Tayau (Our Father the Sun)

Tayau ('Our Father') is the Sun, the supreme deity of the Cora (Náayeri) of the Sierra del Nayar in Nayarit, Mexico, recorded in detail by Preuss. His priesthood, the tonatí, and the seasonal mitote dances serve to sustain his course and the fertility it brings.

Domains

• the sun
• sky and zenith

Powers

• to rise and cross the heavens by day

Sources

• Konrad Theodor Preuss, Die Nayarit-Expedition: Textaufnahmen und Beobachtungen unter mexikanischen Indianern, Bd. 1: Die Religion der Cora-Indianer (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1912).
• 'Cora', in Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. 8: Middle America and the Caribbean (New York: Macmillan, 1996).