Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Fetu

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was merge to Samoan mythology. Barkeep49 (talk) 01:15, 16 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Fetu (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log)

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I think this is a hoax that has existed on Wikipedia since 2002. Doing a Google search either lists unrelated results or results that cite Wikipedia, such as baby name sites and "books" that cite Wikipedia. (https://www.abebooks.com/9781155491745/Samoan-Mythology-Atu-Losi-Fetu-1155491742/plp)

It also seemed to exist in the Encyclopedia Mythica (which was removed from the article as a source in 2006 due to being unreliable), but looking through the website now, it seems to have been removed. (http://web.archive.org/web/20051020051300/http://www[DOT]pantheon[DOT]org/articles/f/fetu.html) [website partially blacklisted] wizzito | say hello! 20:50, 22 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Mythology-related deletion discussions. wizzito | say hello! 20:50, 22 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Oceania-related deletion discussions. wizzito | say hello! 20:50, 22 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

• Wizzito mentioned this on Discord, and I did a little extra research. The article on Ele'ele, putatively Fetu's wife, was deleted in 2006 as unverifiable. (I've now re-created the article as a redirect to ʻEleʻele, a community in Hawaiʻi; that article says the name means "black" or "black water" in Hawaiian.) If this can be proven a hoax, it would be the oldest ever, by about four years. Even if not a hoax, it seems very unlikely to meet GNG. I'm going to ping WT:WikiProject Samoa and WT:WikiProject Polynesia and see if anyone there has any input. -- Tamzin (she/they) | o toki tawa mi. 21:26, 22 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
• Myths and Legends of the Polynesians (accessible if you have a free Internet Archive account) quotes a Samoan creation myth involving a "Fatu" whose wife is 'Ele'ele; given that the wife's name matches, it's probably referring to the article subject with a different transliteration. However, the myth quoted there describes him as a man, not a god, with no particular association with the night. Vahurzpu (talk) 21:36, 22 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
• Page 14 of this book (predates this article; reliable author) states the following: "In Samoan mythology, Ele'ele was the first woman, wife of Fetu ('Star'), a god of the night sky." Unfortunately, that's it, but it's enough to convince me that this likely isn't a hoax. It may still fail the GNG, but we should be especially reticent to delete articles for which offline and/or foreign-language coverage conceivably exists. I'd be interested to hear other thoughts before expressing a firmer opinion. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 05:10, 23 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
• Merge to Samoan mythology, unless more coverage can be found. Looks like there are possibly further academic sources using "Fatu" rather than "Fetu" as a search term alongside "Ele'ele", but not enough detail to support a stand-alone article. I've added the source identified by Extraordinary Writ into the article. Watchlisting to follow the debate, as I'm keeping an open mind. Regards, BennyOnTheLoose (talk) 10:48, 25 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete as a WP:DICDEF or redirect. Bearian (talk) 15:22, 29 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

• Merge to Samoan mythology per BennyOnTheLoose. I don't think this is a hoax (as I explained above), but there aren't enough sources to meet the GNG. A single-sentence reference in the main article would be perfectly adequate. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 16:54, 9 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.