Domina Tempora

Mai Kahiki ka wahine, o Pele,
Mai ka aina i Pola-pola,
Mai ka punohu ula a Kane,
Mai ke ao lalapa i ka lani,
5 Mai ka opua lapa i Kahiki.

(From Kahiki came the woman, Pele,
From the land of Pola-pola,
From the red cloud of Kane,
Cloud blazing in the heavens,
5 Fiery cloud-pile in Kahiki.)

“Unwritten Literature of Hawaii”, by Nathaniel B. Emerson (1909)

Kilauea, one of earth’s most active volcanoes located on the island of Hawaii, is believed to be inhabited by a family of gods. One member of the family has become the most visible of all the old gods and goddesses of Hawaii. Her name is Pele, the goddess of fire, lightning, wind and volcanoes as well as the creator of the Hawaiian Islands. She lives in the fire pit called Halemaumau crater, at the summit caldera of Kilauea. Although Pele governs Kilauea and is responsible for controlling its lava flows, her domain encompasses all volcanic activity on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi. As a sign of respect, she is often referred to as “Madame Pele” or “Tutu Pele” and her epitheths include Pele honua mea (“Pele of the sacred land”) and Ka wahine ʻai honua (“The earth-eating woman”).

In addition to being known as the goddess of fire and being strongly associated with volcanoes, but she is also a significant figure in the history of hula as one of her sisters Hiʻiaka (the patron goddess of hula dancers, sorcery and medicine) is believed to be the first person to dance the hula. As a result of Pele’s significance in hula, there have been many hula dances and chants that are also dedicated to her. The hula dedicated to Pele is often done in a way that represents her intense personality and the movement of volcanoes.

Pele’s Dangerous Journey to Her New Home

In one version of Pele’s legend, Pele is the daughter of Kane-hoa-lani, the ruler of heavens, and Haumea, the goddess of fertility and childbirth, in the mystical land of Kuaihelani. She stayed close to her mother’s fireplace with the fire-keeper Lono-makua. However, Namaka (Na-maka-o-Kahai, or “the eyes of Kahai”), the goddess of water and the sea as well as Pele’s older sister, feared that Pele’s ambition would smother the home-land and drove Pele away. Another version of the same legend says that Namaka was angry because Pele had seduced her husband.

Pele’s oldest brother Ka-moho-ali-i, the god of the sharks, gave her a great canoe upon which she and her brothers traveled far from home, over the wide expanse of the seas, sailing on this great canoe eventually to find Hawaii. In this journey she carried her favorite sister Hi’iaka in egg-form all the way to the Hawaiian islands, which led to her epitheth Hi’iaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele (“Hi’iaka in the bosom of Pele”. That makes Hi’iaka the first deity in Pele’s family to be born in Hawaii.

Pele by David Howard Hitchcock, circa 1929. (Public Domain)

Pursued by her sister, Pele landed first on Kauai. However, every time she thrust her o’o (digging stick) to dig a put for her home, Na-maka-o-Kahai would flood the pits. Pele moved down the chain of islands until eventually landing on Mauna Loa – considered the tallest mountain on earth when measured from its base at the bottom of the ocean. As even the sea goddess herself could not send the ocean’s waves high enough on Mauna Loa to drown Pele, Pele established her home on its slopes. One legend says that, at this point, Pele actually still believed herself to also be a goddess of water and proceeded to dig holes, only to uncover gushing rivers of lava. The thrill of the lava spoke to her and she embraced the element of fire. In her new home, Pele paid tributes to her brothers. A cliff on nearby Kilauea Mountain is sacred to her eldest brother Ka-moho-ali-i, the god of the sharks who also became the keeper of the gourd that held the water of life which gave him the power to revive the dead. Out of respect for Ka-moho-ali-i, 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 fire, and Ke-o-ahi-kama-kaua in spears of lava that escape from fissures during eruptions.

Later, Namaka realized Pele was still alive and she went to Maui to battle her sister. The epic battle ended near Hana, Maui, where Pele was torn apart by her sister. Legend says her bones remain as a hill called Ka-iwi-o-Pele (“the bones of Pele”). Upon her death, Pele dug her final and eternal fire pit, Halemaumau Crater, at the summit of Kilauea’s volcano. The crater became known as the Ka Piko o ka Honua (“the Navel of the World”) where the gods began creation.

Kauai from space oriented (Public Domain)

The Price of the Goddess of Fire’s Jealousies

Pele is known to be powerful, passionate and jealous, leading to many legends about her lovers and rivals. Most of the lovers Pele took were not lucky enough to escape with their lives when she hurled molten lava at them, thus 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 (“hog child”), a hog-man fertility demi-god associated with Lono, the god of agriculture. He and Pele were a miss-matched couple from the beginning as, whenever 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, the land seems torn up as if a great struggle had taken place – this relates to a legend that says Kamapua’a finally caught and ravaged Pele. The two remained tempestuous lovers until a child was born, then Kamapua’a sailed away.

