crime. In cases where it is entangled in the Amor and Psyche motive the wife has to suffer from the jealousy of the other woman, and so we might think that it was also here a jealousy or hatred which brought Rhiannon into this evil plight. But, unfortunately, we have no proofs of it; it is just here that our story differs from those mentioned under (β). The attendants accuse Rhiannon of cannibalism merely to avoid the punishment for their carelessness; and so we can only say that two different cycles have been combined. It seems that there have been mixed up both cycles mentioned under (β); the fact that the child was stolen in the Taboo-Breaker Cycle may have contributed to overlapping in this direction. There is, however, one incident which points to the Abandoned Wife Cycle, viz. the lord's demand of Pwyll to put away his wife because of the heinous crime which she has committed (R.B. 723, W.B. fo. 178 a-b, Ar gwyrda a docthant y gyt y wneuthur cennadeu at Pwyll y erchi idaw yscar ae wreic am gyflavan mor anwedus a rywnaethoed). Pwyll declined this request; now just such repudiation was the fate of the Abandoned Wife,[1] and so we are probably right in supposing that this cycle also has influenced our tale.
As for Rhiannon's punishment,[2] she has to sit at the outer gate of the court and to tell her story to every comer and to offer to carry him to the court, i.e. she is degraded to a mule. We find another such incident in her life: when she was imprisoned in the enchanted castle (Branch: Manawydan vab Llyr), she had the collars of the asses, after they have been carrying hay, about her neck (R.B. 751,
- ↑ Cf. Kittredge, Harvard University Studies and Notes, viii. p. 242 ff.
- ↑ But cf. the Abandoned Wife's punishment in Dolopathos (Oesterley, 75): "Ipsam vero, nulla sibi pro se respondendi aut negandi crimen facultate concessa, vivam in medio palatii sni infodi usque ad mamillas iubet, precipiens omnibus militibus, servientibus, scurris et parasitis ut pransuri aut cenaturi manus super uxoris caput abluerent abstergerentque capillis, nullusque ei alius ad reficiendum daretur cibus quam qui canibus parabatur. Mansit autem sub hac iniuria septem continnos annos."
