Atea (the Sky Father)

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

• Tongaiti (the Lizard God)

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)Tangaroa is the senior of the five sons borne to Atea by Paparoa-i-te-itinga in the Rarotongan genealogy; the closely related Mangaian telling recorded by Gill makes Tangaroa and Rongo his twin sons by Papa.Basil Keane, 'Ranginui – the sky', Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand (Wellington: Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2007). (secondary); William Wyatt Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (London: Henry S. King & Co., 1876). (secondary)
• father of: Rongo (God of Taro and War)Rongo is one of the five great sons of Atea and Paparoa-i-te-itinga; in Gill's Mangaian version Papa contrived that her favourite Rongo, twin of Tangaroa, should receive the tribute of food.Basil Keane, 'Ranginui – the sky', Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand (Wellington: Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2007). (secondary); William Wyatt Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (London: Henry S. King & Co., 1876). (secondary)
• spouse: Papa (the Earth Mother)Atea, the sky father, married Paparoa-i-te-itinga, the earth mother, in the Rarotongan tradition.Basil Keane, 'Ranginui – the sky', Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand (Wellington: Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2007). (secondary); Rawiri Taonui, 'Polynesian Oral Traditions', in K. R. Howe (ed.), Vaka Moana: Voyages of the Ancestors (Auckland: David Bateman, 2006). (secondary)

Sources

• Atea is the sky father of the Rarotongan cosmogony who formed the heavens and, with the earth mother Paparoa-i-te-itinga, begot the great gods including Tangaroa and Rongo.: Basil Keane, 'Ranginui – the sky', Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand (Wellington: Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2007). (secondary); Rawiri Taonui, 'Polynesian Oral Traditions', in K. R. Howe (ed.), Vaka Moana: Voyages of the Ancestors (Auckland: David Bateman, 2006). (secondary); William Wyatt Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (London: Henry S. King & Co., 1876). (secondary); Robert D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989). (secondary)