A group of Hawaiian women dancing by Choris, Louis. (1795-1828) (Public Domain)

Pele favored her youngest sister Hi’iaka the most out of all her siblings. After Hi’iaka grew to womanhood, Pele traveled in spirit form to the north shore of Kaua’i to witness a dance performance at a pahula, or dance platform, that still exists near the Ke’e Beach. Here she manifested herself as a desirable young woman, and quickly fell in love with a handsome young chief named Lohi’au. After dallying with Lohi’au for several days, her spirit had to eventually return to her sleeping body on the Big Island of Hawaii. Upon awakening, Pele sent her sister Hi’iaka to convince Lohi’au to come to her. Before Hi’iaka left for her mission, the sisters exchanged vows with each other: Hi’iaka promised not to let Lohi’au become attracted to her and, in return, Pele promised to contain her fires and lava flows so that she would not burn a grove of flowering ohi’a trees where Hi’iaka danced with her friend Hopoe, the graceful dancer of Puna who taught Hiiaka, the youngest sister of Pele, how to dance.

On Kauai, Hi’iaka found that Lohi’au had died of grief after Pele disappeared. However, the graceful younger sister was able to restore his spirit to his body and brought him back to life. Together, the two of them began the journey to the Big Island. Pele’s suspicious nature got the best of her as forty days had passed since Hi’iaka had set out on her assigned mission. Due to the time that has elapsed for her sister’s mission, Pele decided that she had been betrayed, and so sent a flood of lava into Hi’iaka’s ‘ohi’a-lehua grove, which resulted in overwhelming Hopoe in a flood of lava and placing her in the form of a balanced rock, eternally dancing by the sea to the music of the moving surf. Hi’iaka saw the smoldering trees and her dancing friend entombed in lava and, in her grief, she flung herself into the arms of Lohi’au. In retribution, Pele set lose another stream of lava, which killed the mortal Lohi’au. Hi’iaka, herself a goddess, could not be destroyed.

Pele and Hi’iaka by Emerson, Nathaniel Bright, (1839-1915) (Public Domain)

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.
Another legend about Pele’s jealousy concerns the lovers Ohi’a and Lehua who loved each other from the moment they met. Lehua’s father gave his only daughter gladly to the strong young man, and the young couple lived happily in a new home Ohi’a built for his bride.

One day, Pele was walking in the forest near the home of the handsome Ohi’a and, seeing him at work, was smitten by him. She engaged him in conversation and Ohi’a spoke politely to the beautiful woman. However, he never responded to her advances which infuriated Pele. Then, when his wife Lehua came to bring him his meal, Ohi’a’s face lit up and dropped everything at once to go to his wife’s side, leaving a fuming Pele to stare in jealous rage. Dropping her human disguise, the goddess transformed into a raging column of fire and struck Ohi’a down, transforming him into a twisted ugly tree.

Lehua fell to her knees beside the tree that had once been her husband. Tears streaming down her face, she begged Pele to turn him back into a man or turn her into a tree, as she could not bear to be separated from her beloved. Her anger satisfied, Pele ignored the girl and left. As Lehua lay weeping in despair, the gods reached down and transformed the girl into a beautiful red flower, which they placed upon the twisted Ohi’a tree, so that she and her beloved husband would never more be apart.

Lehua blossom of the native ‘Ohi‘a tree. (Public Domain)

From that day on, the Ohi’a tree has blossomed with the beautiful red Lehua flowers. While the flowers remain on the tree, the weather remains sunny and fair. However, when a flower is plucked from the tree, then heavy rain falls upon the land like tears, because Lehua still cannot bear to be separated from her husband.

Pele’s greatest rival was Poliahu, the goddess of snow-capped mountains and a beauty who, like Pele, seduced handsome mortal chiefs. Pele’s jealousy flamed after her encounter with a fickle young Maui chief named Aiwohikupua , as he was traveling to the Big Island to court a mortal chiefess, Laie. Paddling along the Hana Coast, Aiwohikupua saw Pele in human form as a beauty named Hina-i-ka-malama (“The woman who worked in the moon”), 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 Kauai with the snow goddess. Pele (as Hina-i-ka-malama) chased after them, eventually winning back the fickle chief. However, Poliahu she blasted the lovers with cold and heat until they separated and Aiwohikupua was left with no lover at all.

Respect for the Mother Goddess, the Creator of Hawaii

Huahua’i Kahiki, lapa uila, e Pele.
E hua’i, e!
(Lo, an eruption in Kahiki!
A flashing of lightning, O Pele!
Belch forth. O Pele!)

There are many stories equating Pele’s wrath, usually stimulated by jealousy or someone’s arrogance, to volcanic eruptions or destructive lava flows. In fact, the Hawaiian word pele actually means “molten lava”. However, no human sacrifices were ever made to Pele apart from red berries in ancient times and gin or brandy in modern times. For Hawaiians, respect, if not worship, for Pele has lasted longer than that for any of the other old gods as her still very visible active power has a strong influence on hearts and minds.
Pele is considered a Mother Goddess as she contains within her both the destructive and creative powers of life. The creative force in Pele’s nature is shown in the perfect synchronization of the elements during the eruption process where all four elements earth, fire, water and air work together. The mix of earth and fire creates lava, which also possesses water characteristics in the liquidity of its form, while air is represented by the billowing clouds of smoke during eruption. Air and water are also present in steam when the lava reaches the ocean forming new landmass. It is in this way that the Hawaiian archipelago was formed, and Pele credited with its creation.