The Mythology and Folklore Database
B46C - The Great Bear – seven characters.
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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
Each of the stars of the Big Dipper is a separate character (people or animals).Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 2, Moon spots, stars, constellations
B46 has 5 other sub-motifsB46. Each of the seven stars of the Big Dipper is an adult male. B46a. One of the stars of the Pleiades was separated from the others (usually stolen by the stars of the Big Dipper and identified with Alcor). B46a1. The stars of the Big Dipper – thieves or robbers. B46b. Each of the seven main stars of the Big Dipper is a separate female character. {Included in the online database, but not in the correlation table in *sav)}. B46c. Each of the stars of the Big Dipper is a separate character (people or animals). B46d. Men, each of whom excels others in a particular art, turn into stars. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of B46's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| B46 | 99.14% | Each of the seven stars of the Big Dipper is an adult male. |
| K27W | 97.02% | The task giver demands that a dangerous creature be brought to him or that something belonging to a monster or deity be brought to him. The hero fulfils the task, but the beast, monster, deity or the object itself kills the task giver. See motif K27. |
| I25 | 95.10% | The path to the house or the entrance to the character's house is guarded by dangerous creatures. The hero appeases them with gifts or words, they let him pass back and forth, sometimes punished for this by the owner. |
| M77 | 94.22% | The character stains another's clothes or bed with sewage or something that looks like sewage, threatens to ruin the air and accuse the other, etc.; taking advantage of the victim's confusion, achieves the goal. |
| M83 | 93.85% | Each character claims that he is older and appeared before this world or (Ingush) that his father was cosmic in size. |
| B83 | 93.79% | A character attempts to lift a small object or creature, which turns out to be gigantic and unliftable. Cf. motif I87ab. |
| K38B | 93.54% | A snake or monster of aquatic-chthonic or indeterminate nature eats or maims the young of a bird or other flying creature – in most cases, the chicks of a huge bird. A man kills the snake (monster). See motif K38. |
| I40 | 93.43% | The rainbow is a bow. |
| I128 | 93.29% | The Big Dipper – a ladle, a scoop. |
| M29B3 | 93.13% | As a result of its stupidity or antisocial behavior, the fox (jackal) dies or suffers damage. See the motives in square brackets. If it is not specified that a “jackal”, then the protagonist is a fox. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 69 traditions: Aramaic (Syrians), Shan, Ahom, Khampti, Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Bengali, Dards (Kalash, Kho, Kohistani, Shina, Pashai), Miao (Hmong) and Yao of Southern China, Koreans, Basques, Catalan, Maltese, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, Dutch, Flemish, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Western Ukrainians, Russians: Central part of ethnic territory as in A.D. 1500 (Tver, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Kostroma, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Smolensk provinces; in case of absence in other areas also Russians in Vyatka, Perm, Kazan provinces), Uzbek, Wakhi, Ishkashimi (including Sanglich), Munji, Yagnobi, Tajik, Persians, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ossetians, Ingush, Nogai, Armenians, Kalmyk, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Anatolia Turks, Kara Kalpak, Uyghur, Hui (Dungan) of Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan (Dungan texts from Southern and Eastern China are clustered with the Chinese ones), Bashkirs, Chuvash, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Oirats (incl Torgouts, Derbets, Oilots), Mongols (Khalkha), Darkhad, Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Khakas, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Kets, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Chukchi, Wawenock, Abenaki, Penobscot, Winnebago, Blackfoot, Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Arapaho, Teton (incl Oglala), Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography, Kiowa, Comanche, Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, Crow, Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Caddo, Yuki (Yuki proper, Coastal Yuki, Huchnob), Chumash, Mocovi; Kechua of Santiago del Estero with probable Guaikuruan substratum; Abipon, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Chechens, Chulym Turks, Khamnigans, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Egypt