Abstract
This chapter follows the archaic motif of the sun wishing to marry his sister, the refusal of the beautiful fairy, who does not want to commit such a sin by marrying her own brother. Wishing to stop his unwanted desires the Romanian Ileana Simziana asks him to fulfill impossible tasks; the story ends with the fairy throwing herself into the sea and being turned into the moon. The motif of a fairy/nymph throwing herself into the sea to avoid an unwanted marriage has its ancient correspondence in the Minoan legend of the Britomartis, also known as Dictynna, the goddess of Mount Dikte.
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Chelariu, A.R. (2023). The Romanian Goddess Ileana Simziana: The Sun and the Moon Marriage. In: Romanian Folklore and its Archaic Heritage. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04051-1_14
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