EDUCATION | MOON MYTHS

Long, long ago Sun married Moon, and for a while they were very happy together and very busy setting up house. But the time came when they wanted to see their friends again, and their very best friend was Water. "Hey!" Sun called to him, across the Earth. "What about paying us a visit? It's a long time since we saw you." "I'd love to come," Water called back, in his deep gurgling voice, "but can I bring my friends? There are a lot of them, I'm afraid. I think your new house will be too small for us. " "Not at all," said Sun, "we'll build a whole new village, with dozens of huts and a big fence all around it, to keep out wild animals. That's it. We'll build a special kind of kraal, just for you. Do say you'll come. We miss you. So, Water set off to visit Sun and Moon. With him went all the creatures in the sea, the tiny sardines and the massive whales, the razor tooth sharks and the glowing rainbow fish, the crabs and lobsters. Sun and Moon were exited. They could hear Water's great roaring miles away, long before they could hear him. Then they spotted him, flowing like a broad blue ribbon around the hills through the forest, then charging, broader and mightier still, across the thirsty plains. At last he swirled in, covering their feet. It's wonderful to see you again, dear friends," he boomed, "and what a marvelous new village you've built." "Er, yes," Moon said rather nervously, as Water and his friends swished about, exploring every corner of the kraal, and as a crab took a sly nip at her toes. "Is everybody here?" called Sun, above the roaring of Water. "I'm afraid we're getting rather short of space." He and Moon had already retreated outside their hut, to one corner of the kraal. The inside was useless, for all the furniture was floating around. "Not quite," shouted Water, above the din, and in swept two whales blowing their water-spouts across madly, and a great big hippopotamus, which immediately squashed poor Moon against the fence. "Help!" She shouted. You've filled up the kraal. There's no room for anything else. "Stop, Water, stop!" But Water didn't hear her. He was much too busy welcoming all his friends. Sun and Moon looked down at the scene in alarm, at the bobbing jellyfish and the wriggling eels, at the proud seahorses as they went riding by. Then a couple of flying fish came zipping along, and they ducked their heads. It's no good, wept Moon, the kraal's full to overflowing. I'd simply no idea Water had so many friends. We can't stay here. I'm leaving. And she took a great leap into the sky. Sun, who loved her, followed, landing even higher, and Water was left down on Earth, filling the great kraal with all his fishy friends. And that is why there are lakes and rivers and seas all over the world, and from up above, Sun fierce and hot by day, Moon, more gentle by night.
[Realms of Gold - Myths and Legends from Around the World, An Pilling]

Many years ago there was an orphan child wandering about upon the earth. He was very melancholy as he had no father and no mother. Nobody on the earth would talk to him, or pay him any attention; nobody cared why he was so sad. Despite his anguish, the boy was unable to weep as tears had not yet entered the world. In the night, the Moon observed the distraught orphan boy walking about the earth and felt great compassion towards him. The Moon left the heavens and came to lie upon the earth before the orphaned child. He addressed the child: "Weep, sad child! But you cannot let the tears drop to the earth, as it would make it unclean for people who get their food from it. Rather, let your tears fall onto me. I will then carry them back with me up into the sky." The orphan child began to weep, the first tears ever to fall, rolled down his cheeks and dropped onto the moon. The Moon gave the lonely child a blessing saying: "From now on, every person shall love you." When the child could weep no more, the Moon returned to the heavens. Thereafter, the orphan became happy and people would give him all that he needed and all that would make him rejoice. Every time you look at the Moon's face, you will be able to see the stains left by the tears of the orphan child, the first tears ever shed.

Long ago, Lady Moon decided to send a message to Men, but creature after creature refused to carry it. At last, she called Crocodile, although he was very slow and not much good. She told Crocodile to tell Men, "As I die and dying live, so shall you die and dying live." Crocodile started off and met Hare, who asked where he was going. Crocodile told him Moon's message, and the Hare told Crocodile that he was too slow so Hare would take it for him. Crocodile made Hare repeat the message until he got it right, but when he reached Men, Hare told them, " As I die and dying perish, so shall you die and come wholly to an end." The Men looked at each other in fright, and Hare danced away, laughing at how he had cheated them. When he returned, Moon asked him what he had told Men, and Hare told her. Moon was angry and took a club to Hare, but he ducked it and it caught him only on the nose. Hare screamed and jumped at Moon with his four feet, scratching, kicking, and clawing Moon's face. That is why Hare goes about today with a split nose and why Moon's face shows long dark scars.
[Sanni Metelerkamp, South African Folklore Stories]

Mawu and Lisa are brother and sister gods born to the goddess Minona. Mawu is the female half, a creative goddess of the Moon. Lisa is the brotherly half, a hot Sun God of the daylight hours. Together they created the world and everything in it. Mawu and Lisa's creative energies were so abundant that they started to worry about overloading the planet. So they asked the serpent Da to curl around the world and support it in case of accidents. Between them, they produced an impressive brood of deities including Da, Age, the Water God Twins, a Thunder God and Gu.

Isis became the most powerful of the gods and goddesses in the ancient world. Ra, the God of the Sun, originally had the greatest power. But Ra was uncaring, and the people of the world suffered greatly during his reign. The goddess Isis tricked him by mixing some of his saliva with mud to create a poisonous snake that bit him, causing him great suffering which she then offered to cure. He eventually agreed. Isis informed Ra that, for the cure to work, she would have to speak his secret name (which was the source of his power over life and death). Reluctantly, he whispered it to her. When Isis uttered his secret name while performing her magic, Ra was healed. But the goddess Isis then possessed his powers of life and death, and quickly became the most powerful of the Egyptian gods and goddesses, using her great powers to the benefit of the people. She later gave birth to Horus, the god of the sun. Together, Isis and Horus created and sustained all life and were the saviors of their people.

When Ra reigned as king of Egypt, Thoth prophesied that Ra's wife Nut would have a son who would reign as king. Ra cursed Nut and said, "Nut will give birth to no son on any day of any year, nor at night time either." Ra's curse could not be broken, but Thoth had a clever plan. He went to the moon god Khonsu and offered to play him a game of Senet. Khonsu was a great gambler, and bet some of his own moonlight. Thoth defeated Khonsu over and over, until he had won five days from Khonsu. Thoth fit those five days between the end of the old year, and the beginning of the new year, the year having 360 days. And so here were five days that were not part of any year. Nut gave birth to five children on those five days, Osiris on the first day, Harmachis on the second day, Set on the third, Isis on the fourth, and Nephthys on the fifth.