zaria...

četvrtak, 22.06.2006.

SLAVIC MYTHOLOGY

Unlike Greek or Egyptian mythology, there are no first-hand records for the study of Slavic mythology. Despite some controversial theories (for instance, the Book of Veles), it cannot be proven that the Slavs had any sort of writing system prior to Christianisation; therefore, all their original religious beliefs and traditions were passed down orally over generations, and were forgotten over the centuries following the arrival of Christianity. Prior to that, sparse records of Slavic religion were mostly written by non-Slavic Christian missioners who were not very interested and/or objective in their descriptions of pagan beliefs. Archaeological remains of old Slavic idols and shrines have been found, but they do not tell us much more other than confirming existing historical records. Fragments of old mythological beliefs and pagan festivals survive up to this day in folk customs, songs, and stories of all the Slavic nations. Reconstruction of ancient myths from remains that survived in folklore over a thousand years is a complex and difficult task that can often lead researchers astray. This may result in misinterpretations, confusions, or even pure forgeries and inventions.


Written sources
We do not have written sources about the Slavic mythology predating the fragmentation of the unified Protoslavic nation into Western, Eastern, and Southern Slavs. A possible exception is perhaps a short note in Herodotus’ Histories, mentioning a tribe of Neuri in the far north, whose men, Herodotus claims, transform themselves into wolves for several days each year. Some researches have interpreted this through the Slavic folk belief in werewolves, whilst other believe that Herodotus actually referred to ancient Slavic carnival festivals, when groups of young men roamed the villages in masks, sometimes referred to as vucari (wolf-men). The identification of "Neuri" with Proto-Slavs remains controversial, however.
The first definitive reference to the Slavs and their mythology in written history was made by the 6th century Byzantine historian Procopius, whose Bellum Gothicum described the beliefs of a certain Southern Slavic tribe who crossed the Danube river heading south in just two days. According to Procopius, these Slavs worshipped a single god, lord of all, who crafted lightning and thunder; though the historian does not mention the name of god explicitly, it is clear from his description that he meant Jupiter. Although we may now interpret it as if it was Perun. He also mentions the belief in various demons and nymphs (i.e., vilas), but does not mention any other names.
The Russian Primary Chronicle is a major work with many valuable references to pagan beliefs of Eastern Slavs. The chronicle treats the history of the early Eastern Slavic state. Even though the manuscript was compiled at the beginning of the 12th century, it contains references to, and copies of, older documents, and describes events predating the Baptism of Kiev. Two gods, Perun and Veles/Volos, are mentioned in the text of the early 10th century peace treaties between pagan rulers of East Slavs and Byzantine Emperors. Later, Nestor the Chronicler describes a state pantheon introduced by prince Vladimir in Kiev in 980. Vladimir's pantheon included Perun, Hors, Dazhbog, Stribog, Simargl, and Mokosh. The Hypatian Codex of the Primary Chronicle also mentions Svarog, compared to Greek Hephaestus. Also very interesting are the passages in the East Slavic epic The Tale of Igor's Campaign referring to Veles, Dazhbog, and Hors. The original epic has been dated to the end of the 12th century, although there are marginal disputes over the authenticity of this work.
The most numerous and richest written records are of West Slavic paganism, particularly of Wendish and Polabian tribes, who were forcefully Christianised only at the end of the 12th century. The German missionaries and priests who fought against pagan beliefs left extensive records of old mythological systems they worked to overcome. They, however, hardly restrained themselves from “pious lies”, seeking to show pagan Slavs as idolatrous, blood-thirsty barbarians. As none of those missionaries learnt a Slavic language, their records represent a mix of valuable information, erroneous confusion, and gross exaggeration.
Major works include a chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg from the beginning of the 11th century, who described a temple in the city of Riedegost (Radagast) where the great god Zuarasic (Svarogich) was worshipped. According to Thietmar, this was the most sacred place in the land of pagan Slavs, and Svarogich was their most important deity.
Another very valuable document is the Chronica Slavorum written in the late 12th century by Helmold, a German priest. He mentions 'the devil' Zerneboh (Crnobog), god Porenut, goddess Siwa, some unnamed gods whose statues had multiple heads and, finally, the great god Svantevit, worshipped on the Rügen island, and, according to Helmod, the most important god of all (Western) Slavs.
The third, arguably most important record, comes from the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus, who in his Gesta Danorum described the war fought in 1168 by the Danish king Waldemar against the Wends of Rügen, the conquest of their city at the cape Arkona and the destruction of the grand temple of Svantevit that stood there. Saxo meticulously described the worship of Svantevit, the customs associated with it, the tall four-headed statue of the god, and he also mentioned multi-headed gods of other Slavic tribes: Rugievit, Porewit and Porentius.
The fourth major source are three biographies of the German warrior-bishop St. Otto, who in the early 12th century led several military-pastoral expeditions into the regions of Slavic tribes living near the Baltic Sea. According to the manuscript, the most important Slavic god was Triglav, whose temples in the city of Szczecin were respected oracles. In the cities of Wolgast and Havelberg, the war god Gerovit was worshipped, a likely corruption of Jarovit, a Slavic deity possibly identical to Jarilo of the East Slavic folklore.


