Mythoi/Fables

Mythoi/Fables Thursday, July 6, 2023 An important category of Pontic folktale is the mythos, or fable. Most of them appear scattered in collections from a variety of locations, but thanks to Iordanis Pampoukis, who collected some 300 fables from Oinoe in 1963, we can say that the majority of Pontic tale constitute this genre. They tend to be brief relative to the magical adventure tale. The narrative structure tends to be short and expository, dealing with as single conflict that requires a moral choice between a good and bad, with a clear resolution. Gibbs (OUP, 2002) wrote of the Aesopic fable, which are often humorous, "jokes have punch-lines but fables have morals." Pontic fables often include the humor but usually lack a moral, per se; instead, they seem to serve as the origin tales for an adage or axiom. Like ancient fables, their character array includes not only animals, but a variety of human characters and occasionally inanimate objects--more on that later. They often include a surprise ending or twist in the narrative that helps make them memorable. As in Aesopic fables (see Gibbs) and magical adventures tales, the people and animals portrayed are generic representations of their species or ethnic group, not specific individuals.  One of the striking aspect of ancient fables is that every time they were collected into volumes, their number was increased. So it's not too surprising that, while some Pontic fables can be identified by the Perry Index, the widely used categorization system for Aesopic fables. (Ben Edwin Perry was a professor of Classics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champlain from 1924 to 1960.) "The Hawk and the Fox" was collected in Ofis by Ioaninis Parharides around 1885 and in Oinoe  by Iordanis Pampoukis around 1963, and both can be seen as a direct descendant of the version told by a Greek lyric poet named Archilochus (c.680-645 BC) (Perry 1). Most, however, cannot. More on that later.  Those that can be categorized by either an AT(U) number or a Perry number (all tale collection dates are approximate): <ul> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">AT *56F/Perry 1 "Hawk and Fox" (Oinoe 1963 and Ofis 1885)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 81 "Too Cold for Hare to Build House in Winter" (Nikopolis 1976)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 122 "Animal Loses His Prey Because His Victim Can Escape by False Plea" (Vatum 1937 and Ofis 1885)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 156 "Androcles and the Lion"; Perry 563 (Sinope 1978)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">AT *214C "The Camel's Complaint" (Argyroupolis/Haldia 1950)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 279* "The Snake Trying to Surround the Crab Refuses to Straighten Himself Out (Argyroupolis/Haldia 1950)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 330 "The Smith and the Devil" (Argyroupolis/Haldia) 1950</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 332 "Godfather Death" (Argyroupolis/Haldia 1928) </li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 566 "The Three Magic Objects and the Wonderful Fruits" (Kars 1978) </li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 736 "Luck and Wealth" (Kars 1963)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 778* "Two Candles" (Sourmena 1936)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 830C "If God Wills" (Imera 1914)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 844 "The Luck-Bringing Shirt" (Santa 1966)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 926D "The Judge Appropriates the Object of Dispute" (Sourmena 1937)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 934 "Tales of the Predestined Death" (Argyroupolis/Haldia 1928)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 981 “Wisdom of Hidden Old Man Saves Kingdom”; EB 197 (Sourmena 1914 and Argyroupolis/Haldia 1950)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 1175 "Straightening Curly Hair" (Argyroupolis/Haldia 1950)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 1199 "Praying Without End" (Trebizond 1870)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 1349* "Numskull Tale" (Kars 1978)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 1354 "Death for the Old Couple" (Argyroupolis/Haldia 1950 and Santa 1966)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 1419 "The Returning Husband Hoodwinked"; Perry 651(?) or 661(?) (Imera 1914)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 1676B "Frightened to Death" (Imera 1914)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">ATU 1699 "Misunderstanding Because of Ignorance of a Foreign Language" (Imera 1914) </li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">Perry 267 "The Shepherd and the Wolf" (Argyroupolis/Haldia 1950)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">Perry 635 "The Judgments of God Revealed by an Angel" (Argyroupolis/Haldia 1950)</li> <li style="margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px; margin-left:8px">Perry 692 "Bishop Cat" (Argyroupolis/Haldia 1950)</li> </ul> Outside of Pampoukis' collection of fables, here's where the Pontic fables originate: Argyroupolis/Hadia (25), Hashhatala (1), Imera (11), Kars (9), Nikopolis (1), Ofis (4), Oinoe (1), Santa (3), Sinope (1), Sourmena (4), Stavrin (1), Trebizond (4), Tsalkhas (2), unknown (1), and Vatum and Caucasus (2).