Ezili Freda

Ezili Freda Dawonmen is the Rada lwa of love, beauty, luxury, and feminine refinement, the great Mistress of Vodou. Coquettish, elegant, and perfumed, she is served with sweet cakes, jewelry, perfume, and cloth of pink and pale blue, and she demands cleanliness and grace. She is married to three lwa at once, counted variously as Danbala, Agwe, and Ogou, and wears a wedding band for each. Yet her possessions almost always dissolve into tears: no gift and no love can satisfy her, and her sorrow expresses an ideal of beauty and love that reaches beyond anything the material world can offer. Identified with the sorrowing Virgin, the Mater Dolorosa, she stands opposed to the dark, fierce Petwo mother Ezili Dantò, with whom she is bound in perpetual rivalry.

Domains

• love
• beauty
• luxury

Powers

• inspire love and desire
• weep in insatiable longing

Epithets

• Maîtresse Erzulie — Mistress ErzulieMaya Deren, Divine Horsemen (1953), pp. 137-145 (secondary)

Relations

• lover: Danbala WedoOne of her three lwa husbands.Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola (1991), pp. 220-223 (secondary)
• lover: AgweOne of her three lwa husbands.Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola (1991), pp. 220-223 (secondary)
• lover: Ogou FerayOne of her three lwa husbands.Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola (1991), pp. 220-223 (secondary)
• rival: Ezili DantòThe pale, luxurious Rada Ezili is set against the fierce Petwo mother Ezili Dantò; the two are said to bear a scar of jealousy between them.Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola (1991), pp. 228-230 (secondary)

Sources

• Ezili Freda is the Rada lwa of love, beauty, and luxury, married to three lwa and given to weeping in unsatisfied longing.: Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen (1953), pp. 137-145 (secondary); Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola (1991), pp. 220-257 (secondary)