The supreme being in the pantheon of the Ashanti is Nyame (also Nyankopon), the omniscient, omnipotent sky god. He and Asase Ya, his wife, have two children: Bia and Tano. Asase Yaa is an earth goddess of fertility.
The creator of the universe in Ashanti mythology is Odomankoma.
The Ashanti believe lower gods, more akin to spirits, assist humans on earth. Onyame was traditionally supposed to be aloof and away from the Earth. As the Ashanti adopted Christianity, they used the word Onyame for God.
Anansi the Spider is a folk hero who plays no role in Ashanti mythology. He is, however, prominent in Ashanti folktales where he is depicted as a trickster.
Famous quotes containing the word mythology:
“I walk out into a nature such as the old prophets and poets, Menu, Moses, Homer, Chaucer, walked in. You may name it America, but it is not America; neither Americus Vespucius, nor Columbus, nor the rest were the discoverers of it. There is a truer account of it in mythology than in any history of America, so called, that I have seen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)