Atahensic, also known as Sky Woman, is an

Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

sky goddess. Atahensic is associated with marriage, childbirth, and feminine affairs in general.Douglas M. George-kanentiio (1995).''Skywoman: Legends of the Iroquois.'' Clear Light Books According to legend, at the time of creation, Atahensic lived in the Upper World, but when digging up a tree, it left a hole in the ground that led to a great sky, under which was water. Atahensic fell through this hole. After her fall, birds carried her down the hole onto the water. A giant turtle then emerged from the underground waters for her to rest on. She then gave birth to her

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...

sons: Hahgwehdiyu () and Hahgwehdaetgah (). Hahgwehdiyu was born normally; Hahgwehdaetgah, the

evil twin The evil twin is an Antagonist (literature), antagonist found in many different fictional genres. The twin is physically nearly identical to the protagonist, but with a radically inverted morality. In films, they may have a symbolic physical dif ...

, killed Atahensic by bursting out of her side during birth. When Atahensic died, Hahgwehdiyu created the sky and, with her head, the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

. Hahgwehdaetgah, however, created darkness to drive down the sun. Hahgwehdiyu then created the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

and

Star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

s from his mother's breasts, and tasked them, his sisters, to guard the night sky. He gave the rest of his mother's body to the earth, the Great Mother from whom all life came. Hahgwehdiyu then planted a seed into his mother's corpse. From this seed grew

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

, as a gift to mankind. There is another version of the myth of Atahensic in which she is Hahgwehdiyu and Hahgwehdaetgah's maternal grandmother instead. According to this variant, Atahensic had a daughter named Tekawerahkwa (), whom the west wind impregnated with Hahgwehdiyu and Hahgwehdaetgah. As Tekawerahkwa died by childbirth, either she wished for her body to sustain the people or Atahensic sowed on her grave the seeds she had brought when she fell to Earth, but never planted before. Out of Tekawerahkwa's remains grew various plants: the sister spirits of the corn,

bean A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are traditi ...

s, and squash came from her breasts, hands, and navel respectively;

sunflowers ''Helianthus'' () is a genus comprising around 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae commonly known as sunflowers. Except for three South American species, the species of ''Helianthus'' are native to ...

from her legs;

strawberries The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit is appreciated f ...

from her heart;

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

from her head; and purple potatoes or sunchokes from her feet.

References

Childhood goddesses Goddesses of the indigenous peoples of North America Iroquois mythology Marriage goddesses Sky and weather goddesses {{NorthAm-myth-stub