Thunderer

Thunder/lightning deity, the most prominent of the invoked anti. Treated as deity; immortal. RECIPROCAL within batch with Nei Tevenei (spouse). The variant spelling 'Taburimai' is attested but is sometimes treated as a distinct hero; kept here only as an alt form.

Domains

• thunder
• lightning
• wind and rain
• healing
• fertility and the crops

Powers

• hurls fiery thunderbolts and rolls the thunder when angry
• rules the winds and the rain and heals the sick
• wrestles Nareau, who breaks his arm

Epithets

• Taburimai Gilbertese · Taburimai · altvariant name of the thunder-antiA. Grimble, Tungaru Traditions (secondary)

Relations

• spouse: Comet GoddessHusband of Nei Tevenei, 'of the meteor/comet,' his consort among the chief ancestral anti.Grimble, Arthur. Tungaru Traditions (ed. Maude, 1989), Tabuariki the Thunderer and his consort Tevene'i of the Meteor (secondary)
• enemy: World-MakerOpponent of Nareau (the Younger / the trickster), who provokes him to wrestle and breaks his arm.Grimble, Arthur. Tungaru Traditions (ed. Maude, 1989); Encyclopedia.com, 'Micronesian Religions: Mythic Themes', the wrestling of Na Areau and Tabuariki (secondary)

Sources

• Tabuariki is the best known of the Gilbertese ancestral anti, the lord of thunder and lightning who hurls fiery thunderbolts and rolls the thunder in anger, ruler of wind and rain and a healer; his consort is Nei Tevenei 'of the meteor', and in myth he is provoked to wrestle by Nareau, who breaks his arm.: Grimble, Arthur. Tungaru Traditions: Writings on the Atoll Culture of the Gilbert Islands (ed. H.E. Maude, 1989) (secondary); Grimble, Rosemary. Migrations, Myth and Magic from the Gilbert Islands (1972) (secondary)