Twofold Creator Pair

The Ewe high god is most often the dual pair Mawu-Lisa, frequently elided into the single name Mawu (glossed by some Ewe as 'maa-wu-wo', 'he/she who will not kill you'). Distinct from Fon Vodun in that Ewe usage emphasizes Mawu as a near-monotheistic supreme being and frames the thunder vodu as So/Sogbo rather than the Fon Xevioso. Typed deity (high creator).

Children

• Vodu of the Bush and the Hunt
• Vodu of Iron and War
• Trickster-Linguist of the Crossroads
• Earth Lord of Smallpox
• Thunder God of the Storm

Domains

• creation
• sun and moon
• cosmic order

Powers

• brings the ordered world into being
• divides day from night between the pair

Relations

• equated with: Mawu-Lisa
• descendant of: Primordial Grandmother of the Gods

Sources

• Herskovits, Melville J. Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom. 1938, vol. 2.
• "Fon and Ewe Religion." Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed., 2005.
• Spieth, Jakob. Die Religion der Eweer in Süd-Togo. Leipzig, 1911.