Oggún

Oggún is the oricha of iron, war, metallurgy, and the labor of the forest, the solitary blacksmith who owns every blade and machine. Because all sacrifice is made with a knife, no offering is completed without him, and his presence pervades the smithy, the surgeon's steel, the automobile, and the railroad. He is a tireless and violent worker who clears roads through the bush with his machete, and Cuban patakí picture him withdrawing alone into the deep forest, clad in a fringe of frayed palm (mariwó). His colors are green and black, his emblems the miniature iron tools kept in a three-legged cauldron. With Elegguá and Ochosi he forms los Guerreros, the Warriors, sharing a cauldron with the hunter whose arrows rest among his tools. A patakí makes him the rival of Changó, who won away his companion Oyá. In Cuba he is syncretized with Saint Peter (San Pedro).

Parentage

• parent: ObataláCounted among Obatalá's offspring.Cabrera, El Monte (1954) (secondary)
• parent: YemayáNamed in some patakí as his mother.Cabrera, El Monte (1954) (secondary)

Domains

• iron and metallurgy
• war and blood
• forest and labor

Powers

• forges and cuts iron
• clears the forest path

Epithets

• Alagbede — the blacksmithBolívar Aróstegui, Los Orichas en Cuba (1990) (secondary)
• Oggún Arere — Oggún of the forge, warlike aspectCabrera, El Monte (1954) (secondary)

Relations

• parent: ObataláCounted among Obatalá's offspring.Cabrera, El Monte (1954) (secondary)
• parent: YemayáNamed in some patakí as his mother.Cabrera, El Monte (1954) (secondary)
• ally: ElegguáWarrior-companion in los Guerreros.Bolívar Aróstegui, Los Orichas en Cuba (1990) (secondary)
• ally: OchosiInseparable partner; the hunter's arrows are kept in the ironworker's pot.Bolívar Aróstegui, Los Orichas en Cuba (1990) (secondary)
• rival: ChangóRivals after Changó carried off Oyá.Bolívar Aróstegui, Los Orichas en Cuba (1990) (secondary)
• lover: OyáOyá was his companion before Changó won her away.Bolívar Aróstegui, Los Orichas en Cuba (1990) (secondary)

Sources

• Oggún is the oricha of iron, war, tools, and the forest, one of the Warriors, and owner of the sacrificial knife, syncretized in Cuba with Saint Peter.: Lydia Cabrera, El Monte (1954) (secondary); Natalia Bolívar Aróstegui, Los Orichas en Cuba (1990) (secondary)