Anguta

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Anguta (also called "His Father," Anigut, or Aguta) is the father of the sea goddess Sedna in the Inuit religion. [1] In certain myths of the Greenlandic Inuit, Anguta is considered the creator god and is the supreme being among Inuit. [2] In other myths, Anguta is merely a mortal. [3] He is a god of the dead in some myths. [4]

His name, meaning "man with something to cut", [5] refers to his mutilating of his daughter which ultimately resulted in her godhood, an act he carried out in both myths. Anguta is a psychopomp, ferrying souls from the land of the living to the underworld, called Adlivun, where his daughter rules. Those souls must then sleep near him for a year before they go to Qudlivun ("those above us"), where they will enjoy eternal bliss. [3] In some versions of the myth, only unworthy souls have to stay with Anguta in the land of the dead. In these myths, he pinches the dead to torment them. [6]

See also

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References

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  2. Leeming, David (2021). Tales of the Earth: Native North American Creation Mythology. Reaktion Books. ISBN   9781789145007.
  3. 1 2 Wardle, H. Newell (1900). "The Sedna Cycle: A Study in Myth Evolution". American Anthropologist. American Anthropological Association. 2 (3): 568–580. doi: 10.1525/aa.1900.2.3.02a00100 . JSTOR   658969.
  4. Falkner, David E. (2020). Hubbell, Gerald R. (ed.). The Mythology of the Night Sky. Springer. p. 184. ISBN   978-3-030-47693-9.
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  6. McMahon-Coleman, Kimberley (2006). "Dreaming an Identity between Two Cultures: The Works of Alootook Ipellie". Kunapipi. 28 (1): 120.