Moon deity

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In the mythologies of the most diverse cultures, gods who represent an embodiment of the earth 's moon are considered to be moon deities .

Europe

Hati and Skalli are chasing Mani and Sol
Germania
The North Germanic mythology knows the moon god Mani , the son of the giant Mundilfær is. He is a brother of the sun goddess Sol and drives the moon vehicle across the sky. The prophecy says that Mani will be devoured by the wolf Hati during Ragnarök after he chased him across the sky. Heimdall is also considered a moon deity, as his name probably means whitish, light and he is referred to as "hvitastr Asa" the white ase. Also Thrud , the daughter of Thor and Sif, who is described as a virgin whose whiteness shames the snow, some see as the Germanic moon goddess.
Greece
The Greek mythology knows several deities who personified the moon. These were mostly female beings who were distinguished by their special beauty, generally as the most beautiful woman at all, who also had wonderful hair. These include the moon goddesses Artemis , Danaë , Callisto and Selene . Identification with a male, such as Cycnus, is less common. There is a close relationship between the moon deity and the sun deity , so they are often represented as twins or the moon goddess as the lover or consort of the sun god, sometimes also as his most beautiful daughter. For example, the moon goddesses Artemis and Helena are the daughters of Zeus and at the same time she is his lover in the form of Io . Another distinctive feature is that the sea is considered to be the father of the moon, as is the case with Cycnus. It is not really a contradiction in terms that the moon goddesses are represented both as lovers and as the wife or daughter of Zeus, since the moon is born anew with each new moon, so that it becomes the daughter of the consort, whom it in turn loves.
Other goddesses associated with the moon were Brizo and the Thracian Bendis . The most important ritual bird of the moon deities was the turning neck , see also Iynx .
Rome
In Roman mythology , Luna and Diana were the moon goddesses. Diana became a goddess of the moon with the Romans, after all that was previously known about her that she loved the forests and the springs, which is why she was worshiped as the goddess of the hunt. Your Italian name may have come from Dea Iana or Diva Iana. Ianus originally personified the sun, so it stands to reason that Iana is the moon.

Asia

Arabia
Al-Lāt : Also "Illat" or "Alilat", originally " Han-'Ilat ", was a revered moon goddess of the Arabs in pre-Islamic Arabia. See also: Altarabic religion
Hubal (Arabic: هبل) was a moon god in Arabic mythology in pre-Islamic Arabia. This moon god was mainly worshiped on the Kaaba in Mecca. Also ta'lab was a moon god, worshiped in pre-Islamic South Arabia and may have been a manifestation of Hubal.
Wadd , (Arabic: ود: "love, friendship"), was an important moon god in pre-Islamic Arabia. Also known as Illumguq, Amm, Sin, and Il Mukah. He is also mentioned in the Koran (71:23) as a false deity during the lifetime of the prophet Noah.
Syria / Palestine : Šaggar, Šangar or Šangugaru.
Iran / Persia : In literature, both in old Avestan and Persian texts, the moon appears as the deity Māh / Māonghah / Māvangh .
Chang'e ascends to heaven
China
In Chinese mythology there is the goddess Chang'e who lives on the moon.
India
In India the Hindu moon god Chandra is worshiped, the old Vedic moon god was called Soma. A medieval poem tells the story of Hemavati, who was bathing in a lotus pond at night when the moon god Chandra came down to her and seduced her. From this relationship came their son Chandravarman, the ancestor of the Chandella kings.
Japan
In Shintoism , the god ( Kami ) Tsukuyomi is worshiped as the moon god and brother of Amaterasu , the goddess of the sun.
Mesopotamia
The Sumerian moon god was the patron saint of the ancient city of Ur , where his most important sanctuary "é-Kis-nu-Gal" was part of the ziggurat . Nanna (also Nanna-Suen or just Sin) is often depicted as a shepherd, as the shape of the bull's horns is reminiscent of the sickle of the moon. It also stands as a symbol of fertility. The moon god is the firstborn son of Enlil and Ninlil, he had three brothers, the two gods of the underworld Nergal-Meslamtaea and Ninazu and Enbililu, a god of water. From the time of the Akkadian Empire to the middle of the ancient Babylonian period, the daughters of kings were chosen to serve as high priestess of the moon. In Assyria and later Babylonia he was called Sin. In addition, there was a moon goddess named Annit and the names Ningal (also Nikkal) in Babylonian mythology .
More peoples
In Aramaic was a moon god Ilteri that Hurriter knew Kušuḫ that Westsemitien Sahar , in Ugarit there yarikh or Yarach and Urartu Šelarde.
The Georgian moon god Giorgi , who later merged and venerated with Saint George as White George ( Tetri Giorgi ) , can be described as the country's namesake.
Among the Luwians and Hittites , his name was probably Arma . In the cuneiform script it is reproduced with the symbol for 30 due to the 30-day lunar month.

