Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

192 MataraMataraMother goddess. Hindu. Applied collectively togroups of deities, the divine mothers, also morespecifically to the consort of the god KASYAPA. Asdivine mothers they are also regarded as SAKTIS.The numbers vary according to separate traditionsand they are therefore identified as theSAPTAMATARAS (seven), ASTAMATARAS (eight) andNAVASAKTIS (nine). Less commonly there may beup to fifty mataras in a group. Their images arenormally carved in stone (very few exist in metal)and they are depicted seated, often upon a corpse,and may be of terrifying appearance.MatarisvanMinor messenger god. Hindu (Vedic). The attendantof AGNI.Mater MatutaSky goddess. Italic. The personification of thedawn light who evolved into a fertility deity concernedwith childbirth. She is also a tutelary goddessof mariners.See also ISIS.Matlalcueye (her skirt is blue)Minor fertility goddess. Aztec (classical Mesoamerican)[Mexico]. One of the group classed asthe TLALOC complex, closely associated withwater.CENTER(S) OF CULT various shrines.ART REFERENCES various Romano-Celtic sculptures,reliefs and votive plaques. An excellentexample comes from Cirencester, England.LITERARY SOURCES inscriptions.Triads of benevolent mother goddesses wereprobably worshiped, in the main, as householddeities guarding against disease or famine. Animportant sculpture of Matres was found embeddedin the walls of London on a section of fourthcentury rebuilding adjacent to the Thames.Another, the Matres Aufaniae, was dedicated byQuettius Severus, the quaestor of the colony ofCologne. Several unnamed Matres are held in theCorinium museum at Cirencester. The sculpturesare often associated with comucopiae, basketsof fruit, loaves, sheaves of grain, fish or othersymbols of prosperity and fertility. They may alsocarry or suckle children. Many of the triads werespecific to regions, hence the Treverae among theTreveri tribe around modern Trier, or theNemausicae at Nimes.Many of the dedications to such mothers weremade by soldiers. There is a slight suggestion thatthey might also have been linked to victory inbattle. The plaque found in London seems tohave the mothers holding palm fronds. They arealso not infrequently depicted with dogs, whichwere generally included as symbols of healing.Some, particularly from the Rhineland, showyoung and older figures, suggesting the differentages of womanhood.MATRES (mothers)ORIGIN Romano-Celtic (across Europe but particularlyRhineland). Triads of mother goddesses.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 400 BC, butprobably much earlier, until Christianization(circa AD 400).SYNONYMS Deae Mattes; Matronae.MatsuoGod of sake brewers. Shinto [Japan]. Celebratedannually in a festival in Kyoto, when thepresence of the god is carried on a palanquin.It is rowed down the river prior to a generalcelebration, during which sake is drunkliberally.