Friday 12 January 2018

Pele III

Heavenly bodies are named after deities. Thus, we find a star called "Pele" in a work by Poul Anderson and the goddess, Pele, in The Sea Peoples by SM Stirling. Further, since Anderson's Zacharians are named after Terrestrial deities, there is a Pele Zachary. For all blog posts referring to Anderson's use of the name Pele, see here. (Scroll down.)

In The Sea Peoples, Chapter Five, p. 68, Pele is invoked as part of a pantheon:

Pele of the fire;
Kane of the forests;
Kuof of the mace;
Lono of the rain;
Laka of the lehua flower;
Milu of the dead.

Pagans from elsewhere will simply equate members of this pantheon with members of theirs. Pele's "...flame draws land from sea!"? (ibid.) I suppose undersea volcanoes create islands.

1 comment:

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Kaor, Paul!

I'm reminded of how, when the Hawaiians were starting to become Christians in the early 19th century, a Hawaiian princess climbed one of the volcanoes of the Big Island to defy and denounce Pele, daring the "goddess" to punish her.

Sean