Отбирание молока у коров (к исследованию одного мифологического мотива)
TAKING AWAY THE MILK FROM COWS. INQUIRY INTO A MYTHOLOGICAL MOTIF

Summary/Abstract: If any mythological system may be described through its characters or its motifs, the present articles attempts to combine both approaches. An analysis is performed on the motif of ”taking away the milk from cows”, known, on the one hand, among the Cossacks of the Don river (in their beliefs and short tales called bylichki), as well as, on the other, in the whole Slavonic region. Both similarities and differences are discerned, the former in the realm of the motif itself and its function, the latter in the realm of the participating characters. In the folklore of the Cossacks, the milk is taken away by a witch, a snake (a viper) and a catfish, in the beliefs of other Slavs by a witch and a snake. However, although in the Cossack tradition there are three figures, genetically there are two: a witch and a snake. The figure of a catfish might have originated through a split in the Slavonic complex image of a snake, which in fact combines the characteristics of a snake and a catfish (or simply a fish). More precisely, one of the functions attributed to a snake has been made autonomous and attributed to a catfish.

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