Myths of Sun, Moon and Stars

The sun and moon are generally regarded as the most significant astral deities and are often created through great violence. Thus the deity of Aztec myth, Nanahuatl, is forced to become a victim of self-immolation so that he may ascend to become the new sun god.

There is no notion of the earth orbiting the sun. When mythologies arise such scientific evidence is not available to the storytellers, so the sun always travels from horizon to horizon. The orb of the sun does not necessarily represent the deity. He may conceal himself behind the solar disc or he may ride in a solar chariot or barque. The latter imagery is well represented in Egyptian mythology, where the sun god Re emerges from the mouth of the earth goddess Nut at dawn to travel across the sky and to re-enter her body at dusk. He then continues his journey through the underworld by night.

Cosmic events including eclipses are often reflected in myth during which the sun or the moon falls to earth in some traumatic event before being restored to the heavens.

Stars are usually seen as fairly inconsequential objects placed whimsically in the heavens to light the night sky, though sometimes they are also perceived to be one-time mortals, or lesser deities who have been placed there to protect them from a worse fate on earth.

Amaterasu-O-Mi-Kami And The Divine Mirror

Culture Of Origin: Japanese Shinto

Provenance: recorded in various texts and art from oral traditions, including the Nihongi and Kojiki sacred books.

Through her grandson, Prince Ninigi, Amaterasu is seen as the ancestral mother goddess of the imperial dynasty and the central figure of Shintoism. As sun goddess, she lends her image of the rising sun to Japanese national symbolism. She may have evolved from the Buddhist god Vairocana and the shrine at which she is chiefly worshipped is the Ise Jingu (Ise Naiku) sanctuary at Uji-Yamada.

Amaterasu is the favourite daughter of the primordial god Izanagi having been engendered from his left eye (see Izanagi and Izanami, page 50). She has three brothers: Tsuki-Yomi, the moon god, born from the right eye of Izanagi; Susano-Wo, the storm god, born from Izanagi's nose; and Hi-No-Kagu-Tsuchi, the god of fire, during the birth of whom their mother Izanami is burnt to death.

Amaterasu's parents find her brilliance so great that she blinds them and she cannot remain on the earth. She is sent to reign as the Queen of Heaven while her brother Susano-Wo takes dominion over the physical and material world on earth. Amaterasu lives in the sky as a powerful though not omnipotent deity: she is obliged to live in some kind of harmony with her siblings in order to survive. She is at first betrothed to Tsuki-Yumi, but she quarrels with him and dispatches him to the night sky in order to avoid seeing his face. There he rules over the moon with a court of thirty princes, half dressed in white and half in black. Susano-Wo, however, proves a more formidable adversary. Through his own powers he ascends into the heavens with Amaterasu but, having established himself, he invades the sanctity of her house with his storm clouds and tries to commit various excesses with her. She resists his advances and, in a fit of pique, decides to hide herself away in a cave the entrance to which she closes with a boulder.

The world is now plunged into darkness and chaos and the other gods are obliged to think up ways of enticing the sun goddess back into the heavens once more. They call upon the services of the one-eyed god of smiths, Ama-Tsu-Mara, to help them fashion the 'perfect divine mirror' with which they will show Amaterasu her immaculate and dazzling reflection and persuade her, through flattery, to come out of the cave. The gods of carpenters, Hiko-Sashiri and Taoki-Ho-Oi, then build a new palace of exceptional beauty and splendour for her to live in. It is up to the rest of the pantheon to create an entertainment spectacular which will appeal to Amaterasu.

The space in front of the cave is filled with song birds; the god of jewelers, Tama-No-Ya, creates a superb string of curved jewels nearly ten feet long for Amaterasu's apparel; and the goddess of dancers, Ame-No-Uzume, whose realm is the floating bridge of heaven, dons a special head-dress and, carrying a spear, performs her whirling dance, the uzume, before the cave. The ancestral deity, Futo-Tama,

assembles various magical objects and pushes the mirror forward so that it catches the sun goddess's reflection. He recites the sacred liturgy and begs Amaterasu to come forth, never to hide her face again.

Eventually Amaterasu is encouraged to move the boulder just a little so that a ray of dawn light emerges. Then she is persuaded to come out of her dark hiding place and return to the heavens. Susano-Wo is banished forever to the earth where, at first, he has to beg food from the goddess O-Ge-Tsu-Hime. He is also confronted by the eight-headed dragon of Izumo [a small town on the west coast of Japan] which he kills, taking from its body a magic sword, the Kusanagi-No-Tsurugi (grass-cutting weapon). Susano-Wo yields this sword to Amaterasu in acknowledgement of her superiority and she in turn gives it to her grandson, Prince Ninigi, when he descends to earth, The divine mirror, the Jata-Kagami, is given as a gift to the first emperor. It stands as one of his sacred symbols.

