In Hawaiian mythology, Pele is the hawaiian goddess of fire, lightning, dance, volcanoes and violence. She is a daughter of Haumea and Kane Milohai, and her home is believed to be the fire pit, Halema'uma'u crater, at the summit caldera of Kīlauea, one of the Earth's most and continuously active volcanoes; but her domain encompasses all volcanic activity on the Big Island of Hawai'i.

Pele is born to Kane-hoa-lani and Haumea in Kuaihelani. She sticks so close to Lono-makua, the fire god, as to cause a conflagration (or, as in the Aukelenuiaiku story, makes love to her sister's husband) and her older sister Na-maka-o-kaha‘i, called "a sea goddess," drives her away. She takes passage in the canoe Honua-i-a-kea with her little sister carried in her armpit and accompanied by her brothers Ka-moho-ali‘i, Kane-milo-hai, Kane-apua, and others, and arrives at the Hawaiian group by way of the northwestern shoals. There Kane-milo-hai is left on one islet as an outguard and Kane-apua on another, but Pele pities this last younger brother and picks him up again. A group of songs relate the relentless pursuit of the party by the older sister until the two sisters en-counter each other in Kahiki-nui on the island of Maui and Pele's body is torn apart and the fragments heaped up to form the hill called Ka-iwi-o-Pele (The bones of Pele) near Kauiki, while her spirit takes flight to the island of Hawaii and finds a permanent home on Hawaii.

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