are by no means myth’s only representatives of the martial arts. Indeed, in some cultural traditions—particularly those of the warrior societies—multiple significant war gods frequently emerge. Ares, one of several war gods from the Greek tradition, is the father of the queen of the Amazons, a tribe of fierce women warriors, and Mars, the war god of the Romans, is the father of Romulus, the founder of Rome. In the myths of the Norse, another warrior people, the one-handed deity Tyr is honored along with Odin as a battle god. Together, Odin and Tyr choose from among the fallen heroes those who are worthy of admittance to Valhalla. According to tradition, Tyr loses one of his hands to the monstrous wolf Fenrir, enemy of the gods. The animal double of Huitzilopochtli, another Aztec war god, is the hummingbird, a symbol of the sun and a creature that is said to represent the spirit of a warrior. While most war deities are depicted as ferocious figures, Guan Di, ancient China’s warrior god, is an unusual exception: a patron of the arts and trades, Guan Di is a reluctant war god whose greatest satisfaction comes during times of peace. The war gods of myth greatly outnumber those deities—most often goddesses—who protect the peace, but in the Polynesian cultures, Rongo is revered as the god of peace.
Just as such war gods as Odin, Tyr, or Guan Di are regarded as heroic figures, so too are the divine monster-slayers and culture heroes of myth tradition. Although many of myth’s heroes are mortal beings, others are either deities or demi-gods. In Greek tradition, for example, Prometheus, the Titan who endures cruel punishment for his great service to the human race, is an immortal deity, and the mighty monster-slayer, Herakles, is a semi-divine hero whose strength and courage are eventually rewarded with Zeus’s gift of immortality. In a number of traditions, the hero-god is represented as puer aeternus, the divine child whose miraculous conception or birth presages his heroic deeds. Horus, the divine child who relentlessly battles to reclaim Egypt’s throne from the usurper, Set, is miraculously conceived when Isis temporarily restores her murdered husband Osiris to life, and Kutoyis, a hero-god of North America’s Blackfoot people, is wondrously born from the blood-clot of a dying buffalo. According to Indian tradition, Gautama, the great spiritual hero who in time becomes the Buddha, is miraculously conceived when a majestic white elephant enters his mother’s womb.
Many of myth’s trickster gods are also culture heroes. Maui, the Polynesian trickster-hero, provides fire for human beings and uses his fishing hook to raise islands for people to inhabit. A helpful figure in other ways, he also slows the passage of the sun as it moves across the sky and uses a poker to lift the heavens high above the earth. The trickster, however, is an unpredictable deity whose antics can sometimes create trouble for people. Although the Micronesian trickster Olofat is another culture hero who gives the gift of fire, he also causes problems when he provides the shark with its sharp teeth. Moreover, Olofat instigates a war among the gods that resembles the trouble caused by Loki, the Germanic trickster who brings about the final battle between the giants and the gods in the Norse tradition. Both hero and troublemaker, the trickster is also a messenger god in the myths of several cultures. Eshu and Legba, trickster deities from West African traditions, relay messages between earth and heaven, and Hermes, the trickster god of ancient Greece, is both the messenger of the gods and the psychopompos, the guide of the dead.
The deities of myth include numerous tutelary gods who oversee the welfare of animals or human beings. Keyeme, an important divinity among South America’s Taulipang people, is an example of the animal master, the protector of wild creatures. Tutelary gods who preside over the affairs of human beings protect domestic life as well as the interests of the community or state. Although it is most commonly a goddess who oversees childbirth, Sabazios is the ancient Phrygian god of midwifery, and, in Japanese tradition, the god Jizo protects pregnant women. Examples of deities who guard the hearth and home include Nang Lha, the Tibetan house-god, and Zao Jun, the kitchen-god of China. Grannus is the god of healing in myths from ancient Gaul, and, while Hymen presides over marriage rites in the Greek tradition, Eros is the god of love. The Chinese god of luck, Fu Shen, is one of the many deities who oversee good fortune and prosperity, and the Mayan god Ekchuah serves as an example of those who govern commerce. Local divinities are often the protectors or patron gods of particular towns or cities, and, in the myths of Mesopotamia, the powerful deity Marduk is represented as the tutelary god of the ancient Babylonian Empire.
