Greetings, myth lovers! In the wake of #ValentinesDay our theme this week is: Sweets and sweet things 🍬 Which #myths talk about a sweet treat or other sweet things? Tell us the #myth and tag us with #MythologyMonday for boosts!
@mythologymonday@folklore This is the Korean folktale of the Tiger and the Gotgam, gotgam being a dried persimmon treat stored for the winter. It is extra sweet from the drying process, like a raisin in comparison to a grape.
One winter, a tiger went down from its mountain to a village and was nosing around houses looking for a meal when it overheard a human mother trying to soothe a crying child. The mother in the home, unaware of the predator's presence, told the child, "A tiger is here, stop crying" to scare the child into being quiet, to no avail. The mother then said, "Look at this gotgam, stop crying" to appease her offspring, and the child stopped immediately at the sight of the treat. The tiger thought to itself, 'This gotgam beast is scarier than I am!'
At that moment an ox thief entered the yard and, mistaking the tiger for an ox, climbed onto its back. Tiger, believing the dreaded gotgam was literally upon it, ran off at full speed. At dawn the ox thief, realizing he was riding a tiger, jumped off and the tiger ran on and on, frightened but relieved to have survived the scourge of gotgam.
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