Le Feʻe

Le Feʻe, the octopus war-god of the districts of Aʻana and Vaimauga, dwelling beneath the sea with his tentacles reaching to the corners of the world, whose voice is thunder and who gives omens for war. He appears as an octopus at sea, a white shell on land, and a soldier-crab on the mountain, and was honoured at the Fale o le Feʻe, the only stone temple in Samoa. No genealogy is attested — see SOLITARY flag. Documented by Turner and Stair (secondary).

Names and tradition associations

• Fe‘e (cosmical cuttlefish) Samoan · resolvedGeorge Turner, Samoa (1884), ch. IV §8, O le Fe’e (primary)

Domains

• war
• the sea and the deep
• thunder and war omens

Powers

• Take the form of an octopus at sea, a white shell on land, and a soldier-crab on the mountain
• Speak in thunder, giving omens for war

Relations

• same name context: Fe‘e (cosmical cuttlefish)Turner reports multiple cuttlefish-god contexts. This contextual navigation does not transfer the cosmical parentage to each local cult form.George Turner, Samoa (1884), ch. IV §8, O le Fe’e (primary)

Sources

• existence: G. Turner, Samoa, a Hundred Years Ago and Long Before (1884), the Feʻe the war-god (secondary); J. B. Stair, 'The temple of the Feʻe,' Journal of the Polynesian Society (1894); Old Samoa (1897) (secondary)
• octopus-war-god-of-aana-with-stone-temple: G. Turner, Samoa (1884): the octopus war-god of Aʻana and Vaimauga and his stone temple (secondary)