Cosmogonic Myth of Heavenly Hunter (Sirius) and Three Marals (Orion’s Belt): The Motifs in Kalmyk Folklore Revisited

Abstract

Introduction. There are a great number of “familiar” motifs and plotlines in Kalmyk folklore that originate from mythology. One such archaic story of a universal character in the Turkic-Mongolian world is a cosmogonic myth of the heavenly hunter and the three red deer. The article aims to attempt at reconstructing this cosmogonic myth in the Kalmyk epic heritage. Importantly, such reconstruction requires typological comparisons because the story is easily “identified” in a variety of traditions. The research materials used are the texts of early Baga Tsokhur cycle sagas of Kalmyk heroic epic “Djanggar”. The analysis was based on structural-semantic, structural-typological, and comparative methods. As a result, the author comes to the following conclusions. The structural-semantic analysis of the motif manifests its archaic roots originating from the ideas of cosmogonic beginnings of the universe. The epic story relating of Savar Warrior following the moon path while hunting deer and red deer originates from a cosmogonic myth of the heavenly marksman [Sirius] and the three red deer [the stars from the belt of the constellation Orion]. Moreover, the character of Savar Warrior shows some elements that may be associated with the archaic myth of a bear-hunter chasing the deer that stole the sun. The results of the present study agree with other researchers’ views, according to which, the principal symbols that the archaic calendar of the Kalmyk ancestors included were the images of a hoofed animal and a bear and that the image of the heavenly hunter of the ancient myth relating of the world beginning characteristic of a number of folklore traditions was a substitute of the mythological bear, the liberator of the sun.

Keywords

• cosmogonic myth
• epic “djanggar”
• savar warrior
• sirius
• three red deer
• bear