Maui, a Polynesian demigod and hero, creating all the islands.
The mythology and deities of the Pacific region are both complex and diverse. They have been developed over many centuries on each of the islands and atolls that make up Oceania. There are some deities which are shared between many groups of islands—particularly among the islands of the Polynesian-speaking peoples—while others are specific to one set of islands or even to a single island. Their exact roles are often overlapping as one divinity can appear in different places under different names, and a single divinity can also appear in many different forms.
See also Aboriginal Australian Myths, Philippine Mythology and Malagasy Mythology.
Works based on (or including elements of) Pacific mythology:
Comic Books
- Marvel Comics:
- The Akua (also known as the "Atua", "Oceanic gods" and "Kahunas") from the X-Force.
- The Diwata are a pantheon from the Philippines that exist who possess people if they want to operate on Earth without weakening. The goddess Anitun Tabu possesses a lineage of women and operate as the superhero Anitun as a member of the Triumph Division and she is friends with Thor due to sharing similar powers.
- DC Comics: Supervillain/anti-hero King Shark is actually based on the little known legend of Nanaue, a young man with the power and hunger of a shark born from a human woman and the Shark god.
- Nation - after a tsunami, a boy called Maui rebuilds his world taking the best from old and new.
- The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, being an All Myths Are True series, includes the Nauruan creator deity Areop-Enap.
- Where the Waters Turn Black
- Scion has the Polynesian gods as potential parents of player characters.
- Pandora's Box (1999): Maui is the first of the seven mythological tricksters which you need to capture.
- Smite: Polynesian is a pantheon in the game with the goddess Pele being the first playable character released. Later, Maui was also added as a playable character.
Pacific mythology provides examples of:
- Absurdly High-Stakes Game: In one version of the origin of the poisonous tree god Kalaipahoa, Kane-ia-kama gambled everything he had at Maunaloa and lost, but the god Kane-i-kaulana-ula came to him in a dream and suggested he gamble his life, and he would give him victory if he took Kane-i-kaulana-ula as his god. He followed the god's instructions and won back all he lost, and obtained Kalaipahoa.
- Afterlife Antechamber: In Hawaiian mythology, spirits of the dead must travel to the "leaping place", a cleft on a cliff overlooking the sea or the end of a valley wall and land on a tree that is half green and half dead. From there they leap into the main afterlife.
- Angel Unaware:
- The gods Kane and Kalanoa visit the pious Makuakaumana disguised as human strangers. They first reward him with a digging stick and carrying pole for his hospitality, then appear as old men to teach him how to pray, offer sacrifices, and keep tapus, and finally appear as chiefs and tell him his son as broken a tapu. He is willing to kill his son for this, proving his piety, but they stop him and then let him go to the hidden paradise of Kanehunamoku.
- In Hawaii, there is a legend (notably similar to the Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts legend) where a woman appears by the side of the road. Sometimes she is an older woman dressed in white, sometimes a younger woman dressed in red. Either way it's the fire-goddess Pele and it's a Secret Test. Pick her up, and you'll be rewarded. Drive (or walk) by, and misfortune will befall you and/or those you care about.
- Artifact of Power: Paka'a gets from his mother a calabash containing the bones of his grandmother Loa, which gives him his grandmother's power to control wind.
- Back from the Dead: In Hawaiian mythology, the dead could be revived by catching their soul, restoring their body to good form, and slowly pushing the soul into the body feet-first, followed by a purifying bath (if the soul had already made it to the final dwelling-places of the dead, being Rescued from the Underworld might also be necessary). Many people were brought Back from the Dead in myths.
- Eleio, during his regular run around Maui to bring food, discovers the spirit of Kanikaniaula and revives her.
- Pamano is poisoned by his chief Kaiuli, his friend Koolau and his uncle Waipu, but is revived by his sisters and takes his revenge.
- Kahalaopuna is resurrected multiple times in some versions of the story. The first time she is beaten to death by her husband Kauhi because people claimed to have been sexually favored by her, but is revived (in some versions by Mahana). In one version, she returns to her husband and is killed again, and after being brought Back from the Dead a second time is eaten by a shark so that she cannot be revived again.
- Lohiau is also revived twice (by Hi'iaka) - the first time when he dies from despair over not seeing his lover Pele for so long, the second time killed by the lava of Pele herself after embracing Hi'iaka instead.
