Athena is one of the twelve gods of Olympus. She is Zeus’ daughter by the nymph Metis. Athena was actually born fully formed, and fully armed, from Zeus’ forehead, as He had swallowed Metis whole when He learned that any son she bore Him would overthrow his father. Athena is protective of the image of the gods. She supports mortals who are pious, and punishes those who She feels are not. In one myth, She is said to have challenged the mortal woman Arachne to a weaving contest after Arachne bragged of her skill. Both Athena and Arachne produced flawless…

Lan Tsai-Ho is the mountebank of the Chinese Eight Immortals. She poses as a wandering singer, denouncing this fleeting life and its delusive pleasures1. The basket of flowers she carries is full of plants associated with longevity—chrysanthemums, plum blossoms, pine, bamboo, etc. Lan Tsai-Ho is sometimes represented as a woman and sometimes as a young, male child; she may also be presented as a hermaphrodite. She is often drunk, or pretends to be, and gathers a group of followers while singing and capering through towns. When she has money, she usually throws it on the ground for poor. In the…

Norse mythology has never been a great interest of mine. I will freely admit to first discovering Verdandi in the guise of Belldandy, in the manga Ah, My Goddess!. There she is a lovely goddess who, with her two sisters, has come to earth to help a collage student named Keiichi Morisato. In the anime and manga, she is an exceptional kind person who goes out of her way to help people. How I could I not help but like her, and maybe wish I was a little bit like her. Verdandi, though, is a bit different than Belldandy. She…

It has been a long time since I posted my last Adopt-a-Deity entry. Inspiration for another entry came to me when I was listening to Bananarama’s Venus. Venus (similar to the Greek Aphrodite), is the Roman goddess of love and beauty, although it is believed that She may have originally been a vegetation goddess. She is the daughter of Jupiter, and the lover or both Mars and Vulcan. Most of her Roman mythology matches that of Aphrodite—trysts with Mars (Ares), being given as a wife to Vulcan (Hephaestus), mother of Cupid (Eros), etc. Another aspect of Venus, that of Venus…

My summer cold continues, and since I can hardly stay awake, I didn’t feel much like writing anything witty and/or interesting. It’s been ages since I had an Adopt-a-Deity entry, so I thought it was about time I posted one. (Yes, I am able to do research while sick. It’s a skill that I picked up in university.) Chang-O (also Chang-Er, Chang-e, Hang-O) is the Chinese Goddess of the Moon and sister to the river god He-bo (He-po, Ho-po, Bing-yi, Ping-i) and wife to Yi (Hau-yi, Hou-yi, Shen-yi), the Celestial Archer. She is perhaps best known for stealing a potion…

Adopt-a-Deity is new project of Delphi Coven, one of the online groups that I am a part of. The idea is to research a deity that you are unfamiliar with and present your findings to the group so that everyone can learn a little bit about a new god or goddess. Since I am totally enamored with the Egyptian pantheon, I chose an Egyptian goddess. My A-a-D piece is below. Heqet (also Heqtit, Heket, Hekat) is the Egyptian frog-headed goddess of childbirth. To Ancient Egyptians, who at certain times of the year witnessed thousands of frogs along the banks of…