| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|
| Goddess name "Haumea" | Hawaiian | Mother goddess. ] She is the daughter of PAPATUANUKU, the primordial earth mother, and is revered by many people of Polynesia and by the Maori of New Zealand. Her more notable children include PELE, the volcano goddess of Hawaii, and HI'AIKA, the goddess of the dance. As a deity responsible for birth, Haumea possesses a magical wand that she used at the time of creation to engender fruit trees and fish. From time to time she uses it to replenish stocks. Mythology also identifies her as a heroine who saved herself and her consort from enemies at the time of creation by hiding in a breadfruit tree and fending off the attackers with poisonous sap and wood splinters.... |
| Goddess name "Hi'aika" | Hawaiian | Goddess. The daughter of HAUMEA and younger sister of PELE, the volcano goddess, Hi'aika is the mistress of the dance and especially of the hula. Separate traditions identify her with LAKA, the god of the hula and the son of KANE, the god of light; and with a goddess, Na Wahine, the daughter of the primordial creator principle KEAWE. The hula was designed to give a formalized structure to the enactment of myths and among the favorite topics is the romance between Pele and the hero Lohiau. According to mythology Hi'aika was entrusted with a mission to find Lohiau on Pele's behalf and to bring him back to her, a mission that subsequently enflamed the jealousy of Pele over her sister's developing relationship with Lohiau, and brought about his death in Pele's fiery lava.... |
| Goddess name "Keawe" | Hawaiian | Creator god. An androgynous though apparently male principle or monad, he lived once in the dark empty abyss of Po. There, Keawe transformed primordial chaos into an orderly cosmos. He fashioned the sky from the lid of his calabash (a water-carrying gourd) and the Sun from an orange disc formerly kept inside the calabash. Keawe's first son was KANE, the god of light, and his daughter was Na Wahine, both created through his own powers of conception. He subsequently entered into an incestuous relationship with Na Wahine to father the chief pantheon of Hawaiian gods and goddesses, including most notably KU, LONO and Kanaloa, who became known, collectively, as the tripartite god.... |
| Goddess name "Tane(mahuta)" | Polynesian / including Maori | God of light. One of the children of the prime parents RANGINUI and PAPATUANUKU. Also god of trees, Forests and boat-builders, his consort is the goddess HINEAHU-ONE and he is the father of HINE-ATA-UIRA who descended to the underworld to become the goddess of death, HINE-NUI-TE-PO. In other traditions he is the consort of Hine-Nui-Te-Po, whom he joins each evening when he descends to the underworld. It was he who proposed that his parents should be pushed apart rather than slaughtered. In Maori culture Tanemahuta, 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. Also KANE (Hawaiian).... |
| 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.... |
| Deities name "Tiki" | Polynesian / including Maori | Creator god. One of the children of RANGINUI and PAPATUANUKU who created mankind. In some Polynesian traditions he is represented as the first man, akin to Adam. The word is also incorporated in tikiwananga or god stick, which describes the wooden or stone images of deities that are usually minimally worked and stand about 19.5 inches tall. Only thirty or so examples of these are known, most having been destroyed by Christian missions. The celebrated large Maori totems are depictions of ancestors who appear as human / bird or reptile hybrids. Also Ki'i (Hawaiian).... |
| 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 "Tumatauenga" | Polynesian / including Maori | God of war. One of the children of the prime parents RANGINUI and PAPATUANUKU, he proposed the slaughter of his parents when it was decided to separate them as sky and earth. He was subsequently given charge over mankind (tangata), which he imbued with his lust for the warfare and violence that was a characteristic part of Maori culture. Also Kumatauenga (Hawaiian).... |
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