The Mythology and Folklore Database
E9J - The magical wife – monkey.
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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
Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife) has the image of a monkey, or the man hides the woman and pretends that the mistress is a monkey.Berezkin category: The origins of people and culture
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 5, Origin of human beings, ethnic groups, etiology of human anatomy, strange body configuration, ways of behavior, marriages before the establishment of the present norms
E9 has 21 other sub-motifsE9. The character notices that someone is running the house in his absence and catches the person doing so by surprise. E9a. Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a fox. E9aa. A man searches for a missing woman, who is a fox by nature, and comes to the burrow where she has hidden. Various bird or animal women come out of the burrow and offer themselves in place of the fox. Then they let him inside. E9b. Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of an elephant (elephant tusk). E9c. Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a large hoofed mammal (buffalo, antelope, moose, etc.). E9d. Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a dog or puppy (wolf cub). E9e. An animal or object received by a young man from supernatural beings as a reward for his kindness, upon the young man's return home (to earth), turns into a girl. E9f. Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a parrot. E9g. Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a vulture. E9h. Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a dove. E9i1. Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) takes the form of a swan. E9i2. Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper, adopted daughter) takes the form of a duck. E9i3. Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a goose. E9i4. Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) takes the form of a crane. e9i5. Before meeting the hero, his wife takes the form of a snail. E9j. Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife) has the image of a monkey, or the man hides the woman and pretends that the mistress is a monkey. e9j1. Humans are considered descendants of monkeys. E9k. The husband or wife is the embodiment of honey or a human bee. E9l. Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife) has the image of a mouse (rarely: a rat). E9m. A man marries a bear (white or grizzly) that takes the form of a woman, or a woman who takes the form of a bear. E9n. A man marries a female seal, seal or dolphin that has taken the form of a woman and lives with her among people. E9o. A man marries a woman who has the appearance of a frog or toad. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of E9's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| H47 | 86.25% | The sky (celestial deity) or Earth is offended by people's behaviour towards them and reacts accordingly. |
| H6A | 85.83% | Mortal humans are contrasted with plants, which regularly shed their bark, bloom in spring after winter dormancy, or reproduce vegetatively. See motif H4. |
| A35 | 84.02% | Dark spots on the lunar disc – dirt, blood, paint, marks from blows, burns on the body or face of a character; they do not form a specific image. See motif A31. |
| L39 | 82.54% | By force or deception, the character forces another to climb down from the tree in order to harm him. |
| F20 | 80.33% | After copulation, the man and woman are unable to break their embrace. |
| B15 | 79.91% | The river flows from the organs of a woman's body. |
| L9D | 79.37% | The character has sharp nails or knife-like hands, which he uses to kill people. |
| F4 | 78.29% | In the days of the first ancestors, children were conceived not through sexual intercourse, but in vessels, piles of earth, lumps of clay, etc. |
| H11 | 77.63% | People are mortal or defective because they respond to the call (or pronounce the name) of a creature that brings death, or do not hear the call (do not pronounce the name; do not respond to the call, do not notice) of a creature that promises immortality (power). |
| J15 | 77.06% | Having set out in search of their husband, relatives, etc., a woman, girl or children accidentally take the wrong road and encounter creatures that kill or harm them. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 20 traditions: Saudi Arabia, Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Arabs of Iraq, Iraqi, Arabs of Egypt, Northern Luzon: Apayao, Bontoc, Nabaloi (Ibaloi), Ifugao, Igorot (highland people, not specified), Ilocan, Ilongot, Isneg, Kalinga, Kankanay, Tingian (Tinggian, Bilongan Itneg); Ibanag, Kasiguran Agta, Keley-i Kallahan, Bhils (incl Barela-Bhilala), Portuguese, Portugal, Catalan, Yagnobi, Iranian literary tradition (including Avesta, Pahlevi scripts, Sah-nameh, Marzban-nameh); Zoroastrians of Iran, Indian Parsees, Zoroastrianism, Yana, Kaxuyana (Warikyana, Arikena), Wayapi, Emerillon, Aguaruna, Huambiza, Mundurucu, Curuaia, Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Urums, Rumei, Kordofan, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio)