I8G. Atlas , A842. .11.12.15.17.19.-.31.35.41.42.52.55.

61.63.65.-.67.73.

The only giant that holds up the earth or the sky.

Nyamwezi, Temne, Latins, Arabic written tradition, Palestinians, Kamano, Usufa, Bukawak, Samoa, Then, Tahiti, Tibetans(?), Yao, Bori, Rengma, Chin, Karen, Shan, Bondo, Agaria, Konda (Kuttia), Dhoba, Lohar, Kuruba, Sinhalese, Temuan (mantra), Nias, Toraja, Solor, Mangyan, Bicol, Isneg, Paiwan, Rukai, Puyuma, Ancient China (Yangan, Mawangdui), Chinese (Gansu), Miao, Li, Koreans, Ancient Greece, Bulgarians, Ukrainians (Lemkos), Ossetians, Azerbaijanis, Hittites, Kafirs, Pamiris, Western Sami, Nenets, Tagish, Inner Tlingit, Tahltan, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Bellacula, Kwakiutl, Huasteca culture, HighlandTotonacs, Highland Popolucas, Mazatecs, Texistlatecs, Huaves, Zoques, Tzotzils, Emberas, Kogis,Muisca,Kayapa, Napo, Munduruku, Mochica culture, Huarochiri, Chahuita, Ashaninka, Harakmbet, Takana, Tupari, Apapokuwa.

Bantu-speaking Africa. Nyamwezi [the earthly disk lies on Mount Lugulu or Lugiya; on one side it is held by the giant Nyam(u); his wife Fumyahólo holds the sky and the sun; when the husband rushes toward his wife, the earth trembles]: Struck 1909: 89.

West Africa. Temne [the creator placed the world on the head of a giant; vegetation is his hair, animals are lice; the first giant died, God placed the world on the head of another; he is in a sitting position, turns around; when he faces west, an earthquake occurs; when he dies and falls, the world perishes, God creates a new one]: Schlenker 1861: 13-15.

Southern Europe. Latin : Ovid. Met. IV. 653-662 [Ovid's Metamorphoses (turn of the eras): Perseus, turning away, offers Atlas the head of Medusa; Atlas is transformed into a mountain; his hair becomes forests, his shoulders and arms become ridges, his head becomes a mountain peak, his bones become a stone; on him rests the firmament]; Hyg. Fab. 150 [The Myths attributed to Gaius Julius Hyginus, who lived at the turn of the eras, but most likely dating from the 1st-2nd centuries: "When Juno saw that Epaphus, born of a concubine, possessed such a powerful kingdom, she took care that he was killed while hunting, and induced the Titans to overthrow Jupiter and restore the kingdom to Saturn. When they tried to rise to heaven, Jupiter, together with Minerva, Apollo and Diana, threw them headlong into Tartarus. He threw the firmament onto Atlas, who was their leader, and it is said that he still supports the sky" (translated by D.O. Torshilova).

Western Asia. Arabic written tradition (One Thousand and One Nights) [an angel explains to the hero the structure of the world; seven lands one above the other, supported by an angel, an angel on a rock, under the rock a bull, under the bull a fish, under the fish the sea]: Salie 2010(2), night 496:61; Palestinians : Hanauer 1977 [first Allah created the Tablets of Destiny with a record of everything that was and will be; created a giant Pen, ordered it to write; when the tablets were full, A. placed them and the pen in an unknown place; then A. created water and a huge pearl the size of heaven and earth; from A.'s voice it spread over the first waters, they began to seethe, then everything became quiet; then A. created his throne, placing it on the waters; created the winged Wind, ordering it to support the waters; a serpent lying in a ring around the Throne; its head is a white pearl, its body is gold, its eyes are sapphires; Then A. commanded the Wind to stir up the sea; from the foam land was formed on the surface of the waters, the spray and steam became clouds; the frozen waves formed mountains; the mountains do not allow the earth to float on the waters, their roots go back to Mount Kaf, which encircles the world and holds its contents; A. turned the surface waters into seven concentric seas, separated by the same number of continents, but connected by straits and bays; at first the earth was shaking, A. commanded the angel to hold it; he embraced the world with one hand from the east, with the other from the west, and so holds; A. made a rock of emerald for the angel's support, placing it on the horns (var.: on the back) of a bull named Behemoth; when the bull transfers the rock from one horn to another, the earth shakes; whoever looks into the fierce red eyes of the bull will immediately go blind; the bull stands on a whale, which swims in the ocean created for him; below the ocean and around the whole world, the air resting on the darkness, through which move the sun, moon and stars, created to illuminate the world]: 3-5; Meyouhas 1928 [beginning roughly as in Hanauer; the purpose of the mountains is to keep everything on the land from sliding into the abyss; Allah divided the waters, creating seven seas separated by land; at first the earth rocked on the waters; A. commanded an angel to support it, placing an emerald rock under his feet; A. commanded the River Horse with sparkling eyes to hold the rock on one of his horns; when this Beast gets tired, it throws the rock to the other horn, the earth trembles; this creature is generated by Leviathan, who swims in the waters; to illuminate the land and sea, A. created the sun, moon and stars]: 7-11 (apparently, according to the same source Gryaznevich, Basilov 1982 (Muslim mythology) [the earth rests on the shoulders of an angel leaning on a rock, which is supported by a bull standing on a swimming fish]: 184; (cf. Ugarit [Sankhunyaton as retold by Philo of Byblos; suspecting his brother Atlas, Cronus, on the advice of Hermes, threw him into the depths of the earth and buried him]: Turaev 1999: 75).

