A demigod is a half-god and half-human offspring of a god and a human , or a human or non-human creature that is accorded divine status after death, or someone who has attained the " divine spark " ( divine illumination ). An immortal demigod often has tutelary status and a religious cult following, while a mortal demigod is one who has fallen or died, but is popular as a legendary hero in various polytheistic religions. Figuratively, it is used to describe a person whose talents or abilities are so superlative that they appear to approach being divine.
32-645: The Mamaku Ranges are a mountain range in the North Island of New Zealand . Located to the west of Lake Rotorua and north of Lake Taupō , they lie to the immediate south of the Kaimai Range and can be thought of as an extension of it, in much the same way that the Kaimai Range can be considered an extension of the Coromandel Range . The hills terminate in the south with the valley of
64-655: A considerable part of them. The forest includes kauri trees growing at the far southern limit of their natural range. Some Kauri can be accessed via the Rapurapu Kauri Track. This Bay of Plenty geography article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Waikato geography article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . North Island The North Island ( Māori : Te Ika-a-Māui [tɛ i.kɐ ɐ mɑː.ʉ.i] , lit. 'the fish of Māui', officially North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui or historically New Ulster )
96-753: A major protagonist in the Irish national epic the Táin Bo Cuailnge , ranks as a hero or as a demigod. He is the son of the Irish god Lugh and the mortal princess Deichtine . In the immediate pre-Roman period, the Celtic Gallaceian tribe in Portugal made powerful, large stone statues of deified local heroes , which stood on hill forts in the mountainous regions of - what is today - Northern Portugal and Spanish Galicia . In Hinduism ,
128-630: A mortal scholar. Abe no Seimei , a famous onmyōji from the Heian period was supposed to be one. His father, Abe no Yasuna (安倍 保名), was human. Still, his mother Kuzunoha , was a Kitsune , a divine fox, being this the origin of Abe no Seimei's magical prowess. In the indigenous religions originating from the Philippines , collectively called Anitism , demigods abound in various ethnic stories. Many of these demigods equal major gods and goddesses in power and influence. Notable examples include Mayari,
160-617: A process that has been referred to as "heroization". Pindar also used the term frequently as a synonym for "hero". According to the Roman author Cassius Dio , the Roman Senate declared Julius Caesar a demigod after his 46 BCE victory at Thapsus . However, Dio was writing in the third century CE — centuries after the death of Caesar — and modern critics have cast doubt on whether the Senate really did this. The first Roman to employ
192-709: A whole. During the Last Glacial Period when sea levels were over 100 metres lower than present day levels, the North and South islands were connected by a vast coastal plain which formed at the South Taranaki Bight . During this period, most of the North Island was covered in thorn scrubland and forest , while the modern-day Northland Peninsula was a subtropical rainforest . Sea levels began to rise 7,000 years ago, eventually separating
224-465: Is in the North Island", "my mother lives in the North Island". Maps, headings, tables, and adjectival expressions use North Island without "the". According to Māori mythology , the North and South Islands of New Zealand arose through the actions of the demigod Māui . Māui and his brothers were fishing from their canoe (the South Island) when he caught a great fish and pulled it right up from
256-474: Is one of the two main islands of New Zealand , separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait . With an area of 113,729 km (43,911 sq mi), it is the world's 14th-largest island , constituting 43% of New Zealand's land area. It has a population of 4,077,800 (June 2024), which is 76% of New Zealand's residents, making it the most populous island in Polynesia and
288-448: The 28th-most-populous island in the world. Twelve main urban areas (half of them officially cities) are in the North Island. From north to south, they are Whangārei , Auckland , Hamilton , Tauranga , Rotorua , Gisborne , New Plymouth , Napier , Hastings , Whanganui , Palmerston North , and New Zealand's capital city Wellington , which is located at the south-west tip of the island. The island has been known internationally as
320-477: The Ashvins ). Queen Kunti had previously conceived another son, Karna , when she had tested the mantra out. Despite her protests, Surya the sun god was compelled by the mantra to impregnate her. Bhishma is another figures who fits the western definition of demigod, as he was the son of King Shantanu and Goddess Ganga . The Vaishnavites (who often translate deva as "demigod") cite various verses that speak of
