Ossetian mythology

The mythology of the Ossetian people of the Caucasus region contains several gods and supernatural beings. The religion itself is believed to be of Sarmatian origin, but contains many later elements from Christianity, and the Ossetian gods are often identified with Christian saints. The gods play a role in the famous stories about a race of semi-divine heroes called the Narts.

The uac- prefix in Uastyrdzhi and Uacilla has no synchronic meaning in Ossetic, and is usually understood to mean "saint" (also applied to Tutyr, Uac Tutyr, perhaps Saint Theodore, and to Saint Nicholas, Uac Nikkola). The synchronic term for "saint", however, is syhdaeg (cognate to Avestan Yazata). Gershevitch (1955) connects uac with a word for "word" (Sanskrit vāc, c.f. Latin vox), in the sense of Logos.

Kurys (Digor Burku) is a dream land, a meadow belonging to the dead, which can be visited by some people in their sleep. Visitors may bring back miraculous seeds of luck and good fortune, sometimes pursued by the dead. Inexperienced souls may bring back fever and sickness instead. Gershevitch (with V.I. Abaev) compares the name Kurys to the mountain Kaoiris in Yasht 19.6 (Avestan *Karwisa), which might indicate that the name is a spurious remnant of origin legends of Airyanem Vaejah of the Alans.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Arys-Djanaïéva (2004), p. 163.
  2. Lurker, Manfred (1987), The Routledge Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils and Demons, Routledge, p. 30, ISBN 0-415-34018-7
  3. Arys-Djanaïéva (2004), p. 165.

Sources

  • Arys-Djanaïéva, Lora (2004). Parlons ossète. Harmattan. 
  • Dumézil, Georges, ed. (1965), Le Livre des héros: légendes sur les Nartes, Paris: Gallimard (Connaissance de l'Orient) 
  • Gershevitch, Ilya (1955), "Word and Spirit in Ossetic", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 17 (3): 478–489, doi:10.1017/S0041977X0011239X .

External links


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