The Goddesses of Earth, River, Dawn and Speech in Vedic Hymns and Their Slavic Counterparts

S obzirom na to da nam pri rekonstrukciji slavenskih mitova indoeuropska baština ima presudnu ulogu i predstavlja neku vrst provjere smisla slavenske građe, vrijedilo bi pogledati koliko možemo znati o glavnim božicama u Rksamhiti i Atharvasamhiti. Kao žena boga Neba javlja se tu Zemlja, Prthivī. Ona je Velika Majka i, premda se o njoj ne pjeva mnogo, vrijedi provjeriti je li usporediva s Mokoši. S druge strane, najviše se od božica u Vedama slavi Usas, Zora. Ona je kći Neba, žena ili draga Sunca i, gdjekada, majka blizanaca. Uz te dvije boginje još se dvije božice ističu u Rksamhiti: božica rijeke Sarasvatī i božica Riječi Vāc. A kao mati Āditya, bogova koji čuvaju ćudoređe, spominje se i uosobljena „nesputanost“ (grijehom) ili „nevinost“, božica Aditi. Možda je vrijedno usporediti vedske kultove božica Prthivī i Usas, pa i rijeke Sarasvatī, s kultovima božica u Slavena i srodnih kultura i utvrditi gdje se i s kojim božicama mogu naći usporedbe. Štovanje jedne od božica, Zore, vrijedi usporediti i sa štovanjem Majke Božje koje je u se preuzelo i dio pretkršćanskih tradicija.In order to reconstruct Slavic pre-Christian sacred texts and myths on the basis of Slavic oral folklore texts, comparison with Indo-European heritage is necessary. It would thus be of great importance to investigate how the main goddesses are conceived of and celebrated in the texts of the Rksamhitā and Atharvasamhitā, our most prominent „control corpora“, in order to ensure that our reconstructions of fomulae concerning Slavic goddesses are convincing. The Vedas celebrate the earth goddess Prthivī, wife of the sky god Dyaus. She is the Great Mother and, despite scant evidence, an examination of how comparable she is to the Slavic Mokoš is quite relevant. The most abundantly praised goddess in the Vedas is Usas, the Dawn, daughter of the Sky, consort or mistress of the Sun, and sometimes mother to two twin gods. Apart from these two divine figures, a river goddess Sarasvatī, and the goddess of speech, Vāc, are also prominent in the Rksamhitā. A goddess under the name of Aditi, the personification of innocence or absolution from sin, is also mentioned as mother of the Ādityas, gods who protect moral institutions. It will be quite instructive to compare the Vedic cults of the goddesses Prthivī, Usas, and the river Sarasvatī with the cults of Slavic goddesses, and to establish where and between which goddesses correspondences can be found. The cult of one of these goddesses, the Dawn, can be fruitfully compared to the cult of the Mother of God in Christianity, which has included a good deal of pre-Christian traditions

Are Demiurge and His Cosmos in Plato’s Timaeus of Mediterranean Origin?

U Platōnovu dijalogu Timaij iz Lokra u Italiji opisuje kozmogoniju svojim athēnskim prijateljima – to je posve sredozemni zemljopisni okvir pripovijesti. Ipak, mnogi kozmogonijski motivi u Timaiju imaju usporednica u staroindijskoj Aitareya-upaniṣadi, a neke se mogu naći u Iranaca, Slavena i, osobito, Germana. To upućuje na indoeuropsko, a ne sredozemno, podrijetlo. Ipak, to ne isključuje i moguće dalje usporednice. S druge strane, taj kozmogonijski model čini se da je utjecao na (grčko) nazivlje u kršćanskome određenju Tvorca i stvaranja u Nicejsko-carigradskome vjerovanju. Iako nije sredozemnoga podrijetla, kozmogonijski se je model iz Timaija nadaleko proširio Sredozemljem.In Plato’s dialogue it is Timaeus from Locri in Italy who describes cosmogony to his Athenian friends – a very Mediterranean narrative framework. However, many motifs in the cosmogony of Timaeus have their parallels in an Indian Upaniṣad, Aitareya-Upaniṣad, and possible partial parallels in the traditions of Iranians, Slavs, and especially Germans. That seems to imply Indo-European, and not Mediterranean origin (which does not exclude possible further correspondences). On the other hand, that cosmogonic model seems to have influenced the (Greek) terminology of the Christian formulations in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed concerning the Creator and creation. Although not of Mediterranean origin, the creation model from the dialogue Timaeus became widely spread in the Mediterranean area

