This week’s reading on Aganju and Yemaja was of course an interesting one, as they all are. We are first introduced to both Aganju and Yemaja, “Mother of Fish,” who gives birth to Orungan. In the story, Orungan develops a lustful relationship with his mother and decides to pursue this, forcing his mother into relations with her. Yemaja is taken aback by this and rejects all his notions of having a romantic future together. What I found interesting about this, aside from the several counts of incest, was the fact that after this traumatic and painful experience of being taken advantage of by your son, creation follows. In most stories have seen or heard, things of this sort would often lead to catastrophe and destruction, but instead led to the creation of several Gods and Goddesses that in turn gave them rivers, agriculture, wealth, etc. In Yoruba mythology, Yemaja is the central role of a creator, and their origin story is one I am not familiar with at all. My confusion lies within the moments leading up to this creation, I think in one sense it’s obvious that Yemaja is birthing all these Gods from the ravishing that came from Orungan, on the other hand, I don’t know if the creation is coming from the pain and fear she is experiencing. I suppose the creation could be coming from both the traumatic experience and the pain, but would it make a difference if it was coming from one or the other? Regardless, a whole bunch of creations came from it and gave them new life and purposes, or maybe it’s just an optimistic perspective on something really disturbing.