Atea
Tuamotuan · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Entered deity / male (primary) / immortal / primordial; the sex-exchange with Fakahotu is recorded in the lifecycle and faculties. Apex-ancestor of mankind in the standard (Emory) Tuamotuan recension; not harmonized in the sources with the esoteric Kiho-tumu, so no kin edge to Kiho is asserted.
Children
Domains
- sky and the open expanse of space
- ancestry of mankind
Powers
- exchanges sex with Fakahotu to become the father-mother who suckles the young
- sends a host of lesser gods to seize the fleeing Tane
Relations
- spouse: FakahotuHis consort, the earth/fruitfulness; together the apex-ancestors of mankind.Emory, Kenneth P. 'Tuamotuan Concepts of Creation', Journal of the Polynesian Society 49 (1940), pp. 69-136, on Atea and his wife Fakahotu (secondary)
- father of: TaneTane the demiurge is born of Atea and Fakahotu.Emory, Kenneth P. 'Tuamotuan Concepts of Creation', Journal of the Polynesian Society 49 (1940), pp. 69-136, on Tane among the offspring of Atea and Fakahotu (secondary)
- equated with: VateaReflex of the same ancestral Polynesian deity (*Atea), cognate across the island groups.Comparative Polynesian mythology: reflexes of the same ancestral deity across the island groups (E. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, 1891; R. D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology, 1989) (secondary)
- equated with: AteaReflex of the same ancestral Polynesian deity (*Atea), cognate across the island groups.Comparative Polynesian mythology: reflexes of the same ancestral deity across the island groups (E. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, 1891; R. D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology, 1989) (secondary)
Sources
- Atea (Vatea), the light/space of the sky-expanse, is in the Tuamotuan pairing-cosmogony the apex-ancestor of mankind and the consort of Fakahotu (earth/fruitfulness); when their first children died the pair exchanged sexes so the sky became the father-mother of the young, and Atea later sought to seize the rebellious young god Tane.: Emory, Kenneth P. 'Tuamotuan Concepts of Creation', Journal of the Polynesian Society 49 (1940), pp. 69-136 (secondary); Emory, Kenneth P. 'The Tuamotuan Creation Charts by Paiore', Journal of the Polynesian Society 48 (1939), pp. 1-29 (secondary)