Gods who are the patrons of the crafts and arts or other cultural achievements belong to yet another category of myth’s divinities. Like the blacksmith gods, deities associated with handicrafts are significant figures in many ancient cultures. In Hindu tradition, Tvashtar, the patron god of craftsmen, fashions the thunderbolt carried by the war god Indra and shapes the soma cup that holds the nectar of the gods. Among the patrons of the arts are deities associated with literature, poetry, music, and dance. Wen-Chang is China’s god of literature and Bragi is the god of poetry in the Norse tradition. Both Apollo and Orpheus serve as gods of music in myths from ancient Greece, and, in Egyptian tradition, Ihi is the master of the sistrum, a musical instrument used to dispel the power of evil forces. Among the peoples of ancient Syria, Baal-Marqod is both a god of healing and the lord of the dance. In addition to those deities that represent aesthetic achievement are those that serve as the patrons of justice or knowledge. Forseti is the god of justice and law in the Norse tradition, and, in Irish myths, Dagda is the deity who presides over contracts and pledges. The Japanese god Fudo Myoo and the Armenian deity Tir are both revered as divinities of wisdom and knowledge.

GODDESSES
The earliest images of a goddess-like figure appear in human culture in the form of cave paintings, rock carvings, and small statues that date from Upper Paleolithic times, the period between 30,000 and 7,000 B.C.E. Although the artifacts are the products of preliterate peoples, many of their features suggest connections to the representation of the goddess in the most ancient of myths as the earth mother or the embodiment of the natural world itself—and thus the source of life. That the paintings and figurines, which depict pregnant women or emphasize female breasts and genitalia, possess ritual significance is indicated in a variety of ways. For example, unlike contemporaneous images of animals, the female figures are rendered in a stylized rather than a naturalistic manner; indeed, in obviously focusing on the reproductive function of the female body, the images draw attention to the goddess’s roles as giver of birth and nurturer of life. Furthermore, many of the artifacts are inscribed with symbolic markings—chevrons, horns, crescent moons, or notches that signify the thirteen lunar months—and some are colored with red ochre to suggest a connection to menstrual cycles or life-sustaining blood. Use of the figurines as ritual objects is further suggested by the fact that many are pointed at the base and could therefore be fixed in the ground to stand upright.
Although scholars can only hypothesize about the significance of ritual objects that date from the Stone Ages, many speculate that they represent early peoples’ conception of a “great goddess” who is venerated as the personification of the mysteries of birth, life, and death. Interestingly, this supposition is supported by ancient myths in which the goddess is the primal being, the original creator, the source of all fecundity, or the deity of death and regeneration. With the emergence of patriarchal cultures, the goddess as earth mother and her consort, often the sky father, give birth to the pantheons of many cultural traditions. Within these families of deities, a plethora of fertility goddesses, especially divinities who represent the corn or the crops, appear to be vestiges of the prehistoric goddess. Characteristics of the great goddess also appear in myth’s goddesses of death, destruction, or war and in the many goddesses who rule or personify the moon, whose waxing and waning are traditionally linked to agricultural cycles. Other important deities include goddesses of love or peace, divinities that oversee the unfolding of fate, and tutelary figures, including numerous goddesses who protect children and watch over pregnant women.
In the tradition of the Pelasgians, ancient inhabitants of Greece, the divine creator is the goddess Eurynome, the first being to emerge from chaos. Eurynome lifts the sky above the sea and begins the process of creation by dancing on the primal waters. With her dancing she creates a wind that she uses to give form to her consort, the great serpent Ophion. After mating with Ophion, the goddess assumes the form of a dove and lays the cosmic egg that hatches to produce the sun, moon, stars, and earth. When Ophion threatens to usurp her power, the creator goddess banishes him to the dark depths of the earth and then completes the process of creation by making human beings to live in her world. Whereas Eurynome is the mother goddess who dances creation into being, Thinking Woman, the original being and creator goddess among North America’s Pueblo peoples, gives shape to the cosmos when she sings the world and all it contains into existence. Yet another primal goddess, Coadidop, begins the process of creation by smoking the first male being into existence. The creator deity of South America’s Tariana people, Coadidop draws tobacco from her body to fashion a cigar whose smoke turns into the body of Enu. Coadidop’s creation is completed when she makes the earth from the milk of her breasts, creates two female beings to live in the world, and commands Enu to make additional male beings. According to the Tariana, these female and male beings are the ancestors of their people.
