The Analysis of the Bird-Woman Figure in Slavic Mythology with an Intertextual Approach
Document Type : پژوهشی اصیل
Author
Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages, Gonbad Kavous University, Gonbad Kavous, Iran.
Abstract
Mythology studies refer both to the study of myths and to the collection of myths belonging to a specific religious tradition, serving as a valuable step towards understanding humanity's mysterious past and ontology. The bird-woman, as one type of composite being—half-human, half-animal—has long held a place among mythical or legendary creatures in most human civilizations, such as those of Greece, Rome, Egypt, Scandinavia, the Slavs, and even Iran. These beings have sometimes been associated with the concept of good and sometimes with evil; in other words, they are either divine and benevolent or demonic and malevolent. In the present research, adopting an analytical-comparative method and relying on Gérard Genette's theory of intertextuality, we aim to analyze the figure of the bird-woman in Slavic myths and uncover its intertextual relationships with similar examples in other civilizations. In Slavic myths, five types of birds-woman exist, named Alkonost, Sirin, Gamayun, the Swan Maiden, and Stratim, the similarities and differences of which are elaborated in detail. Examination of the research findings reveals that although the half-human, half-bird myths of Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations can be considered as initial pre-texts for the bird-woman creatures among the Greeks and Slavs, the primary pre-texts for Slavic myths are the Greek myths of the Harpy and the Siren. The distinctive feature of Slavic myths is the manifestation of religion in their imagery.
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