''Myrsina'' or ''Myrtle'' is a Greek

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...

collected by in '' Folktales of Greece''. Other variants were collected by Anna Angelopoulou. It is Aarne-Thompson type 709,

Snow White "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...

, though substituting many motifs: sisters for the stepmother, the Sun for the magic mirror, abandonment in the woods for an attempt to kill, and the Months for dwarves. Others of this type include ''

Bella Venezia "Bella Venezia" is an Italian fairy tale collected by Italo Calvino in his ''Italian Folktales''. Calvino selected this variant, where the heroine meets robbers, rather than others that contain dwarfs, because he believed the dwarfs were probably a ...

'', ''

Nourie Hadig Nourie Hadig is an Armenian fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and m ...

'', ''

Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree is a Scottish fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in his ''Celtic Fairy Tales''. It is Aarne-Thompson type 709, Snow White. Others of this type include ''Bella Venezia'', ''Nourie Hadig'', ''La petite Toute-Belle'' an ...

''. and ''

La petite Toute-Belle "La petite Toute-Belle" ("Little Toute-Belle") is a Breton fairy tale published in 1900 by Paul Sébillot in '' Contes des landes et des grèves''.Paul Sébillot, ''Contes des landes et des grèves'', pp 144-152, Hyacinthe Caillière Editeur, Re ...

''.

Synopsis

Myrsina is the youngest of three orphaned sisters.

Three 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...

times, the sun declares that she is the most beautiful. Her jealous sisters tell her it is time to honor their mother with a memorial, or to rebury her. They make the traditional food, go to her grave in the forest, and exclaim they have forgotten the shovel and so can not plant flowers, or can not dig her up to rebury her. The two oldest must go back for it, and Myrsina watch the food. In the evening, Myrsina realizes they will not return and cries. This wakes the trees, and one tells her to roll her bread down the hill and follow it. She does and lands in a pit, wherein is a house. She hides there and does the housework while the owners, the Months, are about. The Months wonder who is doing it until the youngest stays behind and hides. He catches her, and the Months take her as their sister. Word reaches her sisters. They come to her with a poisoned cake, claiming to have been unable to find her. She gives part of the cake to the dog, and it dies. When the sisters hear she is still alive, they come back; she will not open the door to them, but they claim to have a ring that their mother said must go to Myrsina. She could not defy her mother's wishes, so she put on the ring and fell to the floor. The Months returned, lamented her, and kept her body in a golden chest. A prince came by, and they gave him their best room, so that he saw the chest. He pleaded for it, and they finally gave it to him on the condition that he never open it. He became ill and did not want to die without knowing what was in the chest; he opened it, wondered at Myrsina, and thought the ring might reveal to him who she was. He took it off, and Myrsina came back to life. Myrsina had the ring thrown into the sea and married the prince. One day, her sisters came to harm her, and the prince had his soldiers deal with them.

References

{{Reflist Female characters in fairy tales Greek fairy tales ATU 700-749