Other creator goddesses include Bulaing, the celestial deity of Australia’s Karadjeri people and Laima, the Latvian goddess who is also the tutelary divinity who oversees people’s births, marriages, and deaths. In some versions of China’s creation myth, Nu Gua is the creator goddess who shapes human beings out of yellow clay. Like Laima, Nu Gua protects the people who are her creations, for it is she who saves the world from flood and fire when the water monster Gong Gong knocks down the pillars that hold the sky above the earth. In many myths of the Fon people of West Africa, the moon goddess Mawu creates the earth, sun, and all living beings while riding on the rainbow serpent. In other accounts, however, the creator is the dual deity Mawu-Lisa, the female moon divinity conjoined with the male sun god, Lisa. Indeed, androgynous creators are not unusual and can be found in various myth traditions. Awonawilona, the androgynous primal deity of North America’s Zuni people, creates the earth mother and sky father who produce all living things, and, among the Aztecs, the original god and goddess Tonacatecuhtli and Tonacacihuatl are together regarded as Ometeotl, the dual creator deity.
With some exceptions, the deities of myth who represent the earth are characteristically goddesses. In Greek tradition, Gaea is the embodiment of the earth itself and Demeter is the earth goddess who oversees its fertility. Indeed, many earth goddesses are, like Demeter, also fertility deities, or, like Gaea, they are also earth mothers. The Celtic-Irish goddess Ana, for example, is an earth and fertility deity as well as the mother of the gods. In many myth traditions, creation arises from the union of an earth goddess and a sky god. According to the myths of the Jacarilla people of the North American Southwest, the primal deities Earth Mother and Black Sky give birth to the progenitors of human beings deep within the womb of the earth—and in their emergence myths, the Jacarilla describe how the people eventually leave the earth’s womb by ascending to the surface of the earth. In Japanese tradition, the union of the earth mother Izanami and the sky father Izanagi produces the islands of Japan as well as several deities. Izanami dies, however, while giving birth to the god of fire, and she then enters the underworld and becomes its ruler.
The mother goddesses of myth include not only earth deities, but also numerous instances of the fertility goddess who is known both as the “great mother” and the “great goddess.” In the Middle East, the several names of this figure include those of Inanna, the Sumerian “Queen of the Heavens” and goddess of fecundity; Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of fertility and the morning star; Astarte, the Syrian fertility and moon goddess; and Ashera, the Canaanite fertility and love goddess who is the mother of the gods. Isis, yet another deity who is related to these figures, is the Egyptian goddess of heaven, earth, and the underworld. In Anatolian tradition, the mother of the gods is Cybele, the great goddess who oversees the world’s fertility from her throne on the peak of Mount Ida, and in myths from India the figure of the mother goddess is represented by several deities. Among the Dravidian Telugu people, the primordial goddess Ammavaru exists before the creation of the world, and it is she who lays the cosmic egg from which the creator god emerges. Aditi, another primordial Indian goddess, is the embodiment of infinity and the source of all existence. Mother of the sun gods known as the Adityas, by some accounts she is also the mother of Agni, fire god and mediator between the heavens and the earth. Other manifestations of the goddess are aspects of Devi (“goddess”), and Devi-Shakti personifies all female creative powers.
Because the great mother goddess commonly oversees the entire cycle of existence, that of birth, death, and regeneration, she is sometimes also known as the “triple goddess.” In Indian tradition, where Shakti represents the goddess as provider, other aspects of Devi assume the form of the destroyer. For example, in her warrior aspect, the great goddess Parvati takes the form of Durga, slayer of demons, and, as the goddess of death, she assumes the fearsome form of Kali, destroyer of life. As the destroyer goddess, Kali dances when the dead are cremated, but her dancing signifies rebirth as well as death, for in the cosmic cycle, from the act of destruction comes the renewal of creation. The goddess of the underworld and its promise of resurrection, Isis, too, is linked with death, and one of the goddess Cybele’s roles is guardian of the dead. Like Kali and Eurynome, Oya, the mother goddess of Africa’s Yoruba people, is an embodiment of the dance of creation. In her benign aspect, Oya is the goddess of the dance and of fertility, but she is also the destroyer who can command the power of violent storms and control the spirits of the dead.
