Ymai

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 — Mother UmayEveryculture, 'Khakas — Religion and Expressive Culture', listing Ymai-Iche among the upper-world deities (secondary)

Relations

• sibling: Ot IneUmay and the fire-mother Ot Ine are named as sisters in Khakas belief.Science-SD, 'Cult of the Fire in Turkish Languages': 'the highly revered mother goddess Umay is fire's sister' (secondary)

Sources

• Ymai (Umay) is the Khakas mother-goddess who protects infants, women in childbirth and the cradle, and who conducts the souls of children who die young to the heavens; she is counted among the upper-world deities and named as sister of the fire-mother.: 'Cult Attributes of the Goddess Umai in the Religious-Mythological Views of the Khakass People', TSPU Bulletin 3 (2016) (secondary); L. P. Potapov, 'Umai — bozhestvo drevnikh tiurkov' (1973) (secondary)