Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
I50B — Many-legged beast (predator).
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
OverviewDescribes or depicts a predatory animal with six or more legs.
Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
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.
I50 has 4 other sub-motifs
RelatedI50. Describes or depicts a hoofed animal with six or more legs.
I50a. A demon sequentially tears off the legs of an animal that helps the hero (usually the horse on which the hero rides).
i50a1. The character sequentially tears off the dog's legs, but the dog continues to do what it considers necessary.
I50b. Describes or depicts a predatory animal with six or more legs.
I50c. Describes a hoofed animal with a second set of legs on its back that runs either normally or upside down. This makes it tireless.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B38C | 95.94% | The raven and the loon paint each other. |
| M94A | 95.74% | The demonic character kills his victims, provoking them to slide down the mountain. |
| B16B | 94.87% | The sea is salty because a wolverine or a fox bathed in it or urinated in it. |
| B38B | 94.87% | Two quadrupeds (or a quadruped and another creature) adorn each other themselves or are adorned by someone else. |
| M94 | 93.54% | One character invites the other to roll down the mountain to destroy him. Cf. Motive L42C. |
| A31A | 91.91% | Upon learning that her husband or lover has committed an act incompatible with accepted norms, a woman cuts off her breast and shows it to him. |
| B42F | 90.61% | The Big Dipper (as a whole or only the dipper) is identified with a large hoofed animal (elk, deer, mountain sheep). Unless otherwise specified, see motif B42 in the description of cosmic hunting. |
| M123D | 90.37% | A bird from the corvid family is rejected after its mate or relatives discover that it eats carrion or filth. |
| L102A | 86.60% | A seagull kidnaps a girl or woman, but she manages to return to people. |
| L17A2 | 86.60% | Instead of a beautiful woman, a man takes a devil with an odd number of eyes. |
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
7 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 7 traditions: Nuba, Yoruba; incl Ife), Nupe, Bini (Edo), Engenni, Chamba, Dakka, Kukuruku, Chukchi, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Aztec; Aztec and Teotihuacan iconography, Greenland
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