Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

Eshu 93depicted drawing, and arrows. The dog may bereplaced by a rat, in which case the arrows arenot included. The rat is a sign of impendingwealth and therefore the drawing of an emptybow at the rat is a sign which invokes wealth ofchildren.ErkilekHunting god. Inuit [North America]. A malevolentdeity with the head and nose of a dog andthe body of a man. He carries a bow, witharrows contained in a quiver, and is an expertarcher.ErinysChthonic goddess of wrath. Greek. According tolegend she was a consort of POSEIDON by whomshe bore the fabulous horse Areon. By implicationshe may also have been a grim maternal figurewho engendered all horses. She may be equatedwith a wrathful DEMETER who is sometimes giventhe epithet Erinys. Erinys appears in the collectiveform of three Erinyes, their heads coveredwith snake-locks and bearing torches from theunderworld. In the Iliad they are described asthose “who beneath the earth punish dead men,whoever has sworn a false oath.” In Romanmythology they are the Furies.ErisGoddess of dissent or strife. Greek. The consortof ARES, the god of war, and the mother ofHORKOS (oath). She is depicted throwing theapple of discord among guests at a wedding,offering it “to the fairest” to provoke argument.In Roman mythology she becomes DISCORDIA.EriuFertility goddess. Celtic (Irish). An aspect of theMORRIGAN. One of the deities who were knownas the “Sovereignty of Ireland” and wedded symbolicallyto a mortal king. Also a warrior goddess,capable of changing shape from girl to hag, andinto birds and animals. She is patroness of theroyal seat of Uisnech in County Meath. Eire andErin are corruptions of her name.See also BADB.ErosPrimordial deity. Greco-Roman. One of the childrenof AETHER and Hemera in the pre-Homericcosmos. Listed in Hesiod’s Theogony as one ofthree archetypal beings with CHAOS and GAIA.Also AMOR (Roman).ErraGod of war. Mesopotamian (Babylonian-Akkadian).Known chiefly from the Erra Epic, circa1000 BC, he is also the god of raids, riots andscorched earth. Closely identified with the godNERGAL, his cult center is Emeslam in the city ofKutha (lost). In Babylonian times he is identifiedas a plague god.EruaSee ZARPANITU(M).EsCreator god. Ket [Siberian]. Described as an oldman with a long black beard, he fashioned thefirst humans from clay. Those tossed from hisright hand became men, and those from his leftbecame women.EshuItinerant god. Yoruba [Nigeria, West Africa].An ancient deity regarded as the attendantand messenger of the creator god OLODUMARE.He passes among mortal people assessingcharacter and meting out punishment. Devotees