Tagaloa
Samoan · deity · primordial · deity
Tagaloa (Tagaloalagi, Tagaloa-faʻatutupu-nuʻu), the supreme self-existent creator of Samoan religion — the Polynesian *Taŋaloa in his Samoan form — who stood alone in the primordial Expanse (Pō / Ilu) and made the heavens, the islands, the sea, fresh water, and humankind, and is reckoned the chief and progenitor of the gods. Kinless by attestation (self-existent) — see SOLITARY flag. Documented in the Samoan creation chant (Fraser's translation), Turner, Stair and Krämer.
Domains
- creation and cosmogony
- sky and heavens
- supreme sovereignty over the gods
- origin of the islands and mankind
Powers
- Make the heavens, the lands, the sea, and fresh water out of the primordial Expanse
- Bring the Samoan islands into being — flinging down rocks / fishing them up from the deep
- Form the first people and animate them with life
Relations
- equated with: Tangaroa
- equated with: Kanaloa
- equated with: Ta'aroa
- equated with: Tangaloa 'Eitumatupu'a
- equated with: Tangaroa
- equated with: Tangaroa
- equated with: Takaroa
- equated with: Tanaoa
Sources
- G. Turner, Samoa, a Hundred Years Ago and Long Before (London, 1884), the creation traditions
- A. Krämer, Die Samoa-Inseln (1902/03; Eng. The Samoa Islands, trans. T. Verhaaren), I
- J. Fraser, 'The Samoan Story of Creation,' Journal of the Polynesian Society 1 (1892): Tagaloa-faʻatutupu-nuʻu dwelling and creating in the Expanse
- J. B. Stair, Old Samoa (1897), on Tagaloa as chief and progenitor of the gods