Erkliğ Han Explained

Erkliğ Han should not be confused with Erlik.

Erkliğ Han is the deity of space in Turkic and Altai mythology.^[1] He is responsible for stars, meteorites and celestial objects, and also associated with virility.^[2] Erkliğ means "strong".

In Tengrism, he is the lord of the planet Venus. According to the belief, Erkliğ Han is responsible for falling stars in the sky. These are called fiery arrows. He is also associated with the disappearing of stars during the rise of the sun by "killing" them.^[3]

Due to similarity to the name Erlik, some scholars confuse Erkliğ with Erlik, the lord of the underworld.

Notes and References

1. Türk Söylence Sözlüğü, Deniz Karakurt, Türkiye, 2011 (OTRS: CC BY-SA 3.0) Web site: Archived copy . 30 July 2023 . 27 December 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191227043122/https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosya:TurkSoylenceSozlugu.pdf . bot: unknown .
2. EMEL, E. S. İ. N. Kotuz. Erdem, 1. Jg., Nr. 1, S. 125-146.
3. User, Hatice Şirin. "Čolpan ‘The Planet Venus’ in Turkic." Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia (SEC) 19.3 (2014): 169-178.