Ungud

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

{{One source|date=April 2020}}

In the mythology of the Wunambal people of northwestern Australia, Ungud is a snake god who is sometimes male, sometimes female and sometimes androgynous. He is associated with rainbows by the fact Ungud may be a symbolic representation of rainbows and the fertility and erections of the tribe's shamans.{{Cite book |last=Lurker |first=Manfred |title=Dictionary of gods and goddesses, devils and demons |date=1987 |publisher=Routledge and K. Paul |isbn=978-1-135-00102-5 |location=London |page=358 |oclc=823292643}} In the beginning, when only the sky and the earth existed, Ungud lived underground as a giant python. Ungud is associated with earth and water and is credited with causing rain to fall and also has connections with monsoons.{{Cite journal |last1=O'Connor |first1=Sue |last2=Balme |first2=Jane |last3=Fyfe |first3=Jane |last4=Oscar |first4=June |last5=Oscar |first5=Mona |last6=Davis |first6=June |last7=Malo |first7=Helen |last8=Nuggett |first8=Rosemary |last9=Surprise |first9=Dorothy |date=2013-06-01 |title=Marking resistance? Change and continuity in the recent rock art of the southern Kimberley, Australia |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003598X00049115/type/journal_article |journal=Antiquity |language=en |volume=87 |issue=336 |page=543 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00049115 |s2cid=163092229 |issn=0003-598X|url-access=subscription }} At night, Ungud and Wallanganda, the sky deity (associated with the Milky Way), created living beings through their dreams.{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of world mythology|date=2000|publisher=Dempsey Parr|editor=Cotterell, Arthur |isbn=0-7550-0063-3|location=Bath, UK|pages=239|oclc=46836408}} The Mother Goddess Kunapipi who is also at times is called the Old Woman is connected to Ungud. The Rainbow Serpent made paths for her to walk around creation.{{Cite book |last=Leeming |first=David Adams |title=Sex in the world of myth |date=2018 |isbn=978-1-78914-034-7 |publisher=Reaktion Books |location=London |page=176 |oclc=1048922298}} Both The mother goddess and Rainbow serpent are the embodiment of creative powers that live within the earth.{{Cite book |last=Dupré |first=Wilhelm |title=Religion in primitive cultures : a study in ethnophilosophy |date=1975 |publisher=Mouton |isbn=978-3-11-087005-3 |location=The Hague |page=98 |oclc=841172273}} Through Ungud Dreaming itself into new forms natural species making it part of what life is based on becoming an archetype of life.{{Cite journal |last=Sahlins |first=Marshall |date=2017 |title=The original political society |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.14318/hau7.2.014 |journal=HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory |language=en |volume=7 |issue=2 |page=108 |doi=10.14318/hau7.2.014 |s2cid=148775099 |issn=2575-1433|url-access=subscription }}

Only a few places in Australia is the Rainbow Serpent has any real impact outside of rites and precautions to avoid attacks that being tribes along the Northern coast which it does affect how the tribes organize socially{{Cite book |last=Buchler |first=Ira R. |title=The Rainbow Serpent : a chromatic piece |date=1978 |publisher=Mouton |others=Kenneth Maddock, Charles P. Mountford, International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences |isbn=978-3-11-080716-5 |location=The Hague |page=76 |oclc=561922860}}