Vodu of Iron and War
Ewe · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Vodu of iron, war and smithing; child of Mawu-Lisa and brother of the other great vodu. The English descriptor leads name.primary; the Gbe name Gu stands in alt/term. Cognate of the Yoruba Ogun and the corpus figure fon_gu. Typed deity. Documented for the Ewe by Ellis (1890) and Parrinder (1961) and for the cognate Fon by Herskovits (1938).
Parentage
- the creator pair (engendering): Twofold Creator Pair
Domains
- iron and metalworking
- war and weapons
- crafts and tools
Powers
- Forge iron and bestow on humankind the blade, the tool and the weapon
- Clear the primordial bush and open the roads, making the world fit for men
- Give victory in war and strength to the warrior's arm
Relations
- sibling: Earth Lord of SmallpoxReciprocal within this batch.M. J. Herskovits, Dahomey (1938), vol. 2, the children of Mawu-Lisa. (secondary)
- sibling: Vodu of the Bush and the HuntReciprocal within this batch; the hunter Age depends on the iron of Gu for his weapons.M. J. Herskovits, Dahomey (1938), vol. 2: Gu and Age (iron and the hunt) among the brothers born of Mawu-Lisa. (secondary)
- sibling: Trickster-Linguist of the CrossroadsReciprocal within this batch.M. J. Herskovits, Dahomey (1938), vol. 2, the children of Mawu-Lisa. (secondary)
- sibling: Thunder God of the StormSibling of the existing thunder-god ewe_so (Sogbo).M. J. Herskovits, Dahomey (1938), vol. 2: Gu and Sogbo among the great vodu children of Mawu-Lisa. (secondary)
- equated with: GuThe same West African deity under its Gbe/Yoruba reflex (Gu/Ogun).West African vodun/òrìṣà cognates: the same deity across the Gbe (Ewe, Fon) and Yoruba traditions (M. Herskovits, Dahomey, 1938; G. Parrinder, West African Religion, 1961; P. Verger, Notes sur le culte des Orisa et Vodun, 1957) (secondary)
- equated with: OgunThe same West African deity under its Gbe/Yoruba reflex (Gu/Ogun).West African vodun/òrìṣà cognates: the same deity across the Gbe (Ewe, Fon) and Yoruba traditions (M. Herskovits, Dahomey, 1938; G. Parrinder, West African Religion, 1961; P. Verger, Notes sur le culte des Orisa et Vodun, 1957) (secondary)
Sources
- Gu is the Gbe vodu of iron, war, smiths and tools — the divine smith and cognate of the Yoruba Ogun — a child of Mawu-Lisa who in the cosmogony clears the bush and gives mankind the blade.: M. J. Herskovits, Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom (1938), vol. 2, the iron-vodu Gu. (secondary); E. G. Parrinder, West African Religion (2nd ed. 1961), Gu the iron- and war-god, counterpart of Ogun. (secondary); A. B. Ellis, The Ewe-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa (1890). (secondary)