In M?ori mythology the primal couple Rangi and Papa (or Ranginui and Papat??nuku) 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 Rakinui.
Video Rangi and Papa
Union and separation
Ranginui and Papat??nuku are the primordial parents, the sky father and the earth mother who lie locked together in a tight embrace. They have many children all of whom are male, who are forced to live in the cramped darkness between them. These children grow and discuss among themselves what it would be like to live in the light. T?matauenga, the fiercest of the children, proposes that the best solution to their predicament is to kill their parents (Grey 1956:2).
But his brother T?ne disagrees, suggesting that it is better to push them apart, to let Ranginui be as a stranger to them in the sky above while Papat??nuku will remain below to nurture them. The others put their plans into action--Rongo, the god of cultivated food, tries to push his parents apart, then Tangaroa, the god of the sea, and his sibling Haumia-tiketike, the god of wild food, join him. In spite of their joint efforts Rangi and Papa remain close together in their loving embrace. After many attempts T?ne, god of forests and birds, forces his parents apart. Instead of standing upright and pushing with his hands as his brothers have done, he lies on his back and pushes with his strong legs. Stretching every sinew T?ne pushes and pushes until, with cries of grief and surprise, Ranginui and Papat??nuku were pried apart (Grey 1956:2-3, Biggs 1966:448).
Maps Rangi and Papa
War in heaven and earth
And so the children of Ranginui and Papat?anuku see light and have space to move for the first time. While the other children have agreed to the separation T?whirim?tea, the god of storms and winds, is angered that the parents have been torn apart. He cannot bear to hear the cries of his parents nor see the tears of Ranginui as they are parted, he promises his siblings that from henceforth they will have to deal with his anger. He flies off to join Rangi and there carefully fosters his own many offspring who include the winds, one of whom is sent to each quarter of the compass. To fight his brothers, T?whirim?tea gathers an army of his children--winds and clouds of different kinds, including fierce squalls, whirlwinds, gloomy thick clouds, fiery clouds, hurricane clouds and thunderstorm clouds, and rain, mists and fog. As these winds show their might the dust flies and the great forest trees of T?ne are smashed under the attack and fall to the ground, food for decay and for insects (Grey 1956:3-6, Tregear 1891:54, Biggs 1966:448-449).
Then T?whirim?tea attacks the oceans and huge waves rise, whirlpools form, and Tangaroa, the god of the sea, flees in panic. Punga, a son of Tangaroa, has two children, Ikatere father of fish, and Tu-te-wehiwehi (or Tu-te-wanawana) the ancestor of reptiles. Terrified by T?whirim?tea's onslaught the fish seek shelter in the sea and the reptiles in the forests. Ever since Tangaroa has been angry with T?ne for giving refuge to his runaway children. So it is that T?ne supplies the descendants of T?matauenga with canoes, fishhooks and nets to catch the descendants of Tangaroa. Tangaroa retaliates by swamping canoes and sweeping away houses, land and trees that are washed out to sea in floods (Grey 1971:5-6).
T?whirim?tea next attacks his brothers Rongo and Haumia-tiketike, the gods of cultivated and uncultivated foods. Rongo and Haumia are in great fear of T?whirim?tea but, as he attacks them, Papat??nuku determines to keep these for her other children and hides them so well that T?whirim?tea cannot find them. So T?whirim?tea turns on his brother T?matauenga. He uses all his strength but T?matauenga stands fast and T?whirimatea cannot prevail against him. T? (or human kind) stands fast and, at last, the anger of the gods subsided and peace prevailed.
T? thought about the actions of T?ne in separating their parents and made snares to catch the birds, the children of T?ne who could no longer fly free. He then made nets from forest plants and casts them in the sea so that the children of Tangaroa soon lie in heaps on the shore. He made hoes to dig the ground, capturing his brothers Rongo and Haumia-tiketike where they have hidden from T?whirim?tea in the bosom of the earth mother and, recognising them by their long hair that remains above the surface of the earth, he drags them forth and heaps them into baskets to be eaten. So T?matauenga eats all of his brothers to repay them for their cowardice; the only brother that T?matauenga does not subdue is T?whirim?tea, whose storms and hurricanes attack humankind to this day (Grey 1971:7-10, Biggs 1966:449).
There was one more child of Ranginui and Papat??nuku who was never born and still lives inside Papat?anuku. Whenever this child is kicking the earth shakes and it causes an earthquake. R?aumoko is his name and he is the God of earthquakes and volcanoes.
Yearning
T?ne searched for heavenly bodies as lights so that his father would be appropriately dressed. He obtained the stars and threw them up, along with the moon and the sun. At last Ranginui looked handsome (Orbell 1998:145). Ranginui and Papat?anuku continue to grieve for each other to this day. Ranginui's tears fall towards Papat?anuku to show how much he loves her. Sometimes Papat?anuku heaves and strains and almost breaks herself apart to reach her beloved partner again but it is to no avail. When mist rises from the forests, these are Papat??nuku's sighs as the warmth of her body yearns for Ranginui and continues to nurture mankind (Grey 1956:11).
Names and epithets
Ranginui
- Rangi ("Sky")
- Raki ("Sky") in the South Island
- Ranginui ("Great Sky")
- Rangi-p?tiki ("Rangi the Lastborn"): possibly another name of Rangi, or a closely allied deity
Papatuanuku
- Papa ("world")
- Papat??nuku ("world separated"), (Earth), (Mother Earth)
See also
- Atea, husband of Papa (primordial parents) in Tuamotuan, Rarotongan and Marquesas genealogies
- W?kea, husband of Papa, from Hawaii
- Vatea, husband of Papa, father of gods and men in Mangaia, Cook Islands
- Anu and Ki, Sumerian deities similar to Rangi and Papa
- Uranus and Gæa, Greek deities similar to Rangi and Papa
- Dyaú?-pit? and P?thv?-m?t?, Vedic deities similar to Rangi and Papa
Notes
References
- B.G. Biggs, 'Maori Myths and Traditions' in A. H. McLintock (editor), Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, 3 Volumes. (Government Printer: Wellington), 1966, II:447-454.
- G. Grey, Nga Mahi a Nga Tupuna, fourth edition. First published 1854. (Reed: Wellington), 1971.
- G. Grey, Polynesian Mythology, Illustrated edition, reprinted 1976. (Whitcombe and Tombs: Christchurch), 1956.
- M. Orbell, The Concise Encyclopedia of M?ori Myth and Legend (Canterbury University Press: Christchurch), 1998.
- A. Smith, Songs and Stories of Taranaki from the Writings of Te Kahui Kararehe (MacMillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies: Christchurch), 1993.
- E.R.Tregear,Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary (Lyon and Blair: Lambton Quay), 1891.
- K. Wiki, Voices Magazine (Kyro August-Allen Wiki-Ewart: Napier)2013.
External links
- Polynesian Mythology, George Grey, first edition (1854)
- Samuel K. Parker, Dialectics of Power in the Maori Creation Myth in Pacific Studies, Vol 10 n°3, july 1987
- Tikao, T. T. (1939). Tikao talks: Traditions and tales told by Teone Taare Tikao to Herries Beattie (pp. 23-50). Wellington, New Zealand: A.H. and A.W. Reed
- Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, E. R. Tregear, (Lyon and Blair: Lambton Quay), 1891
- Ranginui - the sky in Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand
- Papat??nuku - the land in Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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