Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

G6GabijaFire goddess. Pre-Christian Lithuanian. She wasinvoked by tossing salt on to a sacred flame.GabjaujaCorn goddess. Pre-Christian Lithuanian. Shewas degraded to an evil demonic presence afterChristianization.GadGod of uncertain status. Western Semiticand Punic (Carthaginian). Probably concernedwith chance or fortune and known fromPalmyrene inscriptions, and from the VetusTestamentum in place names such as Baal-Gadand Midal-Gad. Popular across a wide areaof Syrio-Palestine and Anatolia in pre-Biblical times. Thought to have been syncretizedultimately with the Greek goddessTYCHE.Gaganaganja (treasury of ether)God. Buddhist. One of a group of BODHISATTVAS(buddha-designates). Color: yellow, red or gold.Attributes: blue lotus, book, jewel, lotus and wishingtree in a vase.GAIA (earth)ORIGIN Greek. Archetypal earth mother.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 1500 BC untilChristianization (circa AD 400).SYNONYMS Gaea; Ge; Terra.CENTER(S) OF CULT oracle at Delphi.ART REFERENCES sculptures and reliefs.LITERARY SOURCES Theogony, Hymn to Gaia inthe so-called Homeric hymns (Hesiod); Aristophanes.Gaia is an ancient pre-Hellenic goddess who wasmainly revered in Attica. She is the primordialessence of the earth, one of the creations ofAETHER and Hedera, the primordial beings of thecosmos. Through the encouragement of EROSshe became the mother of PONTOS (sea) andOURANOS (heaven). According to tradition,through liaison with Ouranos, she also engenderedthe race of TITANS. By consorting with theunderworld she created the monstrous Typhon.Perceived as a placid and resilient goddess generallywith some apathy to the goings-on aroundher in the tale of beginnings. She had an oracle atDelphi that predated that of APOLLO. Gaia waslater superseded by other divinities, but she maintaineda role presiding over marriage and the takingof oaths. In the Iliad, Agamemnon cries toZeus: “May Zeus, all highest and first of gods, be100