Africa

Egypt
In Egyptian mythology the moon god Jah and Thoth and in the New Kingdom Chons were worshiped.
Ewe and Fon
In the cosmogony of the Ewe and Fon , Mawu is a moon goddess. It represents the moon and brings the night with cooler temperatures to the areas of the African world. She is seen as the old mother who lives in the west. Mawu's partner is Liza, who is connected to the sun. These two are sometimes thought of as twins. This unit represents the order of the universe. Mawu and Liza are the parents of seven pairs of twins, who represent the gods and domains in the cosmos of the Ewe and Fon, their sire is Nana Buluku, who created the world.

Middle and South America

Mayan glyph of the goddess Ix Chel
Maya
The Maya moon goddess was either Ix Chel (also Ixchel) or Ix Chup (also Ix Ch'up). Ix Chel is an old woman who was seen as a weaver and bringer of wisdom, while Ix Chup embodies the young nursing mother.
Aztecs
Coyolxauhqui was the goddess of the moon in Aztec mythology. She was killed and dismembered by her half-brother Huitzilopochtli . Her mother was the earth goddess Coatlicue . In 1978 a portrait of her was found in the Templo Mayor , the former Aztec city of Tenochtitlan , Mexico .
There is also a male Aztec moon god named Tecciztecatl , who is represented in connection with a snail shell, which is supposed to symbolize water and fertility and the concept of the underworld as the origin of life.
Inca and Aymara
In Inca mythology , Mother Moon ( Quechua : Mama Killa , Aymara : Phaxsi Mama ) was the female counterpart to Father Sun (Quechua: Tayta Inti , Aymara: Willka Tata ).

North America

Hopi
The Tusayan had two gods, Oshats (sun) and Tawac (moon), who were regarded as the highest.
Sioux
Among the Lakota tribes , Hanwi (night sun) is the moon goddess and consort of the god Wi (sun).

literature

  • Ernst Siecke: Contributions to the more precise knowledge of the moon deity among the Greeks. Gaertner, Berlin 1885. (online)
  • Ernst Siecke: Hermes the moon god. Studies on whitening d. Shape of this god. (= Mythological Library. 2.1). Hinrichs, Leipzig 1908, OCLC 162962276 .
  • Aake W Sjöberg: The moon god Nanna-Suen in Sumerian tradition. Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala 1960, OCLC 67432616 .
  • Gabriele Theuer: The moon god in the religions of Syria-Palestine. With special consideration of KTU 1.24. (= Orbis biblicus et orientalis. 173; dissertation at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen, 1997–1998) Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Freiburg (Switzerland) 2000, ISBN 3-525-53745-X .

