Sister Sun

In Muscogee (Creek) tradition the Sun, Hvse, is reckoned female and is the foremost celestial body, the maker of seasons and the marker of the passage of time. She and the Moon are paired as sister and brother, a relationship preserved in the widely recorded Southeastern myth of the brother and sister who became the sun and moon. Both luminaries were brought into being by the Master of Breath at the ordering of the cosmos. Solar eclipses were understood as the Sun being covered or threatened by a great frog or toad, and people made loud noises to drive the danger away. The same word, hvse, denotes both the sun and the lunar month.

Parentage

• parent: Master of Breath

Domains

• sun and daylight
• seasons and time

Powers

• to give light and warmth to the daytime world

Epithets

• HvseJack B. Martin and Margaret McKane Mauldin, A Dictionary of Creek/Muskogee, University of Nebraska Press, 2000. (secondary)

Relations

• sibling: Brother MoonThe Sun and the Moon are the celestial brother and sister, a pairing recorded across the Southeastern tribes including the Creek in the myth of the brother and sister who became the sun and moon.Bill Grantham, Creation Myths and Legends of the Creek Indians, University Press of Florida, 2002. (secondary)

Sources

• Sister Sun (Hvse) is the female solar luminary of Muscogee tradition, sibling of Brother Moon and creation of the Master of Breath, governing daylight, the seasons and the reckoning of time.: Bill Grantham, Creation Myths and Legends of the Creek Indians, University Press of Florida, 2002. (secondary); John R. Swanton, Myths and Tales of the Southeastern Indians, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 88, Smithsonian Institution, 1929. (secondary)