Hiʻiaka- Polynesian GodDeity"Patron of Hula"

Born in the Bosom of Pele

Hiʻiaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele: "Hiʻiaka in the bosom of Pele." She began as an egg, carried against Pele's body during the great migration from Kahiki to Hawaiʻi. While Pele's other sisters traveled as grown gods, Hiʻiaka hatched along the way, the youngest of them all. She grew up in the shadow of Kīlauea, where Pele had finally dug deep enough to find a home for her fires.

Pele's Dream and Hiʻiaka's Oath

One night Pele fell into a deep sleep and her spirit left her body. It traveled island by island until it reached Kauaʻi, where she heard drums and found a chief named Lohiʻau dancing at a festival at Hāʻena. She stayed with him for three nights. When she woke in Kīlauea, her body stiff and cold, she wanted him brought back. She asked each sister in turn. Each refused. The journey was long, the dangers real, and Pele's temper well known. Hiʻiaka alone agreed, but she set her own terms: Pele must protect her beloved lehua groves and her dear friend Hōpoe while she was gone. Pele granted Hiʻiaka supernatural power and imposed one condition: do not touch Lohiʻau.

Across the Islands

Hiʻiaka set out with her companion Wahineʻōmaʻo. In Hilo, the great moʻo Panaʻewa blocked her path, a lizard spirit who ruled a forest so dense that sunlight never reached the ground. Hiʻiaka chanted, and the chant carried power. Panaʻewa fell. Other moʻo guarded the passages between districts and islands, and Hiʻiaka defeated them one by one with the same weapon: her voice. The chants she used were not prayers to distant gods. They were direct commands, spoken by a goddess who knew every plant, every stone, every current of power in the land.

Death and Resurrection on Kauaʻi

When Hiʻiaka reached Hāʻena, she found Lohiʻau dead. He had grieved for Pele's spirit after it departed, and the grief killed him. His body had been placed in a cliff burial above the sea. Hiʻiaka climbed the cliff face, retrieved his wandering spirit, and chanted over his remains until he drew breath again.

Fire and Defiance

Pele did not wait. Convinced that Hiʻiaka had taken Lohiʻau for herself, she sent lava rolling through Hiʻiaka's lehua groves. The trees burned. Then she killed Hōpoe, encasing her in stone on the shore of Puna. When Hiʻiaka saw the smoke from across the water and understood what had happened, she did the one thing Pele had forbidden. She took Lohiʻau in her arms. The accusation had been false. Now she made it true.

Pele killed Lohiʻau again with fire. What followed was open war between the sisters, until other gods forced a peace. Lohiʻau was restored to life a second time. In Hoʻoulumāhiehie's telling, the reconciliation holds, though barely.