Papa (the Earth Mother)

Papa, the earth mother, bears on Rarotonga the fuller name Paparoa-i-te-itinga, the great foundation reaching toward the sunrise. Married to the sky father Atea, she gave birth to the five great gods of the Rarotongan genealogy — Tangaroa, Rongo, Tane, Tongaiti and the divine Tangiia — and to Te Tumu, the foundation stone. Her name belongs to a family of Polynesian earth mothers all beginning with Papa, such as Papa'ele of Samoa, Papatu'oi of Tahiti and Papatūānuku of New Zealand. In the neighbouring Mangaian tradition written down by William Wyatt Gill, it was Papa's preference for her son Rongo that diverted the tribute of food from the first-born Tangaroa, explaining why Rongo took precedence in that island's worship.

Children

• Tongaiti (the Lizard God)

Domains

• earth and foundation

Powers

• to bring forth the great gods of the pantheon
• to underlie the world as its foundation

Epithets

• Paparoa-i-te-itinga

Relations

• mother of: Tangaroa (Lord of the Sea and Fertility)
• mother of: Rongo (God of Taro and War)
• spouse: Atea (the Sky Father)

Sources

• Basil Keane, 'Ranginui – the sky', Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand (Wellington: Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2007).
• 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).
• Rawiri Taonui, 'Polynesian Oral Traditions', in K. R. Howe (ed.), Vaka Moana: Voyages of the Ancestors (Auckland: David Bateman, 2006).