| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|
| God name "Rongomai" | Polynesian / Maori | Whale god. He is the son of TANGAROA, the creator deity responsible for the oceans and the fish, and the father of KAHUKURA, the deity responsible for the appearance of the Rainbow. He is also regarded as the ancestor of several Maori clans. Various traditions are åśśociated with Rongomai. In some regions of New Zealand he is also regarded as a god of war and is thought to have discovered the magic arts during a visit to the underworld, including the power of kaiwhatu, a preventative charm against witchcraft. Rongomai is sometimes mistakenly identified with RONGOMATANE, or Rongo, though the latter is generally considered a distinct personality. As the god responsible for the well-being of whales Rongomai may take the form of a whale, a guise in which he once challenged MARU, a more widely recognized New Zealand war god. Separate mythology places him in the heavens in the form of a comet.... |
| God name "Tana'ao" | Polynesian / Marquesas Islands | weather and sea god. A local variation on the Polynesian god TANGAROA, known as a god of winds and a tutelary deity of fishermen.... |
| Goddess name "Pele" | Polynesian / Hawaii | Volcano goddess. According to tradition she arrived in Hawaii in a canoe, having sailed from Tahiti. She may derive locally from the more familiar Polynesian moon goddess, HINA, since one of her alternative names is Hina-Ai-Malama (Hina who devours the moon).... |
| God name "Haumiatiketike" | Polynesian / including Maori | vegetation god. The deity concerned with wild plants gathered as food, and particularly with the rhizome of the bracken which has been traditionally relied on by the Maori in times of famine or need.... |
| Deities name "Taumata-Atua" | Polynesian / including Maori | vegetation god. He presides over the fields and may be the god Rongomatane under an alternative name. In Maori culture Taumata-Atua, like all deities, is represented only by inconspicuous, slightly worked stones or pieces of wood and not by the large totems, which are depictions of ancestors.... |
| 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.... |
| God name "Haikili" | Hawaii | The god of thunder.Hawaii Polynesian |
| Supreme god name "Atea" | Polynesian | Supreme god. The father of the gods depicted as a hybrid, his body divided vertically, the left half being fishy and the right half of human form. In the tradition of the Hervey Islands, he is the firstborn son of the primordial mother VARI-MA-TE-TAKERE. After a short existence low down in the world coconut living immediately above his mother, he moved to the opening of the upper world. He is largely comparable to TANE, the god of light. Also AVATEA, Vatea, Wakea.... |
| Supreme god name "Atua I Kafika" | Polynesian / Tikopia | Supreme god. Regarded as an intercessor rather than as ultimate creator or controller.... |
| God name "Ranginui" | Polynesian / including Maori | sky god. The socalled sky father of the Polynesian culture whose consort is PAPATUANUKU, the earth mother. During a prolonged period of inseparable intercourse they became the prime parents of the Polynesian pantheon of gods. The children found life between the bodies of the parents too cramped and conspired to force them apart. Though one offspring, TUMATAUENGA, wanted to slay them, the advice of TANEMAHUTA, the Forest god, prevailed and RANGINUI and Papatuanuku were merely forced apart.... |
| 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.... |
| Deities name "Tangaroa" | Polynesian / including Maori | Sea and creator god. The deity responsible for the oceans (moana) and the fish (ika) within them. In Hawaiian belief he was the primordial being who took the form of a bird and laid an egg on the surface of the primeval waters which, when it broke, formed the earth and sky. He then engendered the god of light, ATEA (cf. TANE). According to Tahitian legend, he fashioned the world inside a gigantic mussel shell. In a separate tradition Tangaroa went fishing and hauled the Tongan group of islands from the depths of the ocean on a hook and line. He is the progenitor of mankind (as distinct from TUMATAUENGA who has authority over mankind). His son Pili married SINA, the tropic bird and they produced five children from whom the rest of the Polynesian race was born. In Maori culture Tangaroa, like all deities, is represented only by inconspicuous, slightly worked stones or pieces of wood and not by the large totems which are depictions of ancestors.... |
| God name "Tu (2)" | Polynesian | Primordial god. One of three elements, with TANE and LONO, who existed in chaos and night which they broke into pieces, allowing day to come in. Tu represents stability. He is also regarded as a war god. Also KU (Hawaiian).... |
| God name "Salevao" | Polynesian | Primordial god of rocks. He is the brother of SAVEA SI'ULEO, god of the dead, and the consort of PAPATUANUKA, the earth mother, who became pregnant and gave birth to Moa in the center of the earth. (Moa may have been the ancestor of mankind, roughly equating to Adam.)... |
| 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).... |
| Goddess name "Taranga" | Polynesian | Polynesian fertility goddess. |
| Goddess name "Vari-Ma-Te-Takere (the very beginning)" | Polynesian / Hervey Islands | Mother goddess. The creator being who lives at the very bottom of the world coconut, sitting in a cramped space with her knees and chin touching. She lives in Te-Enua-Te-Ki (mute land) in eternal silence and is the mother of six children, all deities, three of which she plucked from her right side and three from her left.See also AVATEA, TINIRAU, TANGO, TUMUTEANAOA, RAKA and TU-METUA.... |
| 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.... |
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