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Rapa Nui Mythology
Rapa Nui mythology, also known as Pascuense mythology or Easter Island mythology, refers to the Polynesian narrative, native myths, legends, and Religious belief, beliefs of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island in the south eastern Pacific Ocean. Origin myth According to Rapa Nui mythology Hotu Matu'a was the legendary first settler and ''ariki mau'' ("supreme chief" or "king") of Easter Island. Carlos Mordo, Easter Island (Willowdale, Ontario: Firefly Books Ltd., 2002) ''Hotu Matu'a'' and his two canoe (or one double hulled canoe) colonising party were Polynesians from the now unknown land of Hiva Nuku Hiva, Hiva Oa, Fatu Hiva, Mount Oave, Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, Fenua. They landed at Anakena beach and his people spread out across the island, sub-divided it between clans claiming descent from his sons, and lived for more than a thousand years in their isolated island home at the southeastern tip of the Polynesian Triangle until the arrival of Dutch captain Jacob Roggeveen, wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moai
Moai or moʻai ( ; es, moái; rap, moʻai, , statue) are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, Rapa Nui in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called Ahu (Easter Island), ahu around the island's perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads, which comprise three-eighths the size of the whole statue - which has no legs. The moai are chiefly the living faces (''aringa ora'') of deified ancestors (''aringa ora ata tepuna''). The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands History of Easter Island#European contacts, when Europeans first visited the island in 1722, but all of them had fallen by the latter part of the 19th century. The moai were toppled in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, possibly as a result of European contact or endemic warfare, internecine tribal wars. The production a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hina-Oio
Hina-Oio is a goddess of the sea animals in the mythology of Easter Island. She was married to Atua-Metua and represented the mother of all animals of the sea. Hina is a divine figure common throughout the Polynesian narrative, with prominent variants also found in Māori mythology, Samoan mythology, and Hawaiian religion. The creation chant of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island refers to Hina-Oio twice in the following passage: This passage was sung from memory by an old man named Ure-vai-ko to William Thomson, an American on an 1886 Smithsonian expedition to Easter Island. The chant was written in Rongorongo Rongorongo (Rapa Nui: ) is a system of glyphs discovered in the 19th century on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) that appears to be writing or proto-writing. Numerous attempts at decipherment have been made, with none being successful. Although some c ... on tablets, which Ure-vai-ko refused to read for religious reasons. However, under the influence of alcohol, he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haua
Haua () or Haua tuꞌu taketake, also known as the 'Chief of the eggs', was the companion of the creator god Makemake of Easter Island. Little is known of him, or of any aspects of indigenous religion on the island, but prayers said before eating were made to the two of them. His wife was ''vîꞌe'' Hoa. Only a few details of Haua have been preserved. Along with Makemake, he was central to the Birdman sect of Eastern Island. He and Makemake had removed nesting seabirds to the offshore islets of Motu Nui ('big islet') and Motu Iti ('little islet'), because people were eating all of their eggs, and established the Birdman sect through a priestess who came across the two gods. Haua and Makemake instructed the priestess to tell the Rapa Nui that before eating, when they took the food from the oven, they should set aside a portion and say 'Take for Haua, for Makemake!' (''Ka toꞌo ma Haua, ma Makemake'').Routledge 1917, p. 135 References * Alfred Métraux. 9401971. ''Ethnology of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hanau Epe
The Hanau epe (also, hanau eepe: supposed to mean "Long-ears") were a semi-legendary people who are said to have lived in Easter Island, where they came into conflict with another people known as the Hanau momoko or "short-ears". A decisive battle occurred which led to the defeat and extermination of the Hanau epe. According to the legend, these events are supposed to have happened at some point between the 16th and 18th centuries, probably in the late 17th century. The historical facts, if any, behind this story are disputed. Since the victorious "Hanau momoko" are usually assumed to be the surviving Polynesian population, there has been much speculation about the identity of the vanished Hanau epe. Various theories have been put forward, most notably Thor Heyerdahl's claim that they were ancient migrants from Peru who were the original occupants of the island and the creators of its famous stone monuments. Heyerdahl's theories have not received much support among modern scholars ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manana Take
Manana Take was a goddess in the Rapa Nui mythology, the original religion on Easter island. She was the consort of Era Nuku, the god of the feathers and farming. Manana Take lived in sky. The Manana once visited earth in the shape of a fish, which was given to the king because of its size and beauty. Recognising the divinity in the fish, all monarchs were thereafter forbidden to swim in the sea The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, .... References * Rapa Nui goddesses {{Deity-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aku-Aku (mythology)