Web links

Commons : Moon Deities  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mani and Sol. In: HA Guerber: Myths of the Norsemen. From the Eddas and Sagas. George G. Harrap & Company, London 1909, OCLC 858746787 .
  2. ↑ Böklen, The Flood Sage. 7 at archive.org, accessed February 25, 2014.
  3. ^ Ernst Siecke: Contributions to the precise knowledge of the moon deity among the Greeks. P. 5/6.
  4. ↑ Luna and Diana on imperiumromanum.com, accessed February 26, 2014.
  5. ↑ Diana Artemis - Greek a. Roman mythology at vollmer-mythologie.de, accessed on February 26, 2014.
  6. ↑ The Book of Idols (Kitāb al-Asnām) by Hishām Ibn al-Kalbī
  7. ^ Karen Armstrong: Islam: A Short History. 200/2002, ISBN 0-8129-6618-X , p. 11.
  8. ↑ Hafiz Ghulam Sarwar: Muhammad The Holy Prophet. 1969.
  9. ^ Maxime Rodinson: 1961.
  10. ^ Corpus Inscriptiones Semit., Volume II: 198; Jaussen and Savignac, Mission Archéologique en Arabie, I (1907) pp. 169f.
  11. ^ Maxime Rodinson: Mohammed. 1961, translated by Anne Carter, 1971, pp. 38-49.
  12. ^ Karen Armstrong: Islam: A Short History. 200/2002, ISBN 0-8129-6618-X , p. 23.
  13. ↑ Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari: The History of the Prophets and Kings. Volume 1, p. 157.
  14. ^ Philip K. Hitti : History of the Arabs . 1937, pp. 96-101.
  15. ^ Brother Andrew: Hubal, the moon god of the Kaba. ( Memento from January 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) bible.ca. Retrieved September 4, 2007.
  16. ^ William Pickthall: Marmaduke (1967). Islamic culture, Volume 9 . Islamic Culture Board, ISBN 978-1-142-49174-1 , p. 191. Original is from the University of Virginia
  17. ↑ Hisham ibn al Kalbi: The book of idols: being a translation from the Arabic of the Kitāb al-asnām . Princeton University Press, 1952, p. 48.
  18. ↑ Gabriele Theuer: The moon god in the religions of Syria-Palestine. With special consideration of KTU 1.24. P. 423ff.
  19. ↑ Chang'e flies to the moon ( Memento of the original from April 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on german.cri.cn, accessed on February 26, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / german.cri.cn
  20. ↑ Khajuraho, India, Volume 171. in: Treasures of the World - Heritage of Humanity. at swr.de, accessed on February 26, 2014.
  21. ↑ David Brauns: Japanese fairy tales and sagas. Fairy tale of the world. Jazzybee Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8496-0331-1 . (on-line)
  22. ↑ Nanna / Suen / Sin (god) on repository.upenn.edu, accessed February 26, 2014.
  23. ↑ Thoth. In: Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto, Wolfhart Westendorf: Lexicon of Egyptology. Volume VI: Stele – cypress. O. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1986, ISBN 3-447-02644-8 , p. 505.
  24. ↑ Mawu: The Fon / Ewe View on mamiwata.com, accessed February 26, 2014.
  25. ↑ Sharonah Fredrick: Fighting the gods: the Popol Vuh. In: Revista de Humanidades: Tecnológico de Monterrey. Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Monterrey 2005, ISSN  1405-4167 .
  26. ↑ Coyolxauhqui ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at nationalgeographic.de, accessed on February 26, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nationalgeographic.de
  27. ↑ The moon goddess Coyolxauhqui ( Memento of the original from June 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at universes-in-universe.org, accessed February 26, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / universes-in-universe.org
  28. ↑ Arnd Adje Both: The feathered snail horn and the great goddess in Teotihuacan. ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on mixcoacalli.com, accessed February 26, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mixcoacalli.com
  29. ^ Pre-Hispanic Period and Conquista. ( Memento of the original from September 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on bautz.de, accessed on February 26, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / bautz.de
  30. ↑ Rolf Seeler: The old Peruvian world view. In: Peru and Bolivia: Indian cultures, Inca ruins and the baroque colonial splendor of the Andean states. (= DuMont art travel guide. ) DuMont, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-7701-4786-3 , p. 16/17.
  31. ↑ Sia and Tusayan SNACE Ceremonials. In: American anthropologist. Issue 8, 1895, ISSN  0002-7294
  32. ↑ Lakota Kinship at nativecairns.org, accessed February 26, 2014 (PDF)