In Hawaiian mythology, the demigod who snared the sun was Māui.
The story says that Māui captured the sun’s rays to slow its hurried journey across the sky. His mother, Hina, complained that the daylight passed too quickly for her kapa, or bark cloth, to dry. Māui therefore climbed Haleakalā—whose name means “House of the Sun”—and prepared snares near the place where the sun rose.
In one Hawaiian version, he made the ropes from his sister’s hair and used them to bind the sun’s rays. The sun pleaded for release, and Māui agreed on the condition that it travel more slowly for part of the year. The tale explains the changing length of daylight, especially the longer summer days, through a dramatic act of negotiation rather than conquest.
Māui is a wider Polynesian culture hero whose stories vary from island to island. Māori traditions also tell of Māui slowing the sun, but their versions commonly feature the sun-god Tama-nui-te-rā, ropes, brothers, and a magical jawbone. Disney’s Māui combines details from several Polynesian traditions, so it should not be treated as a single Hawaiian source.