Article

Name: The image of earth spirit in the olonkho epic. Part 3: The path of evolution

Authors: M. T. Satanar

North-Eastern Federal University named after M. K. Ammosov, Yakutsk, Russian Federation

In the section Эпосоведение

Abstract:

The article focuses on analyzing how the image of the spirit-mistress of the earth has evolved over time. The study has revealed that the image was created by combining elements from various historical periods. The oldest stratum leads us to the image of the ancient Stone Age civilization, with its polyfunctional and multicomponent nature reflecting the syncretic worldview of ancient people who endowed it with astral, vegetative, and chthonic features. The Neolithic image of perception is associated with the first “offshoots” of functions from a single prototype. Subsequently, genetically related images of the spirits of forest, hunting, vegetative forces, fire, childbearing, and cattle litter appeared. A higher level of abstraction was characterized by the images of wisdom and mind, the creative principle, and the thunderer. The image under study demonstrates the stability of its function as a patronage of the fruit-bearing forces of nature, dating back to ancient times. During the Bronze Age, the prototype was enriched with the new idea of the reincarnation cycle of the human soul and the pathos of immortality. The patriarchy promoted the emergence of male images of spirits-masters of the earth later to be assigned the role of innovative “cultural creations” in the bosom of the earth. The final shape of the anthropomorphic image of the mistress of the earth was formed only in the early twentieth century due to the widespread collectivization in the USSR.

Keywords: earth spirit, image prehistory, epic, model of the olonkho world, hero, motiv, symbol, function

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