Polynesian mythology
From The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom)
Polynesia (many islands) refers to a triangular grouping of Central and South Pacific Ocean island archipelagos settled by seafaring voyagers from a heartland in Tonga and Samoa. The Polynesian people fanned out to island groups to the east as far as Tahiti, the Marquesas, New Zealand, and Hawai‘i. The various Polynesian languages are still close and there are substantial cultural similarities between the various groups; their mythologies in particular tend to be local reworkings of commonly shared tales.
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, 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 and migrations, as one might expect. Stories about a trickster, Māui, are widely known.
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 features, which may be described as the petrified remains of the supernatural beings.
References
Primary sources
- Malo, David, Hawaiian Antiquities, first published in English in 1898, available as Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication 2, Second Edition, 1951
Secondary sources
- Beckwith, Martha, Hawaiian Mythology, Yale University Press, 1940, as re-issued in 1970, University of Hawaii Press
--Angel 16:26, 1 June 2006 (CDT)
