Filek-Zelebi (Greek folktale)
# Filek-Zelebi (Greek folktale)

Filek-Zelebi (Greek: Φιλέκ-Τζελεμπί, romanized: Philek-Tzelempí) is a modern Greek folktale from Crete, collected by Austrian consul Johann Georg von Hahn and published in the 19th century. The tale is related to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, where a heroine loses her husband and must search for him.

## Summary

An old woman lives in poverty with her three daughters and earns her living by gathering and selling herbs. One day, when she is tired, she utters a sigh ("Oh"! or "Ah!"), and, suddenly, a Moor appears to her and asks why she summoned him. The old woman denies summoning him, but tells him about her three daughters. The Moor asks for the woman to bring her eldest to him; the elder goes to live with the Moor and is given a human head on a plate as her dinner. She throws the head away, and the Moor takes her back to her mother. The second daughter fares similarly, but with a human leg. When it the youngest's turn, she hides the cannibalistic delight (a human hand) under her clothes to trick the Moor.

The Moor accepts her as his mate and they live like husband and wife, but every night, the girl is given a sleeping potion, so that she cannot see who is really standing at her bedside. Some time later, her family pays her a visit, and she tells them about the mysterious person that comes in the night. Her sisters then convince her to pretend to drink the potion and to spy on her husband. That same night, she follows her sisters' suggestion; beside her, she notices a handsome youth with a golden padlock and a golden key on his chest. She opens the lock on his chest and sees a lush landscape, with a woman washing clothes in a river and a pig nearby. The girl raises her voice to warn the woman about the pig, and it wakes up her husband. The man tells his wife she is pregnant, and, when she gave birth, his curse would have been lifted, for his true form is Filek-Zelebi, not the Moor. He then tells her to wear three pairs of iron shoes, find three golden apples, climb a mountain and toss one of the apples down the mountain; she must follow the apple to his eldest sister's house.

She follows his instructions and pays a visit to her three sisters-in-law: in each house, they are weaving and preparing for the birth of their nephew. At the last house, the youngest sister-in-law welcomes the girl, who is now in labour, and she gives birth that same night to a boy with a golden lock on his chest. The sister-in-law recognizes that the boy is truly her nephew, the son of her brother, and Filek-Zelebi appears to them.

## Analysis

### Tale type

According to the Greek Folktale Catalogue, the tale is classified as subtype 425L. In this type, the heroine gives birth to a child that looks like her husband (e.g., with a padlock on his body), and they reconcile. In addition, Greek subtype 425L may begin with a father asking his three daughters what presents he can bring them from a trip and, not finding it, utters a sigh; the sigh summons an Arab or dark-skinned person, who is the enchanted husband's servant.

However, German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther, in his 2004 revision of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, subsumed type AaTh 425L under new type ATU 425E. In type ATU 425E, the heroine's husband has a padlock on his body; after she betrays his trust and opens the padlock, she is expelled and takes shelter in a castle where she gives birth to their child.

### Motifs

Scholar Jan-Öjvind Swahn [sv], in his monograph about Cupid and Psyche, remarked that the heroine's pregnancy was an "essential" trait of subtype AaTh 425L.

According to Richard MacGillivray Dawkins, in Greek variants, the mysterious servant may be a "blackamoor" or pasha, summoned by uttering an interjection ("Alas" or "Woe is me"). The mysterious servant may also subject the heroine and her sisters to a dish of rotten human flesh they must eat.

**The husband's name**

In a study about the myth of Cupid and Psyche, Danish folklorist Inger Margrethe Boberg argues that the name "Zelebi" comes from Turkish tchélébi, which is a Persian loanword meaning 'gentleman'. In the same vein, Richard M. Dawkins suggested that the name Filek could be derived from the "Turco-Arabic" felek; thus, the husband's name may mean "Lord Sky".

## Variants

### Europe

**Greece**

According to the Greek Folktale Catalogue, type 425E is "popular" in Turkey and Greece, while type 425L is known across the Greek Agean Islands and in Asia Minor.

