Pita

Pita is the earth, the middle of the three Konso worlds between the sky (waaqa) above and the underworld (xatikela or pitakela) below, and the female chthonic power that Konso religion sets opposite the male sky god. Where Waaqa sends rain and moral law from above, the earth receives the dead and makes the soil and the womb fruitful, so that fertility and increase are felt to rise from below. Sources differ on how far the earth was personified: some describe a distinct female chthonic deity of fertility paired with the sky, while others treat the ground as an impersonal sacred principle rather than a named goddess. Either way the earth forms the female half of a pervasive sky-earth dualism that orders Konso ritual and thought.

Domains

• earth
• fertility

Powers

• Quicken the soil and the womb

Relations

• companion: WaaqaThe female earth answering the male sky in Konso cosmic dualism; a complementary pairing rather than an attested marriage.Hallpike, C. R. (1972). The Konso of Ethiopia. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 222-304, on the male sky / female earth complementarity. (secondary)

Sources

• Konso cosmology divides the universe into the sky (waaqa), the earth (pita) and the underworld (xatikela or pitakela); the earth carries a female chthonic power of fertility set in complementary opposition to the male sky god.: Hallpike, C. R. (1972). The Konso of Ethiopia. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 222-304. (secondary); 'Perceptions of health and illness among the Konso people of southwestern Ethiopia', PMC6389056. (secondary)
• Sources differ on how far the Konso earth was personified: some describe a distinct female chthonic deity of fertility paired with the sky, others an impersonal sacred principle of the ground.: 'Traditional Konso Culture and the Missionary Impact' (ResearchGate publication 315299662), citing Hallpike 1972: 222-304. (secondary)