Māori mythology Māori mythology and Māori traditions are two major categories into which the remote oral history of New Zealand's Māori may be divided. Māori myths concern fantastic tales relating to the origins of what was the observable world for the pr ...

, Punga is a supernatural being, the ancestor of

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimo ...

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

ray Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (g ...

s, and all deformed, ugly things. All ugly and strange animals are Punga's children. Hence the saying ''Te aitanga a Punga'' (the offspring of Punga) used to describe an ugly person.

Family and mythology

Punga is a son of

Tangaroa Tangaroa (Takaroa in the South Island) is the great of the sea, lakes, rivers, and creatures that live within them, especially fish, in Māori mythology. As Tangaroa-whakamau-tai he exercises control over the tides. He is sometimes depicted as ...

, the god of the sea, and when

Tāwhirimātea In Māori mythology, Tāwhirimātea (or Tāwhiri) is the god of weather, including thunder and lightning, wind, clouds and storms. He is a son of Papatūānuku (earth mother) and Ranginui ( sky father). Tawhirimatea is the second oldest of 7 child ...

(god of storms) made war against his brothers after they separated

Rangi and Papa In Māori mythology the primal couple Rangi and Papa (or Ranginui and Papatūānuku) appear in a creation myth explaining the origin of the world (though there are many different versions). In some South Island dialects, Rangi is called Raki or Ra ...

(sky and earth), the two sons of Punga, Ikatere and Tū-te-wehiwehi, had to flee for their lives.

Ikatere In Māori and Polynesian mythology, Ikatere, also spelled Ika-tere, ('fast fish') is a fish god, the father of all sea creatures, including mermaids. He is a son of Punga, and a grandson of Tangaroa, and his brother is Tū-te-wehiwehi (Grey 19 ...

fled to the sea, and became the ancestor of certain fish, while

Tū-te-wehiwehi Tū-te-wehiwehi (also Tū-te-wanawana) is the father of all reptiles in Māori mythology. Family He is a son of Punga and brother of Ikatere. Punga's father was Tangaroa, atua of the sea. When Tāwhirimātea made war against his brothers fo ...

took refuge in the forest, and became the ancestor of lizards.

Etymology

As is appropriate for a son of Tangaroa, Punga's name has a maritime origin - in the Māori language, 'punga' means 'anchor stone' - in tropical

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

, related words refer to coral stone, also used as an anchor (Craig 1989:219, Tregear 1891:374). According to some versions, Punga is the son of Rangi-potiki (father sky) and Papatūānuku (mother earth) and a twin brother to Here. In a version of the epic of

Tāwhaki In Māori mythology, Tāwhaki is a semi-supernatural being associated with lightning and thunder. Genealogy The genealogy of Tāwhaki varies somewhat in different accounts. In general, Tāwhaki is a grandson of Whaitiri, a cannibalistic goddess wh ...

attributed by White to the

Ngāti Hau Ngāti Hau are the Māori ''iwi'' (tribes) of the Whanganui River area in New Zealand. There are two stories of where the name ''Ngāti Hau'' comes from. One is that it comes from Haupipi, who arrived in New Zealand on the '' Aotea'' canoe, afte ...

tribe, Punga is named as a brother of

Karihi Karihi is a brother or cousin of Tāwhaki in Māori mythology. His father Hemā was killed by the , so Karihi, with his mother and his brother Tāwhaki, killed all but two in revenge. They tricked the into entering a house, and then locked t ...

and Hemā; however, in many versions, he is a cousin of the brothers Karihi and Tāwhaki (Craig 1989:219, Tregear 1891:374, White 1887:95, 125).

Elsewhere in Polynesia

In some

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

an stories, Hema and Punga are sons of Aikanaka and Hinahanaiakamalama (Tregear 1891:374).

References

* R. D. Craig, ''Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology'' (Greenwood Press: New York), 1989. * E. R. Tregear, ''Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary'' (Lyon and Blair: Lambton Quay), 1891. * J. White, ''The Ancient History of the Maori'', Volume I (Government Printer: Wellington), 1887. Māori gods