17 myths
Each story names the sources it was written from.
The flood had emptied the world. Noah's sons reached into his chest and drew lots for every coast and mountain that was left.
She went up to complain about sharing the sky and came back down smaller. Every month since, Israel burns a goat for a sin God says is His.
Two great lights, one crown. When the moon is shrunk to the lesser lamp she storms the court for justice, and heaven ends up owing her a debt.
Every creature in the garden drew into a ring around the first man and went down on its knees. He had been alive for less than a day.
Solomon made the shields of gold. Rehoboam replaced them with bronze. The kings kept shrinking until Zedekiah, whose eyes were put out.
Sun and moon climb to Zebul and refuse to shine until God judges Korach, while smoke from the chasm still answers travelers.
A vast soul is told to diminish like the moon before it can wear a body. Closed inside cloudy flesh, it climbs back by deeds alone.
Before the first wave rose, the sun and moon already stood as witnesses that God had bound Himself to tear the sea for Israel.
The second candle took on the wick. A second breath arrived in her ribs. Outside, a black skin peeled from the moon's edge.
Joshua ordered sun and moon to stand, and the midrash says the righteous rule the lights, holding day open until Israel's battle was done.
The moon goes dark after speaking out of turn, bargains hard with God for her stolen brightness, and will not rest until stars walk beside her.
The moon complained of the chill. The sun offered a coat. No great tailor could measure a body that was a sliver one night and a coin the next.
Moses tipped his head back over Egypt and found no moon. A finger came out of the dark and pointed at a hairline of light.
Each dawn the sun and moon enter trembling. God's light blinds them until arrows clear a path, and they rise against their will.
In Eden a tree stood a five-hundred-year climb tall, beasts ate only green herbs, and the moon slipped monthly from double cloud like a horn.
The moon stood as bright as the sun and asked how two kings could share one crown. God told her to make herself small.
Oil spat from eight wicks over the Court of the Women. He caught every torch, then put them down and pressed his mouth to the floor.