- Bat Out of Hell: In Hawaiian mythology, the god Maui battled a giant eight-eyed bat known as Pe'ape'a that kidnapped his wife.
- Blow You Away: Loa had the power to control the winds of Hawaii, and her grandson Paka'a ends up with an Artifact of Power containing her bones that allows him to do the same thing.
- Brother–Sister Incest: In ancient Hawaiian myth, the divine couple who gave birth to the Hawaiian islands were either siblings or half-siblings. They also had a daughter who grew up to be so beautiful that her father begun a relationship with her and fathered two more kids. This became the basis for a practice known as pi'o, intentional incestuous mating amongst the ruling class. Extensive genealogies were kept in order to produce the most inbred (and thus, godly) chiefs possible. The commoners were forbidden to do this out of fears that they would start producing children with chieflike levels of mana.
- Cain and Abel: Tawhirimatea, the Māori storm god, is the Cain to his brothers' Abels, holding a personal vendetta against them (and humanity) for what they did to their parents.
- Came Back with a Vengeance: A variant where the avenger actually dies: Pamano lives happily in Maui in the court of the chief Kaiuli, who adopted him, along with his friend Koolau. Both him and Koolau fall in love with Kaiuli's daughter Keaka, and agree to not go after her without the other one's permission. Keaka loves Pamano and brings him to her house, leading to Kaiuli, Koolau, and Pamano's uncle Waipu conspiring to poison him and chop him into peices. He is brought Back from the Dead by his sisters and appears at a kill dance anonymously, and then reveals himself by chanting songs known to only himself and Keaka. He promptly has all three of the conspirators killed.
- Curse: It was believed to be possible to cause someone's death by praying for it.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Pele could get very jealous in her romantic affairs, notably killing Hi'iaka's friend Hopoe in response to her taking too long to bring her lover Lohiau back, suspecting her of an affair with him herself, in spite of Hi'iaka having done nothing of the sort.
- Damsel in Distress: Maui's wife is taken by Pe'ape'a-maka-walu, the eight-eyed bat, and he rescues her.
- Deader than Dead: To revive a dead person in Hawaiian myth, their body needs to be preserved. After being brought Back from the Dead twice Kahalaepuna is eaten by a shark so that she can't be brought back anymore.
- Death by Despair: Lohiau dies from grief over not seeing his lover Pele, but is brought back to life by Hi'iaka.
- Deity of Human Origin:
- Families in Hawaii could use sorcery to consecrate the spirit of a dead relative to a god associated with a certain animal (i.e a shark, owl or mo'o) and the spirit would sub sequentially be transformed into an animal that acted as an aumakua (guardian god) for the family.
- Milu, the god of The Underworld, was in some versions once a human chief who became ruler of the underworld as punishment for disobedience to the gods.
- The Discovery of Fire: Maui finds the secret of fire from the mud hens by catching the littlest one and asking her the secret. Though he originally tells him false information, he eventually finds out that he needs to use the wai-mea tree.
- Distressed Dude: Various islands' myths feature Hema, who regardless of the details in generally captured and has his eyes taken out. his son Kahai'i (Hawaiian)/Tawhaki (Maori and Moriori)/Tahaki (Tuamotu)/Taaki (Rarotonga)/Tafai'i (Samoa) sets off to rescue him.
- Divine Date:
- Pele the Hawaiian goddess is known for her fiery temper. She fell in love with mortals alot of times and most of those young men were not fortunate to escape with their lives. The incredible details of some of these stories is what really makes her into a special divine example of a Yandere.
- Lono descended from a rainbow out of love for the woman Kaikilani, who became a god herself, though this didn't stop him from later killing her.
- In one version of the myth of the creation of the breadfruit tree, the god Ku loved a human woman and, during a famine, stood on his head and disappeared into the ground, with a breadfruit tree appearing where he was to feed his family.
- Divine Parentage: In Hawaii, kupua were offspring of the guardian deity of a family born into that family, who had supernatural powers themselves.
- As a result, some lineages claimed descent from gods, with Kane's line of descent being considered the most elite chiefs and Pele's line being primarily responsible for her worship (with her not being seen as a major god among other people).
