μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

God swallows his pregnant wife to prevent birth of son whom he fears.

Ordaining the future. · Prophecies. · Vain attempts to escape fulfillment of prophecy. · view the constellation · filed as M376

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“The legend, these writers inform us, was told to explain why the maiden goddess Artemis was invoked by women in childbed, Now Artemis devoted herself to the chase and remained a maid; but Apollo learned the art of prophecy from Pan, theson of Zeus and Hybris,! and came to Delphi, where Themis at that time used to deliver oracles;? and when the snake Python, which guarded the oracle, would have hindered him from approaching the chasm,?…”

— The Library (Bibliotheca), BOOK I, ch. IV · served from our shelf uncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

On our shelf — the index’s citations, resolved to served chapters
Scholars’ trail — 1reference

The index’s own references — the collections where scholars sighted this story-shape, tradition by tradition. Titles on our shelf are live links; the rest is the frontier, not yet shelved.

Within the index

Filed under Vain attempts to escape fulfillment of prophecy. (Cf. M341.2.10, M343, M344.)

4 finer motifs beneath it
Exposure of pregnant woman to avoid fulfillment of prophecy concerning future childMurder of pregnant woman to avoid fulfillment of prophecyChildren swallowed one after the other as they are born for fear one of them will overcome fatherDelivery of child fated to rule retarded in order to avoid fulfillment of prophecy
Filed beside it
Prophecy of death fulfilledExposure of infant to avoid fulfillment of prophecyConfinement in tower to avoid fulfillment of prophecyExpulsion to avoid fulfillment of prophecySlaughter of innocents to avoid fulfillment of prophecySword that is to kill one is weighted and sunk so as to avoid the prophecy. (Cf. M341.2.)Man whose death has been prophesied takes refuge in church, but is accidentally slain through window by arrow directed at stagFutile moving to avoid death. Man told by Death he will die where he stands sells everything and moves to another town. He goes for a ride on a mare which runs away with him and throws him on the spot he so dreads, killing him
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Tabu: mortal lusting after goddessGiant. A person of enormous size. (For giants who are primarily ogres see G100 and G400–G599.)Giant wades the oceanGiant throws a great rockBlindness healed by sun's raysOgre made drunk and overcomeProphecy: future greatness of unborn child. (Cf. M301.2.2, M301.5.1, M301.12, M359.3, M371.1.)Flaying alive as punishment for contesting with a godBirth from person's head

wander