The Iemanjá orixá is a deity of the Yorubá ethnicity who inherited characteristics from African
ancestral mothers: the Ìyá Mi. Therefore, it has duality, that is, harmony between opposites. A
fact that contributed to being identified as the archetype of the Great Mother. So, from the
studies of Campbell (1949), understood as one of the faces of the Great Universal Cosmic
Goddesses. However, when accompanying Africans smuggled to the lands of the new world,
their cult and its archetype were (re) signified or (des) Africanized to remain alive in the
memory of their descendants, making it Christianized, white and patterned Eurocentric
aesthetic. Act that promoted the elimination of the “dark” characteristics of the Great Mothers
of Yoruba Africa from their image and contributed to the (de) characterization of the figure of
an African goddesses with full breasts, a symbol of fertility and motherhood to form in the
popular imagination a fusion of images of a blonde water mother and a European mermaid who
would later become a Brazilian Iemanja that is a mixture of enchantment and seduction, in
addition to highlighting the static and protective side of the feminine by associating her with
the countless images of our Holy Ladies and the Virgin Mary. This syncretism is verified in
the object of our research: the acclaimed work Mar Morto (1936), by the renowned writer Jorge
Amado (1912 - 2001). Thus, based on bibliographic research, our theoretical and critical basis
comes from a post-structuralist perspective regarding the studies of literature, criticism and
comparatively by Aguiar (2018), Carvalho (2013), Eagleton (2006), Jouve ( 2012), Sartre
(2004), among other theorists, from which we verticalize our discussions and literary analysis
about the relationship between literature, archetypes, feminine sacred, gender, stereotypes,
ethnic and religious diversity with a focus on Afro-Brazilian religions to contribute with the
official establishments of primary and secondary education - public and private - of this country,
in the appreciation and respect of the history and culture of the African (Afro-Brazilian) peoples
responsible for the formation of the Brazilian population, through the application of laws
10.639/2003 and 11.645/2008. Based on these theoretical and critical assumptions, we chose to
make an archetypal reading of the feminine in Mar Morto - the sacred and the human - with a
focus on the characters Iemanjá and Rosa Palmeirão, this being a complex female character. A
cheerful, happy and free woman with sensual attributes touched on. A strong woman, warrior
and feared for having a razor in her skirt and dagger in her chest. But at the same time, attractive
and seductive, because she has big buttocks like the bow of a sloop (AMADO, 2012). Other
times, sweet when she wanted to be a mother and sweet when she loved a man; then, a palm rose that she wore in the dress was much more beautiful (AMADO, 2012). These attributes
directed him to ethnic and gender stereotypes, allowing him to approach the characteristics of
the mythological goddess Lilith and the entity Pombagira due to the fact that they possess self esteem, strength, sensuality, sweetness, bravery and haughtiness, thus forming a female an
archetypal triad. Bearing in mind that these female mythological beings have the duality of
nature that can be compared to the human duality manifested in the behavior of the character
Rosa Palmeirão. Thus, together they reverberate the images of an emancipated contemporary
female who fights against the misogynist, sexist and patriarchal oppressors.
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