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Discounted cash flow

The discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, in financial analysis, is a method used to value a security, project, company, or asset, that incorporates the time value of money. Discounted cash flow analysis is widely used in investment finance, real estate development, corporate financial management, and patent valuation. Used in industry as early as the 1700s or 1800s, it was widely discussed in financial economics in the 1960s, and U.S. courts began employing the concept in the 1980s and 1990s.

Application

In discount cash flow analysis, all future cash flows are estimated and discounted by using cost of capital to give their present values (PVs). The sum of all future cash flows, both incoming and outgoing, is the net present value (NPV), which is taken as the value of the cash flows in question; see aside.

For further context see ; and for the mechanics see valuation using discounted cash flows, which includes modifications typical for startups, private equity and venture capital, corporate finance "projects", and mergers and acquisitions.

Using DCF analysis to compute the NPV takes as input cash flows and a discount rate and gives as output a present value. The opposite process takes cash flows and a price (present value) as inputs, and provides as output the discount rate; this is used in bond markets to obtain the yield.

History
Discounted cash flow calculations have been used in some form since money was first lent at interest in ancient times. Studies of ancient Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics suggest that they used techniques similar to discounting future cash flows. Modern discounted cash flow analysis has been used since at least the early 1700s in the UK coal industry.

Discounted cash flow valuation is differentiated from the accounting book value, which is based on the amount paid for the asset. Following the stock market crash of 1929, discounted cash flow analysis gained popularity as a valuation method for stocks. Irving Fisher in his 1930 book The Theory of Interest and John Burr Williams's 1938 text The Theory of Investment Value first formally expressed the DCF method in modern economic terms.

Discounted cash flows
The discounted cash flow formula is derived from the present value formula for calculating the time value of money

 * $$DCF = \frac{CF_1}{(1+r)^1} + \frac{CF_2}{(1+r)^2} + \dotsb +

\frac{CF_n}{(1+r)^n}$$

and compounding returns:

 * $$FV = DCF \cdot (1+r)^n$$.

Thus the discounted present value (for one cash flow in one future period) is expressed as:

 * $$DPV = \frac{FV}{(1+r)^n}$$

where
 * DPV is the discounted present value of the future cash flow (FV), or FV adjusted for the delay in receipt;
 * FV is the nominal value of a cash flow amount in a future period (see Mid-year adjustment);
 * r is the interest rate or discount rate, which reflects the cost of tying up capital and may also allow for the risk that the payment may not be received in full;
 * n is the time in years before the future cash flow occurs.

Where multiple cash flows in multiple time periods are discounted, it is necessary to sum them as follows:

 * $$DPV = \sum_{t=0}^{N} \frac{FV_t}{(1+r)^{t}}$$

for each future cash flow (FV) at any time period (t) in years from the present time, summed over all time periods. The sum can then be used as a net present value figure. If the amount to be paid at time 0 (now) for all the future cash flows is known, then that amount can be substituted for DPV and the equation can be solved for r, that is the internal rate of return.

All the above assumes that the interest rate remains constant throughout the whole period.

If the cash flow stream is assumed to continue indefinitely, the finite forecast is usually combined with the assumption of constant cash flow growth beyond the discrete projection period. The total value of such cash flow stream is the sum of the finite discounted cash flow forecast and the Terminal value (finance).

Continuous cash flows
For continuous cash flows, the summation in the above formula is replaced by an integration:

 * $$DPV= \int_0^T FV(t) \, e^{-\lambda t} dt = \int_0^T \frac{FV(t)}{(1 + r)^t} \, dt\,,$$

where $$FV(t)$$ is now the rate of cash flow, and $$\lambda = \ln(1+r)$$.

Discount rate
The act of discounting future cash flows asks "how much money would have to be invested currently, at a given rate of return, to yield the forecast cash flow, at its future date?" In other words, discounting returns the present value of future cash flows, where the rate used is the cost of capital that appropriately reflects the risk, and timing, of the cash flows.

This "required return" thus incorporates: For the latter, various models have been developed, where the premium is (typically) calculated as a function of the asset's performance with reference to some macroeconomic variable - for example, the CAPM compares the asset's historical returns to the "overall market's"; see and.
 * 1) Time value of money (risk-free rate) – according to the theory of time preference, investors would rather have cash immediately than having to wait and must therefore be compensated by paying for the delay.
 * 2) Risk premium – reflects the extra return investors demand because they want to be compensated for the risk that the cash flow might not materialize after all.

An alternate, although less common approach, is to apply a "fundamental valuation" method, such as the "T-model", which instead relies on accounting information. Other methods of discounting, such as hyperbolic discounting, are studied in academia and said to reflect intuitive decision-making, but are not generally used in industry. In this context the above is referred to as "exponential discounting".

The terminology "expected return", although formally the mathematical expected value, is often used interchangeably with the above, where "expected" means "required" or "demanded" by investors.

The method may also be modified by industry, for example various formulae have been proposed when choosing a discount rate in a healthcare setting; similarly in a mining setting, where risk-characteristics can differ (dramatically) by property.

Methods of appraisal of a company or project
For these valuation purposes, a number of different DCF methods are distinguished today, some of which are outlined below. The details are likely to vary depending on the capital structure of the company. However the assumptions used in the appraisal (especially the equity discount rate and the projection of the cash flows to be achieved) are likely to be at least as important as the precise model used. Both the income stream selected and the associated cost of capital model determine the valuation result obtained with each method. (This is one reason these valuation methods are formally referred to as the Discounted Future Economic Income methods.) The below is offered as a high-level treatment; for the components / steps of business modeling here, see.

Equity-approach

 * Flows to equity approach (FTE)
 * Discount the cash flows available to the holders of equity capital, after allowing for cost of servicing debt capital
 * Advantages: Makes explicit allowance for the cost of debt capital
 * Disadvantages: Requires judgement on choice of discount rate

Entity-approach

 * Adjusted present value approach (APV)
 * Discount the cash flows before allowing for the debt capital (but allowing for the tax relief obtained on the debt capital)
 * Advantages: Simpler to apply if a specific project is being valued which does not have earmarked debt capital finance
 * Disadvantages: Requires judgement on choice of discount rate; no explicit allowance for cost of debt capital, which may be much higher than a risk-free rate
 * Weighted average cost of capital approach (WACC)
 * Derive a weighted cost of the capital obtained from the various sources and use that discount rate to discount the unlevered free cash flows from the project
 * Advantages: Overcomes the requirement for debt capital finance to be earmarked to particular projects
 * Disadvantages: Care must be exercised in the selection of the appropriate income stream. The net cash flow to total invested capital is the generally accepted choice.
 * Total cash flow approach (TCF)
 * This distinction illustrates that the Discounted Cash Flow method can be used to determine the value of various business ownership interests. These can include equity or debt holders.
 * Alternatively, the method can be used to value the company based on the value of total invested capital. In each case, the differences lie in the choice of the income stream and discount rate. For example, the net cash flow to total invested capital and WACC are appropriate when valuing a company based on the market value of all invested capital.

Shortcomings
The following difficulties are identified with the application of DCF in valuation: <!-- == Example == TOO MUCH To show how discounted cash flow analysis is performed, consider the following example.
 * 1) Forecast reliability: Traditional DCF models assume we can accurately forecast revenue and earnings 3–5 years into the future. But studies have shown that growth is neither predictable nor persistent. (See Stock valuation and Sustainable growth rate.) In other terms, using DCF models is problematic due to the problem of induction, i.e. presupposing that a sequence of events in the future will occur as it always has in the past. Colloquially, in the world of finance, the problem of induction is often simplified with the common phrase: past returns are not indicative of future results. In fact, the SEC demands that all mutual funds use this sentence to warn their investors. This observation has led some to conclude that DCF models should only be used to value companies with steady cash flows. For example, DCF models are widely used to value mature companies in stable industry sectors, such as utilities. For industries that are especially unpredictable and thus harder to forecast, DCF models can prove especially challenging. Industry Examples:
 * 2) * Real Estate: Investors use DCF models to value commercial real estate development projects. This practice has two main shortcomings. First, the discount rate assumption relies on the market for competing investments at the time of the analysis, which may not persist into the future. Second, assumptions about ten-year income increases are usually based on historic increases in the market rent. Yet the cyclical nature of most real estate markets is not factored in. Most real estate loans are made during boom real estate markets and these markets usually last fewer than ten years. In this case, due to the problem of induction, using a DCF model to value commercial real estate during any but the early years of a boom market can lead to overvaluation.
 * 3) * Early-stage Technology Companies: In valuing startups, the DCF method can be applied a number of times, with differing assumptions, to assess a range of possible future outcomes—such as the best, worst and mostly likely case scenarios. Even so, the lack of historical company data and uncertainty about factors that can affect the company's development make DCF models especially difficult for valuing startups. There is a lack of credibility regarding future cash flows, future cost of capital, and the company's growth rate. By forecasting limited data into an unpredictable future, the problem of induction is especially pronounced.
 * 4) Discount rate estimation: Traditionally, DCF models assume that the capital asset pricing model can be used to assess the riskiness of an investment and set an appropriate discount rate. Some economists, however, suggest that the capital asset pricing model has been empirically invalidated. various other models are proposed (see asset pricing), although all are subject to some theoretical or empirical criticism.
 * 5) Input-output problem: DCF is merely a mechanical valuation tool, which makes it subject to the principle "garbage in, garbage out." Small changes in inputs can result in large changes in the value of a company. This is especially the case with terminal values, which make up a large proportion of the Discounted Cash Flow's final value.
 * 6) Missing variables: Traditional DCF calculations only consider the financial costs and benefits of a decision. They do not include the environmental, social and governance performance of an organization. This criticism, true for all valuation techniques, is addressed through an approach called "IntFV" discussed below.

