Litakon

Litakon is the divinity of twins and fertility among the Batammariba (Batammaliba) of Togo and Benin. Twin births are auspicious and ritually marked, and Litakon's earthen altar is erected on the terrace of the takienta tower-house next to the room of the first wife, embedding the divinity in the domestic and reproductive life of the household. Like the other initiation divinities documented by Suzanne Preston Blier, Litakon is conceived as existing in more than one instantiation, with male and female forms, and household cults may be inherited or newly acquired; some accounts speak of the divinity as a god, others as a goddess.

Domains

• twins
• fertility

Powers

• to send twin births and abundant offspring to households

Relations

• subordinate to: KuiyeLitakon stands among the lesser initiation divinities created by and subordinate to the solar creator Kuiye.Blier, Suzanne Preston. The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontology and Metaphor in Batammaliba Architectural Expression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. (secondary)

Sources

• Litakon is the Batammaliba divinity of twins and fertility, whose altar stands on the house terrace beside the room of the first wife.: Blier, Suzanne Preston. The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontology and Metaphor in Batammaliba Architectural Expression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. (secondary); Blier, Suzanne Preston. 'Houses are Human: Architectural Self-Images of Africa's Tamberma.' Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 42 (1983): 371–382. (secondary)