Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
J58B — Door to the sky.
Source data for narratives and traditions is drawn from Berezkin’s Analytical Catalogue. If you use this data, please acknowledge and link to it: Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.
Summary of motif
OverviewWith the help of a chain of arrows, the sky or the sun is pulled down or pushed up, or a hole is made in the sky.
Berezkin category: Avenger heroes: The amerinday cycle
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects.
J58 has 3 other sub-motifs
RelatedJ58. Characters shoot arrows (darts) that stick into each other and form a chain. They usually climb up the chain to the upper world.
J58a. To cross the river, each of the three men uses his own magical method.
J58b. With the help of a chain of arrows, the sky or the sun is pulled down or pushed up, or a hole is made in the sky.
J58c. A chain of arrows forms a bridge across a water barrier.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K11A | 97.86% | Plucked feathers of a (huge) bird turn into actual birds (or their plumage) or humans emerge from them. |
| C6F | 97.65% | The characters attempt to retrieve a living creature or part of its body that has sunk to the bottom of the water. See motif C6. |
| F52 | 97.42% | The first ancestor bird puts pubic hair or part of a woman's genitals on its head; since then, birds of this species have had a crest. |
| K11A1 | 97.05% | Pieces of flesh or feathers from a monstrous/unusual bird turn into present-day birds (or their plumage). |
| I37D | 96.83% | Mushrooms are the excrement of a mythological character. See motif I37. |
| F82 | 96.77% | The son-in-law resorts to trickery to sleep with his mother-in-law, or the mother-in-law with her son-in-law. Usually, the son-in-law insists that his mother-in-law, rather than his wife, accompany him on a hunt. |
| K58A | 96.08% | The character brings water for irrigation or a fish river to the place where the girl agrees to meet him, and does not bring water if she refuses. (The parallel between the myths of Peru and Oregon was first noted in Lehmann-Nitsche 1935a; 1936). |
| M103 | 96.08% | One character asks another how her (his) children acquired valuable qualities (became beautiful, obedient, etc.). The other replies that children must be baked in ashes, kept in fire, burned, etc. The first character does so, and her or his children die or are maimed. |
| F21 | 95.26% | While the character copulates with a woman, she turns into a tree or a rock. His penis gets stuck in her. |
| K42 | 95.02% | A young bird woman energetically searches among a group of men for one she likes, takes him by force and makes him her husband; she turns into a monster, pursues and kills men, but is ultimately killed herself. |
See the 100 most similar distributions →
Map of motif dispersal
DistributionDrag the map to pan, use the scroll wheel to zoom — choose a texture or projection below
Traditions
4 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 4 traditions: Central Australia: Kaitish, Warramunga, Arunta (Aranda), Loritja (Kukatja), Pijandjara (Pitjantjara), Adnjamatana (Andjamathana, Wailpi), Aluridja, Walpiri (Walbiri), Aluridja, Matuntara (Maduntara), Nambutji, Wamma (=Wommana?), Kalapuya, Chamacoco (Ishir), Nivakle (=Chulupi, Ashluslay, Ajlujlay)
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