Archeological remains


The Indo-European custom of communal banquets was known as bratchina (from brat, "brother") in Russia, as slava ("glorification") in Serbia and as sabor ("assembly") in Bulgaria.
Statues of several Slavic gods were discovered. In 1848, on the banks of the Zbruch river, a tall stone statue was found, with four faces under a single stone hat. Because of its likehood with Saxo's description of the great idol in the temple of Rügen, the statue was immediately proclaimed a representation of Svantevit, although it was clear it could not be the original Svantevit of Rügen. Several other multi-headed statues were discovered elsewhere. A tiny four-headed statue from the 10th century, carved out of bone, was unearthed amongst the ruins of Preslav, a capital of medieval Bulgarian tsars. A two-headed, human-sized wooden statue was discovered on an island in the Tollensesee lake near Neubrandenburg: in the Middle Ages, this was the land of Slavic Dolenain tribe, whose name survives in the name of the lake. Furthermore, a three-headed statue was discovered in Dalmatia (Croatia) on the hill bearing the name of Suvid, not far from the peak of Mt. Dinara called Troglav.
The remains of several Slavic shrines have also been discovered. Some archeological excavations on the cape of Arkona on Rügen island have uncovered vestiges of a great temple and a city, identified with those described by Saxo. In Novgorod, at the ancient Peryn skete, archeologists discovered the remains of a pagan shrine likely dedicated to Perun. The shrine consisted of a wide circular platform centred around a statue. The platform was encircled by a trench with eight apses, which contain remains of sacrificial altars. Remains of a citadel with a more or less identical layout were discovered on a location with the suggestive name Pohansko (Paganic), near Breclav in the Czech Republic.
All these archeological remains have the multiplicity of aspects in common. Statues of gods with multiple faces and remains of shrines with multiple sacrificial altars confirm written reports of Christian missionaries about the Slavs worshipping polycephalic gods, and also indicate that ancient Slavic mythology apparently put great emphasis on worship of gods with more aspects than one.
Also quite important are remains of several pieces of pottery from 4th century Chernyakhov culture. Russian archeologist Boris Rybakov identified and interpreted symbols inscribed onto them as records of ancient Slavic calendar.


