Tū is the Society-Islands reflex of the Polynesian war-and-craft god (Maori Tūmatauenga, Hawaiian Kū). In Henry's cosmogony he is the great artificer who works beside Ta'aroa in fashioning the world; Ellis lists him among the four great gods as the old god of war. On Tahiti his war-cult was in time overshadowed by that of 'Oro. Authored as a son/handiwork of Ta'aroa and brother of Tāne, Ro'o and 'Oro.