See Also: Aboriginal Mythology
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The Zodiac
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Mythos
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It is important to remember that there were very many different, and isolated, tribes in Australia in the long ago past; therefore there are many gods/goddesses with the same function but different names, and stories, according to each tribe. As is noted, some of these myths are native to New Zealand, some to Australia.
Alinga:
Sun goddess.
Anjea:
goddess who forms infants from mud and places them into the mother's uterus.
Apunga: goddess of small plants.
Arahuta: (
New Zealand) Star goddess. Wife of Maunu'ura, the
god of Mars.
Ariki:
(
New Zealand) A star goddess.
Arohirohi:
(
New Zealand) Sun goddess.
Biame:
The "Great One," or creator.
Bila:
The cannibal sun
goddess. She provided light for the world by cooking her victims over a giant flame.
Lizard Man was appalled by these acts and
tried to kill her. She turned herself into a ball of fire and fled, leaving the world in darkness. He threw his boomerang at her, catching her and making
her move in a slow arc across the sky. This brought light back to the world.
Boaliri:
The younger of the two sister
goddesses that created life. The other was Waimariwi.
Bunbulama:
goddess of the rain.
Cunnembeille:
Wife of
Biame. She lives in the heavens with him and his other wife,
Birrahgnooloo.
Dilga:
goddess of justice. Dilga became very angry when two of her children were killed by the "cat man" and his relatives. Milk flowed from her breasts
so copiously it formed a stream that reached to where the murderers lived and drowned them. It also resuscitated her children and brought them back
to life.
((gross!))
Djanggawul Sisters:
Daughters of the sun, these Australian
goddesses unceasingly brought forth living creatures from their endlessly pregnant bodies. Their long vulvas
broke off piece by piece with these births, producing the world's first sacred artifacts.
Eingana:
The Australian natives call her,
Mother Eingana, the world-creator, the birth mother, maker of all water, land, animals, and kangaroos. This huge
snake goddess still lives, they say, in the
Dreamtime, rising up occasionally to create yet more life. This primordial snake had no vagina; as her
offspring grew inside her, the goddess swelled up. Eventually, tortured with the pregnancy, Eingana began to roll around and around. The
god
Barraiya saw her agony and speared her near the anus so that birth could take place as all creatures now give birth. She is also the death mother.
They say Eingana holds a sinew of life attached to each of her creatures; when she lets it go, that life stops. If she herself should die, they say
everything would cease to exist.
Erathipa:
A huge boulder in the shape of a pregnant woman bears this name. It is said that the souls of dead children reside within it, and that if a woman of
child-bearing age walks by a soul slips from the boulder and into her womb to be reborn.
Gidja:
god of the
moon.
Gnowee:
The sun goddess of an aboriginal people of southeast
Australia. The legend goes that Gnowee once lived on the earth at a time when the sky was
always dark and people walked around carrying torches in order to see. One day while Gnowee was out gathering yams, her baby son wandered off.
She set out to search for him, carrying a huge torch, but never found him. To this day she still climbs the sky daily, carrying her torch, trying to find
her son.
Haumia:
(
/
New Zealand)
god of wild plants.
Hine titama:
(
New Zealand) Ancestor goddess who later became the ruler of the underworld. Hine titama fled to the underworld when she discovered that she had
married her own father and had borne him children.
Ingridi:
A "
dreamtime" goddess.
Julana:
Chief
god of the
Jumu tribe.
Julunggul:
goddess of initiations.
Junkgowa:
An ancestor goddess who lived during the "
dreamtime". She was a multiple goddess (the Junkgowa Sisters) who created the ocean, and all the fish
therein.
Karora:
The creator, according to the
Bandicoot clan of the
Arandan aborigines of Australia.
Lia:
A water goddess.
Madalait:
A creator
goddess.
Makara, The:
Seven sisters who became the constellation
Pleiades.
Nabudi, The:
goddesses of illness.
Palpinkalare:
goddess of justice.
Papa:
(
/
New Zealand)
goddess of the earth.
Rangi:
(
/
New Zealand) god of the sky.
Rongo:
(
Maori (
New Zealand) god of cultivated plants.
Tane:
(
Maori/
New Zealand) god of the woodlands.
Tangaroa:
(
Maori/
New Zealand) god of the sea.
Tawhiri-ma-tea:
(
Maori/
New Zealand) god of storms.
Tomituka:
goddess of rain.
Tu:
(
Maori/
New Zealand)
god of war.
Ungamilia:
goddess of the evening star.
Walo:
The Australian aboriginals called the sun
goddess by this name and said that she lived with her daughter
Bara and her sister-in-law, the world mother
Madalait, far to the east. Each day Walo journeyed across the sky accompanied by Bara, until one day the sun
goddess realized that the reason the
earth was so parched was their combined heat. She sent her daughter back to the east so that the earth could become fertile and bloom.
Waramurungundi:
The first woman.
Wati Kutjarra:
This Western Australian term means "two men" and refers to the two male ancestors of mortals who taught the people to keep in touch with
Dreamtime. (
Dreamtime is always present and is the source of all life.)
Wawalag Sisters:
The civilizers of Australia, these two mythic women wandered the continent domesticating plants into edible foodstuffs, evolving language for each
territory, and naming all the land's creatures.
Wuluwaid:
A male rainmaker.
Wuragag:
The first man, and husband to
Waramurungundi.
Wuriupranili:
This sun
goddess was said to light bark into a torch, carrying the flame through the sky from east to west. At the western sea, she dipped it in the
water, then used the embers to guide her under the earth to reach her eastern starting point again. The brilliant skies of dawn and dusk, it was said,
came from her red-ochre body paints misting up into the sky as she powdered and beautified her body.
Wurrunna:
A culture hero with many folklore tales of his wanderings.
Yhi: goddess of light
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Mythos