Although the sun deities of myth are usually gods—and most of the great mother goddesses are associated with the moon—a sun goddess does appear in some cultural traditions. Saule, for example, is the sun goddess of the Latvian and Lithuanian peoples. In Latvian tradition, the “Mother Sun” oversees the earth’s fertility from her garden high atop heaven’s mountain. Saule is the wife of the moon god, Meness, and thus she is part of a mythic pattern wherein the sun and moon are paired. In the Lithuanian accounts, where the divine blacksmith positions the sun in the sky, Saule’s role is not as fully defined; however, she too is mated to the moon god, Menulis. In ancient Celtic tradition, Sul is the sun goddess revered in southern England, and in Norse myths, the goddess Sol personifies the sun. Like many other sun deities, Sol travels across the heavens each day in her carriage drawn by horses. Among Australia’s Arunta people, the goddess Sun Woman daily crosses the sky carrying a flaming torch. When evening comes, Sun Woman joins the ancestors who dwell beneath the world, and, when it is time for her to travel through the sky again, it is they who light her torch.
Amaterasu, perhaps the best known of myth tradition’s sun goddesses, is Shintoism’s most revered deity and the ancestor of Japan’s royal family. Sister of the moon god Tsukiyomi, the ruler of the night, and Susanowo, the god of sea and storms, Amaterasu rules the Great Plain of Heaven. The bounty of the earth depends upon Amaterasu’s radiant presence, so when she is threatened by Susanowo and hides in heaven’s cave, the world becomes a dark, barren realm where demons run amok and living things begin to die. Determined to entice the sun goddess to leave her hiding place, hundreds of deities gather outside her cave with an assembly of roosters to herald her return. Uzume, the joyful goddess of the dawn, creates such hilarity with her lascivious dancing that Amaterasu, curious about the source of the laughter, is tempted to peak out at the throng. When she does so, and sees her own shining beauty reflected in the mirror provided by the gods, the world is saved from desolation and its fertility is restored.
As in the case of Eurynome, whose powers are challenged by her consort, Ophion, the story of Amaterasu offers an example of a male deity’s efforts to usurp the authority of the supreme goddess. Although neither Ophion nor Susanowo is successful, in the myths of some cultural traditions the usurping god overthrows the goddess. In Babylonian accounts, for example, the sun god Marduk becomes ruler of the cosmos when he defeats and dismembers Tiamat, the primordial, universal mother goddess. Although the myth represents the shift in power as a movement from chaos to order, to scholars it reveals the emergence of a patriarchal culture whose own construction of order supplants earlier beliefs. Interestingly, tales told by several South American peoples directly address the circumstances of similar changes in social order. In one version of several related myths, the Tupi people of Brazil describe a time when women are earth’s rulers. Desiring to find a wife who is less powerful than he, the sun decides to bring changes to the people’s culture. He therefore causes the virgin Ceucy to become impregnated by the sap of the cucara tree, and Jurupari, the son that she bears, passes sacred knowledge to men, overthrows the women’s authority, kills his own mother, and searches for an appropriate woman to wed the sun. According to the Tupi, Jurupari still searches for that woman.
Among the Inuit peoples of the Arctic regions, Sedna, the sea goddess and the mother of the animals, is the supreme divinity. Along with Sila, the god of air and weather, and Tarqeq, the moon god who oversees fertility, Sedna controls the welfare of a people who make their living by hunting. The most important of the three principal deities, Sedna, who is also known by many other names, is the animal master who provides the creatures that the people hunt. According to tradition, Sedna lives on the land until she is cast into the sea that then becomes her kingdom. Although there are several versions of this occurrence, in most accounts she is a young woman who is thrown from a boat by her parents or her father. When she attempts to save herself by clinging to the boat, her fingers are chopped off, and the fingers of the goddess then assume the forms of the seals, whales, walruses, and fish. As master of the animals, Sedna can give or withhold the ocean’s gifts. Indeed, the powerful sea goddess controls both the living and dead, for her kingdom at the bottom of the ocean is also conceived as the underworld. As it happens, in Inuit tradition the sun is also a goddess, the sister of the moon god.