French Hellenist Émile Legrand [fr] translated into French a Greek tale with the title Le Seigneur du Monde Souterrain, which was also translated by author Lucy Mary Jane Garnett as The Lord of the Underearth. In this tale, an old man is gathering firewood, when he stops to rest on a stump and sighs aloud ("allímono", in the original). A Black man appears and asks why the man summoned him, but the latter denies it. The Black man then asks the man if he has any daughters, and asks to bring him the eldest girl. The girl is brought to the Black man, who takes her to a lush garden. They sit for lunch and he serves her a rotten human foot, which she is to eat if she if to become the wife of the Lord of the Underearth. The girl refuses the "food" and tosses it in the ashpit. The Black man delivers her back to the old man and takes the second daughter, to whom he offers a rotten homan hand. The second girl also refuses it. Lastly, he takes the youngest with him and serves her a human stomach. The girl, cunningly, asks the man to get some seasoning for her delicacy. While the Black man is away, she wraps the food in her stomach with a girdle and fools the Black man. Soon after, she lives with the Black man as her servant: he gives her some coffee laced with a sleeping potion, and she never sees her husband, the Lord of the Underearth. Some time later, her sisters realize she never returned, and ask her father to summon the Black man. It happens so: the old man tells the Black man his daughters miss their sister, and the Black man bids he brings them with him the next time. The elder sisters pay her a visit and convince her that the Black man is not her husband, but there must be someone else with her at night; she just has to pretend to drink the potion, feign sleep, and turn the key on her husband's navel, then she can see "Constantinople, Smyrna, the whole world". The girl follows her sisters' advice and feigns sleep; while the Lord of the Underearth is asleep, she turns the key on his navel and sees the whole world. Inside, she notices a woman washing her wool in the river, and shouts at her the water is carrying it off. The Lord of the Underearth wakes up and insults his wife, then orders his Black servant to pluck two of the hairs on her head, place it in basin, give bread to his wife and send her away. The Black servant follows his master orders, and banishes the girl into the wide world. The tale then continues with the girl's adventures in male disguise. Richard M. Dawkins also translated the tale as Human Flesh to Eat, and named the supernatural husband "The Lord of the World Below".

Greek scholar Georgios A. Megas [el] published a Greek tale titled The Sun and His Wife. In this tale, a poor old man has three daughters and tries to feed his family by hunting. During a hunt, he loses sight of a hare and sighs heavily. His three daughters ask him the motive of his sadness, the elder daughters dismiss his concerns, but the youngest comforts him. Some time later, he enters the forest again and, failing to find any good game, sighs aloud "Alas and alack". Suddenly, a "very black blackamoor" appears and questions why the old man summoned him, since his name is Alasandalack, but the man denies having done so. The black man asks the old man which of his daughters he the best, to which the latter answers: the youngest. The black man then explains he is the servant of the Sun, and is to take the girl as the Sun's bride. The old man agrees to his terms and convinces his youngest daughter to accompany the blackamoor to the Sun's abode. The girl marries the Sun and becomes pregnant as time passes, but she has never seen his face, since she is always given a sleeping potion before bedtime. One day, his sisters pay her a visit, and convince her to spy on her husband at night: they give her a sponge so it can soak up the drink, then she is to feign sleep, and light a candle to better see his face. The girl follows her sisters' advice: while the Sun is asleep, the girl takes "from inside his head" three gold hairs and a golden padlock with a golden key. She turns the key and enters it; inside, wonders and all manners of things. She sees many workshops where the labourers are weaving clothes for the Sun's wife and their unborn child. The girl leaves the padlock and locks it, but a drop of candlewax falls on the Sun's body and burns him. The Sun wakes up in anger and orders his servant, Alasandalack, to take the girl to the wilderness, kill her, and bring back her blood for him to drink. However, Alasandalack disobeys his orders and spares her, directing her to a forest where his master's sister dwells. The girl follows his directions and utter her husband's name; her sister-in-law welcomes her. This repeats twice more, until the girl reaches her third sister-in-law, a lamia (a man-eating ogress), who takes her in just as she is ready to give birth. The girl gives birth to a boy with a golden padlock on his heart, whom the lamia recognizes as her brother's son, the Sun. The Sun appears soon after at his sister's house.

**Albania**

Richard MacGillivray Dawkins reported an unpublished Albanian tale wherein the enchanted husband is served by "a black spirit" and has a lock on his stomach; the heroine opens the lock and sees a marketplace, where the people are preparing clothes for her future child; the heroine is expelled from home, but gives birth to a boy with a lock on his stomach, just like his father.

