Founder Hero
Nupe · demigod · legendary past · Recorded classification
Founder culture-hero of the Nupe, the 'trickster-hero' of the request. A legendary king of semi-divine paternity (Igala royal line) raised above ordinary mortals; classed as demigod and as a culture-hero tier. His cycle carries trickster motifs (the impossible-fruit test).
Domains
- kingship
- culture founding
Powers
- unite the scattered Nupe clans into one kingdom
- pluck the unreachable palm-fruit by cunning
Epithets
- Etsu Nupe 'King of the Nupe', the royal title he foundedS. F. Nadel, A Black Byzantium (1942) (secondary)
Sources
- Edegi (Tsoede) is the culture-hero and mythical founder of the Nupe kingdom, first Etsu Nupe, son of an Igala king and a Nupe woman.: S. F. Nadel, A Black Byzantium: The Kingdom of Nupe in Nigeria (Oxford University Press, 1942). (ethnography); "Tsoede," Encyclopaedia Britannica (online). (encyclopedia)