Ream Eyso is the fierce storm-giant of Cambodian myth, an ogre (yeak) figure who, with Moni Mekhala, forms the paired protagonists of Khmer classical dance's most sacred piece. Having lost the hermit's magic gem to the goddess, he pursues her endlessly across the heavens; his hurled axe resounds as thunder while the flash of her jewel blinds him and appears as lightning. Their combat is not a moral duel of good against evil but a cosmic complementarity of male tempest and female radiance whose union releases the rains, and it is enacted at the Khmer New Year to summon the monsoon.