Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

KRSNA 163KourotrophosObscure wet-nurse goddess. Greek. Known onlyfrom ritual texts.KoyoteTutelary god. North American Indian. Recognizedby several tribes, including the Navaho andApache. He acts as a cult hero who intercedeswith more remote creator spirits and teaches theIndian.KratosGod of strength. Greek. One of the sons of thegoddess STYX and brother of BIA (force).KronosArchetypal fertility god. Pre-Greek. He is ofunknown origin but is the son of the earth motherGAIA and the sky god OURANOS, whom heusurped after castrating him. His consort is RHEA.So as not to suffer a similar fate to his father heswallowed all his children except ZEUS who waskept from him by a ruse. Zeus eventually hurledKronos into Tartaros, the abyss in which all theTITANS were confined. He was celebrated in theGreek harvest festival of kronia which equalledthe Roman saturnalia. During Hellenic times hewas the supreme god at Byblos [Syria]. He isdepicted on coinage of Antiochus IV (175-164BC) nude, leaning on a scepter, with three pairs ofwings, two spread and one folded.KRSNA (the dark one)ORIGIN Hindu (Epic and Puranic) [India]. Incarnationof Višnu.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 300 BC or earlieruntil present.SYNONYMS Kannan (Tamil). Many epithets.CENTER(S) OF CULT generally throughout India,but particularly Mathura.ART REFERENCES sculptures generally bronze butalso stone. Reliefs.LITERARY SOURCES Mahabharata epic, Bhagavad-Gita and Bhagavata-Purana.Krsna is the eighth and arguably the most importantincarnation or avatara of the god VIŠNU. Heappears inauspiciously in the Vedic texts, butgrows in stature and popularity. Allegedly born atMathura on the bank of the river Yamuna, he isthe son of VASUDEVA and DEVAKI, fostered byNanda and Yasoda. He is a deity who epitomizeshuman aspirations and shortcomings together.Thus he is both a Hindu divine hero, and adrinker and womanizer. He has no legal consortbut his chief mistress, a married woman, isRADHA. He is reputed to have enjoyed as many as16,000 such liaisons.Almost certainly, Krsna originated as a fertilitygod of herdsmen and vegetation who becamesyncretized with the hero of the Mahabharataepic. In the Bhagavata-Purana, Krsna is alsoperceived as the embodiment of the cosmos—the vault of heaven is his navel, the stars hischest, the sky his eyes.Krsna’s incarnation was, by tradition,designed to save the world from the demonicking Kansa. He is particularly worshiped as ababy (BALAKRSNA) and as a youthful shepherdaccompanied by Radha. He is seen as a skilledmusician often depicted playing the flute at thesound of which nature pauses to listen, stormsare calmed, rivers flow calmly and maidens areroused.The legends of Krsna’s childhood depict him asa somewhat precocious child who plays tricks andransacks kitchen jars of butter and curds. Theincident with butter has been a popular themefor sculptures. As an adult he champions thestruggle with the adversaries of mankind, the