Anguta

Anguta (also called "His Father," Anigut, or Aguta) is the father of the sea goddess Sedna in the Inuit religion.[1]

Status

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]

Name

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.

Function

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

• Pinga, another psychopomp in Inuit mythology

References

1. Turner, Frederick (Summer 1992). "Bloody Columbus: Restoration and the Transvaluation of Shame into Beauty". Restoration and Management Notes. 10 (1). University of Wisconsin Press: 70–74. JSTOR 43439976.
2. Leeming, David (2021). Tales of the Earth: Native North American Creation Mythology. Reaktion Books. ISBN 9781789145007.
3. Wardle, H. Newell (1900). "The Sedna Cycle: A Study in Myth Evolution". American Anthropologist. 2 (3). American Anthropological Association: 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.
5. Joel Rudinger (Mar 26, 2009). "The Path to Sedna". Young Adult Literature and Culture. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 52. ISBN 9781443807326.
6. McMahon-Coleman, Kimberley (2006). "Dreaming an Identity between Two Cultures: The Works of Alootook Ipellie". Kunapipi. 28 (1): 120.