- Divine Incest
- In Hawaiian mythology, Wākea the Sky Father is married to Papahānaumoku (or Papa) the Mother Nature, and they have a daughter, Hoʻohokukalani (star goddess). As she got older, Wākea desires his daughter. They have a baby together, Hāloa, who is stillborn. They bury the baby and from the grave spouts taro (the staple food of the Hawaiian people). They then have a second baby, this one heathy and living—also named Hāloa—who is ancestor of the Hawaiian people. Thus taro is the older sibling and people the young siblings. Accordingly, the two siblings take care of each other.
- The Maori forest god Tāne made Hine out of earth and breathed life into her, technically becoming her father. They then married, but upon discovering the truth of her parentage, Hine was so shocked that she ran into the underworld to become the Goddess of Death.
- Don't Look Back: In order to bring together the islands of Hawaii, Maui and his brothers catch a huge fish, and then warns his brothers not to look back. They do so anyway, so the fish escapes, which is why the islands are still separate.
- Driven to Suicide:
- Kawelo killed himself by jumping off the cliff of Maunalei when the sacred fire he was protecting went out when he left its protection to his child.
- Maluae starved himself out of grief for his son Kaali'i's death, but before he could die the gods intervened to him him rescue his son from the afterlife.
- Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: Eleio regularly runs around Maui to provide fish or awaken from the east side of the island to the right side. At one time he stops to bring the Kanikaniaula Back from the Dead, and is nearly killed by the chief in retaliation for his delay.
- Egg MacGuffin: Pele carried an egg that would later hatch one of her sisters, Hi'iaka from Kahiki to Hawaii.
- Everyone Is Related: In Hawaiian mythology, all the gods are related to one another somehow, thanks to the union between the sky god and the earth goddess, who happened to be siblings.
- Evil Uncle: Pamano's uncle Waipu helps conspire to kill his nephew, and is successful except that he later brought Back from the Dead.
- Exotic Equipment: In Hawaiian mythology, the fertility goddess Kapo uses her detachable vulva to distract Kamapua'a and save Pele from being raped by him. He chases after it, until it settles on a particular hilltop on O'ahu, leaving a crater which was named Kohelepelepe ("Fringed Vulva"). Later, the Christian missionaries renamed it Koko Head.
- Eye Scream: Hema's eyes are taken out, but when his son rescues him his eyes are restored.
- Fake Kill Scare: After being allowed into the hidden land of Kanehunamoku, where you are not allowed to weep, the gods test him by creating an illusion of his son being eaten by a shark. He cries and is brought back to his old home.
- Familial Cannibalism Surprise: Puhi and Loli, normally an eel and sea-cucumber, court two girls while transformed into humans, and their father catches and kills them in their animal forms and feeds them to the girls. The girls vomit up the children they would have had by the two.
- The Famine:
- A man is kicked out of his home by his wife's family for indolence, and then god Makani-kau takes pity on him and, during a famine, makes food appear for him, reconciling the family.
- One Hawaiian myth tells of a famine in which the kaput Hina-i-ke-ahi ends by going inside an oven, and then escaping underground and emerging in a spring of water while food now appears in the oven. Her sister tries the same thing but doesn't have the necessary powers and dies.
- The breadfruit tree was created due to a famine in some versions of the myth. In one, the god Ku loves a human woman and during a famine, stands on his head and disappears underground, leaving them but with a breadfruit tree in his place that only his wife and child can pick. In another, a man named Ulu dies from a famine and his son buries him according to the instructions of the priest, and the next night a breadfruit tree appears where he was buried.
- From a Single Cell: The shark Mikololou is caught in a net and killed, but a dog swallows his tongue and jumps into the sea, whereupon Mikololou is regenerated from his tongue.
- Gaia's Vengeance: Several myths tell of people punished for killing animals by the gods associated with these animals.
- Kumu-hana kills many plover even though he doesn't need them to eat, despite being warned against it, and he ends up being killed by a flock of plover.
- Kilauname kills a group of caterpillars attacking his potatoes instead of carrying them away alive in baskets like his friend does, so he ends up being eaten alive by caterpillars.
- Genius Loci: The Māori people of New Zealand have many legends surrounding the mountains that dominate the country, the most well-known of which concerns several personified mountains (though it's mainly Taranaki and Tongariro) fighting each other for the love of the female mountain Pihanga. In the end, Taranaki is defeated and forced into exile and ends up creating many of the surrounding features of his current location before settling down.
