Wound

Figures that bear it

A model judged each figure against its own description, one term at a time. Is: the figure is, or is partly, this thing. Bears: it carries the thing or is marked by it. What a figure does is filed under motifs and powers. Open "why" for the sentence the judgement rests on.

• Cheiron bears Greek mythology
  why

  Cheiron's death is tied to his immortality in a way that sets him apart from ordinary myth: struck accidentally by one of Heracles's poisoned arrows during the hero's battle with other, more violent centaurs, Cheiron suffers a wound that cannot heal but also cannot kill him outright, since as a son of Cronus he is deathless.

• Jataya bears Indian folklore
  why

  Accounts describe Jataya as ultimately overcome and destroyed by Ravana in this confrontation, dying from wounds sustained in the failed rescue attempt, though some versions grant Jataya enough remaining life to later inform Rama of what he witnessed before succumbing.

• Loup-Garou bears French folklore
  why

  It prowls by night, falling on livestock and on travellers caught late on lonely roads, and one of the oldest motifs of the tradition is the revealing wound: a wolf injured in the night is recognized the next morning by the same wound on a neighbor's body.

• Pontianak bears Malay folklore
  why

  She is most commonly depicted as a pale, beautiful woman with long, disheveled black hair and a white or pale funeral shroud, who can appear alluring at a distance and only reveals her true monstrous nature, including long nails, bloodshot eyes, and a gaping wound, when she draws close to her victims.

• Skinwalker bears Native American folklore
  why

  In some tellings a skinwalker can be wounded or killed if struck, and the wound will appear on the person's human body when they are later encountered, exposing their identity.