The Myth of Fire, Part 2

The Maori people (Polynesia/New Zealand) also have a story that explains the origin of fire.  Now, to be fair, their story begins in medias res, after mankind already has fire.  In this story, however, humans have to keep their fires burning continuously, since no one knows how to start a fire.  In other words, once the fires goes out, everyone is doomed to eat raw food.

Maui, being a bit of a trickster - as well as a demigod - decided to find out exactly where fire originates, so once everyone was asleep, he ran around and put out all of the world's fires. Then, when everyone woke up to find that they could not cook breakfast, he volunteered to go find more fire.

The source of fire was located inside of a burning mountain, all red and glowing, hot as the sun.  Mahuika, the goddess of fire, was more than happy to give Maui one of her toenails, once she discovered that earth had lost all of its fire.

However, after a series of deceptions on Maui's part, after which Mahuika had given up all but one of her toenails and her fingernails, the goddess grew angry, and tried to engulf Maui in flames.  He turned into a hawk and fled, but fire had singed his wings, and the waters over which he flew boiled with the heat.  She threw her remaining toenail at him, which landed in a tree and embedded the fire in the tree.

Maui brought a branch back, bringing with it fire, which he then gave to the rest of the world (and there was much rejoicing).

On the surface, the story is vastly different from the previous stories.  But notice a few of the details:


1) Maui is semi-divine - like Giant and Prometheus, Maui is a supernatural creature, but not one of the chief gods of his culture
2) Maui is a trickster - like Giant and Prometheus, Maui is deceptive, and he uses his deception to his advantage
3)  Maui's trickster nature angers the more powerful goddess - like the gods of the Tsimshians, or the gods of the Greek Pantheon, the goddess Mahuika is furious at Maui's attempts to steal her fire
4) That blasted stick - Like Prometheus, who brings fire back in a fennel stalk, and Agni, who brings it back in the pramanthaya, Maui brings fire back in a stick.
5) Source of fire - Maui may not have ascended into the heavens, but he did go to the ends of the earth, and while he may not have retrieved the fire from the sun, he did retrieve it from the largest burning object on earth.

There are other, minor connections - the fact that Giant and Maui both transform into birds, for example - but these five points are interesting.  Again, I'm not trying to say that this story is 100% accurate, or that there was even a mountain of fire somewhere on the earth at some point, but these details keep popping up all over the globe, and between cultures that have no relation to each other whatsoever.

This should make us pause and reconsider the narrative of our past that most people so readily accept and believe.   Perhaps there really were giants in our ancient past, and perhaps they really were heroes of old and men of renown.  And if the Bible is right about that point, what else might it be right about?




For a detailed telling of the story, please click here.