 * John Doe buys a house for $100,000. Three years later, he expects to be able to sell this house for $150,000.

Simple subtraction suggests that the value of his profit on such a transaction would be $150,000 − $100,000 = $50,000, or 50%. If that $50,000 is amortized over the three years, his implied annual return (known as the internal rate of return) would be about 14.5%. Looking at those figures, he might be justified in thinking that the purchase looked like a good idea. 1.1453 x $100,000 = $150,000, approximately.

However, since three years have passed between the purchase and the sale, any cash flow from the sale must be discounted accordingly. At the time John Doe buys the house, the three-year US Treasury Note rate is 5% per annum. Treasury notes are generally considered to be inherently less risky than real estate, since the value of the note is guaranteed by the US government and there is a liquid market for the purchase and sale of T-notes. If he had not put his money into buying the house, he could have invested it in the relatively safe T-Notes instead. This 5% per annum can, therefore, be regarded as the risk-free interest rate for the relevant period (three years).

Using the DPV formula above (FV=$150,000, i=0.05, n=3), that means that the value of $150,000 received in three years actually has a present value of $129,576 (rounded off). In other words, we would need to invest $129,576 in a T-bond now to get $150,000 in three years almost risk-free. This is a quantitative way of showing that money in the future is not as valuable as money in the present ($150,000 in three years is not worth the same as $150,000 now; it is worth $129,576 now).

Subtracting the purchase price of the house ($100,000) from the present value results in the net present value of the whole transaction, which would be $29,576 or a little more than 29% of the purchase price. Another way of looking at the deal as the excess return achieved (over the risk-free rate) is (114.5 - 105)/(100 + 5) or approximately 9.0% (still very respectable).

But what about risk? We assume that the $150,000 is John's best estimate of the sale price that he will be able to achieve in three years time (after deducting all expenses). There is a lot of uncertainty about house prices, and the outcome may end up higher or lower than this estimate. (The house John is buying is in a "good neighborhood", but market values have been rising quite a lot lately and the real estate market analysts in the media are talking about a slow-down and higher interest rates. There is a probability that John might not be able to get the full $150,000 he is expecting in three years due to a slowing of price appreciation, or that loss of liquidity in the real estate market might make it very hard for him to sell at all.

Under normal circumstances, people entering into such transactions are risk-averse, that is to say that they are prepared to accept a lower expected return for the sake of avoiding risk. See Capital asset pricing model for a further discussion of this. For the sake of the example (and this is a gross simplification), let us assume that he values this particular risk at 5% per annum (we could perform a more precise probabilistic analysis of the risk, but that is beyond the scope of this article). Therefore, allowing for this risk, his expected return is now 9.0% per annum (the arithmetic is the same as above). And the excess return over the risk-free rate is now (109 - 105)/(100 + 5) which comes to approximately 3.8% per annum.

That return rate may seem low, but it is still positive after all of our discounting, suggesting that the investment decision is probably a good one: it produces enough profit to compensate for tying up capital and incurring risk with a little extra left over. When investors and managers perform DCF analysis, the important thing is that the net present value of the decision after discounting all future cash flows at least be positive (more than zero). If it is negative, that means that the investment decision would actually lose money even if it appears to generate a nominal profit. For instance, if the expected sale price of John Doe's house in the example above was not $150,000 in three years, but $130,000 in three years or $150,000 in five years, then on the above assumptions buying the house would actually cause John to lose money in present-value terms (about $3,000 in the first case, and about $8,000 in the second). Similarly, if the house was located in an undesirable neighborhood and the Federal Reserve Bank was about to raise interest rates by five percentage points, then the risk factor would be a lot higher than 5%: it might not be possible for him to predict a profit in discounted terms even if he thinks he could sell the house for $200,000 in three years.

In this example, only one future cash flow was considered. For a decision which generates multiple cash flows in multiple time periods, all the cash flows must be discounted and then summed into a single net present value. See for cases where multiple periods are considered. -->

Integrated future value
To address the lack of integration of the short and long term importance, value and risks associated with natural and social capital into the traditional DCF calculation, companies are valuing their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance through an Integrated Management approach to reporting, that expands DCF or Net Present Value to Integrated Future Value (IntFV).

This allows companies to value their investments not just for their financial return but also the long term environmental and social return of their investments. By highlighting environmental, social and governance performance in reporting, decision makers have the opportunity to identify new areas for value creation that are not revealed through traditional financial reporting. As an example, the social cost of carbon is one value that can be incorporated into Integrated Future Value calculations to encompass the damage to society from greenhouse gas emissions that result from an investment.

This is an integrated approach to reporting that supports Integrated Bottom Line (IBL) decision making, which takes triple bottom line (TBL) a step further and combines financial, environmental and social performance reporting into one balance sheet. This approach provides decision makers with the insight to identify opportunities for value creation that promote growth and change within an organization.

title: Discounted cash flow


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Lists of deities

This is an index of lists of deities of the different religions, cultures and mythologies of the world.

 * List of deities by classification
 * Lists of deities by cultural sphere
 * List of fictional deities
 * List of people who have been considered deities; see also Apotheosis, Imperial cult and Sacred king
 * Names of God (epithets of gods of monotheistic religions)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Lists of deities


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Talk:Lists of deities

tibetan deities?
i was wondering if ppl forgot the list of tibetan deities, or is it too closely related to the indian, hindu deities?

Top
Isn't it rather insulting to the millions of people who still actively worship them to lump the Hindu deities in with the defunct "mythological" ones?

 * On the contrary, it is your remark -- however well-intentioned -- that implicitly insults those people who believed in/worshiped other deities. I checked earlier versions of the article and I don't think the article characterizes any of these deities in a disparaging way.  I personally would not want to call them "defunct" because that word has insulting connotations.  It is true that these cultures have passed away, but that will happen to all of us.  In fact, most humans who have ever lived are dead, and I would never disparage them or their beliefs for that reason alone.

 * I admit I think it is strange that the list of Deities does not include God/El/Allah etc., and you might perhaps constructively insist that it do so. SR

So put it there?

There's no generally understood insulting connotation of "defunct" that I'm aware of. It just means "dead", or "no longer working" as far as I know. Sure, mythologies are just religions that no-one believes in any more, and the time will come when Christianity, for instance, is one of those too. Note that the thing called "Hindu" here is by far and away the most resilient system of beliefs the world has yet seen. bottles

Actually, people still believe in the "dead" religions. Including, but not limited to Greek, Roman, Norman religions and their gods and goddesses. Personally, I was initially very offended at the distintions between "Mythology" and "Religion" but I've come to understand why people make the assumptions they do.

Yes, there are in fact people alive today who worship these deities.Lily20 (talk) 21:43, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

''In my understanding of Christianity, the name of God has been "God," and God's relationship to Jesus Christ is not a simple as what's listed above: God is actually the Holy Trinity--God, the Son, the Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ is just the physical and spiritual manifestation of the Son, not the Father as well. So I think the above is technically incorrect.''