Because the cycles of the moon correspond so obviously to the earth’s agricultural seasons, fertility and mother goddesses such as Inanna, Astarte, and Isis are often closely associated with that celestial orb, and another fertility deity, Tanit, is the Canaanite moon goddess. Tanit also appears in Carthage, where, as Tinnit, she is regarded as the supreme deity who reigns over heaven and bestows fertility on the earth. In southern Ghana, Nyame is the supreme deity whose female nature appears as the moon and whose male aspect takes the form of the sun. As the moon goddess, Nyame is the mother of the cosmos. Other moon goddesses are the consorts of sun gods: the Incan moon goddess, Mama Kilya, is both sister and wife of the sun god, Inti, and in the tradition of North America’s Pawnee people, the moon goddess is also married to the sun god. According to Pawnee myths, the moon gives birth to the first male human being, and the first female is born of the stars. Two lunar deities preside in ancient Syrian tradition, and thus the moon goddess Nikkal is the wife of the moon god.
In the classical myth traditions of both Greece and Rome, several different goddesses are associated with the moon. Selene, an early Greek moon goddess, is the sister of Helios, the sun deity. Like her brother, Selene drives a chariot as she travels through the sky. In time, Selene becomes closely linked to Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt and master of wild animals, and, when Artemis assumes the role of moon deity, the relationship between moon and sun indeed remains unchanged, for her twin brother Apollo takes on the role of sun god. During the Hellenistic era, the early moon goddess also becomes identified with Hekate, said to be the cousin of Artemis and Apollo. Goddess of magic, the crossroads, and the nocturnal world, Hekate is sometimes also depicted as a guardian of the underworld. As moon goddess, she represents the dark phase of the lunar cycle. Perse, the wife of Helios, and their daughter Pasiphae are two other Greek goddesses who are also associated with the moon. Like Hekate, Perse is connected with the dark moon, and Pasiphae, whose name means “all-shining,” appears to represent the bright moon. In Greek myths, Pasiphae is best known as the mother of the Minotaur. The Roman moon goddesses, Luna and Diana, bear close resemblance to Selene and Artemis; Luna, the heavenly embodiment of the moon, is characteristically represented as the full moon, and Diana, goddess of fertility, wildlife, and the hunt, is often associated with the crescent moon.
Myth tradition’s great mother goddesses and moon deities are not the only divinities who serve as emblems of fertility. In the ancient Egyptian culture, for example, Hathor, Sopdet, Bastet, and Taweret are all revered along with Isis as fertility goddesses. The sky deity Hathor, goddess of love, music, and dancing, is associated with the fecund cow, a symbol of the sky that surrounds and protects the earth; Hathor is also the “Queen of the Date Palm” and the goddess who provides nourishment for the dead. Sopdet, the embodiment of the star Sirius, signals the beginning of the fertile season when she appears on the horizon in July, the time of the annual flooding of the Nile. Bastet, goddess of cats, fertility, and love, is also associated with the moon—perhaps because the eyes of the cat resemble the changing phases of the moon. Yet another fertility deity, Taweret is the pregnant hippopotamus goddess who, as an embodiment of fecund maternity, serves as the protector of childbearing women. Anat, an important Canaanite fertility deity and thegoddess of dew, is also assimilated into Egyptian tradition, and there she takes the form of a protective warrior goddess.
In Greek and Roman myths, fertility goddesses include nature deities who oversee the earth’s fruitfulness and the production of its crops as well as the goddesses of love. Demeter, the Greek earth goddess who provides all bounty from the soil, becomes the disappearing fertility deity when she neglects her responsibilities while searching for Persephone, the beloved daughter who is abducted by Hades. According to some myths, Demeter is also the mother of Plutos, the god of wealth whose largesse represents the riches of the earth. The Roman goddess of grain, Ceres performs a service similar to that of Demeter as she presides over the planting and harvesting of crops. Like Demeter, who is the granddaughter of the earth goddess Gaea, Ceres is closely related to Tellus, the Roman goddess who personifies the earth. In Greek tradition, lesser deities called Nymphs are the fertility deities of the mountains, ponds and woodlands. The Dryads, for example, are tree Nymphs, and the Naiads are water Nymphs who live in pools and springs. As figures that embody female beauty and sexuality, the Greek and Roman love goddesses, Aphrodite and Venus, are also considered fertility deities. Originally the Italic goddess of springtime’s flowers and gardens, Venus eventually assumes Aphrodite’s attributes as deity of love. Known as the goddess of gardens in ancient Athens, Aphrodite, too, is associated with the nurturing of plants.
