Atea (the Sky Father)
Rarotongan · deity · Rarotongan traditional religion; continuing · deity
Atea, the personified bright expanse of the sky, stands at the head of the Rarotongan genealogy of the gods. In the tradition reported from Rarotonga, the primordial goddess Vari-ma-te-takere drew Atea from her side; he moved about, changing shape and increasing in size until he formed the heavens, and he took to wife Paparoa-i-te-itinga, the earth mother, who bore him the five great gods Tangaroa, Rongo, Tane, Tongaiti and the divine Tangiia. He answers to Vātea or Avatea of neighbouring Mangaia, whose eyes were there said to be the sun and the moon, and further afield to Wākea of Hawai'i and Ātea of the Marquesas and the Tuamotu Islands.
Children
Domains
- sky and light
Powers
- to spread out, change shape and form the heavens
- to beget the great gods of the pantheon
Relations
- father of: Tangaroa (Lord of the Sea and Fertility)
- father of: Rongo (God of Taro and War)
- spouse: Papa (the Earth Mother)
Sources
- Basil Keane, 'Ranginui – the sky', Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand (Wellington: Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2007).
- Rawiri Taonui, 'Polynesian Oral Traditions', in K. R. Howe (ed.), Vaka Moana: Voyages of the Ancestors (Auckland: David Bateman, 2006).
- William Wyatt Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (London: Henry S. King & Co., 1876).
- Robert D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989).