Described as "She-Who-Shapes-The-Sacred-Land" in ancient Hawaiian chants, the volcano goddess, Pele, was passionate, volatile, and capricious. In modern times, Pele has become the most visible of all the old gods and goddesses. Dwelling in the craters of the Big Island's Kilauea Volcano, she has been sending ribbons of fiery lava down the mountainside and adding new land around the southeastern shore almost continuously since 1983.
  Lava entering the sea. |
Pele was born of the female spirit Haumea, or Hina, who, like all other important Hawai'i gods and goddesses, descended from the supreme beings, Papa, or Earth Mother, and Wakea, Sky Father. Pele was among the first voyagers to sail to Hawai'i, pursued, legends say, by her angry older sister, Na-maka-o-kaha'i because Pele had seduced her husband. Pele landed first on Kaua'i, but every time she thrust her o'o (digging stick) into the earth to dig a pit for her home, Na-maka-o-kaha'i, goddess of water and the sea, would flood the pits. Pele moved down the chain of islands in order of their geological formation, eventually landing on the Big Island's Mauna Loa, which is considered the tallest mountain on earth when measured from its base at the bottom of the ocean.
 Steam rising as lava enters the sea. |
Even Na-maka-o-kaha'i could not send the ocean's waves high enough on Mauna Loa to drown Pele's fires, so Pele established her home on its slopes. Here, she welcomed her brothers. A cliff on nearby Kilauea Mountain is sacred to her eldest brother, Ka-moho-ali'i, king of the sharks and the keeper of the gourd that held the water of life, which gave him the power to revive the dead. Out of respect for this brother, to this day, Pele never allows clouds of volcanic steam to touch his cliff.
Her other brothers also still appear on the Big Island mountain; Kane-hekili as thunder, Ka-poho-i-kahi-ola as explosions, Ke-ua-a-kepo in showers of
Of all her siblings, Pele favored her youngest sister Hi'iaka, the most. Pele, Hi'iaka and another sister, Laka, goddess of hula, were all patronesses of the dance, but Hi'iaka was said to have hatched from an egg that Pele kept warm during the long canoe ride to Hawai'i by transporting it in her armpit.
 Madame Pele always manages to produce some sort of excitement for her guests. On this day in 1924 it was a huge steam eruption in Kilauea caldera. |
The legend has a happy ending, however, as yet another brother of Pele's, Kane-milo-hai, reached out and caught Lohi'au's spirit when he saw it floating past his canoe. He restored the spirit to Lohi'au's body, and once again, the chief was brought back to life. Hi'iaka and Lohi'au returned to Kaua'i to live contentedly.
Legends about Pele, her rivals and her lovers abound. Most of the lovers she took were not lucky enough to escape with their lives when she hurled molten lava at them, trapping them in odd misshapen pillars of rock that dot volcanic fields to this day.
One lover who proved a match for Pele was Kamapua'a, a demi-god who hid the bristles that grew down his back by wearing a cape. The pig god could also appear as a plant or as various types of fish. He and Pele were at odds from the beginning; she covered the land with barren lava, he brought torrents of rain to extinguish her fires and called the wild boars to dig up the land, softening it so seeds could grow.
Pele and Kamapua'a raged against each other until her brothers begged her to give in, as they feared Kamapua'a's storms would soak all the fire sticks and kill Pele's power to restore fire. In Puna, at a place called Ka-lua-o-Pele, where the land seems torn up as if a great struggle had taken place, legend says Kamapua'a finally caught and ravaged Pele. The two remained tempestuous lovers, it is said, until a child was born, then Kamapua'a sailed away and Pele went back to her philandering ways.
Pele's greatest rival was Poliahu, goddess of snow-capped mountains, and a beauty who, like Pele, seduced handsome mortal chiefs. Pele's jealousy flamed after she had a fling with a fickle young Maui chief named 'Ai-wohi-ku-pua, as he was traveling to the Big Island to court a mortal chiefess, Laie. Paddling along the Hana Coast, 'Ai-wohi-ku-pua saw Pele in human form as a beauty named Hina-i-ka-malama, riding the surf. He paused for a brief affair. Then he went on to the Big Island, where Poliahu seduced him. He convinced his personal goddess to release him from his promise to his first love, and went back to Kaua'i with the snow goddess. Pele (as Hina-i-ka-malama) chased after them, eventually winning back the fickle chief, but Poliahu was so vindictive, she blasted the lovers with cold and heat until they separated, and 'Ai-wohi-ku-pua was left with no lover at all.
Pele has continued to intrigue contemporary men. Not long after the old religion was abolished in 1819, the high chiefess Kapi'olani defied Pele by eating 'ohelo berries at the edge of Halema'uma'u caldera without first offering them to or requesting Pele's permission. In open defiance, Kapi'olani threw stones into the molten lava below. When she was not harmed, she insisted it proved Pele had no power and it was time for Hawaiian people to accept Christianity as their religion. In 1823, when Reverend William Ellis became the first white man to visit Kilauea, most Hawaiians accompanying the expedition were still in awe of the volatile goddess. The hungry missionaries began to eat 'ohelo berries, but were quickly warned to give Pele an offering. Ellis wrote, "We told them ...that we acknowledged Jehovah as the only divine proprietor of the fruits of this earth, and felt thankful to Him for them, especially in our present circumstances."...We traveled on, regretting that the natives should indulge in notions so superstitious." At the crater, the Hawaiian guides "turned their faces toward the place where the greatest quantity of smoke and vapor issued, and, breaking the ('ohelo) branch they held in their hand in two, they threw one part down the precipice, saying:
E Pele, eia ka 'ohelo 'au;
(Oh, Pele, here are your branches)
e taumaha aku wau 'ia 'oe
(I offer some to you)
e 'ai ho'i au tetahi
(some I also eat).
