User:Paul August/Caucasus

Caucasus

Sources

Modern

Bachvarova

p. 105

as noted earlier, the episode in fact is part of a complex of [cont.]

p. 106

episodes that are situated on the Black Sea, and among these we must include the Cyclops episode, which incorporated elements of the Gilgamesh tradition and the Caucasian myth of a one-eyed monster that likely came through Anatolia, rather than directly to Greece. For the Cyclops episode has a set of striking parallels with Caucasian stories of Uryzmaeg, in which the hero cleverly tricks the one-eyed giant, blinding him with a torch.¹²²

¹²² Ossetian: Uryzmaeg et la géant borgne (trans. Dumézil 1965: 55-9); also Circassian Saga 37: A Cyclops Bound atop Was'hamakhwa, Abaza Saga 52: How Sosruquo Brought Fire to His Troops, Ubykh Saga 86: The Birth of Soseruquo (trans. Colarusso 2002: 170, 200-2, 387-97).

Colarusso

p. 5

The Nart sagas ... closely resemble the myths of the pagan Norse ... and Ancient Greece ... That there is an ancient Iranian core in the various corpora is not to be denied ... the name Nart is of [cont.]

p. 6

Indo-Itanian origin ...

The reader will gain an idea of the significance by reading some of the parallels I have proposed. For Ancient Greece there are Nart figures with clear links to Aphrodite and her [cont.]

p. 7

shepherd lover, Anchises, with the Gorgons, with Prometheus, with the Cyclopes, and with the Amazons ... . For ancient India ... More striking are the striking paralells between the the grim Norse war god Odin and a Nart named Wa(r)dana, as well as between the Norse world tree Yggdrasil and Lady Tree of the Narts ... There may even be parallels between this Nar tradition and a myth of the ancient Hittites ... Parallels with the Arthurian cycle are also undenable ...

p. 44

In this way this Nart saga [SAGA 4] serves as a bridge between the Old Testament tradition and those of Ancient Greece, in which Anchises, the shepherd king, and lovely Aphrodite have assumed roles similar to those in the previous saga, ...

p. 52–54

SAGA 8 Lady Setenaya and the Shepherd: The Birth of Sawseruquo

p. 53

Here Setenaya is reminiscent .. of the Greek Aphrodite, ... [Sasruquo] recalls the Greek hero Achilles ...

p. 105

This saga seems to be a primitive version of the Prometheus myth (Charachidzé 1986). ... See sagas 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 52, 55, and 91 for more complete accounts.

p. 130

Lady Nart Sana is also known as ... the Forrest Mother, Circ./ a-maz(ə)-áh-na/ 'the forrest-int-mother', the last being the source of the Greek Amazon. The Circassian from is pronounced (amazān), precisely what one finds in Greek (the last vowel is long in both languages)! The greek form, meaning "without breast(s)," usually considered the origin for this, is a folk etymology. ...

p. 158

SAGA 34 How Pataraz Freed Bearded Nasran, Who Was Chained to the High Mountain

Nart Nasran ...

p. 163

A nameless hero encounters a one-eyed giant ... Eventually the giant eats ... (just as with Polyphemus ... Clearly a common tale has come down both in Greek and in Circassian ...

p. 168

SAGA 35 Bound Nasran

O Nart Nasran

p. 169

This song exemplifies part of the spectrum of Prometheus figures in the corpus (saga 18, and compare Charachidzé 1986). In this one the bound leader is taken as a evildoer himself. This saga shows the strong influence of the binding of Amirani in Georgian tales, especially in the actions of the blacksmiths. Amirani is ...

p. 170

SAGA 37: A Cyclops Bound atop Wash'hamakhwa

One upon a time, long ago, a giant warrior with only one eye in the middle of his forehead¹ dared to try to learn the secrets of God. ...

¹ Although it is common knowledge among Circassians and their kin that all giants are Cyclopes, this is the only Cicassian saga I know in which this is explicitly stated (see saga 52).

p. 200

SAGA 52: How Sosruquo Brought Fire to His Troops

One day the Narts set out on a quest. ... Sosruquo began his quest for fire. ... he came to an ayniwzh, a one-eyed giant, who was lying down before a fire in a cave. ... Near where Sosruquo was sitting there were two men and some sheep inside a huge rock. ...

p. 201

Soon the ayniwzh fell into a deep sleep. ... [Sosruquo asked the men] "Why are you here?"

"He captured us and brought us here. He has already gobbled up our friends. ..."

Sosruquo ... found a huge spit ... and placed it into the fire. After the spit became scorching hot, he took it out, directed into the ayniwzh's only eye, and burned it outright on the spot.

