Spider Creator
Kiribati · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Gilbertese 'spider lord' creator. Tradition distinguishes Nareau the Elder/Wise (this figure) from Nareau the Younger; entered as deity. Documented by colonial administrator-ethnographer Grimble (1922; collected in Tungaru Traditions, 1989).
Children
Domains
- creation
Powers
- wakes alone in the void and begins creation
- fashions the first beings from sand and water
Epithets
- Nareau the Elder The spider-creator (“First of Things”) who made the world from the primal darkness of Te Bo ma Te MakiArthur Grimble, Tungaru Traditions (secondary)
Relations
- ancestor of: The First RockThe Elder spider-creator who brings forth the primordial being Na Atibu (later dismembered to make the world); Na Atibu already lists Nareau the Elder as parent.Grimble, 'Myths from the Gilbert Islands', Folklore 33 (1922); Grimble, Tungaru Traditions (1989) (secondary)
- ancestor of: World-MakerForebear of Nareau the Younger, the active world-shaper born of Na Atibu (Elder > Na Atibu > Younger).Grimble, Tungaru Traditions (1989) (secondary)
Sources
- Nareau the Elder is the primordial spider-creator of the Gilbert Islands (Kiribati), who wakes in the void Te Bomatemaki and makes the first beings Na Atibu and Nei Teakea from sand and water.: Grimble, Arthur. 'Myths from the Gilbert Islands' (Folklore, vol. 33, 1922) (secondary); Grimble, Arthur. Tungaru Traditions: Writings on the Atoll Culture of the Gilbert Islands (ed. H.E. Maude, 1989) (secondary)