Hövki (almighty sky-god and creator)
Hövki (Even Хэвки; also Khevki, Hovki) is the supreme deity of the Even (Eveny/Lamut), the Northern Tungusic reindeer-herders of north-eastern Siberia. He is the almighty god of the sky and the creator of the world: gazing down upon the primordial waters he forms the dry earth and shapes the first man and woman from clay in the south, along with the beasts and the birds. In the three-tier Even cosmos he occupies the upper world (Ögil/Oogin), dwelling in the created Universe (Nélbéen) on the highest heaven, above the middle earth of the living (Dulag) and the lower world of the dead (Hergik). The Magadan and Verkhoyansk Even additionally know him as the spirit-master of any tract of taiga and of its game. His name belongs to the same Tungusic stratum as the Evenki high-god Säväki, with whom comparative scholarship pairs him.
Domains
- sky and heaven
- creation of the world
- master of the taiga and game
Powers
- to create the earth, the beasts, the birds and the first humans
- to reign over the upper world from the highest heaven
- to own and grant the game animals of the taiga
Epithets
- Хэвки — всемогущий бог неба