Sosruquo and the men caught two sheep and hung one man between them. ... That is how the two men escaped.

The ayniwzh ... grabbing huge stones and throwing them in the direction of any noise these men made ...

p. 202

This saga is one of the Prometheus myths vividly depicted in the Caucasus. ... This saga is unique, however, in that it is wedded to a striking variant of the Odysseyan tale of Polyphemus, ... here an ayniwzh ... 'the-big-evil (one)', .. These giants are commonly thought of as one-eyed, but this is the only Abaza tale that explicitly states this (see saga 37). ... Links between the Ancient Greek trading cities along the Black Sea coast and the ancestors of the Northwest Caucasian peoples (Ascherson 1995, ch. 2) undoubtedly led to extensive borrowings and influences in the myths of both peoples (see the comments is saga 26 and especially saga 34).

p. 318

This suggests that Lady Nart Sana, Amazan, ...

p. 399

One might note that both Satanyana and the ancient Greek Aphrodite share parallels not only as fertility figures who mate with a shepherd but, as this saga [SAGA 87] shows, as figures who know how to treat wounds.

Hunt

p. 9

The Caucasus has an extremely rich folk literature—one that includes myths, legends, ancedotes and proverbs—which is almost unknown among English speakers.

One of the reasons that the Caucasus has such a rich store of folk literature is that the bulk of the languages spoken in the mountainous and countryside regions had no alphabet until the early years of the twentieth century, and so nearly all communication was oral.

... However the collectors of folklore had begun work about forty years before then, throughout the late nineteenth century.

Among the early collectors were ... in Georgia in the 1880s, ... in Ingusheria in the 1870s, ... in Balkaria in the 1880s ...

p. 13

Chapter 7 deals with the rearing of animals, which in the high mountains mostly means sheep or goats. This chapter about shepherds includes some examples of Cyclops legends. There are many variants of the Cyclops legend in the Caucasus, and one of the few common factors in these legends is that the giant (Cyclops) is a shepherd, as he was in The Odyssey.

p. 14

Variants of legends containing Prometheus motifs are widespread in the Caucasus, ...

p. 201

VII Legends About Shepherds, Including Cyclops Legends

This chapter contains two types of legends about shepherds: those without magic elements, and the Cyclops stories that often contain magic elements. The question might arise: why are Cyclops legends included in a chapter on shepherds? The answer is that when the Cyclops legends were studied and their motifs were listed, the cannibal giant was a shepherd in almost all of them.

p. 210

CYCLOPS LEGENDS

In the Caucasus folklore there is a whole constellation of legends and tales that can be classified as being of the Cyclops type. A constellation of stars consists of a loose grouping of stars, of which some are more prominent, others are less so; but it does not contain a supreme central star, as in a planetary system. There is a temptaion to define thr 'Cyclops' constellation of legends as if it were a planetary system that could be grouped around the Homeric tale. However the Homeric tale itself was probably also part of a contemporary constellations of legends, of which all have been lost except the one that Homer recorded. There is no evidence that the Homeric tale was the unique central 'sun' within a planetary type of legendary system: at the time of its recording it was probably just one version among many.

Twenty five versions or variants of the legend from the Caucasus were identified as fitting this definition.However. there were three variants of another interesting legend in which some of the usual Cyclops motifs were inverted, and this legend has also been included.

Homer's Cyclops legend contains the following eighteen motifs:

1. Giant shepherd

2. ...

...

p. 211

4. Hero and his men enter dwelling (as thieves)

5 ...

...

18. Hero and men sail away

pp. 212–213

Table 1. Motifs included in the reference Legend of Homer (*); and the 'Cyclops' legends (a to z) that are listed in Table 2.

p. 214

Table 2. Caucasus versions and variants of the Cyclops legend.

p. 215

TEXTS OF CYCLOPS LEGENDS

44. Yoryuzmek and Sosuruk (Balkar)

p. 218

45. The Story of One-eye (Georgian)

pp. 220–221

Walking behind the flock was a man of huge stature, and with only one eye. ... Here One-eye shut us in, ... he set him on a spit and began roasting him over the fire ... Thus that monster ate up all of out brothers except me and the youngest ... he lay down ... and began snoring, ... we laid [the spit] on the fire ... When the spit [p. 221] had become red hot, we ... thrust it straight into One-eye's eye. ...

