The Mythology and Folklore Database
K120A4 - Fill the vessel with tears.
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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
The character must fill a vessel with tears (pour them on the floor).Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
K12 has 2 other sub-motifsK12. The hero returns the woman whom his enemy or rival tried to take away from him. K12a. An unrecognised hero arrives at a place where his bride or wife is to be given to another man or turned into a servant. Contrary to expectations, he manages to draw a tight bow (raise a spear), with which he kills his rivals. K12b. The hero enters a world beyond the human world and marries there. His wife allows him to visit his former world, but on certain conditions. The hero breaks these conditions, which leads to (irreparable) misfortune. Cf. motif F94 (the hero betrays his fairy wife in her world); K25a6 (the hero visits his world together with his fairy wife). Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of K12's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K152A | 99.33% | A man saves a devil (snake, predator) suffering from the proximity of a certain character or object. To reward his saviour, the devil promises to possess a princess and leave her when the man comes to treat her. The devil either breaks his promise or warns the man not to try to cure those whom the devil will later possess. The man informs the devil that the character or object he fears so much is approaching again. The devil flees and never returns. |
| L15H | 99.00% | The object in which the character's life is concentrated is enclosed in another, which is enclosed in a third, and so on (like an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare, a hare in a chest). Or the animal in which the character's soul is enclosed transforms into other animals as it flees. There are three or more enclosures or transformations. |
| K64A | 98.95% | A man blinds a sleeping or immobile giant-cannibal and escapes from him. |
| M153 | 98.89% | A hoofed animal asks a predator to examine its hoof under various pretexts, and then kills or maims it with a kick. |
| K118 | 98.85% | Upon leaving, the character allows another to take charge of the house, but not to look into a certain room or container. The other violates the prohibition. |
| K75A2 | 98.83% | Appearing incognito to an authoritative figure, the hero works for him as a gardener. |
| C32C | 98.76% | Nails (and hair) have special significance for a person's fate, their soul or the world as a whole. (Compound motif). |
| B33A | 98.76% | Deciding that it has become (or will soon become) warm, the character believes that winter is over (most often an old woman goes to graze cattle), but dies from the cold or the cattle driven out to pasture perish. Cf. motif I84A ("The frozen son of God"). |
| L100E | 98.74% | Before entering, the guest notices the mistress with her lover in the house. When the husband arrives, the guest pretends to be clairvoyant and shows the husband where the lover is hiding and where the food prepared for him is. |
| K39 | 98.71% | The character must feed a powerful creature by regularly throwing it pieces of meat. When the prepared meat runs out, he cuts off the last piece from his own flesh. See motif K38 (the bird carries the hero where he needs to go; on the way, he throws pieces of prepared meat into its beak; when the supplies run out, he gives the bird a piece of his own flesh). |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 30 traditions: Tunisia Arabs, Sicily, Sicilians, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, Poles, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Albanians, Balkarians, Estonians, Setu, Western Ukrainians, Persians, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ossetians, Tabasaran, Aghul, Tats, Armenians, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Kurds, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Mari (Cheremis), Chuvash, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Khakas, Dolgans, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Mozambique, Russian Federation