Kóoch
Tehuelche · deity · Tehuelche traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Kóoch (also paraphrased Weq'on, 'the truthful one') is the supreme, otiose creator of the southern Tehuelche cosmogony. Saddened by his solitude in the primordial darkness, his weeping is said to have produced the bitter sea and his sighing the wind that drove back the dark; he then made the Sun and the Moon so the nights would be less black. Having ordered the elemental cosmos he plays no further active part, the shaping of the present world and of human life falling to the younger god Elal. The mythic chronology preserved in the ethnographic record divides time into four ages, with Kóoch presiding over the second.
Domains
- creation cosmogony
- sky and firmament
- sea and waters
Powers
- to bring the elements of the world into order out of primordial chaos
- to set the Sun and the Moon in the sky so the nights would not be wholly dark
Epithets
- Weq'on"Tehuelche Religion." Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005 (Encyclopedia.com). (secondary)
Relations
- creator of: Xaleshen, the SunKóoch is said to have made the Sun, Xaleshen, to lessen the primordial darkness.Siffredi, Alejandra. "Algunos personajes de la mitología tehuelche meridional." RUNA: Archivo para las Ciencias del Hombre 11 (1968-69): 123-131. (secondary)
- creator of: Keengenkon, the MoonKóoch likewise made the Moon, Keengenkon, as companion to the Sun in the sky.Siffredi, Alejandra. "Algunos personajes de la mitología tehuelche meridional." RUNA: Archivo para las Ciencias del Hombre 11 (1968-69): 123-131. (secondary)
Sources
- Kóoch is the remote, non-interventionist primordial creator of the southern Tehuelche (Aónikenk), associated with the sky, whose tears form the sea and whose breath becomes the wind, and who, after ordering the cosmos, withdraws from earthly affairs.: Bórmida, Marcelo & Alejandra Siffredi. "Mitología de los tehuelches meridionales." RUNA: Archivo para las Ciencias del Hombre 12 (1969-70): 199-245. (secondary); "Tehuelche Religion." Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005 (Encyclopedia.com). (secondary)