Folklore traces
As various Slavic populations were Christianised between the 7th century to 12th century, Christianity was introduced as a religion of elite, flourishing mostly in cities and amongst nobility. Amongst the rural majority of medieval Slavic population, old myths remained strong. Christian priests and monks in Slavic countries, particularly in Russia, for centuries fought against the phenomenon called dvoeverie (double faith). On the one hand, peasants and farmers eagerly accepted baptism, celebrated masses, and the new Christian holidays, yet on the other hand, they still stubbornly persisted in performing ancient rites and worshipped old pagan cults, even when the ancient gods and myths on which those were based were completely forgotten.
This was because, from a perspective of a Slavic peasant, Christianity was not seen as the replacement of old Slavic mythology, but rather an addition to it. Christianity may have offered a hope of salvation, and of blissful afterlife in the next world, but for survival in this world, for yearly harvest and protection of cattle, the old religious system with its fertility rites, its protective deities, and its household spirits was taken to be necessary. This was a problem the Church never really solved; at best, it could offer a Christian saint or martyr to replace the pagan deity of a certain cult, but the cult itself persisted, as did the mythological view of the world through which natural phenomena were explained.
Thus, an absurd situation was created for study of Slavic mythology. While folk beliefs and traditions of all Slavic nations indeed are the richest resource for reconstruction of ancient pagan beliefs, indeed, the very key for unlocking the secrets of the long-forgotten pantheon, they are a resource of very unusual nature which cannot be taken for granted. Folk songs, stories and festivals lost their original sacred, mythical character, as well as their original meaning, long ago, and were downgraded to a level of mere superstition or a meaningless tradition that was continually repeated and passed down over generations who, for the most part, did not know what they were doing. People entertained a general vague idea that some festivals must be celebrated in a certain way, some stories must be told or some songs must be sung, because that was the way it has always been done. Cults of old deities were mixed with worship of new Christian saints, old rituals blended among new Christian holidays, and, over centuries, general mess was made complete.



Gamayun, one of three prophetic birds of Russian folklore, alongside Alkonost and Sirin (painting by Viktor Vasnetsov, 1897).
This lead scholars to analyse the structure of folklore itself, and to devise methodologies through which they could reconstruct the lost mythology from this structure. We can roughly divide the folklore accounts into two groups:
Fairy tales about various fantastical characters and creatures such as Alkonost, Baba Yaga, Koschei the Deathless, Firebird, Zmey songs and tales of legendary heroes such as Russian bogatyrs, and superstitions about various demons and spirits such as domovoi, likho, vilas, vampires, vodyanoy, rusalkas etc. Many of these tales and beliefs may be quite ancient, and probably contain at least some elements of old mythical structure, but they are not myths themselves. They lack a deeper, sacral meaning and religious significance, and furthermore they tend to vary greatly among various Slavic populations.
Folk celebrations of various Christian festivals and popular beliefs in various saints. It is, for instance, quite clear that a popular saint in many Slavic countries, St. Elijah the Thunderer, is a replacement of old thunder-god Perun. Likewise, traces of ancient gods can also be found in cults of many other saints, such as St. Vitus, St. George, St. Blaise, St. Mary, St. Nicholas, and it is also obvious that various folk celebrations, such as the spring feast of Jare or Jurjevo and the summer feast of Ivanje or Ivan Kupala, both very loosely associated with Christian holidays, are abundant with pre-Christian elements. These beliefs have considerable religious and sacral significance to the people still performing them. The problem is, of course, that the elements of pre-Christian religion are hopelessly mixed into popular Christianity.
Reconstruction of original Slavic myths is thus a true detective work, requiring a considerable knoweledge of various scientific disciplines such as semiotics, linguistics, philology, comparative mythology and ethnology. Folklore accounts must be analysed on level of structure, not merly as songs or stories, but as groups of signs and symbols which contain some internal structural logic. Each of these signs is composed of some key words, which are more than simply names of characters, places or artifacts. One important aspect of symbols is that they are almost impossible to change; while their names may be altered, their structure may not. Changing or losing of key words would result in a change of symbol, which would then validate the internal structural logic of a text and render the entire tale meaningless. It would then soon be forgotten, because the pattern, or logic, through which it was transmitted over generations would be lost.
For example: as stated already, the Slavic god of thunder, Perun, was mostly equated with St. Elijah the Thunderer in Christian folklore. But he was also sometimes equated with St. Michael the Archangel, and sometimes even with Christian God, whilst in some of Russian or Belarusian folk stories, he was downgraded to various fairy characters such as Tsar Ogin (Tsar Flame) or Grom (Thunder). Notwithstanding changes in the name itself, there are always some key words present which were used to describe Perun as a symbol in ancient mythical texts, and have survived through folklore. Perun is always gore (up, above, high, on the top of the mountain or in heaven; Perun is a heavenly god, and he is also the 'highest' god of old Slavic pantheon), he is suh (dry, as opposite of wet; he is god of thunder and lightning, which causes fire), he treska/razbija/goni/ubija (strikes/hits/pursues/kills; he is a god of thunder and storms, destructive and furious) with strela/kamen/molnija (arrow/stone/lightning; Perun's weapons, are of course, his bolts of lightning. He fires them as arrows which are so powerful they explode and blow up stones when they hit). These key words are always perserved in folklore traces, even if the true name of Perun has been long ago forgotten. Consequently, the structure of this symbol allowed the identification of Perun with similar characters either from Christian religion or from later folklore, which share these similarities in structure of their own symbols.
Following similar methodology, and drawing paralles with structure of other, related Indo-European mythologies (particularly Baltic mythology), and occasionally using some hints found in historical records of Slavic paganism, some of ancient myths could be reconstructed. Significant progress in the study of Slavic mythology was made during last 30 years, mostly through work of Russian philologists Vladimir Toporov and Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov, as well as Croatian scientists Radoslav Katičić and Vitomir Belaj. Also very valuable are the studies of Russian scholar Boris Uspensky and of Serbian philologist and ethnologist Veselin Čajkanović.
However, uncritical interpretation of folklore or unskilled reconstruction of myths can lead to disastrous effects, as we shall see.


