Medr (god of the earth, member of the Aksumite triad)

Medr is the earth-god of the pre-Christian Aksumite triad, his name being simply the Ge'ez word for 'earth, land'. He is attested in the vocalised Ge'ez recension of Ezana's inscription RIÉ 185, where the name replaces the Beher (bhr[m]) of the parallel South Arabian-script text, and again in RIÉ 188 and on an inscribed stone basin from Aksum. Scholars accordingly treat Medr and Beher as one and the same chthonic power, or as two functionally interchangeable deities of land and sea. Notably, the term mədr 'earth' was retained even after Ezana's conversion in designations of the Christian God.

Domains

• earth and land

Powers

• to embody and govern the earth

Relations

• ally: Beher (god of the sea, member of the Aksumite triad)Medr stands in the place of Beher in the parallel versions of Ezana's inscription RIÉ 185; the two are regarded as one and the same chthonic deity or as functionally interchangeable powers of 'land/earth'.Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, ed. Siegbert Uhlig, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2003–2014, s.v. 'Medr'. (secondary)

Sources

• Medr is the Aksumite earth-god of Ezana's protective triad, whose name is the Ge'ez word for 'earth' and who substitutes for Beher in the parallel recensions of the royal inscriptions.: Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, ed. Siegbert Uhlig, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2003–2014, s.v. 'Medr'. (secondary); David W. Phillipson, Foundations of an African Civilisation: Aksum and the Northern Horn, 1000 BC–AD 1300, Woodbridge: James Currey, 2012. (secondary)