Along with her sisters, Lilinoe is known for her beauty. In a story involving her sisters and Pele sledding down the mountain, Lilinoe helped extinguish the fires set by Pele by releasing freezing mist across the blaze. She is the sister of Poliahu, Waiau, and Kahoupokane. Lilinoe is the goddess of fine mist, dead fires, and desolation. Mist in Mauna Kea, Hawaii image by pilgrimpassing from Pixabay Lilinoe (Goddess of Mist) These clashes between elements show the difference in the temperaments of fiery Pele and snow goddess Poliahu. One legend tells of a sledding competition between Poliahu and her sisters: when Pele is angered at losing the competition, she unleashes lava on the ground that Poliahu helps put out by releasing snow onto it. She too has clashed with her sister Pele regarding who has true ownership of Mount Kilauea. The oldest daughter of Kane, she is known for spreading snow across the mountain in the winter and flowers in the spring. The goddess of snow, Poliahu lives at the top of Mount Kilauea. READ MORE: Top 10 Exotic Islands for Your World Travel Bucket List Mauna Kea, Hawaii, image by Adrian Malec from Pixabay Poli’ahu (Goddess of Snow) In some Hawaiian legends, different forms Namaka takes are the cliff and the ocean.Īnother story details Namaka’s treatment of her sister Pele and her family: Namaka angrily tried to oust them from every place where they settled until Pele finally overcame her. She is also known for casting massive waves over the fires started by her sister as the opposing element to fire. With the opposite element of her passionate sister, Namaka was angered by her sister’s seduction of her husband and chased her out of their home. The older sister of Pele, Namaka is the goddess of water and the sea. Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe, image by skeeze from Pixabay Na-maka-o-Kaha’i (Goddess of Water and the Sea) With the recent eruption of the Kilauea Volcano, visitors are reminded of Pele’s presence in the volcano, where people come to feel her spirit and pray to her.
Due to her fiery temper and attempted seduction of her sister Na-maka-o-Kaha’i’s husband, her father Kane banished Pele from her home, leaving her to sail the earth.Īlong the way, Pele created massive volcanoes at each of her island stops and eventually settled down at Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano on Earth at 13,677 feet. Perhaps the most famous goddess in Hawaiian mythology, Pele is the goddess of fire and the volcano goddess. Pele Goddess (Goddess of Fire & Volcano Goddess) Lono: God of Peace, Music, Learning, & Cultivated Foods.
Laka: Goddess of Beauty, Love, Fertility.Na-maka-o-Kaha’i: Goddess of Water and the Sea.Pele: Goddess of Fire & Volcano Goddess.READ MORE: Things to Do On Hawaii’s Big IslandĬlick on each link to learn more about a particular Hawaiian God or Hawaiian Goddess: Here’s a look at some of the major gods and goddesses of Hawaiian mythology, and how many of the island’s finest attractions are connected to ancient legends. This environmentally conscious point of view seems especially prominent on the east side of Hawaii’s Big Island, whose ecologically diverse landscape features 11 of the planet’s 13 climactic regions.įrom lush rainforests and spectacular ocean vistas to the desert landscape of Ka’u and the snow-clad summits of the tallest mountains in the Pacific, the Big Island’s bevy of natural wonders make it a must-see for ecotourism aficionados. Thus man had to regard the rocks, the fish and the birds as his relatives.” Man was descended from the Gods, but so were the rocks, so were the animals, so were the fish. More than 150 years before Charles Darwin wrote The Origin of the Species after visiting the Galapagos Islands, Hawaiian kahunas (or priests) recited an ancient creation chant– the epic Kumulipo– which traced humanity’s origins to a cosmic night, and established the concept of biological evolution.Īs noted historian Herb Kawainui Kane stated in the PBS series, The Hawaiians, island natives believed that, “The entire universe was an orderly, fixed whole in which all the parts were integral to the whole, including man himself. Here, Hawaiian mythology is not just some relic of a distant past, but a very present spiritual belief among many of the island’s indigenous natives. There are few places in the modern world in which this connection between mankind, myth, and nature is more obvious than Hawaii (formerly known as “The Big Island”). Author Joseph Campbell once said, “Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation.”