'Oro
Encyclopedia
'Oro is a god
of the Polynesian
pantheon
. The veneration
of Oro, although practiced in varying intensity among the islands, was a major cult of the Society Islands
in the 17th and 18th centuries, especially Tahiti
and Raiatea
. On Tahiti 'Oro was the main deity and the god of war. The secret society
of Arioi
was closely linked because of its rites. On the Marquesas Islands
, 'Oro bore the name Mahui.
. originally the god of the sea and fishing, Tane
, god of the forest and handicrafts, Tu
, the old god of war and Ro´o
, god of agricultural products and the weather. These main gods were also venerated on the other Polynesian islands.
The colonists who settled as part of the Polynesian expansion spread their religion
amongst the various islands. Over the centuries the continual movement and developments of the original society groups brought about local differences and adaptations of the cult within the Polynesian Triangle
.
On the island of Raiatea
the priests elevated the god Ta´aroa from the role of sea god - already an important function in a maritime society - to the god responsible for creating the world. A possible explanation for this is that the ariki, the hereditary chiefs and members of the highest noble ranks on Raiatea, could trace their lineage directly to Ta´aroa. A further development of this cult was the veneration of Oro, the son of Ta´aroa and Hina tu a uta
, to whom the marae
Taputapuatea in the Opoa valley on Raiatea is dedicated. According to tradition, Taputapuatea is the mythical birthplace of Oro. The cult of Ta´aroa also spread to the Cook Islands
, the Tuamotu Archipelago and Mangareva
. Large islands, such as New Zealand
and Hawaii
, remained unaffected by the cult and its developments and Ta´aroa retains his original function there as god of the sea. Similarly, on many of the other islands of the south Pacific Oro did not have the same superior function as on Tahiti and Raiatea.
Due to the growing influence of Taputapuatea - one can characterize it as a type of central pilgrimage site - Oro gained more political power and religious influence within the Polynesian pantheon. On the neighboring island of Tahiti the veneration of Oro grew in importance during the late proto-historical or early historical period and can be seen as a clear step from Polytheism
to Monotheism
. This development was substantially driven by the influential secret society of Arioi, who were of great religious and political importance. From within their ranks came the upper echelons of the nobility and the priesthood. The Arioi could trace the foundation of their order back to the god Oro himself.
On Tahiti Oro was the god of war, who in times of peace became the god of the fine arts. Not only pigs but also humans were sacrificed to him. During his third voyage in 1777 James Cook
was witness to such a human sacrifice
. The prisoner was held securely on a platform whilst a priest smashed his skull with a holy mace.
According to legend Oro lived with his sisters Teouri and Oaaoa on Mount Pahia on the island of Bora Bora
. He asked his sisters for help in finding a suitable wife and descended to earth on a rainbow in the guise of a warrior. His search of the various islands at first proved futile, which also saddened his sisters. In the course of their journey home to Pahia the sisters arrived in the village of Vaitape on Bora Bora. There they spotted Vairaumati, a beautiful young woman bathing in a pool of water. The sisters told Oro of their encounter and he decided to make Vairaumati his wife. Vairaumati found this young, strong warrior attractive. Every morning Oro would descend to earth to meet Vairaumati and then leave again in the evening to return to Pahia. This continued until Vairumati gave birth to a son, who one day would become a powerful chieftain. Oro flew across the sky in the shape of a flame and made Vairaumati into a goddess.
The rainbow
is also a symbol in Hawaiian mythology
, even though the cult of Oro is a relatively late creation, coming about sometime after the settlement of the Hawaiian Archipelago by Polynesians from the Society Islands. In Hawaii the god Lono
also descended to earth on a rainbow. The motif of the marriage of a human woman with a god descended from the sky is recurrent in Polynesian mythology, as well as being evident in numerous other mythologies from various cultures.
Ata was a natural object or artefact sought after by humans that would symbolise the incarnation
of the gods. For the god Oro this was as either:
To´o was a man-made object, for example a figure made of wood or stone, that presented a figurative image of the god. On Tahiti the god Oro was presented in an effigy wrapped in coconut fibers with a mace-shaped wooden "soul" in the middle. Red and yellow feathers - the symbols of the god - were placed within the layers of coconut fiber. The To´o was stored and kept safe on the ceremonial platform and would be regularly re-clothed in tapa
fiber during a complicated ceremony. This ritual possibly has to do with the local burial cult where the body would be swathed in tapa.
