μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Escape by shamming death.

Deceptions. · Escape by deception. · Death escaped through disguise, shamming, or substitution. · view the constellation · filed as K522

Filed across the traditions
  • Icelandic *Boberg
  • India *Thompson-Balys
  • Buddhist myth Malalasekera I 1013, 1019
  • Korean Zong in-Sob 18 No. 9
  • Indonesia DeVries's list No. 106, *Dixon 191 n. 13
  • Philippine Fansler MAFLS XII 384
  • Eskimo (Central) Boas RBAE VI 584, (Greenland): Rasmussen III 75
  • Africa (Yoruba) Ellis 273 No. 6, (Basuto): Jacottet 120 No. 27, (Benga): Nassau 228 No. 34, (Bushman): Bleek and Lloyd 175, (Fang): Trilles 205.
  • general *Type 33
  • general *BP II 120, III 345
  • general *Chauvin VIII 136 No. 132
  • general Liebrecht Zur Volkskunde 112 No. 23
  • general *Penzer V 79 n. 3
Within the index

Filed under Death escaped through disguise, shamming, or substitution.

9 finer motifs beneath it
Death feigned to escape unwelcome marriage. (Cf. K523.0.1.) Escape by shamming death: blood and brains. The trickster covers himself with paint (or the like) so that he will be thought to have bled to death (or with milk so that it will be thought that his brains have been knocked out) Ogre carries sham-dead man. "He smells already." Death feigned to escape from husband's death plot Captive parrots in net play dead and are thrown out: escape Escape by shammed burial Escape by shammed drowning; wrecked boat or coffin lands Sham murder: trickster attacked by angry mother causes her to spear ox guts and believe she has murdered him Escape by shammed hanging
Filed beside it
Escape by disguise Escape by shamming illness Escape by use of substituted object. The object is attacked rather than the intended victim Captor's bag filled with animals or objects while captives escape Escape by substituting another person in place of the intended victim Substitute in ordeal. An ordeal (usually dangerous) is escaped by deceptively providing a substitute Escape from battle by magic invisibility Escape under mantle of invisibility Escape by successive disguises Escape by reversing shoes (boat) Captors deceived into believing captive is planning to stay with them: vigilance relaxed. Captured general orders heavy boxes taken into the temple. These are thought to be gold and it is concluded that he will not try to leave. He escapes Princess cuts hair to escape captor who holds her hair in hand while sleeping with her
Carried in tale types

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