Hemā

Demigod son of the sky-goddess Whaitiri by the mortal Kaitangata. Father of Tāwhaki and Karihi by Urutonga. Captured and blinded by the Ponaturi (Maori malevolent water-spirits) while searching for a gift for his newborn son; died in captivity per the dominant Maori Grey 1855 recension. Avenged by his sons Tāwhaki and Karihi who destroyed the Ponaturi by trapping them in their hut and exposing them to sunrise — the canonical-Polynesian Ponaturi-sunrise-destruction scene. The Cook-Islands and Tahitian recensions have Tāwhaki rescuing his father alive; the Hawaiian recension (Fornander 1878) has Tāwhaki himself killed in the rescue-attempt and the eventual vengeance falling to Rata, his grandson. The blinding-and-imprisonment of Hemā is the canonical-Polynesian wrong-suffered-by-the-father narrative-event that motivates the entire Tāwhaki-Wahieroa-Rata vengeance-cycle.

Parentage

• mother: WhaitiriGrey 1855 (primary)
• father: KaitangataGrey 1855 (primary)

Children

• Karihi
• Tāwhaki

Relations

• mother: WhaitiriGrey 1855 (primary)
• father: KaitangataGrey 1855 (primary)
• spouse: Urutonga (mother of Tāwhaki and Karihi) · PolynesianGrey 1855; Tregear 1891 (primary)
• sibling: Punga (brother of Hemā; ancestor of the lizard, shark, and stingray monstrous-progeny lines per the Te Arawa Maori recension) · PolynesianGrey 1855; Best 1924 (primary)
• father of: TāwhakiGrey 1855; Tregear 1891 (primary)
• killed by: the Ponaturi (canonical Maori malevolent water-spirits, vulnerable to sunlight; subsequently destroyed by Tāwhaki and Karihi in the canonical sunrise-trap) · PolynesianGrey 1855 chapter 4 (primary)
• sibling: PungaReciprocal of polynesian_punga.sibling (alphabetical family sweep). (auto reciprocal)
• spouse: UrutongaReciprocal of polynesian_urutonga.spouse (alphabetical family sweep). (auto reciprocal)

Sources

• existence: Grey, Polynesian Mythology (1855) chapter 4 (the canonical Maori Tāwhaki-cycle source) (primary); White (1887-1890); Tregear (1891); Best (1924) (primary); Fornander, An Account of the Polynesian Race (1878-1885) — Hawaiian Hema-Kahaʻi-Wahieroa-Laka recension (primary); Dixon, Oceanic Mythology (1916) — comparative Polynesian recensions (primary); Mohi Ruatapu Ngāti Porou recension preserved by Reedy (1993) (primary)