In
Māori mythology, Makeatutara is the father of
Māui. His wife is
Taranga. He is a guardian of the
underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwor ...
. Makeatutara made mistakes as he recited the dedicatory (or baptismal) incantations over Māui, which made it inevitable that Māui would die. As a result, humankind is mortal.
[E.R. Tregear, ''Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary'' (Lyon and Blair: Lambton Quay, 1891), 233–234.]
References
Māori gods
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