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
of the Polynesian
Polynesian mythology
Polynesian mythology is the oral traditions of the people of Polynesia, a grouping of Central and South Pacific Ocean island archipelagos in the Polynesian triangle together with the scattered cultures known as the Polynesian outliers...
pantheon
Pantheon (gods)
A pantheon is a set of all the gods of a particular polytheistic religion or mythology.Max Weber's 1922 opus, Economy and Society discusses the link between a...
. The veneration
Veneration
Veneration , or veneration of saints, is a special act of honoring a saint: an angel, or a dead person who has been identified by a church committee as singular in the traditions of the religion. It is practiced by the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic, and Eastern Catholic Churches...
of Oro, although practiced in varying intensity among the islands, was a major cult of the Society Islands
Society Islands
The Society Islands are a group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. They are politically part of French Polynesia. The archipelago is generally believed to have been named by Captain James Cook in honor of the Royal Society, the sponsor of the first British scientific survey of the islands;...
in the 17th and 18th centuries, especially Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
and Raiatea
Raiatea
Raiatea , is the second largest of the Society Islands, after Tahiti, in French Polynesia. The island is widely regarded as the 'center' of the eastern islands in ancient Polynesia and it is likely that the organised migrations to Hawaii, Aotearoa and other parts of East Polynesia started at...
. On Tahiti 'Oro was the main deity and the god of war. The secret society
Secret society
A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...
of Arioi
Arioi
The Arioi were a secret religious order of the Society Islands, particularly the island of Tahiti, with a hierarchical structure, esoteric salvation doctrine and cultish and cultural functions. They included both men and women of all social strata, though men predominated...
was closely linked because of its rites. On the Marquesas Islands
Marquesas Islands
The Marquesas Islands enana and Te Fenua `Enata , both meaning "The Land of Men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9° 00S, 139° 30W...
, 'Oro bore the name Mahui.
Origins
Four main gods were venerated on the Society Islands: Ta´aroaTangaroa
In Māori mythology, Tangaroa is one of the great gods, the god of the sea. He is a son of Ranginui and Papatuanuku, Sky and Earth. After he joins his brothers Rongo, Tūmatauenga, Haumia, and Tane in the forcible separation of their parents, he is attacked by his brother Tawhirimatea, the god of...
. originally the god of the sea and fishing, Tane
Tane
In Māori mythology, Tāne is the god of forests and of birds, and the son of Ranginui and Papatuanuku, the sky father and the earth mother, who lie in a tight embrace...
, god of the forest and handicrafts, Tu
TU
Tu is the 2nd-person singular subject pronoun in Spanish, Italian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, French, Irish, Latvian, Romanian, Latin, and Hindustani and may also refer to:* Tuberculin Units, a measure of strength of tuberculin...
, the old god of war and Ro´o
Rongo
In Māori mythology, Rongo is a major god, the god of cultivated food, especially the kūmara, a vital food crop. Other food crops cultivated by Māori in traditional times include taro, yams , cordyline , and gourds . Because of their tropical origin, most of these crops were difficult to grow except...
, god of agricultural products and the weather. These main gods were also venerated on the other Polynesian islands.
The colonists who settled as part of the Polynesian expansion spread their religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
amongst the various islands. Over the centuries the continual movement and developments of the original society groups brought about local differences and adaptations of the cult within the Polynesian Triangle
Polynesian Triangle
The Polynesian Triangle is a region of the Pacific Ocean with three island groups at its corners: Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand. It is often used as a simple way to define Polynesia....
.
On the island of Raiatea
Raiatea
Raiatea , is the second largest of the Society Islands, after Tahiti, in French Polynesia. The island is widely regarded as the 'center' of the eastern islands in ancient Polynesia and it is likely that the organised migrations to Hawaii, Aotearoa and other parts of East Polynesia started at...
the priests elevated the god Ta´aroa from the role of sea god - already an important function in a maritime society - to the god responsible for creating the world. A possible explanation for this is that the ariki, the hereditary chiefs and members of the highest noble ranks on Raiatea, could trace their lineage directly to Ta´aroa. A further development of this cult was the veneration of Oro, the son of Ta´aroa and Hina tu a uta
Hina (goddess)
Hina is the name of several different goddesses and women in Polynesian mythology. In some traditions, the trickster and culture hero Maui has a wife named Hina, as do the gods Tane and Tangaroa. Hina is often associated with the moon....
, to whom the marae
Marae
A marae malae , malae , is a communal or sacred place which serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies...
Taputapuatea in the Opoa valley on Raiatea is dedicated. According to tradition, Taputapuatea is the mythical birthplace of Oro. The cult of Ta´aroa also spread to the Cook Islands
Cook Islands
The Cook Islands is a self-governing parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand...
