μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Task: carrying water in a sieve.

Tests. · Tests of prowess: tasks. · Nature of tasks. · Impossible or absurd tasks. · Tasks contrary to laws of nature. · view the constellation · filed as H1023.2

Filed across the traditions
  • Lithuanian Balys Legends No. 354
  • India Thompson-Balys
  • Japanese Ikeda
  • general *Types 480, 1180, Roberts 138, 165
  • general *BP I 5, 215, III 16, 477 n. 1
  • general *Fb "såld" III 750a
  • general S. Am. Indian (Ackawoi): Alexander Lat. Am. 269.
Within the index

Filed under Tasks contrary to the nature of objects.

7 finer motifs beneath it
Task: carrying water in sieve; sieve filled with moss Task: carrying water in sieve; pious child able to do so Task: carrying water in leaky vessel Hero sets wife to task of filling water-bottle with spout turned downward Impossible task: filling a grain-bin through the hole in the bottom Task: filling a bottomless water tube Task: filling pots having subterranean outlets
Filed beside it
Task: hatching boiled eggs Task: bringing berries (fruit, roses) in winter Task: straightening a curly hair Task: pumping out a leaky ship Task: washing black wool (cloth, cattle) white Task: sewing together a broken mill-stone Task: fixing the two pieces of a broken sword together Task: mending a broken jug Task: skinning a stone Task: putting a large squash whole into a narrow-necked jar Task: catching a noise Task: catching a man's broken wind Task: splitting a hair with a blunt knife Task: turning fruit into gold Task: making sun and moon shine in the north Task: sowing rye and bringing crop next morning. (Cf. H1023.1.2.)
Travels with (Thompson’s cf.)
Punishment: filling leaky vessels with water from a bottomless jar. (Cf. H1023.2.)
Carried in tale types

ask the rhapsode about this motif · search the shelf for “carrying” · wander