A46a. The sun and the moon are the eyes of the deity.

.20.-.24.26.-.29.35.37.38.41.

The sun and the moon (Rigveda: only the sun) are associated with the eyes of an anthropomorphic being (the motive of their emergence from the eyes of this being may be absent).

Chamorro, Gilbert Islands, Tuvalu, Mangaia, Tibetans, Apatani, Meitei, Cham, Ede, Ancient India, Bondo, Zhuang, Maria, Pardhan, Bali, Nias, Ancient China, Chinese (Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan, Henan, Shandong), Miao (Hainan), Yao (Thailand), Greeks, Lemkos, Kalmyks, Nenets, Manchus, Ancient Japan, Upper Tanana.

Micronesia – Polynesia. Chamorro : Flood 2001 [zap. Adelbert von Chamisso; there were only Puntan and his sister Fu'uña; dying, P. commands that the world be created from him; his eyes became the sun and the moon, his chest the sky, his heartbeat the alternation of time of day and year, his back the earth, on which grew breadfruit, taro, and coconuts; his eyebrows the rainbow; F. swam, came to the islands, became a rock, the rock crumbled into particles, from which all people arose]: 2-4; Frazer 1939 [after P. Murillo Velarde and Luis de Torres; Poontan lived in space, died, commanding his sisters to turn his chest and shoulders into sky and earth, his eyes into the sun and moon, his eyebrows into a rainbow]: 140; Gilbert Islands : Grimble 1922 [the sky lay on the earth; Na Arean (Spider, though anthropomorphic; Na – "Lord") felt with his staff the echoing place, told Sand to unite with water, they gave birth to Na Atibu and Nei ("Lady") Teakea; their children Elder, Woman in the Middle, Wave, Octopus, Eel Ricky; the last born was the youngest Na Arean Junior, a trickster; after this Na Arean senior departed; NA junior gave reason and movement to the Deaf and Dumb Fools (these are the children of Sand and Water); they raised the sky a little, cut the connection between it and the earth, Ricky raised the sky high, the earth sank; N. cut off R.'s legs (falling into the sea, they became eels), and R. himself is the Milky Way; To prevent the sky from falling, NA placed four women at the four cardinal points to hold it up, and they grew roots like trees; N. killed his father Na Atibu, turned his right eye into the sun, his left into the moon, his brain into stars, pieces of flesh into rocks and stones, his bones into trees, including the Samoa Tree, an ancestor]: 91-96; Maude, Maude 1993, no. 3 [the sky was adjacent to the earth; Tarawa was in the darkness and cramped space; Nareau grew out of it; N. created the eel Riki, then several more creatures; he ordered R. to raise the sky, and he tore it off the earth, bracing himself with his tail, lifting the sky with his head; the stingray cut a gap between the earth and the sky to cut off the roots of the sky; when the sky rose, N. threw R., and he fell onto the island of Tarawa, dividing it in half; N. turned the right eye of Te Ikawai ("the elder") into the sun, the left into the moon; then he created several women and a man on Tarawa], 6 [the sky lay on the earth; Nareau felt the echoing place with his staff, made a hole, connected the Earth with Water, the Earth gave birth to children, including the eel Riki; the youngest Nareau was born last; he gave reason and movement to the Deaf and Dumb Fools; they raised the sky, Riki raised it high; N. cut off R.'s legs (now the eel is legless), and R. himself is the Milky Way; N. killed his father Na Atibu, turned his right eye into the sun, the left into the moon, the brain into the stars, the spine into the Tamoa tree, the body into stones, the right god into the Northern, the left into the Southern solstice]: 28-29, 34-37; Tuvalu Islands [sun and moon are the eyes of Laukiti]: Turner 1861: 292 in Williamson 1933(1): 117; Mangaia[Avaiki is like a coconut with a root, with tiers inside it; the earthly world is outside it, on its upper surface; at the base of the root is Te-aka-ia-Roe ("the root of existence"; roe is a thread-worm); above it is the demon Breath of Life, on it is the Long-Living One; these three make up the root; in the lowest and narrowest part inside Avaika itself, the female demon Varima-te-takere ("the very beginning") sits huddled up; from a piece of her right side she created the first man Avatea (Vatea) - Noon, half-man-half-fish (vertically; more precisely, half-man-half-dolphin); his eyes are the sun and the moon; he rose to the very top of Avaiki, just before the exit from A. to the outside; his eyes come out of the hole every day and return there; from another piece of the right side, the great mother created the second son Tinirau (Countless); he is also half-fish (like a sprat); lives in the tier below Awatea, lord of the fish; from the left side of the foremother Tango (Support), then daughter Tumuteanaoa (Echo), then son Raka (Trouble, presides over the winds); sixth, again from the right side, beloved daughter Tu-metua (Stick-by-the Parent); they occupied the tiers from top to bottom, Tu-metua lowest with their mother; Watea took Papa ('foundation') as his wife, their first sons Tangaroa and Rongo (the first purely anthropomorphic beings); Rangi and two other grandsons of Rongo pulled Mangaia out of the nether world, ancestors of its inhabitants]: Gill 1876: 1-11 (retold in Williamson 1933(1): 11-14), 44 [The Sun is the right, the Moon the left eye of Watea].

