Oxóssi

Oxóssi (in the scholarly Yoruba orthography Ọ̀ṣọ́ọ̀sì, revered through the titles Alákèétu, Ata-mátàṣe and Ọba Òkè) is the orisha of sacred hunting, of abundance of food, of dense forests, of unfailing mental focus and of the royal sovereignty of the city of Kétu in traditional Yoruba religion and in the traditions of the Afro-Atlantic diaspora. Unlike the warlike, noisy impetuosity of Ogun, Oxóssi embodies the wisdom of patient hunting, the silent observation of fauna and ecological balance with virgin nature. In the sacred scriptures of Ifá, he is celebrated as the mythic hero who saved Kétu from the tyranny of a monstrous bird sent by the ancestral sorceresses (Ìyàmi Òṣòròngà), felling the creature with a single accurate arrow shot from his sacred bow (ọfà). Crowned as the great monarch and eternal patron of Kétu, Oxóssi is lord of the traditional guilds of hunters (ọdẹ), protecting communities against food scarcity and guarding the botanical and animal mysteries of the forests.

6 min read · Reviewed on September 29, 2026 · How we research

The bow and arrow (ofá), the horn, the forest and the color green

Primary sources

• William Bascom, The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria. translation: Nova York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969.
• Pierre Verger, Flux et reflux de la traite des nègres entre le golfe de Bénin et Bahia. translation: Paris: Mouton & Co, 1968.
• Deoscoredes Maximiliano dos Santos (Mestre Didi), Contos Negros da Bahia. translation: Foreword by Jorge Amado, Rio de Janeiro: Editora GRD, 1961.

Studies

• Rowland Abiodun, Yoruba Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014.
• Vivaldo da Costa Lima, O Candomblé da Bahia: A Família-de-Santo nos Terreiros Nagôs. EDUFBA / Corrupio, Salvador, 2010.
• Henry John Drewal e John Pemberton III, Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought. The Center for African Art, Nova York, 1989.