Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

136 IlmarinenIlmarinenSky god. Pre-Christian Finnish. A weather godwho places the stars in the sky. Also a guardiandeity of travelers and a smith-god who educatedman in the use of iron and forging.IlyapaWeather god. Inca (pre-Columbian South America)[Peru, etc]. Also perceived as a thunder god, hebecame syncretized with Santiago, the patron saintof Spain. The Indians called Spanish firearmsIlyapa. Also Inti-Ilyapa; Coqi-Ilya; Illapa; Katoylla.ImmatDemonic god. Kafir [Afghanistan]. A deity towhom sacrifices were addressed in the Ashkunvillages of southwestern Kafiristan. Legend has itthat Immat carries off twenty virgin daughtersevery year. A festival includes blood sacrifice anddances by twenty carefully selected young priestesses.ImporcitorMinor god of agriculture. Roman. The deity concernedwith harrowing the fields.lmStorm god. Mesopotamian. The cuneiform generallytaken to refer to a storm god and thereforeprobably meaning either IŠKUR (Sumerian) orADAD (Akkadian).ImanaCreator god. Burundi [East Africa]. He engenderedthe first man, Kihanga, who descendedfrom heaven on a rope. Symbolized by a lamb ora young ram, he is also thought to speak throughthe roar of the bull.ImiutMinor chthonic god. Egyptian. One of the attendantdeities of the necropolis, he is linked withANUBIS, and in pre-dynastic times was representedby a skin hung on a pole.Immap UkuaSea goddess. Inuit [eastern Greenland]. Themother of all sea creatures and invoked by fishermenand seal-hunters.See also SEDNA.IMRAORIGIN Kafir [Afghanistan—southern Hindukush].Creator god.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP unknown originsand continuing locally today.SYNONYMS MARA (Prasun region).CENTER(S) OF CULT chiefly at Kushteki.ART REFERENCES large wooden sculptures.LITERARY SOURCES Robertson G.S. The Kafirs ofthe Hindukush (1896); Morgenstierne G. SomeKati Myths and Hymns (1951).Supreme Kafir creator god who generated allother deities by churning his breath to life insidea golden goatskin. Other legendary sources havehim taking his paramount position through guilefrom among an existing pantheon and possiblysuperseding an earlier creator god, MUNJEMMALIK. His mother was said to be a giantess withfour tusks. Imra is a sky god who lives amongcloud and mist and who is responsible, at least inpart, for cosmic creation. He positioned the sunand moon in the heavens. He is the ancestor of allPrasun tribal chiefs. His sacred animal is the ramwhich was sacrificed regularly, as was the cow and,less frequently, the horse. Figures of the god arecrudely anthropomorphic. The main sanctuary