those of the Greek Sun god Helios, and a cloak made of falcon feathers – the Egyptian Sun god Horus appeared in the form of a falcon.
K. The connection between the Sun and War, as has been shown in the characters of the Egyptian Sekhmet, the Babylonian Ishtar, and the Norse Freya, appears also in the Irish/Celtic goddess Brighid/Brigit, whose name means “bright” (s. link below). Like the Greek Athena, she was also the patroness of wisdom connected with the Underworld, including the crafts, medicine and poetic inspiration. She “favored the use of spear or arrow”, and was known as the Goddess of Healers, Poets, Smiths, Childbirth, Fire and Hearth, and a patron of Warfare.
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L. Looking at the list of twenty-seven War goddesses given below, it may be noted that only six of them are connected with war alone. The best known of these is the Roman goddess Bellona (from the word belli – “war” in Latin – or perhaps, vice versa…). Bellona was a counterpart of the Greek goddess Enyo, whose name means “horror”; she is told to have been a mate of the War god Mars, but also one of the Graeae (“the Gray ones”), who were said to be “a triple goddess of war and wasters of cities”. She usually carried a spear, “appeared covered in blood with a striking attitude of violence” (s. link below). However, Bellona’s festival was celebrated in June, very close to Midsummer and the time of the seasonal war between the two male figures who represented the life and death of the year. The connection may be tenuous, but it may exist, nonetheless.
Beside those War Goddesses in the list who are considered Mother goddesses, many of them are connected with Fertility in