This thread has been wikified.

The objective is to collate the names of deities created by humans to give some meaning to the world around them. For the purposes of this project, and loosely speaking, a 'god' is something that is used to explain natural phenomena in the absence of proper naturalistic understanding. This includes 'personifications' of natural phenomena, motive spirits, and spirits used to explain incidents such as lottery wins, drownings, cot/crib death, and so on. The unnamed god of intelligent design creationism counts here too.

Improvements to the wiki can be discussed here.

Cihuateteo is a collective noun and not a distinct single divine figure, Mictlan is a place, Acolmiztli and Acolnahuacatl were both entirely human rulers or reasonably certain historicity later discussed in terms of death symbolism (notably in Codex Chimalpahin - Acolmiztli ruled in Coatlinchan roughly circa the late 1300s / early 1400s). I am disappoint.

Hey, don't diss the list. I'm a god!

dylan wrote:Hey, don't diss the list. I'm a god!

Yes. Yes, I believe you are.

I've gotten quite attached to poor old Acolmiztli over the years and I just thought it was time someone spoke up for the guy.

I haven't checked but I bet Ehecatl is in there. Ehecatl just means 'wind' and I suspect his/its inclusion might just imply that people don't believe in wind. Sure, it can be embarrassing at an inopportune moment but refusing to believe in it seems counterproductive to me.

War Arrow wrote:Cihuateteo is a collective noun and not a distinct single divine figure, Mictlan is a place, Acolmiztli and Acolnahuacatl were both entirely human rulers or reasonably certain historicity later discussed in terms of death symbolism (notably in Codex Chimalpahin - Acolmiztli ruled in Coatlinchan roughly circa the late 1300s / early 1400s). I am disappoint.

Well, based only on a quick check at Wikipedia, the articles agree with you on the first two, although the Cihuateteo article mentions there is a singular form. Whereas this article mentions the last two as referencing a god, with a particular man who took the god's name in his honor. Maybe it's wrong? It's just Wikipedia, I wouldn't rule that out.

If this is an area of expertise/interest for you, perhaps the list here and Wikipedia could benefit from it.

Yes. Wikipedia. Cihuateteo simply means Goddesses (the duplication of te followed by teo signifies the plural). Acolmiztli is better translated as "Lion of the Acolhua" (miztli is 'feline' rather than literally lion (there being no indigenous lions, except I suppose mountain lions) but it's in the chivalric sense) and Nezahualcoyotl* was the most celebrated ruler of the Acolhua people (of Texcoco and Coatlinchan) so that was more in the sense of an honorific title. Naming oneself after a death god was a bit of a no no.

Er... I think I just made a MAJOR derail of my own thread. Probably better lock this, otherwise I'll just bang on about this
shite for days.

*: Famously credited with a number of poems questioning human understanding of the supernatural and whether it was all merely imagination. The Conquistadores of course took this to mean that even then these people suspected the lies of their beliefs and that there was really ONE TRUE GOD etc etc...

By the way... I am just kidding around. I'm not seriously affronted by that list.

It wouldn't bother me, either way. I just figure the people compiling that list would prefer it to be accurate, even if their count drops a bit.

War Arrow wrote:Cihuateteo is a collective noun and not a distinct single divine figure, Mictlan is a place, Acolmiztli and Acolnahuacatl were both entirely human rulers or reasonably certain historicity later discussed in terms of death symbolism (notably in Codex Chimalpahin - Acolmiztli ruled in Coatlinchan roughly circa the late 1300s / early 1400s). I am disappoint.

Thanks War Arrow, I'll update the list database. Any more changes?

Made of Stars wrote:

War Arrow wrote:Cihuateteo is a collective noun and not a distinct single divine figure, Mictlan is a place, Acolmiztli and Acolnahuacatl were both entirely human rulers or reasonably certain historicity later discussed in terms of death symbolism (notably in Codex Chimalpahin - Acolmiztli ruled in Coatlinchan roughly circa the late 1300s / early 1400s). I am disappoint.

Thanks War Arrow, I'll update the list database. Any more changes?

Er... how many are on the list so far? I'll happily have a look through providing it isn't a whole morning's work.

Re. Pan-Africa: This refers to the Pan of Africa, as distinct from the Pan of Europe.

some Muisca* gods

Xue/Sue: sun god
Chia: moon goddess
Bochica: civilizational god/hero
Bachue: the mother of mankind

* The Muisca were the people who lived at the Colombian central Altiplano (where capital Bogota is located) at the arrival of the Spanish.

Bookmarking

jparada wrote:some Muisca* gods

Xue/Sue: sun god
Chia: moon goddess
Bochica: civilizational god/hero
Bachue: the mother of mankind

* The Muisca were the people who lived at the Colombian central Altiplano (where capital Bogota is located) at the arrival of the Spanish.

[derail]Yowza! Fascinating stuff - I take a passing interest in them as I believe they belong to the Uto-Aztecan language stream so there seem to be some parallels with Central Mexico (certainly the were-jaguar types). [/derail]

You could probably add the Rain Baby too - no-one actually knows what he was called as there's not much evidence of what language was spoke by the Olmecs (though Mixe-Zoque seems to be the frontrunner last time I looked).

'Kalevanpojat' actually refers to 12 different heroes, all giant sons of Kalev. What you might be looking for is the one specifically called 'Kalevanpoika' or, rather, 'Kalevipoeg', who happens to be an integral character in Estonian mythology (Which, admittedly, we stole from the Finns).

Not gods per se, but claimed to be responsible for many national phenomena, so probably applicable.

How about my mate nyaminyami?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyami_Nyami

War Arrow wrote:

jparada wrote:some Muisca* gods

Xue/Sue: sun god
Chia: moon goddess
Bochica: civilizational god/hero
Bachue: the mother of mankind

* The Muisca were the people who lived at the Colombian central Altiplano (where capital Bogota is located) at the arrival of the Spanish.

[derail]Yowza! Fascinating stuff - I take a passing interest in them as I believe they belong to the Uto-Aztecan language stream so there seem to be some parallels with Central Mexico (certainly the were-jaguar types). [/derail]

You could probably add the Rain Baby too - no-one actually knows what he was called as there's not much evidence of what language was spoke by the Olmecs (though Mixe-Zoque seems to be the frontrunner last time I looked).

Oh no, Uto-aztecan languages were never spoken in Colombia. They belong only to the Southwest US and Central Mexico last time i checked. The Muisca spoke a Chibchan language. The chibchan family hypothetically had its urheimat at the Atlantic coast of Central America and from there spread into Colombia. Check at wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chibchan

Thanks guys, keep posting. I'm a bit busy ATM, but will update the list when I get a chance.