Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

L17A2 — Rival with an eye on her forehead.

6 Myths, legends and folktales
6 Unique narratives for motif L17A2
6 Cultures & traditions where L17A2 is told
4 Sub-motifs of motif L17A2
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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

Instead of a beautiful woman, a man takes a devil with an odd number of eyes.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.

L17 has 4 other sub-motifs

Related

L17.  Mouth and eyes of an anthropomorphic creature on the chest, no head.
L17a.  A character or creature has an eye or a second pair of eyes on the back of the head or on the back. Cf. motif L17b, "mouth on the back of the head".
L17a1.  Characters with a sequentially increasing number of eyes follow the hero or heroine. He or she puts the eyes to sleep one by one, but forgets about the last one.
L17a2.  Instead of a beautiful woman, a man takes a devil with an odd number of eyes.
L17b.  A character or creature has a second face or a second mouth on the back of its head.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of L17’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny
MotifSimilarityMotif summary
I8498.20%The Milky Way – ski tracks.
B64B97.98%Two types of fish shoot arrows at each other. Since then, the fish have had many small bones in their bodies, or some of their bones have split in two.
M9497.73%One character invites the other to roll down the mountain to destroy him. Cf. Motive L42C.
M94A196.85%By stupidity or negligence, a zoomorphic character rolls down a mountain and as a result dies or suffers damage (attacks the edge, falls into the water, etc.).
B64D93.84%Certain bones in the bodies of living creatures (usually birds and fish) are arrows shot into them.
E9I493.66%Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) takes the form of a crane.
K6393.13%A man comes to people who hunt humans or catch fish-people. For them, these are wild animals or fish.
I5692.65%Moving between worlds, the same living person is visible to some and invisible to others.
B109A91.29%Originally, the (human) bear lived in the sky, then descended to earth (and became a bear).
M60B191.29%The crow promises to cure the fish, and eats it herself.

See the 100 most similar distributions →

Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

6 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 6 traditions: Southern Selkups, Northern Selkups, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Nanai, Nivkh, Aleuts

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