Erinle

The Hunter Orixá of the Waters

Domain: Hunting, Fishing & Medicine
Alignment: Neutral Good
Element: Water
Relics of Power: Harpoon of Forest and River

Speak with Erinle

The People

People

Yoruba people

Region

West Africa & the diaspora

Period

c. 1000 AD – present

The orixás are worshipped by the Yoruba people of present-day Nigeria and Benin, with Ile-Ife as their spiritual center. Through the slave trade, their faith crossed the Atlantic and flourished in the Americas as Candomblé, Santería, and Vodou. It is today one of the most living and widespread African religious traditions in the world.

The Osun festival in Osogbo, Nigeria, draws thousands to the sacred grove of the Osun river, a UNESCO heritage site. The Ifá oracle guides decisions through the odus, and in Brazil the Candomblé terreiros honor each orixá with their own drums, dances, colors, and foods.

The Sacred Scrolls

A hunter, fisherman, and healer orixá, Erinle moves between the forest and the waters, mastering the secrets of both. Lord of medicinal herbs and of the bounty of hunting and fishing, he is a deity tied to the richness of nature and to healing. His dwelling is the river that bears his name, in Yoruba land, where he is believed to have vanished into the waters. As The Hunter Orixá of the Waters, this deity occupies a position of supreme prestige in the iorubas pantheon. Their domains over Hunting, Fishing & Medicine reflect ancestral cosmic order maintained across millennia. In classical iconography, they are depicted with an aura of unshakeable majesty and sacred attributes that inspired reverence in emperors and peasants alike. Their influence extended beyond earthly boundaries, governing fates and harmony between the visible and invisible worlds. For ancient devotees, contemplating their essence was to understand the very fundamental forces of nature and human existence.

Sacred Symbols

The harpoon, the healing herbs, the river and the elephant

Divine Lineage

Orixá of the forests and waters; hunting companion of Oxóssi in some traditions.

The Legendary Myth

Legend tells that Erinle was a great hunter and healer whose knowledge of herbs had no equal among mortals. So deep was his bond with the sacred that, one day, he simply entered the river and vanished beneath the waters,…

Legends & Deeds

A celebrated secondary legend preserved in the oral traditions of the iorubas recounts the journey when Erinle intervened directly in the lives of mortals.

Cult & Worship

Historically, the cult of Erinle occupied a central place in the religious and architectural calendar of antiquity.

Relics of Power

The harpoon with which he hunts in the forests and fishes in the rivers, joining the two worlds where his power reigns.

Did You Know?

Erinle unites within himself the domains of Oxóssi (the hunt) and of Oxum or Iemanjá (the waters), being the orixá of the bridge between forest and river.