Goddesses too!  

  Lists of Gods:   This list has very brief descriptions of a variety of gods.   http://www.geocities.com/lavenderwater37/list.htm  

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This site calls itself the Holy Database of all know Gods. Of course it doesn't have ALL the known Gods but it does have many of them, with some light hearted descriptions.  

http://www.swordfishdesign.co.uk/_database/index.html  

The site has its own database search engine. A search on Love Gods included:  

Database Entry on TLAZOLTEOTIL  Country: Aztec
Area: n/a
Gender:
Attributes:
Also known as: TLAELQUANI, TLAZOLTÉOTIL, TLAZOLTEOTL
 
Details of TLAZOLTEOTIL:
 
The Eater of Excrement. Do you really want further details? Well, okay, if you insist. She's the Goddess of Filth and Spiritual Uncleanliness. Especially in the sexual line. If you have a filthy mind or you want to dig the dirt, just turn to her. She's ready to hear all your confessions and will delight in gobbling up your filthy thoughts. This will hopefully leave you feeling pure and clean. But be careful - you could run the risk of being flayed alive. Ironically she's often seen as a statuette in craft shops, sold as a Love Goddess giving birth.  
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God and Chocolate  

http://mnl_1221.tripod.com/chocolate.html  

chocolate Jesus? an excerpt:  

On the Internet I found a different “Chocolate Jesus” (Shane Ryan
Staley, 2000), a scatological short story about an abused little boy,
skipping church, whose chocolate bar melts into a talking mini-Jesus!
Even Like Water for Chocolate, the Mexican novel (Laura Esquivel,
1992) and movie, blends foodmaking with the supernatural.  

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Names of God  

This list has 330 names of God as found in the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible:   http://www.characterbuildingforfamilies.com/names.html   The first 20 -

1. A consuming fire
   
2. A covert from the tempest
   
3. A God ready to pardon
   
4. A gracious and merciful God
   
5. A great high priest (Jesus)
   
6. A hiding place from the wind
   
7. A place of broad rivers and streams
   
8. A precious corner stone
   
9. A refuge from the storm
   
10. A shadow from the heat
    
11. A strength to the needy in his distress
    
12. A strength to the poor
    
13. A sure foundation
    
14. A tried stone
    
15. Abba, Father
    
16. Advocate with the Father (Jesus)
    
17. Almighty God
    
18. Alpha and Omega
    
19. Author and finisher of our faith (Jesus)
    
20. Author of eternal salvation (Jesus)

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Modern Kitchens and Kitchen Gods - for sale  

http://www.chuu.com/shop/item/00000167  

tip What are 'Kitchen Deities' ?
Wishing for prosperity and fertility, a custom prevailed in the Japanese homes to place little wooden figures on areas like the lintel in the kitchen from around the Edo period. Most of these figures are seen in pairs. They represent the two members of the 'Seven deities of Good Fortune', Daikoku (or Daikokuten) and Ebisu. Daikoku is associated with abundance in agriculture and posterity, and is usually pictured with a sack in his left hand, a mallet in his right and standing on rice bales. Ebisu is believed to bring prosperity to commerce and fishery in some communities.
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Roman Gods  

http://www.people.virginia.edu/~bgh2n/gods.html  

Greek Gods  

http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/7371/greekgods.html  

an excerpt:   I love the Greek Gods! They had lives better than soap operas and Stories better than anything! I actually went to Greece, and believe me when I say that it's the best place on Earth, because I've been a heck of a lot of places! I had the wonderful experience to take eight months off and travel. Anyway, on with the Greek Gods! Just so you know, to me the romans were stupid copycats! But I'll let you decide on your own.  

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African Gods - a lot of African Gods   http://www.mythome.org/Africanconcord.html  

