Братсько-сестринський інцест: між ієрогамією та гріхом кровозмішення (на прикладі пісень про намір царя Стефана одружитися із сестрою)

• Main Author: Каранович, З.
• Format: Article
• Language: Ukrainian
• Published: Iнститут мистецтвознавства, фольклористики та етнології iм. М.Т. Рильського НАН України 2012
• Series: Народна творчість та етнологія
• Subjects: Міфологічний вимір фольклору
• Online Access: http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/201533

It is quite common in many mythologies for a human community (tribe) to be derived from one genus, i.e. from the marriage of a divine ancestral couple. And this ancestral marriage thus had to be incestuous. This divine incest was usually performed by a parent and a child or a brother and a sister. It is also well known that the story about the original, divine i.e. hierogamic incest in many archaic cultures was ritually recapitulated around the New Year’s Eve, when the incest, especially if it was regal, was allowed and welcome because the rulers were taken to be divine envoys on earth. But as myths tell us, incest among people had to be abolished because its prohibition became and remained the condition of society. It is a scientifically held belief, also confirmed in myths, that exogamy (i.e. prohibition of intermarrying), was introduced as a regulatory factor in archaic communities. These myths are, therefore, also «sociogenic», and regardless of their creative role – they basically question the rules of society. In Serbian oral poetry, there are many different stories about heroic and non-heroic marriages as well. Just as myths, they are also sometimes about incest, especially between a brother and a sister. It could therefore be expected that these poems question the relations in a community, as myths once had done, since they are analogous in content. This paper will show that such analogies between archaic mythical stories and Serbian folk poetry are not accidental, and traces of ancient incest and its abolition can indeed be discerned. This analysis is based on poems about tsar Stefan, who wanted to marry his sister («Dušan hoće sestru da uzme» and «Udaja sestre Dušanove» from the collection of poems by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić No. 27 and 28), as well as a poem from the Maleševo region, published under a title «Srpski kralju Stefan i sestra mu Ognjena Marija» by D. Nedeljković, Prilozi proučavanju narodne poezije VI, 1939.