Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
F98 — God and the cow.
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
OverviewA heavenly anthropomorphic deity descends to earth and mates with a cow.
Berezkin category: Gender and sex
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 5, Origin of human beings, ethnic groups, etiology of human anatomy, strange body configuration, ways of behavior, marriages before the establishment of the present norms.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| I4D1 | 95.26% | An enemy steals the tendons (heart and eyes) of a thunder god, who returns them and prevails over his enemy. Cf. motif L57A, "The hero's companion returns his organ." |
| M114J | 93.34% | A woman does not refuse those who harass her, but calmly explains that there is no point in trying to possess many, since they are all the same (they differ no more than eggs painted in different colours). |
| M90B | 91.35% | The character was wrong when he claimed that the sun would never rise in the west or go down after midnight. |
| N34 | 91.08% | Streams (jets) that consist not of water but of honey (honey and butter, butter and milk, milk and blood) are mentioned as signs of generosity and abundance. Cf. H16 motives - H16B, K33F. |
| G8G | 90.74% | There is a unique tree that must be bent or felled. Different creatures inhabit its separate parts and/or objects of special importance are made from its wood. |
| K143 | 90.72% | The protagonist of the narrative is a bird catcher or bird hunter, or the son of a bird catcher (hunter). |
| A19C1 | 89.76% | The sun or moon travels across the sky in a chariot or sleigh. |
| A19C | 89.13% | The sun is associated with a horseman or rides in a carriage drawn by horses (equidae). |
| M147A | 89.11% | When the foxes (wolves) meet and one of them (one of the wolves) asks when they will see each other again, the other replies that it will be at the fur market (at the furrier's, etc.). |
| K27Z6 | 88.98% | Having fallen victim to injustice and endured suffering, a young woman tells her story to certain inanimate objects (often a "stone of patience"), or her husband tells the story after learning of his wife's fate. The woman is saved, justice is restored. |
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
11 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 11 traditions: Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia, Ugarit, Phoenicia, Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Ireland, Wales, Ancient Greece, Hittite, Hurrit, Karachays, Balkar, Kalmyk, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal)
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 Š 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.
Š 2024â2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.