Tangaroa

Tangaroa Oceania
The Polynesian god of fish and reptiles. In Hawaii he was known as the squid god Kanaloa. The Maoris say that Tangaroa fled for safety to the ocean when the storm god Tawhiri-ma-tea raged on behalf of Rangi, their father.

A story from the Tuamotu Archipelago, renowned for the archetypal quality of its legends, relates a struggle between Tangaroa, or Tagaroa, and Rogo-tumu-here, the demon octopus. Once Tagaroa sailed to the island of Faumea, a counterpart of the mysterious Hawaiian goddess Haumea. Faumea was a woman who had eels in her vagina which killed men, but she taught Tagaroa how to entice them outside. He slept with her and she bore Tu-nui-ka-rere and Turi-a-faumea. The latter married Hina-a-rauriki; the newly-weds took pleasure in surfing, but one day the demon octopus Rogo-tumu-here seized Hina-a-rauriki and dragged her down to the bottom of the ocean. So Tagaroa, Tu-nui-ka-rere, and Turi-a-faumea built a canoe. When Tagaroa...

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