Myths about the Sun and Moon

The sun and the moon are powerful beings that bring life and death to all living creatures. They control when it is day or night, which season it is, and the weather. They fascinate humans and a considerable amount of mythology has been dedicated to the creation of the sun and moon and why or how they travel across the sky during the day and night. This paper will discuss and compare some of these myths and the gods attributed to their care and existence. The sun and the moon are such influential powers that the creation of them is right along with the creation of the world and humans in some of the better-known mythology. The story of creation in Christian Bible tells of God's creation of the sun and
Some of the other Gods and Goddesses decide to trick the Sun and the Moon. They make an extremely beautiful woman and, in seeing her, the Sun invites her to sit next to him at a feast. When the Moon arrives and sees the Sun, she is so ashamed that she hides her face. Because of that instance the Sun lost his wife, the Moon, and was only to rule during the day while the Moon was to rule the night. Whenever they are together the Moon covers her face in shame. (Myths... 1) The Dakota myth not only tells of how the sun and the moon were separated in the sky, but also the reason for the suns dominance over the moon when they are both in the sky at the same time. It is a simple tale, yet it explained a lot to the Dakotas. In the last two myths discussed, the sun and the moon started together and got separated in the sky. This is the true in quite a few other myths as well; another example being in Greek/Roman mythology, Apollo is the sun god and his sister Artemis is the moon goddess. This shows that humans see the connections between the two celestial beings and in trying to explain them, often do so with the sun and the moon together. Malina is the sun god of the Eskimos. She lived with her brother, Anningan, the moon god. They got into a terrible fight and Malina spread black grease all over her brother's face. Afraid, she ran as far as she could into the sky and turned into the sun. Annigan chased after her and became the moon. Their eternal chase makes the