Ozidi the Elder
Ijaw · mortal · mythic age · Recorded classification
Ozidi the Elder is the father of the hero and the man whose death the epic exists to avenge. A renowned fighter of Orua, he is drawn into a fatal quarrel when his intellectually disabled brother Temugedege is made king and demands the tributes due to a monarch; resentful rival warriors kill Ozidi the Elder rather than honour the claim. His pregnant widow withdraws to her mother's town, where the posthumous hero is born.
Children
Domains
- warfare
Powers
- to lead the war-host of Orua
Relations
- sibling: TemugedegeBrother of the simple-minded Temugedege, whose elevation to the kingship precipitates the feud.Clark, J. P. The Ozidi Saga. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press & Oxford University Press, 1977. (secondary)
- spouse: OreaHusband of Orea, who is heavy with child at the time of his murder.Clark, J. P. The Ozidi Saga. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press & Oxford University Press, 1977. (secondary)
- father of: Ozidi the YoungerFather of the avenger-hero Ozidi, born after his death.Okpewho, Isidore. Blood on the Tides: The Ozidi Saga and Oral Epic Narratology. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2014. (secondary)
Sources
- Ozidi the Elder is the Orua war-captain whose treacherous murder sets the whole revenge cycle of the Ozidi Saga in motion.: Clark, J. P. The Ozidi Saga. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press & Oxford University Press, 1977. (secondary); Okpewho, Isidore. "Performance and Plot in The Ozidi Saga." Oral Tradition 19, no. 1 (2004): 63-95. (secondary)