Rig
Tabasaran · deity · Tabasaran traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Rig, the Sun, is personified in Tabasaran myth as a woman, the sister of Vaz the Moon. An aetiological tale relates that the Moon-brother was enamoured of his sister; she, loving another, fled the household while he slept. Recognising his fault, the Sun forever pursues the Moon but can never overtake him, so that when she rises in the sky the Moon disappears. Sun and Moon in this system embody the cardinal oppositions of the mythic world-model: light and darkness, high and low.
Domains
- sun daylight
Powers
- brings the light of day
Relations
- sibling: VazSun the sister and Moon the brother; the pair is the subject of a Tabasaran aetiological tale.'Mifologicheskie obrazy solntsa i luny v verovaniyakh narodov Dagestana', Cyberleninka (secondary)
Sources
- In Tabasaran narrative the Sun (Rig) is female, sister of the male Moon; she loved another, fled the house while her brother slept, and the two now correspond to the oppositions of light and dark, above and below.: 'Mifologicheskie obrazy solntsa i luny v verovaniyakh narodov Dagestana', Cyberleninka (secondary); Mifologicheskaya proza tabasarantsev: syuzhety i obrazy (kandidat dissertation abstract, Makhachkala) (secondary)