The Moon
Wichí · deity · Wichí traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
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
- WelaJohannes Wilbert & Karin Simoneau (eds.), Folk Literature of the Mataco Indians, UCLA Latin American Center Publications, Los Angeles, 1982. (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: The SunMoon and Sun are paired as the two great personified luminaries of the Chaco sky, recurrently associated as kin in Matako celestial myth.Alfred Métraux, Ethnography of the Chaco, in Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 1, ed. Julian H. Steward, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143, Washington, 1946. (secondary)
Sources
- The Moon, called Wela, is a personified male celestial being of Wichí myth, named as the father of the stars.: Alfred Métraux, Myths and Tales of the Matako Indians (The Gran Chaco, Argentina), Etnologiska Studier 9, Göteborg, 1939. (secondary); Johannes Wilbert & Karin Simoneau (eds.), Folk Literature of the Mataco Indians, UCLA Latin American Center Publications, Los Angeles, 1982. (secondary)