In the Inca creation legend, Bicarotxa, chief of the Inca gods, ordered the sun, moon, and stars to take their places in the sky. Jealous of the moon’s brightness, the sun threw ashes at the rising moon, causing it to become dark forever.
One might argue that ever since then, apart from total solar eclipses, which occur when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, the Moon has played a subordinate role to the Sun.
Think of the ancient Egyptians and their sun god, Ra, the father of creation. Or think of Apollo, the ancient Greek god of sun and light, galloping through the sky in a golden chariot drawn by four flaming horses. Or think of the warm feelings evoked by words like sunburst, sunrise, sunshine and Sunday.
To be fair, the moon wasn’t completely ignored: In Greek mythology, the moon features divinely as the goddess Selene, who also rides in a celestial chariot. However, because she is a lunar deity and therefore a second-class goddess, Selene’s chariot is made of silver instead of gold and is pulled by two horses instead of four.
With all this in mind, here are three reasons why we should rescue the moon from the sun’s shadow, free it from common misconceptions, and give it the respect it deserves.
