Maui, a Polynesian culture hero, brought all kinds of good and wonderful things to the human race and ended up being killed between the thighs of the great Daughter of Night as he was attempting to achieve immortality for the human race. Posinsky reviews previous theories as to the meaning of this myth. He understands it as a tale of incest and of the disastrous consequences of incest. The author cautions against utilizing natural phenomena to explain such myths as such phenomena merely serve as screen memories in the interests of repression.