μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

The wife's equivocal oath. A husband insists that his wife take oath that she has been intimate with no one but himself. The paramour masks as ass-driver. She hires an ass from him, falls down, and lets him pick her up. She then swears that no one has touched her except her husband and the ass-driver.

Deceptions. · Deceptions connected with adultery. · Adulteress outwits husband. · view the constellation · filed as K1513

Filed across the traditions
  • Italian Novella *Rotunda
  • India *Thompson-Balys
  • Chinese Chavannes 500 Contes I 387 No. 116.
  • general *Type 1418
  • general *Basset 1001 Contes II 4
  • general **J. J. Meyer Isoldes Gottesurteil in seiner erotischen Beziehung (Berlin, 1914)
  • general *Pauli (ed. Bolte) No. 206
  • general Rohde Der griechische Roman 484
  • general BP IV 154, 387f.
  • general Hdwb. d. Abergl. II 669
  • general *Schoepperle I 225f.
  • general Hertel Zs. f. Vksk. XVIII 385. Icelandic: Boberg
Within the index

Filed under Adulteress outwits husband.

Filed beside it
Adulteress kills home-coming husband Wife of philanderer gets revenge by having an affair herself The husband locked out. An adulteress returns home late at night and her husband refuses to admit her. She threatens to throw herself into the well. The husband goes after her. She enters the house and bars him out The cut-off nose. (Lai of the Tresses.) A woman leaves her husband's bed and has another woman take her place. The husband addresses her, gets no answer and cuts off her nose (hair). In the morning the wife still has her nose (hair). The husband is made to believe that it has grown back by a miracle (or that he was dreaming) Adulteress gets rid of husband while she entertains lover The animal in the chest. The husband has locked the surprised paramour in a chest while he fetches his family as witness of his wife's unfaithfulness. She frees the lover, substitutes an animal, and discountenances the husband. (Cf. K1542, K1555, K1566, K1574.) The husband's good eye covered. The wife holds a cloth in front of his one good eye, so that he cannot see the paramour Paramour escapes by disguise The enchanted pear tree. The wife makes the husband, who has seen the adultery from the tree, believe that the tree is magic or that he has seen double Paramour successfully hidden from husband Husband in hanging tub to escape coming flood. The priest who has thus duped the husband enjoys the wife Underground passage to paramour's house. (Inclusa.) Woman goes from one to the other. Her husband is made to believe that the woman next door is her sister Adulteress falls in mud at lover's door. She deceives her husband by saying that she must enter and clean her dress The Lord above; the lord below. A husband returning home surprises a woman and her paramour and a numskull who has blundered in. The woman hides the numskull in the bed and the paramour under it. The husband, who is leaving on a journey, lifts his hands to heaven and says, "I commend you to the Lord above." – The numskull: "Commend her rather to the lord below!" Friar's trousers on adulteress's bed: relic to cure sickness. The husband is duped into believing that the friar has come to visit the sick The feigned wedding-feast. The husband returns unexpectedly to find his wife entertaining the paramour with a sumptuous feast. He is made to believe the feast is in honor of some newly-weds
Carried in tale types

ask the rhapsode about this motif · search the shelf for “ass-driver” · wander