Artemis
Virgin huntress goddess of the wild, Artemis dances with silver sandals by land and rides a silver chariot across the sky to shoot her silver arrows of moonlight to earth. Artemis is protectress of the wild beasts and friend of mortals. Since Roman times, Artemis has been thought to be associated with Diana and referred to as a moon goddess, although this is not part of her more ancient history. Her twin Apollo has a golden bow with which he is skilled at warcraft.
Ishtar
According to the Babylonian pantheon, Ishtar was personification of planet Venus. Her cult was associated with sexuality in the holy city Erech, the town of the sacred courtesans, in which Ishtar herself was known as courtesan of the gods.
Assyrian and Babylonian Ishtar was replaced by later Sumerian Inanna, and many speculate her to be the same deity. Semitic goddesses Astarte, Anunit, Atarsamain and Esther have also been considered alternative names for Ishtar. They are known as goddesses of love, fertility and sometimes war.
Ishtar is famous as goddesss who descended into the underworld. In this myth, she approaches the gates of the underworld and forcefully demands the gatekeeper to open the gates. He then rushes to queen of the underworld, Ereshkigal, who allows her to enter, but according to the ancient decree. So as the gatekeeper opens one gate at a time, Ishtar enters each one, shedding an article of clothing as she passes. Walking naked through the seventh and final gate, Ishtar becomes angry and throws herself at Ereshkigal, who then orders her servant Namtar to imprison Ishtar and unleash sixty diseases against her. Upon her arrival on earth, all sexual activity came to a halt.
At this king of the gods Ea orders the name of the great gods to be invoked against Ereshkigal, also demanding the waters of life from her. Ereshkigal has to give it, and it is used to revive Ishtar. As Ishtar transcends the material realm to go back to her transcendental world, she reclaims her veils at each of the seven gates and is fully clothes as she exits the last gate, a journey famously called dance of the seven veils. This myth prefigures Cybele and Attis, Aphrodite and Adonis, Demeter and Persephone, Hadad and Anat and Osiris and Isis.
Inanna
Goddess of love and war, Inanna became famous as early as the Uruk period, over 5000 years ago. The famous Uruk vase depicts a painting of a row of naked men carrying various offerings to female figure, Inanna, who is facing king of gods Ea, both dressed for a ceremonial marriage. Mythologically, Inanna was seen about the town, dragging men out of the taverns and having sex with them.
So many shrines were placed in her honor along the Tigris and Euphrates river. Inanna's name may come from Sumerian nin, meaning lady, or possibly originates from Sumerian moon god nanna. Her consort was Dumuzi; their sacred marriage took place on new year of spring equinox. Late Sumerian kings established their kingship by taking place of Damuzi for one night in her temple during the new year festival. Her symbol is an eight pointed star, and she is associated with lions, often depicted riding the backs of two lionesses.
In one story, Inanna tricked father god Enki. By getting him drunk, she got him to give her his hundreds or thousands of mays (which could mean anything from truth to weavings to prostitution). After sobering up, he sent might sea monsters to stop her boat as it sailed the Euphrates but she got away with the loot.
Innana's reson for descent into the underworld is unclear, although the reason she give the gatekeeper is that she wants to attend the funeral rites of her brother-in-law. Some believe she did it intending to conquer the underworld from her sister, queen of the underworld, Erishkigal. Inanna dressed elaborately for the visit, although like Ishtar, she was made to remove her clothing at each of the seven gates down. Although she was naked standing before her sister Erishkigal, she made her sister rise from the thrown and sits down on it herself. However, the seven judges make rule on her and turn her into a corpse and hung on a hook. The only one who would help Inanna was Enki, who created two androgynous figures, gala-tura and kur-jara, who were able to sprinkle her with the waters of life and revive her. Demons followed them back to heaven to claim something for her departure from the underworld and so claimed her husband Damuzi to spend half the year down there, while his sister take his spot the other half.
Inanna is also unique from these later gods/goddesses in that she is not a mother goddess, for her capricious, war-like ways. Instead the sacred marriage involves sexual union with a goddess who represents lust and the all-consuming force of attraction. She is generally described as a terrifying goddess full of wrath, destroying the lands and gifting a river of blood to those who reject her. Giglimesh experiences her wrath when he rejects and humiliates her, calling her a shoe that mangles it's owners foot.
Astarte
Perhaps a Greek name for Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, Astarte is probably the Ashtoreth known by Hebrews and Phoenicians, Ugaritic Athtart, Akkadian Astar-tu, Ethruscan Uni-Astre, the Bronze-age Asherah and Syrian goddess Atargatis (Semetic from Atar 'atah). She appears in Ugaritic scriptures as Athtart, who hold Ba'al back from attacking the other deitites. Symbols for Astarte include the lion, horse, sphinz, dove, star, and the planet Venus.
She was paired with goddess Anat, especially in her aspect of war goddess. Astarte and Anat appear as daughters of Re, given in marriage to Set. Astarte was also identified with goddesses such as fiece Sekhmet, but moreover with Isis as mother with suckling child.
