Moon
Kayapó · demigod · Kayapó traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The Moon is the younger and rasher of the two great ancestors, companion to the Sun in the founding adventures of the Kayapó world. Where Sun acts with foresight, Moon is impatient and greedy, and his blunders — seizing what he should not, acting before he is told, giving way to appetite — repeatedly loose trouble that his companion must set right; in the day-and-night tales the pair together fix the alternation of light and dark. The motif of the foolish lunar twin beside the wise solar one is common across the Northern Jê, and Lukesch documents it for the Kayapó. Sources render the lunar ancestor's name variously, but agree on his subordinate and error-prone character opposite the Sun.
Domains
- night
- celestial order
Powers
- holds the night and the moon's course
- acts rashly and reaps mishap
Relations
- companion: MỳtThe lunar ancestor is the rash companion of the Sun.Anton Lukesch, Mythos und Leben der Kayapó (Vienna, 1968) (primary)
Sources
- The Moon is the second of the two great ancestors, the rash lunar companion of the Sun in the Kayapó cycle of primordial adventures.: Anton Lukesch, Mythos und Leben der Kayapó (Vienna, 1968) (primary); Johannes Wilbert & Karin Simoneau (eds.), Folk Literature of the Gê Indians (UCLA Latin American Center, 1978-1984) (secondary)