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MACHA - (Celtic) The third of the triad of war goddess collectively known as the Morrigan. She was challenged to a race by the king of Ulster while she was pregnant. She raced and won, but was forced into premature labor by the stress and died during childbirth. Before dying, she cursed the men of Ulster to suffer from the pains of childbirth in their time of greatest danger. She had red hair and wore red clothing and rode a red horse.

MAHA KALA - (Hindu) Time personified, a form of Siva.

MAIA - (Greek) The eldest of the Pleiades, who were the seven daughters of the Titan Atlus. She was very shy and lived in a cave far from people. Zeus, the king of the gods, seduced her, and her son was the god Hermes.

MALPHAS - (European) Originally one of the 40 spirits of Solomon, in medieval demonology he was a grand-president of hell who governed 40 legions. Malphas appears as a raven or a man with a harsh, cawing voice.

MANGADO - (Mongolian) A 500-headed, 50-horned monster that was defeated by the thunder god Fuhedi Mergane.

MANNANAN - (Celtic) The patron god of the Isle of Man and the god of the sea. He travelled Ireland in various forms.

MARS - (Roman) The Roman god of war. To the Romans, war was a great and glorious business, so Mars was pretty much the most important Roman god (contrast this with the Greek Ares, who was a snivelling, hated coward).

MARDUK - (Babylonian) The king of the gods, who slew the sea-dragon Tiamat in a typical mythological struggle between order and chaos. After his victory, he created a new world and made Babylon the center of all things.

MASO - (Chinese) The goddess of the sea, who protected ships carrying rice shipments. She was originally worshipped in the Fujian provice, but her worship spread throughout China.

MATSUO-SAMA - (Japanese) The god of sake, and the patron god of sake-brewers. He gets his name from the Matsuo Taisha shrine, the oldest shrine in Kyoto. It was built in the year 700AD and is dedicated to the God of Sake.

MEGAERA - (Greek) One of the Furies. (See: Erinyes)

MELCHISEDEC - (Judeo-Christian) The king of Salem and a high priest in the Old Testament. He greets Abraham with bread and wine, a forerunner of the Eucharist.

METAL GURU - (historical- I love this one, personally.) A demon that wears a purple suit and plays rock music on his guitar. The model for this demon is the leader of the rock band that became famous in 1970, T. Rex -- namely, Marc Bolan. The name of the demon comes from the famous T. Rex song, "Metal Guru."

MICHAEL - (Judeo-Christian) One of the archangels, who is charged with fighting Satan, rallying the troops of God, and saving souls on the deathbed.

MINOTAURUS - (Greek) A bull-headed human who ate human flesh. It was locked in the maze-like Labyrinth on the island of Crete by his "father," King Minos ("Minotaur" means "Bull of Minos"). Apparently, Minos was a devotee of Poseidon, and asked for Poseidon to provide a perfect bull to sacrifice to Poseidon. Well, Poseidon did, but then Minos thought he might as well keep such a nice bull as part of his herd and sacrifice a substitute. Poseidon got mad at the trick, and caused Minos' wife to fall madly in love with the bull. (Ew.) Well, stuff happened, and she gave birth to the Minotaur, which Minos locked in the maze-like castle, the Labyrinth. To feed the monster, he invaded the city of Athens and demanded 14 human victims to be sent from Athens to Crete every year. One of them ended up being the king's son, Theseus...and the rest is mythology.

MITHRA - (Zoroastrian) A god of light and the son of Ahura-Mazda. He was born in a cave and slaughtered a heavenly bull before ascending to the heavens. His worship was popular among the Roman soldiers stationed in that part of the empire.

MIYASUDOKORO - (literary, Japanese) The Lady Rokujo-no-Miyasudokoro, one of Prince Genji's many lovers in The Tale of Genji. When Genji abandoned her, her jealousy manifested itself as a vengeful ghost that attacked and killed some of Genji's other lovers. The Noh play Aoi no Ue is about Rokujo's attack upon Lady Aoi, Genji's wife. In the play, Lady Rokujo starts out with a innocuous deigan (gold-eyes) mask, but she trades that for a hannya mask to show her vengeful rage.

MIZUCHI - (Japanese) A snake spirit that rules over the inhabitants of lakes and oceans and has control over water. Although it was seen as a water god originally, the advent of Buddhist made it more likely to be a monster when it was mentioned in stories.

MOKOS - (Slavic) An ancient Slavic earth goddess and a patron of women.

MORRIGAN - (Celtic) The goddess of war and fertility, who sometimes appears as a trio of goddesses - Maiden, Mother, and Hag. She is associated with crows and chooses those who are to die in battle.

MO SHOBO - (Mongolian) The evil spirit of a girl who died without knowing love, Mo Shobo is depicted as a beautiful girl with long hair and red lips. She approaches unwary travellers and eats their brains. Her name means "evil soul."

MOT - (Syrian/Ugaritic) The lord of the underworld, who defeated Ba'al and was slain by Ba'al's wife.

MUCALINDA - (Buddhist/Hindu) When Buddla was meditating under a tree during a thunderstorm, the Naga king Mucalinda (half-snake, half-human) left his pond nearby and coiled around the Buddha to protect him. The tree itself is also known as the Mucalinda Tree.

MUSHUSSU - (Babylonian) A snake or dragon with a snake's head and body, lion's forelegs, and bird's hindlegs. Its name means "the furious snake" and it was a minion of the great chaos dragon Tiamat. He fought along with Tiamat against the god Marduk, but after Tiamat's defeat, Mushussu was allowed to live as a shrine guardian.

MUSSIE - (original) A snake-like monster that lives in the Mu Continent in Persona 2. In fact, it was originally just a dinosaur doll that was part of the decorations, but a gullible guard mistook it for a monster and as the rumor spread through Sumaru, Mussie came to life.

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