Hina is the name of several different goddesses and women in Polynesian mythology

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...

. In some traditions, the trickster

Trickster

In mythology, and in the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior. It is suggested by Hansen that the term "Trickster" was probably first used in this...

 and culture hero

Culture hero

A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group who changes the world through invention or discovery...

 Maui

Maui (mythology)

Māui is the great hero of Polynesian mythology. Stories about his exploits are told in nearly every Polynesian land. Maui in most cases is regarded as a demi-god, or as fully divine; in some places, he is regarded as merely human ....

 has a wife named Hina, as do the gods 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...

 and Tangaroa

Tangaroa

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...

. Hina is often associated with the moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

.

New Zealand

Tuna-roa, the father of all eels, lived in a swamp

Swamp

A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...

 near Tami's home. Tami’s spouse, Suki, visited the swamp daily to fill her calabash

Calabash

Lagenaria siceraria , bottle gourd, opo squash or long melon is a vine grown for its fruit, which can either be harvested young and used as a vegetable, or harvested mature, dried, and used as a bottle, utensil, or pipe. For this reason, the calabash is widely known as the bottle gourd...

 with water. One day, as Suki was filling her calabash, the eel-god leaped from the water and raped her. When the same thing happened the next day, she told Tami about it.

Tami dug a deep ditch linking the swamp to the sea and stretched a net

Net (device)

A net, in its primary meaning, comprises fibers woven in a grid-like structure, and is very infrequently mentioned in discussions of philosophy. It blocks the passage of large items, while letting small items and fluids pass...

 across the ditch. When rain came, the swamp overflowed into the ditch, washing Tuna-roa into the meshes of the net. Tami cut off Tuna-roa’s head, which washed out to sea, and cut the eel-god’s tail into many pieces.

The eel-god’s head became a fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

; his tail became the conger eel; and the tiny pieces of it became fresh-water eels. Thus, Tuna-roa gave rise to all eels.

Tuamotu and Tahiti

For a time, the goddess Hina lived as the wife of Te Tuna, the god of eels. But she grew tired of him and decided to seek love elsewhere. Telling Tuna that she was going to get him some delicious food, Hina left him and went onto land.

Hina went from place to place, seeking a lover. But all the men she met were afraid to take Tuna’s wife, fearing the eel-god’s vengeance. Finally she met Maui, whose mother Taranga urged him to take the goddess as his wife.

When the people round about learned that Maui had taken Hina as his wife, they went to tell Tuna. At first, Tuna didn’t care, but the people annoyed him about it so much that he eventually vowed to win back his wife from Maui.

Along with four companions, Tuna rushed toward Maui’s home, carried by a huge wave. But Maui’s power turned back the wave and left Tuna and his companions beached on the reefs. Maui killed three of Tuna’s companions, while one escaped with a broken leg. Tuna himself Maui spared.

Tuna actually lived in peace in Maui’s home for some time. But one day, Tuna challenged Maui to a duel. Each would take a turn leaping into the others’ body and trying to kill him. If Tuna killed Maui, then Tuna would take his wife back. Tuna’s turn came first: he made himself small and entered Maui’s body. When he came back out, Maui was intact. Now it was Maui’s turn: Maui made himself small and entered Tuna’s body, tearing it apart. Maui cut off Tuna’s head and, at his mother’s suggestion, buried it in a corner of his house.

In time, a shoot sprouted from Tuna’s buried head and grew into a coconut tree. That was how humankind acquired coconuts.

Hawaii

Many stories about the goddess Hina, especially in connection with the moon, can be found in chapter 15 (“Hina Myths”) of Martha Beckwith’s Hawaiian Mythology.

Hina is mostly described as a very attractive, smart, beautiful, determined young woman pursued by men and other creatures. Hina becomes tired of living in the crowd, flees to the moon, and eventually becomes goddess of it. Hina of Hilo, the Hawaiian Helen, was abducted by Prince Kaupeepee of Molokai

Molokai

Molokai or Molokai is an island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is 38 by 10 miles in size with a land area of , making it the fifth largest of the main Hawaiian Islands and the 27th largest island in the United States. It lies east of Oahu across the 25-mile wide Kaiwi Channel and north of...

.

Samoa

In Samoa, the equivalent the name Sina referred to in many different stories in mythology. One example is the legend Sina and the Eel

Sina and the Eel

Sina and the Eel is a myth of origins in Samoan mythology which explains the origins of the first coconut tree.In the Samoan language the legend is called Sina ma le Tuna. Tuna is the Samoan word for 'eel'....

 which is associated with the Mata o le Alelo

Mata o le Alelo

Mata o le Alelo is a village pool in Samoa associated with the Polynesian legend Sina and the Eel.Mata o le Alelo is in the small village of Matavai, in the village district Safune on the central north coast of Savai'i island in Samoa....

 pool on the island of Savai'i

Savai'i

Savaii is the largest and highest island in Samoa and the Samoa Islands chain. It is also the biggest landmass in Polynesia outside Hawaii and New Zealand. The island of Savai'i is also referred to by Samoans as Salafai, a classical Samoan term used in oratory and prose...

.

Hina in Literature

Richard Adams

Richard Adams

Richard Adams was a non-conforming English Presbyterian divine, known as author of sermons and other theological writings.-Life:...

 has written a poem retelling the Tahitia

Tahitia

Tahitia is a genus of plant in family Tiliaceae. It contains the following species :* Tahitia vescoana, Burret...

n story of Hina and Maui, published as a book, The Legend of Te Maui.

Also, in his popular book The Seven Daughters of Eve

The Seven Daughters of Eve

The Seven Daughters of Eve is a book by Bryan Sykes that presents the theory of human mitochondrial genetics to a general audience...

, Bryan Sykes

Bryan Sykes

Bryan Sykes is a former Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford and a current Fellow of Wolfson College.Sykes published the first report on retrieving DNA from ancient bone...

 used Hina's name, (spelled therein "Ina") to denote the clan matriarch of mtDNA haplogroup B

Haplogroup B

Haplogroup B may refer to:* Haplogroup B , a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup* Haplogroup B , a human Y-chromosome haplogroup...

.

Hina In Popular Music

David Lee Roth

David Lee Roth

David Lee Roth is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality. Roth was ranked nineteenth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Singers of All Time....

 recorded a song called "Hina", contained on the hard rock album Skyscraper

Skyscraper (album)

Skyscraper is the second full-length album by David Lee Roth , released in 1988. It was the last to feature guitarist Steve Vai, who left the group in 1989 to join Whitesnake and continue his solo career. Bassist Billy Sheehan would also leave the group before the tour to eventually form Mr. Big...

, released in 1988.

Sources and bibliography

• Adams, Richard. The Legend of Te Tuna. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1986.
• Alpers, Anthony. Legends of the South Sea. London: John Murray, 1970.
• Beckwith, Martha. Hawaiian Mythology. New Haven: Yale UP, 1940.
• Campbell, Joseph. The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology. New York: Viking, 1970.
• Luquet, G.H. “Oceanic Mythology”. New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology (ed. Felix Guirand, trans. Richard Aldington and Delano Ames, London: Hamlyn, 1968), pp. 449–72.
• Reed, A. W. Myths and Legends of Maoriland. Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1961.
• Sykes, B. "The Seven Daughters of Eve" New York, London: W. W. Norton,2001.
• Wilkinson, Philip. Illustrated Dictionary of Mythology. New York: DK, 1998.