Marquesan reflex of the pan-Polynesian Tangaroa (Maori Tangaroa, Tahitian Ta'aroa, Hawaiian Kanaloa). In Marquesan cosmogony he is the lord of the primeval darkness and void (Po), coeval with Mutu-hei (silence); the two reigned supreme until Atea (Light) separated himself out of Tanaoa, drove him away, and confined the night-powers within set bounds. Demoted from the paramountcy, Tanaoa survives in cult as the god of the sea and winds and the patron of fishermen (Te Fatu Moana, 'Lord of the Sea').