In Norse tradition, where the pantheon includes two groups of divinities, the Aesir are warlike sky deities while the Vanir are ancient Germanic fertility deities who govern the earth and sea. According to myth scholars, the Vanir embody the values of an early agricultural society, and the Aesir represent the emergence of a warrior culture. Together, the two divine races oppose their common enemy, the evil giants. Freyja, goddess of love, fertility, and sexuality, is the daughter of Njord, chief god of the Vanir. Traveling in a chariot drawn by cats, Freyja assists women in labor and helps protect the dead. Like some other fertility goddesses, she is also associated with wealth from the earth and possesses a fabulous necklace constructed by the dwarves who dwell underground. Rosmerta, a Gallic fertility goddess who is also a deity of wealth, is frequently depicted with a cornucopia. In Celtic-Irish tradition, the fertility goddess Brigit oversees the ritual fires of purification that signify renewal. Indeed, she also represents the process of renewal by presiding over childbirth and serving as the goddess of healing. Brigit’s festival, held when ewes begin to give forth their milk, appropriately takes place during the season of renewal.
In addition to Artemis and Diana, the Greek and Roman divinities, myth tradition offers numerous other instances of the hunter goddess. In Germanic myths, for example, Skadi, wife of Njord and mother of Freyja, is the goddess of the hunt. As tradition has it, Skadi and Njord do not live together, for the goddess cannot bear to leave her mountain home, and neither will her husband, the sea god, abandon his domain. In Celtic traditions, Abnoba is the hunter goddess of the Black Forest region, and Artio, accompanied by a bear, serves as goddess of the hunt among the ancient people of Switzerland. To Arduinna, a Gallic hunting goddess, the boar is a sacred companion, and in the myths of early inhabitants of the Balkans, the hunter goddess Zana is traditionally accompanied by goats with golden horns. The “Mother of the Forest,” the Latvian goddess Meza Mate is both the master of wild animals and the goddess of the hunt; as the deity who both protects animals and helps human hunters, the goddess’s role is similar to that of Sedna, the Inuit master of animals and goddess of the sea. Neith, an Egyptian goddess who is associated with the hunt, is also a warrior deity.
In many myth traditions, goddesses of war or death represent the destroyer aspect of the great mother goddess. Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love and fertility, is also a war deity, as is Nanaja, an ancient Mesopotamian fertility goddess. In Indian culture, Durga, Kali, and Minakshi all embody the warlike or destructive aspect of the Devi, and, in Egypt, the Middle Eastern fertility goddesses Anat and Astarte are assimilated as warrior deities. Moreover, Egyptian tradition includes native war goddesses as well: Neith, a great mother deity and hunter goddess, is also associated with warfare, and the fierce lioness-deity Sekhmet is goddess of the battlefield. As in Egypt’s myth tradition, that of ancient Ireland includes multiple goddesses of war; interestingly, however, rather than engaging in the fighting, these goddesses all wreak havoc on the battlefield by dint of their presence. Nemhain, the battle goddess whose name means “frenzy,” causes panic among warriors or frightens them to death with her eerie wailing. Badb, another Irish war goddess, appears on the battlefield in the form of the raven, omen of death, and Morrigan, the war goddess who washes the armor of those who are destined to die, is also a deity of the underworld. In somewhat similar fashion, the Valkyries of Norse tradition hover about the battlefield and then guide the fallen heroes to the great hall of the dead.
