μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Exposure in boat. A person (usually woman or child) set adrift in a boat (chest, basket, cask).

Unnatural cruelty. · Revolting murders or mutilations. · Cruel abandonments and exposures. · view the constellation · filed as S141

Attested across traditions
Filed across the traditions
  • Breton Sébillot Incidents s. v. "enfant"
  • French Canadian Barbeau JAFL XXIX 14
  • Spanish Espinosa Jr. No. 116
  • Italian Basile Pentamerone III No. 2, *Rotunda
  • Greek Frazer Apollodorus I 155, Grote I 86, *103, Fox 22, 33, 307 → on our shelf: The Library (Bibliotheca), BOOK II, ch. IV
  • Egyptian Müller 116
  • Babylonian Spence 16
  • Jewish *Neuman, bin Gorion Born Judas 2d ed. I 165, 372
  • India *Thompson-Balys
  • Buddhist myth Malalasekera II 103, 633
  • Japanese *Ikeda
  • Chinese Ferguson 192
  • Indonesian DeVries's list No. 219
  • Tonga Gifford 154
  • Tuamotu Stimson MS (T-G. 3/45)
  • Marquesas *Beckwith Myth 502 n. 4
  • Eskimo (Cumberland Sound) Boas BAM XV 167, (Labrador): Hawkes GSCan XIV 152, (Ungava): Turner RBAE XI 261
  • N. Am. Indian *Thompson Tales 313 n. 131.
  • general *Types 590, 675, 708, 930
  • general BP I 489, II 236f., III 2
  • general **Cosquin Études 199ff., 215ff.
  • general Chauvin VII 95ff.
  • general *Hertel Zs. f. Vksk. XIX 83
  • general *Aarne FFC XXIII 60
  • general *Penzer II 4, VII 81 n. 1
  • general Dickson 35 n. 16, 41f. nn. 40, 42, 169f. n. 23
  • general *Krappe Balor 3ff., 17ff. nn. 57–60
  • general *Sparnaay 31ff., 50
  • general *Frazer Old Testament II 437ff.
  • general *Fb "å" III 1187b, "båd" IV 87a

…and 4 more.

Within the index

Filed under Cruel abandonments and exposures.

3 finer motifs beneath it
Man springs ashore and pushes companion in boat out to sea Father saves himself in storm and forgets his two children. They are abandoned in a boat Exposure astride a log of wood floated down river
Filed beside it
Abandonment of aged Person thrown into the water and abandoned Abandonment in forest Abandonment in desert Abandonment on an island. (Marooning.) Abandonment in pit Abandonment on mountain Abandonment in bonds that cannot be loosed Children abandoned in box in potter's kiln Abandonment in stable
Travels with (Thompson’s cf.)
King finds note with children in casket floated down river identifying them as his. (Cf. S141.) Ordeal by exposure. (Cf. S141, S331.)
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Devastating fox. Monthly human sacrifice Nuptial tabu. Man and wife forbidden intercourse for definite time Transformation: man to stone Transformation by putting on skin. By putting on the skin, feathers, etc. of an animal, a person is transformed to that animal Transformation by eating or drinking Petrification by glance Transformation to husband's (lover's) form to seduce woman Magic sandals Magic cap Magic cap renders invisible: tarnkappe. (Cf. D1067.2, D1361.16.) Magic sandals bear person aloft. (Cf. D1065.5.) Night magically lengthened
Carried in tale types

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