Odi Meyi

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Odi Meyi is one of the strongest olodus in the family of Ifá. He is aggressive and warlike. While in heaven, he was better known for his belligerence than for his priesthood. Nevertheless, he was a skilled priest of Ifá. Because of the many outdoor activities
He carried out in heaven, he did not devote much time to the practice of Ifá. Instead, that part of his work was done mainly by his substitutes. For example, when Ode (the outside, or outdoors) went to him seeking divination, when his death was
Languishing, it was one of Odi Meyi’s assistants who helped him.

Odi Meyi helped Ode, the outdoors, recover his prosperity

The substitute was called Ewur e Abori Kpeteki Loon dIfa fun nijotiuwa Ode sun. Ode’s three wives had abandoned him when he became so poor that he could no longer satisfy them materially. The names of the three wives were:
1- Ire, or play (Ikú in Bini)
2- Oyin, or pleasure (oyenmwen in Bini)
3- Oju, or dance (Ikú owe or ugbemwen in Bini)

It was the active support and cooperation of his three wives that gave Ode his identity. When they abandoned him, he became very dull. It goes without saying that the outdoors is only attractive and interesting when there are games, pleasures, music, and dancing. People go outside to play and to dance. Pleasure shows itself chiefly in people’s expressions when they step out of their houses.

So that he might win back his wives, the priest of Ifá advised Ode to make sacrifice with a he-goat and to sacrifice a second he-goat for a meal at his house. He was to cook yam over the fire, and he was assured that while the yam was cooking on the fire his wives would return to him one after another. He made the sacrifice exactly as advised.

After making the sacrifice, he prepared a pot of yams and set it on the fire. The guests were drinking and eating of the meat when Esu went out to meet Ode’s wives. When Esu met Ire, he told her it had been a mistake to leave her husband simply because his fortunes had suffered a temporary eclipse. He pointed out that since eclipses are transitory and fleeting, Ode was already enjoying abundant prosperity once again — so much so that people ate at his house daily.

Esu added that at that very moment one of those elaborate meals was under way. He visited the other two women and told them both the same story. The wives then decided to go and verify the tale, found the yam cooking on the fire, and joined hands to prepare the meal. After this, they agreed to stay with Ode forever. With the return of his wives, Ode’s prosperity flourished once more. When Odi Meyi comes out in divination for a person whose luck is weakening, the priest of Ifá will tell them to hold a meal with two he-goats, one through Ifá to feed the elders of the night and the other to make a meal for the people around them, and their prosperity will surely
Return to them.

How the peanut came to multiply

Shedive kimi bae joko loon dIfa fun ekpa, tiolo run ebe obigba omo.
He made divination for the peanut when she left heaven to produce 200 children on earth. Ekpa, the Peanut, had no children and was anxious to procreate. She went to see Odi Meyi who, after divination, advised her to make sacrifice with a hen,
Rooster, rat, fish, and a bag of money. She made the sacrifice, after which she was taken to the farm to be washed. Subsequently she had 200 children, and the house of the Peanut became very prosperous.

Odi Meyi made divination for the man’s semen and the woman’s menstruation

It will be recalled that at the beginning of time, plants and animals did not procreate in the way now known. After men and women were created, they simply lived together without knowing how to procreate. We have already seen a synopsis of how Esu repositioned the female pelvis from the forehead to between the woman’s legs. The woman did not know what to do with her pelvis, and the man did not know what his penis was for, apart from breathing.

Semen and menstruation, who had separate identities, then went for divination to the house of Odi Meyi, where they met his servants, called:
Ogan ofori so siki
Ofose so yeghe
Ofi agbede gbede meyi son lebe
Ibo efun obale de rumu rumu
Awon loo dIfa fun ato (o ekuu en bini) abufun ase (o ehe en bini).

Sperm and menstruation were both anxious to learn how to procreate. God had created them and left them to use their own intelligence to work out how to procreate. Both were advised to make sacrifice with a he-goat. The sperm was told to add chalk, a white rooster, white cloth, a white dove, and okra. Menstruation, for her part, was to add a red rooster and red wood to her sacrifice. They produced all the sacrificial materials, and the priests of Ifá used them to prepare
Medicine for them to eat.

