Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
---|---|---|
God name "Lono (sound)" | Polynesian / Hawaii | Primordial being. An aspect of a tripartite god which also includes KANE, the light, and KU, stability. They first existed in chaos and night which they broke into pieces, allowing light to come in. Also Ono (Marquesas Islands).... |
God name "Mahiuikez" | Polynesia | Fire god Polynesia |
Goddess name "Mahui Iki" | Polynesia | Goddess of fire and the underworld. Polynesia |
Goddess name "Mahuika" | Polynesia | Goddess of earthquakes who rules the edges of the underworld Polynesia |
Goddess name "Mahuikez" | Polynesian | Fire god. Identified with earthquakes and possibly paralleling TOUIA FATUNA (iron stone goddess) in Tongan belief.... |
"Maimoa-a-Longona" | Polynesia | The iron rock called Touiafutuna was split asunder and there leapt forth the second pair of the primordial male and female twins, Atungake and Maimoa-a-Longona. Tonga, Polynesia |
God name "Make Make" | Polynesia | God of creation. Polynesia, Easter Island |
God name "Make Make" | Polynesian / Easter Island | Sea god. The tutelary deity of the Easter Islanders, he created mankind and animals. His sacred animal is the sea swallow and the huge anthropomorphic stone figures which characterize the island's archaeology form part of his cult.... |
"Malamanganga'e" | Polynesia | Creator being who was a personification of light Polynesia |
"Malamanganga'e (light eastward)" | Polynesian | Creator being. One of the two personifications of light who, with MALAMANGANGAIFO, engendered Lupe, the dove, whose consort is rock. From these primordial principles came several generations of supernatural beings whose descendants engendered mankind.... |
"Malamangangaifo" | Polynesia | The other creator being that was a personification of light |
"Malamangangaifo (light westward)" | Polynesian | Creator being. See also MALAMANGANGA'E.... |
"Malimeihevao" | Polynesia | A supernatural being known through the oral traditions of the Tonga, Polynesia. |
Goddess name "Marama" | Maori | Goddess of the moon Polynesia / Maori |
Goddess name "Marama" | Polynesian / Maori | moon goddess. She equates with the Tahitian goddess HINA, daughter of TANGAROA. Tradition has it that her body wastes away with each lunar cycle but is restored when she bathes in the sea from which all life springs.... |
Demon name "Maru" | Polynesian / Maori | God of war. One of the important deities revered by Maori clans in New Zealand in times of war, he may be represented in totems as an aggressive face with a prominent tuft of hair, staring eyes and tongue protruding, though these totems generally represent ancestors rather than deities. Maru may be invoked in the familiar Maori war dances and chants demonstrated popularly by the All Blacks before rugby matches all over the world.... |
God name "Maui" | Maori | Tutelary god Polynesia / Maori |
Goddess name "Maui" | Polynesian / Maori / New Zealand | Tutelary god. Not a creator god but one who åśśists mankind in various supernatural ways. According to tradition he was aborted at birth and cast into the sea by his mother, who thought he was dead. He was rescued entangled in seaweed. He is the deity who drew the islands of New Zealand from the floor of the ocean in a net. Maui caught the Sun and beat it into submission, making it travel more slowly across the sky so that the days became longer. He also brought fire from the underworld for mankind and tried, unsuccessfully, to harness immortality for him by entering the vulva of the underworld goddess HINE-NUI-TE-PO while she was asleep. She awoke and crushed him to death. Though a deity, he had been made vulnerable to death by a mistake during his rites of birth (see also Balder). Also Mawi.... |