Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
I7A — Lightning snake.
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
OverviewLightning is associated with a snake.
Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 3, Cosmogony, the earth and the sky, etiology of the elements, natural and biological phenomena (fire, water, soil, thunderstorms, dream, etc.), cataclysms and cosmic threats, spirits of nature.
I7 has 3 other sub-motifs
RelatedI7. The reptile produces rain and thunderstorms.
I7a. Lightning is associated with a snake.
I7b. Lightning â a crack in the sky through which the heavens are visible for a moment.
I7c. When a character in the upper world urinates, it rains (dew falls) on earth.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K27D | 95.43% | The test: to stay alive in a room full of predatory, poisonous and other dangerous creatures. See motif K27. |
| A22C | 94.14% | In order for the sun to rise, move to the right distance from the earth, or follow its heavenly path, a human being must be sacrificed. |
| C12B | 93.07% | All people or individual ethnic groups, lineages, families are considered descendants of dogs (with which a man mated). |
| A23 | 92.64% | The first ancestors come together to choose who will become the sun, to raise the sun to the sky, to see the sun rise for the first time, and to name the sun correctly. See motif A22. |
| K16A | 90.78% | In an effort to show that he is a good hunter, a man regularly walks in front of a girl, pretending to carry prey. Once he slips, and the imaginary prey turns out to be a scarecrow stuffed with ashes or a bundle of termites. |
| I69 | 90.64% | Luminous celestial objects or atmospheric phenomena are bodily secretions of celestial beings. |
| J33 | 90.21% | A boy, a young man, or two children live in the house of an older character. In order to elicit a certain reaction from him, they kill a person or a large animal, stuff the scarecrow with insects, worms, ashes, grass, or inflate it. |
| I19 | 90.09% | Anthropomorphic creatures satisfy their hunger with the vapours of food being prepared. See motifs I14 (people without anuses), I15 (people without mouths). |
| B40 | 90.09% | The hare/rabbit is a false deer, a former deer, a brother of the deer, a former or failed owner of antlers, its ears are false antlers. |
| I75 | 89.41% | Before the emergence of the present world or present humans, there were others (at least two worlds or races). |
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
12 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 12 traditions: Efe Pygmies, Kango (Mbuti) Pygmies, Ainu, Inland Tlingit, Nootka (Nu-chah-nulth), Makah, Algonquin, unspecified Algonkians of the Midwest (probably Old Algonquin), Owens Valley Paiute, Northern Paiute (=Paviotso), Southern Paiute, Navajo, Tojolabal, Chuj, Jacalteca, Kanjobal, Mocho (incl Tuzantec), Acatec, Chontal, Paez, Guambia, Pijao; Ilama culture
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