The Moon

Wela, the Moon, is in Wichí tradition a personified celestial being addressed as the father of the stars. His monthly waning and renewal are read through narrative rather than as mere astronomy, and he is paired with the Sun as one of the two luminaries that order the Chaco sky, the two recurrently linked as kin in Matako celestial myth.

Domains

• moon and night
• the stars

Powers

• to wax and wane through the lunar cycle

Epithets

• Wela

Relations

• sibling: The Sun

Sources

• Alfred Métraux, Myths and Tales of the Matako Indians (The Gran Chaco, Argentina), Etnologiska Studier 9, Göteborg, 1939.
• Johannes Wilbert & Karin Simoneau (eds.), Folk Literature of the Mataco Indians, UCLA Latin American Center Publications, Los Angeles, 1982.