St Sisinnius’ Legend in Folklore and Handwritten Traditions of Eurasia and Africa (Outcomes and Perspectives of Research)

Abstract

The article presents the main results of a group research entitled “St. Sisinnius’ Legend in Folklore and Written Traditions of the Near East, Balkans, and Eastern Europe” (2017). This research has allowed the discovery and analysis of different versions of mythological texts (which are known in Arabic, Aramaic, Armenian, Bulgarian, Byzantine Greek, Jewish, Coptic, Modern Greek, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Syriac, Ukrainian, Ethiopian, and some other traditions) about St Sisinnius counteracting a female demon. Two main types of plots of St Sisinnius’ Legend (SL) have been recorded since the middle of the first millennium A. C. till the 20 th century, approximately one thousand and a half years. SL texts are quite diverse in the terms of genres and forms, including mythological narrations, religious legends, hagiographical stories, charms, incantations and prayers. This article identifies the specificity of SL’s plot among different nations, the list of characters and their names, and the interrelation between texts in handwritten and oral traditions. Texts inscribed on Aramaic magical cups, Ethiopian and Jewish amulets, and also texts included in Greek, Armenian, Romanian and other manuscripts were introduced into the research data base. It was proved that among Russians and Ukrainians SL transformed into charms against fever that were spread on the territory of Ukraine and the European part of Russia, Siberia, and the Far East.

Keywords

• legend about St Sisinnius
• verbal charms
• prayers
• hagiography
• manuscripts
• magic
• demons
• iconography
• proper names.