Tibet – Northeast India. Tibetans : Ogneva 1982c (Bon mythology) [from the head of the goddess Lumo arises the sky, from the right eye the moon, from the left the sun, from the upper teeth the planets; when she closes her eyes, night comes, when she opens them, day; from her voice comes thunder, from her tears, rain, from her nostrils the wind, from her veins the rivers, from her body the earth]: 74; Tucci 1949: 712 in Allen 2011 [from the void arose the queen of snakes; from the top of her head arose the sky, from her eyes the sun and the moon, from her voice thunder, from her bones the mountains, etc.; according to another version, parts of the universe arose from a nine-headed female snake born from an egg]: 61; Apatani : Elwin 1958a, no. 1 [at first the Earth (Kujum-Chantu) was like a human being with a head, limbs and a huge fat belly; she decided that if she stood up everyone would fall off and die, so she died voluntarily; her head became the snowy peaks, the bones of her back the hills, her chest the valley of Apa Tani, her neck the northern country of the Tigin people, her buttocks the plain of Assam; since the buttocks are full of fat, the soil of Assam is fertile; her eyes became the sun and the moon; from her breath was born Kujum-Popi, who sent the sun and the moon to heaven], 1 [first born was Kenku, he is Wiyu (god, ancestor) in the form of a ball of earth; she said that she was Chantu, gave birth to Apo Tani, told him that he should beget people and she would die; he asked where people would then live; she replied that her thighs would become the earth, her eyes the sun and moon, her blood water]: 8, 37; (cf. Apatani [Hintii Anii gave birth to forms – first the earth and the sky, then the Sun and the Moon; they were her eyes; evil spirits led by Giirii created the second sun Chanter Danyi and the second moon Chanter Pulo, it became unbearably hot; the spirit Tamu shot the second sun and moon, only Danyi and Pulo remained]: Blackburn 2008: 154); Meitei [Atiya Shidaba rubbed his right eye and the sun came out, rubbed his left – the moon came out]: Singh 1985: 173.

Burma - Indochina. Cham [there were 12 suns and 12 moons, the sky was low and the earth was thin; the goddess Atmyhekat tried to create living creatures, but it was too hot; then Saint Nymaysibaytyadong (apparently Shiva, Cham. Siva) shot down all the suns with his bow, the world became dark; Avlahuk (or simply Ku, i.e. Allah), born from the dark chaos, was able to make the world brighter after 60 years; A. created Mohammat, who gave birth to Jebrail, the son of D. Ibrahim began to rule the world; Adam and Eve were cast down to earth; gave birth to children, starting the human race; when the ancestors died, everything disappeared, only the tall Mosi tree remained; A. was reborn from it, created animals, demons and people; sent the eldest daughter Po Nagar to rule the earthly world; PN arranged the cosmos in accordance with her body; the sun and the moon are her eyes, Venus is her heart, the Big Dipper is her legs, etc.; she created the grains of the human soul, taught people to cultivate the land; Yamy, one of her assistants, taught them to grow rice, make medicine, and make fire; in Mecca he married a fairy, their 50 sons went up into the mountains, 50 daughters began to live on the plain; by order of her father, PN returned to heaven]: Atgashev 2001: 106-107; ede {there is no direct mention of the creation of luminaries from the eyes of the creature, but given the more detailed data on the related ede tyams, such a motive was most likely there} [the head of the supreme deity Aediye symbolizes the heavenly dome, the frowning forehead is clouds, breath is air, the genitals are fertility, the right eye is the sun, the left is the moon, the hands are the two pillars on which the sky rests; his wife Heba (mother earth) gave birth to the sun-woman and a son in marriage with him, who died from the bite of a centipede; since then A. settled in a large house on the upper tier of heaven]: Nikulin 1980: 49.