- Ghastly Ghost: Souls abandoned by their aumakua in Hawaiian mythology become malevolent wandering spirits (kuewa) who lead travelers astray. They are said to be found on Uhana on Lanai, Maohelaia on Molokai, Kaupea at Pu'uloa on Oahu, Halal's on Ni'ihau, and Mana on Kauai.
- Giant Corpse World: In the mythology of Kiribati, the god Na Atibu allowed his own child Nareau to kill him and use his body to create the world. His right eye became the sun, his left eye the moon, his brains became the stars, and his bones and flesh became the islands and trees.
- God Couple: In Polynesian mythology, Pala-Mao and Kumi-Kahi, both of whom are male, as well as many others.
- God of Evil: The Māori religion gives us Whiro, who manages to some way or another cause practically every problem we have while locked in the underworld. He will eventually escape and destroy everything besides himself and the ashes.
- God of Fire: Pele is the goddess of volcanoes and fire, and the creator of the Hawaiian Islands.
- God of Light: Tama-nui-te-Ranote is the god of the sun, but all he does in mythology is being Maui's Butt-Monkey.
- God of the Moon:
- In various Polynesian cultures, "Hina" is the recurring name of an important goddess who is sometimes associated with the moon, if not the moon goddess herself.
- Marama is the moon god in Maori mythology. Though he has a divine wife and two daughters, it's widely believed that every woman on earth is his "wife", which explains the moon's affect on women's menstrual cycles.
- God of Thunder: Kane-hekili is associated with thunderstorms, and because of him people in Hawaii are expected to be silent during thunderstorms.
- Green Thumb: Hiku could conjure vines and other plants, which he used to stop Kawelu from following him when he rejected her.
- An Ice Person: The four Snow Maidens of Hawaiian mythology. They each have a mountain on the Big Island, gifted to them by their father, though they have been known to visit other mountains as well. (Especially their leader, Poli'ahu.)
- Jacob Marley Apparel: One of the stories involving Hi'iaka has her meeting the spirit of a young woman who was missing her limbs (having died a very violent death), near a tide pool (while looking for food). Hi'iaka gives her a lei filled with mana, and she comes back to life and gets her limbs back, and is able to outrun the lava sent up by Pele.
- "Just So" Story:
- The volcano goddess Pele raised the archipelago out of the ocean one by one in an attempt to outrun her sister the sea-goddess, who kept flooding the islands. Pele's older brother helped her escape, so in gratitude she never lets volcanic steam touch his particular cliffs. Another legend says that Maui pulled the islands up from the ocean floor on a very eventful fishing trip.
- Māori history has the demigod Maui to explain almost everything. He raised the north island of New Zealand when he caught it while fishing. (It was a stingray. The South island is his canoe.) His greedy brothers chopped it up, creating all the mountains. He stole fire from his grandmother and hid it in a tea tree for later use (Tea tree is very flammable.) When the sun went around too fast, making the days short, he trapped it and beat it half to death with his grandmother's jawbone.
- According to a Hawaiian myth, the hairy wauke plant was originally a hairy man named Maikoha.
- There are several for the appearance of the breadfruit tree in Hawaii. In one it comes from the testes of a man who died for his family, and it spread through the islands when the gods ate the fruit but then vomited them out due to their disgust at finding out where the tree came from. In another version, it was created when the god Ku dove underground during a famine, with the tree springing in his place to feed his human wife and child. In a third version, it was grown during a famine when a man named Ulu who died during it was buried by his family.
- In Hawaii, cutworms were said to have been created when Kumu-hea, who transformed into a worm by day, was cut up by Kane in response to him attacking his lover's family's crops out of revenge for her discovering his true form, splitting into many cutworms.
- Kill It Through Its Stomach: The small shark Ka-ehu-iki-mano-o-Pu'uloa (The little brown shark of Pearl Harbor) kills the huge king shark of Maui by letting himself be swallowed and devouring him from the inside.
- Kill the God: The prophet Lanikaula defeated and killed the Pahulu, gods of sorcery that used to dwell on the island of Moloka'i.
