Maui Motu'a

Entered as a demigod (the Maui are demigods, not gods, in the Tongan record). The cosmos-dividing 'Maui' is identified with the old Maui below; his parents (Taufulifonua/Havealolofonua of the Touia-'o-Futuna line) are not authored figures, so the sibling bond to Hikule'o is wired in-batch and the descent noted. Father (in the three-Maui genealogy) of Maui 'Atalanga. Sex male; immortal.

Parentage

Recorded default; alternative parentage accounts are listed separately below.

No parents recorded in the default.

Parentage accounts

Each account is a separate source claim. The parentage and children listed outside these accounts use the recorded default. Selecting an account in the interactive app updates its lineage, descent classification and inherited-power candidates. Linked pedigree accounts are selected together; other records retain their recorded parentage. Claims of ancestry are not proof of biological descent or attested powers.

• Mesake lomu (Gifford)

  deity by descent in this account.

  • father: MalekulauluaE. W. Gifford, Tongan Myths and Tales (1924), pp. 19–20 (primary)
  • mother: HeimoanaE. W. Gifford, Tongan Myths and Tales (1924), pp. 19–20 (primary)
  E. W. Gifford, Tongan Myths and Tales (1924), pp. 19–20 (primary)
• Collocott reported by gifford

  Divine ancestry; fraction unquantified because the account is incomplete.

  • father: PikiE. W. Gifford, Tongan Myths and Tales (1924), pp. 14–15 (primary)
  E. W. Gifford, Tongan Myths and Tales (1924), pp. 14–15 (primary)

Children

• Maui 'Atalanga

Domains

• underworld and the earth floor
• fire

Powers

• upholds the earth from below
• keeps fire in the underworld

Relations

• sibling: Hikule'oMaui (Motu'a) and Hikule'o are siblings of the cosmos-dividing generation; Maui below holds one end of the cord restraining Hikule'o's tail.Gifford, E. W. Tongan Myths and Tales (Bishop Museum Bulletin 8, 1924), on Maui, Tangaloa and Hikule'o dividing the cosmos as children of Taufulifonua (secondary)
• father: MalekulauluaE. W. Gifford, Tongan Myths and Tales (1924), pp. 19–20 (primary)
• mother: HeimoanaE. W. Gifford, Tongan Myths and Tales (1924), pp. 19–20 (primary)
• father: PikiE. W. Gifford, Tongan Myths and Tales (1924), pp. 14–15 (primary)

Sources

• Maui Motu'a, the old Maui, is the senior Tongan Maui who dwells in the underworld (Lolofonua), upholds the earth from below — his stirring felt as earthquakes — and keeps the underworld fire from which his grandson Maui Kisikisi later wins fire for humankind; in the theogony he is one of the three who divided the cosmos.: Gifford, E. W. Tongan Myths and Tales (Bishop Museum Bulletin 8, 1924) (secondary); Collocott, E. E. V. Tales and Poems of Tonga (Bishop Museum Bulletin 46, 1928) (secondary)