The Croatian culture in the European context

U članku se raspravlja o pitanju koje se često postavlja: što je u hrvatskoj kulturi europsko? Ili pak obratno: ako je toliko toga europsko, što je onda hrvatsko? U prvom se dijelu pokazuje kako je položaj Hrvatske na granicama nekadašnjega zapadnoga i istočnoga rimskog carstva, zatim slavenskoga i romanskoga, odnosno germanskoga jezičnog kruga, uopće Sredozemlja i srednje Europe, te kasnije kršćanske Europe i islama u turskome carstvu, uvjetovao niz sastavnica i značajaka hrvatske kulture i posebno književnosti. U drugome se dijelu daju primjeri prožimanja raznih sastavnica europske kulture u hrvatskoj humanističkoj i renesansnoj književnosti na latinskom, staroslovjenskom i na hrvatskom. Pokazuje se koliko su u humanizmu i renesansi povezani antički i biblijski motivi i teme. S druge se strane pokazuje koliko renesansno pjesništvo na hrvatskom pripada istomu kontekstu kao i ono humanističko na latinskom, i na njega se nadovezuje. Ono se bez ovoga ne može dobro razumijeti. Naravno, postoje i suvremene europske sastavnice u tome pjesništvu, kao što su petrarkizam, ili nadahnuće Sannazarom ili Tassomm. U trećem se dijelu daju kratke naznake o europskim koordinatama u novijoj hrvatskoj književnosti, sve do danas. A u cijelom se članku prikazuje kako su svi integrirani elementi europske kulture u hrvatskoj književnosti antički, biblijski i suvremeni redovito imali svoju hrvatsku funkciju i značenje, i bez nje se opet ne mogu dobro razumijeti djela hrvatskih pjesnika i pisaca. Stoga je, kada se ona razumiju, i ono što je u njima europsko hrvatsko, kao što je i ono što je u njima hrvatsko, kada je vrijedno, prinos europskoj kulturi.The article deals with the frequently propounded argument about the Croatian culture as being entirely European. If it is so much European, what then is Croatian in it? In the first part, it is shown how a series of the components and characteristics of the Croatian culture, especially literature, was influenced by the situation prevailing on the borders of the former Western and Eastern Roman Empire, as vvell as the Slavic, Roman and German speaking areas, the Mediterranean in general, Central Europe, as well as Islam in the Turkish Empire. In the second part, examples are given about interconnectedness of various components of the European culture in the Croatian humanistic and Renaissance literature in Latin, Old-Slavic and Croatian languages. It is shown how much Antique and biblical motives and themes in Humanism and Renaissance are mutually tied. On the other hand, it is demonstrated to what degree the Croatian language Renaissance poetry belongs to the same context as the Latin humanistic poetry and how it relies on this. Without this, it cannot be well understood. Of course, there are also contemporary European components in this poetry, such as Petrarchism, or the inspiration by Tasso and Sannazar. The third part gives a brief account of the European determinants in the recent Croatian literature up to the present time. The article as a whole argues that all the elements of European culture in the Croatian literature have been Antique, biblical and contemporary, but that they have all been successfully integrated into a distinctive Croatian tradition. Without bearing this fact in mind, the works of Croatian poets and writers cannot be properly understood. When they are understood as such, as both European and Croatian, provided that they are individually valuable, it becomes obvious that they represent a contribution to the European culture