Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
A20 — Childhood and youth of the Sun and Moon.
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
OverviewThe Sun and the Moon (less often the Sun and a star, the Moon and a star) are brothers (sisters, brother and sister) who initially live on earth, but at the end of the story, as teenagers or young adults, ascend to the sky and become celestial bodies.
Berezkin category: The Sun and Moon
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 1, Sun and Moon.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B54 | 94.98% | Wood chips, branches or pieces of bark that have fallen or been thrown into the water turn into fish and aquatic animals. |
| I18 | 93.74% | Visiting the world of people without an anus or mouth (the underworld, if not otherwise), the hero or heroine enters or attempts to enter into sexual relations with the local inhabitants. See motif I14. |
| L59 | 92.85% | A woman eats the best food or eats fruit before it is ripe; as punishment, she undergoes metamorphosis. |
| F35 | 92.63% | A character offers another person the meat of his sexual partner, and the other person, unaware, eats or cooks it. |
| M75D | 92.35% | A man bereaves vultures of their hunting weapons or amulets |
| F28 | 90.85% | There is a separate penis character with whom the first women, Amazons, or simply some woman copulate. |
| I34 | 90.79% | It is necessary to approach a tree that is surrounded by fire, spews fire, throws sharp splinters, etc. |
| F33 | 90.50% | A woman or group of women take a water animal or water monster as their lover. The husband(s), brother(s) or (adopted) children of the woman(s) kill or maim the lover and (in some cases) the woman(s). |
| G1 | 90.31% | In order to acquire or regain values (land, soil, cultivated plants, sun, fire, shamanic knowledge, luck), people lure or steal the son or daughter of a certain character. |
| G26 | 89.90% | After swallowing or hiding food in their mouth, the character brings it to earth (passes it on to people). |
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
55 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 55 traditions: Ngbakka, Mbum (incl Mbai), Mundang, Fali, Tupuri, Maya (=Bali), Nyong, Akan, Ashanti, Akwapim; Ga (Accra), Kra, Twi (Chwi, Chi), Burmese, Intha, Chin-Naga: Ao, Mao, Sema, Zeme, Kolren, Kom, Lhota, Rengma, Angami, Kabui, Tangkhul, Koirenf, Kachin (Singpho), Chak, Koreans, Hui (Dungan) of Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan (Dungan texts from Southern and Eastern China are clustered with the Chinese ones), Central Yupik, Nunivak Island, Inland Tlingit, Ingalik (Der Hit’an), Koyukon, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Mackenzie Delta, Caribou, Iglulik, Polar Inuit, East Greenland (Angmassalik, Kulusuk), Labrador Inuit (Koksoagmiut), Tlingit, Comox, Pentlatch, Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Twana (Skokomish), Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, (Lower) Cowlitz, Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Tillamook, Okanagon, Sanpoil, Aztec; Aztec and Teotihuacan iconography, Popoloca; Tlapanec, Mestizos of Soconuzco; Cotzumapguapa iconography, Tepehua, Totonac, Gulf Nahuatl, Chinantec, Mazatec, Mixtec, Trique, Cuicatec; Amuzgo, Zapotec, Chatino, Tzotzil, Guaymi, Bocota, Dorasque; XVI century data on Western Panama, Kogi (Cagaba), Sanha, Creols of Aritama Valley, Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar), Lima dep: Costa and adjacent Sierra (Spanish, Kechua, and Jacaru-speaking communities, mostly in Pachacamac, Cajatambo, Canta, Huarochirí; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries), Kechua-speaking communities of Apurimac, Cuzco, Arequipa, Puno departments; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries; Callawaya (Kechua with Pukina substratum), Amuesha, Bolivian Guarani: Chiriguano (including assimilated Chane Arawaks), Pauserna (=Guarasu), Guarayu, Tapiete, Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Bakairi, Kuikuro, Kalapalo, Calapalo, Kamayura, Trumai, Guarani of Paraguay and Brazil: Caygua, Mbia, Apapocuva, Nyandewa, Chiripa, Ache (Guayaki), Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Hani, Akha, Greenland, Halkomelem (Snaymuk)
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