Eṣu

deity intermediate Yoruba corroborated · 6

Èṣù is an oriṣa of crossroads and trickery in Yoruba religion. He controls the Ajogun, a group of malevolent forces of which Iku (Death) is a member.

↻ synthesized from 6 sources

When

Attested period
1800 – 2020
Historical notes
Referenced in the late 1800s during Bible translation into Yoruba.

Relationships

created by
Olodumare
syncretized with
Papa Legba
served by
Iku
child of
Olodumare
allied with
Ajogun, Oricha

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

Source passages

“Eṣu”

#735 · extracted by claude-sonnet-4-6

“Eṣu is the messenger and intermediary between the Ajogun (malevolent spirits), the Oriṣa (benevolent spirits) and ẹ̀dá èniyàn (human beings); he distributes and supervises the distribution of sacrifices (ẹbọ) made by humans to the Oriṣa and Ajogun”

#20946 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“The first translation of the Bible into Yoruba in the late 1800s by Samuel Ajayi Crowther controversially adopted traditional Yoruba names, such as "Olodumare/Olorun" for "God" and "Eṣu" for the devil, and thus began associating Olorun with the male gender.”

#25200 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001