Sopona (Ṣọ̀pọ̀na, Shapona)

The provided sources do not supply a full cosmogonic birth narrative for Sopona. Within the cited material, Sopona is presented as the Yoruba orisha whose domain is smallpox; some sources describe him as a vengeful aspect of Ọbaluaye/Obaluaiye (the broader orisha of disease and epidemics). Historical records and museum collections cited in the sources show Sopona functioning in social and ritual life, and the deity's identity was carried and reinterpreted during the transatlantic slave trade in New World Orisha practices.

The supplied excerpts do not record a standardized iconography for Sopona. Museum and archival references in the sources note the existence of devotional images (for example, a statue of Shapona in the CDC Museum Collection gifted by Rafe and Ilze Henderson), but no consistent physical description or set of attributes is provided in the cited materials.

Sopona is consistently described as the divine agent behind smallpox: outbreaks are framed as resulting from Sopona's displeasure and thus within his power to inflict upon human communities. Where sources identify Sopona with or as an aspect of Ọbaluaye/Obaluaiye, that broader deity is explicitly credited with the ability to decimate entire cities with disease and also to cure or rid a community of pestilence; the cited material treats curative or disease-ending power as part of the same theological domain, attributed particularly to Ọbaluaye but closely associated with Sopona in many accounts. The excerpts do not describe additional supernatural powers beyond governance over smallpox and disease.