μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

World parents: sky-father and earth-mother as parents of the universe. The sky-father descends upon the earth-mother and begets the world.

Mythological motifs. · Cosmogony and cosmology. · The universe. · Creation of the universe. · Spontaneous creation of universe. · view the constellation · filed as A625

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““‘See!’’ said he, pointing to the seven grains clasped’ by his thumb and four fingers, “by such shall our children be guided; for behold, when the Sun-father is not nigh, and thy terraces are as the dark itself (being all hidden therein), then shall our children be guided by lights — like to these lights of all the six regions turning round the midmost one — as in and around the midmost place, where these our children shall abide, lie…”

— Tales of the North American Indians, Tale 6 · served from our shelf  receiptuncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

Attested across traditions
On our shelf — the index’s citations, resolved to served chapters
Scholars’ trail — 11references

The index’s own references — the collections where scholars sighted this story-shape, tradition by tradition. Titles on our shelf are live links; the rest is the frontier, not yet shelved.

  • Greek*Frazer Apollodorus I 2 n. 1, Fox 5, 272 → on our shelf: The Library (Bibliotheca), BOOK I, ch. I
  • Icel.MacCulloch Eddic 194, 328
  • HinduKeith 16
  • IndiaThompson-Balys. – Eastern Indonesia: Dixon 166
  • Maoriibid. 7 n. 3, 8 n. 7, 9 n. 10, 31
  • TahitiHenry 337f.
  • N. Am. Indian*Thompson Tales 280 n. 37
  • AfricanWerner African 124.
  • general Chatham Is.: ibid. 10 n. 12
  • general Cook and Hervey Is.: ibid. 14 n. 21
  • general S. Am. Indian (Cora): Alexander Lat. Am. 121, (Antilles): ibid. 24
Within the index

Filed under Spontaneous creation of universe.

2 finer motifs beneath it
Heaven-mother – earth-fatherRaising of the sky. Originally the sky is near the earth (usually because of the conjunction of the sky-father and earth-mother). It is raised to its present place
Filed beside it
Spontaneous creation – evolutionary type. From primeval chaos gradually arise worlds and lifeSpontaneous encroachment of heavens and earth checked by creatorUniverse from congealed vaporUniverse created out of fire worldUniverse created out of ice and mist
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
The Furies. Goddesses of vengeanceNine days' fall from heaven to earth; the same from earth to hellEarth born of ChaosPerson with one eye in center of forehead. (Cf. F441.4.1, F531.1.1.1.)Hundred-handed giantsBirth from bloodBirth from contact of severed male genitals with ground

wander