The Mythology and Folklore Database
A19C1 - The Sun Chariot.
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Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.
Summary of Motif
The sun or moon travels across the sky in a chariot or sleigh.Berezkin category: The Sun and Moon
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 1, Sun and Moon
A19 has 6 other sub-motifsA19. Anthropomorphic or zoomorphic creatures help the luminary move across the sky (and the underworld). See motif A17: zoomorphic creatures are helmsmen or rowers in the sun boat. A19a. Moving daily across the sky, the sun changes its riding animals (usually in the morning it rides on an animal that moves slowly, and in the evening on another that runs faster). A19b. Moving across the sky, the sun changes its mounts depending on the season – in summer it rides on a slow animal, in winter – on a fast one. Or in winter the sun is carried by a young man, and in summer – by an old man. A19c. The sun is associated with a horseman or rides in a carriage drawn by horses (equidae). A19c1. The sun or moon travels across the sky in a chariot or sleigh. A19D. Two characters carry the luminaries across the sky – one carries the sun, the other the moon. A19E. The summer and winter suns are two different characters. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of A19's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| A19C | 98.18% | The sun is associated with a horseman or rides in a carriage drawn by horses (equidae). |
| K33A1A | 97.43% | A woman thrown into the water finds herself in the belly of a fish (whale), but is then rescued. |
| M205 | 97.27% | Soldiers besieging a city or palace capture or obtain as ransom the birds living there. They smear them with an oily liquid or tie objects to them (shells with resin, shavings, tinder, etc.), which are then set on fire. The released birds fly back to the city or palace. Thanks to the fire that has started, the warriors capture it. |
| K173 | 97.19% | A powerful and wealthy man loses everything, is separated from his wife and children, and they are separated from each other. The man regains his power and wealth, and the family is reunited. |
| M191B | 96.48% | A man does good (does no harm) to a snake (fish, lion) and benefits from it. His son (less often someone else or himself) wounds the snake (usually cuts off its tail) and, if it is his son, dies from the bite. The snake refuses to continue its relationship with the man, and neither of them will forget their loss. |
| K14C | 96.31% | Returning after a long absence and seeing signs that there is another man in the house, a man thinks that his wife has a lover, but does not rush to act and convinces himself that it is his own son or his wife's relative. |
| M39A6F | 95.99% | The father tells his son to sell the sheep (goat) and return it along with the proceeds. Usually a girl teaches how to sell trimmed wool. |
| B106 | 95.95% | First, the heavenly rooster crows (or the underground roosters crow), and only then do the earthly roosters crow. |
| K35A6 | 95.95% | The character illuminates the room with a light-emitting object (usually a feather) that he has found. |
| J32B | 95.88% | In order to accomplish what he wants, the hero prolongs the night by changing the behaviour of the character on whom the alternation of day and night depends. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 5 traditions: Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia, Ancient Italy: Latins, Etruscans, Magna Graecia, Ancient Greece, Southern Selkups