What kind of personality would you assign a volcano goddess?
I'd say that most of us would agree that "temperamental" would be an understatement.
Well, Hawaii would seem to agree,
as the kupua Pele, creator of the islands, as well as the goddess of
fire, lightning, wind and other such consequences of volcanoes,
is something of a... hothead, let's say.
Uh, real quick:
"Kupua" is a word's that's not really god, and not really spirit.
Disney translated it as "demigod," which has... incorrect implications,
as it doesn't mean they're half-god, half-something else.
Kupua are more like... "people++" —
not full-on gods, but not really human, either.
So for context, almost everyone involved in these stories is a kupua.
So, Pele.
She's got her fair share of myths, which isn't too surprising, given her importance to the mythos as a whole,
One of her earliest stories explains how she came to Hawaii—
See, before Pele, there was this other volcano god-thing named ʻAilāʻau, meaning "the forest eater,"
which is a pretty sick name for a fire god, I gotta say.
Like, that's some Tolkien stuff right there.
So ʻAilāʻau's not exactly well-liked;
even though the lava he spits makes the islands grow, it's not like it's easy to live on an active volcano
and moderation isn't exactly in a volcano's vocabulary.
So ʻAilāʻau lives in a volcanic crater (you know, for thematic appropriateness),
specifically the caldera of Kīlauea, the most active volcano on the islands,
and as Pele's making her trek to Hawaii, she decides to stop by and pay him a visit.
She's been having trouble finding a suitably hot place to set up shop
and the biggest caldera on the island seems like a good place to start.
But when she gets there, the crater's empty, because ʻAilāʻau catches wind of the fact that Pele's heading his way
and absolutely flips out, abandoning his crater and running away.
Pele gives a mighty shrug, digs herself a suitable home in the crater and sets about making more Hawaii.
It's here on Kīlauea that one of Pele's more well-known myths happens,
where she finds herself locked in heavily symbolic combat with the rain-associated kupua, Kamapuaʻa.
See, volcanoes produce some of the world's the most fertile soil,
but it can only be cultivated with the addition of rain.
Symbolically speaking, the volcano and the rain kind of need each other, but they also kind of hate each other.
This dichotomy characterizes most of Pele's interactions with Kamapuaʻa.
So Kamapuaʻa is a kupua with daddy issues
and despite being very handsome, makes a strong effort not to show it,
with scary tattoos and a face full of stubble.
He tries ineffectually to seduce Pele and when she refuses they decide to duke it out, kupua to kupua.
However, after they come to the conclusion that they could totally kill each other,
they decide to totally make out instead.
Ah, a tale as old as time.
So they split the island down the middle, each ruling half of it,
which corresponds to the fact that the northeastern half of the island gets more rain than the southwestern half.
Kamapuaʻa, having known true love and overcome his daddy issues for the first time,
briefly turns back into a hot guy, which freaks out Pele; so she runs off and throws a bunch of lava at him.
Kamapuaʻa dives into the ocean to escape, and turns into a triggerfish,
while Pele misses him already, and later has a kid
(which may or may not be a metaphor for the fact that a volcano is only fertile when paired with rain).
Now one of Pele's myths is extra interesting to me,
because it's one of those myths that's used to explain some wacky natural phenomenon—
In this case, the glacier on top of one of the volcanoes on the main island.
You may note this is something of an elemental contradiction,
but don't worry, the mythos has you covered.
So Mauna Kea, the volcano in question, has four resident kupuas:
Poliʻahu, the kupua of the snow;
Lilinoe, kupua of the mist;
Waiau, kupua of the underground reservoir;
and Ka-houpo-o-Käne, the kupua of the springs in Hawaii
(and I really hope I pronounced that name right).
So these four lovely ladies are partying it up with a little something called hölua sledding,
more commonly known as Hawaiian lava sledding
(don't worry, I swear it's safer than it sounds).
So they're zipping along, sliding down the slide, flying into the water, then coming back up to do it all over again.
They're having a party, when suddenly a beautiful stranger appears, calling herself Keahilele,
which translates to "flying fire," but I'm sure there's nothing to worry about.
Keahilele says she's from the southern island and wants to join the sled party,
but she forgot her hölua at home, so can she maybe borrow one of theirs?
Keahilele turns out to be an expert sledder, and Poliʻahu gets super into it as a competition.
They pick a couple judges from the local farmers, and set about seeing who can sled down the volcano the fastest.
Poliʻahu zips down as though the slope were made of ice,
but Keahilele gets down there so fast her sled is trailing sparks
(or maybe that's just their respective elemental flashiness).
Either way, the judges hum and haw for a bit, before declaring Poliʻahu the faster sledder.
This displeases Keahilele, who gets extremely irritable and causes an earthquake.
The volcano starts spitting fire
and the four local kupua all realize simultaneously that they just called Pele a loser.
Whoops.
So Pele resolves to destroy Mauna Kea AND their precious lava Slip'N Slide,
so she starts throwing chunks of lava while the other four kupua sprint up the mountain.
The island starts erupting, which is bad news for everyone, so Poliʻahu and friends spring into action:
Poliʻahu whips up a blizzard,
Lilinoe blankets the ground with mist,
and Waiau and Ka-houpo-o-Käne do their water thing.
The end result is that the mountain gets capped with a huge mass of snow and ice,
and the glacier spreads all the way down the mountain, blocking off all of Pele's lava access.
This leaves her relatively powerless, so she leaves.
A little bit of fun real stuff here—
there's an ancient quarry on Mauna Kea were basalt was mined.
There's evidence that Mauna Kea was volcanically active at a time when a glacier was forming on top of it,
leading to that basalt deposit.
The story is basically an anthropomorphization of what was probably a legit geological event,
which is pretty sweet!
Pele's folklore extends into the modern day, where supposedly she takes the form of an old white woman
and asks for booze and smokes.
If you help her out, she'll spare you and your family from the subsequent volcano party.
If you don't, well, no party like a Pele party.