Txä'msem
Tsimshian · deity · pre flood · Recorded classification
Txä'msem — 'the Giant' (Wigyet, 'big man'), the Raven — is the central transformer-trickster and culture-hero of Tsimshian mythology. Born in the sky to the Chief of Heaven's daughter (who drank him in the form of a cedar leaf), he cries for and then breaks open the box Maa, releasing the daylight upon a world that had known only dusk. As transformer he then wanders the earth ordering it: bringing the olachen up the Nass River and contending with his brother Lô·gôbolā' over fresh water. At once benevolent shaper and greedy trickster, he is the pivotal figure of the published Raven cycle recorded by Boas and Tate.
Parentage
- father: Chief of HeavenSon of the Chief of Heaven, who gives him the raven skin.Boas & Tate, Tsimshian Mythology (1916) (primary)
- mother: Chief of Heaven's DaughterBorn of the sky-chief's daughter, who swallowed him as a cedar leaf.Boas & Tate, Tsimshian Mythology (1916) (primary)
Domains
- light
- transformation
- trickery
Powers
- Shape-shifting transformer
Epithets
- Wigyet the Giant / Big ManFranz Boas, Tsimshian Mythology (1916) (primary)
Relations
- father: Chief of HeavenSon of the Chief of Heaven, who gives him the raven skin.Boas & Tate, Tsimshian Mythology (1916) (primary)
- mother: Chief of Heaven's DaughterBorn of the sky-chief's daughter, who swallowed him as a cedar leaf.Boas & Tate, Tsimshian Mythology (1916) (primary)
- sibling: Lô·gôbolā'Brother of Lô·gôbolā', with whom he contends over fresh water and the fog.Boas & Tate, Tsimshian Mythology (1916), 'Txä'msEm and Lô·gôbolā'' (primary)
- enemy: Lô·gôbolā'Rival in the contest that orders the waters of the world.Boas & Tate, Tsimshian Mythology (1916) (primary)