Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
H30 — Wrong choice.
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
OverviewWhen meeting two women (together or one after the other), the hero must or may choose one. Usually, he chooses either the less beautiful or the dangerous one, bringing trouble or misfortune upon himself or upon people in general.
Berezkin category: Paradise Lost
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 4, Origin of death, diseases and hard life.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B42D | 99.16% | In the cosmic hunting plot, the object of pursuit is a bear. See motif B42. |
| E9G | 99.16% | Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a vulture. |
| H38 | 99.16% | A supernatural character changes appearance and comes to the hero's children (less often to the hero himself). Unaware of the trick, they hand over the magical object they have obtained to its former owner, and the character disappears with it. |
| K11B | 99.16% | The bones of a huge bird are turned into reeds or bamboo for making arrows or sarbacanes. |
| M1A | 99.16% | The caiman transports one of the brothers or a group of brothers, who then turn into the Pleiades. It usually bites off the leg of the youngest. Cf. motif K13B. |
| F9B | 99.04% | A biting piranha in a woman's genitals. |
| G5 | 99.03% | The fruits and shoots of various cultivated plants or the fruits of various wild plants grow on the branches of a single tree or on a single vine; the cultivated plant has a tree-like form that is not characteristic of it in nature. |
| A25 | 99.00% | When coming out onto the earth (for the first time or after a global catastrophe) or witnessing the first sunrise, people should not look directly at the light. |
| J68 | 99.00% | Characters who have been chasing an animal for a long time see increasingly fresh droppings on the trail and finally catch up with their prey (usually the droppings correspond to how long they have been lying there); or the pursuers see areas where less time has passed since sowing. |
| L39A | 98.78% | A supernatural character emerges from the underworld and attacks a man who has climbed a tree. |
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
22 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 22 traditions: Melanesians and Papuans of Bismark Archipelago: New Britain (Paparatava, Lakalai, Kuni, Sulka, Gazelle peninsula), New Ireland, St Matthias Group, Mioko (Melanesians between New Britain and New Ireland), Batak (Toba, Dairi), Western Ukrainians, Japanese folklore outside of Ryukyu, Pemon: Arekuna (incl. Kamarakoto), Taulipang (Taurepan), Kandoshi (Murato, Maina); Iquito, Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar), Aguaruna, Huambiza, Chayahuita , Urarina, Karijona, Kabiyari, Yukuna (Yucuna), Asurini, Parakana; Arawete, Machiguenga, Shipibo, Conibo, Setebo, Tacana, Chacobo, Rikbaktsa, Sanapana, Lengua (incl Angaite), Toba (incl Pilagá), Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians
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