W is for the Water Goddess (Women's Epics A to Z)

This year my theme for the A to Z Blogging Challenge is Women's Epics. My goal was to read 26 traditional epics from around the world that have women as their heroes. Because epics like this do exist, and they are fascinating! Read the intoduction post here.

Song of the Goddess of the Waters
Ainu

This one is another epic song collected from the Hokkaido Ainu at the beginning of the 20th century. It was also sung by Hiraga Etenoa in 1932 (much like Song of Spider Goddes, and Repunnot-un-kur, featured earlier in this series).

The goddess in question is Wakka-ush-kamui, Goddess Dwelling in the Waters, also sometimes called Petru-ush-mat, Woman Dwelling in the Watering Place, or Petorush-mat, Woman Dwelling in the River. Another goddess figure, Chiwash-kor-kamui, Goddess of the River Rapids, also makes an appearance. The song is narrated in the first person, from the point of view of the water goddess.

I read the epic from this collection. It has other variants collected, as noted in the introduction. The book also shortly introduced the Ainu worship of the water goddess.

What is it about?

TL;DR: The Water Goddess and the Goddess of the River Rapids trick the other gods to help end a famine in the land of humans.

Image from here

The Water Goddess receives a message from the culture hero Okikurmi. The message conveys that there is a famine in the land of the humans, and Okikurmi has already done everything he possibly could. With the last of his supplies he brewed sacrificial wine, and sent a message through prayer to the goddess, asking for help.

The Water Goddess prepares large tubs of wine and invites other divinities to her home. The Goddess of the River Rapids, the Owl God, the Goddess of the Hunt, the God of Game and God of Fish are all invited (with the Owl God as chief guest). The Goddess serves them all wine, and tells them about the famine in the land of humans.

The God of Game and the God of Fish explain that they have been witholding their subjects from the human world because humans treat them badly - they kill them without eating them or offering gifts in exchange. The Owl God sits sullenly, because there is a hair from a human woman in his wine; he only speaks when Goddess of the Waters manages to convince him that the hair is actually hers. Offense avoided.

The two goddesses (Waters and Rapids) entertain the guests with songs and dancing. While they are performing, the Water Goddess' soul leaves her body in a trance, sneaks into the house of the God of Game, and opens the doors that lock the animals away. The Goddess of the Rapids similarly leaves her body, and her soul travels to the God of Fish, taking baskets of fish and setting them loose at the river fishing grounds.

All the while, the two goddesses keep performing. When the feast ends, eventually the two gods find out that they have been cheated, but there is nothing they can do about it so they stay silent. The Water Goddess reaches out to Okikurmi in a dream to let him know what happened, and what the cause of the famine had been. She warns him to treat animals well, and to beat the fish with special, nicely prepared beating sticks instead of rotten wood. Soon after, the God of Game and the God of Fish turn up to thank the Water Goddess - their people are now treated by humans with respect.

The highlights

I loved reading a story narrated from the deity's point of view. As noted in the previous post about Repunnot-un-kur, this way of narration was tied to the shamanistic tradition; the spirit of the deity spoke through the (usually female) shaman's voice, telling the story. In this case, we got to see what it is like to receive a prayer from the human world (kind of like the phone ringing).

I was fascinated by the concept of animals visiting the human world, sent by the gods, "on a business trip" (the term used irauketupa, literally means to go on a trip to conduct business). They give their bodies and fur, and in exchange they are supposed to be sent back to the divine realm with gifts. These gifts are wine and inau, elaborately carved sticks that are regarded as artifacts, and prized by the gods as souvenirs from the journeys into the human world which they admire (in the form of animals). Attached to this sort of admiration, it was also lovely to see that the Water Goddess instructed Okikurmi to have people apologize to the God of Game and the God of Fish - and also thank the Goddess of River Rapids for her help.

I liked the moment when the Goddess of Waters pretended the hair in the wine was hers - with a line translated as "O what a gangling hobgoblin of a woman am I! I did not even know that a hair of mine has gotten into the wine."

Once again, the song was full of lovely details. For example: "the fish were so abundant in the river fishing beds that it seemed as if the schools offish on the bottom were rubbing against the rocks and the schools of fish at the top were scorched by the sunshine."

FUN FACT: The book also features another, shorter song where the Water Goddess steals the Fire Goddess' husband. The two women have an epic fight of magic, calling on the elements. Fire Goddess wins, and her shame-faced husband returns home to her.

SOMETIMES ONE STORY CAN OPEN THE DOOR FOR GETTING TO KNOW AN ENTIRE TRADITION.

Are you curious about more Ainu stories? Did you know them before?