Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L16B — Eyes on the knees.
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 eyes or mouths of creatures are located on joints (knees, etc.).
Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
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.
L16 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedL16A. The creature's eyes are located on its feet.
L16b. The eyes or mouths of creatures are located on joints (knees, etc.).
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K167 | 98.06% | A boy plays, pretending to be a king and demonstrating wisdom and/or magical abilities. |
| D4AA | 95.85% | Moths try to steal the fire that humans possess. |
| M171D | 95.00% | The character exchanges one thing for another and ultimately receives a musical instrument (usually a drum). |
| M204A | 94.87% | Gold is placed in a person's path so that they can take advantage of it. At that moment, the person accidentally closes their eyes and walks past. |
| K80 | 94.71% | The character transforms into objects or creatures, which another character systematically destroys. However, the character (usually a young woman) is reborn each time in a new form and eventually in her original form. |
| M196A | 94.68% | Arguing over a trivial matter, a husband and wife (or one of them) lie down and do not move, and people gather to bury them. At the last moment, the supposed dead person opens their mouth, and people think that the dead have come back to life; or the supposed dead person is actually buried in the ground. |
| H18B | 94.34% | Having received livestock from supernatural characters, a person (usually due to violating a prohibition on looking, shouting, etc.) immediately loses all or most of the animals (they go into the water, into the sky, scatter, etc.). |
| M195A | 94.32% | A character sends a long object that either looks the same at both ends or is inside a small object, and asks which end of the object is the top and which is the bottom. The guesser gives the correct answer. |
| B116 | 93.98% | The first book (writing, important document) is eaten by an animal or a person. (In some European traditions, the eating of the book is not described, but is implied from the context). Cf. ATU 200. Cf. Thompson 1955-1958. †A2219.2. Cow swallows book; cause of maniplies in stomach. |
| K95 | 93.88% | Two people who love each other (usually a man and a woman) die prematurely and are buried in the same grave or nearby. After or during the burial, something unusual happens that is connected with the story (special plants grow in that place, the smoke from the two funeral pyres joins together, the dead turn into two birds, two stars, etc.). |
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
18 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 18 traditions: Ngbakka, Mbum (incl Mbai), Mundang, Fali, Tupuri, Maya (=Bali), Nyong, Southern Taiwan: Rukai, Paiwan, Puyuma, Saaroa, Ketangalan, Inland Tlingit, Tlingit, Haida, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography, Ute, Aztec; Aztec and Teotihuacan iconography, Huastec (Teenek), Sicuani, Guiana Kariña, Kaliña, Galibi, Baniwa (incl. Wakuenai), Bare, Piapoco, Curripaco, Siusi, Guarikena , Kechua-speaking communities of Apurimac, Cuzco, Arequipa, Puno departments; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries; Callawaya (Kechua with Pukina substratum), Ashaninca (Campa), Siriono, Iranxe, Chamacoco (Ishir)
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