Goddess Pele :: Hawaiian Goddess of the Volcano
The goddess Pele was supposed to grow up to become a water goddess, but when she discovered matches her fascination with fire took her in another direction entirely! The headstrong young goddess ignored her mother’s instructions and managed to set her home (the island of Tahiti) aflame while playing with fires from the Underworld. Pele's older sister Namaka, a sea goddess, threatened to flood the entire island to punish Pele for being so destructive (but then, perhaps, it was for having an affair with her husband). Fearful for the safety of her children, Pele’s parents loaded them into a canoe and instructed Pele to rush them to safety on another island. Hi`iaka, the youngest child, had yet to be born. She was hatched from an egg that Pele held in her armpit while she paddled furiously with Namaka in hot pursuit. It was a long, stressful journey.
Four snow goddesses lived in the mountains on the island. They were none too pleased with the arrival of these beautiful young upstarts. Pele set about trying to make a new home for her family, but it was proving difficult because the jealous snow goddesses kept sending blizzards their way. Hopping from one tiny island to another to escape the hard freezes, Pele kept moving southward only to encounter tidal waves sent by her vengeful sister, Namaka. Finally Pele laid claim to Mauna Loa on the southernmost island. Mauna Loa is the tallest mountain on earth (as measured from the ocean floor), and even the powerful Namaka couldn’t fling her ocean waves that high! At last Pele was able to keep her fires lit, but this only increased Namaka’s rage. Soon the two sisters were waging a ferocious battle. Pele’s fires rose up out of the trembling earth, spewing rivers of lava fiery lava into the ocean, driving the sea away from the coast. As the lava cooled it added to the land mass, and the small atoll was transformed into the beautiful Big Island of Hawaii.
Though Pele then took up residence inside her volcanoes, her exuberant spirit was not to be contained. Legends about Pele and her many lovers and rivals abound. Poliahu, one of the snow goddesses, became her archrival when the two competed for the attention of a young chieftain. As he paddled his canoe, Pele surfed the waves beside his boat to catch his attention. But, after his brief fling with Pele, he had an affair with the snow goddess Poliahu. He was so taken with the snow goddess that he moved in with her. Pele was not amused! She managed to win him back from her rival, but the angry snow goddess was not to be outdone. She blasted the couple with fierce ice storms and the lovers soon had to separate. A struggle of immense proportions ensued. Pele erupted from the volcano, forcing Poliahu to flee with fiery lava licking at her heels. The snow goddess quickly recovered her wits, however, and returned with a snow storm so massive and intense that it quenched forever the spectacular fire on her northern island. Though the two still quarrel neither will ever win for they are destined to forever hold each other in a delicate balance. It is their perpetual clashes that have created the luxuriant and fertile hillsides that grace the Hawaiian landscape. Once she has scorched all that lies on her path, Pele swiftly seeds it with the beautiful flowers that quickly rise from the bed that she created with her fiery anger. Pele’s jealousy is legendary. Attracted to a handsome mortal named Ohi`a, she flew into a rage when he resisted her seduction while proclaiming his devotion to the lovely mortal Lehua. Furious, Pele killed the lovers.
Of all her siblings, Pele loved Hi`iaka most. But even she, the one Pele had so carefully nurtured, was not to escape the fury of Pele’s wrath. As a young woman, Hi`iaka and her best friend, the poet Hopoe, spent much time together, singing and dancing, and tending to the groves of the Ohi`a lehua trees. Pele thought she could trust this gentle sister and sent her to retrieve a handsome chieftain she had recently seduced. His name was Lohi`au. Pele warned her sister that the chieftain was a magnificent male and that she would not tolerate any flirtation between them. Hi`iaka agreed to go, asking only that Pele promise to take care of her beloved gardens while she was away. Pele was asking a lot! Hi`iaka’s journey proved perilous and lengthy, for she met many demons and monsters along the way. Arriving too late, she found Lohi`au dying. His heart had broken from worry that Pele had forgotten to come for him.
Hi`iaka had been gone so long that Pele began to entertain fantasies of her sister lying in Lohi`au’s arms. Furious that Hi`iaka would betray her, Pele burned Hi`iaka’s beloved grove to the ground, accidentally killing her friend Hopoe. When Hi`iaka returned and discvoered what Pele had done, she retaliated by making love to Lohi`au, right there in Pele’s view, on the lip of the volcano’s crater. Enraged, Pele erupted and the unfortunate young man was burned to death. Hi`iaka, realizing how much she loved him, descended into the Underworld and freed his soul. One of their brothers reached out and caught Lohi`au's spirit as it drifted by his canoe, and the lovers were soon reunited. They returned to one of the other islands where they lived together in contentment. Though she was quick to anger, Pele seldom held grudges. She realized she had been wrong to distrust her sister. And she regretted that she had caused Lohi`au’s death not once, but twice. Pele was quite sorry for her actions. Besides, another lover had already caught her eye so she was quite content to leave the young lovers in peace while she went about her own affairs. Like a volcano’s lava that creates new land, the goddess Pele reminds us that, even fiery eruptions and emotional upheavals are followed by new life and change. |
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