μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Tasks contrary to the nature of objects.

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

Within the index

Filed under Tasks contrary to laws of nature.

25 finer motifs beneath it
Task: hatching boiled eggs Task: carrying water in a sieve 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.) Task: putting peaches back on tree Task: bringing bundle of faggots without rope to tie them. Helpful snake coils himself about them Task: fetching water from the well in a bucket without the use of rope to draw it with Task: gathering a necklace of rubies from the sea Task: catching a sunbeam Task: tying the sun with a stone chain Suitor asked to bathe in great cauldron of boiling water without making water lukewarm +1 more
Filed beside it
Task: construction from impossible kind of material Task: construction from impossible amount of material Tasks contrary to the nature of animals Task: obtaining fat (bacon) from swine that never was farrowed Task: changing the course of time

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