South Asia. Ancient India [Purusha is sacrificed to the gods by being dismembered; the mouth is transformed into Brahmins, the arms - Kshatriyas, the thighs - Vaishyas, the legs - Shudras, the spirit - the moon, the eye - the sun, the mouth - Indra and Agni, the breath - the wind, the navel - the air, the head - the sky, the legs - the earth, the ear - the cardinal directions]: Rigveda, X, 90): Elizarenkova 1972: 259-261, 403; Toporov 1982a: 351; Bondo : Elwin 1950 (same among Juang , Maria ) [Mahaprabhu spat, a water turtle swallowed his saliva, conceived; her womb swelled, but there was no opening to give birth; M. cut her open from behind, a girl was born; she grew up, asked the tortoise about her father, who sent her to M.; she wished to lie with him, he killed her; blood flowed, formed the earth; the left eye became the moon, the right the sun; the bones became hills, the hair turned into trees and grasses; from her womb M. took a boy and a girl; they gave birth to people]: 137-138; pardhan [after the death of Lakshmanjati, Rama went to the forest and plucked out his eyes; they became the sun and the moon]: Elwin 1949, no. 10: 65.

Malaysia – Indonesia. Nias [(after Chatelin 1881: 110); the ancestor without arms and legs was killed (died?); from his eyes the sun and moon arose; from the heart a tree grew; the gods arose from the buds at its top, men from the lower buds; cf. motif H41]: Dixon 1916: 176, 177; Bali ["one sod of earth is my {Shiva's?} support, the world and the sky my body, the sun and the moon the eyes, the divine Rabut (something worshipped but unspecified) the real cause of my appearance"]: Hooyakas 1974: 149.

