In the

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

, Ilaheva Vaepopua (Ilaheva, living at Vaepopua) was a mortal woman, the daughter of Seketoa. Seketo'a was either a chief of Tongatapu, or perhaps a god from

Niuatoputapu Niuatoputapu is a high island in the island nation of Tonga, Pacific Ocean. Its highest point is , and its area is . Its name means ''sacred island''. Older European names for the island are Traitors Island or Keppel Island. Niuatoputapu is ...

, depending on the source. All accounts, however, agree that 'Ilaheva became the wife of

Tangaloa Tangaloa was an important family of gods in Tongan mythology. The first Tangaloa was the cousin of Havea Hikuleo and Maui, or in some sources the brother or son or father of them. He was Tangaloa Eiki (''T. lord''), and was assigned by his father, ...

and mother of

ʻAhoʻeitu In Tongan mythology, or oral history, Ahoeitu is a son of the god Eitumātupua and a mortal woman, Ilaheva Vaepopua. He became the first king of the Tui Tonga (''Tonga king'') dynasty in the early 10th century, dethroning the previous one with t ...

, the first divine king of the

Tuʻi Tonga The Tuʻi Tonga is a line of Tongan kings, which originated in the tenth century with the mythical ʻAhoʻeitu, and withdrew from political power in the fifteenth century by yielding to the ''Tuʻi Haʻatakalaua''. The title ended with the death ...

dynasty in Tonga, around 900 AD.

References

Further reading