[3][4] It is Aarne-Thompson-Uther tale type 425B, "Son of the Witch", thus distantly related to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, and belongs to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband.
She succeeds, but her husband disappears, and she is not reunited to him until she has expiated her indiscretion by weary journeys and the performance of difficult tasks.
[6][7][8] Catalan scholarship locates the motif of the box of musical instruments in Greek, Turkish and South Italian variants.
[9] In that regard, Swahn, in his study on Cupid and Psyche, remarked that the instruments as the contents of the box are "common" to Mediterranean tradition.
[11] In English and Scandinavian ballads, such as Willie's Lady, the mother-in-law must be startled so that she will accidentally reveal the charms she is using against the birth.
[12] This motif has been compared to the myth of Hercules's human mother, Alcmene, who could not bear him due to a curse by goddess Lucina.
Also, the trickery of ringing the bells twice, the first time for the false mourning, the second for the heroes' victory and the son's birth, "reflects" the Mediterranean rendition of the myth, which appears in Sicilian stories.
[13][14] Swiss-German author Laura Gonzenbach collected a Sicilian tale she titled Der König Stieglitz ("King Goldfinch").
The third one marries the mysterious youth and they live a good life, but her husband orders her not to open a certain door.
He explains that he was a king, banished to this underground castle by mamma draja, a witch who wants him to marry her daughter.
King Cardiddu admonishes her and tells her to follow the trail to the witch who enchanted him, and make her swear on his name to avoid being eaten by her.
The next day, the witch smears her clothes with oxen's blood and deliver a large pile of them for the girl to wash, whiten, sew, iron and fold them.
She delivers the box to the witch and returns to the mamma draja, who has made the preparations for the marriage between her daughter and King Cardiddu.
[18] In a variant collected by Domenico Comparetti from Basilicata with the title Filo d'Oro, a poor shoemaker has an only daughter.
Her mother sends her to the garden to find cabbages for their soup, but she pushes a bush and leaves a golden coin to compensate for the lost herb.
Filo d'Oro's wife follows his instructions to the letter and enters the ogress's sister's house, where she meets a woman by an oven, to whom she gives the shovel and gains the box in return.
Later, as a last trick on her mother-in-law, the girl fakes that she is in mourning, returns to the ogress's house and tells her her son is dead again.
[19] Author Italo Calvino adapted the tale as Filo d'Oro and Filomena and remarked that it was related to "Amor and Psyche" cycle of stories.
[20] In another tale collected by Pitrè, Spiccatamunnu, sourced from Palermo, the heroine, Rusidda, marries a mysterious man.
Suddenly, her husband Spiccatamunnu throws her a cane and instructs her to beat it on the ground, and the little dolls will return to the box.
After she gives the casket to her mother-in-law, the ogress announces that her son is to be married to another person, and orders Rusidda to hold a torch by their bridal bed, in a kneeling position.
One day, a girl named Mariedda comes into her service, and Donna Dubbana Manna gives her a basket of clothes and orders her to wash them with no water and dry them without sunlight.
The girl brings the basket to Donna, who, just as her son predicted, suspects her servant had help, but Mariedda pretends she never saw Bellubeldomine.
For the next task, Donna Dubbana Manna marries her son to a bride and forces Mariedda to hold torches to illuminate the wedding couple for the whole night.
In the morning, the sorceress utters a spell so that the one holding the torches is transformed into ox manure, thinking that it is Mariedda that is still in the position of torch-bearer.
In order to help his wife, Bellubeldomine convinces a group of boys to cause a ruckus shouting that his mother's palace is on fire.
The boys do as instructed and, in the confusion, Donna Dubbana Manna unclasps her hands, allowing her daughter-in-law to finally give birth.