Ñamandú
Guaraní · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
The self-created First Father of the Mbyá-Guaraní; source of the word-soul (ñe'ẽ) and the four divine fathers (Cadogan 1959, Cap. I). His four-fold engendering of Karai, Jakaira and Tupã (and, with each father, of the four paired mothers) frames the entire genesis. Wired as spouse of Ñamandú Chy Ete and father of the twins Kuarahy and Jasy.
Children
Domains
- primordial self origination
- origin of the sacred word and human speech
- first light and the sun rising
- the life giving mist and divine flames of the heart
Powers
- unfold himself into being out of the primordial darkness
- unfold the sacred word-soul (ñe'ẽ) and the foundation of human speech
- cause the other divine fathers to know of his divinity
Relations
- spouse: Ñamandú Chy EteHis paired divine consort, the 'true mother of the Ñamandú', whom he caused to know divinity.Cadogan, Ayvu Rapyta (1959), Cap. I (Ñamandú causes the future Ñamandú Chy Ete to stand facing his heart) (primary)
- father of: KuarahyFather of Kuarahy, the elder twin (the Sun); the demiurgic Sun is the son of Ñande Ru in the Guaraní twin-myth.Cadogan, Ayvu Rapyta (1959); and the Mbyá twin-cycle (Pa'i Rete Kuaray as son of the god) (primary); Curt Nimuendajú, Die Sagen ... der Apapocúva-Guaraní, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 46 (1914) — the twin-myth recension in which the Sun-twin is son of the creator (secondary)
- father of: JasyFather of Jasy, the younger twin (the Moon).Cadogan, Ayvu Rapyta (1959); the Mbyá twin-cycle (primary); Nimuendajú (1914) (secondary)
- spouse: Ñande Sy
Sources
- Ñamandú (Ñande Ru Papa Tenondé), 'Our First Father', is the self-existent primordial god who unfolds from the original darkness and, from the wisdom within his own divinity, unfolds the foundation of human speech (ayvu rapyta) and the word-soul (ñe'ẽ), the feathered flower-crown (jeguaka) and the life-giving mist — then causes the fathers of Karai, Jakaira and Tupã to know of his divinity.: León Cadogan, Ayvu Rapyta: Textos míticos de los Mbyá-Guaraní del Guairá (Universidade de São Paulo, Boletim 227, Antropologia 5, 1959), Cap. I (primary)
- Ñamandú is the supreme creator and primordial father of Mbyá-Guaraní cosmology; the four-father / word-soul theology is the core of the Ayvu Rapyta corpus.: Bartomeu Meliá, El guaraní conquistado y reducido: ensayos de etnohistoria (Asunción: CEADUC, 1986) (secondary)