( Cf. Australia. Wilman [Emu was carried away to the sky; she tried to settle between the horns of the moon, but it became round; the inhabitants of the sun drove her away because she chattered too much; the stars agreed to let her in if she would take on part of the earth's load (the stars held the earth); gradually they transferred everything to her, because Emu is afraid of being driven out to the (empty?) sky; when she gets tired, she shifts from wing to wing, the earth trembles; if she does this often, the inhabitants of the sun become angry, bring on darkness; she cries, suffering from the weight, her tears are rain; sometimes the stars gather and take on part of the weight so that Emu can rest; but only a small part, because they are afraid that Emu will throw everything to them]: Hassell 1934, no. 3: 239-240).

Melanesia. Kamano , Usurufa , etc. (eastern mountains) [Jugumishanta and her husband Morufonu sit under a tree whose branches form the earth; the world is supported on M.'s shoulders, when he moves the earth trembles; their eldest son, the Moon, is married to the Evening Star; the younger, the Sun (aka the Bird of Paradise), is married to Moa'ri (a red stone); the sun's rays are arrows from his bow; Jugumishanta is identified with the earth]: Berndt 1965: 80-81; bukawak [under the earth, a character with one leg shorter than the other; when he shifts from foot to foot or leans on a pillar supporting the earth, the earth trembles]: Lehner 1931b: 106.

Micronesia – Polynesia. Samoa [1) the flat earth is supported by a pillar; when Mafui (Maui) is angry, he shakes the pillar, causing an earthquake; 2) Ti'iti'i-Atalanga holds the island of Savai'i in his left hand; if he had held it in his right hand, he would have broken the island to pieces, but Mafui broke his right hand; M. was considered the god of earthquakes, but the islands were supported by Ti'iti'i-Atalanga]: Williamson 1933(2): 210-211; Tonga [the earth rests on the shoulders or on the recumbent body of Maui; when he moves, an earthquake occurs]: Williamson 1933(2): 211-212; Tahiti [the earth rests on the shoulders of a god (not named)]: Ellis in Williamson 1933(2): 214.

Tibet - Northeast India. Ao [1) at the edge of the world a man stands like a pillar between earth and sky; when he sits down to eat rice, earthquakes occur; 2) the man supporting the sky asked another to take his place for a short time, never returned; the one who took up the burden became tired, trembling]: Smith 1925: 99; Eastern Rengma [a giant sitting underground begins to snore, his hands slip off his knees, then the earth trembles]: Mills 1937: 247; Bori [Higgu-Doggu holds the sky on his head; if his throat is cut, the sky will fall, everything on earth will perish]: Elwin 1958b, no. 3: 165; Chins [Makon is a giant supporting the world; the foundation of the world is a flat stone, on which the world ocean is spilled; the fish Ngazalon swims in the ocean, carrying the flat rock-earth on itself; when M. shifts the load from one shoulder to the other, an earthquake occurs]: Chesnov 1982k: 91.

