The Mythology and Folklore Database
I117 - The spider carries from world to world.
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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 spider or spider woman lifts a hero or heroine up to the sky, helps them descend to earth, or otherwise helps them cross the path leading to another world.Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
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
I11 has 2 other sub-motifsI11. The turtle (toad, frog) serves as a support (embodiment) of the earth (sky), or the supports of the sky are made from its body. I11a. Describes how, in the process of creation, the earth is placed on the back of a turtle or frog, which becomes its support. I11b. The pillars of the sky are made from the legs of a four-legged animal (usually a turtle). Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of I11's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| M42 | 97.48% | The character takes his eyes out of his orbits and loses them. He usually regains his eyes later, makes new ones, takes away from another character, etc. See the M41 motif. |
| M29I | 97.10% | See the motives in square brackets. |
| E10 | 97.08% | Characters who have shed their animal (plant, object) forms become the children of women or spouses who catch them off guard. |
| K27N3A | 96.74% | The character who gives the hero difficult tasks or subjects him to trials is associated with the sun, moon, thunder or wind (cloud, downpour). See motif K27. |
| F65 | 96.32% | To satisfy their secret desire, which involves breaking social norms (forbidden sex, refusing to share food with relatives), the character pretends to be dying, abandoned at the burial site. |
| M84B | 96.29% | An animal, bird or fish that is killed and eaten comes to life after its bones are thrown into the water. See M84 motif. |
| E30 | 96.21% | A man has no wife or a woman has no husband, and uses a wooden substitute as a spouse. |
| I112 | 95.49% | The boat is a living creature with a mouth, a fish. |
| K8C5 | 95.40% | A zoomorphic character no larger than a fox allows itself to be swallowed by a bear and kills it by tearing it apart from the inside. |
| M41 | 95.39% | The character throws his eyes (an inhaler has a tooth) up or into the distance. At first they return to the eye sockets, but then they disappear. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 37 traditions: Yao, Makua, Kerewe, Sukuma, Kwaya, Kumbi, Busiba, Gusii, Suba, Congo (Koongo, Bacongo; incl Vili, Fioti, (Ma)Yombe, MuKunyi), Ndombo, Luango (Loango), Zombo (Sambo), Laadi (Laari), (Ba)Fioti, Woyo (Kiwoyo), Ronga, Lozi (Losi, Rotse, Barotse), Lui, Subiya (Subia), Kposso, "Togo-Restvölker" (Adele, Akebu, Akposso, Bowiri/Bowili, Santrokofi, Lelemi, Borada Akrade, Teteman, Baakwa, Bowiri), Northern Vanuatu: Banks Islands (incl Mota, Mota Lava, Gaua, Santa Maria), Torres Islands, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Chukchi, Upper Tanana (Nebesna), Tanacross, Inland Tlingit, Athna, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), North Alaskan Inupiat, Arikara, Pawnee, Kiowa Apache, Plains Cree, Hidatsa, Chilkotin, Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, (Lower) Cowlitz, Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Nez Perce, Quinault, Tillamook, Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa, Wailaki, Mattole, Lassik, Sinkyone, Cahto, Yuki (Yuki proper, Coastal Yuki, Huchnob), Achomavi, Yana, Navajo, Zuni, Western Keres (Acoma, Laguna), Tewa (San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Nambe; Hano), Tiwa (Taos, Picuris; Sandia, Isleta), Towa (Jemez), Creols of Eastern and Central Cuba