In Samoan mythic narrative Tiʻitiʻi appears as a culture-hero in the wider Polynesian pattern of Māui-type tales. The best-attested episode records Tiʻitiʻi's struggle with the earthquake god Mafuiʻe during which Tiʻitiʻi breaks off one of Mafuiʻe's arms and forces the god to reveal how fire had been concealed by the gods in certain trees during the making of the world. By extracting this knowledge Tiʻitiʻi brings fire to the people of Samoa; the story also provides an aetiological detail that, because Mafuiʻe lost an arm, he was thought less able to create large earthquakes. The account situates Tiʻitiʻi as an origin figure who secures crucial technology for humans rather than as the focus of regular cultic worship (a pattern explicitly compared in the sources to the Māui cycle). (Source: Wikipedia entry summarizing Samoan legend.)
The provided sources do not supply a physical description of Tiʻitiʻi (no details on age, dress, size, or other visible features are recorded). Traditional summaries emphasize his deeds and role in cosmogonic episodes (such as the acquisition of fire) rather than his outward appearance, and the surviving brief accounts focus on narrative action rather than iconographic detail. (Source: Wikipedia summary and related comparative notes.)
Tiʻitiʻi's chief attested capacities are heroic prowess and the ability to confront and overcome powerful supernatural beings. In the recorded episode he fights the earthquake god Mafuiʻe, breaks off one of Mafuiʻe's arms in combat, and compels Mafuiʻe to teach him the secret of how fire had been hidden in certain trees at the world's making; through this he brings fire to humans. The tradition thus presents him as able to physically overpower a god-like being and to extract cosmogonic/technical knowledge for the benefit of the human community. The narrative places Tiʻitiʻi within the Polynesian Māui-type repertoire of culture-hero exploits. (Source: Wikipedia summary of the Samoan legend.)
Tagaloa
In Samoan myth Tagaloa (also Tagaloa-Lagi or Tagaloa Lagi) is presented as the supreme ruler and creator who dwells in the heavens and is credited in various traditions with making the heavens, sky, land, seas, fresh water, trees, and people. Tagaloa functions as progenitor of other gods and figures in origin narratives that link divine actions to island formation and human genealogy.
Tangaroa
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Titania
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Titans
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Titivillus
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Tiyanak
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Tizheruk
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Tjilpa
In the supplied sources the term Tjilpa is not attested as a documented supernatural being; the only concrete referent in those materials is the western quoll (Dasyurus geoffroii, common name chuditch) discussed in an encyclopedic entry. No ethnographic or mythic descriptions of a 'Tjilpa' ancestral sand-goanna or paternal ancestral being appear in the provided documents.
Tlacolotl
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Tlaltecuhtli
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Tlepolemus
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Tlesimenes
Tlesimenes is a poorly attested mythic figure recorded in a modern database as related to the Greek figure Parthenopaeus. No primary literary or ritual material for Tlesimenes is provided in the available sources; any identification with the class of nymphs is tentative and inferred from database placement and general descriptions of nymphs in secondary reference material.
Community Record
- [1]Ti‘iti‘i. Wikipedia, 'Tiʻitiʻi' entry summarizing Samoan legend and comparative Polynesian notes.wiki
- [2]Māui. Wikipedia, 'Māui' entry used for comparative context about Māui-type culture-heroes and social role.wiki
- [3]Wikidata: Ti'iti'i. Wikidata entry for Ti'iti'i (identifier record).other