Pele

Also known as: Pere · Family: the Pele family · Role: goddess of volcanoes · First appears: Chapter I · Ai-laau, The Forest Eater

In Chapter I · Ai-laau, The Forest Eater, Ai-laau fled as Pele came toward him. At Kilauea she dug for her abiding home “day and night,” and she fastened herself to Hawaii permanently. In Chapter II · How Pele came to Hawaii · Part 1, one account names Moe-moea-au-lii and Haumea as her parents; in another, Kane-hoa-lani and Hina are her parents, while the oldest and most authoritative legends call Kane-hoa-lani her brother and say Hina’s great tidal wave drove Pele across the ocean. Again and again, the legends name Ku-waha-ilo as her father and Haumea as her mother.

In that chapter, Pele asked Moe-moea-au-lii to send her away, warmed the egg that became her youngest sister Hiiaka, and was sent to her oldest brother Ka-moho-alii for a canoe. She landed on Niihau and later, as a dream maiden on Kauai, married Lohiau, but could not stay with him before finding a permanent home. In another account, Wahioloa ran away with Pele’s sister Pele-kumu-ka-lani, and Pele searched the islands for them; another says she had a son, Menehune, and a daughter, Laka. In Chapter II · How Pele came to Hawaii · Part 2, Na-maka-o-ka-hai fought Pele, leaving her broken and presumed dead; Pele’s spirit survived, passed on to Nuu-mea-lani, and could no longer be overcome by her sister.

In Chapter X · Genealogy of the Pele Family · Part 1, one account names Hina-alii as her mother; the Raratongan account calls Pele Pere, daughter of the fire-goddess Mahuike, and tells how Mahuike drove her away before Pere fled to Hawaii. Chapter X · Genealogy of the Pele Family · Part 2 says Pele was born from Haumea’s thighs and that she warmed and nourished Hiiaka, who was born an egg, until she became a child. The genealogies name her sisters and brothers, including Kapo, Kane-hekili and Kauwila-nui. They give her four husbands in different accounts: Au-kele-nui-a-iku, Wahioloa, Kama-puaa and Lohiau.