μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Countertasks. When a task is assigned, the hero agrees to perform it as soon as the assigner performs a certain other task. (Cf. H691.2.1, H1021.1.1, H1021.3, H1021.6.1, H1021.6.2, H1022.2.1, H1022.3, H1022.9, H1023.1.1, H1023.1.2, H1023.2.2.1, H1023.9.1, H1023.10.1, H1142.3, H1146.)

Tests. · Tests of prowess: tasks. · Assignment and performance of tasks. · Performance of tasks. · Task evaded by subterfuge. · view the constellation · filed as H951

Filed across the traditions
  • India Thompson-Balys
  • Chinese Graham
  • Japanese Ikeda.
  • general *Types 531, 875
  • general *BP I 221, II 367, 369, III 18ff.
  • general *De Vries FFC LXXIII 43ff., 145ff., 150ff., 154, 232ff., 241f., 249
  • general *Chauvin VIII 61 No. 26
  • general Zachariae Kleine Schriften 98
  • general *Child V 497 s. v. "tasks"
Within the index

Filed under Task evaded by subterfuge.

Filed beside it
Reductio ad absurdum of task. When an impossible task is given, the hero responds with a countertask so absurd as to show the manifest absurdity of the original task. (Cf. H1023.3.1, H1024.1.1.1.)
Travels with (Thompson’s cf.)
Task: making a rope of sand; countertask: first showing the pattern. (Cf. H951.) Task: making ship of stone Task: weaving a silk shirt from hair; countertask: making a loom from shavings. (Cf. H951.) Task: clothing an army from one hank of flax; countertask: making horseshoes for cavalry from one needle. (Cf. H951.) Task: making sails for ship from one bundle of linen; countertask: making spindle and loom from one stick of wood. (Cf. H951.) Task: bringing quantity of mosquito bones within month; countertask: furnishing scales with wind as beams and heat as pans. (Cf. H951.) Task: hatching boiled eggs; countertask: sowing cooked seeds and harvesting the crop. (Cf. H951, H952.) Task: hatching eggs immediately; countertask: sowing seeds and bringing in crop next morning. (Cf. H951, H952.) Task: skinning a stone; countertask: first let the stone bleed Task: bringing well to king; countertask: sending his own well to accompany it. (Cf. H951.) Task: mending a broken jug; countertask: turning it wrong side out as one does a shoe. (Cf. H951.) Task: drinking the sea dry: countertask: stop all the rivers. (Cf. H951.) Task: carrying mountain on head How heavy is the earth? Take away all the stones and I will weigh it
Carried in tale types

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