In Aphrodite …a goddess of love and fertility and even occasionally presided over marriage. Although prostitutes considered Aphrodite their patron, her public cult was generally solemn and even austere. Read More
chthonic deities
In Germanic religion and mythology: Freyja This relation of fertility goddesses with the otherworld is already illustrated by the Germanic mother goddesses or matronae, whose cult was widespread along the lower Rhine in Roman imperial times. They are often represented with chthonian symbols such as the dog, the snake, or baskets of fruit. The… Read More
Dionysus
In Dionysus …of Dionysus included spirits of fertility, such as the satyrs and sileni, and in his rituals the phallus was prominent. Dionysus often took on a bestial shape and was associated with various animals. His personal attributes were an ivy wreath, the thyrsus, and the kantharos, a large two-handled goblet. In… Read More
Perkons
In Pērkons …and order and as a fertility god. The oak, as the tree most often struck by lightning, is sacred to him. Pērkons is related in functions and image to the Slavic Perun, Germanic Thor, and Greek Zeus. Read More
Virgo
In Virgo …is variously identified as a fertility goddess (the Babylonian and Assyrian Ishtar, among others) or the harvest maiden (the Greek Persephone and others). Read More
religions
ancient European
In Baltic religion: Conclusion The third characteristic is the fertility cult. Here the primary force is the personified earth, called Mother, with all her functions and characteristics. It must be understood that the concept of a fertility cult entails a wider meaning, that of the assurance of human welfare in general. Read More
Aztec
In pre-Columbian civilizations: Deities …of central Mexico had worshiped fertility gods for many centuries when the Aztec invaded the valley. The cult of these gods remained extremely important in Aztec religion. Tlaloc, the giver of rain but also the wrathful deity of lightning, was the leader of a group of rain gods, the Tlaloques,… Read More
Indian
In India: Trends in early Indian society …major deities, as seen in fertility cults, in the worship of mother goddesses, in the Shakta-Shakti cult, and in Tantrism. (See Shaktism.) Less widespread but popular, particularly in the urban areas, were the more puritanical sects of Buddhism and Jainism and the bhakti Read More
In India: Religion … religion and even more widespread fertility cults. The distinctions between the three were not clearly demarcated in practice; rites and concepts from each flowed into the other. The formal worship of Vishnu and Shiva had the support of the elite. Temples dedicated to Vaishnava and Shaiva deities were the most… Read More
Middle Eastern
In Middle Eastern religion: Nature: the framework of ideas and practices The forms that the fertility rites assumed varied from region to region, depending on climate and geography. Rain and dew were all-important in Canaan but of little significance in Egypt. In both areas water was crucial, but the source of the life-giving water was entirely different. The agricultural year… Read More
In Mesopotamian religion: Stages of religious development …of the “dying god” (a fertility deity displaying death and regeneration characteristics) but show variant traits according to whether they are powers of fertility worshipped by marsh dwellers, orchard growers, herders, or farmers. This stage may be tentatively dated back to the 4th millennium bce and even earlier. A second… Read More
polytheism
In polytheism: Natural forces and objects …identifications in rites connected with fertility. The sun’s vitality is seen in the cyclical effects of causing things to grow and wither. Moreover, because of its dominance of the world, the sun is often seen as all-knowing, and thus sky gods of various cultures tend to be highly powerful and… Read More
In Native American dance: Religious expression in dance …deities, whereas women symbolize actual fertility. In Iroquois ceremonies, women represent the Three Life-Giving Sisters—i.e., the spirits of corn (maize), beans, and squash, with no mimetic representation. Similarly, Pueblo women promote plant and human fertility by their symbolic dancing. Read More
ancient Near East sacraments
In sacrament: Sacramental ideas and practices in the ancient Near East …were centred mainly in the fertility of the soil, its products, and in the succession of the seasons. This centralization was most apparent in the ancient Near East in and after the 4th millennium bc. A death and resurrection sacred drama arose around the fertility motif, in which a perpetual… Read More
Bronze Age hoarding
In history of Europe: Rituals, religion, and art …been interpreted as relating to fertility rites and agricultural production. Because the location and composition of hoards vary locally as well as through time, however, they may embody more than one meaning. Read More
feast and festival
In feast: Concepts of sacred times …(or Tammuz) or Marduk, major fertility deities, at a ziggurat (tower temple), after which the people participated in feasting, dancing, and other appropriate ritualistic activities. Read More
In feast: Carnivals and saturnalias …a seasonal renewal festival incorporating fertility motifs, the celebrations included ball games that often turned into riots between opposing villages. Feasts of pancakes and much drinking followed the contests. This tradition of merrymaking continues, for example, in the United States in the Mardi Gras festival on Shrove Tuesday in Louisiana. Read More
marriage
In marriage: Marriage rituals Fertility rites intended to ensure a fruitful marriage exist in some form in all ceremonies. Some of the oldest rituals still to be found in contemporary ceremonies include the prominent display of fruits or of cereal grains that may be sprinkled over the couple or… Read More
masks
In mask: Therapeutic uses …has been widely used for fertility rituals. The Iroquois, for instance, used corn husk masks at harvest rituals to give thanks for and to achieve future abundance of crops. Perhaps the most renowned of the masked fertility rites held by Native Americans are those still performed by the Hopi and… Read More
sacrifices
In sacrifice: Bloodless offerings …other rites concerned with the fertility and fecundity of the soil. These plants have been regarded as especially embodying the life-force of the deified earth and are frequently buried or plowed into the soil to replenish and reactivate its energies. Read More
In sacrifice: Fertility Another distinctive feature of the first-fruits offering is that it serves to replenish the sacred potencies of the earth depleted by the harvest and to ensure thereby the continued regeneration of the crop. Thus, it is one of many sacrificial rites that have as… Read More
tragedy
In tragedy: Origins in Greece …conjectured that tragedy originated in fertility feasts to commemorate the harvest and the vintage and the associated ideas of the death and renewal of life. The purpose of such rituals is to exercise some influence over these vital forces. Whatever the original religious connections of tragedy may have been, two… Read More
