Sun

Sun is the elder of the paired demiurges whose exploits pervade Northern Jê mythology, of which the Kĩsêdjê form a part. In the shared cycle Sun and his companion Moon travel through a still-forming world, and their deeds and quarrels fix its features and settle the hard conditions of human life, including mortality. Sun is typically the cannier and more successful of the two, Moon the imitator whose blunders bring difficulty into the world. Sources differ on how far the Kĩsêdjê elaborate this cosmogonic pair relative to their neighbours and relative to their more distinctive emphasis on the acquisition of song and ceremony, but the demiurge motif is well attested for the Northern Jê to whom the Kĩsêdjê belong.

Domains

• celestial order

Powers

• orders and fixes the shape of the world

Epithets

• the elder of the twoWilbert, J. & Simoneau, K. (eds.) 1984. Folk Literature of the Gê Indians, Vol. 2. UCLA Latin American Center. (secondary)

Relations

• companion: MoonSun and Moon act as the paired demiurges of the Northern Jê cycle.Wilbert, J. & Simoneau, K. (eds.) 1984. Folk Literature of the Gê Indians, Vol. 2. UCLA Latin American Center. (secondary)

Sources

• Sun forms one half of the paired demiurge culture-heroes documented across the Northern Jê, whose adventures order the world and set the terms of human existence.: Wilbert, J. & Simoneau, K. (eds.) 1984. Folk Literature of the Gê Indians, Vol. 2. UCLA Latin American Center. (secondary)
• The Suyá share the wider Central and Northern Jê mythic patrimony within which the Sun and Moon demiurges appear.: Seeger, A. 1981. Nature and Society in Central Brazil: The Suyá Indians of Mato Grosso. Harvard University Press. (secondary)