Motikitik
Central Carolinian · demigod · Central Carolinian traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Motikitik is the island-fishing hero of Ulithian tradition, the youngest of a set of brothers whose mother is a spirit of the world below. With a magic hook he draws up land and food from beneath the sea, follows his mother into her hidden realm, and by breaking a taboo brings the flow of provisions to its ordained limit. His story is the Carolinian form of the Oceania-wide fisher-of-islands, cognate with the Polynesian Maui, recorded and analysed comparatively by Lessa.
Domains
- fishing and provision
Powers
- fishes islands and food up from beneath the sea
Sources
- Motikitik is the Ulithian island-fishing hero, youngest of a set of brothers, whose mother is a spirit and who draws land and food from beneath the sea with a magic hook.: Lessa, W. A. (1961), Tales from Ulithi Atoll, University of California Publications in Folklore Studies 13, Berkeley. (secondary)
- The tale belongs to the Oceania-wide fisher-of-islands complex cognate with the Polynesian Maui, adapted to the Carolinian setting.: Lessa, W. A. (1961), Tales from Ulithi Atoll, comparative apparatus; and Lessa, W. A. (1980), More Tales from Ulithi Atoll, Folklore and Mythology Studies 32. (secondary)