Ictinike
Omaha · demigod · Omaha traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Ictinike, also recorded as Ishtinike, is the trickster and false culture-hero of the Omaha and Ponca. Dorsey's Cegiha texts make him the son of the Sun, thrown down to the earth for an offense; thereafter he wanders the world deceiving animals and people, is himself repeatedly duped, and through his blunders and appetites inadvertently establishes features of the present world. He is at once cunning and foolish, a figure whose broken promises and greed drive one of the largest recorded Omaha-Ponca story cycles.
Parentage
- parent: MiSon of the Sun, cast down to earth for an offense.Dorsey, 'The Cegiha Language,' Contributions to North American Ethnology VI (1890), Ictinike cycle. (secondary)
Domains
- trickery
- deceit
Powers
- deceives animals and people by cunning
- inadvertently establishes features of the world
Epithets
- Ictíⁿike — the deceiver, the false culture-heroDorsey, 'The Cegiha Language,' Contributions to North American Ethnology VI (1890). (primary)
Relations
- parent: MiSon of the Sun, cast down to earth for an offense.Dorsey, 'The Cegiha Language,' Contributions to North American Ethnology VI (1890), Ictinike cycle. (secondary)
Sources
- Ictinike is the Omaha-Ponca trickster, son of the Sun cast down to earth, whose large cycle of tales shows him deceiving and being deceived.: Dorsey, 'The Cegiha Language,' Contributions to North American Ethnology VI (1890), pp. 79-118. (primary); Dorsey, 'A Study of Siouan Cults,' BAE 11th Annual Report (1894), pp. 372-374. (secondary)