Myth, Ritual, and Visible Expressions of O?btl and Olkun in Il-If?`

In Myth, Ritual, and Visible Expressions of Ob tl and Olkun Il-If, Oluwafunminiyi Wasiu Raheem and Ayowole S. Elugbaju explore Ob tl (Yorb deity of creation) and Olkuns (preeminent owner of the ocean) existence in myth, history, and religion through various facets of pan-human worship, belief, and everyday ritual practices. Raheem and Elugbaju explore Yorbs history and religion to provide an extensive analysis of core themes in Ob tls and Olkuns stories. They argue for a more complex reading Ob tl beyond the often sustained and single narrative of struggle and defeat as well as a more nuanced reading of Olkuns presentation as a holy well beyond its popular exemplification of a female deity of wealth, childbirth, and pre-eminent owner of the worlds ocean. Drawing from oral accounts, chants, folk songs, praise poems, and verses from the If corpus, the authors provide new insights into the worlds of both deities hitherto missing in the literature.