One day, Hine-titama asked her husband if he knew who her father was, and he told her to ask the pillars of the house. She knew that her husband had built the house, and then realized that her husband was actually her father. Ashamed, she ran off to the underworld, where she was stopped by Te Ku-watawata, the guardian of the gate. He advised her to go back, to remain in the world of light and life, but she insisted on going forward. Just as she was about to descend into the darkness, Tane-matua caught up with her, but she turned him back, telling him that he was to go and look after their children in the world of light, as she would look after them in the world of darkness. It was at this point that she changed her name to Hine-nui-te-po, symbolic of her descent to the underworld.
Hine-nui-te-po's descent also marked the beginning of the flow of mankind to the underworld. The great hero Maui attempted to regain man's immortality by crawling through Hine-nui-te-po's body while she slept. Maui had with him three birds as companions, and when he turned himself into a worm and crawled into Hine-nui-te-po's vagina, one of the birds laughed, awakening the Goddess. Feeling the worm crawling inside her, she crushed it to death. Maui thus became the first man to die, and man has been mortal ever since.
Keywords: greek gods and goddesses images all the egyptian gods and goddesses myths gods and goddesses roman goddess of the hearth goddess worship wicca pagan symbols pagan book paganism religion odinic rite roman paganism black magic rituals book
