Earth Mother
Mansi · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Earth-mother consort of Numi-Torum (classed as deity). Mansi Joli-Torum-śäń, 'mother of the lower world / Earth Mother' (joli 'lower' + torum 'sky/world' + śäń 'mother'), also Mā-ankw, Hungarian Földanya / Joli-Tórem. Authored as a figure distinct from but overlapping Kaltes-Ekwa: in the standard Hungarian academic treatment Numi-Torum's consort is the Földanya (Joli-Torum) and Kaltes is his sibling (in variants his wife), while elsewhere Kaltes is herself the wife and earth-mother. The Kaltes affair-with-Kul-otyr expulsion myth is cited on the Kaltes complex, not duplicated here. Documented in Munkácsi's Vogul corpus and synthesis and in Róheim.
Domains
- earth
- fertility and fortune
Powers
- holds and quickens the earth and its life
Relations
- spouse: Upper Sky FatherConsort of the upper sky-father Numi-Torum — the Earth-Mother to his Sky-Father in the Vogul cosmos.Munkácsi, A vogul nép ősi hitvilága (1900–1902); Hungarian Ob-Ugric handbooks: Joli-Tórem the Földanya, consort (párja) of Numi-Tórem (secondary)
- equated with: Dawn and Birth GoddessPartly identified with, partly distinguished from Kaltes-Ekwa: in the tradition where Kaltes is Numi-Torum's sibling, the earth-mother consort is Joli-Torum; elsewhere Kaltes herself is the wife and earth-mother (by-name Torum-śäń). Authored as distinct, with this overlap recorded.Munkácsi, Vogul Folklore Collection (1892–1921); Ob-Ugric handbooks: Kaltes-Ekwa as the wife/earth-mother (Torum-śäń), partly merged with Joli-Torum, partly a distinct figure (sibling of Numi-Torum in variants) (secondary)
- interpretatio: Mother Earth (Ya-Nebya)Functional Earth-Mother parallel across Ob-Ugric and Samoyedic; the names share no etymon (joli-torum-śań 'lower-world mother' vs ya-nebya 'earth-mother').Uno Holmberg (Harva), Finno-Ugric and Siberian Mythology (Mythology of All Races vol. 4), 1927 (secondary)
Sources
- Joli-Torum-syan (Mansi Joli-Torum-śäń, 'mother of the lower world / Earth Mother', also Mā-ankw; Hungarian Joli-Tórem / Földanya) is in Vogul (Mansi) religion the Earth Mother, consort of the sky-father Numi-Torum who dwells below upon the earth among people; she is partly identified with and partly distinguished from Kaltes-Ekwa.: Bernát Munkácsi, A vogul nép ősi hitvilága, Nyelvtudományi Közlemények, 1900–1902 (secondary); Bernát Munkácsi, Vogul Népköltési Gyűjtemény (Vogul Folklore Collection), 1892–1921 (secondary); Géza Róheim, Hungarian and Vogul Mythology (Monographs of the American Ethnological Society XXII), 1954 (secondary)