The Mythology and Folklore Database
D9 - Vultures and fire.
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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
The raven or other large dark-coloured bird of prey is the owner, embodiment, spouse, provider or thief of fire, the sun or daylight.Berezkin category: Fire and Laughter
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| B37 | 93.66% | The character decorates various birds (less often fish) and distributes fat to animals. Since then, the corresponding species have possessed their current characteristics. |
| F80 | 92.97% | The first men and/or women have no genitals, then they acquire them. |
| B27A | 92.37% | The characters ponder what they should transform into and decide to become thunder and/or lightning. |
| K87 | 92.13% | A woman becomes the wife of an animal (rarely another non-human creature). The husband takes care of her, but the marriage ends with the murder of the husband, the woman, their offspring, the woman's relatives, the transformation of the woman herself into an animal, leading to hostility between humans and animals, etc. |
| D13H | 91.48% | Those who have entered the world of the dead should not laugh. |
| D8 | 90.78% | The first fire (or summer) is stolen from a large predator – a lion or leopard in Africa, a tiger in Asia, a bear in northern Asia and North America, and a jaguar in South America. |
| B18 | 90.67% | Daylight, warmth, sun or moon are stored in a vessel, under a vessel, under a cover, in a bag, etc. |
| B31 | 90.18% | A woman (usually after coming into conflict with a man or being left alone), or a man and a woman (spouses, lovers, brother and sister) turn into aquatic mammals. |
| J37 | 89.41% | Transforming into a powerful bird or creating one, the hero lifts his opponent into the air and carries him away. |
| F46 | 88.84% | At the beginning of time, two or more men (human-animals) had only one woman. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 48 traditions: Efe Pygmies, Kango (Mbuti) Pygmies, Yoruba; incl Ife), Nupe, Bini (Edo), Engenni, Chamba, Dakka, Kukuruku, Southeast Australia: Kamilaroi, Yualarai (Ualarai, Euahlayi), Milpulo (Mailpurgu), Wuradjeri (Wiradjurim, Wiradjeri, Wurundjeri, Yarra, Yarra Yarra), Wongaibon (Wonghibon), Noongahburrah (Narran, Narran River), Kurnai, and many others (see file 0.doc), Early Chinese written sources, Koreans, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Ainu, Oroch, Chukchi, Aleuts, Chugach, Chipewyan, Upper Tanana (Nebesna), Tanacross, Tutchone, Tagish, Inland Tlingit, Tahltan, Athna, Koyukon, Tanana, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), North Alaskan Inupiat, Mackenzie Delta, Eyak, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Nootka (Nu-chah-nulth), Makah, Chilkotin, Yurok, Pomo, Hopi, Juruna, Urubu (Urubu-Kaapor), Tenetehara, Bolivian Guarani: Chiriguano (including assimilated Chane Arawaks), Pauserna (=Guarasu), Guarayu, Tapiete, Parintintin; Villa Bella (tribal affiliation unknown), Bakairi, Kuikuro, Kalapalo, Calapalo, Kamayura, Trumai, Kayabi, Tapirape, Botocudo, Mocovi; Kechua of Santiago del Estero with probable Guaikuruan substratum; Abipon, Mataco, Chorote, Guarani of Paraguay and Brazil: Caygua, Mbia, Apapocuva, Nyandewa, Chiripa, Kodiak