Erkliğ Han

Not to be confused with Erlik.
Turkic mythology
Belief system
Chief gods and goddesses
Epics and heroes
Major concepts

Erkliğ Han is the deity of space in Turkic and Altai mythology.[1] He is responsible for stars, meteorites and celestial objects, and also associated with virility.[2] Erkliğ means "strong".

In Tengrism, he is the lord of the planet Venus. According to the belief, Erkliğ Han is responsible for falling stars in the sky. These are called fiery arrows. He is also associated with the disappearing of stars during the rise of the sun by "killing" them.[3]

Due to similarity to the name Erlik, some scholars confuse Erkliğ with Erlik, the lord of the underworld.

Citations

  1. ^ Türk Söylence Sözlüğü, Deniz Karakurt, Türkiye, 2011 (OTRS: CC BY-SA 3.0) "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. ^ EMEL, E. S. İ. N. Kotuz. Erdem, 1. Jg., Nr. 1, S. 125-146.
  3. ^ User, Hatice Şirin. "Čolpan ‘The Planet Venus’ in Turkic." Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia (SEC) 19.3 (2014): 169-178.