ColossiansOne

Side by side, from the sources

Shango vs Thor

These two are identified with one another in the record, which is not the same as being the same figure. Thunder-orisha and thunder-god, both wielding an axe or hammer — a functional parallel, not a historical link.

Deity · Yoruba · c. 1900 CE

Shango

also called Xangô, Changó, Ṣàngó, Chango, Jakuta

Thunder-orisha and a remembered king of Oyo — a historical ruler who became a god, which is euhemerism running the other way.

Alignment
Disputed
Rank
Orisha of Thunder
First attested
The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa · 1894
Named there as
Shango
Texts naming it
5
Powers attributed
4
60attestedYoruba & Diaspora

Deity · Norse · c. 1270 CE

Thor

also called Þórr, Donar, Ðunor, Thunor, Þunor

The defender who kills giants and will meet Jormungandr at Ragnarok. Whatever the poems give Odin, Thor was by far the more widely worshipped.

Alignment
Disputed
Rank
Thunderer
First attested
Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum · c. 1075
Named there as
Thor
Texts naming it
5
Powers attributed
4
90attestedNorse

Where do they actually overlap?

Texts naming both

None. The two never appear in the same text in this corpus, which is worth knowing before accepting any confident claim that they are one figure.

Powers credited to both

Grants Victory in WarCauses Tempests

Common questions

Are Shango and Thor the same figure?

These two are identified with one another in the record, which is not the same as being the same figure. Thunder-orisha and thunder-god, both wielding an axe or hammer — a functional parallel, not a historical link. ColossiansOne records the link rather than asserting the identity: where texts disagree about whether two names denote one figure, the disagreement is what gets shown.

Which is older, Shango or Thor?

Thor is the older name: first attested around c. 1270 CE, against c. 1900 CE for Shango. Where the two dates are far apart, that gap is the whole reason the pair is worth comparing.

Do any texts name both Shango and Thor?

No text in this corpus names both. That is not proof they were considered the same figure, but it is why the identification has to be traced through the scholarship rather than read off a page.
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