Litakon
Batammariba · deity · Batammariba traditional religion; continuing · deity
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: Kuiye
Sources
- Blier, Suzanne Preston. The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontology and Metaphor in Batammaliba Architectural Expression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
- Blier, Suzanne Preston. 'Houses are Human: Architectural Self-Images of Africa's Tamberma.' Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 42 (1983): 371–382.