Aikanaka (mythology)

For other uses, see Aikanaka.

In Hawaiian mythology, ʻAikanaka (or ʻAi Kanaka, ʻAikane) is a mortal chief who married Lona, the moon goddess. They lived happily together in her palace until he died of old age.[1][2]

His name means "man eater".

ʻAikanaka also married Hinahanaiakamalama (according to the Ulu genealogy). She bore him sons Hemā and Puna.[3]

Both Lona and Hinahanaiakamalama are lunar goddesses, so it is likely that they are the same person, and ʻAikanaka is married to just one woman.[4]

According to Ulu genealogy, ʻAikanaka was born ca. 746.

Notes

  1. Pacific mythology: an encyclopedia of myth and legend by Jan Knappert
  2. Academic Dictionary Of Mythology by Ramesh Chopra
  3. E.R. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary (Lyon and Blair: Lambton Quay), 1891.
  4. Beckwith, pp. 214-25
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