Mistress of the North (Hosedem)

The Ket evil female underworld being; classed 'deity' (malevolent spirit-class). Antithesis of warm-south Tomam and quarry of the hero Alba. English descriptor leads, native Khosedem in term. Documented by Anuchin and Alekseenko; landscape associations by Vajda.

Domains

• death and the underworld
• cold north and winter
• disease and misfortune

Powers

• swallow the souls of the dead
• Bringer of disease, cold and death from the north

Epithets

• Hosedem latin · Hosedem · cultThe malevolent goddess of the cold north and death; Es’s estranged wifeV. I. Anuchin, on Yeniseian (Ket) belief (secondary)

Relations

• enemy: AlbaReciprocal of ket_alba.enemy — The hero Alba's defining deed is his cosmic pursuit of the death-goddess Hosedem down the Yenisei, cutting the river's course before she escapes to the icy north.E. A. Alekseenko (ed.), Mify, predaniya, skazki ketov (2001) (secondary)
• spouse: Sky-GodReciprocal of ket_es.spouse — Hosedem was once the wife of the sky-god Es, cast down from heaven to the cold north — the estranged celestial pair of Ket cosmology.V. I. Anuchin, Ocherk shamanstva u eniseyskikh ostyakov (1914) (secondary)
• rival: Mother of Heat (Tomam)Reciprocal of ket_tomam.rival — The warm-south bird-mother of migrating fowl stands as the polar opposite of cold-north Hosedem in Ket cosmic geography.E. A. Alekseenko (ed.), Mify, predaniya, skazki ketov (2001) (secondary)

Sources

• Hosedem (Khosedam / Hosedam) is the Ket personification of evil and mistress of the cold northern underworld; she sends bad weather, pestilence, illness and death and devours human souls.: Anuchin, V.I. (1914). Essay on the Shamanism of the Yenisei Ostiaks. (ethnography); Vajda, E.J. (2011). Siberian Landscapes in Ket Traditional Culture — Khosedem and the north. (secondary)