View source for Ika-Roa

{{Short description|Long fish giving birth to all stars in Milky Way}}
{{notability|date=June 2017}}
{{no footnotes|date=June 2017}}
In [[Māori mythology]], '''Ikaroa''' is the long fish that gave birth to all the stars in the [[Milky Way]] or the [[Mother Goddess]] of all the stars – ornaments of the [[Sky God]]. Ika-Roa is also an alternative name for the Milky Way. 

Ika-roa was also called ''Mangōroa'' ("long [[shark]]") or ''Mangōroa i ata'' ("long shark in the early [[dawn]]").

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* E. Shortland, ''Maori Religion and Mythology'' (Longmans: London), 1882. 
* E.R. Tregear, ''Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary'' (Lyon and Blair: Lambton Quay), 1891.

{{deity-stub}}
{{Oceania-myth-stub}}

[[Category:Fish goddesses]]
[[Category:Māori goddesses]]
[[Category:Mother goddesses]]
[[Category:Stellar goddesses]]