Buried in a Head: African and Asian Parallels to Aesop's Fable

There is a strange story among the fables ascribed to Aesop. It was preserved by Aristophanes and tells about the lark, who was born before the creation of the earth and had to bury her dead father in her own head. This article investigates Indian, Arabic, and North and West African parallels to thi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Folklore (London) 2016-01, Vol.127 (1), p.91-102
Main Authors: Berezkin, Yuri, Duvakin, Evgeny
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aesop (620-564 BC)
African culture
Analysis
Arabic language
Asian culture
Deception
Folklore
Indian culture
Metaphor
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Summary:There is a strange story among the fables ascribed to Aesop. It was preserved by Aristophanes and tells about the lark, who was born before the creation of the earth and had to bury her dead father in her own head. This article investigates Indian, Arabic, and North and West African parallels to this story. The analysed texts share several specific details, and the motif 'buried in a head' lying at the base of them is found worldwide only in a few areas of Eurasia and Africa; so there is most likely a historical connection between the examples.
ISSN:0015-587X
1469-8315
DOI:10.1080/0015587X.2015.1111561