The Mythology and Folklore Database
B123 - A fly instead of a nail, ATU 772*.




15 Myths, Legends and Folktales
15 Unique Narratives for Motif B123
8 Cultures & Traditions where B123 is told
0 Mythemes Indexed
0 Sub-Motifs of Motif B123


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 Motif Summary  -   Motifs with Simlar Dispersals  -    Map of Myth Distribution   -   List of Traditions  -   Myths



Source Data from Berezkin's Analytics Catalogue, if using this data please acknowledge and link to it here:
Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.



Summary of Motif

A fly lands on the chest of the crucified Jesus. His persecutors, who intended to drive a nail into his heart, do not do so, believing that the nail has already been driven in.

Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects



Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
A32M100.00%The moon is called the "Gypsy sun".
A35B100.00%The character tries to cover the moon with resin (so that it shines less brightly).
B124100.00%Ever since a piece of flesh was torn from a person's foot, a hollow has formed between the toe and the heel.
B49B100.00%In the past, cows had more teats on their udders than they do now.
C32100.00%Demonic characters will make a ship out of nail clippings.
F101100.00%With the help of magic, a rival or the spouse's mother tries to prevent a woman from giving birth.
F57100.00%A girl or her father (rarely: mother) picks a plant (usually a flower) and as a result encounters a character with a non-human appearance and/or inhabiting the underworld. The girl becomes the character's wife. In some cases, the picked plant is the character's hair, but more often there is no direct association of this kind.
F87B100.00%A snake crawls onto the clothes of a bathing girl, climbs down in exchange for a promise to marry him, and takes her to the underwater world. She is happy there and gives birth to children. Together with them, she visits her relatives. They call the snake out of the water and kill it. After that, the wife transforms her children and/or herself into plants.
H52A100.00%Returning from the land of immortality, a person must not touch the ground. However, he dismounts from his horse to help an old man (old woman). Death, who has taken the form of an old man, immediately kills him. Rarely: at the last moment, the hero decides not to perform actions that are fatal for him.
I42G3100.00%In the forest person comes across a house that is made, completely or partly, of edible matter

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 8 traditions: Poles, Estonians, Setu, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Russian Federation


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