There is a small prize going for the first person to identify which European nation's founding myths are portrayed in these images. Once you have discovered the country of origin, try and explain the significance of these myths in the nationalist discourse of the nation in question.
Myths
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2 comments:
If I 'guess' can I get the prize? :-)
No, Sian, that would be cheating. ;)
The nation is Hungary (or Magyarorszag to use the Hungarian).
The first picture depicts the founding myth of the Hungarian people. The Scythian princes, Hunor and Magor (sons of Nimrod), were out on a hunting trip when they spied an ethereal white stag (the Csodaszarvas, which is also depicted in picture 2). They pursued it across the Sea of Azov (as hunting princes do) and, finding the new region to their liking, settled and married two daughters of Dula, King of the Alans. From the two brothers are descended the Huns and the Magyars, respectively. Apparently The myth of the Csodaszarvas ("Miraculous Deer") was recorded by Simon of Keza around 1283 in his chronicles. there is a variant of the myth where Hunor and Magor are sons of Japheth.
The myth is important with regards to Hungarian nationalism because it sets up a direct blood lineage between the Magyars (Hungarians), who entered the region in the 9th Century to the Huns, who had occupied the land some centuries prior. This is a connection which Simon of Keza draws on in his work, elaborating the connection in some depth. Between 896 and 902 (approximately) the Magyar tribes conquered and settled the Carpathian Basin. This myth, by identifying the settling Magyar tribe with the Huns of the past acted to legitimate the conquest: it became a second conquest, a reclaiming of territory which was by blood-right theirs. It asserts a right to hold the land based on a concept of owning it long before.
The fourth picture, I assume, is the dream of Emese. Emese (which possibly derives from the Finno-Ugric name 'eme', meaning 'mother') was the mother of the High Prince Almos. The legend goes that Emese had a dream of a Turul bird. The medieval chronicle reads:
"his [Almos'] pregnant mother had seen a divine vision in her dream of a Turul bird, as it were flying over her and getting her with child; and a spring seemed to rise from her womb and many great kings originated from her loins, although they would multiply not in their own lands".
The Turul appears several times in Hungarian myths, and usually seems connected with a coming move of peoples. In a variant myth the Turul itself impregnates her. One recalls the dream of the Buddha's mother, Mahamaya, where a white elephant enters her womb).
This myth is connected with my elaboration of the first. Almos was father of Arpad, the first king of Hungary who led the Magyar occupation of the Carpathian Basin. This invasion is known as the Honfoglalás, or "the occupation of the country". It introduces a notion of divine sanction or prophecy in the movement and conquest process, thus legitimising the occupation: "We should be here, it was ordained."
I'm unsure what the 3rd picture represents, and I may be wrong about the others. One might wish to note though the tree-like appearance of the miraculous deer in picture 2, which connotes a sense of 'settling': Hunor and Magor were led to the land which they were meant to settle.
As a last note, the Scythian origins of Hunor and Magor empahsised by Simon of Keva were drawn on by Istvan Werboczy in the early 16th Century to legitimate Hungarian serfdom. The argument went that as Scythians they were subject to Scythian law, and the only activity noble for them was war (the Scythians had bested both Darius, King of Persia, and Alexander the Great). In such a society the nobles were perceived as free and equal, while teh peasantry were redefined as teh descendents of those who had been condemned for cowardice in battle and whose punishment had been commuted from execution to a loss of status and power. Unsurprisingly, the Hungarian nobility liked this idea, and it became the charter for common law for roughly three centuries. I know that wasn't directly connected with the myths above, but I found it interesting as an illlustration of how myth feeds into and justifies hierarchies and social oppression (i.e. the 'real world').
I haven't really said very much, but I'm sure someone can elaborate more on how the myths influence Hungarian nationalist discourse.
Jon
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