Mythology Book

318

I

n Maori mythology, before the

world was created, there was

only Rangi, the sky father, and

his wife, Papa, the earth mother,

who lay in an embrace so tight their

sons lived in total darkness in the

narrow space between their bodies.

Tired of these conditions, their

sons discussed how to force apart

their mother and father. The

warlike Tu wanted to kill them

both, but the forest god Tane

persuaded his brothers that their

parents should just be separated.

After each of his brothers had failed

to pry the couple apart, Tane

did so by placing his shoulders

on Papa and pushing Rangi up

with his legs.

With this, Tane began to fill

the world with forests, but his

work was disrupted by his brother

Tawhirimatea, who had grown

angry that their parents were forced

to live apart. Tawhirimatea sought

revenge by raising a great storm

across the earth. It was Tu, the

god of war, who withstood him,

bringing peace to the earth.

World of darkness

Over time, Tane grew lonely.

Woman had not yet been created,

so he coupled with nonhumans,

fathering insects, stones, streams,

and plants. Finally, Tane, longing

for a partner, went to a beach and

shaped the first woman out of

sand and mud, which led to her

being named Hine-hau-one,

meaning “earth-formed maiden.”

She and Tane conceived a daughter

and named her Hine-titama,

meaning “maiden of the dawn.”

Rangi and Papa copulate in an

18th-century Maori carving. In Maori

culture, whakairo (carving) is both

an artistic and a spiritual practice.

DEATH OBTAINED

POWER OVER

MANKIND

TANE AND HINE-TITAMA

IN BRIEF

THEME

Mortality

SOURCE

Oral tradition, transcribed in

Polynesian Mythology and

Ancient Traditional History of

the New Zealand Race, as

Furnished by their Priests and

Chiefs, Sir George Grey, 1855.

SETTING

The beginning of time.

KEY FIGURES

Rangi The sky father.

Papa The earth mother.

Tu God of war and hunting.

Tawhirimatea God of storms.

Tane God of forests.

Tangaroa God of the sea.

Hine-hau-one The first

woman; mother of Hine-titama.

Hine-titama Daughter and

wife of Tane.

Maui A demigod and trickster.

US_318-319_Tane.indd 318 01/12/17 4:23 pm

OCEANIA 319

War canoes, or waka tua, are still

used in Maori ceremonies. At the

annual IRONMAN race in New

Zealand, waka escort competitors

to the start of the swimming leg.

See also: Creation of the universe 130–33 ■ Ahura Mazda and Ahriman 198–99 ■ Brahma creates the cosmos 200 ■

Izanagi and Izanami 220–21

Hine-titama was raised not

knowing who her father was.

When she grew up, Tane married

her. Hine-titama lived happily as

Tane’s wife, and had children with

him, until she found out that he

was actually her father. Appalled,

she fled to the underworld. Her

father followed her and begged her

to return, but Hine-titama refused.

She told him that he should stay

where he was to look after his

children in the world of light.

Hine-titama chose to remain in

the underworld to care for those

who entered the world of darkness.

There she took on a new name,

Hine-nui-te-po, meaning “great

maiden of the darkness.”

No humans had entered the

underworld until the actions of the

trickster Maui, who had been told

that anyone who crawled through

Hine-nui-te-po’s body would banish

death from humanity. While the

goddess slept, Maui turned into a

worm and tried to enter her body

through her vagina. When Hine-

nui-te-po realized this, she quickly

shut her legs, crushing Maui to

death. From then on, humanity was

forever doomed to be mortal. ■

The war god Tu

Of all the sons of Rangi

and Papa, only Tu withstood

the attack from the storm

god, Tawhirimatea: Tane

could do nothing to stop

his trees being destroyed,

Tangaroa fled to the ocean,

and Haumia and Rongo hid

themselves in their mother’s

body, the Earth.

After the winds had died

down, Tu blamed his brothers

for not supporting him and

attacked them. He cut down

trees in Tane’s forests, caught

fish from Tangaroa’s water,

and dug up the plants from

the soil where Haumia and

Rongo had hidden.

Tu’s actions supplied

humans with a template for

making use of the resources

of the natural world through

ritual and farming. Tu also set

a precedent for war between

humans by fighting with his

brothers. The Maori name for

New Zealand’s armed forces

is Ngati Tumatauenga,

meaning “Tribe of the God

of War,” in honor of Tu.

Rangi Papa

Tu Tawhirimatea Tangaroa Rongo Haumia

Tane Hine-titama

The Maori people can trace their genealogy back to

sky father Rangi and earth mother Papa, and their sons,

as well as the waka (“canoe”) in which their ancestors

traveled to New Zealand over 800 years ago.

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