Unauthentic sources
When dealing with Slavic mythology, one cannot be too careful or to critical about the validity and authenticity of sources. Scholarly interest in beliefs of ancient Slavs has been continually waxing since the times of Renaissance, and with it the overall number of confusions, errors, misinterpretations, and unsupported reconstructions (not to mention inventions) has also increased.
No valid scientific methodology by which folklore accounts could be interpreted was known before the mid-20th century, and with sparse historical and archeological sources, the doors were thus opened to wild and unwarranted speculation. One of the best examples of overall confusion and complete misinterpertation is a fake deity of love, Lada or Lado, constructed from meaningless exclamations in Slavic wedding songs. Gods such as Koleda and Kupala were constructed from misinterpreted names of popular Slavic folk festivals; Koledo was the Slavic name for Christmas processions of carol singers, whilst the source of the name Kupala is unknown. Christian sources claim that it comes from Ivan Kupala (literally: John the Baptist) however this claim is as unbased as the claim of those who choose to interpret it as a pagan holiday. This festival day is celebrated at the summer solstice in many Slavic, and also western European countries, such as France and Italy. THese customs indeed do have more than a few elements of pre-Christian beliefs, but simply inventing gods based on names of customs is obviously not a valid method for reconstruction of those beliefs.


In his early works, notably The Firebird and The Rite of Spring, Igor Stravinsky sought to evoke the imagery and rhythms of pagan Slavic ritual.
Misinterpretation of Thiethmar's historic description of Wendish paganism led to confusion between a god, Svarogich, and a city in which his temple stood, Radegast. Since the name Radegast can be easily etimologised as meaning "Dear guest", this led to the construction of Radegast as the supposed Slavic god of hospitality. Likewise, to pair up with a god with the sinister sounding name of Chernobog (Black god) mentioned by Helmod, the White god, or Belobog, was invented. That name is not found in any reliable historic or ethnographic record; rather, it was simply assumed that, since there already was a Black god, there simply had to be a White god as well. Again, this is clearly not a scientific approach to the study of Slavic mythology, but pages and pages have been written about the supposed Belobog-Chernobog dualism so far, and many books and scholarly references even today take for granted that such gods were truly worshipped by ancient Slavs.
Even worse than confusions or misinterpretations are deliberate forgeries. In the nineteenth and twentieth century, the general population became increasingly interested in Slavic mythology, fuelled by various romantic, nationalistic, and, in modern times, neopagan movements. Forging evidence of ancient mythology, for a time, became almost a sort of hobby among various social groups, often with the aim to promote their own topical agendas. For instance, statues of ancient Slavic gods were "discovered", inscribed with Germanic runes, or folk songs and stories were "recorded" in which half of the Slavic pantheon is described as picking flowers or merrily dancing around a bonfire.
The nineteenth century Veda Slovena is a heavy mystification of Bulgarian folk songs, with many alleged references to Slavic mythology, which most scholars consider a forgery. A more recent example is a controversial Book of Veles, which claims to be an authentic written record of old Slavic religion from the ninth or tenth century, written in the Cyrillic alphabet, whereas it cannot be proven that the Slavs had any sort of writing system prior to Christianisation, let alone that they used Cyrillic alphabet (named, of course, after St. Cyril, who coined the first known writing system for Slavs when he was sent together with his brother Methodius to baptise them in ninth century). Slavic neopagans use the Book of Veles as their sacred text, and consequently, insist that the document is authentic. However, the original book, supposedly written on birch barks, was lost (if indeed it ever existed), and thus its authenticity cannot be established at present.


Calendar and festivals
Slavic myths were cyclical, repeating every year over a series of festivites that followed changes of nature and seasons. Thus, to understand their mythology, it is important to understand their concept of calendar. On the basis of archeological and folklore remains, it is possible to reconstruct some elements of pre-Christian calendar, particularly major feastivals.
