Lesser Known Deities Starting With the Letter A

Throughout history, the world has seen the birth of many new religions and the worship of strange, beautiful and mysterious deities. Some of these gods (such as Zeus, Athena, Odin, Loki, Jupiter, Venus, etc) have still stayed with us in these modern times. However, there are thousands of lesser known deities from world mythology who are only really known to scholars.

There is a list of lesser known deities starting with the letter A:

1. Acrasia – the Greek personification of intemperance.

2. Ada-Ea - the Mesopotamian ferryman in the Babylonian underworld.

3. Adda-Nari – the Egyptian goddess of religion and truth.

4. Adhimukticarya – a Buddhist goddess and one of the 12 bhumis.

5. Afi – a storm god from the Caucasus.

6. Afrikete – an African sea goddess of the Fon people who was regarded as a trickster and a gossip.

7. Agas Xenas Xena – the deity of the evening star according to the Chinook of North America.

8. Agwatana – the god of the sun and the Nigerian supreme deity.

9. Aha – a river god of the Yakut people of Siberia.

10. Ah Peku – a Mayan thunder god.

11. Ah Uuc Ticab – a Mayan fertility god.

12. Ahi – the Egyptian goddess of the dawn.

13. Ai Apaec – the supreme god of the Mochica tribe in Central America.

14. Aion – the Greek male personification of time.

15. Akakanet – a vegetation god of the Araucanian tribe in South America. He is said to live in the Pleiades and provides flowers and fruit for the tribe.

16. Akano Jewel – a Japanese god of famine.

17. Ake – a Polynesian water god.

18. Akkruva –a fish-goddess in Finland.

19. Akongo – a creator god of the Ngombe people in Africa, who was said to have found the people so noisy that he left to live in the sky.

20. Akshobhya – one of the five Buddhist Dhyanibuddhas and one of the five Dhyanibodhisattvas.

21. Akua – a creator god of Hawaii.

22. Ala – a goddess of the earth and fertility of the Ibo people in Africa.

23. Alako – the god of the gypsies, according to Norwegian mythology. After teaching the gypsies his secret lore, he returned home in the heavens.

24. Alannus – a Celtic messenger god in Gaul who was worshipped by the Romans as well.

25. Alatanagana – the creator god of the Kono people in Africa.

26. Albunea – a Roman water nymph that had the gift of prophecy. Some of her revelations were recorded in the Sibylline Books.

27. Alcyone – a daughter of the Greek Titan Atlas, she was the leader of the Pleiades and the mother of Aethusa by Poseidon.

28. Algea – the Greek female personification of pain. She was an attendant of the goddess of strife, Eris.

29. Alilat – an ancient Arabian mother-goddess, she was worshipped by the Nabataeans in the form of a four-sided stone idol.

30. Allat – a Babylonian underworld goddess.

31. Almaqah – an Arabian sky god of the Saba tribe.

32. Alo’alo – a weather god in Tonga.

33. Alpan – an underworld deity of the Etruscans in ancient Italy.

34. Alrune-wife – a household goddess from Germany.

35. Aluberi – a distant and supreme god of the Arawak American Indians.

36. Ama – from ancient Mesopotamia, a Sumerian virgin mother-goddess.

37. Ama-no-ho – a divine messenger god in Japanese mythology.

38. Amaethon – a Welsh god of agriculture and the son of Beli and Don.

39. Amana – a creator goddess of the Calina tribe in South America. She lived in the Milky Way and was attended to by sea creatures.

40. Amarok – an Inuit deity in the form of a wolf-like monster.

41. Ar-tojon – a supreme god of the Yakut people in Siberia.

42. Aralo –a Georgian agricultural god.

43. Aramati – the Hindu female personification of devotion.

44. Aranyani – a woodland goddess in Hindu belief.

45. Aranzakh – a river god and the personification of the river Tigris in ancient Persian belief.

46. Areop-Enap – a creator deity in Nauru Island who made men from stones and had them support the sky.

47. Argimpasa – the Scythian goddess of love.

48. Asto-vidhotu –a demon in ancient Persia who was then later promoted to a god of death.

49. Astrild – a Norse god of love.

50. Azacca – an agricultural deity in Haiti.

The Mayan Religion

For the Mayan people, the universe was essentially chaotic yet predictable; living creatures subject to predetermined positions in the world and its people were thought to exist within an alternating pattern of life and death, each cycle lasting 5,200 years. It is this model, this pattern, which comes to identity Mayan religion.

According to sources available, the realm of heaven in Mayan cosmology was one of permanence. To ensure its constancy, colossal cosmic trees secure heaven in its place. It was then divided into thirteen distinct levels, which were each overruled by a god. Mayan society believed that a person had to have met a violent end if they were to enter heaven in the next world. Each stratum was meant for a specific type of violent death. This meant that sacrificial victims occupied a different realm to that of people who had been struck by lightning or drowned, for example.

The destination of the majority of the Mayan people was Xibalba, the “Place of Fright”. It had nine levels and its own collection of gods, who, for the main part, represented or resembled particular characteristics of deities of the Earth and sky. In Mayan society, as with other Mesoamerican cultures, there was no concept of human morality. The underworld was the ultimate destination for all people who had not met a violent end, and not reserved for sinners. The Temple I at Tikal and the Castillo at Chechen Itza in the Yucatan peninsula are nine-layered pyramids, where kings, priests and elite men were interred, symbolising the nine layers of Xibalba.

We can see the notion of a stratified cosmos among the Mayan in the construction of temples and shrines. These were predominantly built on top of the pyramids or the peaks of mountains, so that rituals could be performed as close to the heavenly realms of the sky as close as possible.

A broad pantheon of deities was worshipped by the Mayan. Some of these deities are hard to differentiate due to the fact that some deities possessed both male and female characteristics. Some had the ability to be both young and old, and assume either spiritual or corporeal form. Some possessed animal characteristics, or had combined human and divine attributes. However, in considering the nature of Maya gods, we may first rid ourselves of certain misconceptions by noting that in our field the term pantheon should not be taken in its strictly Greek sense.

According to such scholars as Morley and Brainerd, during the Classic Period the Maya were not worshippers of images. Most scholars relying on ethno-historic sources and archaeological information from Yucatan agree that 'idolatry' was introduced into Yucatan by the Nahua speakers of the Post-Classic era (950-1520 CE), who brought with them the practice of making idols.

The Maya had a full-time priesthood with an internal hierarchy, who performed important ceremonies in enduring temples of various kinds. The community temple was known as ‘ku’ or ‘kuna’. According to scholars there were differences between temple structure from the domestic structures, although rites, offerings, and prayers were made in both; “we see evidence for public religion and private religion, and communal rites versus household ritual” (Marcus, p.181). Priests controlled calendrical knowledge (such as the timing of festivals of the 260 day ritual calendar) as well as various methods for divination and prophecy. The ordinary priests were known as ‘ah kin’, and below them were religious functionaries with more focused functions.

The religion of the Mayan is a complicated knot of mythology and symbolism, but the study allows great insight into one of the most fascinating cultures of the world.

Bibliography:

Coe, Michael D. (1956) The Funerary Temple Among the Classic Maya, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, University of New Mexico.

Marcus, Joyce (1978) Archaeology and Religion: A Comparison of the Zapotec and Maya, World archaeology, Taylor & Francis Ltd.