9 World Chronicles

Athtart  Atargatis (Semetic) – the first Mermaid

Geography/Culture: Babylonia: city of Der. Syria

Also Dagitu, the feminine form of the word for fish. Appropriated into Greek culture as Derceto

Period of Worship : 2,000 bce to 1,000 Common era

Associated: the moon feminine powers, and water

Description: Great fish Goddess of water and its fishes; She Who swallows and gives birth to the sun; City-Protectress.

Male Associate: Son, Oannes solar fish God.

To Whom Sacred: whale.

She is said to be the Mother of Semiramis, Queen-Goddess of great beauty, intelligence, mighty works, love and sensuality.

Derceto is the goddess of fertility, her anthropomorphic form is that of a mermaid, highlighting her relationship to the seas and fertility.

She was sacred to the whales of the Oceans and it is said that their songs are to serenade the Goddess.

According to the myth Atargatis fell in love to a mortal shepherd called Hadad and they had a daughter called Semiramis. Semiramis later on became queen of Assyria. She was most well -known for creating the famous hanging gardens of Babylonia.

Atargatis accidentally caused the death of Hadad. She could not live with her guilt and drowned herself into a lake near Ascalon. Waters however could not hide her beauty and she was transformed into a mermaid. A woman with a tail of a fish.

Atargatis was worshiped in a temple dedicated to her in the ancient city of Ascalon in Israel

Deng, Bringer of Fertility and Rain

Classification: God

Culture/Religion: Dinka and Nuer of the Sudan and South Sudan

Associated: Storms and Fertility

Deng, also known as Denka, is a sky, rain, and fertility god in Dinka mythology for the Dinka people of Sudan and South Sudan. He is the son of the goddess Abuk.

She is the only well-known female deity of the Dinka. She is also the patron goddess of women as well as gardens. Her emblem or symbols are, a small snake, the moon and sheep.

Among his followers, Deng is regarded as the intermediary between humans and the supreme being. Closely linked with the supreme god Nhialic, he was regarded as the son of god and sometimes as the son of the goddess Abuk. In some areas of Dinka country, Deng and Nhialic are "regarded as one and the same".

He was an important sky god, to some clans an ancestor and creator god of the Dinka people, and he manifested himself in the fertilizing water that fell from the heavens.

The Dinka believe that in the beginning the sky was very low, so low that man had to be extremely careful when hoeing or pounding grain so as not to hit the sky. One day the greedy woman Abuk pounded more grain than she was allotted, using an especially long pestle. Deng was so angered by this that he cursed mankind, saying people would have to work harder for the fruits of the earth and in the end would also have to die.

Lightning is Deng’s club, and rain and birth are manifestations of his presence. If one is struck by lightning, one is not to be mourned because it is believed that Deng has taken that person directly to himself.

Among the Nuer, Deng is considered to be "a foreign deity" and "a bringer of disease".

Fertility is defined as the natural capacity to conceive a child. However, fertility does not come easily to everyone. About 11% of couples will face infertility—the inability to conceive naturally after one year of unprotected sexual intercourse.

Ala, Igbo goddess of fertility

Asase Ya, Ashanti earth goddess of fertility

Denka, Dinka god of the sky, rain and fertility

Mbaba Mwana Waresa, Zulu goddess of fertility, rainbows, agriculture, rain, and bees

Oshun (known as Ochún or Oxúm in Latin America) also spelled Ọṣun, is an orisha, a spirit, a deity, or a goddess that reflects one of the manifestations of God in the Ifá and Yoruba religions.

Min, ancient Kemetic  god of fertility and lettuce

Amun, creator-god, associated with fertility

Bastet, cat goddess sometimes associated with fertility

Hathor, goddess of music, beauty, love, sexuality and fertility

Heqet, frog-goddess of fertility

Heryshaf, god of creation and fertility

Isis, goddess of motherhood, magic and fertility

Mesenet, goddess of childbirth

Min, god of fertility, reproduction, and lettuce

Osiris, god of the afterlife, the dead, and the underworld agency that granted all life, including sprouting vegetation and the fertile flooding of the Nile River

Renenutet, goddess of the true name, the harvest and fertile fields

Sobek, god of the river, warfare and fertility

Sopdet, goddess of the fertility of the soil

Tawaret, goddess of fertility and childbirth

Tefnut, goddess of water and fertility

Yoruba

Eshu

Oya

 Kokopelli, Hopi trickster god associated with fertility, childbirth and agriculture

Hanhepi Wi, Lakota goddess associated with the moon, motherhood, family and femininity

Astoreth, Canaanite version of Inanna/Ishtar.

Hadad, storm (and thus rain) god responsible for crops growing, also known as Adad and Ba'al

Nikkal, goddess of fruits

Tanit, consort of Baʿal Hammon at Carthage

Etruscan

Fufluns, god of plant life, happiness, health, and growth in all things, equivalent to the Greek Dionysus

Thesan, goddess of the dawn, associated with the generation of life

Turan, goddess of love, fertility and vitality

Fertility rites are religious rituals that are intended to stimulate reproduction in humans or in the natural world. Such rites may involve the sacrifice of "a primal animal, which must be sacrificed in the cause of fertility or even creation

In Japan the Shinto Kanamara Matsuri, the Festival of the Steel Phallus is held each spring.  The legend is that a jealous sharp-toothed demon hid inside the vagina of a young woman whom the demon fell in love with and bit off penises of two young men on their wedding nights.[6] After that the woman sought help from a blacksmith, who fashioned an iron phallus to break the demon's teeth, which led to the enshrinement of the item.[

Fertility Fest is the world’s first arts festival dedicated to fertility, infertility, the science of making babies and modern families.

Fertility rites may occur in calendric cycles, as rites of passage within the life cycle, or as ad hoc rituals....Commonly fertility rituals are embedded within larger-order religions or other social institutions.