Foilape
Tuvaluan · deity · Tuvaluan traditional religion; continuing · deity
Foilape is remembered as one of the principal gods of the pre-Christian Ellice Islands, a deity recognised on more than one island and described in tradition as a king and a famed warrior. Like the other old gods (atua) of the islands, he was approached at dedicated shrines through prayer and offerings of food and goods, mediated by the spirit-masters (vaka-atua) who served as intermediaries between the people and the gods. The worship of such gods, together with the office of the vaka-atua, was suppressed with the spread of Protestant Christianity through the islands in the later nineteenth century.
Domains
- kingship and rule
- war and warriors
- gods and worship
Powers
- to receive prayer and offerings of food and goods at his shrines
Epithets
- Foilape
Sources
- D. G. Kennedy, Field Notes on the Culture of Vaitupu, Ellice Islands (New Plymouth, N.Z.: Thomas Avery & Sons, for the Polynesian Society, 1931).
- Simati Faaniu et al., Tuvalu: A History, ed. Hugh Laracy (Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific; Funafuti: Ministry of Social Services, 1983).