Kaltes-Ekwa

Kaltes-Ekwa, also rendered Kaltas-Ekwa or Khaltesh-Anki, is a goddess of the Ob-Ugric Khanty and Mansi peoples of western Siberia, understood as the wife of the sky god Numi-Torum, already recorded on this atlas, who is said to have defeated her in a heavenly conflict, and as the mother of the culture hero Mir-Susne-Hum. Her name has been translated as she who wakes, gives birth, creates, reflecting her roles as a moon goddess associated with the month of April, a goddess invoked by women in childbirth, and a goddess of fate and of dawn. Tradition holds that she foretells a newborn's fate when the child is first taken out into the sunlight, and that she keeps a staff hung with threads representing human fates, each tied with a knot. She is usually pictured as an elderly gray haired woman in fine sable coats and silk kerchiefs, but is also a shape shifter said to appear as a hare, goose, swan or frog.