Curated playlist
Mother goddesses
- DemeterGrief over her stolen daughter made the goddess Demeter let crops wither and mortals starve.
- Venus (mythology)The Roman goddess Venus was once shown with a beard in Cyprus. Her worshippers there cross-dressed.
- ParvatiParvati, written पार्वती in Sanskrit, is worshipped as a tender mother and also as a fierce warrior who wears a garland of severed heads. Devotees honor her as the goddess of power, energy, nourishment, harmony, love, beauty, devotion, and…
- Metis (mythology)Zeus swallowed his pregnant wife Metis for fear she would bear something stronger than his thunderbolt.
- Rhea (mythology)Rhea tricked her husband Cronus into swallowing a stone instead of their baby. The real baby was hidden on Crete.
- LakshmiThe Rigveda, one of the oldest collections of Hindu hymns, names the goddess Shri about 130 times. The word Lakshmi appears in it exactly once, and there it means only a kindred mark, a sign of auspicious fortune. Lakshmi, who is also…
- FriggEvery time you say Friday, you are naming the Germanic goddess Frigg. Old English called it the day of Frig.
- IsisThe goddess Isis made a snake to bite the sun god Ra. She offered a cure only if he told her his secret name.
- Nut (goddess)In Egyptian myth, the sky is a goddess and the earth is her husband. Nut arches over her brother Geb.
- GuanyinGuanyin is the Chinese name for the Bodhisattva of compassion, and it means The One Who Perceives the Sounds of the World. The camera maker Canon Inc. took its name from her. Her statues appear in the Asian art sections of most museums in…
- KaliYama, the lord of death, is said to have fled in terror the moment he heard the name Kali. Her worshippers take the story as a promise that those who revere her can overcome death itself. Kali, also called Kalika, is a major Hindu goddess…
- NephthysThe Egyptian goddess Nephthys was also a beer goddess. The pharaoh offered her beer to avoid a hangover.
- GaiaIn the Iliad, a black lamb is sacrificed, and the oath sworn over it calls on Gaia as a witness. The Greeks believed she was listening. If a man broke his word, she would know. Gaia was the Greek personification of the Earth. Some writers…
- CybeleIn 204 BC, Rome fetched the goddess Cybele in the form of a black lump of meteoric iron.
- HathorRed-dyed beer ended the goddess Hathor's rampage against humans. She drank it, mistaking it for blood.
- Amy Carlson (religious leader)Amy Carlson, who called herself Mother God, was found in late April 2021 inside her group's compound in Crestone, Colorado. Her body was mummified and lay in a sleeping bag wrapped in Christmas lights. Carlson had co-founded a new…