China - Korea. Ancient China [(Encyclopedia "Imperial Review of the Tai Ping Years", "Interpretation of History" by Ma Su, Ren Fang "Description of the Amazing"); the universe resembled an egg; Pangu was born in it ; he woke up, cracked the egg with an axe; the light and clean rose up, became the sky, the heavy and dirty - down, became the earth; P. rested his head on the sky, grew, raising the sky higher and higher; when P. died, his sigh became the wind and clouds, his voice - thunder, his left eye - the sun, the right - the moon, his body with legs and arms - the four cardinal points and five famous mountains, blood - rivers, veins - roads, flesh - soil, hair on the head and mustache - stars, skin and hair on the body - herbs, flowers, trees, teeth, bones, bone marrow - metals, precious stones, sweat - dew and rain; [var.: tears are rivers, a sigh is the wind, a voice is thunder, the gleam of the eyes is lightning; when he is happy, the weather is fine, when he is angry, heavy clouds]: Yuan Ke 1987, ch. II: 34-35; Chinese (Shaanxi) [In ancient times, the cosmos was a clot of energy that rotated in the void until one day life was born in it. It was a giant who grew quickly, tore the clot into two parts and propped one up with his head and stepped on the other with his feet, and while he was growing quickly, these pieces also grew, became thicker, and the distance between them increased. The upper piece turned into the sky, and the lower piece into the earth. Since the giant was the most ancient man, he was called Pangu (Curled Ancient). And so he lived, with the sky above his head and the earth beneath his feet, his breath becoming the wind, his voice thunder, lightning flashing when he blinked, and rivers of tears when he cried. After several centuries, he grew old. In order to have offspring, he took two of his ribs, blew on them, and they became a man and a woman, and they bore children and grandchildren, and thus mankind came into being. After Pangu died, his head became a mountain, his eyes the sun and the moon, and the hair on his body trees]: Zhou Yang et al. 1996, no. 2a: 5; Chinese(Gansu, Wu Jingning) [Long ago, heaven and earth were in a single chicken egg, and everything was pitch black. A giant named Pangu appeared, sleeping in the egg for several hundred years. One day, he yawned and stretched, and there was a crash, and the egg cracked. He crawled out of the dark egg and stood up straight, and he was ninety thousand li tall. He saw that there was nothing around, angrily stamped his foot, and the shell fragments fell down. He pushed off from them and rose into the void. The egg fragments turned into the earth, and the place where he stood turned into the sky. After heaven and earth separated from each other, the earth was white as white. Seeing this, Pangu became upset and cried. His tears became rain, and his sobs became thunder. And to this day, whenever there is thunder, raindrops fall from the sky. The air he exhaled turned into wind and clouds. Finally, he died from crying, and one of his eyes turned into the sun and the other into the moon. His body fell on the broken eggshells and turned into mountains, his blood vessels into rivers, his muscles into roads, the hair on his head into trees, and his bones and teeth into silver lying underground]: Zhou Yang et al. 2001, no. 2: 3-4; Chinese (Sichuan): Zhou Yang et al. 1998b, no. 1 (Fengze Wu) [there was no heaven and earth in the world, only chaos, fog, and darkness; King Pangu took his magic mountain-cleaving axe and separated the sky from the earth; he cut the chaos and dark fog into two halves; the heavy half sank down, and the light half rose up; after 18,000 years, the light half became the sky, and the heavy half became the earth; the sky rose, the earth became thicker, King Pangu grew old; when he died, he sighed, and his sigh turned into the wind and clouds, he cried out, and his voice turned into thunder, he shed a few tears, and they turned into rain; after his death, his left eye turned into the sun, and his right eye into the moon, his limbs into mountain ranges, his blood into rivers, his muscles into fields, the hair on his head into constellations, the hair on his body into grass and trees, from his corpse all things in the world arose], 1a (Wu Baxian) [At first there was no sky and earth, King Pangu created them; he had the head of a dragon and the body of a snake; he grew very quickly, a zhang a day; grew for 18 thousand years, grew huge, and then began to create the sky and the earth; first he created the earth, and it was flat; then he hastily created the sky, which looked like a cauldron lid: curved upward in the center, and low at the edges, it covered the earth; while creating the sky, P. forgot to compare the sizes, the sky came out small and did not cover the entire earth; P. compressed the earth, and it was suitable in size, but folds formed on it; since then there are mountains and gorges, but there are also plains; King Pangu stood on the ground, spreading his legs wide, opened one eye and closed the other; his eyes are the sun and the moon; he sighed, and his sigh turned into wind and clouds, cried out, and his voice turned into thunder; brushed away sweat, and it turned into rain, the rain poured into the gorges on the earth, and so rivers were formed; P. threw some hairs from his head and body to the ground, they turned into trees and grass, threw the parasites living on his body, and they turned into people and wild animals]: 21, 21-22; Chinese (Shandong, Liangshan County) [heaven and earth were not separated, there were no people; Pangu slept between heaven and earth; in his sleep he grew rapidly, reaching ninety thousand li in length and width; woke up, opened his eyes and saw darkness; went by touch and came across an egg, broke it with one blow, the world was transformed; heaven and earth separated; the white turned into a clear sky and white clouds, and the yolk into the earth; P. laughed, and his pores turned into stars, the hairs on his body turned into forests and grasses, his eyes turned into the sun and moon, his eye sockets turned into oceans, his arms, legs, and head turned into five mountain peaks, his bones turned into mountain ranges, and his sweat turned into rivers; when P. was angry, he began to breathe intermittently, and his breath turned into wind and rain; sometimes he stretched out his legs and clapped his hands; this is the cause of thunder and lightning, as well as earthquakes]: Zhou Yang et al. 2007, no. 1: 3; Miao (Hainan, Lingshui County) [the sky and the earth were not separated and were in chaos, like an egg surrounded by clouds; one day there was a sound of the shell cracking, and a giant jumped out of the egg; the clouds on which his head rested rose up and became the sky, and the clouds under his feet thickened below and turned into the earth; this giant Pan-huang (August Pan{gu}) grew one zhang in height every day , and the sky rose up one zhang , and the earth thickened by one zhang; when the heaven and the earth were formed, the world was still dark; Pan Huang tore out his left eye, threw it into the sky, and it turned into the sun; tore out his right eye, threw it into the sky, and it turned into the moon; he pulled out his teeth and made constellations out of them; he separated day and night; he pulled out his hair, which covered the heaven and the earth, and scattered it in all directions, and it turned into forests; one of his fists turned into a mountain, the other into a mountain range; his bones turned into stones, his flesh into soil, his blood into rivers, and only his heart remained; it rose above the sky and turned into a spirit that governs heaven and earth; later, Pan Huang's spirit married a Heavenly Immortal; they gave birth to five immortal maidens, who were married to people from the Deng, Jiang, Li, Zhao, and Huang clans; and thus the five clans of the Miao people came into being; Pan-huang lived for 560 years and after his death was buried in the Southern Mountains (Nanshan); the Miao people consider Pan-huang their ancestor; they offer sacrifices to him on New Year's and other holidays]: Zhou 2002, no. 1: 3; Yao (Thailand) [5-6 thousand years ago a flood destroyed everything; the god Piang Ko Huung remained; when he died, his body sank into the depths of the waters, his shining eyes shone in the water; the "3 stars" ("Three Pure Ones") placed his eyes in the sky, they became the sun and the moon]: Kacha-Ananda 1997: 268; Chinese(Henan, Jiyuan City) [To the east of Mount Wanwu there is another mountain, on the slope of which is the Pangu Monastery. There Pangu was born. Pangu had neither father nor mother, he was born inside a huge chicken egg, and after he was formed, he slept there for eighteen thousand years. When he woke up, he felt that his body was tied up. He straightened his arms and legs, and the egg crumbled. From Pangu's movements, chaos began to fluctuate, the light rose up, turned into the sky, the heavy sank, became the earth, and between the sky and the earth there was a small crack. Pangu saw that the sky was too close, he rested his hands on the sky, began to push it up, every day he grew by one zhang, and the sky also became one zhang higher. So another 18 thousand years passed. Pangu grew by 90 thousand li, and the sky rose by ninety thousand li. Hence the saying about the "nine-layered sky". From fatigue, P. began to sweat, exhausted himself and died. Before his death, he thought that heaven and earth were not enough, there should be sun and moon, mountains and rivers, people and animals. But he had already fallen from fatigue and was unable to create them. Before his death, he said that he was leaving his body to the world. When he died, one of his eyes turned into the sun, the other into the moon, his breath into the wind and clouds, his voice into thunder, his arms and legs into mountains, his bones into ores, his blood into rivers, his hair into flowers, grasses and trees, his soul into people, livestock, birds, animals, insects and fish. The shell of the egg from which P. emerged ended up under a mountain and turned into a shining, smooth, folded stone. Ink pots made from it do not let water through. To honor P., a monastery was built on this site. Variant (Tongbo): When heaven and earth were not yet separated, there was P., dressed and shod in clouds. One day, a ball blocked his path, and he split it with an axe. The air came out of the ball, and it began to descend. P. stood on it, fell asleep, and woke up several tens of thousands of years later to find that his cloud clothes and shoes had disappeared, the ball had turned into earth, and the sky had appeared above the earth. P. became the first man]: Zhou Yang et al. 2001b, no. 1: 3–4.