After this, the sperm was told to go and live with the man, while menstruation was advised to visit the woman and stay with her for five days each time thirty days had passed. That is how we came to be the children of sperm and menstruation, through the mediation of man and woman. This is the kind of medicine a priest of Ifá prepares for anyone who is anxious to procreate.

Odi Meyi as a prominent wrestler

As already said, Odi Meyi was famous — or notorious — in heaven more for his belligerence than for his own practice of Ifá. His daily task consisted of challenging the strongest divinities in heaven to combat, and he almost invariably emerged victorious. He had the habit of stepping out of his house every morning and shouting loogban.o!.

One day, when he shouted loogban o!, the king of death came out to challenge Odi Meyi to a wrestling match. Sarcastically and scornfully, Odi Meyi told the king of death that he was not in the habit of fighting beings with only one head, since he would have no chance to show the superiority of his strength, and he insisted that he would only accept challenges from beings with more than one head.

As soon as word spread that Odi Meyi would only wrestle contenders with more than one head, a divinity with two heads came out to meet him. The moment the combat began, he tore off one of its heads, leaving the divinity with only one. Explaining his purpose, he declared that no one had the right to carry more than one head, and that he was determined to turn all the inhabitants of heaven into single-headed beings.

The next day, the three-headed divinity came to challenge Odi Meyi, and he tore off the two extra heads, leaving it with only one. The process continued until he met the nine-headed divinity. The nine-headed divinity was the first to come out in the morning to challenge Odi Meyi, also shouting loogban-oo!. When Odi Meyi joined the fight, he quickly tore off the divinity’s eight additional heads. As soon as his opponent fell to the ground, it stood up again to wrestle Odi Meyi a second time. Meanwhile, Ajala, also known as Agbede-Ogún, the molder of heads in heaven, rejoiced that Odi was in heaven so that he would have plenty of work to do.

He was present at the place where the combats were being held. When Ajala saw that the fight was getting difficult, he addressed Odi with cryptic words, indicating with an expression that he, Ajala, knew how to make every part of the body except the spinal column. That was a hint for Odi to attack his opponent by the spine. Odi immediately caught the message and instantly hurled his opponent into the air, holding him by the spinal column, so that he then crashed to the ground.

After defeating him, Odi went home with the wives and property of all those he had beaten, as was the custom in heaven. The last divinity he defeated was the Alara of heaven. On arriving home, Odi invited all the awoses of heaven and told them to reveal the name of Alara’s wife, the last woman he had inherited through his combats. Her true name was Bola wun mi, which means: «my favorite wife.» To proclaim her name in its literal form would signal his desire to seduce the woman.

Whoever revealed it would expose themselves to Odi, a feared and respected figure in Yoruba and Bini culture. It is said that speaking his name in a certain way can bring trouble with this entity. Those who dared to pronounce Odi’s name incorrectly found themselves challenged to a spear-driving contest on stony ground, and all failed the test, losing their possessions in the process. However, Oligharabafe received advice during a divination that allowed him to offer a fowl to his head and prepare it with eko. He was also advised to keep the fowl’s wing-arm for the first visitor he received on the morning after the sacrifice to his head.

Oligharabafe was to make a sacrifice to Esu with okra pudding and wrestle Odi on top of an Ifá tray called Akpako. However, on the morning of the contest, Odi’s daughters, named Iboru, Iboye, and Ibosise, visited Oligharabafe and told him their father was very ill and wanted to see him. Oligharabafe told them to wait while he gathered some leaves from the forest to take to Odi. But before they left, Oligharabafe remembered the fowl’s wing-arm he had been advised to give to the first visitor of the morning, so he invited the girls to eat something before departing. They shared eko and the fowl’s wing-arm.

The eldest of Odi’s children reminded her siblings that heavenly law forbade killing someone after eating their food as their guest. They therefore decided to reveal their father’s secrets to Oligharabafe, to protect him from their father’s schemes.

Odi’s children taught Oligharabafe how to pronounce the name Bola wun mi correctly, and showed him the spot where he was to drive his spear — known as uroremen in Bini or oriole in Yoruba — in their father’s private chamber. They also told him that a frog was sacrificed daily at that spot.

They further advised him on how to position an akpako, and told him that as soon as their father came to a stop, he was to proclaim that he had fallen.

