Poli'ahu

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Poliʻahu is the snow goddess of Mauna Kea and the daughter of Kāne in Hawaiian mythology . She is the opponent of the volcano goddess Pele . Both embody the myth of the eternal struggle between heat and cold, fire and frost, burning lava and ice.

According to legend, Poliʻahu lives on Mauna Kea and has 3 sisters who rule over the snow-capped mountains of Hawaii .

Legends

The four sisters

The love of Kāne, the Creator God, for the beautiful mountain peaks of Hawaii was so great that his passion created divine beings. Among them were Poliʻahu and her sisters, Lilinoe, Waiau and Kahoupokane. You were born on Mauna Kea. They are beautiful women of great wisdom and extraordinary talent. Only Poli'ahu still stands out from them. She is considered the most beautiful goddess of Hawaii and the sportiest. The sisters are always particularly graceful. In winter they wear snow-white robes and cloaks, in summer they wear golden dresses. Before Kāne left her and turned to other adventures, he made a sacred little mountain lake for her. This Lake Waiau is located at an altitude of 3970 meters within the Pu'u Waiau crater. Here his daughters get water and bathe in it. The water of this sacred pond must never be polluted. The goddess Waiau of the same name is responsible for the care. Lilinoe, on the other hand, is the goddess of fog.

Poliʻahu and Pele

Poliʻahu is not only very beautiful, but also very sporty. She also likes to mingle with people. One day she drove down the eastern slope of Mauna Kea with them in a Hōlua sledge . Then a beautiful stranger came up to her, dressed entirely in black. She challenged Poli'ahu to a sled race. The stranger didn't have her own sleigh, so she borrowed one. Poli'ahu easily won the first race. To give her equal chances, she swapped her sled for that of the strangers before the next race. But Poli'ahu also won this race. In the third race, the stranger caused a lava flow in front of Poli'ahu and revealed herself as the goddess Pele. The snow goddess ran to the top of the mountain to protect herself from the attack. Then she hurled snow and ice on the lava flow and brought it to a standstill. To this day, the two goddesses share the island of Hawaii . Pele rules Kīlauea and Mauna Loa , Poliʻahu the northern part of the Big Island.

literature

  • Martha Beckwith: Hawaiian Mythology . Yale University Press, New Haven 1940
  • Hans Nevermann: Gods of the South Seas. The Polynesian religion. Stuttgart 1947.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Poli'ahu in Hawaiian Dictionaries
  2. ↑ a b Martha Beckwith: Hawaiian Mythology, pp. 56-63
  3. ↑ Poliahu, Goddess of Mauna Kea (www.kaahelehawaii.com on archive.org)
  4. ↑ Mountain Deities (www.mauna-a-wakea.info)
  5. ↑ Keawe Vredenburg: Poli`ahu and Pele: Legend as information science (www.mauna-a-wakea.info)

Web links