Gun Ana (
Old Turkic
Old Siberian Turkic, generally known as East Old Turkic and often shortened to Old Turkic, was a Siberian Turkic language spoken around East Turkistan and Mongolia. It was first discovered in inscriptions originating from the Second Turkic Kh ...
: ''𐰚𐰇𐰤:𐰣𐰀'',
Turkish: ''Gün Ana'',
Azerbaijani: ''Gün Ana'',
Kyrgyz: ''Күн Эне'',
Kazakh: ''Күн Ана'',
Hungarian: ''Nap Anya'',
Sakha: ''Күн Ий̃э'',
Balkar: ''Кюн Ана'', sometimes called ''Yaşık Ana'') is the common
Turkic solar deity, treated as a goddess in the
Kazakh and
Kyrgyz mythologies. ''Gün Ana'' or ''Kün Ana'' means "Sun Mother" in
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic langua ...
.
Background
Gün Ana is one of the most powerful deities, the goddess of life and fertility, warmth and health. She is patroness of the unfortunate, especially orphans. She lives on the seventh floor of the sky.
Tengri
Tengri (; Old Uyghur: ; Middle Turkic: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Proto-Turkic: / ; Mongolian script: , ; , ; , ) is the all-encompassing God of Heaven in the traditional Turkic, Yeniseian, Mongolic, and various other nomadic religious beliefs. So ...
created the Earth with rays of sun light, thus, Gün Ana took part in the creation of Earth. Solar rays are also considered to be "strings" between the Sun and the spirits of plants, animals and humans. Turks who worship Gün Ana turn towards the sunrise when praying.
References in literature
Gün Ana is mentioned in one of the earliest written sources on
Turkic mythology
Turkic mythology refers to myths and legends told by the Turkic people. It features Tengrism, Tengrist and Shamanism in Central Asia, Shamanist strata of belief along with many other social and cultural constructs related to the nomadic and wa ...
. According to Turkic traditions, the powerful god
Kayra
Kayra or Kaira (Old Turkic: 𐰴𐰖𐰺𐰀) is the creator god in Turkic mythology. He is the god who planted the tree of life called Ulukayın. Kayra is described as both father and mother, and resides in the 17th layer of heaven.
Kayra is ...
made the Sun and threw it into the sky. Gün Ana and
Ay Ata (the Moon) were wife and husband.
According to Turkic Mythology, Khagan and his wife are supposed to be the children of the sky and the
Yer
A yer is either of two letters in Cyrillic alphabets, ъ (ѥръ, ''jerŭ'') and ь (ѥрь, ''jerĭ''). The Glagolitic alphabet used, as respective counterparts, the letters (Ⱏ) and (Ⱐ). They originally represented phonemically the "u ...
(Land).
Ay Ata (living in the sixth floor) and Gün Ana (living in the seventh floor) are their representatives in the sky.
[Got from Turkish wikipedia; Ziya Gökalp şöyle demektedir: "Eski Türk telakkisine göre, hakanla hatun gök ile yerin evlatlarıydı. Günes ana ile Ay ata onların gök yüzündeki temsilcileri idi. Hakanın mümessili olan ay ata, gök yüzünün altıncı katında, hatunun mümessili olan gün ana ise daha üstte, gökyüzünün yedinci katında idi."]
The feast for Gün Ana is celebrated during the summer solstice in
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...
on each 21 June.
See also
*
List of solar deities
References
Bibliography
* Türk Mitolojisi, Murat Uraz, 2001, (1994)
* Turkish Myths and Legends Dictionary (Türk Söylence Sözlüğü), Deniz Karakurt
(OTRS: CC BY-SA 3.0)
* Ziya Gökalp, Türk Medeniyeti Tarihi II, İstanbul, 1974, s. 211.
External links
*
Halk Meteorolojisi Ekseninde Bir Melheme Örneği, Yusuf Ziya SÜMBÜLLÜ*
Mitoloji
{{Turkic Deities
Solar goddesses
Turkic goddesses
Tengriism
Fertility goddesses
Health deities
Health goddesses