After receiving the help of Odi’s children, Oligharabafe went to Odi’s house to cure his illness. Before doing so, however, Odi demanded that he prove his skill by revealing the name of his wife. Oligharabafe quickly replied by asking whether Alara’s former wife was named Bolawo kpe uwa jewun-awo, which enraged Odi and led him to challenge Oligharabafe to a fight one week later.

Oligharabafe insisted that he was ready to fight then and there, but Odi insisted on waiting a week, since he was not well enough for an immediate fight. They finally reached an agreement, and Oligharabafe gave Odi the medicines he had prepared for him, explained how to use them, and set out for his home.

Before leaving, Oligharabafe warned Odi that the name Bola wu mi meant that if he did not return Alara’s wife, he would lose his life on account of his seduction. Then, on the seventh day, Oligharabafe returned to Odi’s house for the contest. However, as soon as the fight began, Odi sat down on Oligharabafe’s akpako, which made it difficult for the latter to operate.

Not knowing what to do, Oligharabafe took out his divination instrument, and it told him to quickly offer a he-goat to Esu. He then fried the meat and placed it in front of Odi, who was already hungry from sitting on the Ifá tray.

Oligharabafe was also advised to use a dove for the sacrifice, which he roasted and smeared with its oil. He then tied it to a cord hanging from the roof where Odi was sitting, so that the dove’s oil would drip onto his head. When Odi looked up, he saw the roasted dove and rose to reach for it, at which moment Oligharabafe quickly pulled his akpako out from under Odi. Then Odi saw the appetizing he-goat meat before him and stood up to take a piece of the meat, at which point Oligharabafe finally managed to withdraw his Akpako.

On discovering that Oligharabafe had managed to remove his Akpako, Odi told him he had passed every test, but that one final trial remained. He invited him to drive his spear into the floor of his inner chamber. Oligharabafe quickly spotted the drain, struck the spot with the spear, and it sank into the ground — something no one had achieved before him. At the end of the contest, Odi exclaimed that his work in heaven was finished, for he had met someone as strong, intelligent, and skillful as himself.

After his contest with Oligharabafe, Odi decided to leave heaven and come down to earth, as his three fellow olodus had done. When Odi Meyi appears in a divination, the person is advised to make sacrifices to avoid problems related to fatherhood. They are also advised to be prepared to compete for a woman, and to offer a he-goat to Esu in order to win the contest.

They are further advised to make sacrifices to their head and to Oggún before any journey. If the sign comes out in a divination with the Okpele, the person is advised not to undertake the journey, and to serve Oggún before doing so. They may also be invited to negotiation talks, but are warned not to attend them without first serving Oggún.

Odi Meyi sets out for earth

Odi was a powerful God and trusted in his own strength. He never considered the need to seek divine counsel before undertaking a new venture. He believed his skill and strength were all he needed to triumph in every situation. But his self-confidence proved to be his undoing when he decided to make a journey to earth.

Unlike other gods, Odi decided to travel alone, taking with him only two instruments: the thunderstone and the smelting furnace. These instruments had been given to him by the divinity of thunder and the divinity of metal, and he carried them embedded within his own head, displaying his great power and authority.

When Odi’s followers saw him setting out for earth without making any prior preparations, some gathered and reminded him that he had never had a wife of his own choosing in heaven. Odi told them that, for that very reason, he would go through life on earth without a wife unless he made sacrifices — a he-goat to Esu and a guinea hen to his Guardian Angel. He explained that if no one had been able to subdue him in heaven, who on earth could oppose him or stand in his way?

Odi swore he would perform feats like those he had accomplished in heaven. His followers, however, reminded him of the negative influence of all the other divinities he had dishonored in heaven. They told him he would have no power to subdue them on earth, since they had arrived there before him. Among those who warned him were: Abimi lorigi- omo iyi ni mi, Edo okpe ni monje, Edo oke ni mo mu, Okuru ni ogbigbo

Odi was born on earth, the son of a father who was a priest of Oggún and a mother who was a priestess of Shangó. From his birth, Odi already possessed a thunderstone and a smelting furnace, which were kept for him to use in the future. By the age of ten, he was already wrestling adolescents older than himself, and no one could beat him. He was so fierce that everyone feared him, and people nicknamed him «the invincible.»