The Birth Of Dudugera

Culture Of Origin: Papua New Guinea Provenance: recorded in recent times from oral traditions

The cosmos is in perpetual darkness because there is no sun. A woman is swimming in the coastal waters when a dolphin comes towards her and rubs itself against her leg. As the subsequent days go by the woman's thigh begins to swell. It continues to enlarge until her father cuts it open and she gives birth to a child called Dudugera.

The child grows rapidly and becomes extremely strong, to the extent that the other children persecute him. In order to protect him his mother carries him back to the beach where he was conceived and the dolphin takes him into its mouth. It swims away with him towards the eastern horizon and then opens its mouth, throwing the boy up into the sky. As soon as he is released he starts to climb, becoming brighter and brighter until he hangs suspended as a brilliant orb in the heavens. He is the new sun god and day has dawned for the first time upon the earth.

Dudugera's form becomes stronger and stronger until his heat is so great that mankind has to shelter from his rays during the daytime. Dudugera's mother is concerned that her son may be causing suffering, so she searches for pieces of limestone in a dark cave. These she hurls into the sky where they become clouds that soften her son's heat.

Kasku Falls From Heaven

Culture Of Origin: Hattic or pre-Hittite - Anatolian

Provenance: cuneiform text derived from an oral tradition and discovered on tablets at the site of Boghazkoy in Turkey [Tablet ref. KUB xxviii.5 translated by Albrecht Goetze (Ancient Near Eastern Texts ed. J. B. Pritchard)].

This is one of a number of mythical fragments which offer less a story than a simple explanation of a natural event. Either the myth explains the disappearance of the moon on its daily orbit or, specifically, it accounts for the more dramatic eclipsing of the moon.

NOTE: the myth predates the Hurrian introductions to the pantheon and where Hurrian titles are recognized they are included in brackets.

Unseen by anyone except Kamrusepa, the goddess of healing, the moon god Kasku (Kusuh) descends from heaven to the place beneath the earth. To frighten him into returning to his proper place in the skies the storm god Tarn (Tesub) sends a rainstorm, while the god Hapantalliya tries a more subtle approach. He merely goes to keep Kasku company and use his powers of persuasion.

Kastor And Polydeukes (Castor and Pollux)

Culture Of Origin: classical Greek, but subsequently adopted into Roman culture

Provenance: recorded from oral traditions by the epic Greek poet Hesiod in the Hymn to the Dioskuri, the Catalogues of Women and the Epic Cycle.

The Dioskouroi twins, Kastor and Polydeukes, are strongly associated with horses and probably derive from the Indo-European model of the Asvins in Vedic mythology. They are also strongly associated with a Spartan cult from which they may have originated. The myth involves a complicated 'soap opera' cast of characters and an unusual feature lies in that one brother is mortal while the other attains immortality.

Kastor and Klytemnestra, Polydeukes and Helen, are pairs of twins, officially the offspring of the Spartan king Tyndareos and his consort Leda but, in reality, the illegitimate children of a liaison between Leda and Zeus. The two brothers, Kastor and Polydeukes, the Dioskouroi,

wed the daughters of Leukippos, named Hilaera and Phoebe, but at a festival in Sparta, organized in honour of Aeneas and Paris, one of Tyndareos's brothers, Aphareos, drunkenly accuses Kastor and Polydeukes of not having paid the proper dowry for their brides. The insult cannot go unanswered and a brawl ensues with Aphareos's sons, Lynkeos and Idas, during which Kastor is slain.

Zeus intervenes and dispatches the murderer, Lynkeos, with a thunderbolt, taking back the surviving Dioskouroi twin Polydeukes to Mount Olympus.

Various alternative versions of the cause and effect of the fight exist, but the outcome remains essentially the same. Hesiod, for example has the brothers stealing cattle belonging to Lynkeos and Was which causes the fatal fight.

Polydeukes is reluctant to accept the boon of immortality without his slain brother who now resides in the underworld. A compromise is reached whereby Zeus grants Kastor one day out of every two in the company of the gods.

Mandi And The Eclipse Of The Moon

Culture Of Origin: Prasun Kafir [Hindukush]

Provenance: oral traditions recorded chiefly by M. Elphinstone (1839); G. Morgenstierne (1951); G.S. Robertson (1896)

The myth provides an explanation, in a heroic confrontational setting between gods and giants, of the phenomenon of the lunar eclipse.

