HUMAN SACRIFICES AND CANNIBALISM

(on the material of the Nart epic and Russian bylinas)

Abstract

The article reviews the echoes of human sacrifice and cannibalism in epic works on the example of Ossetian Nart epic and Russian bylinas. A relatively comparative analysis of the ritual-ceremonial side of the traditions of the Scythians (ancestors of Ossetians), Ossetians and Slavs is carried out. In particular, the sacrifices on the material of the Nart epic and Russian bylinas are considered in connection with sympathetic magic and totemism (the transition of “spiritual substance” from the dead to the alive), exocannibalism, eating heart and liver, infanticide, twinning ceremonies, absorbing the victim’s blood, chopping off the head and parts of the body (for example, the right hand).

The purpose of the article is to identify the traditions of human sacrifices and echoes of cannibalism in the Nart epic and Russian bylinas. Within the framework of the article, a comparative analysis of the traditional epic of the Ossetian and Russian peoples is carried out.

The subject of the study was the integral model of the semantic parallels between the Russian and Ossetian Nart epics, within which the genesis and later modifications of folklore-mythological archetypes are traced. The oldest culture, perceived in the semantic and axiological aspects, constitutes an integral “cultural memory” in a single metasystem “myth – folklore – literature”.

During the various epochs, close contact was first between the Proto-Slavic and North Iranian ethnic groups, and then between the Eastern Slavs and the Scytho-Sarmatian-Alanic peoples. This explains the presence of similar mythological characters and the genetic connection of motives fixed in the Slavic and Scythian-Ossetian traditions.

The main core of the bylinas, in all probability, was formed in the VIII-X centuries in Southern Russia – in the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Azov regions, precisely where the close relations with the heirs of the Scytho-Sarmatian-Alanian culture were observed in the areas of compact residence. In the south of Russia ancient epic tales, dating back to the Scythian time, were preserved for a long time.

The main sources are the Onega bylinas, collected by A. P. Gilferding in the Russian North, and the body of the Ossetian Nart epic, including the Digor dialect.

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