Aku-Aku ('Devil', 'Ghost' or 'Spirit'), also known as Aku, Akuaku or Varua, are humanoid spirits in Rapa Nui mythology of the Easter Island. Aku-Aku are spirits of the dead, but they are not immortal and can be disposed of. They can be of either sex, and different Aku-Aku are associated with particular areas of the Easter Island. Some of the Aku-Aku are deified. They originally arrived onto the island with Hotu Matuꞌa, the legendary first settler of Easter Island. The original group of Aku-Aku who arrived with Hotu Matuꞌa numbered around 90, and were generally cannibalistic in nature. Specific Aku-Aku includes: * Uka-o-hoheru, female, who married the mortal Tupahotu * Kava-ara and Kava-tua, females, who captured the mortal Uré-a-hohové until he was saved by another old Aku-Aku * Mata-wara-ware and Papai-a-taki-vera, husband and wife, who capture human souls at night which would lead to their deaths * Two Aku-Aku who were visited by Tu’u Koihu, son of Hotu Matuꞌa Hotu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uoke
Uoke is a tectonic and destroyer deity in Rapa Nui mythology. Myth According to the old story, Uoke was able to lift and sink into the sea large lands, using a huge lever. The legend says Rapa Nui (Easter Island) had once been a territory similar in size to a continent which reached next to another large land mass, Puku-Puhipuhi. Uoke with his lever rose and sank Rapa Nui while Puku-Puhipuhi sagged and rose. The deity had fun in this task, when, at the time that Rapa Nui was almost completely buried and Puku-Puhipuhi was at its maximum elevation, his lever suddenly broke. For this reason only, emerging today, isolated in the Pacific Ocean, is a small portion of Rapa Nui; the part where once their highest mountains stood and so most of what was once the great land of Rapa Nui is now submerged while the continent of Puku-Puhipuhi is above the waterline. In mythology, Rapa Nui, Uoke, and his lever are also responsible for the destruction of the ancestral home of the ethnic group on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization.O'Collins, p. v (preface). The church consists of 24 ''sui iuris'' churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which comprise almost 3,500 dioceses and eparchies located around the world. The pope, who is the bishop of Rome, is the chief pastor of the church. The bishopric of Rome, known as the Holy See, is the central governing authority of the church. The administrative body of the Holy See, the Roman Curia, has its principal offices in Vatican City, a small enclave of the Italian city of Rome, of which the pope is head of state. The core beliefs of Catholicism are found in the Nicene Creed. The Catholic Church teaches that it is th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Makemake (mythology)
Makemake (also written as Make-make; pronounced in Rapa Nui) in the Rapa Nui mythology of Easter Island, is the creator of humanity, the god of fertility and the chief god of the "Tangata manu" or ''bird-man'' sect (this sect succeeded the island's more famous Moai era). He appeared to be the local form, or name, of the old Polynesian god Tane. He had no wife. Makemake, as a face with large eyes or perhaps a skull with large eye sockets and a phallic nose, is a frequent subject of the Rapa Nui petroglyphs. The Birdman sect Métraux states that Easter Island's "greatest religious festival, the only one concerning which circumstantial details survive, was that of the bird-man, intimately linked with the cult of the god Makemake." Makemake drove the birds to nest on the islet of Motu Nui ('big islet'), the center of the ''tangata-manu'' (bird-man) sect. Four gods were associated with it: Makemake, Haua-tuꞌu-take-take ('Chief of the eggs', usually simply called 'Haua'), ''vî ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moai
Moai or moʻai ( ; es, moái; rap, moʻai, , statue) are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, Rapa Nui in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called Ahu (Easter Island), ahu around the island's perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads, which comprise three-eighths the size of the whole statue - which has no legs. The moai are chiefly the living faces (''aringa ora'') of deified ancestors (''aringa ora ata tepuna''). The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands History of Easter Island#European contacts, when Europeans first visited the island in 1722, but all of them had fallen by the latter part of the 19th century. The moai were toppled in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, possibly as a result of European contact or endemic warfare, internecine tribal wars. The production a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tangata Manu
The ''Tangata manu'' ("bird-man," from "human beings" + "bird") was the winner of a traditional competition on Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The ritual was an annual competition to collect the first sooty tern () egg of the season from the islet of Motu Nui, swim back to Rapa Nui and climb the sea cliff of Rano Kau to the clifftop village of Orongo. Myth In the Rapa Nui mythology, the deity Make-make was the chief god of the birdman cult, and the other three deities associated with it were Hawa-tuu-take-take (the Chief of the eggs, a male god), his wife Vie Hoa, and another female deity named Vie Kenatea. Each of these four also had a servant god who was associated with them. The names of all eight would be chanted by contestants during the various rituals preceding the egg hunt. Birdman religion Contestants, all men of importance on the island, were revealed in dreams by ''ivi-attuas'' or prophets (who might be either men or women). Each contestant would then appoint one or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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