Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

Verbti 339Ve’ai (grass woman)Vegetation spirit. Koryak [southeastern Siberia].The personification of the grasslands and theirguardian deity. She is perceived as a shamanka andis the consort of EME’MQUT.VeiveMinor god. Etruscan. A youthful deity whoseattributes include arrows. His animal is a goat.Veja MateGoddess of winds. Pre-Christian Latvian. Alsoresponsible for birds and woodlands.Velaute’mtilan (sedge man)Vegetation spirit. Koryak [southeastern Siberia].The personification of the sedges and thereforeguardian of the boggy tundras and theiranimals.VelesChthonic underworld god. Slav. Also identified asthe “cattle god.” Also Volos.Velu MateChthonic underworld goddess. Pre-ChristianLatvian. The “queen of the dead.” She is depictedwearing white and she greets the dead at thecemetery.VendaCreator god. Dravidian (Tamil) [southern India].An ancient vegetation deity. Worshiped in villageson the plains, thought to live in trees andequated with Indra.VenkataForm of the god VIŠNU. Hindu (Epic andPuranic). According to the Aditya Purana,Venkata is a deity of considerable importance insouthern India. The name does not occur in thenorth. He is worshiped extensively by Hindus butparticularly in the Tamil shrine of Tirupati wherethere is argument that the deity depicted is ŠIVAor KARTTIKEYA. The image appears to carryattributes of Višnu on the left and Šiva on theright. Also Venkatesa.VENUSORIGIN Roman. Goddess of sexual love andbeauty.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa 400 BC tocirca AD 400.SYNONYMS APHRODITE (Greek); Dione; Cytherea.CENTER(S) OF CULT various; Eryx [Sicily] (asVenus Erycina).ART REFERENCES various sculptures including theVenus of Milo.LITERARY SOURCES Aeneid (Virgil), etc.The name is neuter in form but Venus is modeledon the Greek goddess Aphrodite. In Romanmythology she is a daughter of JUPITER and Dione.Her consorts include Mars and the ill-fated ADO-NIS. She is also linked romantically with Anchises,King of Troy. She is a goddess of gardens. In thesecond century AD the Emperor Hadrian dedicateda sanctuary to her on the Via Sacra in Rome; it wasrestored as late as the fourth century.Venus was celebrated in the Veneralia festival onApril 1.VerbtiGod of fire. Pre-Christian Albanian. He is associatedwith the north winds. Under Christianinfluence he becomes identified with the devil.