Burma - Indochina. Shans [some say that the world rests on a giant; when it moves, earthquakes occur]: Milne 1910: 207; Karens[as soon as a pregnant woman hung up her laundry to dry, the sun hid behind the clouds; she became angry with the Sun and he cursed her; she remained pregnant for three years and gave birth to a son, Ta-ywa, the size of a jujube fruit; he is gluttonous; becomes monstrously strong; makes a bow; comes to the source from which the children of the Sun take water, threatens them, they have to ask their father to make T. larger in size; the Sun sends various animals against T., but in the end is forced to fulfill the demand; people are afraid of the strongman, try to get rid of him; he leaves, meets and takes Long-Legged as his companions, then Long-Armed, Big-Eared, Three-Toothed, With an Empty Chest; they quarreled over the division of fish; T. with Long-Armed and Long-Legged went one way, and the others in another; T. and his companions decided to cook rice, there is no fire; they came to Shie-oo for fire; he proposes to wrestle: the loser will support the earth; they knocked him down and drove him into the ground; when Shie-oo moves, earthquakes occur; they come to an empty house; under the floor where T. lies down, there is a girl; she pricks him with a needle; he thinks that someone is biting, lifts the floorboard; the girl says that the eagle ate her parents, brothers and sisters, and her parents managed to hide her; T. hid the iron roof with a bamboo one, the eagle could not break through the roof; T. asked permission to shoot from it with an old bamboo bow, but shot with an iron one and killed; then he killed the other two eagles; T. took the bones of the swallowed ones from the eagle’s belly, laid them out in piles (men, women, buffalo, pigs, etc.), hit each one with a rope and revived them; he also revived the girl’s parents; left Long-legged there, telling him to watch the planted plants: if they wither, trouble will happen to him; he goes further; the same episode with another girl, where instead of an eagle there are tigers; T. kills them, leaves Long-armed there; with the third girl - three snakes; T. killed two, the third swallowed him; the plants planted by T. withered, Long-legged and Long-armed understand that trouble has happened to T., they come, kill the snake, revive T.; he returned home and saw his brother cooking live fish; he shot him in anger; repented; shot an arrow into the sky so that it would hit him; the tenth arrow hit; he weakened; sent monkey-tiger (?) to bring him the Karens and the tree shrew – to bring the Burmese; he gave the first a tinderbox so that he could quickly boil a shrimp; he gave the tree shrew two pieces of bamboo: it is difficult to get fire with them, let him wait; but monkey-tiger decided that the shrimp was still raw since it was red, began to wait, and the tree shrew quickly came to the Burmese, they came first to T., asked him for elephants, horses, oxen, and their dogs asked for ears of rice the size of the ends of their bushy tails and for three crops a year; the Karens came when T. had already died and was burned, and with him baskets and wicker fans; only a trace of the patterns remained on the ashes, the Karens remembered it; the Karens could not catch buffaloes and elephants, they only caught a pig; that is why the Karens have pigs]: Mason 1865: 178-187; Karens[the giant carries the world on his shoulders; when he gets tired and shifts from one thing to another, the earth trembles; sometimes the beetles that feed on human waste report that they are hungry because people do not provide them with food; this angers the giant and he shakes the earth violently; then the people shout: "We are still here!"; on such a day it is impossible to work]: Marshall 1922: 230.

South Asia. Bondo [under the weight of the growing population the earth began to cave in; Mahaprabhu asked Kankali to hold the earth on her head; promised her that everyone would donate food and drink to her; when they forget to donate, K. shakes the earth to remind them of himself]: Elwin 1954, No. 2: 91-92; agariya [Bhagavan placed a lotus leaf on the water, but it withered in the sun; created the world from lac (?), but it broke; rolling mud from his chest, created a crow, gave it his milk to drink, sent it to look for land; tired, the crow fell on the crab Kakramal Kshattri; he dived, found Nal Raja and Nal Rani sleeping; the crab squeezed NR's throat, forcing him to regurgitate earth, the crow brought it to Bhagavan, who created dry land; to prevent Mother Earth from shaking, the first agariya placed 12 iron pillars at the four corners of the world]: Elwin 1949, no. 1: 27-28; kond (kuttia) [Paja Jani holds the sun (and thereby the sky, which was previously low) on her head]; dhoba [Bhagavan created the earth, Bhimsen drove an iron nail at each corner; in the middle the earth continued to shake, there he placed an old woman to hold the earth on her head; when her husband copulates with her, earthquakes occur]; lohar [the earth was asked to hold the wife of the son of Cobra, they became the raja and rani of the nether world; the husband was advised to collect old rags from all over the world to place on his wife's head; once in 12 years they copulate, the earth shakes]: Elwin 1949, no. 28: 46); kuruba [the earth is shaped like a disk; two sisters had an ox; the earth trembled; they decided to fix the earth; they fixed it, but the earth turned over; the elder sister fell, died; the younger and the ox began to hold the earth on one shoulder and on one horn; when they get tired and shift it to the other shoulder or horn, the earth trembles; this girl is called Būma-Tāyu – Mother of the Earth]: Kapp 1982: 235; Sinhalese [the goddess of the earth (Mihi Ket) holds the world on her thumb; when she moves it to the other finger, the earth trembles]: Pereira 1917: 3.