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Asian Gods - a lot of Asian Gods   http://www.mythome.org/Asianconcord.html  

~~~   Unknown Gods and Goddesses   http://www.olympian-foundation.org/unknown_gods_and_goddesses_.htm   excerpt:  

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Modern Gods   http://www.angelfire.com/nj/persephone/modgod.html  

What if the ancient gods were brought up to date?  

Dionysius: Some things never change. Dionysius is God of Sex, Drugs, and rock-and-roll.

Eros: Have you seen that guy and the arrows? Definitely the God of soap operas.

Hades: God of big business (God of wealth), depression (he stays constantly in his own little underworld), and may currently be the vice-president of the US

Heista: Goddess of homemaking and houses

Hephastus: God of Geeks, preferably computer Geeks

Hera: Goddess of righteous jealousy and divorce

Hercules: God of very, very, very dumb jocks and steroids, as well as abusive husbands

Hermes: God of telecommunications (very fast, and a messenger), and yuppies (young upwardly mobile people)

Persephone: Goddess of dieting (never ate in the Underworld), make-up (Goddess of youth), heroine (seen holding opium flowers), and supermodels (see above). Also Goddess of dual mental illnesses such as manic-depression

Polyduces: God of televised sports, especially contact (great boxer)

Poseidon: God of surfing and beach bums

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Jealous and Indulgent Gods

http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/taylorgr/sxnhst/chap4.htm

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The Tale of the Lonely God

http://www.english.upenn.edu/~rbarrett/everweb/lonelygod.html

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God in the movies

http://www.unomaha.edu/~wwwjrf/greeleya.htm

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Small Gods - a book by Terry Pratchett

http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/discworld/smallgods.asp

excerpt:

Now consider the tortoise and the eagle.

The tortoise is a ground-living creature. It is impossible to live nearer the ground without being under it. Its horizons are a few inches away. It has about as good a turn of speed as you need to hunt down a lettuce. It has survived while the rest of evolution flowed past it by being, on the whole, no threat to anyone and too much trouble to eat.

And then there is the eagle. A creature of the air and high places, whose horizons go all the way to the edge of the world. Eyesight keen enough to spot the rustle of some small and squeaky creature half a mile away. All power, all control. Lightning death on wings. Talons and claws enough to make a meal of anything smaller than it is and at least take a hurried snack out of anything bigger.

And yet the eagle will sit for hours on the crag and survey the kingdoms of the world until it spots a distant movement and then it will focus, focus, focus on the small shell wobbling among the bushes down there on the desert. And it will leap . . .

And a minute later the tortoise finds the world dropping away from it. And it sees the world for the first time, no longer one inch from the ground but five hundred feet above it, and it thinks: what a great friend I have in the eagle.

And then the eagle lets go.

And almost always the tortoise plunges to its death. Everyone knows why the tortoise does this. Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off. No one knows why the eagle does this. There's good eating on a tortoise but, considering the effort involved, there's much better eating on practically anything else. It's simply the delight of eagles to torment tortoises.

But of course, what the eagle does not realize is that it is participating in a very crude form of natural selection.

One day a tortoise will learn how to fly.

The story takes place in desert lands, in shades of umber and orange. When it begins and ends is more problematical, but at least one of its beginnings took place above the snowline, thousands of miles away in the mountains around the Hub.*

One of the recurring philosophical questions is:

"Does a failing tree in the forest make a sound when there is no one to hear?"

Which says something about the nature of philosophers, because there is always someone in a forest. It may only be a badger, wondering what that cracking noise was, or a squirrel a bit puzzled by all the scenery going upwards, but someone. At the very least, if it was deep enough in the forest, millions of small gods would have heard it.

Things just happen, one after another. They don't care who knows. But history . . . ah, history is different. History has to be observed. Otherwise it's not history. It's just . . . well, things happening one after another.

And, of course, it has to be controlled. Otherwise it might turn into anything. Because history, contrary to popular theories, is kings and dates and battles. And these things have to happen at the right time. This is difficult. In a chaotic universe there are too many things to go wrong. It's too easy for a general's horse to lose a shoe at the wrong time, or for someone to mishear an order, or for the carrier of the vital message to be waylaid by some men with sticks and a cash flow problem. Then there are wild stories, parasitic growths on the tree of history, trying to bend it their way.

So history has its caretakers.

They live . . . well, in the nature of things they live wherever they are sent, but their spiritual home is in a hidden valley in the high Ramtops of the Discworld, where the books of history are kept.

These aren't books in which the events of the past are pinned like so many butterflies to a cork. These are the books from which history is derived. There are more than twenty thousand of them; each one is ten feet high, bound in lead, and the letters are so small that they have to be read with a magnifying glass.

When people say "It is writtenit is written here.

There are fewer metaphors around than people think.

Every month the abbot and two senior monks go into the cave where the books are kept. It used to be the duty of the abbot alone, but two other reliable monks were included after the unfortunate case of the 59th Abbot, who made a million dollars in small bets before his fellow monks caught up with him.

Besides, it's dangerous to go in alone. The sheer concentratedness of History, sleeting past soundlessly out into the world, can be overwhelming. Time is a drug. Too much of it kills you.

The 493rd Abbot folded his wrinkled hands and addressed Lu-Tze, one of his most senior monks. The clear air and untroubled life of the secret valley was such that all the monks were senior; besides, when you work with Time every day, some of it tends to rub off.

"The place is Omnia," said the abbot, "on the Klatchian coast."

"I remember," said Lu-Tze. "Young fellow called Ossory, wasn't there?"

"Things must be . . . carefully observed," said the abbot. "There are pressures. Free will, predestination . . . the power of symbols . . . turning-point . . . you know all about this."

"Haven't been to Omnia for, oh, must be seven hundred years," said Lu-Tze. "Dry place. Shouldn't think there's a ton of good soil in the whole country, either."

"Off you go, then," said the abbot.

"I shall take my mountains," said Lu-Tze. "The climate will be good for them."

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And a final note: No pictures of Gods were used in this issue. Why? Oh those Gods! Have you ever tried to take a picture of a multiheaded god? No? Hah. You try appeasing some pan-dimensional diety with about a million aspects just so you can get the lighting perfect.

And yet another final note: The links provided were not thoroughly researched, merely found. No endorsement or refutation of any gods or goddesses should be inferred. But I am going to check the lightning rods and renew my flood, famine and pestilence insurance policies - just in case. After all, I am the first born male child in my family...