Charge of the Goddess opening paragraph names a collection of goddesses, some derived from Greek or Roman mythology, others from Celtic or Arthurian legends, affirming a belief that these various figures represent a single Great Mother: This theme echoes the ancient Roman belief that the Goddess Isis was known by ten thousand names and also that the Goddess still worshipped today by Wiccans and other neopagans is known under many guises but is in fact one universal divinity. The second paragraph is largely derived and paraphrased from the words that Aradia, the messianic daughter of Diana, speaks to her followers in Charles Godfrey Leland's
Wolves in folklore, religion and mythology death. One of the earliest written references to black wolves occurs in the Babylonian epic "Gilgamesh", in which the titular character rejects the sexual advances of the goddess Ishtar, reminding her that she had transformed a previous lover, In Proto-Indo-European mythology, the wolf was presumably associated with the warrior class, who would "transform into wolves" (or dogs) upon their initiation. This is reflected in Iron Age Europe in the "Tierkrieger" depictions from the Germanic sphere, among others. The standard comparative overview of this aspect of Indo-European mythology is McCone (1987) According to legend, the establishment of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius