In Māori mythology

Maori mythology

Māori mythology and Māori traditions are the two major categories into which the legends of the Māori of New Zealand may usefully be divided...

, Rehua is a very sacred personage, who lives in Te Putahi-nui-o-Rehua in Rangi-tuarea, the tenth and highest of the heavens

Underworld

The Underworld is a region which is thought to be under the surface of the earth in some religions and in mythologies. It could be a place where the souls of the recently departed go, and in some traditions it is identified with Hell or the realm of death...

 in some versions of Māori lore. Rehua is identified with certain stars. To the Tūhoe

Tuhoe

Ngāi Tūhoe , a Māori iwi of New Zealand, takes its name from an ancestral figure, Tūhoe-pōtiki. The word tūhoe literally means "steep" or "high noon" in the Māori language...

 people of the North Island he is Antares

Antares

Antares is a red supergiant star in the Milky Way galaxy and the sixteenth brightest star in the nighttime sky . Along with Aldebaran, Spica, and Regulus it is one of the four brightest stars near the ecliptic...

. Others say he is Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse, also known by its Bayer designation Alpha Orionis , is the eighth brightest star in the night sky and second brightest star in the constellation of Orion, outshining its neighbour Rigel only rarely...

, or Sirius

Sirius

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, it is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. The name "Sirius" is derived from the Ancient Greek: Seirios . The star has the Bayer designation Alpha Canis Majoris...

. Because he lives in the highest of the skies, Rehua is untouched by death, and has power to cure blindness, revive the dead, and heal any disease (Orbell 1998:119-120). He is a son of Rangi and Papa

Rangi and Papa

In Māori mythology the primal couple Rangi and Papa appear in a creation myth explaining the origin of the world. In some South Island dialects, Rangi is called Raki or Rakinui.-Union and separation:...

, and the father of Kaitangata

Kaitangata

Kaitangata can mean the following:*Kaitangata, New Zealand, a small town near the coast of South Otago in New Zealand*Kaitangata , a character in Māori mythology...

, as well as the ancestor of Māui

Maui (Maori mythology)

In Māori mythology, Māui is a culture hero famous for his exploits and his trickery.-Māui's birth:The offspring of Tū increased and multiplied and did not know death until the generation of Māui-tikitiki . Māui is the son of Taranga, the wife of Makeatutara...

 (Tregear 1891:381). A Ngāi Tahu

Ngai Tahu

Ngāi Tahu, or Kāi Tahu, is the principal Māori iwi of the southern region of New Zealand, with the tribal authority, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, being based in Christchurch and Invercargill. The iwi combines three groups, Kāi Tahu itself, and Waitaha and Kāti Mamoe who lived in the South Island prior...

 legend from the South Island

South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

 speaks of Rehua as the eldest son of Rangi and Papa, who first manifested as lightning, but assumed human shape when he travelled into the skies. Later his brother Tāne

Tane

In Māori mythology, Tāne is the god of forests and of birds, and the son of Ranginui and Papatuanuku, the sky father and the earth mother, who lie in a tight embrace...

 went to pay him a visit, Rehua had birds in his hair, feeding on his lice. Rehua had his servants cook and prepare the birds as a meal for Tāne, who was shocked and declined to eat them because the birds had eaten the lice from Rehua's head, which was extremely tapu (sacred). However Rehua gave him birds to bring down to this world, and showed him how to snare them. Tāne also brought with him the fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 trees that the birds fed on, and so it is that there are forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

s and birds on the earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

 (Orbell 1998:119).

In Tahiti

Tahiti

Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...

, Rehua was a star-god, the star of the New Year, who produced the Twins as well as the Pleiads

Pleiads

is an arcade game produced by Tehkan and Centuri, loosely based on an earlier game called Phoenix which was produced by Amstar in 1980.-Gameplay:...

, and considered lord of the year.