Maui

Maui Oceania
The diminutive Polynesian culture hero and trickster. He appears in myths from New Zealand to Hawaii and enjoys a reputation as a kind of Heracles. Usually a youngest son, sometimes an abandoned child, either abortive or premature, Maui was thrown into the sea by his mother, Taranga, who first wrapped him in a tuft of her hair. Saved by his great ancestor, Tama-nui-ki-te-Rangi, he eventually returned to earth and rejoined his family. Then it was that his mother called him Maui-tiki-tiki-a-Taranga, ‘Maui formed in the top knot of ‘Taranga’.

The best known of Maui's legendary exploits were fishing up islands from the bottom of the sea, snaring the sun to slow it down in its passage, lifting the sky to give men more room on earth, and getting fire. In Maori myth, Maui used the jaw bone of his ancestress, Muri-ranga-whenua, as his enchanted weapon. With its keen point he drew land from the sea, but his brothers, ignoring his warning,...

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