I think I understand your view, but there are very many different Christian views on what God is. The Catholic Church, for example, holds the view you state above, as I'm sure you know. But nearly all Protestants would say, as they do say, "Jesus Christ is the Lord our God." I think nearly all Catholics would agree with that, too. I guess most Christians would say that Jesus Christ is divine, and as such, "Jesus Christ" is at least one of the names of God. --LMS

 * Most Protestants still believe in the Holy Trinity, although their beliefs may be less fully articulated. Still, this is not an entry on different names of God, but on different gods. As it is, the format of the article suggests that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct deities as different from each other as Odin, Thor and Loki. Further, there is the massive disclaimer that unitarian monotheists find trinitarianism "either polytheistic or incomprehensible". This is not NPOV... unless we also want to add to each polytheistic entry the particular shortcomings that other religious groups find with their theologies. More could certainly be said about whether the Hindu gods are distinct gods or the same god or part of Everything, and whether that view makes sense to anyone else. Better to state each position as that religion states it, attributing it appropriately so Wikipedia doesn't itself get religion. Wesley

I'm not too sure "Jesus Christ" should be listed as a name of God as such. Sure, "Jesus Christ" is a name of God in most Christian groups (since most Christian groups believe Jesus is God). But I think "Jesus Christ" refers to a particular aspect of the Christian God; "Jesus Christ" isn't just God, he's a person; while "Yahweh" or "Adonai" or "Elohim" are primarily just God, not a person. (Though maybe after theological reflection its different.) -- Simon J Kissane

Since I'm Christian, I find it a bit twisty to say Jesus isn't JUST God. God has multiple names, and Jesus Christ is one of them. Because of Jesus' life, we know God is a person. Jesus is the Word of God, incarnate. Hmm. this is hard to explain. Jesus is as much of God as can possibly be human, much as a Circle is as much of a Sphere as could possibly exist in two dimensions. Anyway, the Holy Spirit is a person too. I make a distinction between a human and a person.

One could say that, but you could also say that All egyptian and Hindu dieties are not actual dieties because. For example, Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva are not God. God in hinduism is Brahman. While Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva are just aspects of Brahman. And Krishna is just an aspect of Vishnu (although, this is disagree on, just like the divinity of jesus) Since the Hari Krishna believe that Krishna is actualy the absolute of god, Other hindu sects believe Devi is the real main goddess and all other gods/goddess are aspects of her. Thusly, Jesus can be considered Divine or God because some major sects view him as divine for it to be a rational inclusion. Can you imagine the type of responces you would get if you excluded him? Jaynus _Izanagi

Can someone expand on the Trinity? People talk about the Father and the Son, but not the Holy Ghost. Can we get an entry on that? -- ansible
 * See Trinity. :-)

Multiple names: Some of the more ancient gods have multiple names, based on transliteration from the original language to modern language. One example would be the ancient Egyptian Set = Seth = Sutekh. What's the best way to list these?

 * List them exactly as you do here. One of them should have double brackets, so that an entry on them can eventually be created. The rest can be without such brackets. RK

--- This page is getting really long and it has the potential to get much longer. Shouldn't we split it up? Danny

Are the Japanese deities still worshiped? I have no clue about the Shinto religion -- Zoe

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"Wesley (adding 'pre-Christian' to some headings as appropriate, for consistency)"

Wesley, I respect your work but I dislike the implication that Christianity should be considered the appropriate yardstick for discussing religion. Can we NPOV this any? -- Respectfully awaiting your reply.

 * Well, several of the entries seem to be groups based on ethnicity or culture, like the Finns and the Celts for example. The article already had "pre-Christian Finnish gods" or something similar, so I just added that same prefix to the other groups that were once polytheistic but later adopted Christianity en masse, so to speak. If it seems more neutral, we could change all the "pre-Christian" headings to "ancient", or just leave it off. I do think the fact that these groups converted to Christianity is historically significant, but my religion probably inflates its significance in my eyes. Wesley

The perhaps-more-NPOV term that occurs to me is "traditional". I don't think it's perfect, but maybe OK. What do you think?

 * I don't think it would work for the Greeks. I spent a week at prayers at a Greek Orthodox Church last Spring, and for them Greek Orthodoxy is very traditional, and a huge part of being Greek culturally and ethnically. Today, Greek Orthodox Christianity is the traditional Greek religion, and has been for at least 1,600 years. For groups that aren't really around anymore, like the Celts, I'm not sure how you pick which is traditional. Wesley

Yah, I was afraid of that. I have no good suggestion at this time.

Can we include 'pre-Bahai' to some of these entries as well?

Also, as far as the 'trinity' goes, the interpretation of Hinduism given in the Bhagavad Gita espouses a similar philosophy regarding god - God is many, and one. If the Christian Trinity is considered monotheistic, according to this interpretation, the Hindu tradition should be considered monotheistic as well. The inclusion of the various Hindu deities without comment on this view of God/divinity is therefore inconsistent with the discussion given to Christianity. Graft 17:48 Oct 1, 2002 (UTC)

 * If any of the people groups mentioned later converted to Bahai en masse, that may very well be appropriate. Or we could drop all the "pre-Foo" and "ancient" monikers. I agree that Hinduism isn't polytheistic in the same way some of these other religions are; it isn't exactly the same as the Christian trinity, but there are strong similarities. More discussion would be fine IMO. Wesley

Some Christians deny the unity of the "three monotheistic religions", saying that Jesus is not Allah (implying that Muslims are not worshipping God). I'm not sure I understand this POV, but I heard it on a Christian radio station last week. Before I add a fly to the ointment, I'd like someone who knows more than I do to comment.

 * Well, they are three different religions with distinct religious beliefs. Muslims would agree that Jesus is not Allah, as far as I know. What was the question again? Wesley

 * LOL. "Because all men are brothers..." --Ed Poor

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I'm doing some pruning now. Some of the mythologies skip really important gods and include minor ones (and some list mythological mortals). Also adding some other mythologies. This list is going to get real long and is probably going to need constant maintenance. I'm going to eliminate the paragraphs on Sumerian gods; this article is supposed to be a list, not a description of each god ("god of trees" or something takes up little space, but not the paragraphs on Sumerian gods). User:Tokerboy

 * Thanks for the good work you're doing. How about moving the Sumerian paragraphs to the article for that particular deity, unless the individual article already has the information? I agree the descriptions on this page should stay fairly concise, but the information should probably still be kept somewhere, and the individual pages are the logical places. Wesley

The Christianity section needs some mention of Catholic saints, which serve as minor deities (and in many places, serve dual purpose--deities have a local form and a saint form).

 * If you list saints among deities, the entry will lose credibility among Protestants and Catholics alike. Saints are people glorified by grace, not deities; and it would inevitably be interpreted as anti-Catholic or even anti-Christian, to list saints as deities. Mkmcconn 20:58 Oct 1, 2002 (UTC)

 * How about just a link to a list of saints and a mention that, while not deific, they are the object of veneration for at least some Christians?

--- I'm proposing a change--some may have noticed as I've been adding new mythological entries, I've changed the sections to 'Deities (not) still widely worshipped in their original form''". I'm now not so sure I like the idea of dividing them at all. a religion still extant (having had no absolute breaks necessitating a revival) in the same category as Egyptian mythology, which has been essentially defunct for quite some time, though ideas from it have been used for new religions.
 * "widely" is inherently subjective.
 * Therefore, I added the "original form" bit because I didn't want to put Abenaki mythology, in the "deities not widely worshipped" category since lumping
 * I don't like the new category either because so many native mythologies are syncretized with Christianity or some other religion that "original form" doesn't really apply.
 * Ergo, the original didn't work, and I no longer like my next best idea and, ultimately, I don't see how any division at all adds to the article. Anybody interested in whether or not these religions are still practiced can find out on the Egyptian mythology page or what have you, where the details can be mentioned without oversimplifying.

