Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
I8E — Four hold up the world.
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 sky or the earth is supported by four anthropomorphic male characters located at the four cardinal points.
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.
I8 has 10 other sub-motifs
RelatedI8A. The world, earth or sky are supported by anthropomorphic beings.
I8B. The earth or sky is supported by zoomorphic creatures.
I8c. The earth is prevented from falling or swaying because it is tied with ropes.
I8D. The earth or sky is supported by mountains, pillars, nails, trees.
I8e. The sky or the earth is supported by four anthropomorphic male characters located at the four cardinal points.
I8e1. The sky or earth is supported by four objects or beings located at the four cardinal points (either four groups of beings, or four at the corners and a fifth in the centre). Th A841. See motifs 8A, 8D.
I8f. The sky, the world rests on a single object (a pillar or tree).
I8g. A single giant holds up the earth or the sky.
I8G1. At the foot of the world pillar is an anthropomorphic character, or a character identified with a tree or pillar on which the world rests, or a character holding ropes on which the world is suspended.
I8h. The earth is supported by a man and a woman in the underworld.
I8i. Initially, the earth rocks, unstable, and must be specially secured.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| E33 | 97.23% | People arise from grains, seeds, dough. |
| G16 | 97.06% | Ants are the first to find cultivated plants that are unknown to others and concentrated in one place. |
| A47 | 96.86% | The sun is born or emerges from an egg. |
| G4 | 96.67% | Cultivated plants found on or inside a mountain. |
| B2B | 96.28% | The earth feeds on the people buried in it. See motif B2A. |
| G3 | 95.97% | Cultivated plants or fertile soil for their cultivation are hidden inside the rock. Birds or thunder gods pierce a hole in the rock. |
| K30A | 95.79% | The wife of the first ancestor flies away with the vultures (usually voluntarily, after she has already cheated on her husband), and the chief (Uito: her brother) brings her back. See motif K30. |
| A10 | 95.79% | The sun gets its sparkling eyes (eye) from an animal. |
| A11C | 95.79% | The Sun and Moon kill a monster whose eyes shine differently. At first, the Moon takes the brighter eye, but then swaps with the Sun. |
| B23 | 95.79% | The deity forbids the use of fire for cooking and punishes those who violate the prohibition. |
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
28 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 28 traditions: Arabs of Egypt, Shan, Ahom, Khampti, Miao (Hmong) and Yao of Southern China, Scandinavians: early written sources ("Edda"; Saxo Grammaticus etc.); Gothland picture stones; Ancient Germans (Late Bronze Age in Scandinavia), Gagauz, Chuvash, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians, Pawnee, Huichol, Aztec; Aztec and Teotihuacan iconography, Popoloca; Tlapanec, Pame, Jonaz (Chichimeca-Jonaz), Mazahua, Otomi, Tojolabal, Chuj, Jacalteca, Kanjobal, Mocho (incl Tuzantec), Acatec, Tzutujil, Tepehua, Totonac, Huastec (Teenek), Chontal, Huave, Tzotzil, Chol; pre-Columbian Mayan iconography outside of Yucatan, Chorti, Yucatec, Itza, Kekchi; Mopan, Kogi (Cagaba), Sanha, Creols of Aritama Valley, Tacana, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Egypt
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