- Living Lava: Hawaiian mythology has Pele, a volcanic goddess who embodies the main volcano, who knows when incautious visitors have taken away rocks from her sacred place and left the island with them. There are stories of the volcano goddess's vengeance manifesting in bad luck and ill-fortune to such people - until the stolen rocks are returned. The relevant authority in Hawaii testifies that it regularly receives parcels of volcanic rock, anonymously, to be returned to the volcano goddess with apologies. People dedicated to Pele when they die can also become Living Lava after death.
- Lord of the Ocean: Tangaroa is the sea deity of many South Pacific cultures, who often also tribute him with having fathered all fishes. In Hawaii, he is known as the octopus god Kanaloa, and is also associated with magic and the Underworld due to the connections with the murky and mysterious depths of the ocean.
- Lost Him in a Card Game: The kilu game, which was played between two people of the chief class in Hawaii for the right to the love of a third person, features in the legend of Hi'iaka and Pele. Hi'iaka challenges Pele-ula, a former lover of Lohiau, to such a game and wins, but refuses to take Lohiau for herself because her mission was to bring him back to her sister Pele.
- Mark of the Supernatural:
- People born with a birthmark on the right side of their body are said to have been given to the god Kane-hekili.
- Aumakua in the shape of animals could be identified by a special mark on their body.
- Shark-men could be identified by a mark in the shape of a shark's mouth on their back.
- The Migration: Various myths tell of Pele and her family's search for a home, eventually settling at the volcano in the island of Hawai'i. In some versions this is due to being exiled from her home by her sister Na-maka-o-kahai'i, due to either starting a fire or making love to her sister's husband, and Pele and her family are fleeing pursuit by her the whole time.
- Missing Reflection: Spirits could be distinguished from living people by their lack of a reflection.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Pamano and his friend Koolau are in love with the same woman, Keaka, and promise to avoid her unless one has the other's permission. Keaka prefers Pamano and entices him into her house, so Kola conspires with the chief and Pamano's uncle to have him kills, which works until he is brought Back from the Dead.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The Makahiki games in Hawaii began when the god Lono descends to earth to marry Kaikilani but, after hearing a human chief singing a love song to her he beats her to death out of jealousy as she tries to tell him she was innocent. He is horrified at what he has done and travels the islands wrestling everyone he sees, and eventually institutes games that include wrestling to commemorate her death.
- Now or Never Kiss: At the climax of Hi'iaka and Lohiau's confrontation with Pele, Hi'iaka embraces Lohiau in defiance of him as they are surrounded by fire and lava, whereupon Pele encircles them both in flame, killing Lohiau (although Hi'iaka survives due to being a goddess).
- Numerological Motif: The number eight shows up a lot, with deities often described as having eight heads, eight of a certain body part, etc, along with other appearances of the number.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Whiro the Māori God of Evil, by way of devouring all that exists. The only thing that he cannot consume is ash, so it's believed the dead should be burned to spite him.
- Our Phlebotinum Child: In one Hawaiian myth, Maui is born to Hina when she finds a man's loincloth on the beach, puts it on and goes to sleep.
- Pig Man: Kamapua'a, a kupua (demigod) from Hawaiian mythology. He was half human and half hog, identified in his human form by the bristle on his back which he hid with a cape.
- Primordial Chaos: In some Pacific Island myths, instead of darkness there was light, and a rock. This rock split into 12 brother gods who made the world. Another myth states the world was completely underwater and a deity rose the island chain and threw the basket to make another island.
- Purgatory and Limbo: Some versions of the Hawaiian afterlife portray the ideal afterlife for the most pious people as being reborn as an aumakua, with the least pious people having an afterlife of punishment and those in between ending up in another underworld where they live much as they did in life. Martha Beckwith contends that this was an organic creation of the priesthood for political power rather than a case of Hijacked by Jesus.
- The Quest: The quest of Hi'iaka across many of the Hawaiian islands to bring her sister Pele's lover Lohiau back to her forms an extended story, with her and her party facing many dangers along the away. It was told through a hula dance.
- Race Against the Clock: Hi'iaka is supposed to bring back Lohiau to Pele within forty days. When her various adventures (such as fighting off mo'o, reviving Lohiau when he turns out to be dead, and getting swept in a storm by gods angry at Pele's affair with a mortal) leads to her going past the time limit, Pele suspects her of having an affair with Lohiau herself and angrily tries to kill her party.
