SIMBOLUL ȘARPELUI ÎN CIULEANDRA
THE SNAKE SYMBOL IN THE NOVEL ‟CIULEANDRA”

Summary/Abstract: The realist writer Liviu Rebreanu created admirable scenes and characters in his novels. Many of his writings open with the hora or the Sunday game, which become nodal points from which future events are foreshadowed. And not by chance, several novels end with the image of the chorus or dance specific to where the action takes place, completing the novel construction and highlighting the author's obsession with spherical structures. Hora is important because the whole village participates, and the general merriment. As in a movie, the novelist captures the smallest gestures and reactions of the participants, regardless of age, gender or social category. Followed closely in novels such as Ion, Răscoala or Ciuleandra, the village choir gradually presents the reaction of the fiddlers. The change of music drives the dance's madness through the rhythm imposed by them, through the subsequent requests of the players caught up in the frenzy of the game and who never want to stop the music to continue the game. No aspect of the chorus is neglected. The author highlights the variety of movements in both pair dances and collective choruses. The wildness of the dance triggers erotic impulses. The girls' thighs bubble, the girls' breasts touch the boys' chests, their arms wrap around the girls' middles, and the descriptions go on.In the novel Ciuleandra, hora becomes a dance of destiny because by participating in this dance, many find their soul mate. Hora and circle, in general, signify the solar disk and are specific symbols preserved through popular culture, dances, rituals, decorations, etc., demonstrated by archaeological discoveries. The serpent, and especially the ouroboros, which is circular and resembles the choruses or dances of the mentioned novels, both in form and manifestation, hibernates in the earth during the autumnal equinox. It returns to the surface at the spring equinox with the revival of vegetation, superimposing its biological cycle on top of the annual astronomical cycle of the sun. Because of this, the snake is considered an essential symbol of the cyclical regeneration of nature, life force, well-being and fertility. At the same time, it is viewed with fear because it is a poisonous animal that can produce death. Likewise, in the case of choruses, when the customs of their organization are violated, it foreshadows the unfolding of tragic events that are to come.

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