{{Short description|Personification of the Sun among the Adnyamathanha people}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{mythology}} '''Bila''' (also occasionally rendered '''Belah'''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://soundcloud.com/wallabacmusic/belah-sun-woman-iii-kudnu|title = Belah Sun Woman: III - Kundu Lizard Man}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.giamusic.com/store/resource/belah-sun-woman-book-g8605|title=Belah Sun Woman}}</ref>) is the personification of the Sun among the Adnyamathanha people. She is a solar goddess, as befitting the general trends among Australian aboriginal peoples, which largely perceive the Sun as female.<ref>Jennifer Isaacs (2005). ''Australian Dreaming: 40,000 Years of Aboriginal History''. New South Wales: New Holland. p. 142. {{ISBN|1-74110-258-8}}.</ref>
Bila is said to be a cannibal, roasting her victims over a fire, the origin of sunlight. To do this, she sent black and red dogs to drag her victims, resulting even in an entire village being slaughtered.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1h3EpSp-YU4C&q=kudnu+sun+muda&pg=PA286|title = Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity|isbn = 9780520248472|last1 = Pianka|first1 = Eric R.|last2 = Vitt|first2 = Laurie J.|year = 2003}}</ref> In a myth, the Lizard Men Kudnu ("Goanna")<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1h3EpSp-YU4C&q=kudnu+sun+muda&pg=PA286|title = Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity|isbn = 9780520248472|last1 = Pianka|first1 = Eric R.|last2 = Vitt|first2 = Laurie J.|year = 2003}}</ref> and Muda ("gecko")<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1h3EpSp-YU4C&q=kudnu+sun+muda&pg=PA286|title = Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity|isbn = 9780520248472|last1 = Pianka|first1 = Eric R.|last2 = Vitt|first2 = Laurie J.|year = 2003}}</ref> were appalled by these acts and attacked, prompting her to flee and cast the world in darkness. He then used a boomerang, catching her and making her move in a slow arc across the sky as it returned, it illuminating the world. For this act of heroism, lizards like goannas and geckos are respected by the Adnyamathanha.<ref>Patricia Montley, ''In Nature's Honor: Myths and Rituals Celebrating the Earth'', Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, 2005</ref><ref>Patricia Monaghan, ''Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines'', New World Library, 01/04/2014</ref>
A similar, albeit likely unrelated, myth occurs in Woodlark Island.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sacred-texts.com/pac/om/om11.htm|title = Oceanic Mythology: Part II. Melanesia: Chapter I. Myths of Origins and the Deluge}}</ref>
==See also== * List of solar deities
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Australian Aboriginal goddesses Category:Solar goddesses Category:Mythological cannibals
{{Australia-myth-stub}}