Anybody have an opinion? (I'll continue to work under the current system of "original form" versus not until a consensus is reached) User:Tokerboy

 * I think that using "mythology" is inherently not NPOV. We should probably use a single word, such as "religion", for all the deities listed on this page. -- ESP 16:23 20 Jul 2003 (UTC)

In the Christian section, I wasn't clear whether there are one god, two gods (God and Mary), or four gods (Father, Son, Holy whatever, and Mary)? I assume it varies, but it isn't too clear, at least to me. Pagan 06:22, 31 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * All of the above. It depends on the group of Christians. Mlk 05:45, 7 Jan 2004 (UTC)

 * I don't know of any group that claims that Mary is God. Orthodox and Catholic Christians call Mary the "Mother of God" or Theotokos by way of affirming Jesus Christ's divinity, but they also affirm that God is Mary's Creator, and that Mary is entirely human. Did you have someone else in mind? Also, classical Christianity affirms just one God, existing as three divine Persons who share a single divine Essence and Nature, both indivisible and unconfused. Only non-Christians accuse Christians of worshiping three gods when they misunderstand the Trinity, much as they once accused Christians of atheism because they didn't worship the Roman gods, or of cannibalism because they said they were eating the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Wesley 17:12, 8 Jan 2004 (UTC)

"Two smaller faiths that don't neatly fit into any of the categories of Abrahamic religions. Rastafarianism worships Jah and the Baha'i Faith also worships the same God as Jews, Christians and Muslims." My understanding was that the Baha'i werent specifically Judeo-Christian, but rather worshipped God regardless of his name or manifestaions. And if you do a little bit of minor research, you will discover that Rastafarianism, while not a very complex religion, actually has tenets beyond "Rastafarianism worships Jah". DryGrain 18:26, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)
 * Moved Drygrain's comments from top of this page to bottom While I don't know enough about either religion to have an opinion, feel free to make improvements. Tuf-Kat 03:06, Mar 17, 2004 (UTC)

 * Baha'i is not an Abrahamic religion. Yes, they are monotheistic, and yes, they think that (for example) Moses, Jesus, and Muhammed were prophets of their god, but they also think that (for example) Krishna and Zoroaster were, too. -Rwv37 00:01, May 3, 2004 (UTC)

On Eris: should she be listed in Greek mythology, where she originated, in Kitchen Gods under Discordianism where she is currently "worshipped", or in both sections? Personally, I think both, but I want to know what others think before I change anything. PMC 05:21, 8 May 2004 (UTC)

 * After looking at the Eris entry, both seems reasonable. -- till we *) 18:15, 8 May 2004 (UTC)

on hotei
You realize that hotei isn't really a fake diety. He is a buddhist and daoist diety and also found in japan Although (from what i remember) he originated as a chinese folk hero. So, i don't this its really fair to call a buddha and daoist immortal a kitchen diety.

Kitchen Gods
I have revised my previous post to better explain my concern with this section. As defined by Wiktionary, a deity is "a powerful entity that possesses numerous miraculous powers." This is open to interpretation but I would posit that just because an idea has been anthropomorphized does not make it an entity. Therefore, many entries in the Modern Western mythology section are not deities. Children, in their ignorance, may believe in a Santa Claus or a Tooth Fairy who visits them in the night, but no one actually believes in a deity who removes semicolons from working computer code. These "deities" may belong in another page but do not need to grace this list that includes Shiva, Bast, and Zeus. I have taken the liberty of moving some of the kitchen gods to an examples list on the Kitchen Gods page. Fruitofwisdom 14:26, 12 October 2005 (UTC)fruitofwisdom

Christian
I am conderned about the christian category, as the only deity is God, Jesus was the son and many other are Angles and not classified as having a divine power or seperate worshipers like the many other religions. Enlil Ninlil 04:21, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Remember that there's many, many children of deities via in many other religions. Note that they're not on the list. Heracles, one of the more well-known ones, for instance.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.34.98.82 (talk) 08:00, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

Cthulhu fhtagn!
If notable deities such as the Invisible Pink Unicorn and the Flying Spaghetti Monster can merit mention on this list, why not a few from Lovecraft's pantheon? Cthulhu in particular has definately entered himself into popular culture, despite his lesser status in Lovecraft's work.

Lovecraftian deities probably are more justified for inclusion than IPY and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I hear there are some people who practice "Lovecraftian occultism". (Don't ask me why. I don't know.)  Hiergargo 20:50, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Godchecker.com?
I attempted to follow the link on the article page to www.godchecker.com, and have not been able to locate it. Trying to find a godchecker.org doesn't work, either. Does anyone know the fate of this website? I Googled & Dogpiled it, and found many references talking about how great the site was, but the site itself is nowhere to be found. :-(

Ali

It works now. -- MicahDCochran 14:34, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

zoroastrianism
there is another deity in the religion called Ahriman he is the dark sided of the two entities

205.204.242.22 20:24, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

True; he is even seen as Ahura Mazda's twin by the Zurvanites. However, I'm not sure whether he qualifies as a deity by the definition on the page Deity. Badbilltucker 14:40, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Buddhism?
What happened to Buddhism? I realize that the boddhisattvas and Buddha himself are not necessarily "deities" in the Abrahamic sense, but.. LordAmeth 11:12, 5 January 2007 (UTC) The last four paragraphs of the relation with humanity section deal explicitly with the subject of deities in Buddhism. Badbilltucker 14:41, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm afraid I do not see any "relation with humanity" section. I apologize, maybe I'm just missing it. Where are you looking? LordAmeth 15:22, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

African Sub-categories
There are way too many different African sub-cultures and deities to be grouped into one category. It should be something similar to the list for N. America.Signor Pastrini 17:36, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Agreed - the Wikipedia guidelines on 'list articles' indicates the orgnaization must be clear and consistant. Having a section for 'African' dieties and seperate sections for say 'Ashanti' is not acceptable per Wikipedia policy. Perhaps an organization based on 'Continent of original worship' and subdivide by culture from there. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.69.137.40 (talk) 02:26, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

List of Deities vs. List of deities OR List of Deities and List of deities
I created a page called the List of Monsters, and when going over that page, I began to think about what or what isn't a monster, and whether certain gods or goddesses should be included in the list. When I suggested a List of Deities, it came up as not yet created, and no one pointed me out to List of deities as already existing.

So now I've created the one list, and am wondering whether it should be deleted or renamed and made into a list that includes ALL deities, fictional or otherwise.

As active contributors or readers of this list, what is your opinion on the matter.

Note, I just created the List of Deities today and it didn't take me long before I found this one, so there isn't much to it yet.

However, if allowed to move further, I would like to at least get the blessing, if you will, of the proprietors of this list before doing anything more.

Thank you.

OtakuMan 20:32, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

 * Never mind. I went ahead and wiped the other page, replacing it with a Redirect to here.  I figured that would clear things up.  OtakuMan 14:44, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Geographical order
This should be sorted at least by continent if not by region. It is patently silly to list "Baltic" under B and the closely related Slavic under S. Also, Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian deities are near identical and should be listed under "Mesopotamian", not under A, B and S. Alphabetical order isn't helpful, after all, people can just use their browser search function (ctrl-f) and if what they are looking for is on the page, they will immediately be able to spot it. dab (𒁳) 17:51, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Egypt
Last time I checked Egypt was in Africa. --Ceezmad (talk) 19:01, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

I have yet to see a list.
So I came here to find a list of deities - a list of ALL of them. Instead, I get a list of links to other lists. As a result... doesn't that make this page kind of pointless? It'd be nice to have those if I knew what exactly I was looking for, but honest, I've no clue which I'm looking for. Perhaps create a new section with an actual list of deities? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.34.98.82 (talk) 07:58, 17 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I believe this page is misnamed. It should be Lists of deities or List of lists of deities. Pburka (talk) 18:02, 23 September 2012 (UTC)

So why were the modern religion gods removed?
"This is not a list of names or epithets of gods in modern monotheistic religions"

Was this the compromise to not offend religious people? just asking. Ceezmad (talk) 18:00, 4 March 2014 (UTC)
 * no, the reason is that we have an entire page dedicated to this already, at Names of God. --dab (𒁳) 20:59, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Requested move 1 April 2015

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Moved to Lists of deities in an unorthodox fashion, see below. No such user (talk) 21:16, 5 April 2015 (UTC)

List of deities → Index to polytheistic deities restart Index of deity themed articles – as per WP:AT. Its not a list of deities. No deities are actually listed and, unless we are to say that the likes of Jehovah, Allah Jesus etc. are not regarded as part and parcel with deity, then it is certainly not comprehensive. GregKaye 07:21, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Oppose, sorry the list includes Elohim and possibly other monotheistic deities. In ictu oculi (talk) 14:24, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Oppose, I'm with on this one - this is a list of deities; they're not all polytheistic.  Besides, deities are not polytheistic or monotheistic; beliefs and religions are.  But each deity, whether that of a monotheistic or polytheistic belief or religion, is not itself a monotheistic or polytheistic.  Along the same lines, the lead should be fixed accordingly.  --В²C ☎ 21:10, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Oppose the deities themselves are not polytheistic; just add the missing deities to the list -- 65.94.43.89 (talk) 09:49, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Comment: the title should be Index of... something, but the proposed one apparently does not fit. Compare similar Index of religion-related articles or any of sub-contents of Index footer. I suggest withdrawing this proposal and starting a less formal discussion for a best title. (Index of deity articles?) No such user (talk) 10:12, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
 * I don't see the point in changing "list of" to "index of". Many lists are alphabetized lists of links to articles on WP.  I daresay most "List of ..." articles are like that.  Starting with List of airlines of Algeria.  --В²C ☎ 17:54, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
 * I see No such user's point: the deities Themselves are not listed here; this merely shows where to find pages that may include Them. It really is more of an index than a list. * Septegram * Talk * Contributions * 21:09, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Oppose As has already been pointed out, the deities Themselves are not polytheistic. * Septegram * Talk * Contributions * 21:09, 2 April 2015 (UTC)

restart → [[Index of deity themed articles]]
List of deities → Index of deity themed articles

