Iya
Iya is a huge, formless monster of Lakota tradition, known by its fetid breath and its appetite for human flesh.
At a glance
- Tradition
- Native American folklore
- Trait family
- The False Hosts
- Symbols
- Breath
Near this figure
Symbols
Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.
- Breath bears image-domain Breath denotes life and soul, the spirit animating clay and world alike, and at once the most vital and most insubstantial of possessions.
why
Iya is a huge, formless monster of Lakota tradition, known by its fetid breath and its appetite for human flesh.
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Offensive powers
- Devouring
why
Iya belongs to the folklore of the Lakota, and the compendia that record the monster keep the description stark: it is large, terrible, and formless — a being without a fixed shape — marked by breath so foul it announces the creature, and driven by an appetite for human flesh.
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.
- Hero meets
3 citations
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Iya."
- Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz, editors, American Indian Myths and Legends.
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Iya."