Sisilkhan
Itelmen · deity · mythic / first times · Recorded classification
Sisilkhan is the younger son of the raven-creator Kutkh and Miti and the standing villain of the Itelmen tale cycle: envious, lazy and boastful, he covets his elder brother Ememkut's game, brides and good fortune, sends his sister Sirim to spy and slander, and is regularly shamed or destroyed by his own devices. Meletinskii notes that in some tellings the scheming pair function instead as cousins of the elder children, and records the variant name Chichikan. The figure corresponds functionally to the envious-cousin antagonists (Illa, Kilu) of the neighbouring Koryak Raven cycle.
Parentage
- parent: Raven (Kutkh)
- parent: Miti
Domains
- envy and kin rivalry
Powers
- to plot mischief against his elder brother and sister
Relations
- sibling: EmemkutEmemkut is Sisilkhan's elder brother, whose success in hunting and marriage Sisilkhan envies.G. A. Menovshchikov (comp.), Skazki i mify narodov Chukotki i Kamchatki (Moscow: Nauka, 1974), Itelmen section. (secondary)
- rival: EmemkutSisilkhan is the standing antagonist of Ememkut within the raven family, the scheming younger rival who is always defeated.E. M. Meletinskii, 'Paleoaziatskikh narodov mifologiia', in Mify narodov mira, vol. 2 (1982). (secondary)
- sibling: SirimSirim is Sisilkhan's sister and habitual accomplice, whom he sends to Ememkut with his schemes.E. M. Meletinskii, 'Paleoaziatskikh narodov mifologiia', in Mify narodov mira, vol. 2 (1982): 'Sisilkhan (Chichikan) and his sister Sirim'. (secondary)
Sources
- Sisilkhan is a younger son of Kutkh and Miti in the Itelmen tale cycle, the envious negative counterpart who constantly plots against the elder children Ememkut and Sinanevt.: E. M. Meletinskii, 'Paleoaziatskikh narodov mifologiia' [Mythology of the Palaeo-Asiatic peoples], in Mify narodov mira: Entsiklopediia, ed. S. A. Tokarev, vol. 2 (Moscow: Sovetskaia Entsiklopediia, 1982). (secondary); G. A. Menovshchikov (comp.), Skazki i mify narodov Chukotki i Kamchatki [Tales and Myths of the Peoples of Chukotka and Kamchatka], ed. E. M. Meletinskii (Moscow: Nauka, 1974), Itelmen section. (secondary); E. M. Meletinskii, Paleoaziatskii mifologicheskii epos: Tsikl Vorona [The Palaeo-Asiatic Mythological Epic: The Raven Cycle] (Moscow: Nauka, 1979). (secondary)