μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Transformation: man to serpent (snake). (Cf. B642.1.)

Magic. · Transformation. · Transformation: man to animal. · Transformation: man to reptiles and miscellaneous animals. · view the constellation · filed as D191

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“According to another legend, Thetis bore seven sons, of whom Achilles was the seventh; she destroyed the first six by throwing them into the fire or into a kettle of boiling water to see whether they were mortal or to make them immortal by consuming the merely mortal portion cf their frame; and the seventh son, Achilles, would have perished in like manner, if his father Peleus had not snatched him from the fire at the moment when as…”

— The Library (Bibliotheca), BOOK III, ch. XIII · served from our shelf uncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

On our shelf — the index’s citations, resolved to served chapters
In our texts — keyword-matched, unreviewed
Scholars’ trail — 18references

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.

  • GreekFrazer Apollodorus II 67 n. 6 → on our shelf: The Library (Bibliotheca), BOOK III, ch. XIII
  • JewishNeuman
  • India*Thompson-Balys, Penzer IX 45. – English: *Child V 497 s. v. "stepmother"
  • BretonSébillot Incidents s. v. "serpent"
  • SwissJegerlehner Oberwallis 296 No. 21
  • New BritainDixon 117
  • Philippine (Tinguian)Cole 135
  • Eskimo (Greenland)Thalbitzer Phonetic Study of Eskimo Language (København, 1904) 5
  • general *Type 433
  • general *BP III 89 n. 2
  • general *E Hoffmann-Krayer Zs. f. Vksk. XXV 120 n. 1
  • general R. M. Meyer Zs. f. Vksk. XXI 4
  • general Köhler-Bolte II 435ff.
  • general *Krappe Études 53ff.
  • general Hartland Science 244–7
  • general *Fb "orm" II 759b. – Icelandic: MacCulloch Eddic 54 (Bolverk), Boberg
  • general American Indian (Seneca): Curtin-Hewitt RBAE XXXII 112 No. 14
  • general (Plains Ojibwa): Skinner JAFL XXXII 303 No. 7, (Ladino): Conzemius BBAE CVI 130f.
Within the index

Filed under Transformation: man to reptiles and miscellaneous animals.

1 finer motif beneath it
Lucifer as serpent
Filed beside it
Transformation: man to worm (often = snake)Transformation: man to tortoise (turtle)Transformation: man to crocodile. (Cf. B642.2.)Transformation: man to frog. (Cf. B643)Transformation: man to toadTransformation: man to lizardTransformation: man to snailTransformation: man to other animals than those already treated
Travels with
Marriage to person in snake form. (Cf. D191.)Reincarnation as snake. (Cf. D191.)Childless woman adopts a serpent (transformed man). (Cf. D191.)
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Transformation: man to wild beast (mammal)Transformation: man to tigerTransformation: man to cuttlefishRepeated transformation. Transformation into one form after anotherMagic meatMagic swordMagic strength-giving food. (Cf. D1030.)Immortality by burningProtean transformation of water-spiritDragon-tongue proof. Dragon slayer cuts out the tongues and uses them later to prove his identity as slayerTest of sex of man masking as girl: arms placed among baskets and war-trumpet sounded. Man snatches armsMan disguised as woman admitted to women's quarters: seduction

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