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OBERON - (English) The King of the Fairies in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and the husband of Titania.

OBSCENE - (original) The personification of the Cardinal Sin "Lust."

OCELOT - (Aztec) One of the gods of the Aztecs, who takes the form of an ocelot (a kind of cat).

OCHER JELLY - (original) An evil, ochre-colored slime.

ODIN - (Norse) Odin (also known as Odhinn and Wotun) was the patriarch of the Norse gods, a god of war and of death by hanging. He lived in a heaven called Valhalla, where he gathered the souls of the best dead warriors to feast and make merry until Ragnarok, the downfall of the gods, where these warriors would act as his army against evil. He had a group of shield maidens called the Valkyries, who would accompany him in battle and chose the warriors that would go to Valhalla when they died. Before the battle began, Odin would fly above them and throw his spear over one army; that side was destined to win that day's battle. He had a spear that would always reached its mark and could go through any substance, and a throne from which he could see the entire world. He usually took the form of an old man with one eye, since he had sacrificed one eye to the Norns to drink from their well of wisdom at the base of the World Tree Yggdrassil. He has two ravens, Thought and Memory, that tell him about everything that goes on in the world. He is also associated with the runic alphabet, because he hung himself on Yggdrassil for nine days and nights to gain the mystic knowledge of the runic alphabet. (n.b. Odin's symbolism is heavily tied with death and hanging. Even 'Yggdrassil' has a special connection to Odin. Most people know it as the World Tree, but the name 'Yggdrassil' means 'the horse of Ygg.' Ygg is one of the names of Odin, but this does not refer to his actual horse - the eight-legged Sleipnir - but to what the god of hanging would 'ride' upon - namely the gallows. His horse, Sleipnir, is also probably a symbol of death; imagine a funeral bier carried by four men, and you'll see where they got the image of an "eight-legged horse" carrying the dead to their final resting place.)

ODYSSEUS - (Greek) Odysseus was one of the heroes of the Trojan War. He was the king of the island of Ithaca on Greece's western coast, and he was famed for his quick wits and cunning. It was he and Ajax who were responsible for the theft of the Palladium, a statue of Athena that was supposed to protect Troy, but his most famous idea was the Trojan Horse. After the war, he wandered the Mediterranean for ten years, battling monsters and being held prisoner(??) by lonely, desperate nymphs. But he eventually made it home to Ithaca, unrecognized by his entire family, and he tricked and killed all the men who had come in his absence to court his wife, Penelope. Anyways, while he was traveling, he was given a bag full of storm winds by Aeolus, the king of the winds. With the winds bottled up like that, his journey home should be smooth and uneventful. But his crew got suspicious that he was taking this sealed bag from the king without sharing the 'treasure' with the crew. So while he was sleeping, they stole the bag of winds and opened it. The resulting hurricane destroyed the ship and sent them to the far ends of the ocean.

OGMA - (Celtic) Ogma is the god of eloquence and learning. He is the son of the goddess Danu and the god Dagda, and one of the foremost members of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He is the inventor of the ancient Ogham alphabet which is used in the earliest Irish writings.

OGOUN - (Haitian) Ogoun is the Haitian god of fire, iron, thunderbolts, and war. He carries a machete or a saber, and is fond of rum and tobacco. He is also the patron god of blacksmiths.

OGRE - (French) A hideous cannibalistic monster from French stories. He particularly likes to eat young women. He is far stronger than humans, but can always be tricked by a quick-witted human, because ogres aren't particularly bright.

OKYPETE - (Greek) One of the Harpies, hideous women with the bodies of birds.

ORTHRUS - (Greek) A two-headed dog that guarded the herds of Geryon, a three-bodied monster. One of the twelve labors of Heracles was to steal the herds of Geryon. When Geryon and Orthrus found out about the theft, they chased after the hero. Heracles killed them both with his poisoned arrows.

OTOHIME - (Japanese) "Luminous Jewel". A Japanese goddess, the beautiful daughter of the sea-king Ryujin. She could turn into a dragon, since her father was a dragon. (n.b. An otohime - 'sound princess' - is also a device in some Japanese restrooms. You press a button, and it makes the sound of running water to mask whatever you might be doing in your bathroom stall. As if people couldn't guess.)

OUROBOROS - (European) A snake-like monster that held its own tail in its mouth. It's a symbol of immortality, due to that cyclical nature.

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