Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

196 MenechenMenechen (master of men)Supreme god. Araucania Indian [southern Andes].Also known as Pillan (heaven) and, west of theAndes, Guenu-Pillan (spirit of heaven).MenessMoon god. Pre-Christian Latvian. Consort of thesun goddess SAULE. He is a guardian deity of travelersand military expeditions.MenulisMoon god. Pre-Christian Lithuanian. Consort ofthe sun goddess.Menzabac (black powder maker)Weather god. Mayan (classical Mesoamerican)[Mexico]. He sprinkles black dye on the clouds,which causes them to generate rain. Believed tolive on the edge of a lake. Also a fever god and akeeper of good souls. Also Metzabac.MERCURIUSORIGIN Roman. Messenger god.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 400 BC tocirca AD 400.SYNONYMS Psychopompus; Oneicopompus;HERMES (Greek); Mercury.CENTER(S) OF CULT Circus Maximus (Rome).ART REFERENCES sculptures and carvings.LITERARY SOURCES Aeneid (Virgil), etc.One of the twelve major deities of Olympus, Mercuryis modeled closely on the Greek god Hermes.In Roman mythology he is the son of JUPITER andthe plains goddess MAIA, born in a cave on MountCyllene in Arcadia. He is attributed with theinvention of the lyre made from a tortoise shell, andwith various misdemeanors, including the theft ofcattle from APOLLO, an allegory on the blowingaway of the clouds (Apollo’s herds). Mercury alsopersonifies the wind. Apollo presented Mercurywith the gift of his winged baton, the caduceus,which had the power of resolving conflict and dispute.The gods also presented Mercury with thewinged sandals or talaria and cap or petasus.Originally he was a god of riches but became apatron of travelers and thieves. The French forWednesday, mercredi, derives from his name. Hismain annual festival, the Mercuralia, took place inRome in May and his statues were frequentlyplaced as boundary markers.As Psychopompus he leads the souls of the deadinto Hades, and as Oneicopompus he overseesthe world of dreams.MeretsegerLocalized chthonic goddess associated with theunderworld. Egyptian. At Thebes she acted ineither benign or destructive fashion against workersbuilding tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Sheis generally depicted as a coiled cobra which maypossess a human head and arm. One of the bestrepresentations is on the sarcophagus of RamesesIII. She lost her popularity when the use ofThebes as a royal cemetery was discontinuedearly in the first millennium BC.Mes An DuGod. Mesopotamian (Sumerian and Babylonian-Akkadian). Probably an alternative title for thesun god (see ŠAMAŠ).Mes Lam TaeaGod of war. Mesopotamian (Sumerian and Babylonian-Akkadian).An aggressive aspect of thechthonic underworld god NERGAL. Often linkedwith the god LUGAL-IRRA.