Papa

Papa Oceania
Ancestress of the Hawaiian people. She was the earth goddess, queen of the underworld, and mother of the gods. Papa means ‘flat’ and may have referred to the submerged foundations on which islands were supposed to rest. She was called Papa-hanau-moku, ‘the one from whom lands are born’. A mortal ancestor, as opposed to this divinity, was Wakea, from whom all Hawaiian genealogies stem. Son of Kahiko-lua-mea, ‘very ancient and sacred’, Wakea ruled as a great chief and married Papa, who bore a daughter Ho'ohoku-ka-lani. It was Wakea's incestuous love for his daughter that aroused Papa's fury and led to the separation of husband and wife, not to mention the coming of death. Ho'ohoku-ka-lani's first child by her father was born in the form not of a human being but of a root, and was thrown away. It grew into a plant and so Wakea named their second child, a human one, Ha-loa, ‘long rootstalk’. Vegetable growth was regarded by Hawaiians...

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