The Mythology and Folklore Database
L14 - The cultivated snake.
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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
People bring a small creature (usually a worm or reptile) into their home and raise it, or it settles into a man-made dwelling on its own. The creature turns into something terrifying or magnificent. See motif L13 (raised monster attacks people).Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| L13 | 97.19% | People feed a dangerous creature, or it grows on its own in a man-made enclosure. Once it becomes big and strong, it starts to destroy people. |
| I108 | 96.95% | The Pleiades are a single character, not a group of people. |
| F16 | 94.84% | Men possessed biological characteristics that are now characteristic of women, or vice versa (beards, menstruation, breasts, childbearing). |
| G23 | 94.81% | The origin of various (more than two) creatures or objects is explained by the metamorphosis of a living creature or part of its body. {Only texts of an aetiological nature are taken into account. For statistical purposes, all texts with motifs G23A and G23B are also included in motif G23}. |
| J47 | 93.30% | A character climbs up to the sky using a rope, ladder, etc., or climbs a tree or rock, or descends from the sky to the ground, or rises to the ground from the underworld. Another character climbs after them, but the rope or ladder breaks or is cut, and the character falls. |
| K25E | 93.26% | Humans in general or a specific ethnic, tribal or social group are considered descendants of an earthly man and woman of supernatural origin. |
| I16 | 93.08% | Early humans have no mouth, anus, or genitals, and their women are unable to give birth. |
| I8G | 93.04% | A single giant holds up the earth or the sky. |
| I8F | 92.53% | The sky, the world rests on a single object (a pillar or tree). |
| B2E | 92.52% | The Earth or the world as a whole is a male character (alone or alongside a female character). |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 50 traditions: Mangbetu (Ngbetu), Mangbutu, Moru, Madi, Lugbara, Lendu (=Bale), Ganda, (Ba)Nyoro, Nyankole, Masaba (Gisu), Luia (=Luyia, Haya, Luhya, Bantu Kawirondo; incl. Vugusu, Maragoli), Mandingo (Manden, incl San, Samo), Kagoro, Bambara (Bamana), Malinke, Kassonke, Diula, Trans-New Guinea and unclassified Papuan groups of Irian Jaya: Mejprat, Arandai-Bintuni, Inanwatan-Berau, Papua of Gelvink (Cenderawasih) Bay, Kamoró, Marind Anim, Sawi, Mafore; Korowai; Kwerba; Momina, Eipo, Yale, Awyu, Central Vanuatu: Espiritu Santo, Araki, Aore, Maewo, Malekula, Vao, Efate (Vate), Nguna, Mae, Ambrim, Pentecost, Oba (=Aoba, East Ambae, Lepers'), Omba, Samoa, Tikopia, Bellona, Rennell, partly Aneytium, Futuna (=Erronan, not to be mixed with Futuna in Western Polynesia), Vaeaka-Taumato, incl Matema, Nifeloli, Nukapu, Nupani, Pileni, Gilbert Islands, Nauru, Banaba (Ocean island), Ontong Java, Nukumanu, Takuu, Nukuria, Burmese, Intha, Stieng, Chrau, Sre (Koho), Maa, Mnong, Khasi, Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Early Chinese written sources, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Scandinavians: early written sources ("Edda"; Saxo Grammaticus etc.); Gothland picture stones; Ancient Germans (Late Bronze Age in Scandinavia), Japanese folklore outside of Ryukyu, Inland Tlingit, Tahltan, North Alaskan Inupiat, Haida, Tsimshian, Lenape (Delaware), Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa, Karok, Yurok, Hopi, Yucatec, Itza, Choco: Embera, Nonama (Waunana), XVI century Dabaiba, pre-Columbian iconography of Sinu, Yupa (Yukpa), Guajiro, Waiwai, Hixkariyana, Pemon: Arekuna (incl. Kamarakoto), Taulipang (Taurepan), Siona, Secoya, Coreguaje, Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar), Aguaruna, Huambiza, Letuama, Tanimuca, Ufaina, Yahuna, Witoto, Ocaina, Moseten, Chimane, Kamayura, Paresi, Bororo, Manao, Katawishi (Teffe lake); groups of uncertain affiliation mostly from Rio Jamunda, Icelanders, Shandong Chinese, Vietnam, China, Palau