| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|
| 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.... |
| Goddess name "Hine-Ahu-One (maiden formed of the earth)" | Polynesian / including Maori | Chthonic goddess. Engendered by the god TANE when he needed a consort because, with the exception of the primordial earth mother PAPATUANUKU, all the existing gods of creation were male. Tane created her out of the red earth and breathed life into her. She became the mother of HINE-ATA-UIRA.... |
| Goddess name "Hine-Ata-Uira (daughter of the sparkling dawn)" | Polynesian / including Maori | Goddess of light. The daughter of the creator god TANE and HINEAHU-ONE. She did not remain a sky goddess but descended into the underworld, where she became the personification of death, HINE-NUITE-PO.... |
| Goddess name "Hine-Nui-Te-Po (great woman of the night)" | Polynesian / including Maori | Chthonic underworld goddess. Originally she was HINE-ATAUIRA, the daughter of TANE and HINE-AHUONE, but she descended to rule over the underworld. She is depicted in human form but with eyes of jade, hair of seaweed and teeth like those of a predatory fish.... |
| Goddess name "Papatuanuku" | Polynesian / including Maori | Chthonic mother goddess. According to tradition she evolved spontaneously in the cosmic night personified by TE PO and became the apotheosis of papa, the earth. In other traditions she was engendered, with the sky god RANGINUI, by a primordial androgynous being, ATEA. Paptuanuku and Ranginui are regarded as the primal parents of the pantheon who, through a prolonged period of intercourse, produced at least ten major deities as their children. In Maori culture Papatuanuku, 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 "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 "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.... |
| Goddess name "Rongomatane" | Polynesian / including Maori | God of Agriculture. He is the father of cultivated food and the special gardener of the kumara or sweet potato which is a vital crop in Polynesia. In New Zealand the first sweet potatoes are offered to Rongomatane. In the traditions of the Hervey Islands, Rongo is one of the five sons of the moon god, Vatea, and the mother goddess, Papa.... |
| 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 "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 "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.... |
| Deities name "Tawhirimatea" | Polynesian / including Maori | God of winds. One of the children of the prime parents RANGINUI and PAPATUANUKU. He was uniquely opposed to the separation of his mother and father, sky and earth, at the time of the creation of the cosmos, and in consequence spends his time haråśśing and troubling mankind. In Maori culture Papatuanuku, 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.... |
"Te Kore (the void)" | Polynesian / including Maori | Primordial being. The personification of the darkness of chaos before light came into being. Usually coupled with TE PO, the unknown night.... |
"Te Po" | Polynesian / including Maori | Primordial being. The personification of the night which existed in chaos before the creation of light. Usually coupled with TE KORE, the void.... |
| 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 "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).... |
| Deities name "Whiro" | Polynesian / Maori | God of death. Regarded as an errant son of the creator deities, RANGINUI and PAPATUANUKU, Whiro stands as the chief antagonist of TANEMAHUTA, the creator god of light. He is, therefore, the personification of darkness and evil. During the time of creation from chaos, Whiro is said to have fought an epic battle against Tanemahuta in the newly formed heavens. He was vanquished and forced to descend into the underworld where he became ruler over the dead and chief among the lesser underworld deities who are responsible for various forms of disease and sickness. In the temporal world the lizard, a symbol of death, embodies him, and various creatures of the night, including the owl and the bat, are earthly representatives from his kingdom, as are such malignant insect pests as the mosquito. This deity is not to be confused with the legendary human voyager and adventurer of the same name whose traditions have, in the past, often been muddled with those of the god.... |
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