We see the moon as a Goddess, a great mother a benign presence floating in the sky. But, moon goddesses have not always been nice to know, and sometimes the lunar deity was male. 5000 years ago in Ur in Mesopotamia they worshiped the moon god Sin. The very name of Allah, may stem from the moon god Hubal. In Germany, the sun is feminine and the moon male - Frau Sonne and Herr Mond. Many Sanskrit names for the moon are male, including Kandra, Soma, and Vidhu. Here are eight moon gods and goddesses, they are all fierce and they are all proud. Cross them at your peril.

1) Chandra (Indian moon god)

Chandra is young and dashing. He rides his chariot, the moon, through the night sky pulled by 10 white horses or by an antelope. He carries a club and a lotus flower. Chandra was born after his mother swallowed the moon. Chandra married the twenty seven daughters of Daksha and neglected all but one, so Daksha cursed him to die of consumption. But as he weakened, so did all things on earth. Daksha relented and turned the curse into a monthly waxing and waning. Chandra is father to a race of lunar kings. He is also the protector of rabbits, which were sacred to him. He is said to have built a temple of gold to Lord Shiva, Master of the Moon.

2) Coyolxauhqui (Aztec moon goddess)

Coyolxauhqui is the daughter of Caotlicue, the terrible mother of the all the gods. Caotlicue gave birth to the moon, the sun, and the stars. She is a very frightening creature, with a bosom covered with the relics of her children, skulls and bones. She represents life and death, as she has within her both a womb and the grave. She was impregnated by a ball of feathers. This disgusted her daughter Coyolxauhqui, who persuaded Caotlicue’s four hundred sons to slaughter her as punishment. As she lay dying, her son Huitzilopochtli sprang armed from her womb and killed the four hundred children, including Coyolxauhqui. He cut off her head and threw her head into the sky, where it became the moon.. And there it remains, where their mother can see her every night.

3) Hecate (Greek moon goddess)

Hecate is a strange and spooky moon goddess. Her sacred places were graveyards and three pronged crossroads, where sacrifices could be left for her. She is shown with three heads: a dog, a snake and a horse. Two ghost hounds followed her. She has been adopted by neo pagans as the patron of witchcraft and evil, and her plants included hazel, black poplar and willow.

4) Hubal (Pre Islamic Arabian)

A moon god and the most powerful of the three hundred and sixty gods worshipped at Mecca in pre-Islamic times. It is believed that Hubal may have been a forerunner of al-Llah, which means The God, and may be the reason that Mosques have a moon sign over them. Hubal had three daughters. The devil tricked Mohamed into saying in the Koran that they should be worshipped. The lines that Mohamed wrote in the Koran about the daughters are known as the Satanic Verses.

5) Mamma Quilla (Inca moon goddess)

Mamma Quilla is the third most important Inca goddess. Her name means Mother Moon. She protects women, marriage and the menstrual cycle. Her legends say that she cries tears of silver and that when she is eclipsed, she is fighting animals that are attacking her. If the animals succeeded in killing her there will be perpetual night. During an eclipse, people try to frighten the animals away by shouting and making loud noises with drums. She had her own temple at Cuzco where one of her images was a huge silver plate, which covered a whole wall.

6) Selene (Greek moon goddess)