Eyes

[Mercedes]

I've searched around, and I realise that Odin, Ra, and Horus have all been somehow associated with eyes, but I feel the need to research more. I'm mostly familiar with the Roman and Greek pantheons, and I know a bit about the Egyptian, but I don't know much about others. I would like to know if there are any other deities anyone knows that are associated with eyes aside from the aforementioned. Specifically, I'm thinking of the left eye, but eyes in general is fine.

Oh, and is there a difference between the Eye of Ra and Eye of Horus? I remember reading a long time ago that the difference was which eye it was, i.e. left versus right. Does the direction matter?

[KEishin]

Balor comes to mind. He was the Demonic one-eyed God of Death and evil King of the Fomorians. He had one huge leg and, with his one evil eye, could kill someone just by peering at them. But he usually kept it closed.

Think Mike from Monster's Inc, only evil . . . .

[Toby Stimpson]

I believe there are several stories when it coesm to Eyes and these Gods. Now, ofcourse you know Odin cut out his own eye in order to drink from Mimirs well of knowledge, Horus had his eyes cut out in a battle with his evil uncle Set, and Ra, I believe his eye represents the rising sun, I heard from soemone that his eye was the rising sun and the eye of Horus (the elder) was the setting sun. If that means anything :)

Namaste

Tobias

[Mercedes]

Balor of the Fomorians? I've never heard of this One.

Hmm. Okay. Thank you, Galadraal.

[Aislingraven]

I've searched around, and I realise that Odin, Ra, and Horus have all been somehow associated with eyes, but I feel the need to research more. I'm mostly familiar with the Roman and Greek pantheons, and I know a bit about the Egyptian, but I don't know much about others. I would like to know if there are any other deities anyone knows that are associated with eyes aside from the aforementioned. Specifically, I'm thinking of the left eye, but eyes in general is fine.

Oh, and is there a difference between the Eye of Ra and Eye of Horus? I remember reading a long time ago that the difference was which eye it was, i.e. left versus right. Does the direction matter?

There is actually a right and left eye of Horus. The right eye represents the sun and the left eye represents the moon... in turn Ra (or Rha) is a/the Sun God and is also related to the right eye of Horus. Horus and Ra (or Rha) were almost identical but were not actually the same God, unless they were confused.. which may have happened even during the Egyptian era. In addition to that, Horus was also worshipped as two seperate Gods and as one (see my reference to the Sun and the Moon).. depends what you read.
The eye of Horus was said to ward off evil and was also used as a mathmatical .."thingy".. I can't think of the word.. you could section it up and use it.. anyways.

There is also a name for the combined God of Rha and Horus.. it is Ra-Harakhte.
And one more variation would be to say that the right eye, the Eye of Ra, symbolizes the Sunand that the left eye, the Eye of Thoth, symbolizes the Moon.

I also want to state that some people do not recognize the difference of the eyes and in that case what I just said doesn't matter.. rofl.
i could go on with this for a while but I will stop here.. if anyone has any corrections or additions to make to this info please help yourself..

[Aidron]

While not as grand or obvious an association as in some cultures, Izanagi, one of two gods responsible for creating the Japanese arcihpelago in Shinto myth created also Amaterasu and Tsuki-Yumi by cleansing his left and right eye respectively.

[Mercedes]

Wow, Aislingraven, thank you very much for that information. That cleared things up for me.

I entirely forgot about that story, Aidron. I am grateful that you brought it up. :)

[Nantonos]

Then there is Hera, and the eyes on the feathers of the peacock.

"Her [Hera's] peacocks, painted bright with Argus‘ eyes, lately slain.” -Metamorphoses 2.531

see
http://www.theoi.com/Tartaros/ArgosPanoptes.html
http://www.theoi.com/Summary/Hera.html

[Mercedes]

I thought Hera would be stretching it a bit, but I'm taking her into consideration.

[Aislingraven]

Wow, Aislingraven, thank you very much for that information. That cleared things up for me.


Your welcome :)

[Toby Stimpson]

Your welcome :). If I may though interject with Balor as I have studied him a bit...he was the leader of the Fomorii, the mishapen Gods of the sea who were defeated by the Tuatha. He was a giant of enormous size and with a single terrible eye in the center of his head that destroyed anything he looked at...the eyelid was so heavy it took 5 grown men to hold it up. It is said h had a daughter who he locked up in a tower...it was said that his grandchild by this daughtewr would destroy him. Somehow, I think it was Aingus or a minor deity snuck into the tower and made love with the daughter and the resulting child was the Sun God Lugh, hero of the Tuatha who was fostered by Mannan Mac Lir. At the final battle where the Tuathaa De Danann drove the corrupted Fomorians away from Eire forever, Lugh swung a rock into Balor's head so ferociously that it made it's way to the back of Balor's skull where it obliterated his own army. Hmmm, a quick note on the basis of this tale...how many other similar stories are there in the world? lol...interesting. Anyways, that how's he is connected soemwhat to eyes.

