Tore
Bambuti/Efe forest god and lord of game; thunder/storm god (storm, rainbow, leopard); original owner of fire. In the fire-theft myth his mother dies while he pursues the thieving Pygmies, and he decrees human death, becoming god of the dead — recorded as a lifecycle transition. The molimo trumpet/festival (Turnbull) is noted as the cult of the forest religion, not a figure. RELATION: 'identified with' Arebati (band-level equation), reciprocated in-batch. SOLITARY otherwise: the only kin attested in the fire-theft myth is his unnamed (old) mother, so no named parent edge is asserted. CAUTION (see header): Turnbull (1965) held that the net-hunting Mbuti worship divinity AS THE FOREST (ndura) rather than as the named, anthropomorphic Tore of Schebesta's Efe accounts; both readings are in the record.
Domains
- the forest
- the hunt
- thunder and storm
- fire
- death and the dead
Powers
- Gives and withholds the game of the forest
- Decrees that humankind shall die
- Manifests as storm, rainbow and leopard
Epithets
- god of the forestSchebesta: the 'god of the forest' aspect is proper to the Efe (as against the borrowed 'god of the dead' aspect).Paul Schebesta, Die Bambuti-Pygmäen vom Ituri (1938–48) (primary)
- god of the deadAcquired after the fire-theft and his mother's death; Schebesta judged it partly borrowed from neighbouring farmers.Paul Schebesta, Die Bambuti-Pygmäen vom Ituri (1938–48) (primary); Mircea Eliade, ed., Encyclopedia of Religion, 'Pygmy Religions' (secondary)
Relations
- identified with: ArebatiBand-level equation: among some Mbuti/Efe the forest god Tore and the moon-creator Arebati are not distinguished (one divinity under two names); among others they are distinct. The syncretic identification, not a kin link, is what is attested.Mircea Eliade, ed., Encyclopedia of Religion, 'Pygmy Religions'; folklore handbooks noting that some bands make no distinction between Arebati and Tore (secondary)
Sources
- existence: Paul Schebesta, Die Bambuti-Pygmäen vom Ituri (1938–48), on Tore the forest/fire/death god (primary); Mircea Eliade, ed., Encyclopedia of Religion, 'Pygmy Religions' (Tore, the fire-theft and the origin of death) (secondary); Colin M. Turnbull, Wayward Servants: The Two Worlds of the African Pygmies (1965), on Mbuti forest-divinity (recording the dissent from a named anthropomorphic god) (primary)