Goddess


A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism, holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all reality, is Supreme Goddess and in some forms of Tantric Shaivism, the pair of Shiva and Shakti are the ultimate principle. Meanwhile, in Vajrayana Buddhism, ultimate reality is often seen as being composed of two principles depicted as two deities in union symbolising the non-duality of the two principles of perfect wisdom and skillful compassion. A single figure in a monotheistic faith that is female may be identified simply as god because of no need to differentiate by gender or with a diminutive. An experiment to determine the effect of psychedelics on subjects composed of leaders from diverse religious groups revealed a general experience that the divine which the subjects encountered was feminine.
Polytheist religions, including Polytheistic reconstructionists, honour multiple goddesses and gods, and usually view them as discrete, separate beings. These deities may be part of a pantheon, or different regions may have tutelary deities. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes of spinning, weaving, beauty, love, sexuality, motherhood, domesticity, creativity, and fertility. Many major goddesses are also associated with magic, war, strategy, hunting, farming, wisdom, fate, earth, sky, power, laws, justice, and more. Some themes, such as discord or disease, which are considered negative within their cultural contexts also are found associated with some goddesses. There are as many differently described and understood goddesses as there are male, shapeshifting, devilish, or neuter gods.

Etymology

The noun goddess is a secondary formation, combining the Germanic god with the Latinate -ess suffix. It first appeared in Middle English, from about 1350. The English word follows the linguistic precedent of a number of languages—including Egyptian, Classical Greek, and several Semitic languages—that add a feminine ending to the language's word for god. Occasionally, one finds the root term being applied without the secondary ending.

Historical polytheism

Ancient Near East

Mesopotamia

was the most worshipped goddess in ancient Sumer. She was later syncretised with the East Semitic goddess Ishtar. Other Mesopotamian goddesses include Ninhursag, Ninlil, Antu and Gaga.

Ancient Africa (Egypt)

Goddesses of the Canaanite religion: Ba`alat Gebal, Astarte, Anat.

Anatolia

  • Arinniti: Hittite coddess of the sun. She became patron of the Hittite Empire and monarchy.
  • Cybele: Her Hittite name was Kubaba, but her name changed to Cybele in Phrygian and Roman culture. Her effect can be also seen on Artemis as the Lady of Ephesus.
  • Hebat: Mother goddess of the Hittite pantheon and wife of the leader sky god, Teshub. She was the origin of the Hurrian cult.
  • Leto: A mother goddess figure in Lykia. She was also the main goddess of the capital city of Lykia League

    Pre-Islamic Arabia

In pre-Islamic Mecca the goddesses Uzza, Manāt and al-Lāt were known as "the daughters of god". Uzzā was worshipped by the Nabataeans, who equated her with the Graeco-Roman goddesses Aphrodite, Urania, Venus and Caelestis. Each of the three goddesses had a separate shrine near Mecca. Uzzā, was called upon for protection by the pre-Islamic Quraysh. In 624 AD, during the Battle of Uhud, the war cry of the Qurayshites was, "O people of Uzzā, people of Hubal!".
According to Ibn Ishaq's controversial account of the Satanic Verses, these verses had previously endorsed them as intercessors for Muslims, but were abrogated. Most Muslim scholars have regarded the story as historically implausible, while opinion is divided among western scholars such as Leone Caetani and John Burton, who argue against, and William Muir and William Montgomery Watt, who argue for its plausibility.
The Quran warns of the vanity of trusting to the intercession of female deities, in particular "the daughters of god".

Indo-European traditions

Pre-Christian and pre-Islamic goddesses in cultures that spoke Indo-European languages.

Indian

  • Agneya: or Aagneya is the Hindu Goddess of Fire.
  • Prithivi: the Earth, also appears as a goddess. Rivers are also deified as goddesses.
  • Ushas: is the main goddess of the Rigveda and is the goddess of the dawn.
  • Varuni: is the Hindu Goddess of Water. Bhumi, Janani, Buvana, and Prithvi are names of the Hindu Goddess of Earth.

    Iranian

  • Anahita: or Nahid, or Arədvī Sūrā Anāhitā, or Aban: the divinity of "the Waters" and hence associated with fertility, healing, beauty and wisdom.
  • Ashi: a divinity of fertility and fortune in the Zoroastrian hierarchy of yazatas.
  • Daena: a divinity, counted among the yazatas, representing insight and revelation, hence "conscience" or "religion".
  • Spenta Armaiti: or Sandaramet, one of the Amesha Spentas, a female divinity associated with earth and Mother Nature. She is also associated with the female virtue of devotion. In the Iranian calendar, her name is on the twelfth month and also the fifth day of the month.

