If you missed my article on Yu Huang, you can find it here.
I usually do a “The Gods Of Smite” article on a single deity rather than three at once. Unfortunately, each of the divine being featured today has most of their information lost to history. Since it is my intention to bring you information on the Goddesses, Gods, and heroes associated with Smite, I don’t want to do a depthless job. Awilix, Ratatosker, and Artio all deserve the respect and honor they once received, but people don’t know much about them. With that in mind, I will tell you what I can about each, and since it is just a little bit, I put all three together. I am kinda sure they won’t mind it. I am sure they will let me know if they object. I just hope a bear is not involved.
First up is Rataosker. He is a squirrel who runs up and down Yggdrasil (Ygg·dra·sil), the World Tree, carrying messages between the eagles on top and Niohoggr, the serpent, at the roots. Ratatosker was also the messenger for the Gods of the realms. You can find Ratatosker in both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda. He is a real pot-stirrer. He loves to carry the insults between the eagles and Niohoggr and isn’t above adding to it just to really get it going. Ratatosker is said to be a little red squirrel, and he has long ears. I don’t know how much a God wants to hear this, but he sounds like a cute little guy. Ratatosker is sometimes mixed up with Rati, Odin’s mead drill. Seems hard to mix up to me. Ratatosker is a living, breathing God squirrel. The other is an inanimate object. Well, I think it is. It is a tool of a God. I don’t know squat.
Next, we move on to the Goddess, Artio, the Gaulish Goddess of Bears. She was most revered between the Iron Age and the Roman Era. Artio manifests as a she-bear and is the goddess of bears as well as other wild animals, abundance, and transformation. She is a protector. She would be good to call on when you need a mama bear, or you are the mama bear about to strike. Sadly, this is all the information I can find without telling you about possible ties and guesses of her origins.
Finally, we come to Awilix, the Mayan Goddess of the Moon and Underworld. She governs sickness and death and is the Mayan Queen of the Night. She even had time to be the patron of the Mesoamerican ball game. If you can believe it, there is even less information I can give you for Awilix than Artio. She was revered by the K’iche’ Maya and was the patron Goddess of the Nija’ib’. That there is about all I can tell you of Awilix.
I don’t know why I haven’t thought of this before, but I think I will do this for the remainder of the series. There are links at the bottom of this article to help you with the pronunciations of some of these words. Most people can’t remember or pronounce Yggdrasil, so I figured I would help. Unfortunately, it took me a few times of pronunciation practice to remember the word and how to pronounce it.
Much of the information about ancient deities has been lost, mistranslated, or stolen and hidden. This is why there are so few facts to go with the worship of these Gods and Goddesses. I wish I could give you more. Do you know something of these three that I missed? Do you play them in Smite? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, have fun storming the castle!
https://www.howtopronounce.com/ratatoskr Ratatosker pronunciation
https://www.pronounceitright.com/pronunciation/yggdrasil-12553 Yggdrasil pronunciation
https://www.howtopronounce.com/niohoggr Niohoggr pronunciation
https://www.howtopronounce.com/artio Two possible pronunciations of Artio
https://www.howtopronounce.com/awilix Possible Awilix pronunciations
