μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Present evil preferred to change for worse.

The wise and the foolish. · Wise and unwise conduct. · Choices. · Choice between evils. · view the constellation · filed as J215

Within the index

Filed under Choice between evils.

4 finer motifs beneath it
Don't drive away the flies. Wounded animal (man) refuses to have the flies driven away since they are now sated and their places will be taken by fierce and hungry flies Oxen decide not to kill butchers, since inexpert killers might replace them Heathcock prefers home with hardships to travel in foreign lands Monk goes to wilderness to escape work on material things. Finds that he must work to live and returns to monastery
Filed beside it
Four choices, all of which are evil; man to make one choice only Choice: free poverty or enslaved wealth Choice: plainness with safety or grandeur with danger Choice: loss of beauty or speech. Latter chosen Choice: suffering in youth or old age Choice of deaths Captivity preferred to death Enemies make peace rather than slay each other Choice: small injustice permitted rather than to cause troubles of state Rescue alone from shipwreck chosen over drowning with goods Choice between evils: pay tribute or lose both money and life Choice: apparent injustice over greater wrong Difficult choice between relatives Death preferred to other evils Choice between evils – miscellaneous

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