
Erumía is a gigantic jellyfish associated with the Papuan village of Mawata. She lives on the reef Tére-múba-mádja offshore of the Gésovamúba point. The édeéde, or normal jellyfish, are her children, and they are abundant on that reef. She is also the patron of all the fish. Her long, slimy, stringy tentacles can sting a man to death, and any swimmer who sees them stretching in their direction knows to flee for their lives. The tentacles can be seen floating around the mouth of the Bina River.
As the patron ororárora or spirit of Mawata, Erumía is associated with the people of the village, the “Erumía people”. She appears in dreams as a good omen and grants “lucky things” for fishing.
References
Landtman, G. (1917) The Folk-tales of the Kiwai Papuans. Acta Societatis Scientiarium Fennicae, t. XLVII, Helsingfors.
Landtman, G. (1927) The Kiwai Papuans of British New Guinea. MacMillan and Co. Limited, London.
What a lovely looking Jellyfish
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Thank you!! It took forever, I failed at making it 100% digitally so it ended up mixed media-ish. 😓
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Nice use of colours on this one.I like it
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Thanks! Figured there weren’t enough pink creatures.
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Hail to Her!
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She’s nice if you get to know Her.
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I think you misunderstood me. I an showing reverence to this deity.
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Good point, although she’s more of a patron spirit or totem I would say.
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Both of those could be considered deities. Though I would most certainly disagree that She is a totem based on the information given here. If Her devotees identified themselves with jellyfish then I’d be more willing to call Erumía a totem but until I hear otherwise I will disagree.
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Also, the idea that a deity has to be all-powerful or all-knowing or whatever is a monotheistic idea and is most likely foreign to the theological ontology that Erumía interacts with Her people with
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They call Erumía a jellyfish, but is far more ancient than we know… She existed long before jellyfish existed… Her form merely mimics them. She created Scyphozoans in her image. All other cnidarians are blasphemous corruptions of her divine form…
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