The year was apparently lunar, and began on the first day of March, similar to other Indo-European cultures whose old calendar systems are better known to us. The names for the last night of old year and the first day of new year are reconstructed as Velja Noc/Velik Dan (Great Night/Great Day). After Christianization, these names were probably passed onto Easter. In Slavic countries belonging to Orthodox Churches, Easter is known as Velik Dan/Great Day, whilst amongst Catholic Slavs, it is known as Velika Noc/Great Night. The names blend nicely with the translation of the Greek Megale Hemera, Great Week, the Christian term for the week in which Easter falls. In pagan times, however, this was a holiday probably quite like Halloween. Certain people (shamans) donned grotesque masks and coats of sheep wool, roaming around the villages, as during the Great Night, it was believed, spirits of dead ancestors travelled across the land, entering villages and houses to celebrate the new year with their living relatives. Consequently, the deity of the last day of the year was probably Veles, god of Underworld.


The spring fertility festival of Maslenitsa, rooted in pagan times and involving the burning of a straw effigy is still celebrated by Slavs all over the world.
There was a large spring festival dedicated to Jarilo, god of vegetation and fertility. Processions of young men or girls used to go round villages on this day, carrying green branches or flowers as symbols of new life. They would travel from home to home, reciting certain songs and bless each household with traditional fertility rites. The leader of procession, usually riding on horse, would be identified with Jarilo. The custom of creation of pisanki or decorated eggs, also symbols of new life, was another tradition associated with this feast, which was later passed on Christian Easter.
The summer solstice festival is known today variously as Ivanje, Kupala or Kries. It was celebrated pretty much as a huge wedding, and, according to some indications from historical sources, in pagan times likely followed by a general orgy. There was a lot of eating and drinking on the night before, large bonfires (in Slavic - Kres) were lit, and youngsters were coupling and dancing in circles, or jumped across fires. Young girls made wreaths from flowers and fern (which apparently was a sacred plant for this celebration), tossed them into rivers, and on the basis of how and where they floated, foretold each other how they would get married. Ritual bathing on this night was also very important; hence the name of Kupala (from kupati = to bathe), which probably fit nicely with folk translation of the future patron saint the Church installed for this festival, John the Baptist. Overall, the whole festivity probably celebrated a divine wedding of fertility god, associated with growth of plants for harvest.
In the middle of summer, there was a festival associated with thunder-god Perun, in post-Christian times transformed into a very important festival of Saint Elijah. It was considered the holiest time of the year, and there are some indications from historic sources that it involved human sacrifices. The harvest probably began afterwards.
It is unclear when exactly the end of harvest was celebrated, but historic records mention interesting tradition associated with it that was celebrated at Svantevit temple on the island of Ruyana (present-day Rugen), a survived through later folklore. People would gather in front of the temple, where priests would place a huge wheat cake, almost the size of a man. The high priest would stand behind the cake and ask the masses if they saw him. Whatever their answer was, the priest would then plead that the next year, people could not see him behind the ritual cake; i.e., he alluded that the next year's harvest would be even more bountiful.
There probably also was an important festival around winter solstice, which later became associated with Christmas. Consequently, in many Slavic countries, Christmas is called Bozhich, which simply means little god. While this name fits very nicely with the Christian idea of Christmas, the name is likelyof pagan origin; it indicated the birth of a young and new god of Sun to the old and weakened solar deity during the longest night of the year. The old Sun god was identified as Svarog, and his son, the young and new Sun, as Dazhbog. An alternative (or perhaps the original) name for this festival was Korochun.


