Mixe · deity · Mixe traditional religion; continuing · deity
Thunder, known in Ayuujk as Poj 'Enee ('Thunder-Wind') and called Ene or Higïny, is among the most prominent deities of the Mixe of the Oaxaca highlands. He governs rain, lightning, and the ripening of the maize, and is frequently conceived not as a single figure but as a company of Thunder-beings who inhabit the high peaks, above all the great mountain Zempoaltepetl. Petitioned at planting and before the storms, Thunder is at once the giver of agricultural fertility and a protector of the Mixe communities, and his cult is bound to mountaintop pilgrimage and offering.
Domains
thunder and lightning
rain
agriculture
guardianship
Powers
to send the rains and ripen the maize fields
to hurl the lightning from the mountain peaks
to watch over and defend the Mixe towns
Epithets
Poj 'Enee
Sources
Frank J. Lipp, The Mixe of Oaxaca: Religion, Ritual, and Healing (University of Texas Press, 1991)
H. E. M. Braakhuis and Kerry Hull, 'Pluvial Aspects of the Mesoamerican Culture Hero: The "Kumix Angel" of the Ch'orti' Mayas and Other Rain-Bringing Heroes', Anthropos 109, no. 2 (2014): 449-466