Hi, I'm Mike Rugnetta, this is crash course mythology and today, we're gonna finish up our heroes series by telling the story of a great hero. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Okay, not really. The Rock may be the sexiest man alive, but he's no demigod like Ma'ui, The demigod hero of Oceania, and the role he recently voiced in the film, Moana. The legendary Ma'ui is pretty different from his cartoon counterpart. He's younger, more lithe, and a little smarter. Still, he's an adventurer, he has a divine birth, he's a trickster, and a culture hero. He's everything we love here at Crash Course. *Crash Course Intro Music* Ma'ui myths are found throughout Oceania, particularly in Hawaii. Like Heracles, the most well-known Ma'ui stories focus on a series of heroic deeds. But where Heracles spent the vast majority of his labours killing, or stealing monstrous animals, Ma'ui's great deeds are a little more motley. He fights a monstrous eel, but he also gets into an argument with the sun! He creates the entire island of New Zealand. Some stories characterize Ma'ui as a hero, and some of them work aetiologically to explain aspects of the natural world. And others capture the mythic origins of Pacific Islander culture, and also unlike Heracles, these tasks are not assigned to Ma'ui as one big hero project. They occur throughout his life and act as episodic glimpses into Oceania's culture. But, okay. Enough treading water. Without further ado, Ma'ui's seven great deeds. One: Fighting his mom's house. Not fighting in his mom's house, fighting the house. Back in the mythic times of Oceania lived a goddess named Hina of the fire. She had four sons and all of them were named Maui. One day she gives birth to a fifth named, you guessed it Maui. This Maui, they call him Maui the skillful, is our hero. But to Hina of the fire he's one too many mouths to feed. So she sets Maui five adrift at sea. It just, you know, it wouldn't be a myth without just a little attempted infanticide. You know? Luckily for Maui five ,the god of the sea takes favor on him and he survives the waves and currents of the ocean. He makes it all the way back to Hina of the fire's house. She can't believe it and doubling down on her motherly abandonment, she says that she'll only take him back if he proves his worth. He must destroy her house by throwing spears through its thatched roof. If you remember the Muendo(?) epic, this kind of radical remodeling should sound familiar. Maui squares off against the house, beginning the fearsome battle where our hero defeats two terrible doorposts. He strikes down short post and tall post, his mother, for whatever reason, is finally proud of her son and welcomes him, um, home? Welcomes him to a pile of thatching? Either way heroic deed done. Two: Raising the sky. Maui eventually gets a home, but things aren't all hunky-dory. In those days the sky that stretched over Oceania was very very low. We're talking scraping the tops of trees low. Clouds blocking all the light low. Maui decides to do something about this. He gets a swig of some mystery drink out of a strange lady's gourd which fills him with enough magical strength to lift up the whole sky. Though, palm tree leaves are still flat to this day from the time when the sky pressed down on them. With all the new room Maui fashions a kite. He calls for help from a nearby wizard and a few incantations later, there's a great magical wind. In fact the winds are so strong that they snap Maui's line and blow his kite away. But during the struggle Maui learns to read the winds and understand the weather. Which he passes on to the people of the islands and now they can travel further than ever before. Three: Fishing for New Zealand. Maui might have sorted out the sky but he was still the youngest brother. His older brothers all thought Maui the skillful was actually Maui the lazy and Maui the bad at fishing. They teased him and tattled on him to Hina of the fire. Maui decides he is gonna prove his brothers wrong! He travels to the underworld to make contact with a long-dead ancestor. This ancestor is half dead and half alive, so they give Maui the jawbone out of their dead half, which he carves into a magical fish hook. Then he goes and catches one of his mother's sacred Alae birds to use as bait. Now, he's ready to go fishing. Maui five and his brothers row out farther than anyone has ever gone, and they begin to fish. His brothers begin complaining about his laziness, but then, something catches on Maui's hook. The brothers gather around and helped Maui pull and pull and rather than pull up a fish they pull up an entire island. And after this his brothers stopped calling Maui lazy. Also. We get Lorde! I mean we may never be Royals, but perhaps heroes? Four: Slow the Sun now he's third task was good for his reputation But his fourth task is important for everyone on the Pacific Islands they all enjoyed the new room under the sky But there's one problem the Sun streaks across it so fast that no one has any time to do any work No one can tan hides and there's not enough light to create tapa cloth a handmade patterned textile Constructed from trees and trust me tapa cloth is a big deal Heena of the fire comes to her son and asks him Will you do this deed will you slow down the Sun? She thinks there is no way he's gonna pull it off. But now he has learned a thing or two about Asking for help he goes to his grandmother, and she tells him the Sun is so fast because it has 16 legs If you have any hope of catching it you must set that many traps one snare for each leg she gives Maui a magical stone ax Once you've smeared the Sun use this to get your way now He sets the snares and snags the Sun. He approaches it brandishing the magic Axe he threatens it saying he will strike it down Unless it agrees to take a dang time and give the people a chance to go about their day the Sun agrees The day lengthens and people are much happier now He then gets to go back to his doubtful mom and decree What can I say except you're welcome my five? Winning fire for Humanity many cultures have stories about discovering fire or stealing it from Supernatural sources think Prometheus or