Moon Gods by Liz

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

It's interesting to see that some cultures associate the Moon with gods. Here's a list of some from different sources (can't remember where). If you know of more, please post!


Sin aka Nanna (Mesopotamian moon God)
Sin was the most important moon god throughout the life of the civilisations of Mesopotamia. Sin rules crescent moon and Nanna rules the full moon. Sin’s name came to mean Chief God and The Father of all the Gods. He was depicted as a wise old man with a flowing blue beard, who rides on a bull. The word Nanna means ‘Illuminator’. Sin’s main temples were at Ur and Harra. The temple at Ur was called ‘The House of the Great Light’. Sin’s number was 30, which may refer to the number of days in the lunar month (29.53). His symbols are the crescent moon, the bull and the tripod. He was the father of the sun god Shamash and the goddess Ishtar, who represents the planet Venus and fertility.


Thoth (Egyptian moon god)
Thoth is the god of the moon and wisdom.. He was born from the head of the god Seth And is depicted variously as part human, part ibis; all ibis; or as a seated baboon. He wears a crown of a crescent moon surmounted by a moon disc. Generally benign, as the scribe of the gods he is responsible for entering the record of the souls who pass into the afterlife. He is the inventor of arts and science and the master of magic. If angered, he will decapitate the adversaries of truth and tear out their hearts.


Hubal (Pre Islamic Arabian)
A moon god and the most powerful of the three hundred and sixty gods worshipped at Mecca in pre-Islamic times. It is believed that Hubal may have been a forerunner of al-Llah, which means The God, and may be the reason that Mosques have a moon sign over them. Hubal had three daughters. The devil tricked Mohamed into saying in the Koran that they should be worshipped. The lines that Mohamed wrote in the Koran about the daughters are known as the Satanic Verses.


Chandra (Indian moon god)
Chandra is young and dashing. He rides his chariot, the moon, through the night sky pulled by 10 white horses or by an antelope. He carries a club and a lotus flower. Chandra was born after his mother swallowed the moon. Chandra married the twenty seven daughters of Daksha and neglected all but one, so Daksha cursed him to die of consumption. But as he weakened, so did all things on earth. Daksha relented and turned the curse into a monthly waxing and waning. Chandra is father to a race of lunar kings. He is also the protector of rabbits, which were sacred to him. He is said to have built a temple of gold to Lord Shiva, Master of the Moon.


In Aztec mythology, Tecciztecatl ("old moon god"; also Tecuciztecal, Tecuciztecatl) was a lunar deity, representing the old "man-on-the-moon". He could have been the sun god, but he feared the sun's fire, so Nanahuatzin became the sun god and Tecciztecatl (in the form of a rabbit) was promptly thrown into the moon. In some depictions he carried a large, white seashell on his back, representing the moon itself; in others he had butterfly wings. He was a son of Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue.


Mawu
A much happier couple-based story about the moon is this myth from Africa which says that Mawu is a moon good who is forever linked in unity with the sun goddess Liza. It is believed that lunar and solar eclipses are related to the lovemaking times of the celestial couple. This myth is clearly about the power of the moon, the sun, the sky and love and desire.


Anningan
The Inuit people of northern regions like Alaska and Greenland have a rather horrifying myth about the moon. They believe that Anningan, the Moon god, raped his sister, the sun Goddess. Worse, they believe that he is still trying to chase her down to possess her. That’s why he follows her in the sky every day. The waxing and waning of the moon is explained as Anningan chasing her until he is starving and then disappearing for a bit to hunt for food to have the energy to come back to chase her again.


Soma
This is a Hindu god that is associated with the moon. It’s interesting because of the fact that there are several additional symbols that we see here that are commonly associated with the moon. In Hindu art, Soma is sometimes an embryo and sometimes a bull. Fertility is frequently associated with the moon. The bull is also a symbol that has shown up as related to the moon across cultures. The main thing about Soma though is its link with the moon as an elixir. Soma is the name of a drink said to be consumed by the Gods. Interestingly, the moon rabbit who lives on the moon with Chang’e in the Chinese myth is also an elixir-making symbol.