POLYNESIAN DEITIES
Tangaroa is one of the oldest Polynesian deities, and in some myths,
the primary god. Many of the Polynesian deities were worshipped as sky
gods, whose forces were unleashed in the form of storms or hurricanes,
as in the case of the wind god Tawhirimatea. According to some myths,
Tangaroa’s son Maui slowed down the sun by lassoing it, and forced
it to shine for longer periods in summer. The goddess Hina
controlled the tides, and in some versions, was also the goddess of
the west wind. There were many powerful Earth deities too, such as the
volcano goddess Pele, who was dominant in Hawaii. Other deities
included the mother goddess, known variously as Papatuanuku,
or Papa, who was present at the beginning of creation.OTHER POLYNESIAN
CREATION MYTHS
Several creation stories told in the Pacific islands feature Maui,
who created the islands of Polynesia by fishing them up from the
bottom of the sea using a great fish-hook. Some creation myths
centre on a primal goddess in the Underworld who plucked the
first gods and humans from her own body. Others describe a
series of sexual unions, beginning with the coupling of light and
dark, which engendered everything in the cosmos. Still other
stories describe how the islands were formed from the discarded
wood chips of the carpenter son of the sky god Tagaloa. However,
most myths regard Tangaroa as the creator deity and patron of sailors.TANGAROA IN NEW ZEALAND
In New Zealand, Tangaroa is the Maori god of the sea and the son
of the primal deities Papa (the goddess of the Earth) and Rangi (the
god of the sky). At the beginning of time, Papa and Rangi held each
other tight, locking their children within their embrace, but Tangaroa
and some of his siblings wrenched them apart to initiate the process
of creation. This angered his brother Tawhirimatea, the wind god,
who unleashed fierce storms on them. Terrified, some of Tangaroa’s
descendants hid in the forest. Tangaroa quarrelled with his brother
Tane, the god of forests, for having given shelter to the runaway
creatures. He attacked Tane’s land with his tides and swept
away all the creatures into his watery realm.
Rongorongo tablets
The mysterious hieroglyphic
inscriptions on the wooden
tablets discovered at Easter
Island may record an as yet
unknown creation myth.The creators
In a Fijian myth, the
first humans were
a boy and girl, the
abandoned children
of the hawk Turukawa.
The snake god Degei
brought them up and
they came together to
create the human race.Papatuanuku
Mother Earth, or Papatuanuku, was the
female half of the primal couple. When she
raised her arm during her long embrace
with her husband, Rangi, she gave her
children their first glimpse of sunlight.
Pele
The goddess of the
volcano, Pele was
believed to have
created the entire
Hawaiian archipelago,
but her scorching lava
also made her a deity of
destruction, who would
erupt whenever someone
broke a taboo.Kukailimoku
The consort of Hina, and a form of the
god Ku (also know as Tu), Kukailimoku
was the god of war, woodlands, and
crops. He was widely worshipped by
craftsmen in Hawaii.Yam
Certain nights of the lunar month were
named after Tangaroa. It was believed that
the yams planted on these “Tangaroa
nights” would produce the best roots.Maori canoe
The people of the forest made offerings to
Tangaroa before setting out in their canoes, since
they were entering the realm of Tane’s mortal enemy.TANGAROA
O TANGAROA IN THE
IMMENSITY OF SPACE,
CLEAR AWAY THE
CLOUDS BY DAY.
Dennis Kawaharada, 1992 Voyage: Sail to Rarotonga, 1992 157