Sky Woman's Daughter
Also known as: Mother of the Twins
Mythological Narrative
Scholarly Commentary & Evolution
## Born on Turtle Island
Sky Woman is already pregnant when she falls, or gives birth soon after, and her child is a daughter who grows quickly on the new earth. Most recorded tellings do not give the daughter a personal name, and this site does not supply one. How she conceives the twins is one of the points on which tellers most disagree: in the Seneca retelling Parker summarises she marries Ga'ha', the gentle wind, while other versions recorded by Hewitt name a different visitor, or leave the father mysterious.
## The twins' birth
She bears twin sons. The first, Sapling, is born in the ordinary way; the second, Flint, forces his way out, and she dies. In some versions Flint blames his brother, and Sky Woman believes him, which begins the long rivalry between the twins and their grandmother's favour for Flint.
## What grows from her
Many tellings, including the Seneca material Parker summarises, say that the plants the people live on grow from her grave: corn, beans, and squash, and in several versions tobacco. Some tellings also make the sun or the moon from her face or body. Tellers differ on which plant grows from which part of her, and this entry does not choose between them.
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Sky Woman's Daughter.
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The chief of the Sky World and husband of Sky Woman, who in many tellings uproots the great celestial tree, opening the hole through which she falls.
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The hard-minded twin grandson of Sky Woman, born in a way that costs their mother's life, who in Haudenosaunee tradition shapes the earth's difficult features in contest with his brother Sapling.
Ga'ha' the Zephyr
The soft, kindly wind of Seneca tradition, who helps plants grow and fruits ripen; in the Seneca cosmology Parker summarises he is the husband of Sky Woman's daughter and father of the twins.