Vatea

Sky/light father of Mangaia (Gill 1876). Right half man, left half fish. By Papa the father of Rongo and Tangaroa and of Tane, Tangiia and Tonga-iti.

Parentage

• maternal: Vari-ma-te-takere

Children

• Rongo
• Tane
• Tangaroa
• Tangiia
• Tonga-iti

Children in alternative accounts

• Tangaroa: Vatea and Papa (Gill)William Wyatt Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (1876), pp. 10–11 (primary)

Domains

• noon and daylight
• sky and light
• fatherhood of the gods

Powers

• exist as a being half man and half fish
• embody and bring the light of noon-day

Relations

• spouse: PapaVatea takes Papa to wife; she bears him the great gods of Mangaia.Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (1876), Ch. I, pp. 9–12 (primary)
• sibling: TinirauBrother of Tinirau; both plucked from the right side of Vari, Vatea the first and Tinirau the second.Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (1876), Ch. I, pp. 3–9 (primary)
• father of: TangaroaFather of the first-born twin Tangaroa.Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (1876), Ch. I, pp. 12–14 (primary)
• father of: RongoFather of Rongo, whom he favoured and gave precedence over the elder twin.Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (1876), Ch. I, pp. 12–14 (primary)
• father of: TaneGill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (1876), Ch. I, pp. 12–14 (primary)
• father of: TangiiaGill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (1876), Ch. I, pp. 12–14 (primary)
• father of: Tonga-itiGill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (1876), Ch. I, pp. 12–14 (primary)
• equated with: AteaReflex of the same ancestral Polynesian deity (*Atea), cognate across the island groups.Comparative Polynesian mythology: reflexes of the same ancestral deity across the island groups (E. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, 1891; R. D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology, 1989) (secondary)
• equated with: AteaReflex of the same ancestral Polynesian deity (*Atea), cognate across the island groups.Comparative Polynesian mythology: reflexes of the same ancestral deity across the island groups (E. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, 1891; R. D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology, 1989) (secondary)
• sibling: Raka
• sibling: Tango
• sibling: Tu-metua
• sibling: Tumu-te-ana-oa

Sources

• Vatea (Avatea), 'noon', is the first-born of Vari-ma-te-takere, plucked from her right side, a being half man and half fish, lord of light and father of the great gods of Mangaia.: William Wyatt Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (1876), Ch. I, pp. 3–14 (primary)
• Vatea / Atea is the Mangaian sky-and-light father, husband of Papa.: E. R. Tregear, The Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary (1891), s.v. 'Atea / Vatea' (secondary)