Syrada-nyamy (Mother of Underground Ice)
Nganasan · deity · Nganasan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Syrada-nyamy, the Mother of the Underground Ice, is the Nganasan ruler of the cold realm of the dead that lies beneath the earth. Where the Earth Mother gives life, Syrada-nyamy receives the dead into her icy domain below, and the elemental opposition between them frames the Nganasan cosmos. She is the mother of the syrada-nyantu (the seven or nine 'Lads of the Underground Ice'), beings linked with sickness and death whom the shaman confronted on behalf of the living. Her name draws on the Nganasan words syra 'snow/ice' and syrada 'underground ice'. She is documented in the classic ethnographies of the Taymyr Samoyeds and in recent comparative studies of Siberian concepts of the dead.
Domains
- underworld and the dead
- cold and ice
Powers
- to rule the cold underground realm of the dead
Epithets
- Syrada-nyamyPopov, A. A. (1984). Nganasany: Sotsial'noe ustroistvo i verovaniya. Leningrad: Nauka. (secondary)
Relations
- rival: Mou-nyamy (Earth Mother)As ruler of the cold underground dead, Syrada-nyamy stands opposite the life-giving Earth Mother in the Nganasan ordering of the cosmos.Dolgikh, B. O. (1976). Mifologicheskie skazki i istoricheskie predaniya nganasan. Moscow: Nauka. (secondary)
Sources
- Syrada-nyamy is the Nganasan Mother of the Underground Ice, ruler of the cold underworld of the dead and mother of the syrada-nyantu.: 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)