Mahui
Marquesan · demigod · mythic prehistoric · Recorded classification
Mahui is the Marquesan reflex of the pan-Polynesian culture-hero and trickster Māui — a demigod. Handy's Marquesan Legends records that he fished up various islands, obtained fire from his grandfather Mahuike in the lower regions, and snared the sun with a noose of human hair to delay its passage across the sky 'in order that Maui's laundry might have time to dry.' He is one of the foremost figures of the Marquesan narratives (Native Culture p. 247). His parentage is not anchored to a registered figure here (Handy gives the Maui cycle without a fixed Marquesan divine-parent genealogy in the recorded narratives); the firmly-attested kin link is to his grandfather Mahuike.
Variant accounts
- marquesan-reflex-of-pan-polynesian-Maui
Domains
- culture hero and trickster
Powers
- Fishing up of land from the sea
- Snaring and slowing of the sun
- Winning of fire from the underworld
Relations
- grandchild: MahuikeGrandson of Mahuike, the fire-keeper of the lower regions.Handy, Marquesan Legends (1930) — Maui obtained fire from his grandfather Mahuike. (primary)
- equated with: Māui-tikitiki-a-TarangaReflex of the same ancestral Polynesian deity (*Māui), cognate across the island groups.Comparative Polynesian mythology: reflexes of the same ancestral deity across the island groups (E. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, 1891; R. D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology, 1989) (secondary)
- equated with: MāuiReflex of the same ancestral Polynesian deity (*Māui), cognate across the island groups.Comparative Polynesian mythology: reflexes of the same ancestral deity across the island groups (E. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, 1891; R. D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology, 1989) (secondary)
- equated with: MauiReflex of the same ancestral Polynesian deity (*Māui), cognate across the island groups.Comparative Polynesian mythology: reflexes of the same ancestral deity across the island groups (E. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, 1891; R. D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology, 1989) (secondary)
- equated with: Maui-tikitikiReflex of the same ancestral Polynesian deity (*Māui), cognate across the island groups.Comparative Polynesian mythology: reflexes of the same ancestral deity across the island groups (E. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, 1891; R. D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology, 1989) (secondary)
- equated with: Maui KisikisiReflex of the same ancestral Polynesian deity (*Māui), cognate across the island groups.Comparative Polynesian mythology: reflexes of the same ancestral deity across the island groups (E. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, 1891; R. D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology, 1989) (secondary)