Zigué

Brother in the Pemón-five-brother set, etymologically "chigger" (the parasitic flea/mite) per de Cora 1957. In Mário de Andrade's 1928 modernist adaptation called "Jiguê in the prime of manhood" — middle-brother positioning between Maanape (the elder geezer) and Makunaima (juvenile shape-shifter). Distinguished among the brothers as the one whose marriage is canonically attested; Makunaima's shape-shifting transformation into adult form to sleep with Zigué's wife is the opening canonical example of Makunaima's shape-shifting capacity in the cycle and the structural pivot moment establishing the trickster-faculty. Joined Makunaima and Ma'nápe in following Akuli the agouti to the Wazacá tree; survived the Great Flood released by the felling.

Parentage

• Wei
• Aromadapuén

Domains

• culture heroism and crafts

Powers

• parasitic burrowing association
• flood survival

Relations

• sibling: Makunaima
• sibling: Ma'nápe
• sibling: Wacalambé
• sibling: Anzikilán

Sources

• Koch-Grünberg, Vom Roraima zum Orinoco vol. II (1924), recorded from Mayuluaipu
• María Manuela de Cora, Kuai-Mare: Mitos Aborigenes de Venezuela (1957)
• Cesáreo de Armellada, Tauron Panton (1989)
• Mário de Andrade, Macunaíma (1928), preserving the Koch-Grünberg episode of Makunaima's shape-shifting cuckolding of Zigué