Akha' (the Sun)
Akha' is the Sun in the religion of the Tlapanec (Me'phaa) of Guerrero, Mexico, an Oto-Manguean people of the Costa Chica and the highland Montaña. In the Me'phaa creation myth the Sun, the Moon (Gon') and the Fire god (Akuun mbatsuun') are born together on the bank of a river and are raised by Akuun ñee, the goddess of the temazcal sweatbath. The pantheon is structured about a dominant pair of a male god and a female god, with the Sun the dominant male power of the sky; below this pair stand the domain gods. This solar cult, recorded in the early twentieth century by Leonhard Schultze-Jena and in later ethnography, has receded under Catholic influence but remains a touchstone of Me'phaa cosmology and of the hot-cold dualism that organizes Tlapanec ritual.
Domains
- sun
- sky
Powers
- to give light and warmth to the world as the Sun
- to preside over the dominant male pole of the divine pair
Epithets
- Akha'
Relations
- sibling: Gon' (the Moon)
- sibling: Akuun mbatsuun' (the Fire god)