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Berezkin/Duvakin Catalogue of Motifs
English translation, enhancements and additional metadata by Jonathan Fielder-White
Source: Berezkin and Duvakin's Analytical Catalogue · Original catalogue (Russian)
About the catalogue and its sources
Unless otherwise stated, narrative and tradition data comes from Berezkin and Duvakin's Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area (Analytical catalogue).
Original Berezkin/Duvakin catalogue (Russian)
The English translation uses AI assistance alongside manual verification. Errors may occur; consult the original source when in doubt.
F - Gender and sex
| Ref | Title ▲ | Summary | Traditions | Narratives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F54 | Oedipus, ATU 931, 933. | Unaware of this, the son and mother (Konkani: daughter and father) engage in sexual relations and later learn of the incest they have committed. Cf. motifs c8c, f54e. | 54 | 39 |
| F46 | One for all. | At the beginning of time, two or more men (human-animals) had only one woman. | 23 | 30 |
| F47a In F47 family | Parts of the female body. | Men use each part of the body of a single woman for copulation, or each man takes a part of her body cut into pieces. | 7 | 9 |
| F77a In F77 family | Penis bridge. | A huge penis serves as a bridge. | 8 | 9 |
| F28b In F28 family | Penis made of wax. | A woman uses a penis made of wax, wood, fruit or root. Usually her husband or male relative smears it with pepper, and the woman is maimed or killed. | 14 | 18 |
| F21 | Penis stuck in a tree. | While the character copulates with a woman, she turns into a tree or a rock. His penis gets stuck in her. | 5 | 5 |
| F77C In F77 family | Penis-rope. | The character climbs a tree or descends a huge penis, which turns into a rope or vine. | 3 | 3 |
| F28a2 In F28 family | Penises grow in the field. | The owner of the field, either intentionally or having misheard the question, replies that he grows penises. After that, penises grow in the field instead of crops. | 5 | 5 |
| F28a4 In F28 family | Penises on plants. | The fruits or stems of plants are penises. | 7 | 7 |
| F20a In F20 family | People and dogs. | At first, people mated as dogs do now, but then it became as it is now. | 5 | 7 |
| F47 | People made of pieces of flesh. | Pieces of a creature cut into many parts or a lump of living flesh are scattered or dispersed. After that, people emerge from them. Cf. motifs E38A and K98. | 22 | 54 |
| F57 | Persephone picks a flower. | A girl or her father (rarely: mother) picks a plant (usually a flower) and as a result encounters a character with a non-human appearance and/or inhabiting the underworld. The girl becomes the character's wife. In some cases, the picked plant is the character's hair, but more often there is no direct association of this kind. | 8 | 13 |
| F9b In F9 family | Piranha in the vagina. | A biting piranha in a woman's genitals. | 17 | 27 |
| F55a In F55 family | Placing on the naked body (demon and woman). | A demonic character persuades a woman to expose a certain part of her body, because that is the only place where a certain object should be placed. The demon kills the woman, tearing off that part of her body. Usually, the woman uses or names various locations, and the character rejects each one in turn until he finds the right one. | 8 | 15 |
| F28a3 In F28 family | Pleasant for girls, dangerous for others. | A girl (woman) possesses an object that is pleasant (useful). Once in the hands of others, it becomes harmful (dangerous). | 14 | 14 |
| F70 | Potiphar's Wife, K2111, T418, ATU 318. | A woman falsely accuses a man of assaulting her. | 105 | 139 |
| F3a In F3 family | Pregnant man. | A man carries a child like a woman. | 17 | 17 |
| F51c In F51 family | Provocative behaviour after incest. | Upon learning that her unknown lover is her own brother, the girl shows him her genitals or bare breasts, offering him what he so desired. After that, she runs away, and he rushes after her. | 9 | 12 |
| F44 | Quarrel between men and women. | In the community of the first ancestors, women and men quarrel, leave, kill, maim each other, etc. | 46 | 73 |
| F83b In F83 family | Rape of a woman in distress, ATU 36. | A strong female animal chases a weak male, but gets stuck between trees, rocks, etc. The fugitive mocks his pursuer, usually raping her. {In ATU, motifs f83a and f83b are described as one plot type, ATU 36. The degree of their plot connection can only be determined by having the original texts}. | 26 | 31 |
| F54c In F54 family | Recognised by nail marks. | A husband sees someone's fingernail marks on his wife's body and gathers the men to find out who left the marks. | 3 | 3 |
| F80a In F80 family | Removable genitals. | Genitals exist independently of people; they can be left behind, attached to the body, etc. | 33 | 33 |
| F70b In F70 family | Revenge of the rejected. | A woman takes revenge on a man who rejected her love (but does not necessarily pretend that the man tried to force himself on her). | 86 | 107 |
| F101 | Rival prevents childbirth. | With the help of magic, a rival or the spouse's mother tries to prevent a woman from giving birth. | 4 | 4 |
| F9d In F9 family | Scorpions in the genitals. | Small stinging creatures dangerous to the partner are found in the genitals of women or men. | 19 | 21 |
| F70a In F70 family | Scratches his body. | Accusing a man or young man of assaulting her (usually sexually), a woman presents fabricated material evidence (tearing her clothes, scratching her body, etc.). See motif F70. | 58 | 42 |
