Nantu
Achuar · deity · Achuar traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Nantu is the moon of Jivaroan sky lore, paired with his brother Etsa the sun. The best-known narrative attached to him concerns his marriage to Auju: wearied of her greed and quarrelling he climbed a liana up to the sky, and when Auju tried to follow he cut the vine, leaving her below to become the mournful goatsucker bird that calls after the moon. His waxing and waning order the months and, through them, the rhythm of women's garden work. In some tellings the reddening of the moon is his blood, and the moon's changing face carries the memory of the abandoned wife.
Domains
- moon
- night sky
Powers
- governs the phases of the moon
- climbed a vine to escape into the sky
Epithets
- Nantu, kashi etsari — Nantu, the sun of the nightElke Mader, Metamorfosis del poder (Abya-Yala, 1999) (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: EtsaMoon and Sun as paired brothers in Jivaroan sky lore.Rafael Karsten, The Head-Hunters of Western Amazonas (1935) (secondary)
- spouse: AujuAuju, the goatsucker-woman, is the wife Nantu abandons for the sky.Elke Mader, Metamorfosis del poder (Abya-Yala, 1999) (secondary)
Sources
- Nantu is the Moon, brother of the Sun Etsa and husband of the goatsucker-woman Auju.: Rafael Karsten, The Head-Hunters of Western Amazonas (1935) (secondary); Elke Mader, Metamorfosis del poder (Abya-Yala, 1999) (secondary)