In a rock suspended between earth and sky lives a giant named Guro who, from time to time, transforms into a serpent and descends to earth. The heroic god Mandl and the god of war Gish decide to confront Guro and they instruct a lieutenant, Pegaileamund, to change himself likewise into a serpent so that he can spy on the giant's activities. In his disguise Pegaileamund is able to slither into the giant's fortress unobserved and he discovers the giant engaged in sexual intercourse with his own mother. Later Guro realizes that the gods are ridiculing him for his incest and believes, erroneously, that he has been betrayed by the moon. In a towering rage he attacks the army of deities and only Mandl is prepared to face him. Mandl slices the giant in half with his sword, upon which the upper part of Guro's body ascends into the sky where he waits to capture the moon. His patience is tested for a long while (during the eclipse), but eventually he succeeds in swallowing the moon. It stays within his torso for a while but eventually emerges from his anus and the cosmic balance is restored.

Mandi And The Rescue Of The Sun And Moon

Culture Of Origin: Prasun Kafir [Hindukush]

Provenance: oral traditions recorded chiefly by M. Elphinstone (1839); G. Morgenstierne (1951); G.S. Robertson (1896)

The world is cold and dark because the giant Espereg-era has caught the sun and moon and hidden them in his golden fortress. Inside the castle is a waterfall and he places the sun to its right and the moon to its left.

In order to rescue the sun and moon the god Mandl transforms himself into a child and presents himself to Espereg-era's mother. When the giant sees the child he decides to adopt Mandl and so each day Mandl is locked in the fortress with a supply of food while the giant goes out to hunt goats. Mandl tries to escape by pushing the door of his room but it opens only by a finger's width and he achieves no more than a golden finger. Espereg-era's mother is concerned that the escape attempt will be discovered and so she bandages the finger, offering the story that the child has cut himself. The next day Mandl manages to open the door a little more and this time his whole arm needs to be bandaged to hide the gold. The giant is apparently duped into believing that Mandl has injured himself trying to make a chair which he is to offer to the giant as a gift.

On the fourth day of captivity Mandl restores himself to his full stature, kicks down the door and discovers the sun and moon standing beside the waterfall. He picks them up, jumps on a horse which is standing nearby, and asks it which way to go to escape the giant. The horse tells him that there is a sword in its right ear; Mandl takes this and they gallop away. As the world becomes light and warm with the power of the sun in Mandl's grasp, the giant gives chase and attacks him, but the god cuts off his head with the newfound sword. Hydra-like, seven more heads grow in place of the original, which again Mandl severs and the giant falls down. Having been dragged across to the right side of the valley, Espereg-era requests that Mandl remove a mountain so that the sun will shine on his burial place and warm the earth. To this dying request Mandl agrees, but he then goes in search of the giant's mother, whom he also slays. Before she dies, however, he agrees to bury her in a place of honour and she expires happily.

Mandl is still clutching the sun and moon, a situation which is causing problems for the world, so the supreme god Imra takes them and hurls them into an orbit in the sky. Other gods create mankind and show people how to live, make tools and weapons, and grow crops. They also provide dogs to wake people up in the morning!

Maui Catches Tama Nui-Te-Ra

Culture Of Origin: Polynesian Maor

Provenance: recorded in recent times from oral traditions, including The Ancient History of the Maoris, Mythology and Traditions J. White 6 Vols. Wellington 1887.

The myth is one of several much-loved stories of the exploits of Maui who may be perceived as a Maori super-hero along the lines of the Mesopotamian Gilgames. This particular myth establishes Maui as the sun god which is perhaps his original role in Maori belief. He evolves from this into a more general role associated with fishing and the invention of tools for the benefit of mankind. The myth is correspondingly modified to a story in which the hair of Maui's sister is exchanged for the ropes used in fishing.

Maui wishes to catch the sun Tama Nui-Te-Ra because the days are not long enough to do all the work that is necessary, so he takes some of the long hair of his sister, Hina-Ika, and he and his brothers braid it into a strong net. The sun, however, is much too hot and the hair-ropes merely burn away, so Maui decides to make a new and better snare by soaking the ropes in water and this time he is successful the sun is caught and he pulls it to the surface.

Maui chastises the sun, telling it that it must travel across the sky more slowly so that the days become longer and the nights shorter. Then he hurls the sun into the eastern sky and travels across the world to catch it and lower it gently into the sea on the western horizon as night falls.

Tecciztecatl (Tecuciztecatl) And Nanahuatl (Nanauatzin)

Culture Of Origin: Aztec (classical Mesoamerican) [Mexico]

Provenance: probably worshipped circa 750 AD until 1500 AD and known from tradition in the Florentine and other pre-Columbian codices and detail on stone carvings. The site of Teotihuacan is at San Juan, between Chiconauhtlan and Otumba. The spellings of the names of the two principal deities are those which appear in the Florentine Codex, but they are not necessarily the most common forms which will be encountered in translation.

The world is dark with no sun, no moon and no day until the gods take counsel together in Teotihuacan to decide who among them will become the sun and thus bring about the first dawn. Tecuciztecatl volunteers for the job, but everyone else is afraid and keeps silence. Nanauatzin, impoverished and physically diseased, is not present in the meeting but he listens to what is being discussed from outside and eventually the assembly calls on him, ordering him to be the new sun god. Nanauatzin accepts and thus Tecuciztecatl is destined to be the moon.

