Ochosi

Ochosi is the oricha of the hunt and of justice, the unerring archer whose single arrow always finds its mark. The Lucumí form of the Yoruba hunter-deity of Kétu, he is patron of those who track and those who are tracked, invoked both for success in pursuit and for deliverance from prison, police, and the courts. He is the third of los Guerreros, the Warriors, and is inseparable from the ironworker Oggún; a patakí tells how the hunter cannot make his arrow without the smith's iron, and the smith has no game without the hunter's aim, so the two must share a single cauldron. His emblem is an iron bow-and-arrow, his beads amber and blue. In Cuba he is syncretized with Saint Norbert (San Norberto).

Domains

• hunting and tracking
• justice and law

Powers

• never misses the mark
• tracks quarry and fugitives

Epithets

• Ochosi Odé Mata — Ochosi the hunterCabrera, El Monte (1954) (secondary)

Relations

• ally: ElegguáMember of the Warrior triad received together.Bolívar Aróstegui, Los Orichas en Cuba (1990) (secondary)
• ally: OggúnInseparable companion; a patakí tells how hunter and ironworker need one another, the arrow and the iron to make it.Cabrera, El Monte (1954) (secondary)

Sources

• Ochosi is the hunter-oricha and patron of justice, third of the Warriors, syncretized in Cuba with Saint Norbert.: Lydia Cabrera, El Monte (1954) (secondary); Natalia Bolívar Aróstegui, Los Orichas en Cuba (1990) (secondary)