Malaysia – Indonesia. Temuan (mantra) [the earth rests on an iron pillar reinforced with iron crodd-bars; below live the Setan; their women do not bear children, but take them out by cutting open the belly of the pregnant woman; the first shaman visited this place, returned and reported what he had seen; still lower is the creator of the earth, who holds up everything above him]: Hervey 1883: 189 (=Skeat, Blagden 1906: 336); central Nias [Nadsjuna Danö has gone to the nether world and supports the earth like Atlas; he is compared to a ring on which round-bottomed vessels are placed; he is also the ancestor-serpent who encircles the earth in a ring]: Suzuki 1959: 3-4; eastern Toraja [1) the earth is supported by the buffalo; when a fly bites his ear, the buffalo moves, the earth shakes; 2) the earth is held on her head by the goddess Ndara; when she moves, earthquakes occur]: Adriani, Kruyt 1950, no. 1: 370; Solor [Doni Dunia holds the earth on her head; when she moves from fatigue, earthquakes occur]: Arndt 1938: 26.

Taiwan – Philippines. Bicol [the earth is supported by a giant; if he moves his index finger, minor earthquakes occur, if with the middle finger, major ones; when he gets tired and moves his whole body, the world will end]: Eugenio 1994, no. 21c: 68; mangyan (alangan) [Ambuao created everything; he holds the earth on his head; when he scratches his head with his hands, earthquakes occur]: Yang 2009: 89; isneg [when the world-supporting giant strikes fire to light a cigar, we see lightning]: Eugenio 1994, no. 147a: 261; paiwan , rukai [the earth is supported by a giant; when he shifts it from one shoulder to the other, it trembles]: Yamada 2002: 65; puyuma [a half-man with one arm and one leg holds the earth; [he rests his hand on the sky and his foot on the ground; his movements cause earthquakes]: Yamada 2002: 65.

China – Korea. Ancient China (Shanxi Province: Buddhist cave temples in Yanggang, late 5th century AD) [at the top of the image: 1) two anthropomorphic characters on opposite sides of a tree; 2) a multi-faced anthropomorphic character on a bird; 3) an anthropomorphic character on a bull; at the bottom, an anthropomorphic character supporting with one hand a surface that serves as a basis for the characters in the upper register]: Berezkin Yu.E., trip to Shanxi, 2003; Ancient China (Western Han, 168 BC, Hunan Province, Mawangdui, depicted on a painted silk banner placed face down on the lid of the inner coffin from the tomb of Lady Dai [apparently, a cosmological diagram; at the very bottom, a naked anthropomorphic character with a plump moustached face with strongly slanted eyes stands on two fish intertwined with their bodies and supports a horizontal surface with both hands; on it are seated characters and vessels under a canopy; according to the gods, water turtles holding something in their mouths, dragons; above is another surface, under it are two tigers (?), on it are hunched characters, probably the buried woman herself and those accompanying her; above is a winged creature; above it is an object with two peacocks on the sides; above are seated anthropomorphic figures; deer jumping up; dragons; at the top left is a lunar sickle with a toad and a rabbit, on the upper right - a solar disk with a silhouette of a raven]: Kryukov et al. 1983: 257-259; Chekmarev 1998: 147-148; Scott 1993: 25; Chinese (Gansu, Huixian County) [In ancient times, heaven and earth were glued together. The Heavenly Ancestor ordered King Pangu to take the Mountain-Cutting Axe and descend into the world to separate heaven from earth. He descended to the thirtieth layer of heaven, took the axe in his hands, struck it, returned back and reported that he had completed the job. The Heavenly Ancestor, smiling, told him to look back, and then Pangu saw that heaven and earth were still glued together, because he struck the heavenly clouds, and the sky became whole again. Then Pangu descended to the thirty-third layer of heaven, struck the axe again, and then returned back again and said that this time he had done the job properly. The Heavenly Ancestor smiled again and told him to go and take a look. It turned out that he had not hit hard enough, and although a crack had appeared between heaven and earth, tall people still hit their heads on the sky. Pangu had to descend to the world again, and this time he hit as hard as he could, the crack between heaven and earth widened, and three layers separated from the sky. Pangu was afraid that heaven and earth would grow together again, ran to Mount Taishan and propped up the sky with his head. From then on, the sky no longer fell to the earth, and King Pangu became the first man on earth]: Zhou Yang et al. 2001, no. 3: 4; miao[First an egg was born; after 9 thousand springs and autumns and 70 thousand years, it broke into 5 parts, from which five gods emerged; Fu Fang supported the sky and the earth, Bu Pa dug rivers and created mountains, Ye Xibg gave people a beginning, Niu Dliang measured the earth, Hu Li Do brought the first sparks of fire]: Bender et al. 2006: 6-7; li (Hainan, Ledong County) [the sky and the earth were only a few zhang apart; there were 7 suns and 7 moons in the sky, the earth was scorched; during the day, living creatures hid in caves, but did not dare to come out at night either, leaving the caves only at dawn and dusk, when the suns and moons replaced each other; a powerful spirit decided that people could not live like this, and in one night raised the sky ten thousand zhang; but there were still 7 suns and 7 moons in the sky; then the mighty spirit made a bow and many arrows; during the day he began to shoot at the suns and shot down 6 of them; the people began to shout for him to leave the last one; he fulfilled their request; at night the spirit began to shoot at the moons, shot down 6; when he shot at the seventh, he missed and broke off a piece of it; the people began to shout again, the spirit left the last moon, as they asked; since then the moon is sometimes full, sometimes waning; the mighty spirit decided that people could not live without mountains, rivers and forests; he took a rainbow from the sky and made a yoke out of it, took roads from the earth and made ropes out of them, began to carry sand from the sea coast with their help and pour mountains; small and large hills were formed from the sand that spilled out of the baskets; the spirit scattered tongs of his hair over the mountains, and so forests similar to hair appeared; the animals and birds living in the mountains began to shake their heads in gratitude for the spirit having created habitats for them; the spirit began to draw lines between the mountains with its toes, creating valleys; the sweat pouring from it filled them and they turned into rivers, the largest of which is the Changhuajiang, flowing from Mount Wuzhishan into the southern sea; having finished its work, the spirit became exhausted and fell to the ground; before dying, it was afraid that the sky would come close to the earth again, opened its palm, raised it and began to hold the sky; this is Mount Wuzhishan (Five-Finger Mountain)]: Zhou 2002, no. 10: 14-15; Koreans [a corner of the sky began to sag; the lord of the sky ordered the strongman to support a bronze pillar on his shoulder; when he shifts the weight, earthquakes occur]: Choi 1979, no. 734: 320.

