Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
I66 — Ashes on the Milky Way.
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 Milky Way is ash or smouldering embers.
Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 2, Moon spots, stars, constellations.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| J58 | 96.03% | Characters shoot arrows (darts) that stick into each other and form a chain. They usually climb up the chain to the upper world. |
| F96 | 95.55% | A girl or wife rejects an unattractive man. He becomes handsome (usually after encountering a supernatural being), and those who treated him badly are punished. |
| L46 | 94.95% | The character walks, climbs or descends upside down, or sees the world turned upside down. |
| D4A | 93.99% | Fire is stolen from its original owner, returned to people by the thief, or (the motif of theft is not expressed) brought with difficulty from a distant place. |
| J59 | 93.80% | To reach the sky, one must shoot an arrow that will pierce the vault of heaven. See motif J58; see motif J59A: a man flies after or on an arrow (without the motif of an arrow piercing the vault of heaven). |
| B13A | 93.57% | A stream of water (with a predator in it) rushes after a character who is trying to escape from it. |
| M73 | 93.37% | Two characters compare their excrement or vomit to learn about each other's diet and decide which of them is the more powerful beast. One of them manages to replace the selections. (Traditions in which vomiting is substituted are greasy). |
| L63 | 93.14% | The character eats food with the womb or anus. See motif F9A. |
| F44 | 93.05% | In the community of the first ancestors, women and men quarrel, leave, kill, maim each other, etc. |
| C11 | 93.00% | A father with magical powers destroys people (all or many) who have insulted or harmed his son. |
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
19 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 19 traditions: Bushmen (all groups), Trans-New Guinea and unclassified Papuan groups of Irian Jaya: Mejprat, Arandai-Bintuni, Inanwatan-Berau, Papua of Gelvink (Cenderawasih) Bay, Kamoró, Marind Anim, Sawi, Mafore; Korowai; Kwerba; Momina, Eipo, Yale, Awyu, Oirats (incl Torgouts, Derbets, Oilots), Hidatsa, Wintu, Patwin, Nomlaki, Yana, Navajo, Zuni, Pima, Trio, Guiana Kariña, Kaliña, Galibi, Kechua-speaking communities of Apurimac, Cuzco, Arequipa, Puno departments; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries; Callawaya (Kechua with Pukina substratum), Kamayura, Bororo, Caraja, Mataco, Manao, Katawishi (Teffe lake); groups of uncertain affiliation mostly from Rio Jamunda, Transylvanian Saksons, Russian Federation
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