    Greco-Roman

  • Eleusinian Mysteries: Baubo, Demeter and Persephone.
  • Greek muses: Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania.
  • Aphrodite: Goddess of love and beauty.
  • Artemis: Virgin goddess of the wilderness and the hunt.
  • Athena: Virgin goddess of strategy, warfare, and crafts.
  • Eris: Goddess of chaos.
  • Gaia: Primordial goddess of the Earth. Most gods descend from her.
  • Hecate: Goddess of sorcery and crossroads. Often considered a chthonic or lunar goddess. She is either portrayed as a single goddess or a triple goddess.
  • Hera: Goddess of womanhood, marriage and childbirth, queen of Olympus as the wife of Zeus.
  • Hestia: Virgin goddess of the hearth, domesticity and family.
  • Iris: Goddess of rainbows.
  • Leto: Titan goddess of childhood.
  • Nike: Goddess of victory. She is predominantly pictured with Zeus or Athena and sometimes Ares.
  • Selene: Titan goddess of the Moon.
  • Rhea: Titan goddess of motherhood.

    Celtic

Goddesses and otherworldly women in Celtic polytheism include:
The Celts honoured goddesses of nature and natural forces, as well as those connected with skills and professions such as healing, warfare and poetry. The Celtic goddesses have diverse qualities such as abundance, creation and beauty, as well as harshness, slaughter and vengeance. They have been depicted as beautiful or hideous, old hags or young women, and at times may transform their appearance from one state to another, or into their associated creatures such as crows, cows, wolves or eels, to name but a few. In Irish mythology in particular, tutelary goddesses are often associated with sovereignty and various features of the land, notably mountains, rivers, forests and holy wells.

Germanic

Surviving accounts of Germanic mythology and Norse mythology contain numerous tales of female goddesses, giantesses, and divine female figures in their scriptures. The Germanic peoples had altars erected to the "Mothers and Matrons" and held celebrations specific to these goddesses. Various other female deities are attested among the Germanic peoples, such as Nerthus attested in an early account of the Germanic peoples, Ēostre attested among the pagan Anglo-Saxons, and Sinthgunt attested among the pagan continental Germanic peoples. Examples of goddesses attested in Norse mythology include Frigg, Skaði, Njerda, that also was married to Njörðr during Bronze Age, Freyja, Sif, Gerðr, and personifications such as Jörð, Sól, and Nótt. Female deities also play heavily into the Norse concept of death, where half of those slain in battle enter Freyja's field Fólkvangr, Hel's realm of the same name, and Rán who receives those who die at sea. Other female deities such as the valkyries, the norns, and the dísir are associated with a Germanic concept of fate, and celebrations were held in their honour, such as the Dísablót and Disting.

Pre-Columbian America

Aztec

  • Chalchiuhtlicue: goddess of water
  • Chantico: goddess of the hearth, flames
  • Coyolxauhqui: warrior goddess associated with the moon
  • Duality Earth Goddesses: Cihuacoatl, Coatlicue, Tlazolteotl
  • Itzpapalotl: monstrous ruler of Tamoanchan
  • Mictecacihuatl: queen of Mictlan
  • Xochiquetzal: goddess of fertility, beauty, and female sexuality

    Maya

  • Ixchel: mother goddess
  • Maya moon goddess
  • Goddess I: eroticism, human procreation, and marriage

    Inca

  • Pachamama: the supreme Mother Earth
  • Mama Killa: moon goddess
  • Mama Ocllo: fertility goddess
  • Mama Cocha: goddess of the sea and lakes

    Native North America

Goddesses of various Native North American peoples include:

African religions

In African and African diasporic religions, goddesses are often syncretised with Marian devotion, as in Ezili Dantor and Erzulie Freda. There is also Buk, a Sudanese and Ethiopian goddess still worshipped in the southern regions. She represents the fertile aspect of women. She is related to the deity of a similar name, Abuk. Another Ethiopian goddess is Atete, the goddess of spring and fertility. Farmers traditionally leave some of their products at the end of each harvesting season as an offering while women sing traditional songs.
A rare example of henotheism focused on a single Goddess is found among the Southern Nuba of Sudan. The Nuba conceive of the creator Goddess as the "Great Mother" who gave birth to earth and to mankind.