Ream Eyso, the Storm-Giant of Thunder

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.

Domains

• thunder and tempest

Powers

• to hurl a magic axe that cracks as thunder

Relations

• enemy: Moni Mekhala, Goddess of the Sea and LightningHe is the storm-giant who forever chases the goddess for her gem; their danced pursuit is the Khmer explanation of thunder, lightning, and rain.Paul Cravath, Earth in Flower: The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama (Holmes Beach, FL: DatASIA Press, 2007). (secondary)

Sources

• Ream Eyso is the Khmer storm-ogre whose losing pursuit of Moni Mekhala for her magic gem produces thunder and, together with her lightning, the monsoon rain.: Paul Cravath, Earth in Flower: The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama (Holmes Beach, FL: DatASIA Press, 2007). (secondary); Toni Samantha Shapiro-Phim, 'Dance and the Spirit of Cambodia' (PhD dissertation, Cornell University, 1994). (secondary)