Mayari

Half-divine daughter of Bathala by an unnamed mortal woman who died at her birth. Goddess of the moon, night, beauty, strength, combat, and war in the Tagalog and Pampangan traditions. The most beautiful divinity in Bathala's court per Jocano's Outline. The Pampangan eye-blinding-by-Apolaki tradition supplies the etiology of moonlight's relative dimness — Mayari rules the night with cooler and dimmer light than her brother Apolaki's daytime sun, due to the lost eye. Translated to Kaluwalhatian (the heavenly realm) by her father after her mortal mother's death; received among the celestial court — the apotheosis-by-paternal-translation pattern.

Parentage

• Bathala

Domains

• moon and night
• beauty strength and combat

Powers

• Duels with bamboo war-clubs

Relations

• sibling: Apolaki
• sibling: Tala
• sibling: Hanan

Sources

• F. Landa Jocano Outline of Philippine Mythology and Notes on Philippine Divinities; Damiana Eugenio Philippine Folk Literature: The Myth (UP Press, 2001); Maximo Ramos Philippine Myths, Legends, and Folktales; Dean S. Fansler Filipino Popular Tales; Pampangan oral tradition
• Jocano Outline; Eugenio Philippine Folk Literature