Editing Rohe (mythology)

{{Short description|Moriori goddess}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=October 2024}}
{{Redirect|Rohi|the Romanian village|Târgu Lăpuș|the desert|Cholistan Desert}}

In a tradition of the [[Moriori people|Moriori]] people of the [[Chatham Islands]], '''Rohe''' is the wife of the demi-god [[Māui (Māori mythology)|Māui]]. Beautiful Rohe was a sister of the [[sun]], and her face shone. A quarrel arose after Rohe remarked that Māui's face was [[Ugliness|ugly]]. Māui then decided that they should change faces. 

Afterwards Māui used [[Magic (paranormal)|magic]] to kill Rohe, but her spirit returned and destroyed Māui. Thus were [[black magic]] and [[death]] introduced into the world. After her death, Rohe ruled as the goddess of the pō (spirit [[world]]), where she gathered in the spirits of the dead. Evil influences were attributed to her.<ref>Shand 1897:125–-126</ref>

==Cook Islands==
In Mangaia, the name '''Ro'e''' appears in '''Te Aka-ia-Ro'e''' (the root of all existence) which, according to Tregear, is "a spirit in the form of a thick stem tapering to a point, and is situated at the bottom of the Universe, sustaining the [[Cosmos]]".<ref>Gill 1976:1</ref><ref>Tregear 1891:421</ref>

==Māori==
The [[Māori people|Māori]] knew little of Rohe. Tregear records the one [[myth]] associated with her, in which she is the wife of [[Māui (Māori mythology)|Māui]]. She was beautiful as he was ugly, and she refused his request to exchange faces. Māui, however, recited an [[incantation]], and their faces were switched. In anger Rohe left him, and refused to live any longer in the world of [[light]]. She went to the [[underworld]], and became a [[goddess]] of the pō ([[night]] or spirit world). Rohe is said sometimes to beat the spirits of deceased as they pass through her realm. Her home is in that division of the  night world called [[Uranga-o-te-rā|Te Uranga-o-te-rā]]. Māui and Rohe had a son named Rangihore, the god of rocks and stones.<ref>Craig 1989:231</ref><ref>Tregear 1891:421</ref><ref>One source gives 'Koke' as another name for Rohe: this looks suspiciously like a misreading rather than a plausible alternative name.</ref>

==Tahiti==
In Tahiti, the 'Father of Famine' is called '''Rohe-upo'o-nui''' (Large-headed Rohe).<ref>Tregear 1891:421</ref>

== Citations and explanatory notes ==
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== Cited works ==
* Craig, R. D. (1989). [https://books.google.com/books?id=pG2fvBwNplYC ''Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology'']. New York: Greenwood Press. {{ISBN|9780313258909}}.
* Gill, W. W. (1876). [https://archive.org/details/mythsandsongsfro013889mbp/mode/2up ''Myths and Songs from the South Pacific'']. London: Henry S. King.
* Shand, A. (June 1894). "The Moriori People of the Chatham Islands: Their Traditions and History". ''The Journal of the Polynesian Society''. Volume 3, no. 2. pp. 76–92. {{JSTOR|20701329}}.
* Tregear, E. R. (1891). [https://archive.org/details/cu31924026916480 ''Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary'']. Lambton Quay, Wellington, NZ: Lyon and Blair.

[[Category:Death goddesses]]
[[Category:Māori goddesses]]
[[Category:Māori underworld]]
[[Category:Moriori mythology]]
[[Category:Polynesian goddesses]]
[[Category:Underworld goddesses]]

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