In Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda Auðr is named as the child born to Nótt (the personified Night) and Naglfari (Gylfaginning, ch. 10). This placement makes Auðr part of Snorri's genealogical network of personified cosmic elements and, by those family ties in Snorri's account, an uncle of Thor. Auðr is also referenced in Skáldskaparmál (ch. 32) in kenning contexts and is mentioned in a skaldic verse attributed to the tenth-century skald Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld. Modern scholarship (Rudolf Simek) has suggested that Auðr may be an invention or systematic insertion by Snorri, and also notes that the name Auðr occurs as a female name in other medieval Icelandic sources, complicating the picture of independent attestation.
No physical description or iconography of Auðr is preserved in the surviving attestations. In the Prose Edda and the cited skaldic verse Auðr survives only as a name within genealogical lists and poetic references; there are no descriptive details of bodily form, dress, or visual attributes in the cited material.
The sources provide no accounts of powers, deeds, or characteristic behaviors for Auðr. In the surviving material Auðr's role is genealogical (named as a child of Nótt and Naglfari in Gylfaginning) and poetic (used in kennings such as 'sister of Auðr' to refer to Jörð in Skáldskaparmál). Beyond these referential functions there are no recorded abilities or functions in the cited texts.
Automedon
Automedon (Ancient Greek Αὐτομέδων) is a named mortal charioteer in the Homeric epic tradition, best known as the trusted driver of Achilles who manages the immortal horses Balius and Xanthos and acts as a combatant in episodes of the Iliad. He appears in scenes surrounding Patroclus' death and in later Roman reference (Virgil's Aeneid).
Automedusa
Automedusa is a mortal figure in Greek mythic genealogies, a Megarian princess, daughter of King Alcathous, wife of Iphicles, and mother of Iolaus. She functions chiefly as a genealogical link within networks connecting the houses of Pelops, Perseus, and the Theban/Heraclean circles.
Autonoe
Autonoe is a name attested in ancient Greek mythic traditions as (a) a Theban princess, one of the daughters of Cadmus and Harmonia, wife of Aristaeus and mother of Actaeon (and possibly Macris); and (b) separately, as one of the list-figures among the fifty Nereids (sea-nymph daughters of Nereus and Doris). Sources do not reconcile these attestations into a single, unified identity.
Autonous
Autonous is a named mortal from a single surviving Greek metamorphosis narrative (recorded in Antoninus Liberalis' Metamorphoses as preserved in modern summaries). A pastoral household head whose neglect of husbandry leads to a tragedy in which his son Anthus is killed by the family's horses; the gods Zeus and Apollo pity the grieving family and transform Autonous into a bird identified as the stone‑curlew (Greek ὄκνος).
Auxesia
Auxesia (Αυξησία) is a figure in ancient Greek religious tradition associated with growth and increase of fields. She appears in local cults around the Saronic Gulf (Epidaurus, Aegina, Troezen) as an independent local goddess or as an epithet/aspect of better-known deities (notably Persephone), often paired with Damia.
Auxo
Auxo is a name attested across modern commercial, taxonomic, and fictional contexts and, in classical reference frameworks, is historically associated with the Horae — the Greek goddesses of the seasons and natural portions of time. The provided sources do not supply a consistent folkloric persona, mythology, or rites tied to a supernatural being named Auxo.
Auðumbla
Auðumbla is the primeval cow of Old Norse cosmogony attested in the Prose Edda: she nourishes the primordial jötunn Ymir with rivers of milk and by licking salty rime-stones reveals Búri, an ancestor of the gods. Her name and role link fertility, nourishment, and the emergence of key lineages in the Norse origin narrative.
Aušrinė
Aušrinė is the Lithuanian personification and deity of the morning star (planet Venus) in traditional Baltic cosmology. She is a feminine liminal figure associated with dawn, beauty, youth, love, health and renewal who appears each morning to prepare the way for Saulė (the Sun).
Avalokiteśvara
A central Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna bodhisattva who embodies great compassion (mahākaruṇā), Avalokiteśvara hears the cries of sentient beings and manifests in many forms to relieve suffering. Venerated across South, Central, and East Asia, the figure functions devotionally (mantra and sutra recitation) and iconographically in multiple gendered and regional guises.
Avandra
Avandra is a deity-name employed within modern Dungeons & Dragons tabletop gaming and related media. In the supplied sources Avandra appears in player and podcast discourse as a referent for randomness or luck and as a fictional proper name used in campaign material.
Avari (Middle-earth)
The Avari are identified in the provided sources as a subgroup of Elves in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional legendarium. The supplied materials (Wikipedia and Wikidata entries) classify them as fictional Elven people but contain no extended narrative, descriptive, or ritual detail about them.
Avatar (avatāra)
In classical Hindu theology, an avatāra is a divine 'descent' — the event or fact of a superhuman being or deity making a material appearance in the temporal world to accomplish a purpose (commonly to restore dharma). The term (Sanskrit अवतार, avatāra) emphasizes crossing down from the unconditioned into conditioned existence and is central to Vaishnava theology of Vishnu's incarnations while also appearing in other Indian religious contexts.
Community Record
- [1]Auðr (mythology) — Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, 'Auðr (mythology)', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopediawiki
- [2]Prose Edda — Gylfaginning & Skáldskaparmál (as cited in secondary literature). Attestations summarized from Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda: Gylfaginning (ch. 10) and Skáldskaparmál (ch. 32), as reported in secondary summariesliterary
- [3]Rudolf Simek — commentary (summary as cited). Summary of Rudolf Simek's view that Auðr may be Snorri's invention and that the name is attested as female elsewhere in Icelandic sources (as reported in the cited article)academic