Article

Name: Birth-through-death myth in Narts’ sagas

Authors: E. B. Besolova

V. I. Abaev North Ossetian Institute for Humanitarian and Social Studies – the Affiliate of the Vladikavkaz Science Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladikavkaz, Russian Federation

In the section Study of folklore

Abstract: The epic of the Ossetian people, «Narty Kadjyta» («Narts’ sagas»), transmits to the present days the phenomena of the spiritual and material life of the people, and their roots lie in the early archaic rituals and time strata which can be accounted for by pagan beliefs and religious mythology. The paper deals with the archaic ritual of «voluntary death», which existed almost in all societies, as well as among the Caucasian peoples. In the era of intense military activity at the decline of the primitive communal system, when man’s military valour was an ethical priority, the elderly were killed as useless members of the community. Assessing this phenomenon the authors interpret a folklore and mythological motive within the context of harsh living conditions of archaic and primitive societies. Having revealed that not all symbols of the ancient ritual ceremony of murdering elders were lost, the authors tried to reconstruct its more ancient semantic structures in the cycle of sagas about Uryzmag by reading the ritual symbolically and considering it in terms of typology. The path from birth to death lies in the earthly world visible to men, but it is most difficult to comprehend the way back, that way from death to birth, which, is a guarantee of immortality and thus is much more significant. Here emerges an image of a mother, in whose womb only a person is protected from all the adversities of the earthly world with its cruel antagonism. According to the authors, the image of the Nart Uryzmag involves three functions: the function of a progenitor of the people, military and priestly ones. Being father of the tribe he was the first to invent the «drink of immortality» - oeluton, the strong drink of the Narts, divine and ritual drink brewed from honey. Honey, a symbol of wisdom, is connected with the resurrection or personality changes after initiation, comparable to purification by fire. Through the initiation ceremonies, which in the excerpts from the legends about Uryzmag's last campaign took the form of «symbolic journeys» beginning in the maternal womb through cleansing rituals, the authors state the old progenitor’s rebirth. However, this birth provides laughter as well, understood as a magical means of creating life. Thus, in the ritual of killing old men in its most ancient semantic structures the archaic ritual function of their revival is seen. There is an entry into the world through cosmogonic sources of the ritual, through a return to the original state (water), the source of birth. Comprehending the ethnographic fact that existed in historical reality in the heroic epic of «Nart» confirmed the truth: only the souls of those who died heroic death were granted new existence.

Keywords: narts’ epic, voluntary death, ritual, birth through death, drink of immortality

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