Papatūānuku
Māori · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Māori primordial earth mother and nurturer of all life.
Children
Children in alternative accounts
- Tangaroa: Sky and earth parents (Te Ara)Paul Meredith, Te hī ika – Māori fishing, Tangaroa, god of the sea (2012), opening genealogy (secondary)
- Tangaroa: Rangipotiki second wifeEdward Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary (1891), pp. 463–464, Tangaroa entry (secondary)
Domains
- earth
- fertility
Powers
- Nurture all living things upon her body
- Send rising mist as sighs of longing
Relations
- equated with: PapaReflex of the same ancestral Polynesian deity (*Papa), 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)
- spouse: RanginuiPrimordial earth-mother locked in embrace with the sky-father Ranginui; their sons (Tāne, Tangaroa, Rongo, Tūmatauenga et al.) already record both as parents.Grey, Nga Mahi a nga Tupuna / Polynesian Mythology (1855); the Ranginui–Papatūānuku primal-embrace cosmogony separated by their sons (primary)
- spouse: TangaroaTe-more-tu account: Papa is Tangaroa’s wife before becoming Rangi’s wife; this is independent of the sky-and-earth parentage account.Edward Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary (1891), pp. 463–464, Tangaroa entry (secondary)
- spouse: Rangi-potikiTregear calls Papatūānuku the second wife in this account.Edward Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary (1891), pp. 463–464, Tangaroa entry (secondary)
Sources
- existence: Grey, Polynesian Mythology (1855) (primary)