Supreme Sky Mother
Ewe · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
When invoked alone, Mawu is the female supreme being (moon, night) and the head of the Ewe pantheon; in the pair Mawu-Lisa the name is also used for the conjoined creator. The native term goes in `term`; the etymological gloss is given in notes per schema rule 1. Typed deity.
Domains
- creation
- moon and night
- destiny
Powers
- fixes each person's destiny before birth
- holds up and orders the heavens
Epithets
- Mawu The supreme creator and sky-deity, giver of rain and breathJakob Spieth, Die Ewe-Stämme; M. J. Herskovits (secondary)
- Mawu-Lisa the conjoined moon-and-sun creatorHerskovits, Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom (1938) (secondary)
Relations
- spouse: Sun Lord of DayFemale moon-power and male sun-power paired as the high couple of the Ewe-Fon complex; variants instead make Lisa Mawu's twin or son.M. J. Herskovits, Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom (1938), vol. II (primary)
Sources
- Mawu is the Ewe supreme being, a creator-sky deity often regarded as near-monotheistic and identified with destiny (Se).: Gaba, Christian R. "The Idea of a Supreme Being among the Anlo People of Ghana." Journal of Religion in Africa 2, no. 1 (1969): 64-79. (secondary); Spieth, Jakob. Die Religion der Eweer in Süd-Togo. Leipzig, 1911. (secondary)
- Some Ewe gloss the name Mawu as 'the one who will not kill', stressing the deity's benevolence.: "Mawu-Lisa." Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed., 2005. (tertiary)