Cosmology
A fairly typical cosmological concept among speakers of Indo-European languages, that of the World Tree, is also present in Slavic mythology. It is either an oak tree, or some sort of pine tree. The mythological symbol of the World Tree was a very strong one, and survived throughout the Slavic folklore for many centuries after Christianisaton. Three levels of the universe were located on the tree. Its crown represented the sky, the realm of heavenly deites and celestial bodies, whilst the trunk was the realm of mortals. They were sometimes combined together in opposition to the roots of the tree, which represented the underworld, the realm of the dead. Contrary to the popular ideas, it seems the world of dead in Slavic mythology was actually quite a lovely place, a green and wet world of grassy plains and eternal spring. In folklore, this land is sometimes referred to as Virey or Iriy.
The pattern of three realms situated vertically on the axis mundi of the World Tree parallels the horizontal, geographical organisation of the world. The world of gods and mortals was situated in the centre of the earth (considered to be flat, of course), encircled by a sea, across which lay the land of dead, where birds would fly to every winter and return from in spring. In many folklore accounts, the concepts of going across the sea versus coming from across the sea are equated with dying versus returning back to life. This echoes an ancient mythological concept that the afterlife is reached by crossing over a body of water. Additionally, on the horizontal axis, the world was also split; in this case by four cardinal points, representing the four wind directions (north, east, south, west). These two divisions of the world, into three realms on the vertical axis and into four points on the horizontal, were quite important in mythology; they can be interpreted in statues of Slavic gods, particularly those of the three-headed Triglav and the four-headed Svantevit.
The Sun was considered to be a female deity, and the Moon to be male one. This is contrary to the usual concept in Indo-European mythologies, in which the Sun is usually associated with male deities and Moon with female ones, but identical to the picture in Baltic mythology, which is most closely related to SlavIC.


from wikipedia

utorak, 13.06.2006.

BJELINE

Topla je i svijetla rijec "ljeto"
Kod svake list je, poput malog uha,
Treperec sluso strah tvog bludnog duha,
Sto drhtase u sumi blizu grada
U vrelu tijelu, koje ljubav svlada.
Topla je i svijetla rijec "ljeto".

Svaki list je znao izrec "jesen",
Kada bi tiho pado vlazan rujan
Ko tvoja usna; mekan, jedva cujan;
Tvoj duh bi presto na sum da treperi
Sapcuci liscu: mek nam krevet steri!
Svaki list je znao izrec "jesen".

A sad lisce ne sapce, nit slusa:
U krovistu sad nase male sume
Blijedi se snijeg i ulazi u me
Ledena sumnja: je l' tu ljeto vrelo
I jesen bjese, kada tvoje tijelo
Bijelilo se, toplo kao dusa

ponedjeljak, 12.06.2006.

Povratak u prošlost

T.U.


vratila sam se....zašto? i sama se pitam...ali mi je ipak drago što ćemo se ponovno čitati.
Nadam se da me niste zaboravili....

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