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Overview

Within Ancient Spider’s shell-world, Rigi is a large worm or grub discovered when the newly made moon provides light. Asked whether it can raise the roof farther, it comes to life and agrees. The upper shell rises as Rigi works; salty sweat collects in the lower shell and becomes the sea. The lifted valve becomes the sky. Exhausted by this effort, Rigi falls and dies. Its bodily labour, secretion and death are integral to this particular creation sequence.

Dixon then gives another Nauru version in which Rigi is a butterfly. Here Tabuerik, the thunder-and-lightning deity, is an omnipotent bird above the original disorder, with the heavens lying upon earth and sea. Rigi flies over land and water and separates them, while other deities raise the sky. The two passages preserve different bodies and tasks rather than describe a worm that demonstrably transforms into a butterfly. Dixon’s judgement that the second account is less original belongs to his historical comparative argument.

Sky-raising labourSweat becomes seaExhaustion and deathButterfly in another version
01

Origins & earliest records

Roland B. Dixon, Oceanic Mythology (Boston: Marshall Jones, 1916), Part IV, chapter I, pp. 249–250; notes 10 and 12.

02

Records & interpretation

Historical English scholarly retelling with located citations to earlier collected accounts; source-specific forms and episodes.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Oceanic Mythology, Part IV, chapter I, pp. 249–250; notes 10 and 12

    Roland B. Dixon, historical compiler · 1916

    Worm account cited to Hambruch p. 381; butterfly account to Hambruch p. 385.

  2. 02

    Dixon: notes to Part IV, chapter I

    Roland B. Dixon · 1916

    Worm account cited to Hambruch p. 381; butterfly account to Hambruch p. 385.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical scholarly compilation of collected narrativesDixon 1916: Micronesian origin and deluge accountsResearch access: 2026-10-05
  2. Bibliographic source notesDixon 1916: underlying-source notesResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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