Balkans. Ancient Greece [“Atlas, forced to do so by a powerful inevitability, holds / On his head and tireless arms the wide sky / Where the border of the earth is, where the Hesperides, the singers, live. / For such a fate was sent down upon him by Zeus the Provider” (trans. V.V. Veresaev)]: Hes. Theog. 517-520; [Prometheus, addressing Ocean: “Oh no, I am already tormented / By the fate of my brother Atlas, who stands / On the western limits, propping up / With his shoulders the pillar of earth and sky – a burden / Not easy!” (trans. V. Nilender, S. Solovyov)]: Aesch. Pr. 378-382; [“Only one god I knew before / Who was cast down by misfortune: / That was Atlas... / Even now he / Supports the firmament with his mighty back” (translated by V. Nilender, S. Solovyov)]: Aesch. Pr. 457-461; [From the Titan Iapetus and Asia, daughter of Oceanus, was born Atlas, who supports the sky with his shoulders]: Apollod. Bibl. I. II. 3; [“When Hercules came to the Hyperboreans, where Atlas was, then, remembering the advice of Prometheus, who told him not to go for the apples himself, but to take the firmament on his shoulders and send Atlas for them, he did all this. Atlas, having cut three apples from the Hesperides, came to Hercules and, not wanting to take the firmament back on his shoulders, said that he himself wanted to take the apples to Eurystheus, and asked Hercules to hold the firmament in his place. Hercules agreed to this, but managed by a clever trick to transfer it back onto Atlas’s shoulders. Prometheus advised him to offer Atlas the vault of heaven on his shoulders for a while while he made himself a pillow for his head. Having heard this, Atlas put the apples on the ground and took the vault of heaven on his shoulders. Thus Hercules managed to take the apples and leave” (translated by V.G. Borukhovich)] Apollod. Bibl. II. V. 11; [after his victory in the Titanomachy, Jupiter threw the vault of heaven onto the shoulders of the leader of the Titans, Atlas; A. still supports the sky]: Hyg. Fab. 150; Bulgarians (Plovdiv) [an earthquake is caused by St. Enyo (John), who carries the rod on which the Earth rests, transferring it from one shoulder to another]: Plotnikova 1995: 314.

Central Europe. Ukrainians (Lemkos: Hrubieszowski u. Lublin province) [the wind produces by its breath a master who holds the earth; he sits in a chair, and the earth has the appearance of a flat circle]: Bulashev 1909: 326, 330.

