Māui

Māui is the pan-Polynesian trickster culture-hero in his Society-Islands form. Ellis records that in Tahitian tradition Māui was a wise man, prophet and priest, afterwards deified; engaged at the marae and finding the sun sinking before his work was done, he laid hold of the hihi (the sun's rays) and held back its course for a time — the classic sun-snaring deed told here as a priest's wonder rather than a boy's prank. Henry's Ancient Tahiti gives the land-fishing exploit, Māui drawing the islands (notably of the Tuamotu) up from the floor of the sea on his hook. He is authored as a demigod (mortal-hero later deified). Flagged SOLITARY: although the wider Polynesian Māui has a famous genealogy, no member of his Tahitian kin is separately registered in this batch, so he stands without a wired relation.

Domains

• trickster culture hero
• the sun and the length of the day
• fishing up of land

Powers

• Seize the sun's rays and hold back its course to lengthen the day
• Fish up islands from the floor of the sea with a sacred hook
• Work wonders as a priest and prophet

Epithets

• Māui-tikitiki

Relations

• equated with: Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga
• equated with: Maui
• equated with: Maui-tikitiki
• equated with: Mahui
• equated with: Maui Kisikisi

Sources

• William Ellis, Polynesian Researches (1829), the Tahitian Maui who stayed the sun
• Teuira Henry, Ancient Tahiti (Bishop Museum Bulletin 48, 1928), Māui and the fishing-up of islands