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.