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

Status

In certain myths of the Greenlandic Inuit, Anguta is considered the creator god and is the supreme being among Inuit. In other myths, Anguta is merely a mortal. He is a god of the dead in some myths.

Name

His name, meaning "man with something to cut", 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. 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.

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.

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