Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

I95 — The Pleiades – a sieve for grain.

55 Myths, legends and folktales

55 Unique narratives for motif I95

28 Cultures & traditions where I95 is told

3 Sub-motifs of motif I95

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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

Overview

The Pleiades are a sieve or riddle for sifting agricultural products. See motif I95.

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.

I95 has 3 other sub-motifs

I95.  The Pleiades are a sieve or riddle for sifting agricultural products. See motif I95.
I95a.  Orion (probably always Orion's Belt) is Libra.
I95b.  Orion is a yoke.
I95c.  Orion's belt – staff, stick, three sticks, rod, crutch, etc.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of I95’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
N27	99.87%	Bird milk (variant: chicken, pigeon, hawkish, etc.) milk is mentioned in fairy tales, riddles, paroemias and conspiracies as something very rare and difficult to obtain or non-existent actually.
B32A	99.76%	The enemies of a hero sailing the sea turn into seals or dolphins.
I137	99.76%	One of the constellations is associated with footwear, usually with (worn-out) bast shoes.
I95B	99.76%	Orion is a yoke.
K35A7	99.76%	A character finds a feather, the touch of which brings health and beauty.
K38F3	99.76%	To kill the dragon, the hero digs a pit and hides in it. When the dragon crawls nearby or over the pit, the hero strikes it with a fatal blow of his sword.
M39A2A	99.76%	fool buys spoons and/or a table, tells the table to go on its own feet, throws away spoons because they rattle. The two episodes are usually combined.
M39A3B	99.76%	fool decides that stumps need hats, puts pots on the stumps.
N28F	99.76%	It is said that water has no boughs or twigs
N31	99.76%	Late autumn and then winter sets in line with the departure of two or three species of birds flying in a wedge (Zugvogel).

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Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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🌐 Open as Airocean (Dymaxion) map ↗

Traditions

28 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 28 traditions: Early Chinese written sources, Ireland, Poles, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Livonians, Estonians, Setu, Finns, Vepsians, Western Sami, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Lezgians, Archin, Kürin; Khinalug, Dargin (Dargwa), incl. Müregin, Khürkilin, Kubachi, Laks, Avar, Andi, Akhvakh, Kumyk, Terekemen, Tats, Kalmyk, Kazakh, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Chuvash, Udmurt, Italy, Russian Federation

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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com

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