Caucasus – Asia Minor. Ossetians [the earth stands on the head of a giant; when the giant shakes his head, an earthquake occurs]: Chichinadze 1993: 136; Azerbaijanis ("Turks of the Elisavetpol province") [the earth is held by an angel, it stands on a rock, the rock is on a bull with 4000 eyes and the same number of ears, muzzles, tongues and legs; the bull is on a fish; at the end of the world God will take the earth in his left hand, overturn the heavens into his right, the earth will become different, heaven and hell will be abolished]: Shirakuni 1904: 211-212; Hurrians (Hurrian myth in the Hittite translation) [Alalu was king in heaven for nine centuries, Anu was his cupbearer; in the tenth century Anu defeated Alalu, he fled to the dark earth, Alalu's descendant Kumarbi served Anu food; in the tenth century he began to fight with Anu, he rushed up into the sky, K. pulled him down, biting off his male power; Anu said that now K. is pregnant with the God of Thunder, the Arantsakh River and the god Tasmisu; K. tried to spit out what was in his mouth, Mount Kancura was formed; the God of Thunder from the womb of K. and Anu negotiated about the best way for the God of Thunder to come out into the world; Anu said that the stone would pierce K.'s skull, the God of Thunder would come out through the skull; K. tells God Ea that as soon as the child is born, he will eat it; K. began to eat, the stone in his mouth knocked out his teeth, pierced his skull, now this stone Kunkunuzzi is in the temple; the three gods born from K.'s skull were received by the Protector Goddesses; in order to defeat the God of Thunder, K. couples ten times with the Rock; the born baby was received by the Goddesses of Destiny and the Protector Goddesses; K. named him Ullikummi (Ul); sends a message to the gods Irsirras, so that they should place Ul. on the right shoulder of Upelluri (Up.), on which the gods built heaven and earth; the stone Ul. grows a fathom a day, rises like a rock in the middle of the sea; Ishtar began to sing before him; stopped, having learned that Ul. does not see and does not hear; Ul. has grown to the sky, the gods are not able to defeat him; the god Ea comes to Up.; he says that he did not know when the gods built Heaven and Earth on him (p. 138-139), and when they separated Heaven from Earth with a cutter; but now something is in his way on his right shoulder; Ea orders him to get the saw with which they sawed off Heaven from Earth (p. 139); (further, apparently, about how Ul. was sawed off and the God of Thunder defeated him)]: Ivanov 1977: 114-122, 125-140.

Iran – Central Asia. Kafirs (Prasun) [the middle world is located above the body of a bent giant, who is previously said to have risen from the earth]: Snoy 1962: 91, 93 in Yetmar 1986: 52; Kafirs [the sky is supported by the god Moni (Mandi); according to another version, it is mounted on the central pillar]: Litvinsky 2004: 122; Pamirs (group not specified) [the earth rests on the horn of a bull, the bull stands on a fish, the fish on the water, the water on the wind, the wind over hell, hell on a platter, the platter in the hand of the angel Daryael, the angel on a worm under the seventh tier of hell]: Gornensky 2000: 157-159.

Baltoscandia. The Sami : Petrukhin, Helimsky 1982 [Veralden-olmai ("man of the universe") supports the world with a pillar]: 565; Holmberg 1927 [the Sami erected altars in the form of a split or naturally forked tree, calling it "the pillar of the world"; the North Star is the Pillar of the World, Veralden tshuold]: 222; Tolley 2009(2) [the character Veralden Rad is associated with a tree whose crown is buried in the ground, and whose trunk is split in two or three to support the sky]: 28-29.

Western Siberia. Nenets (tundra, Obdorsk): Lehtisalo 1998: 10-11 [=Lehtisalo 1947, no. 1: 1-4; a hunter entered an iron hut, found no way out, fainted; his companion followed the trail; the Old Man of Earth invited him inside; held a lump of earth in his hand the size of his head, said that this was our earth; said that he was tired and put him in the place of the foot of the earth], 11-12 [=Lehtisalo 1947, no. 2: 4-6; a fortuneteller ascends to Num , who sends him to the lower world to woo Nga's daughter ; after a seven-day struggle, N. agrees to give up the youngest of his seven daughters; the fortuneteller and his wife descended even lower and sits there with earth in his hand; he is the Old Man of Earth].

( Cf. Japan. Ryukyu Islands [the devil Amanojaku ("heavenly pillar") supported the sky, so it became curved; {Wikipedia gives a different translation, need to check}]: Markova 2000: 474).

Subarctic. Tagish , Interior Tlingit : Cruickshank 1992 [woman holds earth on pole; earthquakes occur when pole is moved]: 74; McClelland 1975(1) [woman holds earth on pole; sometimes someone tries to shake pole, she prevents it]: 72; Tahltan [Mother Earth holds earth like a blanket; sometimes gets tired and changes position, earthquakes occur; gets weaker all the time; one day earth will fall into water below]: Teit 1919, no. 2: 227.

