Related Research Articles
Polynesian mythology encompasses the oral traditions of the people of Polynesia together with those of the scattered cultures known as the Polynesian outliers. Polynesians speak languages that descend from a language reconstructed as Proto-Polynesian – probably spoken in the Tonga and Samoa area around 1000 BC.
Māui or Maui is the great culture hero and trickster in Polynesian mythology. Very rarely was Māui actually worshipped, being less of a deity (Demigod) and more of a folk hero. His origins vary from culture to culture, but many of his main exploits remain relatively similar.
In the Tahitian story of Rata 'Aremata-Popoto and 'Aremata-Roroa are two ocean-dwelling monsters that Rata must overcome.
In Hawaiian mythology, Laka is the name of two different popular heroes from Polynesian mythology..
Kaha'i is a handsome Polynesian demigod whose exploits were popular in many Polynesian mythologies.
In Hawaiian mythology, Nana-Ula or Nanaulu is the hero who led his people from Tahiti to Hawaii. He was the first King of Hawaii, and began the royal dynasty.
In Cook Islands mythology (Aitutaki), Nganaoa is a hero who sighted and killed unusually large animals in the ocean while sailing with Rata.
In the mythology of Tahiti, Pua Tu Tahi was one of the giant monster clam of the deep in the legend of Rata.
The history of the Pitcairn Islands begins with the colonization of the islands by Polynesians in the 11th century. Polynesian people established a culture that flourished for four centuries and then vanished. They lived on Pitcairn and Henderson Islands, and on Mangareva Island 540 kilometres (340 mi) to the northwest, for about 400 years.
Mangareva is the central and largest island of the Gambier Islands in French Polynesia. It is surrounded by smaller islands: Taravai in the southwest, Aukena and Akamaru in the southeast, and islands in the north. Mangareva has a permanent population of 1,239 (2012) and the largest village on the island, Rikitea, is the chief town of the Gambier Islands.
In the Polynesian narrative of the Tuamotus archipelago in the South Pacific, Puna is the king of Hiti-marama or of Vavaʻu, depending on the story.
In Tuamotu mythology, Vahieroa marries Matamata-taua or Tahiti-to'erau, and on the night of the birth of their son, the great Tuamotuan hero, Rata, the parents go fishing and are snatched away by the demon bird belonging to Puna, king of Hiti-marama, "an island north of Pitcairn and Elizabeth but long since swallowed in the sea."
In the Tuamotu Rata cycle, Tahiti-tokerau was a water-nymph whom Vahi-vero marries. She was abducted by Puna, king of the underworld and rescued by her husband. They then become parents of Rata.
Manu-kura was a famous warrior in the Tuamotuan version of the Rata cycle of Polynesian mythology. His home was in the ocean.
Tumu-nui is the name of several figures in Tahitan mythology.
In Māori mythology, accounts vary somewhat as to the ancestry of Rātā. Usually he is a grandson of Tāwhaki and son of Wahieroa. Wahieroa is treacherously killed by Matuku-tangotango, an ogre. Rātā sets out to avenge the murder, travelling to the home of Matuku, where a servant of the ogre tells him that Matuku comes out to devour people each new moon, and that he can be killed at the pool where he washes his face and hair. Rātā waits till the ogre comes out and is leaning over with his head in the pool. He grabs him by the hair and kills him. Matuku's bones are used to make spears for hunting birds.
In the Tuamotu islands, the telling of the full cycle of the legend of Rata takes several evenings to tell.
In Tuamotu mythology, Vahi-vero is the son of the demigod Kui and a goblin woman named Rima-roa.
In Tahitian mythology, Vahieroa is a son of Tafa'i and his wife Hina, and is born at his father's house in the Tapahi hills of Mahina in north Tahiti. He weds Maemae-a-rohi, sister of the ruling chief Tumu-nui.
The Kingdom of Tahiti or the Tahitian Kingdom was a Polynesian monarchy founded by paramount chief Pōmare I, who, with the aid of British missionaries and traders, and European weaponry, unified the islands of Tahiti, Moʻorea, Teti‘aroa, and Mehetiʻa. The kingdom eventually annexed the Tuamotus, and the Austral Islands.
References
- R.D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology (Greenwood Press: New York, 1989), 133-4;
- M. Beckwith, Hawaiian Mythology (Yale U.P.: New Haven, 1948), 263–275.
 | This article relating to a myth or legend from Oceania is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This French Polynesia-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |