μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif
Scholars’ trail — 1reference

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.

  • U.S.Baughman.
Within the index

Filed under Physical phenomena misunderstood.

3 finer motifs beneath it
Fools think thorn bush doesn't sting at nightSimpleton sleeping in cold room breaks window to let the cold out. (Cf. J2123.)Fool wakes with sleeping mat over head and thinks it is still night
Filed beside it
Animal cries misunderstoodOther sounds misunderstoodCooking processes misunderstoodNumskull stays till he has finished. As he is making water he hears a brook flowing and mistakes what it is. He waits for a day and a halfDid the calf eat the man? A fool, liking the shoes on the feet of a man hanged on a gallows, cuts off the swollen feet in order to carry off the shoes. In the room in which he sleeps that night is a newborn calf. The next morning the man takes the shoes but leaves the feet. Peasants agree that the calf has eaten the man all but the feet. They burn the house to destroy the calfFool thinks gold is being destroyed when snails crawl over itFool thinks belly is speaking to him; stabs himself. Other animals are shouting at himAnimal's action misunderstood

wander