Polynesian mythology is the oral traditions of the people of Polynesia (meaning "many islands" in Greek) a grouping of Central and South Pacific Ocean island archipelagos in the Polynesian triangle together with the scattered cultures known as the Polynesian outliers. Polynesians speak languages that descend from a language reconstructed as Proto-Polynesian that was probably spoken in the Tonga - Samoa area around 1000 BC. Carving from the ridgepole of a Māori house, ca 1840 Polynesia (from Greek: πολύς many, νῆσος island) is a large grouping of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. ... The Mergui Archipelago The Archipelago Sea, situated between the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland, the largest archipelago in the world by the number of islands. ... The Polynesian Triangle is a geographical region of the Pacific Ocean anchored by Hawaii, Rapa Nui and New Zealand. ... Polynesian outliers are a number of Polynesian islands which lie in Melanesia and Micronesia. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

Description

Prior to the 15th century AD, Polynesian people fanned out to the east, to the Cook Islands, and from there to other groups such as Tahiti and the Marquesas. Their descendants later discovered the islands of New Zealand, the islands of Hawai‘i and everything from Tahiti to Rapa Nui. The various Polynesian languages are all part of the Austronesian language family. Many are close enough in terms of vocabulary and grammar to permit communication between some other language speakers. There are also substantial cultural similarities between the various groups, especially in terms of social formation, childrearing, as well as horticulture, building and textile technologies; their mythologies in particular demonstrate local reworkings of commonly shared tales. Polynesian culture refers to the aboriginal culture of the Polynesian-speaking peoples of Polynesia and the Polynesian outliers. ... Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of the French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. ... The Marquesas Islands is a group of islands in French Polynesia. ... Map of the Hawaiian Islands, a chain of islands that stretches 2,400 km in a northwesterly direction from the southern tip of the Island of Hawaii. ... Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of the French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. ... Easter Island and its location Easter Island (Polynesian: Rapa Nui (Great Rapa), Spanish: Isla de Pascua) is an island in the south Pacific Ocean belonging to Chile. ... The Polynesian languages are a group of related languages spoken in the region known as Polynesia. ... The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ...

Thus, in some island groups, Tangaroa is of great importance as the god of the sea and of fishing. There is often a story of the marriage between Sky and Earth; the New Zealand version, Rangi and Papa, is a union that gives birth to the world and all things in it. There are stories of islands pulled up from the bottom of the sea by a magic fishhook, or thrown down as rocks from heaven. There are stories of voyages, migrations, seductions and battles, as one might expect. Stories about a trickster, Māui, are widely known, as are those about a beautiful goddess/ancestress Hina or Sina who shakes her barkcloth to make lightning, provides fish and sharks to fishermen, brings weaving techniques and sails her boat to the moon. In Polynesian mythology (specifically: Samoa), Tangaroa (or Tagaloa) is the sea god, a son of Rangi and Papa, whom he forcibly separated from each other. ... In Māori mythology, the primal couple Rangi and Papa (or Ranginui and Papatuanuku) appear in a creation myth explaining the origin of the world. ... Not to be confused with Magic (illusion). ... For other uses, see Heaven (disambiguation). ... Māui (Maui) is the great hero of Polynesian mythology. ... In Polynesian mythology, Hina is a goddess of flatulence, mother of Māui, whom she once asked to slow down the sun so days would last longer. ... Sina can represent: Look up sina in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

In addition to these shared themes in the oral tradition, each island group has its own stories of demi-gods and culture heroes, shading gradually into the firmer outlines of remembered history. Often such stories were linked to various geographic or ecological features, which may be described as the petrified remains of the supernatural beings.

From oral to written

The various Polynesian cultures each have distinct but related oral traditions, that is, legends or myths traditionally considered to recount the history of ancient times (the time of "pō") and the adventures of gods (“atua”) and deified ancestors. The accounts are characterised by extensive use of allegory, metaphor, parabola, hyperbole, and personification. Orality has an essential flexibility that writing does not allow. In an oral tradition, there is no fixed version of a given tale. The story may change within certain limits according to the setting, and the needs of the narrator and the audience. Contrary to the Western concept of history, where the knowledge of the past serves to bring a better understanding of the present, the purpose of oral literature is rather to justify and legitimatise the present situation. In Polynesian mythology, the Aitu are a group of lesser gods, many being patrons of specific villages and familes. ...

An example is provided by genealogies, which exist in multiple and often contradictory versions. The purpose of genealogies in oral societies generally is not to provide a 'true' account, but rather to emphasise the seniority of the ruling chiefly line, and hence its political legitimacy and right to exploit resources of land and the like. If another the ruling line should rise to ascendency, it was necessary to bestow upon the new line the most prestigious line, even if this meant borrowing a few ancestors from the preceding dynasty. Thus each island, each tribe or each clan will have their own version or interpretation of a given narrative cycle.

This process is disrupted when writing becomes the primary means to record and remember the traditions. When missionaries, officials, anthropologists or ethnologists collected and published these accounts, they inevitably changed their nature. By fixing forever on paper what had previously been subject to almost infinite variation, they fixed as the authoritative version an account told by one narrator at a given moment. In New Zealand, the writings of one chief, Wiremu Te Rangikāheke, formed the basis of much of Governor George Grey's Polynesian Mythology, a book which to this day provides the de facto official versions of many of the best-known Māori legends.