... he began to let the ... sheep [out] through between his legs,

p. 222

46. Stories about Giants (vampolozh) (Chechen-Ingush)

p. 225

47. Koloy Kant (Chechen-Ingush)

p. 228

48. Parcho (Chechen)

p. 229

Long long ago there lived a strong man with one eye in his forehead. He was named Parcho.

p. 330

XII Prometheus Legends

The importance of Prometheus legends in the Caucasus can be gauged by the forty-four different versions that have been identified.

p. 332

The first two legends feature the Georgian Prometheus figure, Amirani. ... The next legend, 'Pkharmat', is particularly ...

p. 333

The next legend, of Abrskil, is the Abkhazian parallel to the Georgian Amirani, ... The next legend, 'Nasran', is one variant of the many Adyge versions of the Prometheus story.

pp. 333–335

91. The Chained Amirani (Georgian)

p. 335

92. The Dragon Turned to Stone (Georgian)

pp. 336–337

93. Amirani and the Herdsman (Georgian)

pp. 339–344

95. Pkharmat¹ (Chechen)

¹ Pkharmat was a mythological hero, similar to the Georgian Amirani.

pp. 344–347

96. How Sosuruk Obtained fire for the Narts (Balkar)

pp. 347–351

97. Abrskil (Abkhaz)

Mayor

p. xix

The extraordinarily rich folk literature of the Caucasus is virtually unkown in the West because the region's ancient myths and legends were preserved orally instead of in writing. And the high mountain, thick forests, valleys, craggy cliffs, rocky gorges, isolated valleys, and lonely seas of grass have ensured that the region and its cultures remain little-known today.

p. xx

In contrast with the ancient Mediterranean world, where oral myths were first captured in writing around 700 BC, most Caucasian languages did not possess alphabets until the twentieth century.

p. xxi

The giant Cyclops and the Titan Prometheus of ancient Greek mythology, for example, bear strong resemblances to Caucasian traditions about a one-eyed ogre and a fire-bringing hero in the Cacasus (Sagas 18, 31, 34-37, 52, 91).

Rashidvash

p. 33

The Caucasus is rich in folklore. In the southern highlands tales of a mountain sorceress, Dal is widespread. She is beautiful and glowing and is a protectress of the alpine wildlife, but she can also lure hunters to their doom. Other tales show strong Zoroastrian influences from Ancient Iran. In the North there are tales that recount battles with the ancient Goths, Huns and Khazars, the last a Turkic people who ruled the Caucasus and adopted Judaism wholesale. One of the most noteworthy traditions is that of the Nart sagas, dramatic tales of a race of ancient heroes in which the figure of the all wise and all fertile Lady Satanaya is pivotal. She is mother to all the heroes and in many ways resembles the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. Other figures include a shape changer and trickster, Sosruquo. He is magically conceived by Satanaya when a shepherd lusts after her and is born aflame from a rock. The god of the forge, Tlepsh, seizes him with tongs and quenches him in a vat of water, [cont.]

p. 34

thus hardening him and making him invulnerable everywhere but at his knees (much like the Greek hero Achilles) where the tongs held him.The mightiest and purest hero is Pataraz or Batradz, in some ways resembling Sir Lancelot of the Arthurian Romance. His father, Khimish, is murdered by the Narts for marrying a water sprite without their approval. They commit this murder in front of Khimish’s mother, the worst possible atrocity in Caucasian eyes. Pataraz, still in his mother’s womb, swears vengeance for his father’s blood. When he is born the Narts abduct him and throw him into a torrent. He is washed away, found by a little old man and woman, and is raised in a burial mound. He quickly grows to maturity underground and is in effect resurrected from the dead. He returns and first encounters a Nart ruler, Pshimaruquo, whose name means Prince of Death. He triumphs over him and goes on to annihilate his enemies[4]. There is also a giant or hero, Nasran who, like the Greek Prometheus, is chained to a mountain top as a punishment for trying to return fire to humankind. There is a cyclopean giant, Yinizh, who traps some men in a cave just as the Greek cyclops Polyphemus did. He is blinded by the trickster Sosruquo, who thrusts a stake into the giant’sone eye and escapes along with his men. These numerous links to the myths of Ancient Greece are matched by many to Ancient India and to Norse Scandinavia as well. There is even a sort of Christmas tree figure, Lady Tree and a warrior Forest-Mother, Amaz-an from which the Greeks took the figure of their women warriors, the Amazons. There is also a wide spread belief in the western Caucasus in a wild man of the high mountain forests, especially among people who dwell in the upper villages. These hairy sub-humans are reputed to be about five feet tall and to travel in small family groups. Occasionally they are said to come into the lowland fields at harvest time and feed on the ripening ears of corn. Men are said to be very brave if they can go into the high forests and trade with these wild men, because after having met with one or two of them in a clearing to offer trinkets they run the risk of being ambushed by the whole band as they return through the high, dense rhododendron forests.