Ruatapu
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Not to be confused with Ruatapu, New Zealand.
In Māori tradition, Ruatapu was the second son of the great chief Uenuku, who belittled him for using the sacred comb of his elder brother, Kahutia-te-rangi. As revenge, Ruatapu enticed the children of the nobility into his canoe, sailed them in the ocean, and then sank it (Craig 1989:237). Kahutia-te-rangi survived with the help of a whale and was thereafter known as Paikea (Reedy 1993:142-146).
Meanwhile, Ruatapu convinced the gods of the tides to destroy the land and its inhabitants. Paikea and fled to high ground and was saved through the intervention of the goddess Moa-kura-manu. One version of the myth holds that Ruatapu drowned in the flood and that her bowels became the first jellyfish (Craig 1989:237, Reedy 1989:142-146).
[edit] References
- R.D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology (Greenwood Press: New York, 1989).
- Reedy, Anaru, Ngā Kōrero a Mohi Ruatapu, tohunga rongonui o Ngāti Porou: The Writings of Mohi Ruatapu (Canterbury University Press: Christchurch, 1993).
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