As I have been reading more and more about Maui I have learned that there are many
stories about him. They are all different because of the difference in the Polynesian
culture, but some have many similarities. Maui is an important character in Polynesian
Mythology throughout the all of the Cultures. He is a great Hero in some instances and others
not so much, Maui is viewed as a demi-God and others he is viewed as just a normal man.
Myths told today are usually linked to religion, they tell why the world is the way it is and why it
works the way it works. It’s the same about any of the mythical Gods they tell stories about all
of the gods good and bad, saying the things they have done. Then passing them down
generation to generation as stories about the cultures past and why things the way they are
today. Maui is known as the God of the Sun, a trickster, a heroic God, a powerful God, and also
as the God of Fire.
In Hawaiian mythology Maui is known for his trickery, he tricked his brothers into taking
him fishing. He claimed that he had hooked a big fish and wanted his brothers to paddle
faster, but really Maui’s hook was caught at the bottom of the ocean floor and he was
pulling the ground up from under the water, he was forming the Hawaiian Islands. His
brothers did not notice what he was doing, when a beautiful woman appears out of the water
and distracts his brothers. Maui was trying to put the islands together to be one whole unit but
his attempt fails so this is why there are so many islands in the Hawaiian chain.
Also in Hawaiian Mythology Maui is known as the tamer of the Sun. Maui’s mother Hina
couldn’t get her Kapa (bark cloth) to dry. The days are just not long enough to get all of the
work done, So Maui goes to the top of the mountain Hal-a-ka-la (also known as the house of
the sun) and ropes the sun with a lasso of his sister’s hair, that will not catch on fire. The sun
begs Maui for its life and agrees to make the days longer in the summer and shorter in the
winter.
In Maori Mythology Maui is born to Taranga, he is born prematurely so she wraps him in
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a tress of hair from her top knot and throws him into the ocean to die. The spirits of the Gods
find him and save him and raise him until he is a young boy. Maui decides to go and visit his
mother; he also finds that there are four other brothers, who are very careful not to accept
Maui at first. Taranga also does not recognize him she tries to send him away. He tells her
that he was born near the ocean and was wrapped in her girdle and thrown into the ocean. She
thought he had died, but after hearing what he had to say and him showing them that he has
powers and can change himself into birds of the forest, they were all in awe of him, they
admired him and took him in. Taranga asks Maui to sleep in her room with her and the other
sons are jealous of this. They had never been asked by their mother to sleep in her room.
In Maui’s first Expedition he goes on with his brothers he get a jawbone of one of his
ancestress and with the help of his brothers they rope in the sun and Maui beats it with the
Jawbone until it promises to go slower, so the people have more time in the day so they can get
their work done.
On his second Expedition of Maori Mythology. Maui is trying to get the land to come up from
the bottom of the ocean and tricks his brothers into taking him fishing, or else they will not catch
any more fish. Maui has the jawbone of his ancestress and uses blood from his own nose as bait,
He catches a big fish and he leaves trying to find a priest to perform a ceremony on the fish. His
brothers and jealous and want their share of this large fish, so they start to cut into the fish and
this makes the fish squirm in agony and the fish breaks off into: mountains, cliffs, and valleys
separating the islands, and making them rugged. Maui returns to find what his brothers have
done and he tells them if they had waited for him and the priest the island would be flat and
easier for the people to roam.
Maui tries to find out how to create fire so he destroys all that is on the earth, so he can go to
visit the goddess of fire: Mahuika. Maui tricks her into showing him how to create it and he
changes himself into a Hawk, she sets all of the land and all of the sea on fire trying to kill Maui
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for deceiving her. This is why the Hawks Tail feathers are brown they are singed from her
burning everything.