NW Coast. Character holds pole or rope. Tlingit : Boas 1895, no. XXV/1 [ground square; rocked and trembled; animals fail, old woman succeeds in crawling under it, holding it still; Raven visits this old woman]: 320; 1916 [=1895, but more detail; see Eng. ver.]: 732; De Laguna 1972 [ground supported by bamboo pole (bamboo is known as driftwood); old woman holds it, shakes it, earthquakes occur; ver.: Raven tells old man to set up pole; then tries to wrest it from him]: 793; Swanton 1909 [after trying all materials, Raven makes a supporting pole from a beaver's forepaw; Old Woman of the Lower World watches over pole, shakes it if hungry; then people throw food into the fire]: 20; Haida [on a copper box stands the Sacred-Standing-and-Moving (SSM); against his chest rests a pillar reaching to heaven; during an earthquake a marten runs along the pillar, making a sound preceding an earthquake; when SSM was still walking on the earth, he killed a mallard duck, poured its fat into a clam; he put a hot stone in it and the fat boiled; SSM belongs to the genus Crow; during an earthquake members of this genus repeat the words "the fat may spurt"; from the top of the pillar extends the "rope of the shining sky"; if you throw a stone at a little goldeneye (Bucephala albeola, bufflehead), this bird pulls the rope and duck feathers from the pillar fall from above; this is snow]: Swanton 1905b: 12-13; Tsimshian : Barbeau 1961 [one of the chief's four sons pretends to be lazy and weak; trains his strength and endurance at night; the only hunter not afraid of sea lions; defeats even trees and mountains in single combat; his grandfather or uncle at the bottom of the sea holds the world on the end of a pole made from a hemlock trunk; ducks and loons grease his joints; when he moves, earthquakes occur; a boat comes for the youth; its crew are loons, the boat itself is a black fish; the youth takes the place of his aged and tired grandfather]: 40-60 (=1953: 320-325); Boas 1895, no. 3 [the flat, round earth rests on a pole held by an old woman; her movements cause earthquakes; heaven sent a flood to destroy the wicked people in a village on the upper reaches of the river. Nessus (they danced and gambled all night); after the flood the mountains appeared; some say that the earth turned upside down at that time; an old woman said that the coal found in the Queen Charlotte Islands were the hearths of the people who lived on the primeval earth]: 278 (=2002: 561); bellacula : Boas 1898: 36 [at sunset there is a pillar that supports the sky and prevents the sun from falling into the lower world; the sun walks on a bridge; its width is the distance between the winter and summer solstices], 37 [our world is an island in a boundless sea; far to the east is the giant Alep!alaxtnaixsits with legs spread; holds a stone strip on outstretched arms; the earth is tied to it by two stone ropes; when the giant gets tired and shifts his hands to get a better grip, earthquakes occur; when the earth shifts to the west, epidemics spread, when to the east, diseases disappear]; McIlwraith 1948(1) [ Elkuntem erects a pillar to prevent the sky from falling to the earth]: 309; Kwakiutl : Boas, Hunt 1902, no. 14 [Pillar-of-Heaven told his star-people that he would descend to the world below, ordered his servants to lower the copper pillar of our world there, descended along it with his son and servants]: 401; Boas 1935 [the pillar of heaven stands in the ocean; Pillar-of-Heaven is also the name of the chief of the upper world, whose people are the stars; he descends down the copper pillar of heaven]: 126.

Mesoamerica. Huasteca culture (apparently early Postclassic period) [shell pendant; at the bottom, a human figure lying on his back supports with his arms and legs a water-filled container with a bundle of reeds in the middle; the authors interpret the figure as an earth god, and the container as an ocean with land in the middle]: Kuehne Heyder, Muñoz Mendoza 1993: 25, fig.9; mountain Totonacs ; Highland Popolucas [ Virgin Mary or San Salvador holds the earth; earthquakes]: Foster 1945a: 187; Mazatecs : Inchaustegui 1977: 36 [earth held by Vírgen Isabel; her movements cause earthquakes], 48 [one of the saints holds the earth on his index finger; changing fingers causes earthquakes]; Texixtlatecs [San Pedro holds the earth; when tired, earthquakes occur]: Hasler 1979: 23; Huave [one or four characters hold the world on their shoulders (no details)]: Lupo 1991: 219-221; Zoques [four old men at the four corners of the world]: Baez-Jorge 1983: 387; Tzotzil : García de Leon 1973 [ Wakbaneh holds the earth; when it moves, earthquakes occur]: 307; Gossen 1974 [one ( San Miguel ) or four men hold the world], no. 142: 22, 327; Lamb 1995 [one, four, or eight anthropomorphic characters; four, rarely five or many, pillars]: 273-274.

