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Me

Name: Psssh, like I'm gonna tell you my real name...
Home: Missourri, United States
Age: 15
Gender: Female Name: Psssh, like I'm gonna tell you my real name...
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My Favorites:

Favorite Colors: Black, Blue, Purple, and Silver
Favorite Numbers: 0, 2, 4, 8
Favorite Metal: Silver and Copper
Favorite Season: Autumn
Favorite Time of Day: Twilight or Night
Favorite Base Element*: Air
Favorite Advanced Element**:  Night, Ice, Air
Favorite TV Shows: Dragon Booster, Teen Titans, Avatar: The Last Airbender, W.I.T.C.H., Code Lyoko,
Favorite Movies:  Pirates of the Caribbean, Lion King,
Favorite Video Games: Tales of Symphonia, Star Fox, Legend of Zelda, Super Smash Brothers Melee, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, and Kingdom Hearts
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*Base Elements to me are water, fire, earth and air
**Advanced Elements to me are anything other than water, fire, earth or air. This tend to include:
Ice, Light, Dark, Thunder, Plant, etc

About My Name

The Origin

The name 'Mari' was made up by me in sixth grade (2001-2002). I wanted a nickname since all my friends had nicknames. I decided upon Mari, since it was a shortened version of my real first name, Marika. It's said Muh-ree-kuh. In case you're wondering, no it isn't foreign or made up. Marika is a cross between 'Marie' and 'Katherine' and my Mom found in in some random baby book.

Anyway, I chose Mari simply by cutting off the 'ka' in Marika, leaving Mari. I later found out that 'Mari' is a real name, but more on that below.

Definition

As I said earlier, Mari actually has a meaning. I, however, didn't know that when I chose it, but I do now, so there.

 

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the goddess Mari:

Mari is the main character of Basque mythology, having, unlike other creatures that share the same imaginary environment, a god-like nature. Mari is often witnessed as a woman dressed in red. She is also seen as woman of fire, woman-tree and as thunderbolt. Additionally she is identified with red animals (cow, ram, horse) and with the black he-goat.

Mari lives underground, normally in a cave in a high mountain, where she and her consort Sugaar meet every Friday (the night of the Akelarre or witch-meeting) to conceive then the storms that will bring fertility (and sometimes disgrace) to the land and the people. Mari is served by a court of sorqinak (witches), and is said to feed on the negation and affirmation (that is on falsehood).

Occasionally the figure of Mari is linked to the kidnapping or theft of cows, but the presence of Christian priests in those myths may indicate that they are actually Christian fabrications or distortions. In fact it doesn't seem that any kind of sacrifices were offered, at least normally, to Mari, in contrast to what happened with lesser spirits(lamiak, jentilak etc.), who were given food as payment for their work in the fields.

In various legends Mari is said to have sons or daughters, but their number and character fluctuates. Maybe the most famous were her two sons, Atxular and Mikelatz. Atxular represents largely the Christianized Basque soul, becoming a priest after having learned from the Devil himself in a church in Salamanca and then having escaped. Mikelatz instead seems to have a more negative or wild character and is sometimes assimilated into the spirit of storms, Hodei or embodied as young red bull.

Another legend presents Mari as wife to the Lord of Biscay, Diego López de Haro. This marriage may symbolize the legitimacy of the dynasty, much in the style of the Irish goddess marrying the kings of that island as a relgious act of legitimacy. In any case, the condition that Mari imposes to her husband is that, while he could keep his Christian faith, he was obliged to keep it outside the home. Nevertheless, once, apparently after discovering that his wife had a goat leg instead of a normal human foot, he couldn't avoid making the sign of the cross. Immediately after that sacrilegious act, Mari took her daughter, jumped through the window and disappeared, never to ever come back. This outcome can obviously be seen as delegitimizing the de Haro family, who, after all, had been placed as lords by the Castilian conquerors not long before.

Other legends are much simpler. For example, there is a legend that when one is lost in the wild, one only has to cry her name loud three times to have her to appear over one's head and so find the right way.

Etymology:

There is much confusion over the origin of the name Mari. For some it is just the transposition of the Christian name of the mother of Jesus, Mary, but others prefer to believe that it is a modification of Emari (gift) or Amari (mother + the suffix of profession) by losing the first vowel. It is difficult to believe that such an important deity, actually the only known God of pre-Christian Basques (along with her consort), has a name derived from a Christian icon. In any case it is quite clear that the closeness in names may have helped to channelize the Pagan worship of the Goddess Mari into a Christian veneration of the Virgin Mary.

 

Most other sources, however, say that Mari is a sea goddess, usually linked with the ocean