Big-Raven
Koryak · deity · mythic / first times (creation epoch) · Recorded classification
Culture-hero / creator-trickster tier. The Koryak raven-creator: native Quikinnaqu/Kutkynnaku ('Big Raven'), styled Acicenaqu ('Big-Grandfather') and Tenanto'mwan ('Creator'). Classed here as 'deity' (spirit-class creator) per schema; functionally a transformer/culture-hero. He is distinct from the more remote Supreme Being 'Universe' (see koryak_universe). Documented chiefly by Jochelson (Jesup Expedition) with parallels in Bogoras's Chukchee work.
Children
Domains
- creation and ordering of the world
- raven trickster and transformation
- shamanic power
Powers
- make the earth fit for living beings
- put on and take off the raven shape
- make a drum and turn shaman
Epithets
- Quikinnaqu Big Raven; the first man, creator and trickster-ancestor whom The-One-on-High madeWaldemar Jochelson, The Koryak (secondary)
- Kutkynnaku Big Raven (augmentative of 'raven')W. Jochelson, The Koryak (secondary)
- Tenanto'mwan the CreatorW. Jochelson, The Koryak (secondary)
- Acicenaqu Big-GrandfatherW. Jochelson, The Koryak (secondary)
Relations
- spouse: MitiMiti is Big-Raven's wife throughout the Koryak first-family tale cycle; their household is the stage of most recorded myths.W. Jochelson, The Koryak (Jesup North Pacific Expedition VI, 1908) (primary)
Sources
- Big-Raven (Quikinnaqu / Kutkinnaku, also Acicenaqu 'Big-Grandfather' and Tenanto'mwan 'Creator') is the central Koryak creator and culture-hero, the protagonist of most Koryak tales together with his wife Miti and son Ememqut.: Jochelson, W. (1908). The Koryak. Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Vol. VI. Leiden/New York. (ethnography); Encyclopedia.com, 'Koriak' — names Quikinnaqu, Kutkinnaku, Acicenaqu, Tenantomwan. (tertiary)
- He is not an omnipotent god but an ambivalent creator-trickster, treated in the tales as both maker of the ordered world and as a comic, flawed figure.: Jochelson, W. (1905). Religion and Myths of the Koryak. (ethnography); Dwyer, M.J. — Koryak Raven narratives (academia.edu), on the ambivalence of Big-Raven. (secondary)