Yoruba TraditionCity
Oyo
The capital of the ancient Oyo Empire and the city where Shango ruled as the fourth Alaafin (king). After his tragic death and deification, Oyo became a center of Shango worship. The city represents the intersection of historical kingship and divine mythology in Yoruba tradition.
About Oyo
Shango's former throne
Old Oyo (Oyo-Ile) was the capital of the Oyo empire. Tradition makes Shango (Sango) a historical Alaafin who became the orisha of thunder after a violent end. Johnson's History of the Yorubas and Ifa/Sango praise-poetry are the usual written and oral witnesses. The city is where kingship and thunder-cult meet; it is not a sky-palace. New Oyo after the capital's fall is a later political fact.
On the map
Oyo among other places of the Yoruba Tradition.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Yoruba Sango tradition / Samuel Johnson, History of the Yorubas
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.
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