ABSTRACT
Deities in the world's mythology are remote and unknowable except as abstractions, such as the Egyptian Ptah. Other deities are more clearly codified. They have specific appearances and attributes, such as the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena, who is usually portrayed with a spear and her sacred bird, the owl, Krishna, who is usually pictured with his flute and blue skin and is often portrayed as a lover of women. In Indian mythology, for example, Buddha, born a mortal prince, conquers time itself. In Islamic popular culture, after the death of the prophet Mohammed, not a divine figure himself, a cycle of stories sprang up. In Britain, the figure of Merlin, the magician of Arthurian myth, became confused with another Merlin, a Celtic prophet, and the myths of the two men became entwined. That Merlin's Welsh name is, according to tradition, Emrys, which is probably the name of a minor Celtic deity, only adds elements to the mythology.
