COTI
allyGoddess
Coti is, in the mythology of the San (Bushmen) of southern Africa, the wife of Cagn, also called ǀKaggen, the demiurge in the form of a praying mantis and civilising hero. She appears above all in the narrative collected in 1874 by the magistrate Joseph Millerd Orpen from the San guide Qing, in the Maluti mountains. Coti is there presented as the mother of Cagn's two sons, Cogaz the elder and Gewi the younger. Several versions associate her with the rock hyrax, a small mammal of the cliffs, and designate her as the mother of the bees. She holds a role in the mythic cycle of the eland, the antelope created and cherished by Cagn, around which unfolds the drama of the first killing and of the multiplication of the game. A discreet but recurring figure, Coti embodies the feminine ancestor of the primordial hearth in this hunter-gatherer cosmology, in which the divine characters readily merge with the fauna and flora of the bush.
Powers & Attributes
Role in the ROHO universe
Sentinel of the hearth. COTI keeps the domestic thresholds where human life is woven. Bound to the Khoisan pantheon.
Sacred Mask
An ancient ritual mask of sacred wood, old metal and black stone, engraved with symbols of mother, embodiment of the power of Coti
Era
Ancient cycle
Frequently asked questions
Who is Coti in San mythology?
Coti is the wife of Cagn (ǀKaggen), the mantis-shaped demiurge of the San of southern Africa. She is the mother of his two sons, Cogaz and Gewi, and figures among the characters of the creation narrative collected from the Bushmen of the Maluti mountains in the nineteenth century.
With which animal is Coti associated?
Several versions link her to the rock hyrax, a small mammal of the southern African cliffs, and name her mother of the bees. These animal associations are characteristic of San mythology, in which the divine figures often merge with the fauna of the bush.
Where is the character of Coti documented?
The principal source is the narrative published in 1874 by the magistrate Joseph Millerd Orpen, who collected the mythology of the Maluti San from a guide named Qing. Coti appears there beside Cagn and their sons. Her documentation remains limited to this corpus and its scholarly retellings.
Related spirits
Sources and references
- Joseph Millerd Orpen, A Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen, Cape Monthly Magazine, 1874
- Mark McGranaghan, Sam Challis et J. David Lewis-Williams, Joseph Millerd Orpen's 'A Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen': a contextual introduction and republished text, Southern African Humanities, vol. 25, p. 137-166 (2013)