Choice of deaths — Mythoi

Motif

Choice of deaths.

The wise and the foolish. · Wise and unwise conduct. · Choices. · Choice between evils. · view the constellation · filed as J216

In our texts — keyword-matched, unreviewed

Irish Cuchulain of Muirthemne: The Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster , Ch. 10 THE WEDDING OF MAINE MORGOR
Literary Crystallization Four Plays (The Tempest, A Midsummer-Night's Dream, The Winter's Tale, King Lear) — University Press Shakespeare, ed. Sidney Lee , A Midsummer-Night's Dream Act 1
Middle Eastern The Thousand and One Nights, commonly called, in England, The Arabian Nights' Entertainments , Chapter 2
Indic The Mahābhārata , Book 6, Section CXX
Literary Crystallization Paradise Lost: A Poem in Twelve Books , Book 8

Within the index

Filed under Choice between evils.

6 finer motifs beneath it

Army faces enemy rather than the anger of their king who would kill them if they returned in flight Lamb prefers to be sacrificed in temple rather than to be eaten by a wolf Crab would rather be killed outright than imprisoned and starved Soldier asks to be stabbed in chest. Prostrate soldier asks enemy to stab him in chest instead of back in order to save his honor. Captor frees him and the two become friends Early death with fame preferred Saint chooses to die "after pride of youth" and before "misery of old age."

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 Present evil preferred to change for worse 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

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