I'm going to propose this as a title alternative. Thanks for input and for 's change in article content. Ping, 65.94.43.89, , 65.94.43.89,  ---  GregKaye 21:44, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Comment/question First, in a vacuum, I would understand the argument that this is more of an "index" than a "list". However, we're not in a vacuum.  We're on WP which has countless of "List of ..." articles many of which are also each more of an index than a list.  Yet we call them "List of whatever".  Why should we treat this list any differently? Second, "deity themed articles" is a complicated way of saying "deities".  I already gave the example above: List of airlines of Algeria.  It's not Index of airlines of Algeria.  But that one just happens to pop up first alphabetically.  There are more appropriate comparisons.  How about List_of_bodhisattvas.  Should that be moved to Index of bodhisattva themed articles?   Or how about List of Native American deities?  Should that be changed to Index of Native American deity themed articles? I hope not. Am I missing something?  --В²C ☎ 22:48, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
 * You are – if you inspect the contents of this article, this is not a mere "list" in the common format, like the airlines of Algeria or bodhisattvas: this is a list of lists, a less common beast, which links (mostly) other list articles. Such "lists of lists" are usually titled "Index of", and I referred to Index footer for an... index... of those. (See also the infamous List of lists of lists and its numerous RMs and AFDs).No such user (talk) 05:31, 3 April 2015 (UTC)
 * That being said, I agree with your second point and dislike the proposed Index of deity themed articles. At a minimum, it requires a hyphen (deity-themed). Further, I don't think that adjective themed is appropriate – it isn't artwork to be themed. Maybe the simple Index of deity articles would be best? No such user (talk) 05:31, 3 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Actually, List of airlines is a list of lists also. Same with List of films.  List of Jews, etc.  I just don't see a reason to use the word Index in this case.  There is not much precedent for it, and I don't see problem it solves.  --В²C ☎ 17:09, 3 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Um, I hate to agree with you... But you do have a point. There is not much consistency in this area, and I'm not sure if it's worth pursuing it. No such user (talk) 20:58, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

 * Comment if you are withdrawing your initial request, I think it's a better idea to close the first section and add a new request template for your second request; otherwise the listing bot will not properly understand what's going on here. -- 65.94.43.89 (talk) 05:50, 3 April 2015 (UTC)
 * This is short enough to where the closer and everyone else should be able to figure out what's going on. --В²C ☎ 17:09, 3 April 2015 (UTC)
 * However, the request template does not indicate the changed request, and the listing bot does not indicate the change in request at WP:RM -- 65.94.43.89 (talk) 03:43, 4 April 2015 (UTC)
 * В²C, No such user, List of deity themed articles or List of lists of deities? Some of the contents contain article type materials.  What are your views? 65.94.43.89 If things get into a mess then I am sure that admin will be content to chuck things out as per no consensus.  To date editors have given great input for routes forward.  Perhaps this may be a suitable title.  We shall see.  GregKaye 13:31, 4 April 2015 (UTC)
 * I'm having second thoughts, as you can notice from my discussion with B2C above. Now I think that the simplest solution would be the one proposed by User:Pburka back in 2012: Lists of deities. Note that e.g. List of Jews spotted by B2C actually redirects to Lists of Jews, and Lists of ... titles are not without precedent (just type it in the search box to see a few, e.g. Lists of films). No such user (talk) 19:15, 5 April 2015 (UTC)
 * No such user that seems to me to be an excellent across a range of criteria. Thank you and on that bombshell I'm more than happy to:
 * Support, Lists of deities, GregKaye 20:20, 5 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Greg, thanks for the support. I think I'll move it myself in an unorthodox fashion per WP:NOTBURO and WP:IAR, as this debate has became rather messy about a not-so-important subject. Should anyone have an objection or a better idea, be free to move it elsewhere or open another RM. No such user (talk) 21:16, 5 April 2015 (UTC)

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

...On a single book?
What on Earth--? Why is the categorization based on a single book?! While many of the terms are correct, others are...problematic. For example, Dawn would be more accurate as "Dawn/Twilight", Wealth as "Fortune", and Sun-god as "Solar" (which we have in the proper article. This applies to many other links in this list).

And what's with the "A-numbers"? They probably apply to the book, but why do they belong on Wikipedia?

Furthermore, basing it on this book makes the types on here static: I had to link the "list of goddesses article on the see also of the page, when it should be somewhere on the list that lists by attributes of deities. And if I were to create, say; a list of non-binary gender deities, or a list of rock deities, or shape-shifting deities, where would I place those?

Also, The Furies and the repetition of various deities (earth & art) is pointless. Can we please, please, reorganize this? Artheartsoul1 (talk) 10:42, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

 * You will be pleased to learn that the fact that it is based "on a single book" is the result of considerable effort, improving the article from a version that was based on zero books, representing an increase of, well, infinite percent. You are very welcome to introduce additional literature. --dab (𒁳) 20:57, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Split up
This is a bit of an odd article. It purports to be a list of lists, but instead includes two related lists as sections. I propose creating two new articles, List of deities by classification and Lists of deities by cultural sphere. Then this page can be shortened to a simple list which includes the new lists, along with List of people who have been considered deities, List of deities in fiction, etc. I believe this would make navigation simpler and would make this list more consistent with other lists of lists. Pburka (talk) 00:26, 24 June 2018 (UTC)
 * It's been a week and there have been no objections, so I plan to move ahead boldly and do the reorg. Pburka (talk) 23:40, 1 July 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Lists of deities


text:
Dachau, Bavaria

Dachau is a town in the Upper Bavaria district of Bavaria, a state in the southern part of Germany. It is a major district town—a Große Kreisstadt—of the administrative region of Upper Bavaria, about 20 km north-west of Munich. It is now a popular residential area for people working in Munich, with roughly 45,000 inhabitants. The historic centre of town with its 18th-century castle is situated on an elevation and visible over a great distance.

Dachau was founded in the 9th century. It was home to many artists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries; well-known author and editor Ludwig Thoma lived here for two years. The town is known for its proximity to the Dachau concentration camp, operated by Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945, in which tens of thousands of prisoners died.

Etymology
The name “Dachau” originated in the Celtic Dahauua, which roughly translates to “loamy meadow” and also alludes to the loamy soil of the surrounding hills. Some theories assume the name “Amper” river, which the town lies on, may derive from the Celtic word for “water”. An alternative idea is that it comes from the Old High German word daha meaning clay, and ouwe, water overflown land.

Prehistoric times and Early Middle Ages
As the Amper River would divert into backwaters in several places, there were many fords making it possible to cross the river. The oldest findings of human presence here date back to the Stone Age. The most noteworthy findings were discovered near Feldgeding in the adjoining municipality Bergkirchen. Around 1000 B.C. the Celts arrived in this area and settled. Approximately at the turn of the first millennium the Romans conquered the area and incorporated it into the province of Rhaetia. A Roman trade road between Salzburg and today's Augsburg is said to have run through Dachau. Remains of this old route are found along the Amper marshlands.

Middle-Ages
The first known documentation of Dachau occurs in a medieval deed issued by the Noble Erchana of Dahauua to the prince-bishop of Freising, both descendants of the lineage of the Aribonids. With this deed, dated to August 15, 805 A.D. (the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary), she donated her entire property in Dachau, including five so-called Colonenhöfe and some serfs and bondsman, to devolve to the Bishop of the Diocese of Freising after her death.

During much of the 12th century, Dachau was the primary residence of a smaller branch from the House of Wittelsbach led by Otto I, Count of Scheyern-Dauchau. When Conrad III died in 1182, Duke Otto I of Bavaria purchased the land and granted it market rights, that were then affirmed between 1270 and 1280 by Duke Ludwig II der Strenge (the Strict).

In 1467 Sigismund, Duke of Bavaria resigned and then kept only Bavaria-Dachau as his domain until his death in 1501.

