The name čanotila in Lakota encodes the entity's habitat and form: čanoti literally means "tree dweller," while čanotila is the diminutive plural, rendered in English as "little tree dwellers" or "they live in a tree." Sources summarize canotila as a race of forest‑dwelling creatures within Lakota cosmology. While no extended origin myth is provided in the available sources, the linguistic form and summaries place them among the unseen inhabitants of trees who occupy a recurring place in the landscape and appear as intermediaries between the spirit world and humans.
Traditional summaries describe canotila as appearing like sprites or dwarves; the core Lakota material records them as small, forest‑inhabiting beings (hence the literal translation "little tree dweller"). Beyond these brief characterizations, the provided sources do not give detailed physical descriptions, and later popular or commercial depictions that vary size or add fae‑like attributes are modern reinterpretations rather than documented traditional accounts.
Across the available secondary summaries, canotila are principally portrayed as messengers from the spirit world who often appear to Sioux people in dreams. Their name and descriptions place them in trees and forested places; sources describe them functionally as little forest spirits or 'little folk' analogues rather than as culture‑level deities. Modern sources sometimes ascribe broader moral agency (capable of good and bad) or roles in "tending" forests, but such claims are treated in the sources as contemporary reinterpretations and are not documented in the cited Lakota linguistic/encyclopedic summaries.
Camarina (Καμάρινα)
Camarina is an Oceanid in Greek mythic/toponymic tradition, presented as a daughter of Oceanus and the eponymous nymph of the ancient city Kamarina (Camarina) in southern Sicily. She is understood as a localized water-nymph who personified the town's water-source (spring or fountain) and served as the city's divine namesake.
Camazotz
Camazotz is a bat-associated spirit in Late Post‑Classic Kʼicheʼ Maya narrative (notably the Popol Vuh) and a recurring bat motif in Classic Maya iconography. In the Popol Vuh Camazotz appears as bat-like beings serving the lords of Xibalba who attack the Hero Twins; Classic imagery links leaf‑nosed bats to night, death, disease, and nahual (way‑spirit) functions.
Camenae
The Camenae are a group of Roman female deities associated with springs, wells, childbirth, and prophetic or poetic inspiration. In Roman literary tradition they were later identified with the Greek Muses and invoked as sources of poetic breath and occasional protectors in labor.
Camilla
Camilla is a legendary Volscian warrior maiden appearing in Virgil's Aeneid (Book 11). Presented as an exceptional human fighter and huntress who leads Volscian forces against the Trojans, she is celebrated for her speed and martial skill and is slain in battle during the Latium wars.
Cancer (the Crab)
In Greek myth and uranography, Cancer is a large crab or crayfish that appears as a minor antagonist in the Heracles cycle (sent against Heracles during the Lernaean Hydra episode) and is immortalized as the constellation Cancer, a member of the Zodiac.
Candyman
A modern urban-legend ghost figure originating in Clive Barker’s short story and adapted into a film franchise; Candyman is a named, summoned presence bound to a violent historical death and sustained by stories, belief, and traumatic community memory. In the films he is most commonly invoked by speaking his name repeatedly into a mirror and appears as a violent, hook‑handed apparition tied to histories of racial injustice in an urban housing setting.
Cantabrian Neptune
A Roman-name sea-deity invoked in ritual contexts along the Cantabrian coast; attested in fragmentary sources as the sacred agent associated with the open sea in local ritual taxonomy rather than a richly attested autonomous Cantabrian personality.
Cantabrian brown bear
A remnant population of the Eurasian brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos) confined to the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain, treated in scientific and conservation contexts as a distinct local population with significant ecological and conservation importance.
Canterbury Panther
A New Zealand urban-legend of a large black panther or "Canterbury Cat" said to roam the Canterbury Region. Reported sporadically from before the 1970s into the 21st century, the phenomenon is treated in sources as modern phantom-cat sightings subject to civic investigation and scientific demystification.
Caoineag
The 'Weeper' of Scottish Highland tradition — an invisible spirit heard wailing near waterfalls before a disaster befalls a clan, a Highland variant of the Irish Banshee.
Cap-o'-Rushes
Cap-o'-Rushes is the title and heroine of an English folktale collected by Joseph Jacobs. The story is classed among international folktale types (principally ATU 510B) and opens with the 'Love Like Salt' motif; it tells of a daughter who disguises herself in a garment of rushes, works as a kitchen maid, attends secret balls, causes recognition by hiding a ring in a dish, and engineers reconciliation by ordering a saltless wedding feast so her father remembers his earlier words.
Capaneus
Capaneus (Ancient Greek Καπανεύς) is a mortal warrior of the generation known as the Seven against Thebes, famed in Greek and Roman literary tradition for exceptional size and strength and for extreme pride; his taunt that even Zeus could not stop him results in divine execution by a thunderbolt as he scales the walls of Thebes. Later authors (Statius, Dante) reuse him as a figure illustrating hubris and blasphemy.
Community Record
- [1]Canotila — Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Canotila' (summary of Lakota canotila / čanotila as tree‑dwelling forest spirits; notes meaning and role as messengers appearing in dreams).wiki
- [2]Canotila | Pantheon.org. Pantheon.org article 'Canotila' (summary entry describing the term as 'forest spirits' and literally 'they live in a tree').other
- [3]Custom Conjuration Canotila — Creepy Hollows (modern/commercial depiction). Creepy Hollows product page (modern commercial reinterpretation describing canotila as fae‑like creatures with variable size and moral capacities); cited as a contemporary, non‑traditional source.other
- [4]Wikidata: Canotila. Wikidata entry for 'Canotila' (classification label and linked summary data).wiki