Cult of Gods

Yemọja

Yoruba (Orisha) tradition. See the whole pantheon.

Domains
motherhood, rivers, the sea (in the diaspora)
Symbols and attributes
Fish; cowries
Bronze head from Ife, Nigeria, c. 12th-15th century, Kimbell Art Museum.
Bronze head from Ife, Nigeria, c. 12th-15th century, Kimbell Art Museum.

Key myth

In Yorubaland she is a river orisha (the Ogun river). In Brazil and Cuba she became the mother of the sea, honoured on 2 February in Salvador and on New Year's Eve beaches.

Where sources differ or caution applies. Yemoja's story is told in Africa and in the diaspora in different ways.

Primary sources

  • Yoruba oral tradition
  • Candomblé tradition

All sources for the Yoruba (Orisha) pantheon

Place in the family graph

Choose a deity to see where it comes from. Dashed lines are links the sources describe that are not parent and child.

OlodumareObàtáláOdùduwàỌrúnmìlàÈṣùÒgúnṢàngóỌyaỌ̀ṣunYemọjaOlókunỌ̀sanyìn

More traditions

Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.NorsePapyrus of Ani, British Museum (New Kingdom), a Book of the Dead.EgyptianA chaos monster and a sun god, drawn by L. Gruner for A. H. Layard's Monuments of Nineveh.MesopotamianVishvarupa Vishnu, Kashmir or Himachal, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection.Hindu

Elsewhere in the world

Deities in other traditions who share a theme with Yemọja: sea and waters. This is overlap in one area only.

Norse

Ægir

the sea, brewer of the gods' ale

Norse

Rán

drowning, the sea's net

Egyptian

Nun

the primeval waters

Egyptian

Sobek

Nile, fertility, kingship

Mesopotamian

Nammu

the primeval sea, mother of the gods

Mesopotamian

Apsu

fresh water below the earth

Mesopotamian

Tiamat

salt water, primordial mother

Compare across cultures