I posed this mythology-themed riddle to everyone on my Facebook feed:
“If sailboats are clouds, then the ocean is a sky. I was king of the ocean, who was I?”
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A few mustered the energy to bother and one Polynesian arrived at
Answer: #KANALOA
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That individual was right, of course. #Kanaloa, the octopus god, known as Tagaloa in Sāmoa, was who the riddle described. I also meant #Atlas, the Greek Titan. Let me explain.
Analysis: KANALOA = #ATLAS
Kanaloa is the #Hawaiian written form of #Sāmoan “#Tagaloa”. Depending on where you are in #Samoa it is pronounced either with the /k/ and /ng/ or the /t/ and /ng/ and for all intents and purposes is the same individual.
TAGALOA-ATA-LAGA:
Tagaloa “Shadow Who Rose Up Against His Lord”
Tagaloa “Who Raised His Hand Against His Father and Brothers”
Tagaloa “Who Raised Up An Army That Was Defeated”
Tagaloa “Who Raised The Spirits Of His Vanquished People”
Tagaloa “Son (copy/shadow) Who Lifted Up His Sky Father (and Separated Father From Mother/Divided His House)”
TAGALOA-‘ATA-LAGA
Tagaloa “Dreaded, Mighty Hero Who Contended Against His Family”
TAGALOA-A-TALAGA
Tagaloa “Who Undid The Fastenings Of The House”
Tagaloa “Who Broke Apart The Family”
Tagaloa “The Rebel”
Tagaloa "The Fly-Fisherman" (of the "Fly-hooks")
TAGALOA-A-TA-LA-GA
Tagaloa “Of The Sails”
TAGALOA-‘ATA-LA-GA
[***Note that:
ATA also has connotations of "redness" as evidenced in the name of a breed of grouper fish common to Samoa called 'ata'ata (see image).
ATAATA is also related to the red color of the sky just before dusk.
ATAATA is also related to the goliath giant grouper, or jewfish, which are known to even devour small sharks. This may allude to the Titanic stature of the legendary king Atlas.
ATAATA also describes the peeling away of skin and exposure of the sensitive flesh beneath as of skin well worn and blistered from a burden long shouldered, such as Atlas shouldering the starry expanse. The peeling and blotchiness of skin could also derive from excessive consumption of the narcotic ‘awa / kava, which also is known as waka root, or “canoe root”, a plant medicine used and spread widely by oceangoing Va’a expeditions. It has always been sacred and kapū / tapū for any but Ali’i to use and even then only in a sacred manner under the strictest protocols, with the first cup poured out on the ground ever and always as an offering unto the gods and ancestors. Casual use, as is the increasingly common custom today, was frowned upon to say the least.
A story in Sāmoa (Manu’a) involving Tagaloa-a-Ui, grandson of Talaga, describes his slaying of the young son of Pava for failing to entrain in the boy a sense of dread and respect for Tagaloa as a Chief, as evidenced by the child’s careless spilling of the sacred kava. (A-Ui later shows pity and resurrects the child, but Pava subsequently is forced to flee for fear of inflaming A-Ui’s wrath further. Thence he and his wife flee to Upolu, to Falealili a village renown for producing Sāmoa’s fiercest warriors, and craftiest military strategists/tafuna/‘aitu of war).***]
I posit that Tagaloa is a composite of #TAGA and #LOA, where TAGA means "son" or "father" or "man" (in Tagalog it means "fishhook" as well as “Filipino”/“Filipina”, in Polynesia it means “to be without restriction”, as with those who are Self-Reliant...) and LOA is linguistically related to LONG and ILOG of Asian and Southeast Asian extraction which mean variously "river", "creek", "stream", "dragon", "serpent", "serpentine" as with the #Tagalog and #Chinese root words. A #Polynesian adoption of this word makes sense and is evidenced in the epithets applied to a descendant of the #Tagaloa lines named #Pili, whose name is still today associated with " son", "child", "relative", "#lizard", "#dragon" throughout Polynesia and even Central and South America with #PIPIL, which possesses a remnant sense of "relative". In this sense Tagaloa may have its root in Asia as "man of the river". The question arises, which river system are we speaking of? There were many great riverine civilizations--in the #Hindu #Kush #Indus River, in #Sumer flanked by the mighty #Euphrates and #Tigris, and of course #Egypt on the #Nile.
Tagaloa-Ata-Laga, or #ATALAGA / #AKALANA in short, is unmistakably a Polynesian memory of #ATLAS, a once mighty king, reputedly ruler of a kingdom in ancient #prehistoric #Mauritania (#Maori #Taniwha / #Maoli Kani Hā / Ma-Toli #Tanifa) “original monster of the deep" / "roaring voice of the deep” / "roaring breath of the deep", or "destroyed for trying to gather fruit from high trees". #Legends say he was a #master #astronomer, #mathematician, #builder and warlord who rose up against members of his own family (the Olympians during the #Titanomachy/War of the #Titans). This was "a war in heaven" and just as he was narrowly defeated by an incidental union of #Athens and Egypt, the world was engulfed by a #cataclysmic flood that erased both Athens and Atlantis (in North #Africa) from the Earth. The Titanomachy, of course, was "a war in heaven".
