Myths About the Moon

What do you think of when you look at the Moon? For centuries, people have imagined characters and events to help them understand the Moon’s presence and its phases. Here is a collection of mythical Moon stories from around the world.

The Incas of Peru called their beautiful Moon goddess Mama Quilla. She cried tears of silver. They believed that lunar eclipses were caused by an animal or serpent attacking Mama Quilla. Whenever one occurred, the Incas would try to scare it away by making as much noise as possible.

In Finnish mythology, Ilmatar, the daughter of the air, allowed a duck to lay its eggs on her knee. The eggs fell, and their whites became the Moon, their yolks became the Sun, and tiny fragments of their shells transformed into stars.

The Babylonian Moon god, Sin, had a beard of lapis lazuli (a deep blue gemstone) and rode a winged bull. He represented the number 30, which is the average number of days in a lunar month.

In Greek mythology, the Moon goddess Selene, sister of Helios, the Sun, drives a silver chariot drawn by two snow-white horses across the sky each night.

One Amazonian tribal myth says that when time began, there were so many birds that they blocked out all light shining on Earth. Two heroic brothers, Iae and Kuat, captured the king of the birds and forced him to share the light. Iae became the god of the Moon, and Kuat, became the god of the Sun.

In Polynesian myths, Hina was an accomplished young woman pursued by many men. She fled to the Moon and became its goddess and the protector of travelers at night.

The Japanese Moon god, Tsukuyomi, was born from a mirror made of white copper. He climbed a ladder into the heavens, where he lived with his sister, Amaterasu, the goddess of the Sun.

In India, the Moon’s waxing and waning phases are explained by a story about the Moon god Chandra, who was cursed by his father-in-law, Daksha, to shrink in size to nothing. The major god Shiva intervened, instead causing Chandra to diminish in size for 15 days, but then grow back to his normal size for 15 days—and repeat the pattern forever.

The Mayas of Central America believed that the Moon was the mother of the Sun, who was a young boy pestered by his elder siblings. She caught one of the elder brothers and turned him into a rabbit, whose image can be seen in the full Moon.

What do you think about the moon? Just look up and imagine!!