Ymai
Khakas · deity · Khakas traditional religion; continuing · deity
Ymai, better known across the Turkic world as Umay, is the Khakas goddess of birth and infancy, guardian of pregnant women and of the child in the cradle, and one of the upper-world powers named alongside Khudai and Akh Chayaan. Her name derives from the Old Turkic word for the placenta, and she is embodied in the household in the form of a small cradle-fetish. She both protects the newborn and, when a child dies too young, gathers its soul and bears it to heaven; Khakas tradition names her the sister of the fire-mother of the hearth, binding the goddess of the newborn to the domestic fire.
Domains
- motherhood childbirth
- child souls
Powers
- protects infants and mothers
- gathers the souls of children who die young
Epithets
- Ымай иче
Relations
- sibling: Ot Ine