Sun
& Moon, Sister & Brother, Goddess and God?
Most
High, all-powerful, all-good Lord,
All
praise is Yours, all glory, all honour and all blessings.
To you alone, Most High, do they belong,
To you alone, Most High, do they belong,
and
no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your Name.
Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is the day through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour,
Of You Most High, he bears the likeness.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
In the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.
Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is the day through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour,
Of You Most High, he bears the likeness.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
In the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.
The
Canticle of the Sun, also known as the Praise of the Creatures, is
believed to be among the first works of literature written in Italian
(initially in an Umbrian dialect), in around 1224. It is ascribed to
St. Francis, who regarded many beings as the brothers and sisters of
humankind, perceiving the basic unity of all creation. But why
Brother Sun? Why Sister Moon? Is this a Christian ascription of
gender, or is there a reflection of pre-Christian beliefs in Sun Gods
and Moon Goddesses, rather than Sun Goddesses and Moon Gods? Let's
have a look and see.
Sun
Goddesses:
In
Norse and Germanic mythology, the daughter of Mundilfäri, Sol, also
known as Sunna, is the Goddess of the Sun, while her brother Máni is
the God of the Moon. Legend tells how, when the world was created, by
the three brothers Odin, Vili, and Ve, from the body of the giant
Aurgelmir, Sol, Mani, and the Stars were made from the gathered
sparks that shot out from Muspelheim, the Land of Fire. Sol/Sunna
drives the chariot of the Sun across the sky every day, pulled by the
golden horses Allsvin and Arvak, and pursued by the wolf Sköll
('Treachery'). Solar eclipses are created when Sköll gets close
enough to take a bite. (Sköll's brother Hati chases Máni; at
Ragnarök - the 'doom of the gods' and the end of a cycle, which is
subsequently renewed - the wolves succeed.)
In
the Shinto religion of Japan, the Sun Goddess Amaterasu - 'Shining in
Heaven' - is a major deity, from whom the Japanese imperial family
was traditionally believed to be descended; her brother Tsukuymi (or
Tsuki-Yomi) is the God of the Moon.
Hebat,
also known as Hepa and Hepatu, was the Hurrian/Hittite Sun Goddess,
consort of the weather god Teshub, and known as the Queen of Heaven.
Described as a matronly figure, she was often depicted either
standing on a lion or seated on a throne. She was assimilated by the
Hittites to their own Sun Goddess Arinna/Arinitti, whose consort was
the Weather God Taryu. Hebat/Arinitti survived during Hellenistic
times as Hipta. Her name has been compared to the Greek Hecate, and
the Hebrew Hawwa (Eve).
Two
Egyptian deities associated with the sun are both goddesses: Sekhmet
and Hathor. Early Egyptian myths imply that the sun is within
the lioness Sekhmet at night, and is reflected in her eyes. The wife
of Ptah, god of creation and wisdom, and mother of Nefertum, god of
the sunrise, Sekhmet ('The Powerful One') represents the destructive
power of the Sun. Other legends tell that the Sun is within Hathor
during the night, in her manifestation as a cow with horns in which
is set a sun disk (with uraeus), being reborn each morning as her son
the Bull. Hathor is described variously as mother, daughter, and wife
of Ra, and at times as the mother (or wet-nurse) of Horus (son of
Isis by the late Osiris). Her role of mother of Ra seems to have been
derived from her assimilation with the cow-goddess Mehet-Weret (Great
Flood) who was the mother of Ra in a creation myth. As a mother she
gives birth to Ra each morning, and, as wife, she conceives through
union with him each day. The Greeks associated Hathor with both
Aphrodite and Hethara. But from the 4th Dynasty of ancient Egypt
(c.3rd century B.C.E.) however, the sun was worshipped as Re/Ra, a
male falcon headed god surmounted by the solar disk surrounded by a
serpent (uraeus).
In
pre-Islamic Arabia, people worshipped a trinity: the goddess
Shams/Nuha, representing the Sun, the god Almaqah or Syn/Sayin,
representing the Moon, and the god Athtar, representing the planet
Venus. Shams and Athtar (the Sun and Venus) were described as
spouses. The cult of Shams was popular among many Arab tribes, but
the Bedouin were more inclined to worship the Moon God Sayin (also
known as Wadd, Hilal, and Warah), who provided relief from the
scorching sun, and refreshing dew for these desert nomads and their
flocks, although they still respected and feared the Goddess Shams
and placated her with various rituals. Shams was identified with the
Canaanite goddess Shemesh/Shapash, and the Babylonian god Shamash,
while the god Athtar was identified with the goddesss Ishtar/Inanna -
nothing like a bit of gender re-assignment.
