Ratovantany
Malagasy · numen · primordial · numen
The self-created earth-being ('the uncreated one', also titled Andriantompo) who modelled human and animal bodies from clay and dried them in the sun; unable to give life, he agreed that the sky-god Zanahary would animate them on condition that the body remain his, returning to the earth at death. Authored as a numen (a self-arising chthonic power) rather than a peopled deity, since the literature notes he was not a prominently worshipped god while the creation myth itself is ubiquitous. He has no attested divine parent or sibling (he is self-created), so he is wired only to Zanahary, as a co-creating ally rather than as kin.
Domains
- earth
- creation of the body
- death and the grave
Powers
- Arises self-created out of the ground
- Models human and animal bodies from clay
- Reclaims and decomposes the body at death
Epithets
- Andriantompo
Relations
- ally: Zanahary