The goddesses of myth also include champions of peace, and in the Greek tradition, wise Athena is both a war deity and a guardian of the peace. As warrior goddess, Athena carries into battle the frightful aegis (the shield that bears Medusa’s head), but she is also the goddess of wisdom, the protector deity of Athens, and the benevolent provider of gifts greatly valued in her culture. Indeed, the many gifts bestowed by the goddess are said to include the potter’s wheel and the loom and plough, the vase, the flute, and the olive tree, the finest gift of all. Known as Pallas Athena in her role as protector of the peace, the goddess of war assumes the epithet “champion” (Promachos) on the field of battle. Another Greek divinity, Eirene, is also a goddess of peace, and in Roman culture, where the goddess Bellona is the personification of warfare, the goddess Pax—depicted with an olive branch—personifies the times of peace. Just as the olive branch serves the Romans as a symbol of peace, the peace pipe fulfills that purpose among North America’s Sioux people. According to tradition, the goddess Whope, daughter of the sun god, is the emissary of peace who brings the pipe to the people and then instructs them in its use.
Although a few male deities are portrayed as the rulers of destiny, goddesses characteristically oversee the unfolding of fate. In many myth traditions a group of deities presides over destiny, and, in a striking number of different cultures, a triad of goddesses performs that important office. The Moirai, for example, are the three goddesses of fate in Greek tradition, where destiny is envisioned through the metaphor of spinning. Thus, in Greek myths, Klotho spins life’s thread, Lachesis weaves the thread into a pattern, and then finally Atropos cuts off the thread of life. Similarly, three goddesses collectively known as the Parcae control destiny in Roman tradition, and in the myths of Slavic Gypsies, the Urme are the three goddesses of fate. In Norse tradition, the three Norns possess all knowledge of the past, present, and future, and, along with the Valkyries, who control the destiny of warriors, these Norse goddesses of fate are known as the Disir. According to Albanian tradition, the Fatit—three goddesses carried by butterflies—determine the fate of every newborn infant, and, in myths from ancient Egypt, fate goddesses known as the Hemuset also attend upon the births of all children. Solitary goddesses of fate or fortune include the Greek and Roman deities Tyche and Fortuna, who both dispense luck, and the Siberian goddess Kaltes, who oversees childbirth and governs people’s fates.
Because the life that is born of the earth returns to it in death, many mother goddesses and fertility deities are associated with death or the underworld. The Japanese earth goddess Izanami, for example, receives the dead in her underworld domain, and in ancient Persian tradition, the fertility goddess Armaiti protects the dead who are buried in the earth. Isis, the queen of the underworld, Selket, the tutelary goddess of the dead, and Amentet, the guardian of the necropolis, are among the several deities who provide for the dead in Egyptian myths. Other goddesses of myth bring death to the living. The Lithuanian goddess Giltine, for example, suffocates the sick, and the Greek goddesses known as the Erinyes (the Furies) rise from the underworld to pursue evildoers. Of course, goddesses of death also include rulers of the underworld. In Mesopotamian tradition, the goddess who governs the underworld is Ereshkigal, the older sister of Inanna/Ishtar, queen of the heavens. According to ancient myths, the world becomes barren when Inanna visits her sister’s kingdom, and thus scholars suggest that the figure of the death goddess might well represent the destroyer aspect of the great fertility goddess. The goddess Hel, daughter of Loki, is ruler of the underworld in Norse tradition, and all those who do not die in battle pass to her domain in icy Niflheim. Among the Navajo of North America, the benevolent goddess Estanatlehi presides over the Land of the Setting Sun, realm of the dead.
Like the many male deities that are recognized as tutelary gods or patrons of the arts, the goddesses of myth include both guardians of domestic life and divinities that represent cultural achievements. Among the ancient Greeks, for example, the goddess Hestia protects the home and the fire in its hearth, and the nine goddesses known as the Muses are revered as patrons of music, drama, literature, dance, and other intellectual pursuits. Goddesses also serve as representatives of justice, and in Greek tradition both Themis and Nemesis embody that role: Themis is the goddess of morality and justice, and Nemesis personifies the fair retribution that justice demands. Moreover, in some cultural traditions, goddesses assume roles that are more commonly served by male deities. In myths from China, for example, Lei Zu is a thunder goddess, and both the Lithuanian goddess Gabija and the Aztec deity Itzpapalotl are fire divinities. Brigit, the Irish fertility goddess, is also the tutelary deity of blacksmiths, and among North America’s Pueblo peoples, the coyote trickster who is sometimes known as Old Man Coyote also frequently appears as Coyote Woman.