Hikule'o
Entered as a deity of Pulotu. Sex set 'unknown' deliberately: the record genuinely varies — Mariner (1817) and some tellings treat the ruler of Pulotu as male, while Gifford/Collocott and the common modern reading give 'the goddess of Pulotu'; the ambiguity follows the gender-neutral Tongan pronoun (ia). The defining, constant attribute is the long tail and its restraint by Tangaloa and Maui. Parents Taufulifonua and Havealolofonua (from the Touia-'o-Futuna line) are not authored figures; the firmly-attested sibling bond to Maui (Motu'a) of the cosmos-dividing generation is wired in-batch.
Parentage
Recorded default; alternative parentage accounts are listed separately below.
No parents recorded in the default.
Parentage accounts
Each account is a separate source claim. The parentage and children listed outside these accounts use the recorded default. Selecting an account in the interactive app updates its lineage, descent classification and inherited-power candidates. Linked pedigree accounts are selected together; other records retain their recorded parentage. Claims of ancestry are not proof of biological descent or attested powers.
- Takataka (Gifford)
deity by descent in this account.
- father: TaufulifonuaE. W. Gifford, Tongan Myths and Tales (1924), pp. 19 (primary)
Domains
- underworld and the dead
- fertility
Powers
- rules and guards Pulotu, the spirit-land
- bears a long tail held fast lest the land follow the dead
Relations
- sibling: Maui Motu'aHikule'o and Maui (Motu'a) are siblings of the cosmos-dividing generation, children of Taufulifonua; Maui below holds one end of the cord that restrains Hikule'o's tail.Gifford, E. W. Tongan Myths and Tales (Bishop Museum Bulletin 8, 1924), on Hikule'o, Tangaloa and Maui dividing the cosmos as the children of Taufulifonua (secondary)
- father: TaufulifonuaE. W. Gifford, Tongan Myths and Tales (1924), pp. 19 (primary)
Sources
- Hikule'o (gender variable in the sources — male in Mariner and some tellings, 'the goddess of Pulotu' in others) is the Tongan deity who keeps Pulotu, the western spirit-land of the dead and of the gods, and holds the fertility of the land; the deity has a great tail that must be held by a cord — one end with Tangaloa in the sky, the other with Maui below — lest, coming forth, the land and the living be drawn after the dead into Pulotu.: Gifford, E. W. Tongan Myths and Tales (Bishop Museum Bulletin 8, 1924) (secondary); Collocott, E. E. V. Tales and Poems of Tonga (Bishop Museum Bulletin 46, 1928) (secondary); Martin, John (from William Mariner). An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands (1817), on Pulotu ('Bolotoo') (primary)