Sky-Lifting Eel

The sky-lifting eel of the Tungaru cosmogony. Already named in the corpus within Nareau the Younger's 'raise-the-sky' faculty; here given his own entry, wired as a child of the registered Na Atibu and sibling of Nareau the Younger and of Na Kika. Identified with the Milky Way (Na Iabu). Treated as deity; immortal (set in the sky, not slain).

Parentage

• parent: The First Rock
• parent: Nei Teukez the Primal Mother

Domains

• separation of sky and earth
• eels
• milky way

Powers

• prises the sky-roof off the earth
• is roused to strength by Na Kika's severed legs
• is set in the heavens as the Milky Way

Epithets

• Na Iabu Gilbertese · Na Iabu · myththe Milky WayA. Grimble, Tungaru Traditions (Riiki set in the sky as the Milky Way) (secondary)

Relations

• sibling: World-Heaving OctopusThe octopus and the eel, fellow children of the primal pair and co-workers in lifting the sky and land.Grimble, Arthur. Tungaru Traditions (ed. Maude, 1989), Na Kika and Riiki both children of Na Atibu and Nei Teukez (secondary)
• sibling: World-MakerRiiki is a child of Na Atibu, hence brother of Nareau the Younger, whose command he obeys in raising the sky.Grimble, Arthur. Tungaru Traditions (ed. Maude, 1989), genealogy of the children of Na Atibu (secondary)

Sources

• Riiki (Ruki) is the great conger-eel of Gilbertese creation, a child of Na Atibu and Nei Teukez, who at Nareau the Younger's bidding prises the sky from the earth and is afterwards set in the heavens as Na Iabu, the Milky Way.: Grimble, Arthur. Tungaru Traditions: Writings on the Atoll Culture of the Gilbert Islands (ed. H.E. Maude, 1989) (secondary); Grimble, Arthur. 'Myths from the Gilbert Islands' (Folklore, vol. 33, 1922) (secondary)