the daughter of the Sun

Also known as: the Redbird · Role: daughter of the Sun · First appears: Myth 5 · The Daughter of the Sun

In Myth 5, the daughter of the Sun lived in the middle of the sky, where her mother stopped for dinner each day. At her house, the Rattlesnake bit her, and she fell dead. The Sun grieved, and the people stopped dying; the Little Men told them that they must bring her back from Tsûsginâ'i, the Ghost country, if they wanted the Sun to come out again.

At Tsûsginâ'i, the daughter of the Sun was put into a box and carried away. Near home, she escaped as a redbird, and the box was found empty. “So we know the Redbird is the daughter of the Sun.”

Relationship record

Life events

• The Rattlesnake bit the daughter of the Sun, and she fell dead.(Myth 5 · The Daughter of the Sun · 📍 the house)
  • With: the Rattlesnake
  • “he sprang up and bit her and she fell dead in the doorway.”
• The Sun grieved for her dead daughter, and the people stopped dying.(Myth 5 · The Daughter of the Sun)
  • With: the Sun
  • “When the Sun found her daughter dead, she went into the house and grieved, and the people did not die any more”
• The Little Men told the people that if they wanted the Sun to come out again they must bring back her daughter from Tsûsginâ'i, the Ghost country.(Myth 5 · The Daughter of the Sun)
  • With: the Little Men
  • “They went again to the Little Men, and these told them that if they wanted the Sun to come out again they must bring back her daughter from Tsûsginâ'i, the Ghost country, in Usûñhi'yi, the Darkening land in the west.”
• The Sun's daughter was put into a box and carried away from the Ghost country.(Myth 5 · The Daughter of the Sun · 📍 Tsûsginâ'i)
  • “at the seventh round she fell out of the ring, and they put her into the box and closed the lid fast.”
• The Sun's daughter escaped the box as a redbird, and the box was found empty.(Myth 5 · The Daughter of the Sun · 📍 the settlements)
  • “there was a fluttering sound inside and something flew past them into the thicket and they heard a redbird cry, ‘kwish! kwish! kwish!’ in the bushes.”
• The spreading adder was transformed from a man into a snake to destroy the Daughter of the Sun, but failed.(Myth 49 · The Snake Tribe)
  • With: the spreading adder
  • “It was formerly a man, but was transformed into a snake in order to accomplish the destruction of the Daughter of the Sun. For its failure on this occasion it is generally despised.”

Myth 5 · The Daughter of the Sun

• parent: the Sun “The Sun lived on the other side of the sky vault, but her daughter lived in the middle of the sky, directly above the earth, and every day as the Sun was climbing along the sky arch to the west she used to stop at her daughter's house for dinner.”
• enemies with the Rattlesnake “he sprang up and bit her and she fell dead in the doorway.”

Myth 35 · The Bird Tribes · Part 3

• parent: the Sun “The redbird, tatsu'hwa, is believed to have been originally the daughter of the Sun.”

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Extracted from the original text of Myths of the Cherokee. Made with Rho MD.