Myth, Ritual, and Visible Expressions of O?bàtálá and Olókun in Ilé-If?`

In Myth, Ritual, and Visible Expressions of O?b?t?l? and Ol?kun in Il?-If?`, Oluwafunminiyi Wasiu Raheem and Ayowole S. Elugbaju explore O?b?t?l?'s (the Yor?b? deity of creation) and Ol?kun's (the 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 Yor?b? history, culture, and religion to provide an extensive analysis of core themes in O?b?t?l?'s and Ol?kun's stories. They argue for a more complex reading of O?b?t?l? beyond the often sustained and single narrative of struggle and defeat as well as a more nuanced reading of Ol?kun as a holy well beyond its popular exemplification of a female deity of wealth, childbirth, and preeminent owner of the world's 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.