Io- Polynesian GodDeity"The Parentless"
Also known as: Io-matua-kore and Io-taketake
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Description
Self-existent and parentless, Io dwells in the highest of the twelve heavens as the source from which all gods and all knowledge emanate. When Tāne ascended through the layered heavens to obtain the three baskets of sacred knowledge, it was Io who waited at the summit.
Mythology & Lore
Before the Void
Before Te Kore, before Te Pō, before darkness had a name, Io existed. Not born, not made, not descended from anyone. The whare wānanga teachings recorded by Smith and Best place Io in the highest heaven, the Toi-o-ngā-rangi, above the ten or twelve layered skies where other gods dwell. Ranginui and Papatūānuku, Tāne and Tū and Tangaroa: all of them came after. Io came from nothing and needed nothing. No priests built temples to Io. No one carved Io's image. The knowledge of Io belonged to the inner schools, spoken in closed houses, passed from teacher to student in words that were not repeated outside.
Tāne's Ascent
In Smith's Lore of the Whare-wānanga, Tāne climbed. He passed through heaven after heaven, each one higher and stranger than the last, until he reached the Toi-o-ngā-rangi where Io waited. There Io gave him three baskets: te kete tuauri, containing knowledge of ritual and prayer; te kete tuatea, containing knowledge of evil and war; and te kete aronui, containing knowledge of peace and the arts. Tāne carried all three back down through the layered skies to the world below. What the gods knew, what priests chanted, what humans learned of good and harm, all of it traced back to those three baskets and the being who filled them.