The First Rock
Kiribati · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Cosmogonic 'slain primordial being' of Kiribati myth (parallel to the world-from-body motif). Treated as deity; vitalStatus 'deceased' since he is dismembered to make the world.
Parentage
- parent: Spider Creator
Children
Domains
- foundation of the world
- creation
Powers
- gives up his body to become sun, moon, stars and islands
- his eyes, brains and bones become sun, moon, stars and land
Relations
- spouse: Nei Teukez the Primal Mother
Sources
- Na Atibu ('the Rock'), first-made being and father of Nareau the Younger, is dismembered so that his body forms the cosmos — sun, moon, stars and islands — and the ancestral tree Kai-n-tiku-aba grows from his spine.: Grimble, Arthur. 'Myths from the Gilbert Islands' (Folklore, 1922) (secondary); Grimble, Arthur. Tungaru Traditions (ed. H.E. Maude, 1989) (secondary)