Eki

Eki, also known as Ekhi, Eguzki and by several other regional spellings, is the sun deity of Basque mythology, worshipped as a daughter of Mother Earth, called Amalur or Ama Lur, to whose womb she returns each night before rising again each morning. The ancient Basques addressed her as their grandmother and held rites in her honor at sunset, regarding her as a protector of humanity and an enemy of evil spirits; the eguzkilore, a thistle flower, is still hung on doors in the Basque Country as a charm against evil drawn from her protective character. Basque cosmology describes her nightly descent into Itxasgorrieta, the Reddish Seas beneath the earth, as a journey back into her mother's womb, a cyclical image of renewal tied to the daily solar cycle.