Tehu'aingabenga

Tehu'aingabenga is the chief of the district deities, the class of gods most intimately bound to human life. Where Tehainga'atua ruled the land and the elements from a lofty distance, Tehu'aingabenga was the immediate patron of people, invoked for health, offspring, garden increase, successful fishing and safe canoe voyages. His many 'sons' served as the tutelary gods of individual lineages and homesteads, so that every worshipper stood in a direct ritual relationship to him. He was reckoned a descendant of the sky-god couple; sources differ on whether the tradition makes him the son or, at one remove, the grandson of Tehainga'atua. His sister Baabenga was the leading goddess of the same class.

Parentage

• parent: Tehainga'atuaMonberg, Torben. Bellona Island Beliefs and Rituals. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991. (secondary)
• parent: SikingimoemoeMonberg, Torben. Bellona Island Beliefs and Rituals. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991. (secondary)

Domains

• prosperity
• fertility
• navigation
• protection

Powers

• protects and prospers his worshippers
• grants offspring and fertility

Relations

• parent: Tehainga'atuaMonberg, Torben. Bellona Island Beliefs and Rituals. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991. (secondary)
• parent: SikingimoemoeMonberg, Torben. Bellona Island Beliefs and Rituals. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991. (secondary)
• sibling: BaabengaElbert, Samuel H., and Torben Monberg. From the Two Canoes. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1965. (secondary)

Sources

• Tehu'aingabenga was the foremost of the district deities ('atua), the god most intimately concerned with human welfare, health, fertility and the fortunes of lineages, and a descendant of the sky god.: Monberg, Torben. Bellona Island Beliefs and Rituals. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991. (secondary); Elbert, Samuel H., and Torben Monberg. From the Two Canoes. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1965. (secondary)