Encyclopedia > Tangaroa

  Article Content

Tangaroa

In Polynesian mythology, Tangaroa is the sea god, a son of Rangi and Papa, whom he forcibly separated from each other. Papa's body, filled with water, burst open and became the ocean.

Tangaroa is the father of all the sea creatures, including mermaids, from whence came humanity. The tides are his breaths, and he changes into a green lizard as a portent of good weather. Sailors keep a piece of brain coral[?] in their ship; it is an important talisman to protect them while on the sea.

Alternatively, Tangaroa is the primevil spirit that existed before anything else. Atea and Atanua came from him. He is also the father of Losi in Samoan mythology.

In Hawaii, Kanaloa is a creator god of magic and is associated with the octopus, and is also the king of the underworld.

With Hina-Tu-A-Uta, he is the father of Oro (Tahiti).

Alternative: (Tangaroa is his Maori name), Tanaoa (Marquesas Islands), Ta'aroa, Tangaloa, Kanaloa (Hawaii)



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Sanskrit language

... composed. The earliest of the Vedas, the R^igveda, was composed in the middle of the second millennium BC. The Vedic form survived until the middle of the first ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 24.9 ms