Minona est-elle la mère ou la sœur de Legba ?

Les traditions varient. Certaines la présentent comme la mère de Legba, d'autres comme sa sœur. Dans les deux cas, elle est étroitement associée à cette divinité des seuils et des carrefours.

Quels sont les domaines de Minona ?

Elle est liée à la divination, à la prophétie et à la magie, ainsi qu'à la protection des femmes, à la fécondité humaine et agricole, et à la préservation du foyer.

Comment lui rend-on un culte ?

Minona n'a pas de grands sanctuaires publics. Son culte se pratique surtout dans des autels domestiques entretenus par les femmes, où se transmettent savoirs divinatoires et pratiques de protection.

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MINONA

ally

Hero

☥ SpiritFon/Eʋe →Dahomey — DahomeyElder

Gender: MasculineSign: famille de legba

Minona is a goddess of the Fon pantheon, venerated in the area of the former kingdom of Dahomey, today the south of Benin and Togo. She is associated with magic, divination and prophecy, as well as with the protection of women and the home. Tradition presents her as the mother or sister of Legba, the deity of thresholds and crossroads, with whom she shares a closeness to passages and hidden knowledge. To her is attributed the teaching to women of the divinatory arts, notably the reading of palm nuts as omens transmitted by Mawu-Lisa, a mission she is said to have received from Gbadu. Protector of human and agricultural fecundity, she watches over the house, pregnancy and the knowledge handed down from woman to woman. Minona possesses no great official public sanctuaries, her cult unfolding above all at domestic altars that the women keep in their homes. The sources attach her to Fon vodun and to the related traditions of the Gbe area.

Powers & Attributes

family of Legba

Role in the ROHO universe

Sentinel of the hearth. MINONA keeps the domestic thresholds where human life is woven. Bound to the Fon/Eʋe pantheon.

Sacred Mask

An ancient ritual mask of sacred wood, old metal and black stone, engraved with symbols of family of Legba, embodiment of the power of Minona

Era

Ancient cycle

Frequently asked questions

Is Minona the mother or the sister of Legba?

The traditions vary. Some present her as the mother of Legba, others as his sister. In both cases, she is closely associated with this deity of thresholds and crossroads.

What are Minona's domains?

She is bound to divination, prophecy and magic, as well as to the protection of women, to human and agricultural fecundity, and to the preservation of the home.

How is her cult rendered?

Minona has no great public sanctuaries. Her cult is practised above all at domestic altars kept by the women, where divinatory knowledge and practices of protection are handed down.

Related spirits

SAGBATE IJIMERE DJI HONSI

Sources and references

Melville J. Herskovits, Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom (1938)
Encyclopedia of Religion, notice « Fon and Ewe Religion »