Further, Atlas is described by Plato as a son of Poseidon in Critias:
"And Poseidon, receiving for his lot the island of Atlantis, begat children by a mortal woman, and settled them in a part of the island, which I will describe..."
This mortal woman hailed from a nearby mountain encircling part of the isle of Atlantis:
"In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth born primeval men of that country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a wife named Leucippe, and they had an only daughter who was called Cleito. The maiden had already reached womanhood, when her father and mother died; Poseidon fell in love with her and had intercourse with her...begat and brought up five pairs of twin male children; and dividing the island of Atlantis into ten portions, he gave to the first-born of the eldest pair his mother's dwelling and the surrounding allotment, which was the largest and best, and made him king over the rest; the others he made princes, and gave them rule over many men, and a large territory...the eldest, who was the first king, he named Atlas, and after him the whole island and the ocean were called Atlantic...and their descendants for many generations were the inhabitants and rulers of divers islands in the open sea; and also, as has been already said, they held sway in our direction over the country within the Pillars as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia."
With respect to the Sāmoan translation above MA TOLI TANIFA into "destroyed (MA) for trying to gather fruit from high trees (TOLI)", remember the story of Atlas and Herakles 12 labors. In that story, Herakles is tasked by his cousin Eurystheus to acquire the sacred golden apples of the Hesperides' garden, prized by the queen of Heaven, Hera, wife of Zeus. The dragon Ladon guards it and only Atlas can obtain these apples for Herakles.
Regarding the great cataclysmic flood, only Egypt survived, or rather fared the best with preservation of its culture, because the #pyramids survived. The #Book Of #Enoch relates that The #Ark either had a pyramid atop its main deck, or was itself a #pyramid based on some readings of the #Hebrew text that speaks of the bringing together of the structural ribs to a point at the top of the vessel. According to #Plato, a priest of #Sais in Egypt related this prehistory to #Solon the #Lawgiver of Athens (a Greek #sage cited famously by John F. #Kennedy in his “ask not” speech), and praised the #Athenians for their forgotten heroism. It was Athens who liberated the ancient prehistoric world from the oppressive rule and expansionism of Atlas and his brothers and sisters among whom Atlas was the eldest and foremost king.
Atlas, too, whose queen consort was #Pleione, was the father of the #Pleiades. In Polynesia, the Pleiades are called variously Maka-Lií, Ta-Li'i, Li'i. This is the root of the title of Ali'i, or #aliki, #Ariki, #Ariti, which means "chief" or "noble". In this sense A-Li'i means "of the Pleiadean stars", or "belonging to heaven" for the stars are in heaven, and speaks directly to the belief that kingship "descended from heaven."
In the Polynesian legend of Talaga, he together with his grandson and son (all also named Māui), “lifted the heavens” by working together. This is also a thread of the Polynesian creation story wherein Wākea (Sky Father) and Papa (Earth Mother) are separated in order to make room for their children to stand up and for plants to grow, as there was not enough room to stand while sky and earth embraced. In the Tongan dialect, one sense of ATA is of “space”, “spaciousness”, “air”, and “freedom”. This lends credence to the connection of ATA with TALAGA / Māui and Atlas.
In the Samoan version of this story, Tagaloa (variously Talaga, #Lagi, and #La - the Rebel / Lifter, the Heaven, or the Sun) are found at sea on a fishing voyage with their brothers. Tagaloa is weary, and sad, and desires to find a place to rest his feet. In one version he rolls a rock down from a hill into the ocean and this becomes Manu'a. In another version he casts a fishing line and pulls and pulls until an island emerges from the depths, which becomes Manu'a. In both instances Manu'a is the first of the Polynesian islands in the Polynesian #Triangle. Here the first humans emerge, evolved from 'ilo (worms) that hatch on the rotting tendrils of the jungle creepers called fue. Tagaloa with some help from his friends pinch on the soft white formless meat of the worms and stretch out a pair of legs and a pair of arms. Then Tagaloa instructs the worms in the arts of civilization--language, astronomy, agriculture, and other skills.
The Maori version of this story follows very closely, only instead of Manu'a, the North Island and South Island are pulled up from the sea with the magic fishhook and fishing line.
The Fishhook of Heaven is none other than the #constellation #Scorpio according to the Tongan version of this tale. Those familiar with this heavenly star formation readily recognize its hook shape for this very legendary artifact.
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