Ibeji are the child orishas, in fact, they're two childish twin deities, Taiwo and Kehinde, who are linked to all orishas and human beings. Because they're twins, they are associated with the principle of duality; because they're children, they're linked to everything that begins and is born: the source o rivers, the birth of human beings, the germination of plants, etc.
Legend[]
Ibeji are the divinities who govern the children's joy, innocence, and naivety. Their determination is to take care of a child since they're born to their adolescence, regardless of the orisha the child carries. Ibeji are everything good, beautiful and pure there is.
Ibeji are deities with a childish temperament and jovially inconsequential. They tend to be playful, smiling, restless, anything that can be associated with a typical childish behavior. Very dependent on romantic and emotional relationships in general, they can prove to be extremely stubborn and possessive. At the same time, their lightness in the face of life is revealed in their eternal face of children and their agile way of moving, their difficulty in remaining seated for a long time, overflowing energy.
They can show sudden mood swings, and a tendency to oversimplify things, especially in emotional terms, sometimes reducing the complex behavior of people to simplistic principles such as "likes us" or "dislikes us". This can cause them to get hurt and disappointed quite easily. At the same time, their sorrows and sufferings tend to disappear easily, leaving no great marks. Like children in general, they like to be in the midst of people, sports, social activities and parties.
There is a latent confusion between them and the erês. It is evident that there is a relationship but they're not the same. Ibeji are twin deities, being customarily syncretized to the Catholic twin saints Cosmas and Damian. Erês, on the other hand, are the intermediary between the initiate an the orishas. Erês, in fact, are the unconsciousness of the new omon-orixá, as the erês are responsible for many things an rites passed during the period of seclusion.