entities: ENT_FINN_ILMATAR

The core table — every entity in the database, spanning gods, angels, demons, aeons, prophets, saints, heroes, spirits, monsters, personified abstractions, cosmological realms, and ritual categories. Use category to filter by functional type (146 values: Underworld Deity, Hero, Adversarial Being, Revealer Figure, etc.). Use tradition to filter by tradition. The short_note column contains a scholarly description with source citations.

Data license: MIT · Data source: jebboone/deitydb

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entity_id canonical_name greek_name tradition entity_type category primary_domains tags cult_scope primary_period evidence_confidence review_status inclusion_basis earth_association_score chthonic_flag serpent_flag short_note entity_class
ENT_FINN_ILMATAR Ilmatar   Finnish air spirit / water mother / cosmogonic deity Primordial Deity air; water; creation; cosmogony; virgin mother; primordial sea       A           Cosmogonic deity of Finnish mythology; "Daughter of the Air" (Ilmatar = "air woman"). The Kalevala opens with her creation myth (Runo 1): Ilmatar, a virgin spirit of the air, descended to the primordial sea and lay floating on its surface. A teal (sea-duck) came to nest on her knee and laid seven eggs — six of gold, one of iron. When Ilmatar moved, the eggs fell and broke: the lower half of the eggshell became the earth, the upper half the vault of heaven, the yolk became the sun, the white became the moon, and the speckled fragments became the stars. Ilmatar then shaped the earth's features with her hands. She carried Väinämöinen in her womb for 700 years before he was born into the sea. She is the primal mother of Finnish cosmogony, combining the functions of virgin cosmic deity and world-shaper. Also called Luonnotar ("Nature Woman") in some variants. Pentikäinen (1999) pp. 55-80; Kalevala Runo 1. spirit

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