LOKE, in Mythology, the name of one of the deities of the northern nations, answering to the Ahriman of the Persians, whom they represent as at enmity with both gods and men, and the author of all the evils which desolate the universe. Loke is described in the Edda as producing the great serpent which encircles the world (which seems to have been intended as an emblem of corruption or sin); and he also gives birth to Hela or death, the queen of the infernal regions, and to the wolf Fenris, the monster who is destined to encounter the gods and to destroy the world.