За слепотата и хромотата на кокошката в плана на митологичното мислене
About the Blindness and Disability of Hen from Mythological Point of View

Summary/Abstract: This article expands and complements the ideas of a former work (“Some Peccularities of Certain Cumulative Rhymes”, Bulgarian Folklore, № 2, 1985), where the widespread in Europe “eagle and brooder” game was analysed. The present article draws attention only to the final result of the punishment, sufferd by the “chickens”, namely, their getting blind and cripple. Since the motif of the cosmic punishment can be seen “dramatized” in the “eagle and brooder” game the “chickens” blindness and disability themselves can be also viewed in the aspect of the mythological way of thinking. The starting point in this work is a number of phrases and names of hen, which prove it to be considered blind. On the basis of comparison between materials differing in their origin, it is proved how hen’s blindness and disability get into the human body through some diseases. Special place is given to the phytocode. On comparing the various material it can be seen that the damaged eyes and legs of the hen become a part of the real world through the names of herbs and weeds, while in mythological aspect the characteristics of plants themselves carry essential “information” about the links of the bird with fire (bright yellow and orange-yellow colours), with water (hygrophills) and most of all, with the htonic animals, such as snakes (poisonous / poison-blossoming). Interesting results are also reached after analyzing the mycocode. The present work sets a lot of problems that can not be given definite answers at this range of research work.

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