Lug
Yapese · deity · perennial · deity
Lug (recorded by Wilhelm Müller as Lugalang) is, with Yalafath, one of the two principal sky gods of Yap; Müller notes that both have counterparts in the atolls of the central Carolines, where the corresponding figure is the sky-lord Lugeilang. In the Yapese conception of the person each living being possesses two souls, one that lives and one that dies (yaan ni yam); when a person dies, the soul-that-dies is devoured by Lug and an unnamed companion, while the soul-that-lives wanders the earth. He is thus at once a celestial ruler and a devourer at the threshold of death, standing apart from the beneficent high god Yalafath and the chief god Yanolop who governs the afterworld proper.
Domains
- sky heaven
- death and the dead
Powers
- to devour the soul of the dead
- to preside over the heavens
Sources
- Müller, Wilhelm. Yap. Ergebnisse der Südsee-Expedition 1908–1910, II. Ethnographie, B. Mikronesien, Band 2. Hamburg: L. Friederichsen, 1917.
- Furness, William Henry, III. The Island of Stone Money: Uap of the Carolines. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1910.
- Poignant, Roslyn. Oceanic Mythology: The Myths of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia. London: Paul Hamlyn, 1967.