In the Greek variants of the tale type, however, the story continues with the adventures of the banished heroine, who meets a man at a graveyard, rescues and marries him, and eventually is found by her first husband, the snake prince whom she disenchanted before.
After a period of mourning, the female teacher dotes on the girl even more and convinces her to ask the now widowed king to find a new wife, and mention her name.
The female teacher advises the girl to speed up the process by dousing the chain with stinking water and rotten lemons.
The chain rusts and releases the iron shoes, which the king perceives as a portent to marry the female teacher as his new wife.
Her mother's ghost's voice says she will help her, despite her death by her hands: the princess is to wear iron gloves and place a cauldron of boiling milk under the queen; the snake will sense the milk and exit his mother's body, then the princess is to take the snake with the iron gloves and tend to him.
The princess goes to her mother's grave in search of advice, and the queen's ghost tells her to use an iron rod to keep the snake at bay during her lessons.
The stepmother queen sends her stepdaughter, the princess, again, on the pretext that, since she helped in his delivery, suckled him and taught him letters, she shall be his bride.
Finally she finds the right opportunity when the now human snake prince departs for war and leaves his wife under his mother's care, warning that, if anything happens to her, he will not return home.
The dead prince, awake at this point, sends his wife to another land for protection and she must search for the palace of Riga, be welcomes in his name, and reveals how they can save their son: by banishing every black rooster from the city.
[3][4] The first part of the Greek tale type corresponds, in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, to tale type ATU 433B, "King Lindworm": a serpent (snake, or dragon) son is born to a king and queen (either from a birthing implement or due to a wish); years later, the serpent prince wishes to marry, but he kills every bride they bring him; a girl is brought to him as a prospective bride, and wears several layers of cloth to parallel the serpent's skins; she disenchants him.
[11] Similarly, according to Birgit Olsen, "in most versions" the heroine is advised by her mother's spirit to wear many shifts for her wedding night with the lindworm prince.
[12] Swedish scholar Waldemar Liungman [sv] noted that the heroine, in the second part of the tale, is torn between a first and second husbands, and chooses the first - a dilemma that occurs "both in the Nordic as well as in variants from Eastern and Southeastern Europe".
[13] Folklorist Stith Thompson noted that tale type 433B's continuation, with the heroine's adventures, occurs in the Near East.
[14] According to researcher Birgit Olsen and Greek scholars Anna Angelopoulou, Aigle Broskou and Michael Meraklis, the two-part narrative forms an East Mediterranean oikotype, popular in both Greece and Asia Minor.
[15][16][9] The Greek Folktale Catalogue names tale type 433B as "Ο Όφις που έγινε βασιλόπουλο ή Η κόρη με τους δυο συζύγου" ("The Snake who Became a Prince, or The Girl with Two Husbands"),[15] and registers 23 variants.
[17][18] In a Greek tale titled Tsyrógles or Chyrogles,[19] a girl convinces her father to marry a woman with a daughter.
[21] Austrian consul Johann Georg von Hahn collected a Greek tale from Wisiani, Epirus, with the title Schlangenkind ("Snake-Child").
The snake son's mother thinks it a strange command, but spares the girl and only cuts off her finger, banishing her to a desert.
[24] Professor Michael Merakles published a Greek tale with the German title Die Lehrerin ("The Teacher").
The female teacher then plot with the girl: she is to ask her mother for sugary treats from inside a chest and close off the lid on her head.
The girl is sent to be the snake's bride, but, following her mother's advice, she takes the snakeskin and tosses it in a fireplace to burn it, which disenchants the prince.
She wanders off until she reaches another kingdom, whose prince has fallen into a long and deep sleep for twenty years, and can only be awakened after a maiden holds a vigil for forty days.
The girl takes up the task, but on the fortieth day, an old woman appears and finishes the vigil, awakening the prince.
A judge is summoned to solve the dispute: they are to eat very salty food, and whomever she asks for water shall be considered her husband.
[25] In a tale published by Greek folklorist Georgios A. Megas [el] with the title H κατάρα της μάνας ("Mother's Curse"), a king and a queen have a daughter named Maria, who goes to school.
Maria kills her mother, but the queen says her daughter will have to mourn on her grave for advice, and may God and the Virgin Mary forgive her.
One day, after the king departs for war, a woman near the palace's verandah asks God to give her a snake for a child.
Later, the snake son, called Όφις ("Ophis"), asks his human mother to be taught to read and write, suggesting Maria shall do it.
Princess Maria goes to her mother's grave again and again receives advice: prepare iron rods to beat the snake son if he tries to bite her when learning the alphabet.
A priest suggests they place Maria atop a hill with each man on one side of her, Ophis with water and Giorgios holding nuts and her baby.