Curated category
Cattle deities
- HeraThe name Hera appears on clay tablets from Pylos and Thebes written in the Linear B script, dating to the Mycenaean period.
- Mars (mythology)The Latin word Mars appears in Old Latin texts as Mamart-, a form likely borrowed from foreign tongues. Scholars once linked this name to the Vedic storm…
- DionysusClay tablets unearthed at Pylos in the twelfth or thirteenth century BC bear the inscription di-wo-nu-so. This Mycenaean Greek form appears twice on…
- Neptune (mythology)The name Neptune remains a subject of intense scholarly debate. Ancient grammarian Varro derived the Latin term from nuptus, meaning covering or opertio.
- IsisAn inscription from the reign of Nyuserre Ini during Egypt's Fifth Dynasty marks the first known mention of Isis by name.
- Nut (goddess)The name Nut appears in hieroglyphs as a symbol for sky, though ancient Egyptian vowels remain uncertain to modern ears.
- HeliosThe word helios comes from a Proto-Indo-European root that ancient scholars trace back to the dawn of language itself. Walter Burkert noted in his 1985 book…
- PasiphaëIn the ancient Greek pantheon, Pasiphaë stood as a daughter of Helios and Perse. Her lineage traced back to Colchis, an early Kartvelian-speaking polity…
- Vulcan (mythology)Vulcan was the only major Roman god whose worshippers wanted his cult kept at a distance. The Etruscan haruspices, the diviners who read divine will, held…
- HathorImages of cattle appear frequently in the artwork of Predynastic Egypt before 3100 BC. These images often show women with upraised, curved arms that resemble…
- GebThe name Geb was pronounced Gebeb from the Greek period onward. Before that era, scholars once read it incorrectly as Seb.