Polynesian Pantheon
Haumea
Also known as Haumia (Maori harvest god)
- fertility
- childbirth
- wild foods
- regeneration
A powerful fertility goddess with the ability to regenerate herself and transform her age. In Hawaiian tradition, Haumea is the mother of Pele and many other deities, and taught humans the secrets of childbirth.
About Haumea
Goddess of Fertility and Transformation
Haumea is a complex goddess figure, particularly prominent in Hawaiian mythology, where she is among the most powerful of female deities. She embodies fertility, regeneration, and the mysterious powers of women.
The Self-Renewing Goddess
Haumea possesses the remarkable ability to regenerate herself, shedding her old form and becoming young again. In Hawaiian tradition, she lived through many generations of humans, each time aging until she performed rituals to restore her youth. She married many chiefs, always revealing herself eventually and moving on.
Mother of Pele
Haumea is often identified as the mother of Pele and her siblings, including Namaka, Hi'iaka, and the other volcano and sea deities. Through this lineage, she is the ancestress of the most powerful forces shaping the Hawaiian landscape.
Teacher of Childbirth
Before Haumea, women died in childbirth because babies had to be cut from their mothers. Haumea taught the art of natural birth, saving countless lives. She is thus invoked by midwives and praying women, the patron of the mysterious processes of reproduction.
Origin story
Haumea's exact origins are mysterious, befitting a goddess of transformation. In some Hawaiian traditions, she emerged in Kahiki (Tahiti) in the earliest times. Her ability to shed her form and regenerate suggests she may be as old as creation itself, a primal force of fertility that takes different shapes across the ages.
Across traditions
Parallel figures
Figures who play a role like Haumea's in other traditions.
GreekDemeterIllustrationBoth are powerful fertility goddesses associated with the abundance of the earth
Compare Haumea and Demeter side by side
Worship and cult
Temples, festivals, and practices recorded for Haumea
Mother of islands and of Pele's line in some tellings. Cult is reproductive and local. Do not flatten her into a generic earth mother.
Sacred sites
- Hawaiian traditions of fertility and childbirth
Family
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Hawaiian Tradition
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Parallels are editorial comparisons across traditions: a shared role does not, by itself, establish a shared origin.
Family relationships come from the atlas's kinship records. Ancient sources often disagree on divine genealogy.
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Genealogy
Family tree
Haumea's parents, consorts, children and rivals, as recorded in the atlas.