Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
---|---|---|
Spirit name "Hemoana" | Tongans | In the beginning there was just the sea, and the spirit world. Tangaloa took the sky and Maui the underworld. Hemoana in the form of a sea snake, and Lupe, whose form was a dove, then divided the remainder between them, Hemoana taking the sea and Lupe taking the land. Tongans |
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 |
"Malimeihevao" | Polynesia | A supernatural being known through the oral traditions of the Tonga, Polynesia. |
God name "Pusi" | Polynesian / Tikopia | Fish god. The apotheosis of the reef eel who probably accompanied the Tongan ancestors who migrated to Tikopia.... |
God name "Siuelo" | Tonga | The fisherman's god able to walk on the sea. Tonga |
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.... |
Goddess name "Tawhaki" | Polynesian / Maori | Heroic god. A descendant of the creator god Rehua and grandson of Whatitiri, the goddess of thunder, Tawhaki is the third child of Hema and Urutonga. He is the younger sibling of the goddess Pupu-mai-nono and the god Karihi. In some Polynesian traditions Tawhaki is thought of as a mortal ancestor whose consort was the goddess Tangotango on whom he fathered a daughter, Arahuta. Tawhaki's father was killed during tribal warfare with a mythical clan known as the Ponaturi and he himself was the subject of jealous rivalry concerning the goddess Hine-Piripiri. During this time attempts were made to kill him. He fathered children by Hine-Piripiri, including Wahieroa, who is generally perceived as being embodied in comets.... |
Goddess name "Touia Fatuna" | Tonga / Polynesia | The earth goddess, the deification of the rock deep in the earth that rumbles & gives birth to new land |
Goddess name "Touia Fatuna (iron stone)" | Polynesian / Tonga | earth goddess. The daughter of Kele (slime) and Limu (seaweed), she is the apotheosis of rock deep in the earth and is periodically in labor, at which time she rumbles and shakes and produces children.... |
Goddess name "Touia Fatuna Tonga" | Polynesia | Goddess of the earth, the deification of the rock deep in the earth who rumbles and gives birth to new land Polynesia |