The Mythology and Folklore Database
M178 - The Lying Goat, ATU 212.
Please log on to view the narratives.
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
The owner successively sends others to graze the goat (herd of goats). The goat eats grass to its heart's content, but each time replies to the owner that it has been kept on a starvation diet. The owner is outraged and kills or drives away the shepherds. Convinced of the goat's deceitfulness, he decides to kill it. Either the owner begins to skin the live goat, or the goat runs away. In most versions, both motifs are combined.Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior
M17 has 2 other sub-motifsM17. A wife, mother or grandmother directs the arrow of a blind man or boy at game, lies that he missed, cooks and eats the meat herself. See motif M16 (man is blind, K333.1). M17a. The mother or grandmother of a blind man or boy secretly eats (the meat or fish he has caught), pretending that there is no food in the house. M17b. The wife directs the blind man's arrow at game, lies that he has missed, and eats the meat herself. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M17's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| L100B | 99.70% | Having escaped from his pursuers, the young man parts with the girl, intending to return for her soon, but forgets her. When he is about to take another wife, the girl manages to restore his memory with the help of magic, and she marries him. Alternatively, the girl, who has briefly parted from her magical spouse, herself forgets him after an embrace or a kiss in her parents' house. |
| M163B | 99.70% | A father leaves his son (each of his sons) something of little value as an inheritance. The son goes to a country where such objects or animals are unknown and sells what he has received for a large sum of money. |
| K122 | 99.69% | Having penetrated the world of a powerful woman, unattainable without the support of supernatural helpers, the man returns. The deceiver tries to take credit for the feat. The woman whom the hero met in her world finds him and punishes (rejects) the deceiver. |
| M57D3 | 99.66% | A person receives a reward from a character who is associated with the wind. Cf. Motive K175 (“The wind carried away the flour”). |
| F87 | 99.64% | The snake forces the girl to promise to marry him and takes her to the underwater world. She is happy there and gives birth to a son (or two sons) and a daughter. Together with her children, she returns to visit her relatives. They learn what words she must use to summon her husband from the water, summon him, and kill him. Seeing the bloody water, the snake's wife (rarely the snake himself) turns the children and herself into birds or trees. |
| I113 | 99.64% | A pig or boar made of gold or with golden bristles is a precious object. (In ATU, "a pig with golden bristles" is one of the possible miraculous objects; the presence of a corresponding number in regional indexes does not necessarily mean the presence of an image; only cases where the image is directly named are taken into account). |
| I87E | 99.64% | After the present humans, dwarves will live on earth. |
| K168B | 99.64% | A person makes another person believe that he has turned into a bear (wolf), found himself in the forest, etc. When he wakes up, the bewitched person finds himself where he was before. |
| K67G | 99.64% | Pretending to carry out his master's orders, the worker cuts off the animals' lips (to make them look like they are smiling). |
| M199C | 99.64% | A person pretends to throw or is about to throw an object somewhere from which it cannot be retrieved (often into the sky, the clouds, or the sea). The opponent asks them not to do so and to stop the contest. |
See more...
Please log on to view the narratives.
Map of Motif Dispersal
Click here for a clustered map
Drag the map around by clicking and using the mouse, use the wheel to zoom
This motif has been recorded in 39 traditions: Arabs of Egypt, Algeria Arabs, England, British, Bretons, Spain, Spaniards, Catalan, France, Dutch, Flemish, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Slovenians, Slovenes, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Vepsians, Swedes, Danes, Danish, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Persians, Ossetians, Nogai, Tats, Gagauz, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Mordvins, Udmurt, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Shor, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Terek Cossacks, Russian Federation