the Sun

The Sun is one of the two sacred twins who stand at the centre of Mixe mythology. In the Mixe origin narratives the twins, after their adventures upon the earth, ascend into the sky to become the Sun and the Moon, the lights of day and of night. As the day-light the Sun orders time and the world, and together with his twin he forms the paired luminaries around whom Mixe cosmology is organised.

Domains

• sun
• daylight

Powers

• to give light and order the day

Epithets

• Xëëw

Relations

• twin sibling: the Moon

Sources

• Walter S. Miller, Cuentos Mixes (Instituto Nacional Indigenista, 1956)
• Frank J. Lipp, The Mixe of Oaxaca: Religion, Ritual, and Healing (University of Texas Press, 1991)