Laka (goddess)

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In Polynesian mythology , especially in Hawai'i , Laka is the goddess of music, dance, rain and the patroness of hula dancers. Laka is also the sacred guardian of sunshine and nature. Laka is the daughter or sister of Kapo and the wife of Lono .

Example Hawaii

Laka is worshiped in Hawaii as the goddess of the hula dance and the forest. In other traditions, Laka is a male god of the Hula dance, who in turn is viewed as the manifestation of Lono. In traditional Hālau, Laka are offered plants and other offerings on an altar or in a ceremony. According to Hawaiian tradition, the traditional Hula dance came to the islands through two siblings, both of whom were named Laka. It was about a woman and a man and some legends associate Laka with fertility and pregnancy, so that she is also referred to as the goddess of love. The name laka means "gentle, docile, attracted, attractive". There are traditional songs in which Laka is asked for both love and wealth. There is also a legendary hero who also bears the name Laka and came to Hawaii as the son of the goddess Pele and her husband Wahieloa.

Spread and forms

Laka is also known in similar forms in the tradition of the peoples of Tonga , here under the name Lasa, among the Māori as Rātā, in Samoa as Lata and on the Marquesas Islands as Aka.

  1. Ku-ka-ohia-Laka, is the male patron of the Hula dance
  2. Laka is the goddess of the growth of the forest
  3. Laka is the son of Wahieloa
  4. Laka as the sister of Pele or Kapo

literature

  • Martha Warren Beckwith: Hawaiian mythology. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1970, ISBN 0-870-22062-4 .
  • Robert D Craig: Dictionary of Polynesian mythology. Greenwood Press, New York 1989, ISBN 0-313-06946-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martha Warren Beckwith: Wooing Romances. in: Hawaiian mythology. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1970, ISBN 0-870-22062-4 .
  2. ↑ Ulrich Menter: In Search of the Hawaiian Nation. Dissertation 2009, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen . Lower Saxony State and University Library, Göttingen 2013, OCLC 864764348 p. 159.
  3. ^ Martha Warren Beckwith: Song of Lono. in: Hawaiian mythology. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1970, ISBN 0-870-22062-4 .
  4. ↑ Laka on huna.org, accessed February 21, 2014.
  5. ↑ Martha Warren Beckwith: Wahieloa-Laka Cycle. in: Hawaiian mythology. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1970, ISBN 0-870-22062-4 .