Encyclopedia Mythica

Avalokitesvara (Other mythologies)

A manifestation of Amitabha, the buddha of compassion. He is a bodhisattva who refuses entry into nirvana to help others.

Andriamahilala (African mythology)

The Madagascan mother-goddess. When the gods created humans, she gave them flesh and form, while the others gave them bones, blood, and breath.

Chromandae (General folklore )

A legendary tribe of monkey-like people of India. They are a wild people, without any voice, but uttering a horrible noise.

Gegenes (Greek mythology)

A mythical tribe of fierce and lawless giants, each equipped with six arms. They lived on Bear Mountain, on an island in the Propontis near mainland Phrygia.

Kuba Earth Mother (African mythology)

The earth mother of the Kuba of DR Congo. She and her husband, Heaven, were created by the creator deity Mbomba.

Mweel (African mythology)

The daughter of the sky-god Mboma. She is the sister and wife of Woot, and by him the mother of Nyimi Lele.

Ngaan (African mythology)

The son of Mbomba. The two quarreled all the time and after Mbomba went to the heaven, Ngaan took the underworld sea.

Nyimi Lele (African mythology)

The ancestral hero of the Lele. He is a son of Woot and Mweel.

Padmasambhava (Other mythologies)

One of the most important characters of Tibetan Buddhism. Sometimes called 'the second Buddha,' he is credited for the diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet in the eighth and ninth centuries.

Panotii (General folklore )

A legendary tribe of men whose gigantic ears cover their whole bodies. They live in the cold regions of the far north and use their ears to keep warm.

Sciritae (General folklore )

In ancient belief, a race of nomadic, bandy-legged Indians whose members have holes instead of nostrils, like snakes.

Struthopodes (General folklore )

A legendary tribe of southern India. The men have feet one cubit long but the feet of the women are so small that they are called 'sparrow feet.'

Woot (African mythology)

A supernatural being of the Kuba. He is the son of the sky-god and the earth-mother and lives among mankind. He named all the animals and the plants.

A Mong (Other mythologies)

A Mong and her brother Lan-yien are a pair of ancestor deities. They possess a magic drum with which they protect themselves (Karen, Burma).

Hpi Bi Yaw (Other mythologies)

Among the Karen of Burma, a goddess of agriculture who promotes the fertility of the crops and the rice fields.

Katarwiri (African mythology)

A malevolent river-goddess of the Ashanti and Tshi of Ghana. She is the wife of the river-god Tando.

Nanen (Other mythologies)

An earth-goddess of Brazil.

Pyatnitsa Prascovia (Other mythologies)

A Russian goddess of the harvest.

Sigrutan (Other mythologies)

A spirit who ensnares people by the neck, causing them to die by strangulation (Isneg, Philippines).

Tando (African mythology)

A river-god of the Ashanti and Tshi of Ghana. He is the husband of the malevolent river-goddess Katarwiri.

Tenye Te'en (African mythology)

The Nigerian goddess of marital fidelity.

Top�tine (Other mythologies)

The goddess of fire, mother of nU'tapa. She assumes to shape of a jaguar.

Tsiyayoji (Native American mythology)

'Meadowlark Woman.' Tsiyayoji provides the ashes that are necessary to render enemy scalps harmless.

Zat-badar (African mythology)

The goddess of the sun of the Axumite religion, Ethiopia. Zat-badar was known as early as the fifth century BCE.

'Uwardaw (African mythology)

A goddess of nature among the Maguzawa (Hausa) people of Nigeria.