Auju
Achuar · numen · Achuar traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Auju is the wife of Nantu the Moon and, in the aftermath of their myth, the origin of the goatsucker or potoo bird. In the story she is greedy, hoarding roasted pumpkin or squash and deceiving her husband, and when Nantu tires of her he climbs a vine to the sky and severs it behind him. Left below and transformed into the auju bird, she voices her longing in the plaintive nocturnal call heard as a lament for the departed moon. Her tale, joined to that of Nantu, belongs to the Jivaroan cycle explaining the estrangement of sky and earth and the origins of certain birds.
Domains
- night birds
Powers
- wails through the night for the vanished moon
Epithets
- Auju nua — the Auju-womanElke Mader, Metamorfosis del poder (Abya-Yala, 1999) (secondary)
Relations
- spouse: NantuThe wife abandoned by Nantu the Moon.Elke Mader, Metamorfosis del poder (Abya-Yala, 1999) (secondary)
Sources
- Auju is the woman transformed into the nocturnal goatsucker bird after being abandoned by her husband the Moon.: Elke Mader, Metamorfosis del poder (Abya-Yala, 1999) (secondary); Rafael Karsten, The Head-Hunters of Western Amazonas (1935) (secondary)