Nāmaka
Nāmaka
6 min read
Nāmaka (or Nāmaka-o-Kahaʻi) is a goddess of water and the sea in Hawaiian mythology. The elder sister and rival of the fire goddess Pele, she embodies the forces of the ocean that are eternally opposed to those of the volcano.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Goddess of water and the sea in the Hawaiian pantheon, daughter of Haumea and Kū-waha-ilo
- Elder sister of Pele, goddess of fire and volcanoes, with whom she maintains a legendary rivalry
- According to the myth, she pursues Pele across the Hawaiian archipelago and tears her apart, her bones forming the hill of Ka-iwi-o-Pele on Maui
- Embodies the cosmic opposition between water (the sea) and fire (the volcano), a metaphor for the geological formation of the Hawaiian Islands
- A myth passed down orally in the Polynesian tradition, predating the introduction of writing in the 19th century
Works & Achievements
Through her battle against Pele's lava, Nāmaka takes part in the formation of the land: water cools the fire and shapes the coasts of the archipelago.
As goddess of the sea, she governs the waves, tidal waves, and currents, a power feared by fishermen and sailors.
She drives her sister from their native land, a founding event that triggers Pele's mythical migration across the Pacific.
She strikes down and dismembers Pele's body at Hāna, a central episode in the mythological cycle of Pele.
A recurring character in the songs and tales of the Pele cycle, passed down orally and later collected by folklorists in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Anecdotes
In Hawaiian mythology, Nāmaka and her younger sister Pele, the goddess of fire, wage an endless war: every time Pele sends a volcano surging toward the sea, Nāmaka sends her waves to extinguish the lava. Hawaiians saw in this struggle the explanation for the formation of their islands, where the fire of the earth meets the water of the ocean.
According to the stories, it was Nāmaka who drove Pele from their homeland, Kahiki, because the fire goddess had seduced her husband. Pele then fled by canoe across the Pacific, creating one volcano after another on each island, until she found refuge at the summit of Kīlauea, on the big island of Hawaii.
Legend tells that Nāmaka finally caught up with Pele on the island of Maui and tore her body to pieces: Pele's bones formed a hill called Ka-iwi-o-Pele (“Pele's bones”). But Pele, now become a pure spirit of fire, survived in the crater of Kīlauea, which made their duel eternal.
The goddess's full name, Nāmaka-o-Kahaʻi, means “the eyes of Kahaʻi” in Hawaiian. She was regarded as a protective but fearsome deity, able to unleash tidal waves and storms to defend the ocean against the encroachments of fire.
Nāmaka belongs to a vast divine family: she is one of the many children of Haumea, the goddess of fertility, and counts among her brothers and sisters the pig-gods and wind spirits that populate the Hawaiian genealogical chants, passed down orally from generation to generation.
Primary Sources
Pele's elder sister Na-maka-o-kaha'i, goddess of the sea, pursues her from land to land because Pele has stolen her husband, and the two fight until Pele is overcome.
The ancient Hawaiians preserved in their chants (mele) and their narratives (moolelo) the genealogy of the gods descended from Haumea, including the spirits of the sea and of fire.
Pele, driven from her homeland by the wrath of her sister Na-maka-o-kaha'i, set forth in her canoe seeking a new abode among the islands of the great ocean.
Key Places
Ancestral and mythical homeland of the Hawaiian gods, often associated with the islands of the South Pacific. It is there that the quarrel between Nāmaka and Pele begins.
Domain of Nāmaka, goddess of the sea, where she rules over the waves and the tides. The setting for Pele's pursuit from island to island.
A hill on Maui whose name means “the bones of Pele,” where Nāmaka is said to have torn apart her sister's body during the final battle.
An ever-active volcano on the Big Island, the final refuge of Pele's spirit. A symbol of the eternal opposition between Pele's fire and Nāmaka's water.
The place where the sea (Nāmaka) catches up with and overcomes the fire (Pele) according to the mythological cycle. A major stage in their confrontation across the archipelago.
