[1] Epithets of the goddess include Pele-honua-mea ('Pele of the sacred land') and Ka wahine ʻai honua ('The earth-eating woman').

With hula being dedicated to Pele, the dance is often performed in a way that represents her intense personality and the movement of volcanoes.

Kamohoali'i takes Pele south in a canoe called Honua-i-a-kea, along with her younger sister Hiʻiaka and with her brothers Kamohoaliʻi, Kane-milo-hai, Kane-apua, arriving at the islets above Hawaii.

On Nihoa, 800 feet above the ocean, Pele leaves Kane-apua after her visit to Lehua and after crowning a wreath of kau-no'a.

[14] In another version, Pele comes from a land said to be "close to the clouds," with parents Kane-hoa-lani and Ka-hina-liʻi, and brothers Ka-moho-aliʻi and Kahuila-o-ka-lani.

One myth tells that Poliʻahu had come from Mauna Kea with her friends to attend sled races down the grassy hills south of Hamakua.

She opened the caverns of Mauna Kea and threw fire from them towards Poliʻahu, with the snow goddess fleeing towards the summit.

Earthquakes shook the island as the snow mantle unfolded until it reached the fire fountains, chilling and hardening the lava.

When Hiʻiaka seeks out Lohiʻau, she discovers he is dead but she calls upon the power of the sorcery goddess Uli to revive him.

[18] As Hiʻiaka is on her journey, Pele grows impatient and sends a lava flow to Hōpoe's home before the forty days were up.

The sisters saw that their anger led to the death of the two people who meant the most to them, so Pele apologetically brought Lohiʻau back to life and let him decide whom he would choose.

[19] In another version of the myth, Pele hears the beating of drums and chanting coming from Kauaʻi while she is sleeping and travels there in her spirit form.

In the summer of 1823 English missionary William Ellis toured the island to determine locations for mission stations.

[21]: 236  After a long journey to the volcano Kīlauea with little food, Ellis eagerly ate the wild berries he found growing there.

In December 1824 the High Chiefess Kapiʻolani descended into Halemaʻumaʻu after reciting a Christian prayer instead of the traditional Hawaiian one to Pele.

Appearing in the form of either a beautiful young woman or an elderly woman with white hair, sometimes accompanied by a small white dog, and always dressed in a red muumuu, Pele is said to walk along the roads near Kīlauea, but will vanish if passersby stop to help her, similar to the Resurrection Mary or vanishing hitchhiker legend.

Every year numerous small natural items are returned by post to the National Park Service by tourists seeking Pele's forgiveness.

[24] When businessman George Lycurgus ran a hotel at the rim of Kīlauea, called the Volcano House from 1904 through 1921, he would often "pray" to Pele for the sake of the tourists.

Park officials frowned upon his practices of tossing items, such as gin bottles (after drinking their contents), into the crater.

[31] The religious group Love Has Won briefly moved to Hawaii and sparked violent protests from locals after claiming their founder Amy Carlson was Pele.

From the crater I’ve come, from Kīlauea, The women of the caldera have strung leis The foundation of Puna is crimson, covered in lehua blossoms.