352-640: The Greek hemitheos . The term demigod first appeared in English in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, when it was used to render the Greek and Roman concepts of semideus and daemon. Since then, it has frequently been applied figuratively to people of extraordinary ability. In the ancient Greek and Roman world, the concept of a demigod did not have a consistent definition and associated terminology rarely appeared. The earliest recorded use of
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#1732798101437384-506: The North Island for many years. The Te Reo Māori name for it, Te Ika-a-Māui , also has official recognition but it remains seldom used by most residents. On some 19th-century maps, the North Island is named New Ulster (named after Ulster province in northern Ireland) which was also a province of New Zealand that included the North Island. In 2009 the New Zealand Geographic Board found that, along with
416-657: The Waikato River . There were at one time numerous bush railways that ran over and through the Ranges. One disused line has been developed for tourism. At their highest, the Mamaku Ranges rise to over 600 metres (2,000 ft), and much of the high ground within the hills forms a plateau. The range is extensively forested, with the Kaimai-Mamaku State Forest and Kinleith Forest both covering
448-590: The 2023 census, 63.1% of North Islanders identified as European ( Pākehā ), 19.8% as Māori , 10.6% as Pacific peoples , 19.3% as Asian , 1.9% as Middle Eastern/Latin American/African, and 1.1% as other ethnicities. Percentages add to more than 100% as people can identify with more than one ethnicity. Māori form the majority in three districts of the North Island: Kawerau (63.2%), Ōpōtiki (66.2%) and Wairoa (68.5%). Europeans formed
480-793: The Devas are stated to be subordinate to Vishnu, or God. A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada , the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) translates the Sanskrit word "deva" as "demigod" in his literature when the term referred to a God other than the Supreme Lord . This is because the Vaishnava tradition teaches that there is only one Supreme Lord and that all others are but His servants. In an effort to emphasize their subservience, Prabhupada uses
512-550: The North Island is provided by fifteen District Health Boards (DHBs) . Organised around geographical areas of varying population sizes, they are not coterminous with the Local Government Regions . Demigod The English term " demi- god" is a calque of the Latin word semideus , "half-god". The Roman poet Ovid probably coined semideus to refer to less important gods, such as dryads . Compare
544-519: The South Island, the North Island had no official name. After a public consultation, the board officially named it North Island, or the aforementioned Te Ika-a-Māui, in October 2013. In prose, the two main islands of New Zealand are called the North Island and the South Island , with the definite article. It is also normal to use the preposition in rather than on , for example "Hamilton
576-437: The South Island, this is solely due to the North Island having higher natural increase (i.e. births minus deaths) and international migration; since the late 1980s, the internal migration flow has been from the North Island to the South Island. In the year to June 2020, the North Island gained 21,950 people from natural increase and 62,710 people from international migration, while losing 3,570 people from internal migration. At
608-462: The South Island, with the country's largest city, Auckland, and the capital, Wellington, accounting for nearly half of it. There are 30 urban areas in the North Island with a population of 10,000 or more: The sub-national GDP of the North Island was estimated at NZ$ 282.355 billion in 2021 (78% of New Zealand's national GDP). Nine local government regions cover the North Island and its adjacent islands and territorial waters. Healthcare in
640-567: The Tagalog moon goddess who governs the world every night, Tala, the Tagalog star goddess, Hanan, the Tagalog morning goddess, Apo Anno, a Kankanaey demigod hero, Oryol, a Bicolano half-snake demi-goddess who brought peace to the land after defeating all beasts in Ibalon, Laon, a Hiligaynon demigod who can talk to animals and defeated the mad dragon at Mount Kanlaon, Ovug, an Ifugao thunder and lightning demigod who has separate animations in both
672-699: The Western definition of demigods though they are generally not referred to as such. Queen Kunti , the wife of King Pandu , was given a mantra that, when recited, meant that one of the gods would give her his child. When her husband was cursed to die if he ever engaged in sexual relations, Kunti used this mantra to provide her husband with children fathered by various deities. These children were Yudhishthira (child of Dharmaraj ), Bhima (child of Vayu ) and Arjuna (child of Indra ). She taught this mantra to Madri , King Pandu's other wife, and she immaculately conceived twin boys named Nakula and Sahadeva (children of