- Reincarnated as a Non-Humanoid: An ideal fate for the dead would be to be transformed into an aumakua who would protect their family, which could be accomplished with the help of sorcery. They might end up as an animal like a shark, mo'o or owl, or in the case of Pele's family could end up as a sentient plume of lava.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent:
- In Hawaiian mythology many mo'o, giant lizard-like creatures, are antagonists. On Hi'iaka's journey, she has to fight off mo'o with mana contained in her skirt. However not all mo'o are evil and a mo'o is one of the form dead humans can take as aumakua protecting their family.
- The tuatara, New Zealand's ancient reptile unrelated to anything else alive today, is traditionally associated with Whiro, the God of Evil. But in recent years Maori have dissociated it from him, in order to promote its protection.
- Rescued from the Underworld:
- Maluae stops making offering to the gods out of grief for his son Kaali'i's death, so the gods helped him travel to the afterlife and bring his son back.
- In Hawaiian myth, Hiku travels to Milu by grabbing onto a vine in order to rescue Kawelu, who killed herself after being rejected by him. He lures her spirit by inviting all the spirits to a game of swinging on vines, and when Kawelu rats the vine he takes her up, brings her spirit back to her body and revives her. Maori mythology had a similar story with Hutu in place of Hiku and Pare in place of Kawelu.
- In a similar Marquesan story, Kena's wife kills herself after being abandoned by him, and Kena undergoes a quest to the afterlife with his mother's aid to rescue her. He has to put her in a basket for ten days without releasing her, but releases her and loses her; however, he repeats the journey and succeeds the next time.
- Restrained Revenge: The snow-goddess Poliahu takes revenge on her fiance Aiwohikupua after he stood her up at their wedding because he wasn't quite over his ex yet. She afflicts his other lover Hina actually a form of Pele; this is a major reason these goddesses don't get along with chills. The kahuna take Hina down the mountain to a sunny spot to warm her up, at which point Poliahu switches Hina's chills to fever. Aiwohikupua decides he'd better go talk to Poliahu, and while he's on the mountain, he too is afflicted with chills and then fever. He begs the angry goddess for mercy, and she shakes her head at him and goes back up to the summit of Mauna Kea by herself. Hina decides it's too dangerous to continue the relationship and breaks up with Aiwohikupua, who himself becomes Persona Non Grata because of his dishonesty.
- Rock of Limitless Water: Kane digs his spear into the holes in the rocks Waihanau and Ka-elelo-o-kahawau, causing water to spring from them.
- Rule of Three: Kane and Kanaloa visit Makuakaumana disguised as strangers three times before taking him to the paradisiacal Kanehunamoku.
- Sacred Flames: Kawelo and Maha both kept sacred fires that were supposed to never be quenched, so that dogs and pigs would be able to be on the island forever. Unfortunately they both left their children in charge of the fires and the two let the fires go out because they were distracted by making love.
- Secret Test of Character: Kane and Kanaloa test Makuakaumana's piety by telling him his son has broken an eating tapu, and he passes the test by showing he is willing to kill his son for that.
- Shapeshifting Lover:
- In a Hawaiian story, Kumu-hea, who is a worm or mo'o by day and a human by night, marries a girl while hiding his animal form. The girl's parents advise her to tie a hemp string to his back so she can follow him when she leaves her, leading to her discovering his other form, and he becomes angry and makes cutworms cut up their crop. Kane cuts up Kumu-hea on the girl's parents' advice, leading to the creation of cutworms.
- Punaaikoae is found by the mo'o Kalamainu'u in human form. They are in love and stay together for months, but one day Punaaikoae leaves to go surfing and is warned of Kalamainu'u's true nature. He sees Kalamainu'u in her mo'o form and she prepares to kill him for it. In some versions he escapes to Pele, part of his former wife's family, by distracting her with the task of filling up a gourd poked with holes with water, and in other versions Kalamainu'u spares him for showing no fear of her forms. In any case, Kalamainu'u kills the people who informed Punaaikoae of her true form instead.
- Sibling Triangle: Pele is in love with Lohiau, and suspects her sister Hi'iaka of wanting him for herself when she takes too long to bring him back. Hi'iaka had no intention of the sorts, but after being attacked and having her friend killed decides to have an affair with him after all.
