MARIAMMAN is a Hindu Goddess of fertility and rain. She is Mother Earth, worshipped especially in southern India and by Tamils around the world. Mariamman is often identified with Shitala, the Goddess of smallpox, and as such, she is also said to be able to cure disease. The rain she brings washes villages clean, taking the disease away. Mariamman is usually depicted with a reddish hue to her skin, and she wears a red dress. In some villages, she is represented only by a stone in the ground, symbolizing her head-the whole village is seen as her body.
One myth that explains Mariamman's origin says that she was once a beautiful woman named Nagavali. One day, while her husband was out, the Trimurti (a three-headed figure representing Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva) came to see if the stories of her beauty and virtue were true. Not knowing them, Nagavali turned the Gods into little children. They then cursed her-her beauty faded away to be replaced by pox, which she carried to the people around her. She then became known as Mariamman, "the goddess who changed". Alternative versions of her name include MARIAMMA, MARIKA, AMMAN, MARI, MAHAMAAYI, and MAARIAMMA.
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SATIS is the Egyptian Goddess of the Nile floods and fertility. She is associated with the star Sirius, which the Egyptians called Sothis, because its return to the night sky heralded the beginning of the flood season. Her temple at Elephantine was built to align with the position of the star. Satis also protected the southern border of Egypt; her name means "one who shoots" and the hieroglyph for her name included an animal skin pierced by an arrow. Her association with fertility comes from the fact that the Nile floods resulted in very fertile soil. Her name is also seen as SATET, SATES, SATI, and SATJIT.
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OTHER NAMES
Bastet, Ubasti, Baset, Baast, Lady of Flame, Eye of Ra, Ailuros, Perfumed Protector, Pacht, Pasch
ASSOCIATIONS
"Deity": Artemis, Sekhmet
"Animal": Cat"s, Lions
"Symbol": Sistrum, Aegis
FAMILY & OTHER CONNECTIONS
Bast was sister to Sekhmet and their parents were Ra and Atum. Or alternatively she was sister to Horus and the daughter of Osiris and Isis. Wife of Ptah, mother of Mihos. Bast became associated with Wadjet, eventually the two becoming Wadjet-Bast.
INFORMATION the cat-headed goddess is certainly easy to recognise and remember. She was a local deity whose worship was centered in the city of Bubastis or 'House of Bast'. The 'Bastet' variant of her name has been translated to mean 'she of the ointment jar' and Bast was known as a goddess of perfumes. In this role she was seen as wife to Anubis, god of embalming, despite other stories giving her as his mother.
Bast was given one of the Divine Eyes in the form of Uraeus, the serpent of wisdom, by Ra as a reward for defending him against Apep. As a lion goddess, Bast was patron and protector to Lower Egypt, but when it lost in the wars against Upper Egypt Bast took on a less threatening form; that of a cat. In this guise she was recognised as a good mother, and Egyptian women wanting children would honour her.
MAGIC
Goddess of music, dance, pleasure and fertility, Bast was protector of women and children as well as domestic cats. Bast is also associated with qualities of the lion, such as strength, agility and loyalty.
MISC
Bast was a sun goddess for most of the time she was being worshipped, but as she became known more as a cat goddess than a lion goddess, so also did she turn into a moon goddess. Cats were particularly revered in Egypt as they would keep the grain stores free from rats. Some Egyptians even had their cats mummified and buried with them in tombs.
Her feast day was celebrated on October 31st.
PICTURES
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