Mēness, the Moon, is a masculine deity of the Latvian sky-family and the counterpart of the Sun. As the measurer of the months he governs the night and the passage of time, and he is remembered as a patron of soldiers and night-travellers, who watch the phases of his light. His chief role in myth belongs to the celestial wedding: the Moon is the husband of the Sun from whom he becomes estranged, or the interloper who woos and carries off the bride of the Morning Star, one of the Daughters of the Sun. For this betrayal the thunder-god Pērkons is said to strike and cleave him with a sword, an explanation the songs give for the waning and scarred face of the moon.