Sun-Gods and Soviets
Historicising a North Caucasian Nart Saga
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12844131 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John W Latham (SOAS University of London, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 159-178 |
| Publication date | 2016-07-14 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Iran and the Caucasus (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1573-384X • E-ISSN: 1609-8498 |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/1573384x-20160201 |
| OpenAlex | W2504097808 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 6 |
This paper examines the potential historical value of the Nart Sagas, a cycle of North Caucasian folk epics. It discusses the methodological problems in dating them, and especially in treating them as a corpus of entirely ancient date. In response, the author proposes the use of a ‘rhizomatic’ approach: treating the surviving sagas as unique, ‘frozen’ performances, which concentrate a number of strands, some of which may lead into other extant parallel texts. To test this theory, it is applied to a single saga, the tale of the hero Shoshlan’s journey to the underworld, and this saga’s apparent parallels with Sarmatian art and with early mediaeval Christian Apocalypse Literature. The paper concludes with a summary of how this method can be more widely applied, through the use of thematic analogy
Analogy · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Asian studies · Biology · China · Epistemology · Extant taxon · Genealogy · HERO · Literature · Parallels · Sixth century · Value (mathematics · Classics · Engineering · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.25 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2022 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |