Atea

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. Atea ('Atea, 'Light'/'Space') is the giver of light and the chief creator-progenitor of the Marquesan pantheon. In the cosmogony he evolves or separates himself out of the darkness of Tanaoa, drives Tanaoa off and confines the night-powers; he brings forth Ono (Sound), who destroys Mutu-hei (Silence); from these two struggles arises Atanua (Dawn), whom Atea takes to wife, begetting the host of lesser deities and the human lineage and creating the heavens and earth. In the pu'e sacred chant he impregnates One-u'i, the 'sand-woman,' fathering the first man Tiki. Marquesan genealogies traced the people of Hiva some ninety generations back to the progenitors Atea and Atanua. In a Hiva Oa tradition Atea and Tane are brothers, sons of Toho (Tohetika). Cognate with Tahitian Atea, Tuamotuan Atea/Vatea, and Hawaiian Wakea.

Parentage

• paternal: Tohetika

Children

• Tiki

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

• light and the open expanse of space
• creation and progenitorship of gods and mankind

Powers

• Separation of light from darkness
• Generative progenitorship of gods and mankind

Epithets

• Atea Marquesan · 'Atea · cosmogonicLight / open spaceE. S. C. Handy, The Native Culture in the Marquesas (Bishop Museum Bulletin 9, 1923) (secondary)

Relations

• enemy: TanaoaSeparated out of Tanaoa, made war on him and drove him away.Handy 1923; Dixon 1916, ch. I. (primary)
• ally: OnoBrought forth Ono (Sound) and joined forces with him to break up the darkness of the Po.Handy 1923; Dixon 1916, ch. I — Atea brought forth Ono and the two joined forces against the powers of the Po. (primary)
• spouse: AtanuaHusband of Atanua (the Dawn); with her begat the deities and mankind and made the heavens and earth.Handy 1923; Dixon 1916, ch. I — Atea took Atanua, the Dawn, to wife. (primary)
• spouse: One-u'iConsort of One-u'i (the sand-woman) in the pu'e creation chant; with her the first parents, fathering the first man Tiki.Handy 1923 — 'Atea impregnates One-u'i in the pu'e chant; they are the first parents. (primary)
• father of: TikiFather of Tiki, the first man — by Atanua in the genealogical tradition, and by One-u'i (the sand-woman) in the pu'e chant.Handy 1923 — the pu'e chant; Marquesan genealogies naming Tiki as the first man descended from Atea. (primary)
• sibling: TaneBrother of Tane in the Hiva Oa tradition; both are sons of Toho (Tohetika).Handy, The Native Culture in the Marquesas (1923) — in a Hiva Oa tradition 'Atea and Tāne are brothers, the sons of Toho'; Atea and Tane respectively the younger and elder (variant) brother. (primary)
• equated with: VateaReflex 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)

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; E. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary (1891), s.v. Atea. (primary)
• parentage: Handy 1923 — Hiva Oa tradition making Atea and Tane the sons of Toho (Tohetika). The Atea = self-evolved-from-Tanaoa cosmogony (Dixon 1916) is the alternative, parentless account, recorded here as the genealogical-anchor variant. (primary)