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Nanaue is a demigod from Hawaiian mythology. He is described as a man with the mouth of a shark on his back who can shapeshift into a giant shark.
Nanaue is the son of Kāmohoaliʻi, who is the king of sharks. He was born with a shark's mouth on his back. [1] As a boy, Nanaue's mother, Kalei, told him to never eat meat as it would give him a craving for flesh. However, when he turned seven years old, he ate meat and began to crave human flesh. He took up residence in Kaneana cave where he would leave human bodies to rot before eating them, as he found rotted flesh to be tastiest. [2]
When Nanaue was a man, Umi-a-Liloa, the king of Hawaii, issued an order for all men to till a large plantation for the king. When Nanaue worked, other workers took off his clothing, revealing his shark mouth on his back. He bit many of the other men, and the King deduced that Nanaue was responsible for the disappearances of humans into the Kaneana cave. The King had Nanaue tied to a stake to be burned alive, but Nanaue prayed to his father and escaped, shapeshifting into a shark to swim away. [1] [3]
Nanaue swam from the island of Hawaii to Maui. There, he married the sister of a chief, and tried to stop his habit of eating people, but fell to the temptation and resumed his activities. [4] He was caught in the act, and once again fled, this time to Molokai. There he was caught once again, and captured in nets. The people of Molokai prayed to the demigod Unauna, who burned Nanaue alive. [1]
Human cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh or internal organs of other human beings. A person who practices cannibalism is called a cannibal. The meaning of "cannibalism" has been extended into zoology to describe animals consuming parts of individuals of the same species as food.
The hammerhead sharks are a group of sharks that form the family Sphyrnidae, named for the unusual and distinctive form of their heads, which are flattened and laterally extended into a cephalofoil. The shark's eyes are placed one on either end of this T-shaped structure, with their small mouths directly centered and underneath. Most hammerhead species are placed in the genus Sphyrna, while the winghead shark is placed in its own genus, Eusphyra. Many different—but not necessarily mutually exclusive—functions have been postulated for the cephalofoil, including sensory reception, manoeuvering, and prey manipulation. The cephalofoil gives the shark superior binocular vision and depth perception.
Māui or Maui is the great culture hero and trickster in Polynesian mythology. Very rarely was Māui actually worshipped, being less of a deity (Demigod) and more of a folk hero. His origins vary from culture to culture, but many of his main exploits remain relatively similar.
In folklore, a ghoul is a demon-like being or monstrous humanoid, often associated with graveyards and the consumption of human flesh. In the legends or tales in which they appear, a ghoul is far more ill-mannered and foul than the commonly mistaken goblin. The concept originated in pre-Islamic Arabian religion. Modern fiction often uses the term to label a specific kind of monster.
The tiger shark is a species of ground shark, and the only extant member of the genus Galeocerdo and family Galeocerdonidae. It is a large macropredator, with females capable of attaining a length of over 5 m. Populations are found in many tropical and temperate waters, especially around central Pacific islands. Its name derives from the dark stripes down its body, which resemble a tiger's pattern, but fade as the shark matures.
In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shapeshifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through unnatural means. The idea of shapeshifting is found in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism, as well as the oldest existent literature and epic poems such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Iliad. The concept remains a common literary device in modern fantasy, children's literature and popular culture. Examples of shapeshifters are vampires and werewolves.
The cookiecutter shark, also called the cigar shark, is a species of small squaliform shark in the family Dalatiidae. This shark lives in warm, oceanic waters worldwide, particularly near islands, and has been recorded as deep as 3.7 km (2.3 mi). It migrates vertically up to 3 km (1.9 mi) every day, approaching the surface at dusk and descending with the dawn. Reaching only 42–56 cm (16.5–22 in) in length, the cookiecutter shark has a long, cylindrical body with a short, blunt snout, large eyes, two tiny spineless dorsal fins, and a large caudal fin. It is dark brown, with light-emitting photophores covering its underside except for a dark "collar" around its throat and gill slits.
Alexander "Sawney" Bean is a legendary figure, said to have been the head of a 45-member clan in Scotland in the 16th century that murdered and cannibalised over 1,000 people in 25 years. According to the legend, Bean and his clan members were eventually caught by a search party sent by King James VI, and were executed for their heinous crimes.
Folklore in Hawaii in modern times is a mixture of various aspects of Hawaiian mythology and various urban legends that have been passed on regarding various places in the Hawaiian islands. The following is a partial list of some of these legends.
The Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 were a series of shark attacks along the coast of New Jersey, in the United States, between July 1 and 12, 1916, in which four people were killed and one critically injured. The incidents occurred during a deadly summer heat wave and polio epidemic in the United States that drove thousands of people to the seaside resorts of the Jersey Shore. Since 1916, scholars have debated which shark species was responsible and the number of animals involved, with the great white shark and the bull shark most frequently cited.
King Shark is a supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The character, also known as Nanaue, was created by writer Karl Kesel and artist Tom Grummett. King Shark's first key appearance was in Superboy #0 as a cameo before making his first full appearance in Superboy #9. The character serves as an adversary to Aquaman, Flash, Batman, and Superboy.
The position and treatment of animals in Buddhism is important for the light it sheds on Buddhists' perception of their own relation to the natural world, on Buddhist humanitarian concerns in general, and on the relationship between Buddhist theory and Buddhist practice.
Child cannibalism or fetal cannibalism is the act of eating a child or fetus. Children who are eaten or at risk of being eaten are a recurrent topic in myths, legends, and folktales from many parts of the world. False accusations of the murder and consumption of children were made repeatedly against minorities and groups considered suspicious, especially against Jews as part of blood libel accusations.
The Skrull Kill Krew are a fictional group appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They first appeared in their own miniseries published in 1995. They were created by Grant Morrison, Mark Millar and Steve Yeowell.
Cannibalism, the act of eating human flesh, is a recurring theme in popular culture, especially within the horror genre, and has been featured in a range of media that includes film, television, literature, music and video games. Cannibalism has been featured in various forms of media as far back as Greek mythology. The frequency of this theme has led to cannibal films becoming a notable subgenre of horror films. The subject has been portrayed in various different ways and is occasionally normalized. The act may also be used in media as a means of survival, an accidental misfortune, or an accompaniment to murder. Examples of prominent artists who have worked with the topic of cannibalism include William Shakespeare, Voltaire, Bret Easton Ellis, and Herschell Gordon Lewis.
The legend of The Twelve Sisters or The Twelve Ladies, known as Nang Sip Song (นางสิบสอง) or as Phra Rot Meri (พระรถเมรี) in Thai and រឿងភ្នំនាងកង្រី Puthisen Neang KongRei in Cambodia, is a Southeast Asian folktale, and also an apocryphal Jātaka Tale, the Rathasena Jātaka of the Paññāsa Jātaka collection. It is one of the stories of the previous lives of Shakyamuni Buddha in which Rathasena, the son of one of the twelve women, is the bodhisattva.
In Germanic heroic legend, Elgfróði (Elk-Fróði) is the half-man, half-elk elder brother of the hero Bödvar Bjarki and Thorir Houndsfoot. The name is also used to describe mythical creatures with his perceived form, which have been seen as a Norse variant of a centaur, although it is not clear if he was intended to be depicted with two or four legs.
Representation of cannibals exists adjacent to the representation of any culture associated with alterity, political discourse, or blasphemous rhetoric. Homer's Odyssey, Beowulf, Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, Flaubert's Salammbo, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and Melville's Moby Dick each feature a type of cannibalistic representation that is larger than the ambiguity of cultural versus survival cannibalism.