Symbolism of numbers in the Circassian epic

The article analyzes the nature of reflecting the symbolism of the number one and two in the poetics of historical and heroic epic. It is proved that they contain deep mythological roots, are the carrier of folk consciousness and mentality of ethnos, and have a clear reflection in the Adyghe folklore. To reveal the artistic forms of manifestation of these numbers on the material of historical and heroic songs and legends was the purpose of our work. To achieve the goal the following tasks were set: to analyze the texts of historical-heroic epic; to study the symbolism of the number “one” and “two” in its aesthetic plan; to trace the specificity of representation of the sacral basis of these numbers. The ideas of the Pythagorean philosophical doctrine of numbers were taken into account in the work. We support the theory of division of even and odd numbers, and attributing the former to the female sex, i. e. negative, and the latter to the male sex, i. e. positive. The study of the nature of artistic reflection of number symbolism in historical and heroic epic is important for the comprehensive study of folklore. This is the relevance of the chosen topic. The work is carried out using the structural-comparative method. The theoretical basis of the study was the works of domestic authors devoted to the study of the symbolism of numbers of the Adyghe cultural tradition. The main ideas of Z. Zh. Kudaeva and M. R. Hezheva are outlined and applied. The practical significance of the work consists in the fact that its results can be useful for specialists in the field of folkloristics, as well as for the circle of readers interested in folk traditional culture. The result of the work done is that number symbols turn out to be one of the ways of expressing moral ethnic consciousness. In the epic they are understood as means of artistic expression

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