grandmother spider or Loki who is the worst, but occasionally useful to have around? So this is all to say Maui's fifth task might sound familiar now We dealt with the too cramped sky, and the too fast Sun but the people of Oceania still don't have fire now He knows his mother Hina of the fire possesses its secret But she's not talking so Maui decides to go over her head and journeys once again to the underworld there He tracks down his great-great grandmother ma Hui. Ah and convinces her to give him the secret of fire ma Hua reaches down and pull one of her fingernails in which burns a tiny fire She tells him take this back to the surface and you can spread the fire to all Humanity Maui is very grateful and begins to head back, but on the way drops the nail into a stream ah Let's head to the thought-bubble to see how Maui gets himself out of this heroic pickle now. He goes back and tells ma Hooyah who shakes her head and gives him another fingernail. He turns around heads back and drops it into a stream again ah so back He goes and he asks again and the same thing happens it happens again with all of the rest of her fingernails and men her Toenails man what a klutz when Maui comes for her last toenail ma Hui odd gets so angry That she throws it on the ground and sets the underworld on fire now He turns and Sprint's out of the underworld chased by the roaring flames The fire burns underneath the earth and all the water boils Maui chants a magic incantation that brings rain To put out the fires after the rain stops Mejia gathers up the last remnants of the fire and hides it in Tiny pieces in the Bark's of different trees after this fiasco Maui and his brothers see the Ailey birds who belonged to their mother making fires to cook their food But every time the brothers get near the Ailee put out their fire and fly away Realizing that the birds must know where the fire is hidden now he concocts a plan now He makes a dummy of himself and props it up in his community He pushes the canoe out into the water and hides the birds see his dummy sail away And whip up a fire to cook their bananas now He leaps from his hiding spot and grabs the oldest Ailee burned shaking it by the neck and demanding to know the secret of fire Finally it spills the fiery beans Rub together the bark of the how and the sandalwood trees, and you'll always be able to make fire That's a big old fiery check. Thank you thought bubble Six kun aloha the long eel Maui's sixth deed is a quicken the long eel kun Aloha is terrorising he of the fire so Maui kills it and Chops it up into many pieces all the pieces squirm around and become fish and other eels and that explains why there's so many fish In the seas around the Pacific Islands boom fish chicken of the sea check seven immortality last episode Heracles was promised immortality if he finished his Labor's for Maui's final task he aims even higher He wants to gain immortality not only for himself but All of humanity it all starts when Maui learns about the Goblin got us Hina Nui keepo who brings death to all creatures? Now he hears that if he can steal her heart and give it out to the creatures of Earth. They'll all become Immortal, but now he is scared the goddess is more powerful than anything he's tussled with so he asks the ailee If they'll come and be his backup he explains to the birds when the goddess is asleep. We're gonna creep in through her mouth past her vulcanic a glass teeth Down to her heart to steal it, but when we're inside you can't make a sound not a single First Everything goes according to plan now. He makes it past the goddesses jaws through her stomach and grabs her heart he turns around climbs back towards freedom and just as he makes it to her mouth a Bird tweets the goddess wakes up instantly and feels Maui in her mouth she bites down and there Now he dies so now he fails his final task, but maybe in this case the failure is the lesson Immortality sounds nice, but it isn't meant for humans, or as Thoth, and I sometimes call them mortals Maybe it's better to learn to accept our own mortality Lest we get chomped by a goddess Maui is kind of a curious figure sometimes capable sometimes clumsy sometimes strong sometimes scared sometimes clever sometimes dumb He and Heracles have more than a few things in common I'd say they both do impossible deeds sure but they're not one-trick heroes either look at you Aquaman Just kidding Jason Momoa is gonna. Crush it This is one of the things that sets studying mythology apart from studying literature or fiction when your hero is a mythological hero It means they've been constructed by entire cultures sometimes multiple cultures and passed down orally over Generations that's very different than a character whipped up by a professional screenwriter and voiced by the rock We can't look to myths for the same storytelling experience that we get from a Disney cartoon But myths and their variations allow us to think about what stories come into being and why they remain popular Whether the stories are about Discovering fire creating new zeland or just getting in a fight with your mom's door jamb and winning check next week It's time for a big transition. We're moving on to mythical places. Thanks for watching and see you in Eton Check out our crash course mythology tote tote bag and poster available now at dftba.com Crash course mythology is filmed in the chad and stacey emigholz studio in indianapolis Indiana it is produced with the help of all of these very nice people our animation team is thought cafe crash course exists Thanks to the generous support file patrons at patreon patreon is a voluntary Subscription service where you can support the content love through a monthly donation and help keep crash course free for everyone Forever crash course is made with Adobe Creative Cloud check the description for a link to a free trial Thanks for watching and just so you know we considered insulting ant-man's limited powers, but although it Just seems like such a nice guy it felt wrong
You can write it Maui or Māui, but I've never seen someone write it Ma'ui.
Wow. I know he shortened the tales down but there's so much wrong with everything he said.