Namaste

Tobias

[Khuinaset]

I believe there are several stories when it coesm to Eyes and these Gods. Now, ofcourse you know Odin cut out his own eye in order to drink from Mimirs well of knowledge, Horus had his eyes cut out in a battle with his evil uncle Set, and Ra, I believe his eye represents the rising sun, I heard from soemone that his eye was the rising sun and the eye of Horus (the elder) was the setting sun. If that means anything :)

Just one thing; Set's not evil ;)

There is actually a right and left eye of Horus. The right eye represents the sun and the left eye represents the moon... in turn Ra (or Rha) is a/the Sun God and is also related to the right eye of Horus. Horus and Ra (or Rha) were almost identical but were not actually the same God, unless they were confused.. which may have happened even during the Egyptian era. In addition to that, Horus was also worshipped as two seperate Gods and as one (see my reference to the Sun and the Moon).. depends what you read.

I agree with everything you said, except I'm not sure what you mean by the bolded part. There's Heru'ur(Horus the elder) and Heru-Sa-Aset, which are both seperate gods, but I don't think they had anything to do with the sun/moon thing, did they? I had the impression that was just a connection with Heru-Sa-Aset.

The eye of Horus was said to ward off evil and was also used as a mathmatical .."thingy".. I can't think of the word.. you could section it up and use it.. anyways.

Yeah, one part represented 1/16, and another 1/8, and so on...I can't remember all the parts though, later I should be able to find a link if it's important :) (this was directed at the OP instead of Aislin because she seems to know what she's talking about ;) )

There is also a name for the combined God of Rha and Horus.. it is Ra-Harakhte.
And one more variation would be to say that the right eye, the Eye of Ra, symbolizes the Sunand that the left eye, the Eye of Thoth, symbolizes the Moon.

I've never heard about the eye of Djehuti. But, for the most part, I agree wtih everything you've said...although I dunno about Heru-sa-Aset(assume he was the Heru you were referring to?) and Ra being almost identical...maybe with iconography(but then, a lot of the gods were shown with hawk-head), but I'd think they'd have very different personalities. That might've been what you meant though.

[Aidron]

Then there is Hera, and the eyes on the feathers of the peacock.

"Her [Hera's] peacocks, painted bright with Argus‘ eyes, lately slain.” -Metamorphoses 2.531

see
http://www.theoi.com/Tartaros/ArgosPanoptes.html
http://www.theoi.com/Summary/Hera.html


Somehow I picked up the impression that Aranea was only searching for male deities. Hmmm. :eyebrow:

Regardless, Athene is another deity who has symbolism related to the eyes, often referred to as "Athene the bright-eyed" or "Athene the grey-eyed", with the latter being less common in my research. I'm sure there are other references to, some of which are on the tip of my tongue but I cannot recall them at the moment.

[Mercedes]

Perhaps I did give off that impression. I only said deities, but I did list three males. However, I am open to females as well.

I feel rather stupid. It must've slipped my mind, the Athena thing. Athena is a matron of mine, so it somewhat makes sense. Not sure if She's connected with the dream, but I'll have some serious thinking on it.

[Aidron]

Perhaps I did give off that impression. I only said deities, but I did list three males. However, I am open to females as well.

I feel rather stupid. It must've slipped my mind, the Athena thing. Athena is a matron of mine, so it somewhat makes sense. Not sure if She's connected with the dream, but I'll have some serious thinking on it.


Perhaps it is all more obvious than any of us think. Perhaps it is a male you think of and that through that and your intuition of the left eye the one who may be reaching out to you is Amaterasu. She was after all born of her father's left eye and is the ruler of the Plain of Heaven within Shintoism, something most of the examples in your first post has in common-that they are the supreme divinity within their pantheons.

[Mercedes]

Good points. I'll consider that.

[Toby Stimpson]

Khuinaset...perhaps ambitious would fit him better? His actions were malevolent though...which denotes some evil nature... Namaste :)

Tobias

[Khuinaset]

Khuinaset...perhaps ambitious would fit him better? His actions were malevolent though...which denotes some evil nature... Namaste :)

Tobias

*apologies to the original poster for going OT, this will be my last off-topic post*

The Netjeru aren't malovolent, everything they do is within Ma'at. Set himself isn't a particularly nice god a lot of the time, but that doesn't make him evil or malevolent. Everything Set did in the contendings of Heru and Set could be taken as making sure Heru was fit for the kingship...plus they are just stories. ;)

Try http://www.per-set.org/ (http://www.per-set.org/) for more info, if you want.

[Toby Stimpson]

hehehe, appologies to the original poster as well...hmm, that is true Khuinaset...I wodner though if Maat is similar to the asian concept of Yin and Yang...positive and negetive influences leading to the natural and rightful event?

Tobias