Traditional
Latvian culture celebrated the Sun Goddess Saulė. The Latvian and
Lithuanian words for 'the world' are pasaulis
and pasaule -
literally 'a place under the Sun'. Saulė and
Mėnuo/Meness (the Moon) were
wife and husband. Mėnuo fell in love with Aušrinė
(the morning star/Venus). For his
infidelity, Perkunas the
Thunder God) punished Mėnuo, by cutting him into two pieces every
month. But Mėnuo and Saulė
both wanted to see their daughter
Zemyna (earth), and that
is why the Sun shines during the day, while the Moon visits at night.
Another legend tells that Aušrinė
was
the daughter of
Saulė,
and would light a fire for the Goddess and make her ready for another
day's journey across the sky. Saulė's
bed is made ready for her each evening by Vakarinė, the evening
star. Other legends tell that Saulė
was the mother of the planets Indraja (Jupiter), Sėlija (Saturn),
Žiezdrė (Mars), and Vaivora (Mercury).
In
Irish/Celtic traditions, the Winter Sun was the goddess Grain
('Sun'), who in later times became known as the Faery Queen. Her
sister Áine
('Brightness'), goddess of the Summer Sun, became known as the
Goddess of Healing and Protection, and is associated with the
Earth/Mother Goddess D/Anu.
Moon
Gods:
The
28 day (monthly) cycle of the moon has implicit links to women's
menstrual cycles, and the moon in many mythologies is represented by
a female deity. In the west, our word 'lunar' comes from the feminine
Latin Luna/moon. However, there are some male Moon Gods, not all
brothers of the Sun goddess, such as Máni andTsukuymi (mentioned
above):
The
Mesopotamian Moon God was called Nanna in Sumerian and Su'en or Sin
in Akkadian. He was the tutelary (patron) deity of the city of Ur,
and was one of the most highly regarded of the gods after An/Anu (the
sky god), Enlil/Ellil (lord of the air), Inana/Ishtar (goddess of
love and war), and Enki/Ea (a mischievous god of wisdom and magic,
also the creator and protector of humanity). The Moon God was
regarded as one of the sons of Enlil and Ninlil (Queen of the
Heavens), his wife was Ningal/Nikkal, a reed goddess, and their
children wer Inana/Ištar
(goddess of love and war, mentioned above) and Utu/Šamaš (the sun
god). Nanna/Su'en was represented as a bull, whose horns replicate
the waxing crescent moon. Associated with Nanna, as the
husband of Nikkal/Ningal, the
Moon God was worshipped
as Arma or Kušuh by Hittites and Luwians in the Bronze and early
Iron Ages, his name deriving from the Proto-Anatolian for 'Wanderer'.
He was known as Kašku
('Shining Star') to the Hattites, and Yarikh
to the Syrians/Ugarits.
In
Egypt, the god of the Moon and of Time was Khons/Khonsu, meaning
'Traveller', part of the Theban triad with Amun (God of the Air) and
Nut (Mother Goddess) - sometimes regarded as his parents - and a
companion of Thoth, god of Knowledge. Elsewhere, Khons is considered
to be the son of Sobek and Hathor. As well as being the Moon god,
Khons was also revered as a god of healing and as a help to women in
conceiving and bearing children - although the 'Cannibal Hymn' and
'Coffin Texts' describe him as a blood-thirsty deity, who 'lives on
hearts'.
In Phrygia (west central Asia Minor), Mên was the god of the moon, depicted with lunar 'horns' emerging from his shoulders, and often with his foot on a ram's or bull's head. Mên was associated with human fertility and the menstrual cycle, and has been associated with the Hellenic goddess-titaness Selene, herself a personification of the moon, and described as an androgynous aspect of the Great Goddess (cognate with Rhea, Artemis, Selene, Diana, Cybele, and Hecate).
In
Inuit mythology, the god of the moon, weather, and earthquakes is
Alignak, who also controls the tides. In some legends, he is
responsible for returning the souls of the dead to the earth so that
they may be re-born, while in others he appears in harbours to
protect fishermen from the wrathful sea goddess Sedna.
According
to a story from the collection of Mongush
Kenin-Lopsan, a shaman scholar of Tuva, Russian Federation, Tuvans
call the Sun 'Mother' because if there is no sun, then there will be
nothing on earth, and if there is no mother, there will be no
children; so as the sun and the mother have the same duties, they
began calling the Sun 'Mother. Also, as soon as dawn breaks the sun
rises in the east, and likewise a Tuvan mother is always the mistress
of her yurt for she takes care of the children. The Moon is called
'Father' because a father is always away and does not stay long in
the yurt. Likewise, the moon does not appear in the sky every day
too: it either appears or disappears.
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