Anguta

Accounts vary by locality. In some Greenlandic Inuit myths Anguta appears as a creator figure or supreme being; in other versions he is presented as a mortal ancestor. Across variants he is consistently identified as the father of the sea-goddess Sedna. The etymology of his name — reported as meaning "man with something to cut" — is linked in the sources to a myth in which he mutilates his daughter; that act is an etiological element in narratives that explain Sedna's transformation into a sea-goddess who rules Adlivun. The traditions do not present a single canonical sequence but treat Anguta's familial violence as a foundational motif tied to Sedna's divine status.

The sources consulted do not provide a consistent iconography or detailed corporeal description of Anguta; traditions emphasize his roles (father, ancestor, psychopomp, occasional creator) and actions rather than physical traits. Variant accounts focus on his functions within family and afterlife narratives rather than standardized visual depiction.

Anguta functions primarily as a psychopomp: he ferries souls from the land of the living to Adlivun, the underworld ruled by his daughter Sedna. Souls, on arrival, "must then sleep near him for a year" before proceeding to Qudlivun ("those above us") where they enjoy eternal bliss, according to the cited material. In some variant accounts he exercises a moral sifting — only unworthy souls remain with him in the land of the dead, and in these versions he is said to pinch the dead to torment them. His name and associated myth about mutilating Sedna are treated in the sources as a causally significant etiological motif linked to Sedna's emergence as a sea-goddess.