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Related to my last question: Are there any races/species of creature in any pantheon with four arms (and two legs and one head)?

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  • What is the difference with your previous question actually?
    – plannapus
    Commented Jan 23, 2018 at 7:51
  • @plannapus The widening of the acceptable source pantheon. For example, Norse mythology has a serpent around the equator; Greco-Roman mythology does not. So if there was one example in the Greco-Roman pantheon, there might be more examples in other belief systems. Commented Jan 23, 2018 at 11:01
  • @LaurenIpsum ah indeed, didn't understood the first one excluded other pantheons, my bad.
    – plannapus
    Commented Jan 23, 2018 at 13:08
  • It's been a while since I read the Chinese Classic of Mountains and Seas, so I can't remember if this configuration appears specifically, but I wouldn't be surprised, since the book is mytho/combinatorial.
    – DukeZhou
    Commented Jan 25, 2018 at 19:51
  • pbfcomics.com/comics/spelling shows a four-handed elephant god, but it might be from a modern fictional mythology that is off-topic per mythology.meta.stackexchange.com/a/143/197 .
    – b_jonas
    Commented Jan 25, 2018 at 23:55

1 Answer 1

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Such creatures are easily spotted in Indian depictions from various times. Ganesha, Lakshmi and Vishnu are probably the most popular, and there is a book on the topic which might be useful: Doris Srinivasan Many Heads, Arms and eyes: Origin, Meaning and Forms of Multiplicity in Indian Art (Brill, 1997).

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  • 2
    You know the drill by now: Some quotes or paraphrases from your source would improve this answer.
    – Spencer
    Commented Jan 25, 2018 at 0:01
  • It is my understanding the Indian/Vedic gods are usually portrayed or described with multiple arms, but the number often changes from one depiction to another (or from avatar to avatar). And, technically, I excluded deities in the question by specifying races and creatures.
    – rek
    Commented Feb 1, 2018 at 19:42
  • In a pantheon, the word suggests it, the creatures are deities.
    – sand1
    Commented Feb 1, 2018 at 21:20

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