The Mythology and Folklore Database
I82G - Venus – Shepherd's Star.




28 Myths, Legends and Folktales
28 Unique Narratives for Motif I82G
21 Cultures & Traditions where I82G is told
0 Mythemes Indexed
10 Sub-Motifs of Motif I82G


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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

Venus or another star (Arcturus, Sirius, etc.) is called the Shepherd's Star (the star of the Shepherd, Sheepherder, Cowherd, Swineherd, etc.).

Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures

This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 2, Moon spots, stars, constellations


I82 has 10 other sub-motifs


I82a.  The Morning and/or Evening Star – a male character.
I82b.  The Morning and/or Evening Star – a female character.
I82c.  Venus or an unidentified star in the eastern and/or western sky – the wife of the Moon. See motif I82b.
I82c1.  The Moon has two wives (usually the Morning Star and the Evening Star). With the caring one, he grows fat, with the other, he starves and grows thin.
I82d.  The Morning and Evening Stars are contrasted as man and woman. See motifs I82a, I82b.
I82e.  It is said that Venus or another star sold her mother or father in order to adorn herself luxuriously and dress up.
I82f.  (Evening) Venus is associated with a predatory beast, usually a she-wolf.
I82g.  Venus or another star (Arcturus, Sirius, etc.) is called the Shepherd's Star (the star of the Shepherd, Sheepherder, Cowherd, Swineherd, etc.).
I82h.  The name of Venus sounds like Cholpan, Cholbon, Tsolmon, etc. (čol- 'to sparkle, to shine' [Vámbéri 1879: 155]).
I82i.  The name of the object in the night sky (usually Venus) sounds like Zukhra, Zahra, Zura, etc.
I82j.  Venus-man or another star is the husband of the Moon-woman. See motif I82a.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
K65F99.95%Once in the locus of demons, a person sees them in their true form. Upon returning, the person sees the demon again, which ordinary people are incapable of doing. The demon blinds him.
B33A199.95%A person (animal, bird) teases or insults March or another calendar month and is punished as a result.
M154B99.89%The husband (rarely: son) stays at home instead of his wife (mother), but does everything poorly and ineptly.
K117C99.86%When a character plays a pipe (violin, horn, etc.), people and animals begin to dance against their will.
K57B99.86%To stop a beautiful woman from running away, a man in love with her smears resin or glue on the threshold (porch). The shoe sticks, and all the girls try it on to find its owner.
M114D99.85%A man eats boiled eggs and leaves without paying. Much later, he returns to repay his debt. The owner demands payment for the chickens that would have hatched from those eggs, become hens, laid eggs themselves, and so on. Someone comes to court and pretends to be boiling seeds for sowing. The judge agrees that chickens cannot hatch from boiled eggs.
M20399.84%A supernatural being conveys a message to an unknown recipient through a passer-by. By fulfilling the request, the person provokes an unexpected reaction from another supernatural being (usually living in his house). Most of the material was collected by K.Yu. Rakhno.
I59A99.84%Astral objects or lunar spots are associated with stories about the theft of various items, the value of which is insignificant (straw, firewood, cabbage, etc.).
K38E399.84%Among three (less often two or four) loci or objects associated with materials of high but varying degrees of value, the highest belongs to precious stones (usually diamonds, but also glass and crystal).
K61D99.81%A young woman accidentally gives her fiancé, husband or mother-in-law the impression that she works a lot. To prevent the deception from being revealed, she or someone else makes others believe that women's work makes them ugly or turns them into animals. The husband forbids his wife to work.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 21 traditions: England, British, Bretons, Portuguese, Portugal, Catalan, Sicily, Sicilians, France, Poles, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Slovenians, Slovenes, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Lezgians, Archin, Kürin; Khinalug, Tats, Armenians, Anatolia Turks, Kazakh, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Germans: South (Upper German dialects): Alsace (Elsass), Baden-Württemberg, Bawaria, Swabia, Switzerland, Bohemia, Sudeten, Austria, Montenegro


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