Becoming God
Deification from Antiquity to the Present
Lecture 8: Captain Cook
Dr. Nickolas P. Roubekas
University of Vienna
Email: nickolas.roubekas@univie.ac.at
cook // Lono
Who’s Cook?
James Cook (1728-1779)
British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain
in the Royal Navy.
Detailed maps of Newfoundland
Three trips in the Pacific
Eastern coast of Australia
Hawaii
Circumnavigation of New Zealand
Who’s Lono?
Fertility, agriculture, rainfall, music, peace
AKA: Lono-Makua
Kū, Kāne, Kanaloa
The Makahiki Festival
Cook @ Hawaii (1776-1780)
Makahiki
What’s in a name?
maka = ‘eye’ (refers to the constellation of the Pleiades)
hiki = movement
The rising of the Pleiades in the heavens
Sun’s turn northward, bringing warmth again to earth, the
growth of plants, and the spawning of fish.
The Festival
Athletic sports
A symbol of Lono was carried from district to district to
collect taxes ('auhau) in the shape of products given in return
for the use of the land distributed by each overlord among his
family group
Ceremony of basket-work (wa'a-'auhau; literally ‘tributecanoe’)
sent adrift to represent the canoe in which Lono
returned to Tahiti
(As if) Lono of the Makahiki had once appeared in the person
of some voyager who brought culture gifts, introduced athletic
sports, perhaps also the Polynesian custom of the ho'okupu or
tributary offering sent to sea to feed the god and would come
back to the people in abundant crops for the coming season
What a coincidence!!
Bering Strait
Sailed around Hawaii islands for c. 8 weeks looking for a suitable
port
Kealakekua Bay (Jan 17, 1779)
Makahiki period
HMS Resolution resembled certain significant artefacts that
formed part of the season of worship
Cook’s clockwise route around the island of Hawaii
Stepping on soil, elevated to divinity: King
Captain James King
"were received by four men, who carried wands tipped with
dog’s hair, and marched before us, pronouncing with a loud
voice a short sentence, in which we could only distinguish the
word Orono.... The crowd, which had been collected on the
shore, retired at our approach; and not a person was to be
seen, except a few lying prostrate on the ground, near the huts
of the adjoining village."
Stepping on soil, elevated to divinity: King
"During the rest of the time we remained in the bay, whenever Captain
Cook came on shore, he was attended by one of these priests, who
went before him, giving notice that the Orono had landed, and ordering
people to prostrate themselves. The same person also constantly
accompanied him on the water, standing in the bow of the boat, with
a wand in his hand, and giving notice of his approach to the natives,
who were in canoes, on which they immediately left off paddling, and
lay down on their faces till he had passed. Whenever he stopped at
the observatory, Kaireekeea [Keli'-ikea] and his brethren immediately
made their appearance with hogs, cocoa-nuts, bread-fruit, &c. and
presented them with the usual solemnities. It was on these occasions that
some of the inferior chiefs frequently requested to be permitted to make
an offering to the Orono. When this was granted, they presented the hog
themselves, generally with evident marks of fear on their countenances;
whilst Kaireekeea and the priests chanted their accustomed hymns."
Stepping on soil, elevated to divinity: Clerke
Captain Charles Clerke
“[Cook] was received with the accustomed respect they
upon all occasions paid him, which more resembled that due
to a Deity than a human being”
Stepping on soil, elevated to divinity: Kamakau
Samuel M. Kamakau (1815-1876)
“...when Captain Cook appeared they declared
that his name must be Lono, for Kealakekua
was the home of that deity as a man, and it was a
belief of the ancients that he had gone to Kahiki and
would return. They were full of joy, all the more so that these
were Lono’s tabu days [i.e., the Makahiki]. Their happiness knew
no bounds; they leaped for joy: "Now shall our bones live; now
'aumakua [ancestor-spirit] has come back. These are his tabu days
and he has returned!" This was a great mistake. He was a longtailed
god, a scorpion, a slayer of men. What a pity! But they
believed in him and shouted, ‘Lono is a god! Lono is a god!’”
Mortal death or the dying god?
When will he return?
The dismemberment of Cook’s body
Captain King’s narration:
[one had] ‘shed abundance of tears at the loss of the Erono’
[asked a most] ‘Singular question ... & that was when the Erono
would return, this was demanded afterwards by others, & what he
would do to them when he return'd’
“agrees with the general tenour of their conduct toward him,
which shewed, that they considered him as a being of a superior
nature”
Aftermath
“The Natives seem to consider that melancholy transaction
[Cook’s death] as one of the most remarkable events in their
History, almost every child able to prattle can give you an account
of it, and in reckoning back to distant periods, which they do by
memorable occurrences, and knowing the distances of time from
one to another, this transaction seems to assist their calculations in
a very great degree; at that time they look'd up to him as to a
supernatural being, indeed called him the 'Orono' or great God,
nor has he to this day lost any of his character or consequence
with the Natives they still in speaking of him style him the Orono
and if they are to be believ'd, most sincerely regret his fate.”
Edward Bell
The Apotheosis never occurred!
“When James Cook arrived during the
[Makahiki] festival in two large ships with a
large number of people who neither looked
Polynesian nor spoke the native language,
the Hawaiians, it is said, thought he was the
god Lano. By contrast, I argue in this book
that Cook's arrival would violate Hawaiian
commonsense expectations, though it could
be consonant with European assumptions
regarding native perceptions of white ‘civilizers.’”
Gananath Obeyesekere, The Apotheosis Of Captain Cook : European Mythmaking In
The Pacific, 1992 (p. 20)
The language of the gods
In the Sandwich Islands, the language of liturgy is a special
language, which differs from the language spoken today.
Commoners do not understand it; it is probably the unchanged
ancient language of this people... Information from Tahiti is in
agreement on this point. (Adelbert van Chamisso, 1816)
It is astonishing to see what moral darkness covers their hearts.
They told me that before they did not know what we meant by
prayer, but supposed we meant telling long stories which
neither we nor any one knew what they meant, as was the
custom of their priests. (Reverend Whitney, 1821)
The physique of the gods
“All of these gods, whether worshipped by the common
people or by the alii [chiefs], were thought to reside in the
heavens. Neither commoner nor chief had ever discovered
their nature; their coming and their going was unseen; their
breadth, their length and their dimensions were unknown.”
(Malo, David. 1951. Hawaiian antiquities, 83)
What did the
deification of
Cook mean?
Q & A
The importance for the Hawaiians
The importance for the Europeans
Reception
Coincidence as factor
Ante & Post Mortem deification
Who benefited eventually?
Next: U.S. Presidents