Raven (Kutkh)
Itelmen · deity · mythic / first times (creation of Kamchatka) · Recorded classification
Culture-hero / creator-trickster tier; the Itelmen raven-creator, cognate with Koryak Big-Raven and Chukchi Raven. Classed 'deity'. Documented by the 18th-c. Kamchatka expeditions of Krasheninnikov and Steller, who both stress the Itelmens' irreverent, comic attitude toward their creator. Native name leads as 'Raven', with Kutkh in term.
Children
Domains
- creation of the land
- raven trickster and transformation
- ancestry of humankind
Powers
- make the land by dropping a feather and by defecating
- bring light, fire, fresh water and the arts of living
Epithets
- Kutkh The Raven; creator and trickster who made Kamchatka and its first peopleG. W. Steller; W. Jochelson, on the Itelmen (Kamchadal) (secondary)
Relations
- spouse: MitiMiti is the wife of the raven-creator and mother of his children in the Itelmen first-family cycle shared with the Koryak Big-Raven tales.S. P. Krasheninnikov, Opisanie zemli Kamchatki (1755) (secondary)
Sources
- In Itelmen (Kamchadal) mythology the Raven Kutkh is the demiurge who created Kamchatka and is the forefather of humankind, yet is paradoxically held in derision — no worship is offered him and he is mocked as foolish, thieving and lustful.: Krasheninnikov, S.P. (1755). Description of the Land of Kamchatka (Описание земли Камчатки). (ethnography); Steller, G.W. (1774). Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka — the Itelmens 'speak of him only in derision'. (ethnography)
- Kutkh and his wife Miti, with their children, are the protagonists of the Itelmen tale-cycle; their children in order of seniority are sons Ememkut and Kotkhanamtalkhan and daughters Sinanevt, Anʼ-oraklnavt, Mrorot and Nyaa.: Itelmen folklore corpus (arctic-megapedia, 'Фольклор ительменов'), listing Kutkh, Miti and their children. (ethnography)