Balkans. Romanians (Peloponnese) [the sun is the eye of God]: Veselovsky 1883: 299.

Central Europe. Ukrainians (Lemkos: Kholm Rus) [they call the sun the eye of God, and thus explain God's omniscience]: Bulashev 1898: 293.

Caucasus – Asia Minor. Kalmyks [the world arose from Manzashirin (the bodhisattva Manjushri); trees from his blood vessels, fire from the heat of his body, earth from flesh, shores (mountains?) from bones, water from blood, grass from hair, sun and moon from eyes, seven stars (Ursa Major?) from teeth, other luminaries (Milky Way?) from spine]: Zhiteisky, p. 67 in Harva 1933: 76.

Western Siberia. Nenets {probably tundra} [usually speak of the sun woman and the man on the moon, but the soothsayer also addresses them vice versa: the sun's eye, my grandfather, and the moon's eye, my grandmother; the sun is Num's good eye, and the moon is his bad eye; with these eyes Num sees everything when he travels around the earth; in the underworld the sun is like the moon up here]: Lehtisalo 1998: 14.

Amur – Sakhalin. Manchus [it is dark on earth; the daughter of the sky god asks her father to arrange the earth, but he refuses; she herself goes down, her father forbids her to return; she tore out her left eye, threw it into the sky, it became the sun; the right one – the moon; threw a pearl necklace, it became the stars; she herself turned into a mountain; her silhouette resembles the top of an eyeless female figure]: Bäcker 1988, no. 1: 5-8.

Japan. Ancient Japan [see ch. 1-8: 38-49; after returning from the underworld, Izanagi casts aside all the objects that were with him and have now become impure, from which various gods arise; when he washed his left eye, the sun goddess Amaterasu arose, and when he washed his right eye, the moon god Tsukuyomi arose; when he washed his nose, the god Susanoo arose]: Kojiki 1994, ch. 9: 49-51; (in Nihon shoki 1997(1), scroll 1, 5 : 121-122, these deities are the children of Izanagi, whom Izanami gives birth to).

Subarctic. Upper Tanana [an unnamed anthropomorphic being designated by a number of celestial objects; Ursa Major – tail; Castor and Pollux – left ear; Capella – right ear; sun and moon – eyes]: Cannon 1914: 32–36, table 2.3, fig.2.2, 2.3.