Dawn and Birth Goddess
Mansi · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Spirit-class mother/dawn goddess (classed as deity). 'Ekwa' = woman/old woman in Mansi; her name is also given Kaltaś. Mother of the World-Surveyor; her sphere joins birth, dawn, the moon and fate. The 'goose' association is properly her son Mir-susne-khum's, so it is not assigned to her here.
Domains
- birth and childbirth
- dawn
- fate
Powers
- grants safe birth to women who call on her
- brings the daylight and the dawn
- changes into a hare to move between the worlds
Epithets
- Kaltas the (dawn/birth) motherNum-Torum / Kaltash, Wikipedia (Mansi Kaltaś) (secondary)
Relations
- lover: Lord of the Lower WorldIn one Ob-Ugric variant Kaltes is linked with the underworld lord.Kulemzin et al., Khanty/Ob-Ugric mythology; Munkácsi (1892-1921) (secondary)
- equated with: Earth MotherKaltes and the Earth-Mother Joli-Torum-syan are overlapping/sometimes-identified mother-goddess figures.Munkácsi, A vogul nép ősi hitvilága (1900-02) (secondary)
- equated with: KaltesSame Ob-Ugric goddess Kaltes/Kaltaś (dawn, birth, fate; consort of the sky-god and mother of Mir-Susne-Khum).Encyclopaedia of Uralic Mythologies (Khanty & Mansi vols.), eds. Napolskikh, Siikala & Hoppál; Holmberg, Mythology of All Races vol. 4, 1927 (secondary)
- spouse: Upper Sky FatherReciprocal of mansi_numi_torum.spouse — Kaltes-Ekwa is the wife (in variants the sister) of the upper sky-father, cast down from heaven; mother of the World-Surveyor Man.Uno Holmberg [Harva], Finno-Ugric, Siberian Mythology (The Mythology of All Races IV, 1927), Ob-Ugric chapters (secondary)
Sources
- Kaltes-Ekwa is the Ob-Ugric (Mansi/Khanty) goddess of dawn, childbirth and fate, wife of Numi-Torum and mother of Mir-susne-khum, a shape-shifter manifesting as a hare.: Bernát Munkácsi, Vogul Folklore Collection, 1892–1921 (secondary); K. F. Karjalainen, Die Religion der Jugra-Völker, 1921–1927 (secondary)