Northern Andes. A giant holds up the world. Embera [the god Karagabi holds the world on three fingers]: Rochereau 1929: 85; Kogi [ Seikhankua holds the frame of the loom on which the world rests; one day Nani Matuna , then a toad, wanted to replace it, but could not bear the weight; S. punished them by cutting off the toad's penis and forcing NM to work for his mother]: Reichel-Dolmatoff 1985(2), no. 13: 57-58; Muisca [Chibchachum floods the earth; Bochica appears on a rainbow, makes an outlet for the waters with his golden staff, creating the Tequendama waterfall; as a punishment, he makes Ch. support the earth; his movements cause earthquakes; before this, the earth was suspended by vines]: Simon 1882-1892(2) [1627], ch.4: 289-290.

Ecuador. Kayapa [ Tiapatsi tenatu holds the nether world in the palm of his hand; a pillar of gold and silver in the nether world supports the middle world (earth); a similar pillar in the middle world supports the upper world]: Barrett 1925: 352.

Western Amazonia. Napo : Mercier 1979 [God holds the world in his hand; when tired, he puts it in another hand, the earth trembles; one day he throws it, the end of the world will come]: 168; Ortíz de Villalba 1989, no. 79 [God holds the world in his hand, so it does not turn over; when people sin, the world becomes heavier, falls out of God's hands]: 146.

Central Amazonia. Mundurucu : Murphy 1958, no. 4 [Karusakaibö promises his newborn daughter in marriage to Daiïrú; she dies after copulation; K. sends D. up a tree for an arrow, he does not fall; up a palm tree with thorns on its trunk, he is not torn; to a plot of land, he sets fire to the vegetation around; D. turns into an armadillo, crawls underground (var.: K. asks D. to grab the armadillo by the tail, it drags D. into its hole); D. crawls out, reports that there are people underground; the wild ones come out first, then the peaceful Indians, then the Mundurucu; a bird flying by cuts the rope with its beak, the most beautiful people remain underground; K. is the only one with a wife, he makes other women out of clay; they have no vagina; agouti, paca, squirrel and other animals began to copulate with them, making vaginas, which is why they are of different shapes; D. sprinkled rotten wood dust on them, which is why there is a smell; K. invited D. to bathe, told him to take a flat stone on the way and carry it on his head; the stone began to grow and turned into the present sky; roots grew out of D.'s nose and he turned into an apoi tree (tall in the jungle); it still supports the sky, but it is not known where]; Teschauer 1906 [the world is dark; Rairu tripped over a stone that had the shape of an overturned plate; his father Karusakahiby did not tell him to touch the stone, but R. put it on his head; the stone began to grow and turned into the sky, and the sun appeared on it; R. knelt down]: 731.

Central Andes. Northern coast of Peru ( Moche pottery ) [male character holds double-headed snake = sky]: Baessler 1902-1903, pl.87, fig.296; Kutscher 1950, pl.67; Larco Hoyle 1941, fig.219; Seler 1893, pl.21-10; Huarochiri (Lima dep.) [ Pachacamac holds and shakes the earth; if it moves more, the world will perish]: Salomon, Urioste 1991, ch.22, 23: 113, 115.

Montaña - Jurua. Chayauita [those who drank a decoction of the plant nusetu ka'pi saw seven worlds, similar to a wasp's honeycomb; the first is underground, the last is above; the lowest one is Ahkupu'ru'te' - "Inner World"; there a creature ua'yan, who is called Ukua , holds the worlds on his hand; when one hand gets tired, he transfers the worlds to the other, and earthquakes happen; people and animals living in Ahkupu'ru'te' do not eat or drink anything]: Shlyakhtinsky, Arodzero 2008; ashaninka [the sky supports the tree; Pachacama supports the lower world, the entrance to which is located in the lower reaches of the river; the gods lived at first on the earth, but then fled to the sky, fearing the warriors raging on the earth; the earth and the sky were next to each other and one could climb up a liana; having risen, the gods cut the liana so that the warriors would not follow them, and the distance between the earth and the sky would increase]: Zolezzi 2014: 98; harakmbet [the giant Hudmo holds the sky, put up two supports to make it easier to hold]: Calífano 1995, no. 4: 153.

Bolivia – Guaporé. Tacana (San Jose) [the earth is supported by a single giant (in all other versions – four giants at the four corners of the world)]: Hissink, Hahn 1961, no. 41(7): 89; tupari [the sky rests on a series of pillars around the perimeter of the earth; the male character Patsiare holds the entire world on his outstretched arms]: Caspar 1975: 188.

Southern Brazil. Apapokuwa : Nimuendaju 1914: 332 and 393 [ Nyanderuvusu (Our Great Father) places the eternal cross, creates the earth on it; if the cross is removed, the earth will fall], 399 [his son Nyanderikei holds this support].