JUSTICE, see Astrea, Nemesis.
KALI. A Hindoo goddess, after whom Calcutta is named.
KA′LOC. One of the chief of the Mexican gods.
KAM′A. The Hindoo god of love.
KEB′LA. The point of the compass which worshippers look to during their
invocations. Thus the Sol or Sun worshippers turn to the east, where
the sun rises, and the Mohammedans turn towards Mecca.
KE′DERLI, in Mohammedan mythology, is a god corresponding to the
English St. George, and is still invoked by the Turks when they go to
war.
KI′UN. The Egyptian Venus.
KNEPH. An Egyptian god, having a ram’s head and a man’s body.
KRISH′NA. An Indian god, the revenger of wrongs; also called the Indian
Apollo.
KRO′DO. The Saxon Saturn.
KU′MA′RA. The war-god of the Hindoos.
KU′VERA. The Hindoo god of riches.
LA′BE. The Arabian Circe, who had unlimited power of metamorphosis.
LA′BOUR, see Atlas, Hercules.
LABYRINTH, see Theseus.
LACH′ESIS. One of the three Fates or Parcæ. She spun the thread of life.
LACIN′IA. A name of Juno.
LACTURA. One of the goddesses of growing corn.
LA′DON. The dragon which guarded the apples in the garden of the
Hesperides. Also the name of one of Actæon’s hounds. Also the river to
which Syrinx fled when pursued by Pan, where she was changed into a
reed, and where Pan made his first pipe.
LÆ′LAPS. One of Diana’s hunting dogs, which, while pursuing a wild
boar, was petrified. Also the name of one of Actæon’s hounds.
LAKS′MI. Hindoo goddess of wealth and pleasure. One of the husbands of
Vishnu.
LAMENTATION, see Cocytus.
LAM′IA. An evil deity amongst the Greeks and Romans, and the great
dread of their children, whom she had the credit of constantly enticing
away and destroying.
LAMP, see Lares and Penates.
LAM′POS. One of Aurora’s chariot horses, the other being Phæton.
LAOC′OON. One of the priests of Apollo, who was, with his two sons,
crushed to death by serpents, because he opposed the admission of the
wooden horse to Troy.
LAOM′EDON, son of Ilus, a Trojan king. He was famous for having, with
the assistance of Apollo and Neptune, built the walls of Troy.
LAP′IS. The oath stone. The Romans used to swear by Jupiter Lapis.
LAP′ITHUS, son of Apollo. His numerous children were called Lapithæ,
and they are notorious for their fight with the centaurs at the nuptial
feast of Perithous and Hippodamia.
LA′RES and PEN′ATES were sons of Mercury and Lara, or, as other
mythologists say, of Jupiter and Lamida. They belonged to the lower
order of Roman gods, and presided over homes and families. Their
statues were generally fixed within the doors of houses, or near the
hearths. Lamps were sacred to them, as symbols of vigilance, and the
dog was their sacrifice.
LARK, see Scylla and Nysus.
LATO′NA, daughter of Cœus and Phœbus, mother of Apollo and Diana. Being
admired so much by Jupiter, Juno was jealous, and Latona was the object
of the goddess’s constant persecution.
LAUGHTER, see Momus and Venus.
LAU′REL, see Daphne.
LAVER′NA. The goddess of thieves.
LAW, see Menu.
LAWGIVER, see Nomius.
LAWS, see Themis.
LEAN′DER, see Hero.
LEATHER BOTTLE, see Ascolia.
LE′DA was the mother of Castor and Pollux, their father being Jupiter,
in the shape of a swan. After her death she received the name of
Nemesis.
LEM′NIUS. One of the names of Vulcan.
LEM′URES. The spectres of departed souls. Milton, in his “Ode to the
Nativity,” says--
“Lemures moan with midnight plaint.”
They are sometimes referred to as the Manes of the dead.
LENÆ′US. One of the names of Bacchus.
LER′NA. The lake near Argos where Hercules conquered the Hydra.
LE′THE. One of the rivers of the infernal regions, of which the
souls of the departed are obliged to drink to produce oblivion or
forgetfulness of everything they did or knew while alive on the earth.
“A slow and silent stream,
Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls
Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks
Forthwith his former state and being forgets,
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.”