Bydy-nyamy (Water Mother)
Nganasan · deity · Nganasan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Bydy-nyamy, the Water Mother, is the elemental 'mother of the world' (nguo) who personifies the rivers, lakes and waters of the Taymyr Peninsula. The waters were both a source of life and sustenance — fishing and travel depended on them — and a domain of danger, and the Water Mother was addressed with offerings for safe passage and good catch. Her name preserves the Nganasan word bydy 'water'. She is recorded together with the other elemental mothers in the ethnography of the Taymyr Samoyeds.
Domains
- water rivers and lakes
- life and sustenance
Powers
- to rule the rivers, lakes and waters
Epithets
- Bydy-nyamyPopov, A. A. (1984). Nganasany: Sotsial'noe ustroistvo i verovaniya. Leningrad: Nauka. (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: Tuy-nyamy (Fire Mother)Water Mother and Fire Mother are counted together among the household elemental mothers of the Nganasan world.Gracheva, G. N. (1983). Traditsionnoe mirovozzrenie okhotnikov Taymyra. Leningrad: Nauka. (secondary)
Sources
- Bydy-nyamy is the Nganasan Water Mother, an elemental nguo 'mother of the world' personifying the waters of the Taymyr.: Popov, A. A. (1984). Nganasany: Sotsial'noe ustroistvo i verovaniya [The Nganasans: Social Structure and Beliefs]. Leningrad: Nauka. (secondary); Gracheva, G. N. (1983). Traditsionnoe mirovozzrenie okhotnikov Taymyra [The Traditional Worldview of the Hunters of Taymyr]. Leningrad: Nauka. (secondary)