Ikatere

deity water Māori single tradition · 7

In Māori and Polynesian mythology, Ikatere, also spelled Ika-tere, ('fast fish') is a fish god, the father of all sea creatures, including mermaids. He is a son of Punga, and a grandson of Tangaroa, and his brother is Tū-te-wehiwehi.

↻ synthesized from 7 sources

When

Attested period
1956 – 2020
Historical notes
Documented in Grey 1971.

Relationships

sibling of
Tū-te-wehiwehi
enemy of
Tāwhirimātea
child of
Punga, Tangaroa

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

Source passages

“Ikatere and Tū-te-wehiwehi were among those who had to flee from his wrath for their survival. Ikatere chose to keep his children, the fish, to the sea.”

#31586 · extracted by deepseek/deepseek-chat

“Punga, a son of Tangaroa, has two children, Ikatere father of fish, and Tū-te-wehiwehi...Terrified by Tāwhirimātea's onslaught the fish seek shelter in the sea”

#31662 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“the two sons of Punga, Ikatere and Tū-te-wehiwehi, had to flee for their lives. Ikatere fled to the sea, and became the ancestor of certain fish, while Tū-te-wehiwehi took refuge in the forest, and became the ancestor of lizards.”

#31688 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Punga, has two children, Ikatere, the ancestor of fish, and Tū-te-wehiwehi (or Tū-te-wanawana), the ancestor of reptiles. Terrified by Tāwhirimātea's onslaught, the fish seek shelter in the sea”

#31777 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“Two of Tangaroa's descendants, Ikatere, father of fish and Tu-te-wehiwehi (or Tu-te-wanawana), the ancestor of reptiles, are terrified by Tāwhirimātea's fury. The fish flee into the sea, and the reptiles into the forests.”

#31832 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001