Spaţiu şi timp mitic în „Mioriţa”
Mythical Space and Time in „Mioriţa”

Summary/Abstract: „Mioriţa”, either as a ballad or a funeral chant, should be considered in the larger context of the Romanian history and spirituality. The paper presents the following sections: 1. Sacred geography in „Mioriţa”, where the symbolism of landscape and its implications during the unfolding of the narration are discussed in detail; 2. The home-like archetypal structure of the ballad, where „Mioriţa” itself is compared with and described as a traditional country house with all its magical elements; as a peculiarity, the ballad may be supposed to have three concentric axis mundi having space, time and narrative elements organized according to and surrounding them; 3. Mythical time in „Mioriţa”; 4. Considerations on some variants of „Mioriţa” as occurring at present throughout the territories inhabited once by the Thracians. According to the spatial and temporal specificity of „Mioriţa”, it can be considered as a Pythagoreic Tetractys. In „Mioriţa”, both mythical space and time can be associated with the Pythagoreic Tetractys: the comparison is sustained by the figures of pyramids/tetractys discovered in some ancient Dacian tumuli considered to be the graves of messengers sent to Zamolxis; one of them (from Fântânele-Zimnicea-Teleorman) is presented in the paper. The symbolism of the three concentrically „axis mundi” mentioned above is associated with the tetractys in a spatio-temporal continuum, which generate the complex and antagonistic unity of the universe. A 4th section reveals the extent in space and time of the mythical pattern of „Mioriţa”, from the Dacian-Getic remote antiquity until modern times. The communion between man and this alive and loving universe is considered as an eternal wedding. As reflected not only in „Mioriţa”, but also in other ancient folkloric creations which are in fact meditations on life and death, the Romanians transformed death into an eternal and bright life. The courage to fight for life and not to fear death is characteristic for the Romanians throughout the entire history. And this attitude results from the Romanians’ consciousness of their permanency on these territories which guarantees the immortality of man on the „other” realm, too. This is the imperial effigy of the Romanian spirituality: fear neither life, nor death because we live forever here, in a loving and alive universe.

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