Both gods enter into a period of penance and fasting during which a sacrificial fire is laid and set alight. Tecuciztecatl brings very costly items for his penance, beating himself with the best fir branches and offering the finest grass balls and the purest incense. Nanauatzin, for his part, brings only inexpensive items including the scabs from his sores to create incense. The two gods subject themselves to four nights of penance, positioned on the summits of two hills built for the occasion [the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan].

When midnight comes the two gods are decked out in ritual apparel. Tecuciztecatl receives his round, forked, heron-feather headdress and his elaborate jacket. Nanauatzin has only a paper headdress, which is tied into his hair, and he is given poor garments to wear. The other gods now encircle the two ordained victims and call on Tecuciztecatl to cast himself into the flames. But the fire burns up mightily and its heat becomes intolerable: Tecuciztecatl retreats in terror. He tries four more times, but at each attempt his courage leaves him. The gods turn to Nanauatzin and urge him forward into the fire. Nanauatzin overcomes his fear and hurls himself into the flames, his body crackling and sizzling. Then Tecuciztecatl, seeing what his companion has done, follows Nanauatzin and is likewise immolated.

An eagle flies into the flames after the two gods and emerges, its feathers browned and blackened for ever more. An ocelot follows, but by now the flames have sunk low and it emerges with only blackened spots on its pelt.

The gods sit around the dying fire for a long time waiting to see who will be the first to emerge from the ashes as the fifth sun. When the sky starts to pale and redden they search the heavens in all directions to try to ascertain where the sun will arise. Quetzalcoatl, Ehecatl, Totec and red Tezcatlipoca look to the east with four of the goddesses and there they see Nanauatzin arise, followed shortly afterwards by Tecuciztecatl. Both, however, have taken the same path and the assembly of gods is at a loss to know what to do, since there are effectively now two suns and the world will burn up.

One of the gods seizes a rabbit with which he whips the face of Tecuciztecatl and, thus wounded, the face darkens. There remains, however, the problem that the two suns are stuck in one position, unable to move; the gods are still faced with imminent death.

It becomes the responsibility of Ehecatl (wind) to blow violently. His action moves Nanauatzin into his proper path as the true sun, leaving Tecuciztecatl stationary in the sky. As Nanauatzin sets in the west, however, Tecuciztecatl starts his own journey across the heavens. Thus they constantly pass each other, the one resting while the other works.

Tecuciztecatl first appears as a very small bow like a bent straw lipornament, but he grows larger day by day until he becomes round and disc-shaped; after fifteen days he has completely matured like a large earthen skillet. At first each night he is a bright, deep red, but after he has journeyed a while he becomes paler and the mark of the little rabbit is clear on his face. When he has attained his full brilliance he starts to become smaller until he dies, awaiting his next rebirth.

Miscellaneous

Kiribati: the sun god impregnates a mortal woman with a ray of light and she gives birth to a son, Bue. One night Bue sets out in his canoe across the ocean towards the eastern horizon to greet his father and to learn from him. The sun god gives Bue great wisdom and teaches him many skills including the ways to control the winds and to cure sickness.

Javanese: the moon goddess Nawang Wulan descends to earth having donned her swan-feather cloak. She lands on the waters of a lake, where she discards her cloak and begins to bathe, but the cloak is stolen by Kyai Agung. When she cannot find her means of returning to the sky she is obliged to stay with the man, so she marries him and they have a daughter, Nawang Sih. The goddess generates rice for the household using her magical powers and Kyai Agung is expressly forbidden to look inside the pot where the rice is stored. One day curiosity overcomes him and he discovers that the pot contains only a single grain of rice. Now the magic will work no more and the goddess is forced to collect and pound rice each day as would a mortal wife. She does, however, find her swan cloak and uses it to fly back into the sky. At night she stays there, but during the hours of daylight she returns to earth to be with her husband and child.

Dayak (Borneo): searching for his knife, a young chieftain, Lejo, discovers a group of spirits eating a sacrificial meal which he has left for the goddess of the rice paddies. As they try to escape him, the long hair of one of them, Mang, becomes entangled in branches. When Lejo sees her beauty he falls in love and asks the goddess for her hand. She agrees, but insists that first she must return to the sky to collect her belongings, including some of the darkness of heaven so that she can make herself invisible before all other mortals. She comes back to live with Lejo but, while she is asleep, a little child pries into her travelling bag by making a small hole in its plaited fabric. Immediately the darkness spills out into the house. When Mang awakens she throws the child out of the door, but in doing so releases night into the world for the first time. The people try to catch it, but it spreads everywhere and thus it remains until, through desperate propitiation of the gods, it is caused to fade and disperse. Daylight returns for a while but darkness is never far away.