Tanaoa

Tanaoa, also Taka-oa and Te-fatu-moana, is the Marquesan god of sea and wind and patron of fishing in Handy’s account. Fishers offered chickens and pigs’ heads at his stone platform on Fatu Uku. The light-and-darkness cosmogony summarized by Dixon is disputed: Handy argues that the Fornander/Lawson text is a European fabrication.

Names and tradition associations

• Tangaroa Māori · resolvedRoland B. Dixon, Oceanic Mythology (1916), Part I, ch. I, pp. 11–13 (secondary)

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)
• source review correctionReplace the unsupported demotion claim with the specific offering and place described by Handy; classify offerings separately from festivals.E. S. C. Handy, The Native Culture in the Marquesas (1923), pp. 165,245–247 (primary)

Domains

• primordial darkness and the void
• sea wind and fishing

Powers

• Dominion over the primeval darkness
• Command of the sea and the winds

Epithets

• Te Fatu Moana Marquesan · Te Fatu Moana · cultLord of the SeaE. S. C. Handy, The Native Culture in the Marquesas (Bishop Museum Bulletin 9, 1923) (secondary)

Relations

• enemy: AteaAtea separated out of him, made war on him, drove him off and confined him.Handy 1923; Dixon 1916, ch. I — Atea separates from and drives away Tanaoa. (primary)
• companion: Mutu-heiCoeval power of the Po; darkness paired with silence.Dixon 1916, ch. I — 'Tanaoa and Mutuhei ruled supreme in the primeval Po.' (primary)
• counterpart of: TangaroaCross-island counterpart comparison. This link does not identify the portrayals as one individual or transfer genealogy, cult, powers or objects.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)
• counterpart of: KanaloaCross-island counterpart comparison. This link does not identify the portrayals as one individual or transfer genealogy, cult, powers or objects.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)
• counterpart of: TagaloaCross-island counterpart comparison. This link does not identify the portrayals as one individual or transfer genealogy, cult, powers or objects.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)
• counterpart of: Ta'aroaCross-island counterpart comparison. This link does not identify the portrayals as one individual or transfer genealogy, cult, powers or objects.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)
• counterpart of: Tangaloa 'Eitumatupu'aCross-island counterpart comparison. This link does not identify the portrayals as one individual or transfer genealogy, cult, powers or objects.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)
• counterpart of: TangaroaCross-island counterpart comparison. This link does not identify the portrayals as one individual or transfer genealogy, cult, powers or objects.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)
• counterpart of: TangaroaCross-island counterpart comparison. This link does not identify the portrayals as one individual or transfer genealogy, cult, powers or objects.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)
• counterpart of: TakaroaCross-island counterpart comparison. This link does not identify the portrayals as one individual or transfer genealogy, cult, powers or objects.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. Tangaroa. (primary)