From the 16th century to modern times
Between 1546 and 1577, the House of Wittelsbach had the Dachau Palace erected in the Renaissance style. From June 1715 to Autumn 1717, Joseph Effner remodeled the palace to suit the contemporary taste in style.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the castle's north-, east- and south-wing had to be demolished due to their state of disrepair. The west-wing housing the dance hall with a superb view of the enchanting gardens, still remains today. On the first floor the original renaissance wood carved, coffered ceiling can be admired by visitors.

During the second half of the 19th century, the town began to attract landscape artists. The Dachau art colony, which flourished between 1890 and 1914, brought the town recognition as one of the most important artist's colonies in Germany beside Worpswede.

Nazi era
In 1933, the Dachau concentration camp was built east of the city by the SS of Nazi Germany and operated until 1945. It was the first of what became many Nazi concentration camps. 14,100 prisoners were killed in the camp by the Nazis and almost another 10,000 in its sub-camps.

Geographical location
Dachau is 20 km northwest of Munich. It is 483 meters above sea level by the river Amper, with a boundary demarcated by lateral moraines formed during the last ice age and the Amper glacial valley. It is also close to a large marshy area called Dachauer Moos. Highest elevation of the district is the so-called "Schlossberg", the lowest point is near the neighborhood of Prittlbach, at the border to the next community of Hebertshausen. The bordering communities are Bergkirchen to the west, Schwabhausen to the northwest, Röhrmoos to the north, Hebertshausen to the northeast, and Karlsfeld to the south. To the east the greater district Dachau borders on the greater district of Munich with the community of Oberschleißheim.

Populated places
The city is divided into 3 zones:

 * Historic Center: Dachau Old Town, Mitterndorf, Udlding, Etzenhausen, Unterer Markt, Webling
 * Dachau-East: Oberaugustenfeld, Unteraugustenfeld, Polln, Obergrashof, parts of Prittlbach
 * Dachau-South: Himmelreich, Holzgarten, parts of Gröbenried

Annexations
Since 1972, the former municipality of Pellheim, along with the communities of Pellheim proper, Pullhausen, Assenhausen, Lohfeld, and Viehgarten, have been incorporated into Dachau.

Bodies of water
Running from the west, the river Amper runs south of Dachau's old town, changes its direction at the former paper milling plant to the northeast and continues through Prittlbach into Hebertshausen.

Coming from Karlsfeld, the Würm crosses Dachau-East and merges into the river Amper just outside the district limit of Hebertshausen.

The Gröbenbach, which has its source south of Puchheim, runs through town coming from the south and merges into the Amper river at several locations near the festival grounds.

The Mühlbach, a man made canal, is diverted from the river Amper at the electrical power plant and runs parallel and flows back into it after passing the paper mill. The name derives from the frequent mills in former times along the canal which  took advantage of the decline between Mühlbach and Amper. West of the so-called Festwiese runs another canal, called Lodererbach.

In town there are still parts of the Schleißheimer canal remaining today. This canal was built in the mid-eighteenth century as part of the northern Munich canal system to which the Nymphenburger Canal belongs as well. It functioned as a transportation route between Dachau and Schleißheim. The building material recovered from the demolition of three wings of the Dachau castle was transported to Schleißheim this way.

By allowing it to run to seed and through deliberate cultivation by the town of Dachau the canal is only still recognizable as such between Frühlingstraße and the Pollnbach. Outside the city limit the original canal continues on to Schloss Schleißheim.

Within the city boundaries, in Dachau Süd (South), there is also a small lake called Stadtweiher.

Transport

The city is served by Munich S-Bahn (S2) and Deutsche Bahn via Dachau railway station located in the South of the town. The station is also annexed to the central bus terminal. In Dachau the line S2 is split in two directions: Petershausen and Altomünster. Both lines are named S2 but with different direction names. The offshoot to Altomünster is also served by Dachau Stadt Railway Station which is much smaller than the main railway station. There are five bus lines which are operated by Stadtwerke Dachau: 719, 720, 722, 724 and 726. There is no tramway transport.

Dachau has a well-developed road infrastructure for regional transportation. The city is connected to Bundesautobahn 8 (via Fürstenfeldbruck) with Munich-Pasing southbound, and westbound terminating in Karlsruhe. Dachau is connected to Bundesautobahn 92 via Oberschleißheim connector which is located east of Dachau. Bundesautobahn 99 is connected with Dachau via Karlsfeld which is located south of Dachau. Bundesstraße No. 471 (via Rothschwaige) connects eastbound towns such as the neighboring city Fürstenfeldbruck and westbound towns such as Oberschleißheim. Bundesstraße No. 304 starts in the south of the city and connects southbound towns until the German-Austrian border. Additionally, several Staatsstraßen connect Dachau with surrounding towns and villages.

Sights

 * Old town including the Town Hall
 * Church of St. Jakob (St. James), built in the 17th century (Stadtpfarrkirche).
 * Church of St. Nicolas and St. Mary, Mitterndorf (1496)
 * Dachau Palace and Palace Garden: A medieval castle which became the favorite residence of the Bavarian dukes in the 16th century. It was once renovated into an enormous four-wing complex. Only one wing still exists today.
 * Dachau Concentration Camp memorial Site: Dachau is best known for its proximity to the relatively well-preserved site of the infamous Dachau concentration camp, the first large-scale German concentration camp, converted from an old gunpowder factory by the Nazi regime in 1933.
 * Dachauer Moos: a wetland area

City of Dachau

Twin-towns – sister-cities
Dachau is twinned with:
 * 🇮🇹 Fondi, Italy
 * 🇦🇹 Klagenfurt, Austria

Cooperation
Dachau also cooperates with:
 * 🇫🇷 Léognan, France; future twin town
 * 🇳🇱 Renkum, Netherlands; cultural cooperation
 * 🇧🇪 Tervuren, Belgium; cultural cooperation
 * 🇵🇾 Areguá, Paraguay; friendship

Notable people

 * Hans-Jürgen Bäumler (born 1942), figure-skater and actor
 * Efkan Bekiroğlu (born 1995), soccer-player
 * Tony Binder (1868–1944), landscape painter
 * Lovis Corinth (1858–1925), artist
 * Heimito von Doderer (1896–1966), Austrian writer
 * Joseph Effner (1687–1745), architect, landscape-architect, and decorator
 * Anton Fink (born 1987), soccer-player
 * Aloys Fleischmann Sr. (1880–1964), composer and choirmaster
 * Josef Goller (1868–1947), glass painter and print-maker
 * Thomas Guggeis (born 1993), German conductor
 * Christiane Herzog (1936–2000), wife of Roman Herzog
 * Roman Herzog (1934–2017), politician (CDU)
 * Adolf Hölzel (1853–1934), painter
 * Leonhard von Hohenhausen (1788–1872), military and war minister
 * Patrick Lindner (born 1960), Volksmusik singer
 * Jesse Martin (born 1981), sailor
 * Walter Maurer (born 1942), artist, designer and racing driver
 * Christian Morgenstern (1871–1914), author and poet
 * Sigmund Rascher (1909–1945), concentration-camp-doctor
 * Carl Spitzweg (1808–1885), painter
 * Ludwig Thoma (1867–1921), author and publisher
 * Wilhelm von Thoma (1891–1948), General of the Armored Forces in World War II
 * Ernst Toller (1893–1939), playwright
 * Egon Zill (1906–1974), Nazi SS concentration camp commandant

title: Dachau, Bavaria


text:
Drosophila

Drosophila is a genus of fly, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species to linger around overripe or rotting fruit. They should not be confused with the Tephritidae, a related family, which are also called fruit flies (sometimes referred to as "true fruit flies"); tephritids feed primarily on unripe or ripe fruit, with many species being regarded as destructive agricultural pests, especially the Mediterranean fruit fly.

One species of Drosophila in particular, Drosophila melanogaster, has been heavily used in research in genetics and is a common model organism in developmental biology. The terms "fruit fly" and "Drosophila" are often used synonymously with D. melanogaster in modern biological literature. The entire genus, however, contains more than 1,500 species and is very diverse in appearance, behavior, and breeding habitat.

Etymology
The term "Drosophila", meaning "dew-loving", is a modern scientific Latin adaptation from Greek words δρόσος, drósos, "dew", and φιλία, philía, "lover".

Morphology
Drosophila species are small flies, typically pale yellow to reddish brown to black, with red eyes. When the eyes (essentially a film of lenses) are removed, the brain is revealed. Drosophila brain structure and function develop and age significantly from larval to adult stage. Developing brain structures make these flies a prime candidate for neuro-genetic research. Many species, including the noted Hawaiian picture-wings, have distinct black patterns on the wings. The plumose (feathery) arista, bristling of the head and thorax, and wing venation are characters used to diagnose the family. Most are small, about 2-4 mm long, but some, especially many of the Hawaiian species, are larger than a house fly.

