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Ēostre
EntityQ253056· pop 31· linked from 580 articles

Also known as Easter

thumb|right|Ostara (1884) by Johannes Gehrts. The goddess flies through the heavens surrounded by Roman-inspired putti, beams of light, and animals. Germanic people look up at the goddess from the realm below.

Wikidata facts

Instance of
goddess
Gender
female
Image
Ostara by Johannes Gehrts.jpg
Said to be same as
Freyja
Show 2 more facts
different from
Ēostre
Commons category
Ēostre
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~22 min read

Encyclopedic overview

17 sections
Contents
  • Name
  • Etymology
  • Related names
  • Description by Bede
  • Academic debate
  • Jacob Grimm and *''Ostara''
  • Possible connection to Easter Hares
  • In modern culture
  • Modern paganism
  • Fiction
  • Erroneous association with Ishtar
  • Science and technology
  • Politics
  • See also
  • References
  • Bibliography
  • Further reading

thumb|right|Ostara (1884) by Johannes Gehrts. The goddess flies through the heavens surrounded by Roman-inspired putti, beams of light, and animals. Germanic people look up at the goddess from the realm below.

Ēostre () is an Anglo-Saxon goddess mentioned by Bede in his 8th century work The Reckoning of Time. He wrote that pagan Anglo-Saxons had held feasts in her honour during the month named after her: (April), and that this became the English name for the Paschal season: Easter.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ēostre” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (4)