### Asia

In a Turkish tale collected by Turkologist Ignác Kúnos with the title Der Schlangen-Prinz ("The Snake-Prince"), a poor broom-maker has three daughters and earns their living by selling brooms. One day, he stops to sit on a stone in the woods and utters a loud sigh. Suddenly, the stone opens up and an Arab appears to him, saying he was summoned. The broom-maker denies having summoned him, but pours out his woes to the man, who is the Snake-Prince's lala. The Arab man gives him a sack of gold and suggests the broom-maker brings his daugthers to him, one at a time. The Arab submits the girls to a test: they are given a sherbet laced with a sleeping potion so they fall asleep, then the Arab will prickle her foot with a needle. The elder two avoid eating the sherbet and have their feet prickled by a needle, screaming in pain, while the youngest falls asleep and does not feel a thing. The Arab sends them back, but keeps the youngest as his master's potential bride. The Arab sleeps by the girl's side for 40 nights, while she lies asleep on the bed. Whenever the youth appears, he hides a set of keys under the cushion, which the girl takes to open 40 doors. Behind the last one she sees a garden where a pair is asleep: a youth with a girl next to him, and a cradle nearby. The human girl places a shawl on the girl then leaves. The asleep girl, the daughter of the Padishah of the Peris, wakes up, sees the shawl and accuses her companion of consorting with a human, then flies away. The youth goes to live with the human girl, but, one night, she does not drink her sherbet and feigns sleep. She turns to her bedmate and sees a padlock on his navel; she opens it and sees inside a great Tscharschi filled with people making cushions and carpets for the girl's unborn child she will bear to the snake prince. The human girl leaves the padlock and closes it again, but the snake prince, in human form, realizes his wife opened the padlock and orders his Arab servant to expel her from his palace. The girl, pregnant, wanders off until she reaches a Seraj that belongs to her elder sister-in-law, who does not welcome her. This repeats again with the second sister-in-law, but her husband's youngest sister takes her in just as she is ready to give birth. The third sister-in-law notices that the child, a boy, has a padlock on his navel, just like his father. Meanwhile, the snake prince, regretting his actions, goes after his human wife and pays a visit to his three sisters, in hopes of finding her again. At last, he arrives at his youngest sister's palace and leaves his snakeskin outside. Inside the palace, the human girl is advised by her sister-in-law to take the snakeskin and burn it, while he is occupied with his sister. It happens thus, and the snake prince, fully human, reconciles with his human wife.

### Africa

Scholar Hasan M. El-Shamy collected a tale from a teller who lived in a Nubian village in Southern Egypt. In this tale, titled The Sultan of the Underwater, a childless woman goes to the river Nile and prays to God to have a daughter and she will fulfill a vow. A daughter is born to her. Years later, the girl tells her mother that whenever she goes to the river, a rock pinches her and tells her to remind her mother of her vow. The woman takes her daughter to the river and sits her on the stone. Suddenly, the stone sinks into the earth and takes her to the king of the underwater, since the stone was his slave. The girl lives with the king of the underwater, but is given a sleeping potion every night before she goes to bed. Some time later, a crow warns the girl that her mother died. The sultan gives her a purse of gold and orders the slave to take her to visit her mother. The mother is not dead, after all, and the girl spends three days with her. Some female neighbours mock the girl for the black slave that is accompanying her, since they think he is her husband. This happens a second time, and the girl tells her neighbours she is given a sleeping potion after supper, so she does not see her husband at night. The neighbours then advise her to toss the drink and feign sleep. It happens thus: the girl discovers her husband is a "fair-complexioned" man, with a locked door on his thigh. The girl opens the key on the door and enters it; inside, goldsmiths, upholsterers and cabinetmakers. Suddenly, the sultan of the underwater realizes his wife is inside the door and pulls her out, banishing her. She wanders off until she passes by the palaces of her three sisters-in-law: the elder two do acknowledge her as their brother's wife, but push her away; the youngest welcomes to her palace, where she gives birth to a boy looking like his father. Later, the sultan of the underwater pays a visit to his three sisters in search of his wife.

