Sedna (goddess)
Sedna (Inuktitut: ᓴᓐᓇ, Sanna) is the best known name of the central Inuit sea goddess , who acted as the feared mistress of animals . This name comes from Baffinland and means "those down there in the sea". In East Greenlanders she is called "Immap ukuua" (mother of the sea), in West Greenlanders "Arnaqquassaaq" (the majestic woman) or "Sassuma arnaa" (the woman down there) and the North Greenland Inughuit call her "Nerrivik". Northwest of Hudson Bay is the name "Nuliajuk" (the dear woman) and in Labrador "she" was a man.
mythology
Sedna was revered in the traditional religion of the Inuit as "Ancient of the Seas", "Queen of the Deep and Storms" and "Mother of All Sea Creatures". Sedna determined which and how many marine animals could be caught and eaten. If the people violated their command, they would send a storm or drag the hunter and his family into the depths. Her house was on the ocean floor. There she lived in community with fish and other sea animals, but also with the sea birds. Their home was guarded by seals that bit anyone who entered.
The myths tell that Sedna was a beautiful but vain girl who turned down all applicants. Finally, Sedna's father gave her to a hunter against her will, even though he had his face covered. When the husband took Sedna to his home by kayak, it turned out that he was a raven and that their home should be hard cliffs. She cried and screamed in the wind until her father heard it, felt guilty, and took her back.
On the way back the kayak was attacked by Sedna's husband, who caused violent sea storms with his wing beats. Sedna's father got scared and threw his daughter overboard. Sedna tried to hold on to the kayak, but her father pounded her frozen fingers and hands with the paddle until they cracked and sank into the ocean. Sedna's fingers were transformed into seals by the magic of the raven and her hands into whales and other marine mammals. Sedna eventually sank herself in the sea and is still sitting there on the seabed today. Their anger at the people whips the sea from time to time in violent storms and waves. In resentment for betrayal, she became a powerful, angry goddess.
The sea goddess was regarded by the Inuit as an “observer goddess”, because she knew everything about the people and their taboo violations , which settled as dirt in their hair. This made her angry, so she kept all human prey in her home. Therefore, she had to be treated with respect and shamans had to dive down to her on a "soul journey" to comb her long black hair. This calmed Sedna and she allowed the people to feed on the wealth of the sea again. It was the custom in the north to drip water into the mouth of a captured seal as a gesture of thanks to Sedna, who feeds the hunter and his family.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Günter Lanczkowski: Eskimo religion, published in: Horst Balz et al. (Ed.): Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Volume 10: "Erasmus - Faculties, Theological". Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1982, ISBN 978-3-11-019098-4 . Pp. 363-366.
- ↑ Christian F. Feest : Animated Worlds - The religions of the Indians of North America. In: Small Library of Religions , Vol. 9, Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-451-23849-7 . Pp. 98, 152, 163.
- ↑ a b Lisa Klotz: Lemanjá and Sedna : What approaches can an asymptotic comparison of two sea goddesses from different cultures take place? GRIN Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-640-56268-8 . Pp. 6-13.