Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
A4A — The sun hurts the eyes.
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
OverviewSo that people do not look at it, the Sun blinds their immodest eyes (usually with needles, which are its rays).
Berezkin category: The Sun and Moon
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 1, Sun and Moon.
A4 has 3 other sub-motifs
RelatedA4. The Sun is a woman (the Moon is usually a man, sometimes also a woman, see motif A6; highlighted in bold italics in the list of ethnic groups below).
A4a. So that people do not look at it, the Sun blinds their immodest eyes (usually with needles, which are its rays).
A4b. The sun decided to walk across the sky during the day because it is afraid of the night.
A4e. An anthropomorphic person associated with the thunder and rain rides on the clouds (uses them as a vehicle)
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| H6D | 99.04% | Having obtained a means of ensuring immortality, the character falls asleep or leaves the means unattended. At this time, another character steals the means. |
| A4B | 98.21% | The sun decided to walk across the sky during the day because it is afraid of the night. |
| M130A | 97.65% | A trickster lures an animal into a hunter's trap. Another animal advises the victim to pretend to be dead and helps it escape. |
| M192 | 97.54% | A scavenger who has climbed into an animal carcass or put on a fresh animal skin cannot get out of it (usually because the skin has dried out in the heat). He gets out when the skin becomes soft again or someone helps him. |
| M167 | 97.34% | In the dark, a person mistakes a tiger (lion, demon) for another person or a domestic animal (bull, ox). |
| A12F | 97.18% | The stars fade because the moneylender demands that they repay their debt. |
| A37C | 97.18% | The character shoots an arrow into the sky, aiming to hit a celestial body or deity, but the arrow hits an obstacle blocking the target. |
| K33C1 | 97.18% | A character thrown into the water is transformed into a flower (usually a lotus). |
| K76H | 97.18% | A young man, temporarily having a strange or monstrous appearance (freak, animal, etc.), woos a princess, but is rejected. Then he causes natural disasters or creates personal troubles for the king, who is forced to give up his daughter. |
| L39B | 97.18% | The tree grows from a flatbread (pie, etc.) and usually bears flatbreads instead of fruit. |
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
10 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 10 traditions: Masai, Wa (incl Kawa), Bulang, Portuguese, Portugal, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Dargin (Dargwa), incl. Müregin, Khürkilin, Kubachi, Armenians, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Talysh, Mongols (Khalkha)
If you wish to get access to data for projects and research, then please contact us, we do our best to help
How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
Where applicable, users should also cite the relevant original sources, catalogues, and classification systems, including Berezkin, ATU, Thompson, and other cited authorities, alongside the page accessed and the last time accessed.
Editorial annotations and database enhancements © Jonathan Fielder-White licensed under CC BY 4.0. Berezkin-derived narrative and metadata licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Full rights information can be found here.
All rights are reserved in the database structure, selection, arrangement, metadata, classifications, software, interface design, and original editorial content.
Important: The Folklore Database expressly reserves all rights in relation to text and data mining, automated extraction, scraping, machine learning, dataset creation, and the training, development, validation, or improvement of artificial intelligence technologies or systems. No part of this website or database may be scraped, copied, reproduced, harvested, downloaded in bulk, or otherwise used for AI training or commercial data extraction without prior written permission.
Designed and Developed by Jon Fielder-White.
© 2024–2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.