Sedna

Goddess | Inuit

Goddess of the sea and sea animals; her severed fingers became the first seals, walruses, and whales; she dwells at the ocean floor and controls all hunting. Her tangled hair accumulates the violations of human taboos — when hunters fail, the angakkuq must descend in trance to comb it free so the animals will return. She is simultaneously victim and sovereign: the most powerful entity in Inuit cosmology, born from an act of violence.

Parallels: Ereshkigal (Sumerian — queen of the deep who controls life), Poseidon/Neptune (Greek/Roman — ocean sovereignty), Tiamat (Babylonian — primordial ocean deity); Persephone (taken against her will, became queen of the underworld) See also: Angakkuq, Aningaaq