Tama-nui-te-rā. In Māori mythology, Tama-nui-te-rā (Tamanuiterā) is the personification of the Sun.
Etymology[edit] In the Māori language, Tama-nui-te-rā means "Great son the Sun". The Māori word for "sun" or "day" is rā, deriving from Proto-Polynesian *laqaa. Ao (mythology) In Māori mythology, Ao ("daylight") is one of the primal deities who are the unborn forces of nature.
Ao is the personification of light and the ordinary world, as opposed to darkness and the underworld. Māori 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.
The rituals, beliefs, and the world view of Māori society were ultimately based on an elaborate mythology that had been inherited from a Polynesian homeland and adapted and developed in the new setting (Biggs 1966:448). 19th-century sources[edit]