Jen the Good Creator
Komi · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Komi (Zyrian) high creator; a culture-bringing demiurge classed here as deity. English 'Jen the Good Creator' leads; native Komi Ен (En) in term. The dualistic earth-diver cosmology (good creator vs. adversary, world made from waterfowl eggs) is a pan-Uralic type documented by Holmberg/Harva.
Domains
- sky and light
- creation
Powers
- create the dry land and humankind
- shatter the frozen sea with lightning
Epithets
- Jen The benevolent creator and sky-god, who shapes the good world against his rival OmölKomi (Zyrian) ethnography (secondary)
- Ен the Good (creator-god)U. Holmberg (Harva), The Religion of the Permian Peoples (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: Omöl the AdversaryIn the Komi dualistic cosmogony the demiurge brothers hatch from the eggs of the primeval duck — Jen the good maker and Omöl his spoiler.N. D. Konakov et al., Komi Mythology (Encyclopaedia of Uralic Mythologies 1, 2003) (secondary)
- enemy: Omöl the AdversaryEvery work of Jen is countered by Omöl's marring — the adversary pair that divides the Komi cosmos between good creation and corruption.N. D. Konakov et al., Komi Mythology (Encyclopaedia of Uralic Mythologies 1, 2003) (secondary)
- equated with: Sky GodReciprocal of udmurt_inmar.equated-with — Permic sibling high gods: Udmurt in(m)- and Komi jen 'sky, god' (same *ilma family — reconstruction flagged); both head dualist creation myths against an adversary (Keremet ~ Omöl'); profiles heavily Christianized.N. Konakov et al., Komi Mythology (Encyclopaedia of Uralic Mythologies 1, 2003) (secondary); U. Harva (Holmberg), Finno-Ugric, Siberian (The Mythology of All Races IV, 1927) (secondary)
Sources
- En (Jen) is the benevolent creator/sky god of the Komi-Zyrians, one of two demiurge brothers hatched from eggs of a primordial waterfowl (chözh, a duck/loon).: Uno Holmberg (Harva), Permalaisten uskonto, Helsinki, 1914 (secondary); Komi mythology, Wikipedia (tertiary)
- The name En is glossed as 'strength'; he is the cosmic opponent of Omöl/Kul.: Komi mythology, Wikipedia (tertiary)