The Mythology and Folklore Database
I13A - Horned serpent, B91.3.
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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
A huge aquatic or celestial serpent, dragon, or snake-like creature with horns on its head.Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
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
I13 has 5 other sub-motifsI13a. A huge aquatic or celestial serpent, dragon, or snake-like creature with horns on its head. I13b. A small snake, the snake has horns on its head. I13c. Reptiles possess a treasure that humans take or try to take. Usually it is a crown, a precious stone, or horns on a snake's head. I13d. A person enters the dwelling of snakes, spends a long time there, is released or escapes. While in the dwelling of snakes, he usually licks a stone that relieves thirst and hunger. I13e. The snake agrees to let the man go on condition that he does not tell anyone about their meeting. Under threat of death, the man breaks his promise. The snake teaches him to drink a broth made from its flesh and takes revenge not on the man, but on those who forced him to break his word. I13F. In autumn, a man falls asleep in a bear's den. When he wakes up, he thinks that the night has passed, but it is already spring. Usually, the bear gives him advice before parting. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of I13's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| C6A | 95.89% | A turtle or toad (frog) brings a desired object from the bottom or from the underworld. |
| K22B | 94.81% | The inhabitants of another world are attacked by certain enemies. A human helps them to defeat these enemies, because these creatures are not dangerous to humans. See motif K22. |
| I9 | 94.18% | Each (or at least three) of the four cardinal directions (as well as the zenith and nadir) and/or the objects located there have their own colour. Abbreviations: E: east, S: south, W: west, N: north. (Cf. Podosinov 2000: 143-147). |
| B3B | 93.03% | Initially, the earth or the world as a whole was small in size, then it grew; fertile soil grew from a small amount of initial substance. See motif B3A (the earth grows from a piece of solid substance thrown onto the surface of the water). |
| K22 | 92.93% | The inhabitants of a distant land, who differ from (ordinary) people, occasionally fight off enemies of a non-human nature who attack them. |
| F9A | 92.66% | There are teeth, blades or sharp stones in a woman's vagina or on the inside of her thighs; the vagina is a toothy mouth. (Only texts with a focus on authenticity are taken into account, not anecdotes). |
| K23 | 92.15% | Birds attack inhabitants of another world or a person who has entered another world. See motif K22. |
| I8C | 91.90% | The earth is prevented from falling or swaying because it is tied with ropes. |
| H18 | 91.57% | Hunted animals were concentrated in one place. A certain character creates them there or allows them to scatter. |
| H34B | 91.38% | Somewhere there is or was a river that flowed or, according to the plan, was supposed to flow in two directions at once. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 84 traditions: Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia, Mehri; Harsusi, Jibbali (Shahri, Shauri), Arnhem Land: Enindhilyagwa (Groote Eilandt), KuTiwi, Yulengor, Mara, Oenpelli, Murngin, Roper River, Maung, Murinbata, Murngin (Duwal), Millingimbi, Goulburn Island, Ngulugwongga, Yirrkalla, Voctoria River Downs, Alawa, Anu, Kunwinjku, Ontong Java, Nukumanu, Takuu, Nukuria, Shan, Ahom, Khampti, Miao (Hmong) and Yao of Southern China, Early Chinese written sources, Koreans, Ancient Greece, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Uzbek, Iranian literary tradition (including Avesta, Pahlevi scripts, Sah-nameh, Marzban-nameh); Zoroastrians of Iran, Indian Parsees, Zoroastrianism, Nogai, Armenians, Kalmyk, 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), Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Mansi, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Southern Selkups, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Japanese folklore outside of Ryukyu, Udeghe, Oroch, Nanai, Lenape (Delaware), Micmac, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Naskapi, Montagnais, Menominee, Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Blackfoot, Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Shawnee, Yuchi, Arapaho, Teton (incl Oglala), Mandan, Omaha, Ponca, Iowa, Kiowa, Kiowa Apache, Gros Ventre, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Assiniboine, Crow, Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Yurok, Caddo, Natchez (incl Avoyel), Alabama, Koasati, Choctaw, Chicasaw, Cherokee, Yuki (Yuki proper, Coastal Yuki, Huchnob), Pomo, Yana, Navajo, Chiricahua, Hopi, Zuni, Warihio (Guarijío), Tarahumara, tarasques, Aztec; Aztec and Teotihuacan iconography, Tzotzil, Chorti, Kekchi; Mopan, Lenca, Paya (Pech), Sumu, Misquito, Choco: Embera, Nonama (Waunana), XVI century Dabaiba, pre-Columbian iconography of Sinu, Guajiro, Waiwai, Wayana, Aparai, Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar), Pasco, Junin, Huancavelica departments: Central Peru, Sierra (Kechua-speaking communities in Spanish sources XVI-XVII centuries), Paresi, Mocovi; Kechua of Santiago del Estero with probable Guaikuruan substratum; Abipon, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Greenland, China