Detoxification mechanisms
Environmental challenge by natural toxins helped to prepare Drosophilae to detox DDT,   by shaping the glutathione S-transferase mechanism   that metabolizes both.

Selection
The Drosophila genome is subject to a high degree of selection, especially unusually widespread negative selection compared to other taxa. A majority of the genome is under selection of some sort, and a supermajority of this is occurring in non-coding DNA.

Effective population size has been credibly suggested to positively correlate with the effect size of both negative and positive selection. Recombination is likely to be a significant source of diversity. There is evidence that crossover is positively correlated with polymorphism in D. populations.

Habitat
Drosophila species are found all around the world, with more species in the tropical regions. Drosophila made their way to the Hawaiian Islands and radiated into over 800 species. They can be found in deserts, tropical rainforest, cities, swamps, and alpine zones. Some northern species hibernate. The northern species D. montana is the best cold-adapted, and is primarily found at high altitudes. Most species breed in various kinds of decaying plant and fungal material, including fruit, bark, slime fluxes, flowers, and mushrooms. Drosophila species that are fruit-breeding are attracted to various products of fermentation, especially ethanol and methanol. Fruits exploited by Drosophila species include those with a high pectin concentration, which is an indicator of how much alcohol will be produced during fermentation. Citrus, morinda, apples, pears, plums, and apricots belong into this category.

The larvae of at least one species, D. suzukii, can also feed in fresh fruit and can sometimes be a pest. A few species have switched to being parasites or predators. Many species can be attracted to baits of fermented bananas or mushrooms, but others are not attracted to any kind of baits. Males may congregate at patches of suitable breeding substrate to compete for the females, or form leks, conducting courtship in an area separate from breeding sites.

Several Drosophila species, including Drosophila melanogaster, D. immigrans, and D. simulans, are closely associated with humans, and are often referred to as domestic species. These and other species (D. subobscura, and from a related genus Zaprionus indianus  ) have been accidentally introduced around the world by human activities such as fruit transports.

Reproduction
Males of this genus are known to have the longest sperm cells of any studied organism on Earth, including one species, Drosophila bifurca, that has sperm cells that are 58 mm long. The cells mostly consist of a long, thread-like tail, and are delivered to the females in tangled coils. The other members of the genus Drosophila also make relatively few giant sperm cells, with that of D. bifurca being the longest. D. melanogaster sperm cells are a more modest 1.8 mm long, although this is still about 35 times longer than a human sperm. Several species in the D. melanogaster species group are known to mate by traumatic insemination.

Drosophila species vary widely in their reproductive capacity. Those such as D. melanogaster that breed in large, relatively rare resources have ovaries that mature 10–20 eggs at a time, so that they can be laid together on one site. Others that breed in more-abundant but less nutritious substrates, such as leaves, may only lay one egg per day. The eggs have one or more respiratory filaments near the anterior end; the tips of these extend above the surface and allow oxygen to reach the embryo. Larvae feed not on the vegetable matter itself, but on the yeasts and microorganisms present on the decaying breeding substrate. Development time varies widely between species (between 7 and more than 60 days) and depends on the environmental factors such as temperature, breeding substrate, and crowding.

Fruit flies lay eggs in response to environmental cycles. Eggs laid at a time (e.g., night) during which likelihood of survival is greater than in eggs laid at other times (e.g., day) yield more larvae than eggs that were laid at those times. Ceteris paribus, the habit of laying eggs at this 'advantageous' time would yield more surviving offspring, and more grandchildren, than the habit of laying eggs during other times. This differential reproductive success would cause D. melanogaster to adapt to environmental cycles, because this behavior has a major reproductive advantage.

Their median lifespan is 35–45 days.

Aging
DNA damage accumulates in Drosophila intestinal stem cells with age. Deficiencies in the Drosophila DNA damage response, including deficiencies in expression of genes involved in DNA damage repair, accelerates intestinal stem cell (enterocyte) aging. Sharpless and Depinho reviewed evidence that stem cells undergo intrinsic aging and speculated that stem cells grow old, in part, as a result of DNA damage.

Courtship behavior
The following section is based on the following Drosophila species: Drosophila simulans and Drosophila melanogaster. Courtship behavior of male Drosophila is an attractive behaviour. Females respond via their perception of the behavior portrayed by the male. Male and female Drosophila use a variety of sensory cues to initiate and assess courtship readiness of a potential mate. The cues include the following behaviours: positioning, pheromone secretion, following females, making tapping sounds with legs, singing, wing spreading, creating wing vibrations, genitalia licking, bending the stomach, attempt to copulate, and the copulatory act itself. The songs of Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans have been studied extensively. These luring songs are sinusoidal in nature and varies within and between species.

The courtship behavior of Drosophila melanogaster has also been assessed for sex-related genes, which have been implicated in courtship behavior in both the male and female. Recent experiments explore the role of fruitless (fru) and doublesex (dsx), a group of sex-behaviour linked genes.

The fruitless (fru) gene in Drosophila helps regulate the network for male courtship behavior; when a mutation to this gene occurs altered same sex sexual behavior in males is observed. Male Drosophila with the fru mutation direct their courtship towards other males as opposed to typical courtship, which would be directed towards females. Loss of the fru mutation leads back to the typical courtship behavior.

Pheromones
A novel class of pheromones was found to be conserved across the subgenus Drosophila in 11 desert dwelling species. These pheromones are triacylglycerides that are secreted exclusively by males from their ejaculatory bulb and transferred to females during mating. The function of the pheromones is to make the females unattractive to subsequent suitors and thus inhibit courtship by other males.

Polyandry
The following section is based on the following Drosophila species: Drosophila serrata, Drosophila pseudoobscura, Drosophila melanogaster, and Drosophila neotestacea. Polyandry is a prominent mating system among Drosophila. Females mating with multiple sex partners has been a beneficial mating strategy for Drosophila. The benefits include both pre and post copulatory mating. Pre-copulatory strategies are the behaviours associated with mate choice and the genetic contributions, such as production of gametes, that are exhibited by both male and female Drosophila regarding mate choice. Post copulatory strategies include sperm competition, mating frequency, and sex-ratio meiotic drive.

These lists are not inclusive. Polyandry among the Drosophila pseudoobscura in North America vary in their number of mating partners. There is a connection between the number of time females choose to mate and chromosomal variants of the third chromosome. It is believed that the presence of the inverted polymorphism is why re-mating by females occurs. The stability of these polymorphisms may be related to the sex-ratio meiotic drive.

However, for Drosophila subobscura, the main mating system is monandry, not normally seen in Drosophila.

Sperm competition
The following section is based on the following Drosophila species: Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila simulans, and Drosophila mauritiana. Sperm competition is a process that polyandrous Drosophila females use to increase the fitness of their offspring. The female Drosophila has two sperm storage organs, the spermathecae and seminal receptacle, that allows her to choose the sperm that will be used to inseminate her eggs. However, some species of Drosophila have evolved to only use one or the other. Females have little control when it comes to cryptic female choice. Female Drosophila through cryptic choice, one of several post-copulatory mechanisms, which allows for the detection and expelling of sperm that reduces inbreeding possibilities. Manier et al. 2013 has categorized the post copulatory sexual selection of Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila simulans, and Drosophila mauritiana into the following three stages: insemination, sperm storage, and fertilizable sperm. Among the preceding species there are variations at each stage that play a role in the natural selection process. This sperm competition has been found to be a driving force in the establishment of reproductive isolation during speciation.

Parthenogenesis and gynogenesis
Parthenogenesis does not occur in D. melanogaster, but in the gyn-f9 mutant, gynogenesis occurs at low frequency. The natural populations of D. mangebeirai are entirely female, making it the only obligate parthenogenetic species of Drosophila. Parthenogenesis is facultative in parthenogenetica and mercatorum.

Laboratory-cultured animals
D. melanogaster is a popular experimental animal because it is easily cultured en masse out of the wild, has a short generation time, and mutant animals are readily obtainable. In 1906, Thomas Hunt Morgan began his work on D. melanogaster and reported his first finding of a white eyed mutant in 1910 to the academic community. He was in search of a model organism to study genetic heredity and required a species that could randomly acquire genetic mutation that would visibly manifest as morphological changes in the adult animal. His work on Drosophila earned him the 1933 Nobel Prize in Medicine for identifying chromosomes as the vector of inheritance for genes. This and other Drosophila species are widely used in studies of genetics, embryogenesis, chronobiology, speciation, neurobiology, and other areas.