Bastet
Bastet is a war goddess, depicted as a beautiful cat in ancient Egypt and Greece. As fierce lioness, her name means devourer. Also she is protectress of pharoah and later of god Ra, so known as Eye of Ra. Originally she was a sun goddess but later became known as a moon goddess. Sometimes she was depicted as a fertility goddess, a domestic cat with many kittens.
Tara
Hindus and Buddhists alike worship Tara as divine goddess. Typically associated with Buddhist Tantra practice, Tara is the mother of liberation, teaching compassion and emptiness. She is Green Tara for enlightenment, White Tara for compassion and healing, Red Tara for magnetization of all goodness, Black Tara of power, Yellow Tara of prosperity, Blue Tara of transmutation of anger, Cittamani Tara of highest yoga tantra and Khadiravani Tara of the forest.
In Hinduism, goddess Tara, meaning Star, is second of the ten great goddesses, a manifestation of Mahadevi, Kali or Parvati, the core of the absolute, unquenchable hunger that keeps the world spinning. In epic Ramayana, Tara is Vali's queen, the monkey king killed by Rama
. In oral tradition, she saves Lord Shiva after he drank the poison that was created when the devas and demons churned the ocean of milk. Tara Ma appeared and suckled Shiva to counteract the poison, and he recovered. There is a similar story of Kali, whose rampage is stopped upon seeing baby Shiva and nursing him.
There are so many similarities in appearance of Kali and Tara, it's unmistakable. Both stand over a still-lying Lord Shiva, black Kali and blue Tara. Both wear a necklace of human heads, blood oozing from their mouths. They appear so similarly that it would be easy to mistake one for the other. However, Tara is said to be more approachable by a devotee because of her motherliness, though many Bengali's consider Kali as Ma.
Durga
Ma Durga is known to be invincible, for she is a manifestation of supreme goddess, the mother of Ganesha, Kartikeya as well of Saraswati and Laksmi. The fiercest form of Shiva's wife, Parvati, Durga has ten arms and rides a lion or tiger, carries weapons and makes divine mudras (hand gestures). She is Shakti, creative feminine energy. Goddess Durga is equisitely beautiful and blindingly bright with lotus eyes and a yellow glow from her skin, half moon on forehead. Truly she embodies a traditional male role, full in her own power.
Durga was born from river Ganges when summoned by the Holy Trinity to kill a demon that could only be defeated by a woman, named Mahish, son of Rambha. Durga's victory is celebrated as Vijaya Dashmi, the victorious tenth. Also this tenth day signifies Rama's victory in battle over Ravana.
Hathor
The Egyptians knew Hathor to be a personification of the milk that flowed from the udders of a holy cow, the personification of Milky Way. Hathor is she with two faces, although no one knows why. Her name refers to the fact that she encircles the sky and of her consort, god of sky, Horus. Another one of her names, recited for 3000 years, Mehurt refers to the Milky Way, considered a heavenly waterway sailed by sun deity and king, also thought of as the primal snake.
Coatlique
Coatlique floats in the water of Tlalocan and Mitslan, as mother earth serpent monster. She herself created the sun, and in fact she created four hundred suns, who were stars in the sky. Still she wanted a daughter, so put a ball into her abdomen and Coyolxauhqui was born, who was moon goddess. Eventually, Coatlique was beheaded and the sun, Huitzilopochtli, was born from her neck. Huitzilopochtli was honored by humans who lived on his mother earth serpent monster's back.
Shakti
Shakti is not only meaning power or force but female personification of the divine, sometimes referred to as Divine Mother. She is the active principle, sometimes worshipped as supreme being, sometimes as active energy of saktiman or male diety. Lord Vishnu's shakti counterpart is known by Laksmi, Shiva's as Shakti or Parvati. Other examples include: Brahma/Brahmani, Indra/Indrani, Skanda/Kumari, Varaha/Varahi. There are many temples devoted to Shakti in South India and throughout India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Tibet and Pakistan.
Laksmi Devi
When Brahma ordered the gods to churn the ocean of milk to obtain the nectar of immortality, Visnu gave his assistance as Avatar Kurma, the turtle who held a mountain on his back for this sport of the god and demons, the churning of the ocean of milk. Amongst other mysterious things, goddess Laksmi Devi appeared from the ocean, and she choose Lord Vishnu as her consort there and then.
Sanskrit scriptures declare Laksmi or Mahalaksmi represent wealth, fortune and beauty. Lotus flower fertility symbols in Jain, Buddhist, and especially Hindu monuments, scriptures, temples, visual art. This mother goddess is the consort of Visnu, She's Greek Aphrodite, Roman Venus (who also originated from ocean), goddess of fortune, beauty and prosperity.
Mahalaksmi is Devi in her universal form as Shakti, the efulgence of all the gods, with eighteen arms with eighteen items, string of beads, axe, maze, arrow, lightening bolt, lotus, bow, water-pot, cudgel, lance, sword, conch, bell, chalice, tident, noose and her own discus. Red in color, she seated on a lotus, Ashta Dasa Bhuja Mahalaksmi.
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