, the Tuamotu Archipelago and Mangareva
Mangareva
Mangareva is the central and most important island of the Gambier Islands in French Polynesia. It is surrounded by smaller islands: Taravai in the southwest, Aukena and Akamaru in the southeast, and islands in the north...
. Large islands, such as New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, remained unaffected by the cult and its developments and Ta´aroa retains his original function there as god of the sea. Similarly, on many of the other islands of the south Pacific Oro did not have the same superior function as on Tahiti and Raiatea.
Due to the growing influence of Taputapuatea - one can characterize it as a type of central pilgrimage site - Oro gained more political power and religious influence within the Polynesian pantheon. On the neighboring island of Tahiti the veneration of Oro grew in importance during the late proto-historical or early historical period and can be seen as a clear step from Polytheism
Polytheism
Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities also usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals....
to Monotheism
Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...
. This development was substantially driven by the influential secret society of Arioi, who were of great religious and political importance. From within their ranks came the upper echelons of the nobility and the priesthood. The Arioi could trace the foundation of their order back to the god Oro himself.
On Tahiti Oro was the god of war, who in times of peace became the god of the fine arts. Not only pigs but also humans were sacrificed to him. During his third voyage in 1777 James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
was witness to such a human sacrifice
Human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice has been practised in various cultures throughout history...
. The prisoner was held securely on a platform whilst a priest smashed his skull with a holy mace.
Legends
Bora Bora
The commune of Bora-Bora is made up of the island of Bora Bora proper with its surrounding islets emerging from the coral reef, 29.3 km² in total, and of the atoll of Tupai , located north of Bora Bora...
. He asked his sisters for help in finding a suitable wife and descended to earth on a rainbow in the guise of a warrior. His search of the various islands at first proved futile, which also saddened his sisters. In the course of their journey home to Pahia the sisters arrived in the village of Vaitape on Bora Bora. There they spotted Vairaumati, a beautiful young woman bathing in a pool of water. The sisters told Oro of their encounter and he decided to make Vairaumati his wife. Vairaumati found this young, strong warrior attractive. Every morning Oro would descend to earth to meet Vairaumati and then leave again in the evening to return to Pahia. This continued until Vairumati gave birth to a son, who one day would become a powerful chieftain. Oro flew across the sky in the shape of a flame and made Vairaumati into a goddess.
The rainbow
Rainbow
A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that causes a spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines on to droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc...
is also a symbol in Hawaiian mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
, even though the cult of Oro is a relatively late creation, coming about sometime after the settlement of the Hawaiian Archipelago by Polynesians from the Society Islands. In Hawaii the god Lono
Lono
In Hawaiian mythology, the deity Lono is associated with fertility, agriculture, rainfall, and music. In one of the many Hawaiian legends of Lono, he is a fertility and music god who descended to Earth on a rainbow to marry Laka. In agricultural and planting traditions, Lono was identified with...
also descended to earth on a rainbow. The motif of the marriage of a human woman with a god descended from the sky is recurrent in Polynesian mythology, as well as being evident in numerous other mythologies from various cultures.
Manifestations
Polynesian gods manifest themselves in two different ways: as "Ata" and as "To'o".Ata was a natural object or artefact sought after by humans that would symbolise the incarnation
Incarnation
Incarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or force whose original nature is immaterial....
of the gods. For the god Oro this was as either:
- Oro-i-te-maro-tea: (Oro of the yellow belt), the manifestation of Oro as a light yellow thrush.
- Oro-i-te-maro-ura: (Oro of the red belt), the manifestation of Oro as a red-green A´a-bird.
To´o was a man-made object, for example a figure made of wood or stone, that presented a figurative image of the god. On Tahiti the god Oro was presented in an effigy wrapped in coconut fibers with a mace-shaped wooden "soul" in the middle. Red and yellow feathers - the symbols of the god - were placed within the layers of coconut fiber. The To´o was stored and kept safe on the ceremonial platform and would be regularly re-clothed in tapa
Tapa cloth
Tapa cloth is a bark cloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, primarily in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji, but as far afield as Niue, Cook Islands, Futuna, Solomon Islands, Java, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii...
fiber during a complicated ceremony. This ritual possibly has to do with the local burial cult where the body would be swathed in tapa.
Further reading
- Robert D. Craig. "Oro". Dictionary of Polynesian mythology. Greenwood Publishing Group (1989), p. 193-194.