Yoruba (Orisha)

South-west Nigeria, Benin and Togo, and the Americas.

There is no single canon. Tradition is carried in oral verse: Ifá divination contains 256 odu with thousands of verses (ese), which recount the orishas' deeds. Local towns emphasise different orishas, and the diaspora forms rework them. Because of this, kinship between orishas is rarely given as a single genealogy; this section shows relationships only where they are widely told, and many are shown as links, not family lines.

Bronze head from Ife, Nigeria, c. 12th-15th century, Kimbell Art Museum.

Family graph

Parent lines run downward, partners are joined by a thicker line. Select a deity to trace its ancestry.

Choose a deity to see where it comes from. Dashed lines are links the sources describe that are not parent and child.

The deities

Olodumarethe supreme being, source of àṣẹ Obàtálápurity, creation of human bodies, wisdom Odùduwàancestor of Yoruba kings, founder of Ile-Ife Ọrúnmìlàwisdom, divination, destiny Èṣùcrossroads, messenger, communication Ògúniron, war, hunting Ṣàngóthunder, justice, kingship Ọyawind, storms, cemeteries Ọ̀ṣunfresh water, love, wealth Yemọjamotherhood, rivers, the sea (in the diaspora)Olókunthe deep sea Ọ̀sanyìnmedicinal plants, herbs

Today

The Yoruba religion is a living tradition practised by millions in Nigeria, Benin and Togo, and, through the diaspora, as Lucumí/Santería in Cuba, Candomblé in Brazil, and in many other forms. The orishas are worshipped, not studied as myths, and their stories are best known from priests of Ifá (babalawo) and the oral Ifá corpus rather than from fixed books.

More traditions

Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.

Sources used

Ifá divination corpus (Odu Ifá), oral, transcribed by e.g. William Bascom, Ifa Divination (1969)
Samuel Johnson, The History of the Yorubas (1921)
Wande Abimbola, Ifá: An Exposition of Ifá Literary Corpus (1976)
Oral traditions of Ile-Ife and Oyo