μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

The obstinate wife: the third egg. The husband and the wife dispute as to who shall eat the third egg. She pretends to die. At the grave she asks him, "Do I eat two of the three eggs?" and he gives his consent. She jumps up and cries out "I eat two!" and everyone flees except a lame man who exclaims, "Poor me and the other one!"

Sex. · Married life. · Characteristics of wives and husbands. · view the constellation · filed as T255.4

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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.

  • SpanishBoggs FFC XC 123 No. 1365D*.
Within the index

Filed under The obstinate wife or husband. (Cf. J2511.)

1 finer motif beneath it
The obstinate wife: insists on eating three of the five eggs
Filed beside it
The obstinate wife: cutting with knife or scissors. At the end of the argument the man throws his wife into the water. As she sinks she makes with her finger the motion of shearing with the scissorsThe obstinate wife sought for up-stream. When she falls into the stream, the husband concludes that she would be too obstinate to go with the currentThe obstinate wife: sign of the louse. She calls her husband a lousy head. He throws her into the stream. As she sinks she makes a sign of cracking a louseThe dish which the husband detests and the wife keeps serving him. He affects to like it and thus gets rid of itObstinate wife refuses to take cover off boiling kettle. Is beaten by husbandMan warns his wife that he has dreamed that she is attacked by a wolf. She pays no heed to him and the dream comes true

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