The extreme ones

DRAGON MOM

This endearing tale of anthropomorphism from Chinese mythology is about a woman born in 290BC during the Quin dynasty. Wen Shi, now deified as the goddess Longmu, once visited the Xi river to wash clothes when she came upon a white stone. To her surprise, the stone turned out to be an egg, from which emerged five baby snakes. Deciding to take care of them, Wen Shi fed them the best of foods with her own hands. The five snakes matured into five powerful dragons, which in Chinese culture are considered to be the dragon spirits that control water. Wen Shi would often ask her dragon children to summon rain when her village suffered a drought. This is how she came to be known as the "Mother of Dragons."

Hearing of her greatness, Emperor Qin Shihuang requested for her presence in his court. By this time, Wen Shi was an elderly woman, frail and weak. Fearing for her safety when she set off to meet the emperor, her dragon children prevented her from travelling by dragging her boat backwards instead of forward.

CHILDREN-CHEWING DEAMON

Hariti was a fearsome demon in Buddhist mythology. She had more than 500 children and loved them dearly. But when she was hungry, Harati would hunt children of local people to satisfy her appetite. These people went to Buddha, who kidnapped and hid Hariti's youngest and most beloved child. Realising the pain she had caused to the humans, she vowed not to hunt children and became a special protector for children and mothers. In return, the Buddha taught her to satisfy her hunger with pomegranate seeds. Hariti was eventually adopted into the Buddhist pantheon, and is mentioned in Chinese and Japanese folk tales as Kishimojin.

BEHEADED AND BORN AGAIN

Renuka (Renu) was the wife of Rishi Jamadagini, who had powers to collect water in unbaked pots. Once, when filling water from the river, she saw Gandharva spirits and lost her concentration as well as the power to collect water in unbaked pots. On seeing Renuka without water, a furious Jamadagini asked his sons to punish her. Four of them refused, but Parushurama, the couple's fifth son who was also the sixth avatar of Vishnu, decapitated her. For this, he received a boon from his father. Parshurama asked that the lives of his mother and brothers be returned. Renuka then came back. On seeing her spirit multiply, her sons and others started worshipping her.

RELIGION BEFORE SON

According to Tibetan texts, Palden Lhamo, aka Remati, was married to Shinje, the king of Dudpos. At the time, Shinje was the king of Lanka and didn't favour Buddhism. Remati unsuccessfully tried to change his mind, and in the process killed her own son, who was being raised to do away with Buddhism in Lanka. She flayed her son, ate his flesh and drank his blood in his skull. Her ride is a wild white mule and her son's skin is her saddle blanket.

MOTHERING A DEMIGOD

In Greek mythology, Alcmene, the daughter of Electryon, was known for her beauty and intelligence. Her husband Amphitryon was exiled for accidentally killing Electryon in his attempts to seek revenge for the death of her brothers. So Alcmene followed him into exile, but on the condition that they would never have an intimate relationship until he avenges the death of her brothers. When Amphitryon was away during battle, Zeus, the Greek ruler of Gods, manifested in from of Alcmene as her husband, Amphitryon, and slept with her. When her real husband arrived, he too enjoyed a night with his wife. As a result, Alcmene became pregnant with twins: Heracles, son of Zeus and Iphicles, son of Amphitryon.

MOTHER OF ALL EILS

Loviatar is among the most despicable characters in the 19th century Finnish text, Kalevala. Born to the god of death Tuoni and his underworld queen Tuonetar, Loviatar is considered to be the mother of all diseases; impregnated by the wind, her nine sons represent diseases such as colic, pleurisy, fever, ulcer, plague, 'dread consumption', gout, sterility and cancer.

—Compiled by Laveena Francis, Ranjana Konatt and Rhea Varghese