Some Polynesians seem to have been aware of the danger and the potential of this new means of expression. Thus as of the mid-19th century, a number of them wrote down their genealogy, the history and the origin of their tribe. These writings, known under the name of "pukapuka whakapapa" (genealogy books, Māori) or in tropical Polynesia as "puta tumu" (origin stories) or "puta tūpuna” (ancestral stories) were jealously guarded by the heads of households. Many disappeared or were destroyed. Thus in the 1890s, Makea Takau, a Rarotongan chief, ordered his tribe to burn all their family books, save his own. As a result, Makea Takau's version became the official history of the chiefly line, removing the possibility of dissent. At his request, extracts were published in the Journal of the Polynesian Society. The Polynesian Society is a non-profit organization based at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, dedicated to the scholarly study of the history, ethnography, and mythology of Oceania. ...

Deities

Hawaiian

• Atea
• Ina
• Kane Milohai
• Lono
• Maui
• Papa
• Pele
• Kaili

See also: Menehune. Hawaiian mythology is a variant of a more general Polynesian mythology. ... In Polynesian mythology, Atea is the most ancient god, who separated into the two gods Rangi and Papa. ... In Polynesian mythology, Ina is a lunar deity (daughter of Kui or Vaitere) who kept an eel in a jar, but it soon grew into the eel-god, Tuna, who tried to rape her. ... In Polynesian mythology, Kane Milohai is the father of Kā-moho-alii, Pele (whom he exiled to Hawaii), Pere, Kapo, Namaka and Hiiaka by Haumea. ... In Polynesian mythology (specifically: Hawaii), Lono (or Lono-i-ka-makahiki) is a fertility and music god who descended to Earth on a rainbow to marry Laka. ... Māui (Maui) is the great hero of Polynesian mythology. ... In Hawaiian mythology, Pele is a goddess of fire, lightning, dance, volcanoes and violence, a daughter of Haumea and Kane Milohai. ... In Polynesian mythology, the Menehune are similar to elves or fairies. ...

Māori

• Haumia-tiketike - deity of uncultivated food, especially fern root
• Hine-nui-te-pō - deity of death
• Hine Tītama - deity of the dawn
• Hine Raumati - deity of the summer
• Papa-tū-ā-nuku - deity of the earth
• Rā - deity of the sun
• Ranginui - deity of the sky
• Rongo - deity of cultivated food
• Ruaumoko - deity of earthquakes
• Tāne Māhuta - deity of the forest and its creatures, man
• Tangaroa - deity of the sea and its creatures
• Tāwhiri-matea - deity of the weather, especially storms
• Tū Matauenga - deity of war
• Uenuku - deity of rainbows

Polynesia is a triangle of islands in the Pacific Ocean. ... In Polynesian mythology (specifically: Hawaii), Haumea is a goddess of fertility and childbirth. ... The laugh of the fantail woke Hine-nui-te-pō In Māori mythology, Hine-nui-te-pō (Great woman of night) is a goddess of night and death, and the ruler of the underworld. ... In Māori mythology, the primal couple Rangi and Papa (or Ranginui and Papatuanuku) appear in a creation myth explaining the origin of the world. ... Māori religion is the religious beliefs and practice of the Māori, the Polynesian indigenous people of New Zealand. ... In Māori mythology, the primal couple Rangi and Papa (or Ranginui and Papatuanuku) appear in a creation myth explaining the origin of the world. ... In Polynesian mythology (specifically: New Zealand), Rongo (sound) is the god of song, peace, flora (plants) and agriculture, particularly associated with the sweet potato. ... In Māori mythology, Ruaumoko is the youngest son of Rangi and Papa. ... Tane Mahuta is a giant kauri tree in the Waipoua Forest of Northland, New Zealand. ... In Polynesian mythology (specifically: Samoa), Tangaroa (or Tagaloa) is the sea god, a son of Rangi and Papa, whom he forcibly separated from each other. ... In Māori mythology, Tāwhirimātea (or Tāwhiri) is the god of weather, including thunder and lightning, wind, clouds and storms. ... In Polynesian mythology, Tu Matauenga (also called Tu, Maru (Maori) and Ku (Hawaii)) is the god of war, envy and hatred who devoured his children and fought with the gods (particularly Tawhiri). ... In Maori mythology, Uenuku is the god of rainbows. ...

Rapanui

• Make-make fertility & creator

The Rapa Nui mythology, also known as Pascuense mythology or Easter Island mythology, is the name given to the mythology formed by myths, legends and beliefs of the native peoples of the island of Easter Island (island of Rapa Nui); located in in the south Pacific Ocean, almost four thousand... For other uses, see Make-make (disambiguation). ...

See also

• Māori mythology
• Hawaiian mythology
• Rapa Nui mythology (Easter Island mythology)
• Maui (mythology)
• Hina

Six major Māori departmental gods represented by wooden godsticks: left to right, Tūmatauenga, Tāwhirimātea, Tāne, Tangaroa, Rongo, and Haumia Māori mythology and Māori traditions are the two major categories into which the legends of the Māori of New Zealand may usefully be... Hawaiian mythology is a variant of a more general Polynesian mythology. ... The Rapa Nui mythology, also known as Pascuense mythology or Easter Island mythology, is the name given to the mythology formed by myths, legends and beliefs of the native peoples of the island of Easter Island (island of Rapa Nui); located in in the south Pacific Ocean, almost four thousand... In Polynesian mythology, and especially in New Zealand and Hawaiʻi, Maui is an extremely powerful supernatural being, for whom the Hawaiian island of Maui was named. ... In Polynesian mythology, Hina is a goddess of flatulence, mother of Māui, whom she once asked to slow down the sun so days would last longer. ...

References

• Beckwith, Martha, Hawaiian Mythology, Yale University Press, 1940, as re-issued in 1970, University of Hawaii Press
• Buck, Sir Peter / Te Rangi Hiroa, Samoan Material Culture. bishop Museum bulletin.
• Kirch, Patrick, 'On the Road of the Winds' 2000, University of California Press.
• Malo, David, Hawaiian Antiquities, first published in English in 1898, available as Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication 2, Second Edition, 1951