A Compendium of the Ancient Gods

Themes

Ancestor and spirit

44 gods of ancestor and spirit, across nine rooms, in the order the rooms are walked.

The Cradle of Cities

3 works

Lamassu, plate
Lamassu la-mas-su The Protective Spirit — winged bull of the gates
Lugalbanda, plate
Lugalbanda lu-gal-ban-da Father of Gilgamesh — Eighth King of the First Dynasty of Uruk
Shedu, plate
Shedu she-du The Male Guardian Spirit

The Gift of the Nile

3 works

Banebdjedet, plate
Banebdjedet ba-nebd-je-det The Ram of Mendes — soul of Osiris in the Delta
Imhotep, plate
Imhotep im-ho-tep The Deified Sage — Old Kingdom architect, god of medicine
Shai, plate
Shai shai Personified destiny — the fate that walks beside each soul

The Olympian Order

7 works

Actaeon, plate
Actaeon ak-tee-on The Theban hunter, torn by his own hounds for seeing Artemis bathing
Aeneas, plate
Aeneas eh-nee-as Trojan prince and son of Aphrodite — survivor of Troy, ancestor of Rome
Helen, plate
Helen hel-en Daughter of Zeus and Leda — wife of Menelaus, cause of the Trojan War
Hyacinthus, plate
Hyacinthus high-uh-sin-thus The Spartan youth beloved of Apollo, slain by the discus
Iapetus, plate
Iapetus eye-ap-eh-tus Father of Prometheus and Atlas
Morpheus and the Oneiroi, plate
Morpheus and the Oneiroi mor-fee-us and the oh-nye-roy The Shapers of Dreams — Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasos
Oedipus, plate
Oedipus ed-ih-pus King of Thebes, who slew his father and married his mother in ignorance

The Persian World

1 work

The Fravashis, plate
The Fravashis the fra-va-shis Ancestral Souls — pre-existent and post-mortem guardian spirits

The Levantine Borderlands

1 work

Obodas, plate
Obodas o-bo-das The Deified Nabataean King — royal apotheosis at Avdat

The Edges of Empire

4 works

Bandua, plate
Bandua ban-dua The Local Tutelary Deity — patron of the small Lusitanian community
Donbettyr, plate
Donbettyr don-bet-tyr God of the Waters — lord of the rivers and the sea
The Thracian Horseman, plate
The Thracian Horseman the thra-cian hor-se-man Heros — votive hero-cult of the deified ancestor
Zalmoxis, plate
Zalmoxis zal-mok-sis The Deified Hero — Thracian teacher of the immortal soul

The Etruscan World

1 work

The Lasa, plate
The Lasa the la-sa Female Spirits — companions of Turan

The Roman Inheritance

10 works

Aeneas, plate
Aeneas eh-nee-as The Pious Trojan — Founder of the Roman Lineage
Genius, plate
Genius ge-nius Personal Divine Companion
Genius Augusti, plate
Genius Augusti ge-nius au-gus-ti The Numen of the Emperor — divine spirit of the ruling Augustus
Lares, plate
Lares la-res Household and Crossroads Spirits
Lemures, plate
Lemures le-mu-res Restless Dead — the Unappeased Spirits
Manes, plate
Manes ma-nes Ancestral Spirits — the Honored Dead
Mania, plate
Mania ma-nia The Mother of the Manes — old goddess of the spirits of the dead
Pietas, plate
Pietas pie-tas The Goddess of Right Devotion
Quirinus, plate
Quirinus kwee-ree-nus Deified Romulus — Third God of the Archaic Roman Triad
Romulus, plate
Romulus ro-mu-lus Founder of Rome — Deified as Quirinus

The Northern Inheritance

14 works

Borr and Bestla, plate
Borr and Bestla borr and best-la The Parents of Odin — son of the first man, daughter of the giants
Danu, plate
Danu da-nu Mother of the Tuatha Dé — Irish Ancestral Goddess
Dazhbog, plate
Dazhbog dazh-bog Solar God — Giver of Wealth
Domovoi, plate
Domovoi do-mo-voi Household Spirit — The Old Man of the House
Gefjon, plate
Gefjon gef-jon The Goddess Who Plowed Zealand from Sweden — patroness of virgins
Heimdallr, plate
Heimdallr heim-dallr Watchman of the Gods — Guardian of Bifrost
Awaiting its plate
Hiisi hii-si The Finnish Forest-Demon — and the place that is his haunt
Māra, plate
Māra mā-ra The Latvian Earth-Mother — patroness of cattle, of women, and of the household
Midir and Étaín, plate
Midir and Étaín mi-dir and é-taín The Lovers of the Fairy Mound — recovered through three lives
Rod, plate
Rod rod The Slavic Creator God — eldest power, fount of generation
Rusalka, plate
Rusalka ru-sal-ka Water Spirit — Drowned Maiden of the River
The Rozhanitsy, plate
The Rozhanitsy the roz-ha-nit-sy The Slavic Birth-Givers — fate-spinning sisters, like the Norns
Tuisto and Mannus, plate
Tuisto and Mannus tuis-to and man-nus The Germanic Earth-Born and his Son — primordial ancestors of the German peoples
Awaiting its plate
Turul tu-rul The Mythical Bird — Founder of the Magyar Royal House — Hungarian

Floor plan

The rooms follow one another in the order their peoples first appear in the written record.

  1. The Cradle of Citiesc. 3400 BCE to 395 CE. 115 works
  2. The Gift of the Nilec. 4000 BCE to 395 CE. 73 works
  3. The Olympian Orderc. 1600 BCE to 750 CE. 152 works
  4. The Persian Worldc. 2000 BCE to 1010 CE. 30 works
  5. The Levantine Borderlandsc. 1200 BCE to 500 CE. 20 works
  6. The Edges of Empirec. 2000 BCE to 1500 CE. 33 works
  7. The Etruscan Worldc. 900 BCE to 750 CE. 22 works
  8. The Roman Inheritancec. 1200 BCE to 500 CE. 58 works
  9. The Northern Inheritancec. 2000 BCE to 1600 CE. 131 works