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#1732798101437704-411: The circumnavigation of New Zealand. The maps described the North Island as " Ea Heinom Auwe " and " Aeheinomowe ", which recognises the "Fish of Māui" element. Another Māori name that was given to the North Island, but is now used less commonly, is Aotearoa . Use of Aotearoa to describe the North Island fell out of favour in the early 20th century, and it is now a collective Māori name for New Zealand as
736-451: The conclusion of the Otago gold rush in the 1860s, New Zealand's European population growth has experienced a steady 'Northern drift' as population centres in the North Island have grown faster than those of New Zealand's South Island. This population trend has continued into the twenty-first century, but at a much slower rate. While the North Island's population continues to grow faster than
768-654: The demigods in Chinese mythology , Erlang Shen and Chen Xiang are most prominent. In the Journey to the West , the Jade Emperor 's younger sister Yaoji is mentioned to have descended to the mortal realm and given birth to a child named Yang Jian. He would eventually grow up to become a deity himself known as Erlang Shen. Chen Xiang is nephew of Erlang Shen, birth by his younger sister Huayue Sanniang who married with
800-613: The devas' subordinate status. For example, the Rig Veda (1.22.20) reads, " oṃ tad viṣṇoḥ paramam padam sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ ", which translates to, "All the suras [i.e., the devas] look always toward the feet of Lord Vishnu". Similarly, in the Vishnu Sahasranama, the concluding verses, read, "The Rishis [great sages], the ancestors, the devas, the great elements, in fact, all things moving and unmoving constituting this universe, have originated from Narayana," (i.e., Vishnu). Thus
832-660: The islands and linking the Cook Strait to the Tasman Sea . The North Island has an estimated population of 4,077,800 as of June 2024. The North Island had a population of 3,808,005 at the 2023 New Zealand census , an increase of 213,453 people (5.9%) since the 2018 census , and an increase of 570,957 people (17.6%) since the 2013 census . Of the total population, 733,893 people (19.3%) were aged under 15 years, 743,154 (19.5%) were 15 to 29, 1,721,427 (45.2%) were 30 to 64, and 609,534 (16.0%) were 65 or older. Ever since
864-470: The plurality in the Auckland region (49.8%) and are the majority in the remaining 39 districts. The proportion of North Islanders born overseas at the 2018 census were 29.3%. The most common foreign countries of birth were England (15.4% of overseas-born residents), Mainland China (11.3%), India (10.1%), South Africa (5.9%), Australia (5.5%) and Samoa (5.3%). The North Island has a larger population than
896-486: The sea. While he was not looking, his brothers fought over the fish and chopped it up. This great fish became the North Island, and thus a Māori name for the North Island is Te Ika-a-Māui ("The Fish of Māui"). The mountains and valleys are believed to have been formed as a result of Māui's brothers' hacking at the fish. During Captain James Cook 's voyage between 1769 and 1770 , Tahitian navigator Tupaia accompanied
928-460: The term "demigod" may have been the poet Ovid (17 or 18 CE), who used the Latin semideus several times in reference to minor deities. The poet Lucan (39-65) also uses the term to speak of Pompey attaining divinity upon his death in 48 BCE. In later antiquity, the Roman writer Martianus Capella ( fl. 410-420) proposed a hierarchy of gods as follows: The Celtic warrior Cú Chulainn ,
960-622: The term demigod is used to refer to deities who were once human and later became devas (gods). There are two notable demigods in Vedic Scriptures : Nandi (the divine vehicle of Shiva ), and Garuda (the divine vehicle of Vishnu ). Examples of demigods worshiped in South India are Madurai Veeran and Karuppu Sami . The heroes of the Hindu epic Mahabharata , the five Pandava brothers and their half brother Karna , fit
992-423: The term occurs in texts attributed to the archaic Greek poets Homer and Hesiod . Both describe dead heroes as hemitheoi , or "half gods". In these cases, the word did not literally mean that these figures had one parent who was divine and one who was mortal. Instead, those who demonstrated "strength, power, good family, and good behavior" were termed heroes , and after death they could be called hemitheoi ,
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1024-502: The word "demigod" as a translation of deva . However, there are at least three occurrences in the eleventh chapter of Bhagavad-Gita where the word deva, used in reference to Lord Krishna , is translated as "Lord". The word deva can be used to refer to the Supreme Lord, celestial beings, and saintly souls depending on the context. This is similar to the word Bhagavan , which is translated according to different contexts. Among
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