Deity · Yoruba · c. 1900 CE
Eshu
Also called Eleggua, Exu, Elegba · also recorded as Èṣù, Echú, Exú (per Wikidata)
Messenger between humanity and the orisha, addressed first in any rite. Missionaries met a trickster at a crossroads and called him Satan, and the mistake has proved very hard to undo.
Single lineage
Eshu is a trickster and an intermediary: nothing reaches the other orisha except through him, he carries offerings upward, and he tests people by arranging situations that reveal their character. Christian missionaries, encountering a trickster at a crossroads, identified him with the devil, and that equation was written into dictionaries and catechisms and has proved very hard to dislodge. The Yoruba understanding — a necessary intermediary whose disruptions serve a purpose — has no equivalent in the framework that was imposed on it.
Identity
Where does the name come from?
Where it was actually worshipped
Every compound entrance, and Ile-Ife at the centre. His shrine is a lump of laterite by the doorway rather than a building, and he is addressed first in any rite regardless of whose rite it is.
A figure with temples and a figure that only ever existed on a page are different kinds of thing, and the difference is easy to lose once both are entries in a list.
At a glance
Vitals
Vitals
Also known as
- Named there as
- Eshu (Elegbara)
- Rank
- Divine Messenger
- Pantheon
- Yoruba
- Order
- Yoruba pantheon
- Base of operations
- Every compound entrance, and Ile-Ife at the centre. His shrine is a lump of laterite by the doorway rather than a building, and he is addressed first in any rite regardless of whose rite it is.
- Era
- c. 1900 CE
- Traditions
- Yoruba & Diaspora
Traits
- Domain
- Crossroads, messages, language, chance, the opening of the way
- Traditional form
- Often a figure with a hooked staff; associated with the crossroads
1 site
Where was it worshipped?
Attested cult sites, located against the Pleiades gazetteer of the ancient world where it reaches and against Wikidata everywhere else. An absence here is not evidence that no cult existed: a good number of figures never had one, and the entry above says so where that is the case.
Where the Yoruba place the making of the world, and the centre from which the orisha are counted.
7.467, 4.567 · Wikidata Q180084
5 attributed
What is it said to do?
Where these powers cluster
The 5 offices attributed to Eshu, grouped by kind. Segment width is the share of powers falling in each category.
A bar dominated by one colour means a specialist; an even spread means a figure the sources credit with almost anything.
- knowledge2
- divination1
- martial1
- malefic1
1 mark
Which marks is it attached to?
A mark a figure carries and a mark used against a figure are opposite claims, so each link says which it is.
2 texts
Which texts say so, and where do they disagree?
When these texts were written
Each dot is one of the 2 texts that names Eshu, placed at that text's approximate date.
A wide spread means the figure was carried across many centuries and traditions; a tight cluster means a single period produced the whole record.
2 texts, all inside a single century
Where the texts differ
- Name: given as Eshu (Elegbara), Eshu
The identification this corpus exists to examine, recorded at the moment it is being made: Johnson reports Eshu treated as the Yoruba devil, a rendering the missionary translations fixed by using his name for Satan in Yoruba scripture. A trickster and arbiter of offerings becomes the adversary because a translator needed a word, and the tradition has been arguing with the choice ever since.
Opens and closes the way; carries sacrifice to Olodumare; must be propitiated before any other orisha is addressed.
Connections
What is it connected to?
Opposes Satan
Recorded here to mark a false equation: missionaries identified Eshu with the devil, and the identification is a colonial imposition rather than a Yoruba claim.
Identified with Hermes
Messenger, trickster and lord of the crossroads — a genuine functional parallel, though missionaries wrongly pushed the equation on to Satan instead.
Serves Orunmila
Carries the offerings and holds the crossroads the divination depends on; the relationship is functional, and neither figure is subordinate in the ordinary sense.
Answered from the sources
Common questions
Which texts mention Eshu?
Is Eshu the same as Hermes?
What rank is Eshu?
How else is Eshu spelled?
What is Eshu said to do?
How old is Eshu?
Nearest in the corpus
If Eshu is what you came for, these are next
Chosen by proximity rather than by popularity: the same pantheon first, then the same rank, then the same kind of figure.
Obatala
King of the White Cloth · Yoruba
The Yoruba orisha who moulds human bodies before birth, and who made the disabled ones while drunk on palm wine — which is why he is owed to them and why his worship forbids the drink.
Ogun
Orisha of Iron · Yoruba
Orisha of iron and of the tools made from it — patron of smiths, surgeons and soldiers alike, since all three cut.
Olodumare
The Supreme Being · Yoruba
The Yoruba supreme being, who has no images, no temples and no priests of his own — the orisha are the ones addressed, and the corpus's clearest example of a high god who is not worshipped directly.
Orunmila
Witness to Destiny · Yoruba
The Yoruba orisha of divination, who was present when each person chose their destiny and is consulted to find out what was chosen — the figure the whole Ifá corpus belongs to.
Oya
Owner of the Wind · Yoruba
The Yoruba orisha of wind and storm, wife of Shango and keeper of the gate between the living and the dead — the one who goes ahead of the thunder.
Shango
Orisha of Thunder · Yoruba
Thunder-orisha and a remembered king of Oyo — a historical ruler who became a god, which is euhemerism running the other way.
The books behind Eshu
Every claim on this profile is attributed to one of these. They are public domain, listed oldest first, and each links to a full text where one is freely available.
The History of the Yorubas
Samuel Johnson; edited by O. Johnson · Written 1897, published 1921 · English
Read The History of the Yorubas in full ↗The Odu Ifá
Oral; transmitted by babalawo · Oral tradition, first transcribed 19th-20th c. · Yoruba
Read The Odu Ifá in full ↗Cover: Public domain · Toluaye · Wikimedia file page
Corpus last revised 29 August 2026. A reference site’s credibility rests on being maintained, so this is the date the sourced records last changed — not the date the page was rebuilt.