- Sinister Stingrays: Manta rays were regularly portrayed as evil in Polynesian mythology. Legends described them using their cloak-like bodies to drown pearl divers or even kidnapping children.
- Shark Man: Polynesian legends believed in sharks that could take human form and even have shapeshifting kids with human wives:
- One Hawai'ian legend had a shark who repeatedly attacked women off a specific coast, but eluded capture. The hero of the story ran into a man who always hung out there. After he managed to fatally wound the shark, it turned out to have been that man, who died and turned into a shark-like stone.
- The fire goddess Pele also has a brother called Kamohoalii who takes the form of a shark.
- Sole Survivor: Makali'i is the only survivor of the people sent to capture and kill Kamapua'a for robbing his stepfather Olopana's hen roost, when Kamapua'a is freed and kills all the others.
- Spurned into Suicide: Kawelu (Hawaiian) or Pare (Maori), who is refused by her lover Hiku/Hutu due to his lower rank and already having a family (in Maori myth) or her refusing sex (in the Hawaiian version), so she hangs herself. She gets better. The Marquesas had a similar version of the story where the equivalent character attempted to follow her husband Kena after being abandoned by him, before finally killing herself by throwing herself off a cliff. Again, she is brought Back from the Dead.
- Taken for Granite: Hi'iaka's mortal friend Hopoe, after Pele got impatient waiting for Hi'iaka to bring back Lohiau, the young chief she hooked up with at a party several weeks earlier.
- Two stones in the cave of Ke-ana at Kahuku in Oahu are said to be the bodies of two boys punished for not keeping silent during a thunderstorm.
- A giant octopus killed by Aiai is said to be still able to be seen, turned to stone.
- Tentacled Terror: In the Hawaiian creation myth the sun was imprisoned in the ocean by a gargantuan octopus, who was slain by a god.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Pele and her sister Poli'ahu, partly because they are diametrically-opposed elemental forces, but mostly because they often competed for the affections of the same mortal men.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: While "evil" is a stretch, Hi'iaka had no intention of taking her sister Pele's lover Lohiau for herself until Pele killed her friend Hopoe and attacked her out of suspicion of the sort, whereupon she decided to embrace him after all.
- Threatening Shark: Man-eating sharks were a recurring theme in Hawaiian myths, with the wars between friendly sharks and the man-eaters appearing in stories. Shark Man characters in Hawaiian myths generally fall into this, often warning others of a dangerous shark in human form only to turn into a shark and eat people.
- The Trickster: Maui, the demigod from Polynesian mythology, famously depicted in Moana. Among his achievements were stealing fire from the Underworld / (the island goddess Te Fiti's heart in Moana), fishing out New Zealand (and the Hawaiian Islands, and basically every island Polynesians live on) from the ocean, and lassoing the sun so it wouldn't streak across the sky so quickly. "Lassoing" isn't the full story; he also beat the living crap out of the Sun until it agreed to slow down.
- Too Dumb to Live: The chief in Waipio, Milu, was assured of immunity to the sorcery threatening to kill him by Lonopuha if he stayed in his house. However he left to see a bird and the bird ate his liver. He was revived but then surfed when he was told to not go surfing and was swept underwater and never found.
- The Underworld: Some versions of the Hawaiian afterlife has it as a neutral place, with everyone besides those brought back as aumakua ending up there and living a mundane but not torturous existence.
- Vagina Dentata: Maui crawls into Hine Nui Te Pō's vagina in an attempt to make humans immortal by crawling out her mouth while she's asleep. She wakes up and crushes him with her obsidian teeth in her vagina.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting:
- The chief Kekoona of Molokai could transform into a gigantic eel, and he used this form to eat all of the fish in a fish pond that Kuulakai had created to feed people.
- Kumukahi had the power to transform into a kolea bird.
- War God: Hawaiian mythology has Ku, who has many different forms/variants with different names, some of whom are war gods with symbols of them used to help in war (most famously Kulailimoku, who was used by Kamehameha). He kind of looks like Beavis and Butthead.
- Wife Husbandry: Kikihale/Kauaelemino finds a young Puniaiki and raises him to one day become her husband.
