First of Heaven
Palauan · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Palauan sky high-god. Name parsed as uchel ('foremost, beginning') + eanged ('sky, heaven'); gloss 'First of Heaven'. Distinguished from Chuab/Milad earth-origin cycle.
Domains
- sky
Powers
- sets the heavens and islands in order
- commands land to rise from the barren sea and sets the heavens in order
Epithets
- Uchelianged The first/highest of the heavens; the supreme sky-deity of PalauPalauan oral tradition (secondary)
Relations
- ally: Mother of the SeaThe sky high-god directs the generative work of the sea-mother, whose brood of fish and people fills the primordial ocean.R. E. Parmentier, The Sacred Remains: Myth, History, and Polity in Belau (Chicago 1987) (secondary)
Sources
- Uchelianged is the supreme god of heaven in Palauan cosmology, his name composed of uchel ('first/foremost') and eanged ('heaven').: Krämer, A. (1917-1929). Palau. Ergebnisse der Südsee-Expedition 1908-1910, II.B.3, Friederichsen, Hamburg (ethnography); Flood, B. & Strong, B.E. (2002). Micronesian Legends. Bess Press, Honolulu (reference)