Unsatisfactory life preferred to death — Mythoi

Motif

Unsatisfactory life preferred to death.

The wise and the foolish. · Wise and unwise conduct. · Choices. · Choice between evils. · view the constellation · filed as J217.0.1

Within the index

Filed under Captivity preferred to death.

1 finer motif beneath it

Trickster overhears man praying for death to take him; the trickster appears at man's house, usually in disguise, says he is God (or the devil). The man tells him to take his wife (or he runs away). (Compare C11 for a similar situation in which Death appears.)

Filed beside it

Escaped lamb delivers himself to shepherd rather than to slaughter Discontented ass longs for death but changes mind when he sees skins of dead asses at a fair

Carried in tale types

Death for the Old Couple · ATU 1354 1 recorded variant

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