| F51 | Secret lover, H58. | Someone under cover of night/incognito approaches a person of the opposite sex. The marriage partner deliberately (to determine who it is) or accidentally (thereby exposing the visitor) makes a mark on his/her body (clothing). See motif A31. | 112 | 80 |
| F56a In F56 family | Shavings in the fire. | To see a woman's genitals, a man throws something that flashes brightly into the hearth. The woman recoils, exposing her genitals. | 8 | 8 |
| F75 | Siren and tapir. | A hunter sees a tapir summoning a woman who lives in the water with a secret signal; she emerges from the lake or river, and the tapir mates with her. The hunter himself summons the woman and becomes her lover. | 5 | 8 |
| F31 | Snake egg. | A girl or woman becomes pregnant, without knowing it, by a reptile when she unknowingly touches a dead reptile or when a liquid that has leaked from the reptile gets inside her (usually when the contents of a snake egg accidentally flow between her legs). | 15 | 19 |
| F9c In F9 family | Snake in the vagina. | Snake (in Oceania – moray eel) in the vagina; vagina – snake's mouth; snake crawls out of a woman's mouth and bites off a man's penis during intercourse; woman with a toothy womb is associated with a snake. | 30 | 34 |
| F9f1 In F9 family | Snake inside a woman. | Inside the woman there is a snake (snakes, scorpions, just poison) that comes out of her mouth. {Motifs F9f1 and K100C are almost identical, but the first can be included in the cosmological-etiological category and is associated with the idea of a dangerous woman, while the second belongs to the adventure category}. | 36 | 59 |
| F97a5 In F97 family | Snake is deprived of its limbs | Being responsible for breaking food tabou by humans, snake lost its limbs as a punishment | 0 | 0 |
| F14 | Son of a man and a stone. | The hero is born as a result of the union of a man with a stone or rock. | 13 | 33 |
| F54b In F54 family | Stuck feathers. | A young man or boy copulates with his mother or sister. This becomes known from the remains of paint or feathers with which he was covered during sexual intercourse. | 3 | 3 |
| F22 | Studying the partner's body. | The character asks a person of the opposite sex about the purpose of the part of the body used for sexual intercourse (usually after asking questions about other parts). Alternatively, the character tries out different parts of the body for sexual intercourse or for placing the genitals. Cf. motif M63. | 49 | 58 |
| F71 | Susanna and the Elders, ATU 883A. | After being rejected, the man falsely accuses the woman of promiscuity; others believe him and try to punish her severely. | 72 | 70 |
| F93 | Talking penis, D1610.6.2. | After a person performs a certain action, his penis begins to speak (often repeating what the person has said). | 8 | 4 |
| F10 | Teeth knocked out. | A woman has a second mouth (usually in her vagina) with sharp teeth. A man inserts or throws a stone, bone, stick, etc. into this mouth, knocking out the teeth or extracting toothy animals from it in this way. | 16 | 10 |
| F56 | Temptation and incest. | Upon seeing the vagina of his mother, daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, niece, or mother-in-law, a man or boy thinks about incest or commits it. | 29 | 37 |
| F100 | Test of chastity (queen and maid). | A magic potion reveals that the only chaste woman is the maid, an orphan, etc. The king chooses the maid. | 6 | 6 |
| F53a In F53 family | The Bat or Owl hides its face. | The husband hides his face from his wife because she does not know that he is a bat or an owl. | 22 | 23 |
| F73b In F73 family | The bear believes that the vulva is a wound (ATU 153). | The bear (wolf, lion, dragon) believes that the vulva is a wound inflicted on a human being. | 23 | 15 |
| F81 | The bride in the river. | The character does not recognise his reflection in the water, thinks that a person (usually a woman, with whom he immediately falls in love) is looking at him, and jumps into the water. (Cf. J1793, "Diving for a woman's reflection"; among the Kwinolts, diving for a real reflection of a woman; among the Menominee, diving for a woman in the water). | 19 | 23 |
| F70c In F70 family | The castrated becomes a man (ATU 318). | A young man loses his male organ, but restores it with magic (and marries happily). Cf. ATU 750K. In ATU 318, this episode is described as one of many possible ones related to the theme of the unfaithful wife. | 16 | 15 |
| F9f2 In F9 family | The cobra's hood in the wife's handbag. | A woman places a piece of flesh from her slain snake lover in her handbag and poses a corresponding riddle. If her husband fails to guess the answer, she has the right to kill him. The husband accidentally learns the secret and kills his wife. | 3 | 3 |
| F34a In F34 family | The common husband of the first women. | All women of the community of the first ancestors or all Amazons have a common lover of non-human nature or simultaneously mate with animals of a certain species, summoning them with a conventional signal. | 18 | 33 |
| F40a In F40 family | The common husband of the first women. | A male character, androgynous, with a monstrous penis, single-handedly possesses all women, rules over them or leads away the first women. | 40 | 54 |
| F80C In F80 family | The dead with genitals in their hands. | In the afterlife, women carry the penises of their lovers, and men carry the vulvas of their lovers. See motif F80. | 2 | 1 |
| F70d In F70 family | The disgraced informer. | A girl pretends to be a man or a eunuch, or a girl hides a disability, or a man pretends to be a girl. Someone reveals a secret. At the last moment, the hero or heroine magically gets rid of the disability (acquires male or female nature), the informer is disgraced (executed). | 14 | 14 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.