Wiyot

Luiseno & Acjachemen (Juaneno) · deity · Luiseno & Acjachemen (Juaneno) traditional religion; continuing · deity

Wiyot is the dying god of Luiseno and Acjachemen tradition, the eldest son of Sky and Earth and the first captain over the primordial people. In his old age his rule grew burdensome, and his own people, wearied of him, plotted his death; the Frog, whom he had looked upon with contempt or desire, bewitched him with poison spat into the water, and he sickened and died. His was the first death, and the mourning that followed established the pattern of human funerals. On the pyre where his body was burned, Coyote leapt over the heads of the mourners and seized his heart, devouring it. From his death Wiyot rose again as the moon, called Moyla, whose monthly waning and renewal repeat his dying and return; his reappearance is marked by ceremony. Boscana names him Ouiot and makes his death the prelude to the coming of Chungichnish. Sources differ on whether the being who succeeded him, Chungichnish, is wholly separate or a further manifestation of Wiyot himself.

Parentage

Domains

Powers

Epithets

Relations

Sources

Open in the interactive app →