Sun (Mãt)
Apinajé · deity · Apinajé traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Mãt, the Sun, is the senior of the two culture-heroes at the centre of Apinayé mythology. Travelling the earth with his companion the Moon in the world's first age, he shapes the conditions of human life: the two demiurges bring the first people into being at a watercourse, and in a series of contests the Sun consistently secures the better outcome, taking the radiant red of annatto in the painting trial and favouring the milder decree in the dispute over death. Sources treat the pair as companions and foils rather than as brothers, and the Sun stands as the nearest figure the Apinayé have to a benevolent high power, invoked in the speech of ritual specialists.
Domains
- celestial order
- cosmic ordering
Powers
- orders the making of humankind
- chooses the fair share
Epithets
- Mãt — the Sun, the elder and wiserCurt Nimuendajú, The Apinayé (1939). (primary)
Relations
- companion: Moon (Mbud)Inseparable travelling companions who together set the shape of the world.Curt Nimuendajú, The Apinayé (1939), 'Sun and Moon.' (primary)
- rival: Moon (Mbud)Their rivalry, in which the Moon's blundering imitation always fails, drives the origin of paint, hardship and death.Curt Nimuendajú, The Apinayé (1939), 'Sun and Moon.' (primary)
Sources
- The Sun (Mãt) is one of the two Apinayé demiurge-heroes whose deeds establish humankind, body paint, and the human condition.: Curt Nimuendajú, The Apinayé, trans. Robert H. Lowie, ed. R. H. Lowie and John M. Cooper (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1939), 'Sun and Moon' cycle. (primary); Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked: Mythologiques I, trans. John and Doreen Weightman (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), on the Gê Sun and Moon. (secondary)