A Goddess is a female deity. In some cultures Goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, Goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing. They can be figureheads of religions and can be accessed in modern times by religious statues.
In some religions, a sacred feminine archetype can occupy a very central place in prayer and worship. In Hinduism, Sacred Feminine or Shaktism is one of the three major Hindu denominations of worship along with Vishnu and Shiva. In Tibetan Buddhism, the highest achievement any person can achieve is to become like the "great" female Buddhas (e.g. Arya Tara) who are depicted as being supreme protectors, fearless and filled with compassion for all beings.
The primacy of a monotheistic or near-monotheistic "Great Goddess" is advocated by some modern matriarchists as a female version of, preceding, or analogue to, the Abrahamic God associated with the historical rise of monotheism in the Mediterranean Axis Age.
Some currents of Neopaganism, in particular Wicca, have a bitheistic concept of a single Goddess and a single God, who in hieros gamos represent a united whole. Polytheistic reconstructionists focus on reconstructing polytheistic religions, including the various goddesses and figures associated with indigenous cultures.
The noun goddess is a secondary formation, combining the Germanic god with the Latinate -ess suffix. It is first attested in Middle English, from about 1350.
Read more about Goddess: Hinduism, Metaphorical Use
Other articles related to "goddess":
... Ashima was a West Semitic goddess of fate related to the Akkadian goddess Shimti ("fate"), who was a goddess in her own right but also a title of other goddesses such as Damkina and Ishtar ... (In the same way, the name of the goddess Asherah appears in alternate verses with Elath to indicate that both names refer to the same goddess) ... The Hebrew Bible states that the goddess should not be worshiped, but that the Samaritans nevertheless worshiped her, together with other deities, clandestinely ...
... presented in the earliest media as a heroic "warrior goddess," a capable female fighter—one imbued with the spirits of great warriors of the past—who roams the deserted landscapes of Eternia atop a unicorn ... Teela explains that, twenty years earlier, Skeletor captured the Goddess (a.k.a ... His plan was to raise the child as an evil version of the Goddess ...
... The term "goddess" has also been adapted to poetic and secular use as a complimentary description of a non-mythological woman ... to Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream ("O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!"), Berowne to Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost ("A woman I forswore but I will prove, Thou being a goddess, I forswore ... Pisanio also compares Imogen to a goddess to describe her composure under duress in Cymbeline ...
... god of wisdom, derived from the Mesopotamian god Enki Alalus - primordial entity Arinna - sun goddess and consort of Tarhunt Arinniti - sun goddess, possibly ... Arma - minor moon god Aruna, god of the sea and son of Kamrusepa Aserdus - goddess of fertility and wife of Elkunirsa Elkunirsa - creator god and husband of Aserdus Ellel - god of the sky ... Halki - god of grain Hannahannah - mother goddess Hanwasuit - goddess of sovereignty Hapantali - pastors goddess Hasameli - god of metalworkers and craftsmen Hatepuna - daughter of the sea Huttellurra ...
... In Ireland, there are numerous holy wells dedicated to the goddess Brighid ... At Bath Minerva was identified with the goddess Sulis, whose cult there centred on the thermal springs ... sea goddesses include Fand, her sister Lí Ban, and the mother-goddess of the Fomorians, Domnu ...
Famous quotes containing the word goddess:
“The Moon! Artemis! the great goddess of the splendid past of men! Are you going to tell me she is a dead lump?”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Vulgarity is, in reality, nothing but a modern, chic, pert descendant of the goddess Dullness.”
—Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)
“Her track, where’er the Goddess roves,
Glory pursue, and generous Shame,
Th’ unconquerable Mind, and Freedom’s holy flame.”
—Thomas Gray (1716–1771)