Atanua

The light-and-darkness cosmogony summarized by Dixon is disputed: Handy (1923, pp. 328–329) argues that its Fornander/Lawson text is a European fabrication. Atanua ('Dawn') is the consort of Atea and the mother of the races of the Marquesan pantheon. She arose out of the two cosmogonic struggles — Atea's defeat of Tanaoa (Darkness) and Ono's destruction of Mutu-hei (Silence) — and was taken by Atea to wife, bearing the host of lesser deities and the human lineage; Marquesan genealogies traced the people of Hiva back to the progenitors Atea and Atanua. In one tradition her miscarriage gave the sea its origin, the oceans filled with her amniotic fluid.

Variant accounts

• source review correctionHandy explicitly disputes the authenticity of the Fornander/Lawson light-and-darkness cosmogony. Its narrative claims must be attributed rather than presented as an uncontested account.E. S. C. Handy, The Native Culture in the Marquesas (1923), pp. 328–329 (primary); E. S. C. Handy, The Native Culture in the Marquesas (1923), pp. 165,245–247 (primary)
• source review correctionHandy explicitly disputes the authenticity of the Fornander/Lawson light-and-darkness cosmogony. Its narrative claims must be attributed rather than presented as an uncontested account.E. S. C. Handy, The Native Culture in the Marquesas (1923), pp. 328–329 (primary); E. S. C. Handy, The Native Culture in the Marquesas (1923), pp. 165,245–247 (primary)

Domains

• dawn and daybreak
• motherhood of gods and the human lineage

Powers

• Embodiment of the dawn
• Maternal generativity (mother of the races)

Epithets

• Atanua Marquesan · Atanua · cosmogonicDawnE. S. C. Handy, The Native Culture in the Marquesas (Bishop Museum Bulletin 9, 1923) (secondary)

Relations

• spouse: AteaWife of Atea (Light).Handy 1923; Dixon 1916, ch. I — Atea took Atanua to wife. (primary)
• mother of: TikiIn the genealogical tradition, ancestress (with Atea) of the first man Tiki.Handy 1923 — Marquesan genealogies derive the first man Tiki from the progenitors Atea and Atanua. (primary)

Sources

• existence: E. S. Craighill Handy, The Native Culture in the Marquesas (Bishop Museum Bulletin 9, 1923); Roland B. Dixon, Oceanic Mythology (Mythology of All Races vol. 9, 1916), ch. I. (primary)