However, some species of Drosophila are difficult to culture in the laboratory, often because they breed on a single specific host in the wild. For some, it can be done with particular recipes for rearing media, or by introducing chemicals such as sterols that are found in the natural host; for others, it is (so far) impossible. In some cases, the larvae can develop on normal Drosophila lab medium, but the female will not lay eggs; for these it is often simply a matter of putting in a small piece of the natural host to receive the eggs.

The Drosophila Species Stock Center located at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, maintains cultures of hundreds of species for researchers.

Use in genetic research
Drosophila is considered one of the most valuable genetic model organisms; both adults and embryos are experimental models. Drosophila is a prime candidate for genetic research because the relationship between human and fruit fly genes is very close. Human and fruit fly genes are so similar, that disease-producing genes in humans can be linked to those in flies. The fly has approximately 15,500 genes on its four chromosomes, whereas humans have about 22,000 genes among their 23 chromosomes. Thus the density of genes per chromosome in Drosophila is higher than the human genome. Low and manageable number of chromosomes make Drosophila species easier to study. These flies also carry genetic information and pass down traits throughout generations, much like their human counterparts. The traits can then be studied through different Drosophila lineages and the findings can be applied to deduce genetic trends in humans. Research conducted on Drosophila help determine the ground rules for transmission of genes in many organisms. Drosophila is a useful in vivo tool to analyze Alzheimer's disease. Rhomboid proteases were first detected in Drosophila but then found to be highly conserved across eukaryotes, mitochondria, and bacteria. Melanin's ability to protect DNA against ionizing radiation has been most extensively demonstrated in Drosophila, including in the formative study by Hopwood et al. 1985.

Microbiome
Like other animals, Drosophila is associated with various bacteria in its gut. The fly gut microbiota or microbiome seems to have a central influence on Drosophila fitness and life history characteristics. The microbiota in the gut of Drosophila represents an active current research field.

Drosophila species also harbour vertically transmitted endosymbionts, such as Wolbachia and Spiroplasma. These endosymbionts can act as reproductive manipulators, such as cytoplasmic incompatibility induced by Wolbachia or male-killing induced by the D. melanogaster Spiroplasma poulsonii (named MSRO). The male-killing factor of the D. melanogaster MSRO strain was discovered in 2018, solving a decades-old mystery of the cause of male-killing. This represents the first bacterial factor that affects eukaryotic cells in a sex-specific fashion, and is the first mechanism identified for male-killing phenotypes. Alternatively, they may protect theirs hosts from infection. Drosophila Wolbachia can reduce viral loads upon infection, and is explored as a mechanism of controlling viral diseases (e.g. Dengue fever) by transferring these Wolbachia to disease-vector mosquitoes. The S. poulsonii strain of Drosophila neotestacea protects its host from parasitic wasps and nematodes using toxins that preferentially attack the parasites instead of the host.

Since the Drosophila species is one of the most used model organisms, it was vastly used in genetics. However, the effect abiotic factors, such as temperature, has on the microbiome on Drosophila species has recently been of great interest. Certain variations in temperature have an impact on the microbiome. It was observed that higher temperatures (31 °C) lead to an increase of Acetobacter populations in the gut microbiome of Drosophila melanogaster as compared to lower temperatures (13 °C). In low temperatures (13 °C), the flies were more cold resistant and also had the highest concentration of Wolbachia.

The microbiome in the gut can also be transplanted among organisms. It was found that Drosophila melanogaster became more cold-tolerant when the gut microbiota from Drosophila melanogaster that were reared at low temperatures. This depicted that the gut microbiome is correlated to physiological processes.

Moreover, the microbiome plays a role in aggression, immunity, egg-laying preferences, locomotion and metabolism. As for aggression, it plays a role to a certain degree during courtship. It was observed that germ-free flies were not as competitive compared to the wild-type males. Microbiome of the Drosophila species is also known to promote aggression by octopamine OA signalling. The microbiome has been shown to impact these fruit flies' social interactions, specifically aggressive behaviour that is seen during courtship and mating.

Predators
Drosophila species are prey for many generalist predators, such as robber flies. In Hawaii, the introduction of yellowjackets from mainland United States has led to the decline of many of the larger species. The larvae are preyed on by other fly larvae, staphylinid beetles, and ants.

Neurochemistry
As with many Eukaryotes, this genus is known to express SNAREs, and as with several others the components of the SNARE complex are known to be somewhat substitutable: Although the loss of SNAP-25 - a component of neuronal SNAREs - is lethal, SNAP-24 can fully replace it. For another example, an R-SNARE not normally found in synapses can substitute for synaptobrevin.

Immunity
The Spätzle protein is a ligand of Toll. In addition to melanin's more commonly known roles in the endoskeleton and in neurochemistry, melanization is one step in the immune responses to some pathogens. Dudzic et al. 2019 additionally find a large number of shared serine protease messengers between Spätzle/Toll and melanization and a large amount of crosstalk between these pathways.

Systematics
The genus Drosophila as currently defined is paraphyletic (see below) and contains 1,450 described species, while the total number of species is estimated at thousands. The majority of the species are members of two subgenera: Drosophila (about 1,100 species) and Sophophora (including D. (S.) melanogaster; around 330 species).

The Hawaiian species of Drosophila (estimated to be more than 500, with roughly 380 species described) are sometimes recognized as a separate genus or subgenus, Idiomyia, but this is not widely accepted. About 250 species are part of the genus Scaptomyza, which arose from the Hawaiian Drosophila and later recolonized continental areas.

Evidence from phylogenetic studies suggests these genera arose from within the genus Drosophila:
 * Liodrosophila Duda, 1922
 * Mycodrosophila Oldenburg, 1914
 * Samoaia Malloch, 1934
 * Scaptomyza Hardy, 1849
 * Zaprionus Coquillett, 1901
 * Zygothrica Wiedemann, 1830
 * Hirtodrosophila Duda, 1923 (position uncertain)

Several of the subgeneric and generic names are based on anagrams of Drosophila, including Dorsilopha, Lordiphosa, Siphlodora, Phloridosa, and Psilodorha.

Genetics
Drosophila species are extensively used as model organisms in genetics (including population genetics), cell biology, biochemistry, and especially developmental biology. Therefore, extensive efforts are made to sequence drosphilid genomes. The genomes of these species have been fully sequenced:
 * Drosophila (Sophophora) melanogaster
 * Drosophila (Sophophora) simulans
 * Drosophila (Sophophora) sechellia
 * Drosophila (Sophophora) yakuba
 * Drosophila (Sophophora) erecta
 * Drosophila (Sophophora) ananassae
 * Drosophila (Sophophora) pseudoobscura
 * Drosophila (Sophophora) persimilis
 * Drosophila (Sophophora) willistoni
 * Drosophila (Drosophila) mojavensis
 * Drosophila (Drosophila) virilis
 * Drosophila (Drosophila) grimshawi

The data have been used for many purposes, including evolutionary genome comparisons. D. simulans and D. sechellia are sister species, and provide viable offspring when crossed, while D. melanogaster and D. simulans produce infertile hybrid offspring. The Drosophila genome is often compared with the genomes of more distantly related species such as the honeybee Apis mellifera or the mosquito Anopheles gambiae.

The modEncode consortium is currently sequencing eight more Drosophila genomes, and even more genomes are being sequenced by the i5K consortium.

Curated data are available at FlyBase.

The  led by Andrew G. Clark, Michael Eisen, Douglas Smith, Casey Bergman, Brian Oliver, Therese Ann Markow, Thomas Kaufman, Manolis Kellis, William Gelbart, Venky Iyer, Daniel Pollard, Timothy Sackton, Amanda Larracuente, Nadia Singh, and including Wojciech Makalowski, Mohamed Noor, Temple F. Smith, Craig Venter, Peter Keightley, and Leonid Boguslavsky among its contributors  presents ten new genomes and combines those with previously released genomes for D. melanogaster and D. pseudoobscura to analyse the evolutionary history and common genomic structure of the genus. This includes the discovery of transposable elements and illumination of their evolutionary history. Bartolomé et al. 2009 find at least $1/undefined$ of the TEs in D. melanogaster, D. simulans and D. yakuba have been acquired by horizontal transfer. They find an average of $0.035 HT TEs⁄TE family⁄million years$. Bartolomé also finds HT TEs follow other relatedness metrics, with D. melanogaster⇔D. simulans events being twice as common as either of them ⇔ D. yakuba.

title: Drosophila