The Mythology and Folklore Database
F28 - Monstrous penis.




19 Myths, Legends and Folktales
18 Unique Narratives for Motif F28
14 Cultures & Traditions where F28 is told
66 Mythemes Indexed
9 Sub-Motifs of Motif F28


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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

There is a separate penis character with whom the first women, Amazons, or simply some woman copulate.

Berezkin category: Gender and sex

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


F28 has 9 other sub-motifs


F28.  There is a separate penis character with whom the first women, Amazons, or simply some woman copulate.
F28a.  A penis grows out of the ground or out of the water in a lake. Women summon it as needed.
F28a1.  The living penis is a dangerous creature that attacks people.
F28a2.  The owner of the field, either intentionally or having misheard the question, replies that he grows penises. After that, penises grow in the field instead of crops.
F28a3.  A girl (woman) possesses an object that is pleasant (useful). Once in the hands of others, it becomes harmful (dangerous).
F28a4.  The fruits or stems of plants are penises.
F28A5.  The penis and vulva (in the singular or plural) are separate beings and characters.
F28b.  A woman uses a penis made of wax, wood, fruit or root. Usually her husband or male relative smears it with pepper, and the woman is maimed or killed.
F28c.  A woman masturbates with the penis of a large animal that one of the men killed while hunting.
F28d.  By masturbating with an artificial penis, a woman conceives children.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
F28A98.24%A penis grows out of the ground or out of the water in a lake. Women summon it as needed.
B5493.78%Wood chips, branches or pieces of bark that have fallen or been thrown into the water turn into fish and aquatic animals.
B10091.53%In the past or in a distant land, sleep was unknown; a certain character embodies sleep, possesses it or teaches how to sleep; sleep is a special substance.
F3591.20%A character offers another person the meat of his sexual partner, and the other person, unaware, eats or cooks it.
K27O291.09%To destroy the hero, his opponents play ball with him, throwing a heavy dangerous object (a ball made of ice, bone, stone, iron, a walrus head, a biting skull, etc.).
I3491.02%It is necessary to approach a tree that is surrounded by fire, spews fire, throws sharp splinters, etc.
A2090.85%The Sun and the Moon (less often the Sun and a star, the Moon and a star) are brothers (sisters, brother and sister) who initially live on earth, but at the end of the story, as teenagers or young adults, ascend to the sky and become celestial bodies.
B6690.45%Characters climb to the sky using a rope or chain of arrows; when it falls to the ground, it turns into forest vines. See motif J47.
C1590.45%A monstrous jaguar (puma) is locked in a cave or tree trunk.
C34A90.45%A supernatural character goes with people to catch fish or lives on the sand by the river; he is buried in the sand or thrown into the river, into a swamp, or otherwise persecuted. Usually, he himself or his father sends a flood.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 14 traditions: Mackenzie Delta, Iglulik, Polar Inuit, Montagnais, Plains Ojibwa, Yana, Sibundoy: Kamsa, Ingano (Inga), Sicuani, Wayana, Aparai, Kofan, Kabiyari, Yukuna (Yucuna), Urubu (Urubu-Kaapor), Tenetehara, Greenland


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