DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14697#0165
Dioskouroi and Helene in Folk-Tales 1003
barred the door. Jack was again in difficulties, but he soon found a way out of
them. The giant had a favourite dog which had also been sleeping when his
master was blinded. Jack killed the dog, skinned it, and throwing the hide
over his back ran on all fours barking between the legs of the giant, and so
escaped.'
APPENDIX F.
THE DIOSKOUROI AND HELENE IN MODERN FOLK-TALES.
Attention may here be called to a group of modern Greek and Italian folk-
tales, which are related to the myth of the Dioskouroi, as I shall presently point
out. The group was first recognised as such by that excellent investigator
J. G. von Hahn, who included it under his fourth or ' expulsion ' formula, though
he failed fully to perceive its affinity with classical mythsl.
(a) Sun, Moon, and Star in a Folk-tale from Greece.
(1) A good example of the group in question is the modern Greek story of
the Tzitzinaina, which runs as follows2. An old woman once had three daughters,
poor and hard-working girls. The eldest said : ' If I had for husband the king's
pastry-man, I should eat cake.' The second said: 'If I had his cook, I should
taste all the royal dishes.' The third said : ' I would like the king himself. Then
I should have all his treasures, and should bear him three children, Sun, Moon,
and Star.' It so chanced that the king overheard them talking and granted their
several desires. But when the third sister became queen, she was hated by the
king's mother. She was about to bring forth Sun, when the king was called off
to a war and entrusted her to his mother. This cruel woman bade the midwife
put the new-born babe in a box, fling it into the sea, and place a puppy dog instead
beside the queen. The same sorry scene was enacted a second and a third time.
A cat was substituted for Moon, and a snake for Star, the children being each in
turn sent adrift on the sea. The king, disappointed and angry, walled up the
queen in the jakes. The children one after the other were washed up at the foot
of a mountain, on which dwelt a hermit. He cared for them till they were grown
and then sent the two brothers Sun and Moon with their sister Star to the neigh-
bouring town. Meantime the midwife had learnt of the children's escape and,
wishing to destroy them, sought out Star and told her that she was beautiful but
might be more so, if only she possessed the golden apple kept by forty dragons
in a garden. Sun, who had been out to the bazar and bought of a Jew a mysterious
box, now opened it, found inside a green winged horse and set out upon him to
get the golden apple. The horse caused a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder,
under cover of which Sun secured the apple and brought it back to Star. Again
the midwife passed by and told Star that she needed, to make her more beautiful
still, the golden bough on which all the birds of the world met to sing. Sun re-
mounted his horse, which, as before, promised to lighten and thunder and advised
1 J. G. von Hahn Griechische und albanesische Mdrchen Leipzig 1864 i. 46, T. F.
Crane Italian Popular Tales London 1885 pp. 17, 325. On the ' expulsion' formula see
infra p. 1011.
2 Text by G. Ch. B. in the ^eoeXXijvLKa di/dXe/cra Athens 1871 i. 17 ff., French trans-
lation by E. Legrand Recueil de contes populaires grecs Paris 1881 pp. 77—93. I have
condensed Legrand's version.
barred the door. Jack was again in difficulties, but he soon found a way out of
them. The giant had a favourite dog which had also been sleeping when his
master was blinded. Jack killed the dog, skinned it, and throwing the hide
over his back ran on all fours barking between the legs of the giant, and so
escaped.'
APPENDIX F.
THE DIOSKOUROI AND HELENE IN MODERN FOLK-TALES.
Attention may here be called to a group of modern Greek and Italian folk-
tales, which are related to the myth of the Dioskouroi, as I shall presently point
out. The group was first recognised as such by that excellent investigator
J. G. von Hahn, who included it under his fourth or ' expulsion ' formula, though
he failed fully to perceive its affinity with classical mythsl.
(a) Sun, Moon, and Star in a Folk-tale from Greece.
(1) A good example of the group in question is the modern Greek story of
the Tzitzinaina, which runs as follows2. An old woman once had three daughters,
poor and hard-working girls. The eldest said : ' If I had for husband the king's
pastry-man, I should eat cake.' The second said: 'If I had his cook, I should
taste all the royal dishes.' The third said : ' I would like the king himself. Then
I should have all his treasures, and should bear him three children, Sun, Moon,
and Star.' It so chanced that the king overheard them talking and granted their
several desires. But when the third sister became queen, she was hated by the
king's mother. She was about to bring forth Sun, when the king was called off
to a war and entrusted her to his mother. This cruel woman bade the midwife
put the new-born babe in a box, fling it into the sea, and place a puppy dog instead
beside the queen. The same sorry scene was enacted a second and a third time.
A cat was substituted for Moon, and a snake for Star, the children being each in
turn sent adrift on the sea. The king, disappointed and angry, walled up the
queen in the jakes. The children one after the other were washed up at the foot
of a mountain, on which dwelt a hermit. He cared for them till they were grown
and then sent the two brothers Sun and Moon with their sister Star to the neigh-
bouring town. Meantime the midwife had learnt of the children's escape and,
wishing to destroy them, sought out Star and told her that she was beautiful but
might be more so, if only she possessed the golden apple kept by forty dragons
in a garden. Sun, who had been out to the bazar and bought of a Jew a mysterious
box, now opened it, found inside a green winged horse and set out upon him to
get the golden apple. The horse caused a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder,
under cover of which Sun secured the apple and brought it back to Star. Again
the midwife passed by and told Star that she needed, to make her more beautiful
still, the golden bough on which all the birds of the world met to sing. Sun re-
mounted his horse, which, as before, promised to lighten and thunder and advised
1 J. G. von Hahn Griechische und albanesische Mdrchen Leipzig 1864 i. 46, T. F.
Crane Italian Popular Tales London 1885 pp. 17, 325. On the ' expulsion' formula see
infra p. 1011.
2 Text by G. Ch. B. in the ^eoeXXijvLKa di/dXe/cra Athens 1871 i. 17 ff., French trans-
lation by E. Legrand Recueil de contes populaires grecs Paris 1881 pp. 77—93. I have
condensed Legrand's version.