For my full list of Norse deities click here: https://glitternight.com/2011/04/10/the-eleven-most-neglected-deities-in-teutono-norse-mythology/
AEGIR – The god of the sea who brewed the ale that he would share with the other Teutono-Norse deities when they would get together at his hall on the island of Hlesey. Many poetic references are made to Continue reading
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Gods of Pegana
Lord Dunsany’s 1905 book The Gods of Pegana and its 1906 followup, Time and the Gods, are forgotten masterpieces of comparative mythology which introduced the author’s pantheon of fictional deities. Though neglected today Dunsany’s work inspired authors from H.P. Lovecraft to J.R.R. Tolkein to C.S. Lewis. (But oddly, NOT e.e. cummings, A.A. Milne or J.K. Rowling.)
LIMPANG-TUNG – The god of comedy, drama, music and all the other creative arts. Limpang-Tung thrived on providing humanity with distractions to take their minds off the inevitability of death. The sky was his canvas on which he painted forever-changing patterns of clouds and the events of the world were both a tragedy and a farce depicting the ultimate futility of human endeavor. Continue reading
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My item about Ainu deities has proven so successful here’s a quick take on three of the lesser deities from the Ainu pantheon, the three brothers named Seremak, Urespa and Usapki.
SEREMAK – The patron god of vigor, vitality and general physical fitness. He had a flattened belly (“Six-Pack abs of the Gods!”), nine pairs of wings and wielded a sword and a spear made of mugwort. Continue reading
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Balladeer’s Blog concludes its examination of the grand and exciting Hawaiian epic about the goddesses Pele and Hi’iaka.
PART TWENTY-EIGHT
As the previous installment ended Pele was furiously proclaiming that she would kill Prince Lohiau and destroy her sister Hi’iaka for falling in love (ish) while Hi’iaka was escorting the prince to the Big Island to become Pele’s husband. Hi’iaka had spitefully consummated her love for Prince Lohiau right at the base of Pele’s home atop Mount Kilauea. She had done this to punish the fire and volcano goddess for her savage slaying of Hopoe, the goddess whom Hi’iaka had placed in charge of her beloved forests of lehua trees.
Pele’s explosive temper was unleashed at the sight of her younger sister and her intended husband coupling publicly. As she caused a flood of lava to flow down the mountain and encircle Lohiau and Hi’iaka she had cried to all the gods in the Hawaiian pantheon that any of them who sided with Hi’iaka would be declaring themselves an enemy of Pele and would risk destruction or banishment. Continue reading
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Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the grand and exciting Hawaiian epic about the goddesses Pele and Hi’iaka.
PART TWENTY-SEVEN
And so, as Hi’iaka’s revenge on her sister Pele, the volcano and fire goddess, she made sure that her first coupling with Prince Lohiau, the man both goddesses loved, took place right within Pele’s sight at the base of Mount Kilauea. All of Pele’s other sisters had gathered around her to see the beautiful man named Lohiau. The fern goddess Pa’u’o’pala’e and the mortal woman Wahine, whom Hi’iaka had sent on ahead, entered Pele’s tempestuous presence.
Pele raged at the two women, demanding to know why the quest to reach and return from Lohiau’s home of Kauai had taken so long. Pa’u’o’pala’e, as a sister goddess, replied to Pele that no matter what had caused the delay Lohiau had arrived and was at the foot of Mount Kilauea with Hi’iaka. Continue reading
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Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the grand and exciting Hawaiian epic about the goddesses Pele and Hi’iaka.
PART TWENTY-SIX
The ship carrying Hi’iaka, Prince Lohiau and Wahine arrived at Iloli on the island of Molokai. The generally barren nature of the area prompted the trio to remain with the ship’s crew when they soon put off for Maui. Continue reading
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For Balladeer’s Blog’s article on other Ainu gods and goddesses click HERE
MOSHIRI – Also called Moshiri-Kara. This Ainu deity falls under the global mythological category called Divine Geographers like Inugpasug from the Inuit pantheon, Khong Lo from the Vietnamese pantheon, Halmang from the Korean pantheon and Rapeto from the Merina pantheon in Madagascar.
Moshiri was dispatched to the Earth by Kando-Koro, the sky god and supreme ruler of Kamuikando, the heavenly home of the gods. Kando-Koro sent Moshiri down to form the amorphous mass of the Earth into separate continents, then form mountains, rivers, lakes and islands. Moshiri’s crowning and most important work of geographical structuring was the lands to be inhabited by the Ainu people. (Again we see that this type of ethnic chauvinism is a universal human foible) Continue reading
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Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the grand and exciting Hawaiian epic about the goddesses Pele and Hi’iaka.
PART TWENTY-FIVE
With the conclusion of the hours of romantic jockeying during the kilu competition, Hi’iaka and Prince Lohiau’s growing passion for each other was evident to all. Princess Pele’ula, one of Lohiau’s former flames, was inwardly seething at her failed attempt to reclaim his heart.
This might have caused trouble for Hi’iaka, the Prince and the mortal woman Wahine if not for Hi’iaka’s quick thinking. The goddess used her divine power to transport herself and her two mortal traveling companions far away from Pele’ula’s realm in what is now Honolulu. In their place she left three images of herself, Lohiau and Wahine, fooling the Princess and her subjects into thinking they were still there at the kilu festival until the illusions evaporated nearly an hour later. Continue reading
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Here are two goddesses of the Tupari people in what is now Brazil. FOR THE FULL LIST OF TUPARI GODS CLICK HERE
ANATBA and KOLUBEH – The twin goddesses of childbirth, who began gracing humanity with children after they left the underground world. In Tupari myths the only way women can become pregnant is for these two deities to visit them at night and place a baby in the woman’s womb. Before the baby’s presence in the body of the mother it forms from the otherworldly “flesh” of Anatba and Kolubeh, sometimes linking them like the joints that link Siamese twins.
It is speculated that Continue reading
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KHONG LO – This god was the primordial giant who separated the sky and the Earth, setting up columns to help support the sky similar to many other such deities in other pantheons. His breath is the wind and his voice the thunder.
When he saw that the propping up of the sky had “taken” he broke off the uppermost portions of the support columns and transformed them into stars in the sky (or in some myths into various mountain peaks or islands). Where he had dug out the Earth to build the columns oceans were formed. Continue reading
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