Jawnomicon

Aido Hwedo

Also called Aida Wedo, Dan Ayido Hwedo, Aido Wedo, Aido-Hwedo.

Aido Hwedo is the cosmic rainbow serpent of Dahomey (Fon) tradition, carrier of the creator Mawu across the world and living support coiled beneath the completed earth.

At a glance

Tradition
African folklore (general)
Region
West Africa (place of origin)
Trait family
The Stone-Gazers

Near this figure

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

  • Serpentine elongated body
    why

    a vast serpent bound up with the earliest acts of creation

  • Bears the world on its back
    why

    Once creation was finished, several tellings describe Mawu recognizing that the completed earth was too heavy and would collapse or fall through the cosmos unless something bore its weight, and so she directed Aido Hwedo to coil itself beneath the world to support it.

  • Body of cosmic immeasurable size
    why

    In several tellings Aido Hwedo existed even before the creator, sometimes named Mawu or the paired deity Mawu-Lisa, and served as a vehicle carrying the creator through the cosmos while the world was being shaped.

Behaviour

  • Eats everything including itself
    why

    Several sources describe Aido Hwedo as sustained by a diet of iron, consuming great quantities of it to endure the strain of its burden, and turning to devour its own tail when the supply runs short.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.