Atanua

In Marquesan cosmogony Atea and Atanua emerge from an earlier being named Tanaoa; Atea is said to have come forth first and then "made space" for Atanua. Together Atea and Atanua are a parental pair whose son Tu‑Mea is described as the first man. In this origin narrative Atanua participates in the generation of the ordered world.

The provided sources do not record a detailed physical description or iconographic attributes for Atanua. She is presented in the accounts chiefly by function and relationship: as the personification of the dawn and the consort of Atea within the Marquesan cosmogony.

Attested roles and actions in the sources: personification of the dawn (bringing/embodying the first light of morning); participant in the cosmogonic emergence with Atea from Tanaoa; mother of Tu‑Mea, the first man; and credited with producing the seas after suffering a miscarriage, the amniotic fluid of which is said to have filled the oceans.