Atea is a

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

in several

Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...

n cultures, including the Marquesas and Tuamotu Islands, and New Zealand.

Marquesas Islands

In the mythology of the

Marquesas Islands The Marquesas Islands ( ; or ' or ' ; Marquesan language, Marquesan: ' (North Marquesan language, North Marquesan) and ' (South Marquesan language, South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcano, volcanic islands in ...

, Atea is the giver of light. In one legend Atea and

Tāne In Māori mythology, Tāne (also called Tāne-mahuta, Tāne-nui-a-Rangi, Tāne-te-waiora and several other names) is the god of forests and of birds, and the son of Rangi and Papa, Ranginui and Rangi and Papa, Papatūānuku, the sky father and th ...

are brothers, the sons of Toho. Another tradition relates that Atea (as light) evolved himself, and then brought forth Ono. Joining forces, they broke up the boundless darkness of the underworld ( Po), where Tanaoa, lord of darkness, and Mutu-hei (silence) had lived for eternity. Atea and Ono made war on Tanaoa and Mutu-hei, and defeated them. They confined the gods of night within set boundaries. Out of the struggle came forth

Atanua Atanua (or Atanea) in Polynesian mythology Polynesian mythology encompasses the oral traditions of the people of Polynesia (a grouping of Central and South Pacific Ocean island archipelagos in the Polynesian Triangle) together with those of ...

, the dawn. Atea then married

, and their children include the lesser gods and humankind (Tregear 1891:29).

E. M. Meletinsky Eleazar Moiseevich Meletinskii (also ''Meletinsky'' or ''Meletinskij''; ; 22 October 1918, Kharkiv – 17 December 2005, Moscow) was a Russian scholar famous for his seminal studies of folklore, literature, philology and the history and theory of ...

, ''The Poetics of Myth'' (

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

: London), 2000.

Tuamotu Islands

In the mythology of the

Tuamotu The Tuamotu Archipelago or the Tuamotu Islands (, officially ) are a French Polynesian chain of just under 80 islands and atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. They constitute the largest chain of atolls in the world, extending (from northwest to ...

islands, Atea is killed by Tāne, his second son (Meletinsky 2000:421). Their first son, Tahu, dies of starvation and the two gods switch sexes. Later, Atea tries to kidnap Tane, but Tane escapes to earth and eventually becomes so hungry that he eats a man, thus becoming the first

cannibal Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecology, ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well ...

. Tane declares war on Atea and kills him with the lightning bolts of Fatu-tiri, his ancestor).

New Zealand

Friedrich Ratzel Friedrich Ratzel (August 30, 1844 – August 9, 1904) was a German geographer and ethnographer, notable for first using the term ''Lebensraum'' ("living space") in the sense that the National Socialists later would. Life Ratzel's father was th ...

in ''The History of Mankind'' (1896)Ratzel, Friedrich
''The History of Mankind''
. (London:

MacMillan and Co. Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be on ...

, 1896, accessed 30 May 2010. related the Māori belief that creation commenced with the night then, after untold periods, desire awoke, then longing, then feeling. Thought followed upon the first pulse of life, or the first breath drawn; and upon thought, mental activity. Then sprang up the wish, directed to the sacred mystery or great riddle of life. Later, from the material procreative power of love develops the clinging to existence, permeated by a joyous sense of pleasure. Lastly, Atea, the universe, floated in space, divided by the difference of sex into

Rangi and Papa In Māori mythology the primal couple Rangi and Papa (or Ranginui and Papatūānuku) appear in a creation myth explaining the origin of the world and the Māori people (though there are many different versions). In some South Island dialects, Ran ...

, Heaven and Earth; and individual creations then began. E. R. Tregear, ''Māori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary'' (

Lyon and Blair John Rutherfurd Blair (8 February 1843 – 25 November 1914) was the Mayor of Wellington, New Zealand from 1897 to 1899. Biography Blair was born in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, Scotland, and was a paper merchant. His career started with a large Glasg ...

: Lambton Quay), 1891.

References

{{Reflist Creation myths Light gods Marquesan mythology Polynesian gods Tuamotu deities

Marquesas Islands

Tuamotu Islands

New Zealand

See also

References