Fertility and harvest goddesses
Goddesses of fertility and harvest include Demeter in Greece, Chicomecoatl, the Aztec maize goddess, Pachamama, the Andean Earth Mother, Renenutet in Egypt and Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of abundance. Japan’s rice deity Inari is shown as a man or a woman.
Meaning
The harvest goddesses are tied to each region’s staple. Demeter was a grain goddess (Britannica); Chicomecoatl held a double ear of maize in each hand; Inari protects rice. Others are the earth itself: Pachamama, “Earth Mother” in Britannica’s gloss, is still honoured in the Andes. Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, good fortune and abundance, rose from the churning of the ocean and sits on a lotus. The idea of one great fertility goddess behind all of them is a modern theory, and the Encyclopedia of Religion calls its oldest form an oversimplification (see below).
Origin and history
Demeter’s name “indicates that she is a mother”, Britannica notes, and her story is her daughter’s. When Hades carried off Persephone, Demeter withdrew, and the Homeric Hymn tells what followed: “she caused a most dreadful and cruel year for mankind over the all-nourishing earth: the ground would not make the seed sprout … and much white barley was cast upon the land without avail.” On her search she revealed her secret rites to the people of Eleusis, the Eleusinian Mysteries. Her Greek page is Demeter.
Chicomecoatl, “Seven-serpent”, was the chief maize goddess of the Aztecs. Lewis Spence, writing in 1913, read her name as a reference to “the fertilising power of water, which element the Mexicans symbolised by the serpent”, and noted that as Xilonen she was the young green ear. Britannica describes her painted red, in a rectangular red paper headdress, holding a double ear of maize in each hand. The Maya counterpart is the maize god, who is male.
Pachamama is worshipped on the Bolivian Altiplano, Britannica writes, as “the goddess of the Earth”. Her name comes from Aymara and Quechua, the government of Mendoza in Argentina explains in announcing a ceremony to her: pacha means earth and also time or cosmos, and mama means mother. Her own page is Pachamama.
Renenutet was the Egyptian goddess of fertility and the harvest, sometimes shown as a snake (Britannica); E. A. Wallis Budge, writing in 1904, records Renenet among the forms of Isis, “as the goddess of the harvest”.
Inari, god or goddess of rice
Inari is shown both as a man and as a woman. Britannica calls Inari the “god primarily known as the protector of rice cultivation”, depicted “as a bearded man riding a white fox or as a woman with long, flowing hair, carrying sheaves of rice”. Foxes are Inari’s messengers, and stone foxes stand in great numbers at Inari shrines. Lafcadio Hearn, writing in 1894, described them as “the servants of the Rice-God, retainers of Inari-Sama”, and noted that they belong to Shinto and not to Buddhist imagery.
Lakshmi and the lotus
Lakshmi, Britannica writes, rose from the ocean of milk when the gods and demons churned it for the drink of immortality, and she is usually seated on a lotus, the padma. W. J. Wilkins, writing in 1882, notes that she is “very commonly Sri”, the wife of Vishnu, and appears beside him in each of his incarnations.
Was there one great fertility goddess?
The figurines of the Old Stone Age, such as the Venus of Willendorf, are often offered as proof of an ancient fertility goddess. James J. Preston, writing in the Encyclopedia of Religion (1987), notes that the “Venuses” have been widely read as evidence of one thing, fertility symbolism, and calls theories of “an ancient, widespread cult of ‘fertility magic’” oversimplifications; current research, he wrote, links them to many parts of women’s lives, from maturation and menstruation to birth and nursing, and they do not prove an early matriarchy. Britannica adds a distinction often blurred: a mother goddess, a particular source of life, is not the same as the Earth Mother, the eternally fruitful source of everything.
Read next
- Next in Symbols across culturesDragons across culturesA dragon is a great serpent, often with legs, wings or fire, and its meaning splits by region. In Europe and the ancient Near East it is chaos or evil, killed by a god or hero; in China and Japan it is a helpful power of water and rain, and the emblem of emperors.
- Demeter, the Greek goddess of grainDemeterDemeter’s symbols are ears of wheat (the “corn” of older English translations) and the torch. She was the Greek goddess of grain, and the torch comes from the story of her search for her daughter Persephone.
See also
Pachamama, Venus of Willendorf, Maize God, Tree of life, Labyrinth, Crescent moon.
Sources
- Demeter (Encyclopaedia Britannica), “Demeter”, Encyclopaedia Britannica (Internet Archive copy, 16 June 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica, article
- Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica (tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White), Hesiod, Theogony; Shield of Heracles; The Homeric Hymns, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb Classical Library, 1914), Project Gutenberg eBook #348, Project Gutenberg, Homeric Hymn 2, To Demeter, ll. 302–309
- Chicomecóatl (Encyclopaedia Britannica), “Chicomecóatl”, Encyclopaedia Britannica (Internet Archive copy, 6 January 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica, article
- The Myths of Mexico & Peru (Lewis Spence), Lewis Spence, The Myths of Mexico & Peru (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company), Project Gutenberg, ch. II, the maize goddesses
- Pachamama (Encyclopaedia Britannica), “Pachamama”, Encyclopaedia Britannica (Internet Archive copy, 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica, entries (Bolivia; nature worship; Inca gods)
- Realizan hoy ceremonia a la Pachamama en el Ministerio de Cultura (Gobierno de Mendoza), “Realizan hoy ceremonia a la Pachamama en el Ministerio de Cultura”, Prensa, Gobierno de Mendoza, Argentina, Gobierno de Mendoza, press release
- Inari (Encyclopaedia Britannica), “Inari”, Encyclopaedia Britannica (Internet Archive copy, 24 August 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica, article
- Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, First Series (Lafcadio Hearn), Lafcadio Hearn, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, First Series (1894), Project Gutenberg eBook #8130, Project Gutenberg, ch. 3, “Jizo”
- Lakshmi (Encyclopaedia Britannica), Britannica Editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica (Wayback Machine copy, 25 May 2026), article
- Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Purāṇic (W. J. Wilkins), W. J. Wilkins, Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Purāṇic (Thacker, Spink & Co., 1882), Internet Archive full text, Internet Archive, “Lakshmi”
- Renenutet (Encyclopaedia Britannica), “Renenutet”, Encyclopaedia Britannica (Internet Archive copy, 13 July 2025), Encyclopaedia Britannica, article
- The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. 2 (E. A. Wallis Budge), E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, or Studies in Egyptian Mythology, vol. 2 (1904), Internet Archive full text, Internet Archive, ch. on Isis
- Goddess Worship: An Overview (Encyclopedia of Religion), James J. Preston (1987), “Goddess Worship: An Overview”, Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd edition, ed. Lindsay Jones (Macmillan Reference USA, 2005), on Encyclopedia.com, Encyclopedia of Religion (Macmillan Reference USA), via Encyclopedia.com, Upper Paleolithic; Neolithic
- Mother goddess (Encyclopaedia Britannica), “Mother goddess”, Encyclopaedia Britannica (Internet Archive copy, 9 March 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica, article
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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research
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