Maui’s mother disappears every morning so Maui decides to follow her one morning
where he finds her with his father, his father recognizes him and does a baptismal ceremony for
him, but his father had made a few mistakes in this blessing, and in the end it leads to Maui’s
death. Maui thinks he wants to win immortality for all humans so they don’t have to go
through death. Maui’s father tries to discourage him telling him that because of the mistakes he
has made in his baptismal ceremony that there might be someone out there who can beat and
kill him. Maui is bold and brave and tells his father that there is no one out there like that. His
father tells him that he is looking for the ancestress, Hina. That lives at the side of the sky. “The
red flashing in the western sky comes from her.” “Her body is like a human beings, but her eyes
and greenstone, her hair like sea-kelp and her mouth is like a barracuda’s mouth.”Maui who is
unaware of things his father warned him about. Sets off with four companions, the smallest
birds of the forest, (some say that the four are his brothers.) They go to the side of the ocean
where his father told him they would find her and she is sleeping, Maui must pass through her
body and crush her heart killing her and come out her mouth. Maui tells his four companions not
to laugh while he is doing his task or that will wake her up and she could possibly kill him. They
swear not to laugh until he has completed this task, then they can laugh all they want because
they will have won, and humans will have immortality They all have laughter on the tip of their
mouth but they do not laugh until one of them can no longer take it, the Fantail bursts out
laughing waking the old woman and she cuts Maui into two pieces. Since he had failed all
humans are mortal and the old woman goddess stays at the portal to the underworld that all
humans have to go through.
Some other Mythical Gods that have some of the same characteristics and traits as
Maui. Prometheus: is a Titan in Greek Mythology. He is known for his intelligence and also for
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being a trickster, He went to Zeus and played a trick on him and he stole the fire in a giant
fennel-stalk, and gave it to mankind. This angered Zeus he was hiding fire from the humans in
retribution, he had Prometheus bound to a rock and an eagle to eat his liver, with it
growing back every day to have it done again and again. This is also kind of like Maui; He went
to the Goddess of Fire and tricked her into showing him the way of fire, Maui got away so I
think he is the luckier God in this instance.
Also another God that has a characteristic of Maui is Achilles: he is known as a heroic God. In
Greek Mythology, He was a great warrior, he was unstoppable. His mother who was a nymph
she held him by his heel and dipped him into the river Styx, (that is a river that has miraculous
power to make anyone unstoppable.) Achilles’ heel was his only weak spot. Achilles went to
war in Troy to make a name for himself; this also had his death; by an arrow shooting into his
heel. he was a wonderful warrior but his weaknesses made him die. This is also like Maui, He
wanted to win immortality for mankind by going through a goddess and crushing her heart and
come out of her mouth, killing her. I think His companions were his weakness, he told them not
to laugh while he was doing this but they did and the old woman woke up cut him into two.
Apollo: in Greek Mythology is known as the God of truth, prophecy, medicine, healing, music,
and poetry. He is also known for the God of Light and Sun. It is said that he rides his chariot
across the sky every day which brings the dawn and the sunset. Maui was known to catch the
sun with a noose and beat it with his ancestress jawbone until it agreed to go slower so all of
the people could get their work done in the day.
Maui has been said to be known as a demiGod. Where you are half God and half mortal, or it is
also described as a man or woman becoming a God, and the last way it’s described to be a
demigod is to have God like Characteristics but not really being a God yourself. I think that the
last option is how Maui is a demigod, in the stories it does not say that one of his parents is a
God, he was born prematurely so his mother wrapped him up and threw him into the ocean to
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die. Here he is saved by the Gods and raised to a young boy. I think that they may have taught
him some of the ways to become a God, resulting in him having the Characteristics of a God.
Hercules: is also known as a demigod in Greek and Roman Mythology. He is the son of Zeus
and
Almene, she was the most beautiful mortal woman, Zeus had many partners but she was the
mother of Hercules. Hera who is Zeus’s wife was jealous of Almene having Hercules; so Zeus
gave Hercules to her for her to nurse him, making him even more half God and half Human.
One story that I had read about Maui that I found very interesting was the one where he
lifts the sky. It is said that the sky was so close to the earth and the plants and trees were trying
to push the sky up themselves so they could grow taller. This was making the leaves flat, like
they are today. Maui saw this and went to a woman one day and said if you give me a drink of
your water I will be able to push the sky up even higher, the woman gives him a drink and he
pushes the sky just a little bit taller than the trees, but he wants it to be up higher. So he climbs
to the top of Mount Hal-a-ka-la, and pushes the sky up to where it is now. It is said that dark big
black clouds hang around the top of the mountain but they are afraid to stay there very long
because they fear Maui will come and throw them so hard and far away they will never be able
to return.
It has been interesting reading about Maui, Knowing that every single one of the
Polynesian cultures views him in a different way, and holds him at a different regard with the
Gods, With what good or bad he has done, or what he tried to achieve and failed, to even who he
is. But also having the similarities in the stories Making it so different and interesting to read,
and learn about him.
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