PART
2 – Ch.XIV.16
(KION OURANOU. The Sky Column on
in
the country of the Hyperboreans)
XIV.
16. The epic cycle about Atlas, Medusa and Perseus in Romanian tradition.
We also find in the
Romanian heroic songs about the titan Atlas principal elements of the ancient
legend about Perseus, Medusa and Atlas.
As Greek traditions
tell us, Perseus, the renowned hero from Argos, a son of Jove and the nymph
Danae, had been sent by the king Polydectes from the island of Seriphos to
bring him the head of Medusa, one of
the Gorgons which dwelt on the northern parts of the famous river Oceanos (Hesiod, Theog. v. 274 seqq).
Perseus, after
severing the head of Medusa, whom he had found asleep, visits also Atlas, the
king from the country of Hyperboreans (Pindar,
Pyth. X. 50), tells him that he is a son of Jove, recounts for him all his
miraculous deeds, and asks hospitality for one night. Atlas though, remembering
the pronouncement of an ancient oracle from Parnas, which said “Atlas! The time
will come when your trees will be despoiled of their gold and this glorious
deed is reserved for a son of Jove”, refused to give Perseus hospitality. As
Perseus insisted, he invited him to depart straight away, as otherwise neither
the glory of his false deeds, nor even Jove, would save him from his hands. At
these words Perseus, who could not match the strength of the titan Atlas, took
out of his bag the head of Medusa, which had the magical attribute to turn to
stone anybody who looked into her face, and in this way Atlas was turned on the
spot into a huge mountain, his head became the top of a high peak and his bones
changed into rocks. This had been the wish of the gods, writes Ovid (Metam. IV. 637 seqq), and from
now on only the sky with the stars shall lean on Atlas.
The names of the
three Gorgons who dwelt on the northern shore of the famous river Oceanos were,
according to Hesiod (Theog. v. 276),
Stheno, Euryale and Medusa.
There existed
another version which said about Medusa that she had been the daughter of one
called Sthenelos, considered as king
of
In the Romanian tradition
though, Matusa is the mother of Stanislav (Negoescu, Balade, p. 75). The Turks who come against Stanislav
catch Matusa first, tie her up, torture her and one of them, the captain,
intends to cut her head (Teodorescu,
Poesii pop. 565). And the Turks tie a stone around the head of Stanislav or
Tanislav, who represents here the titan Atlas.
The tradition is
the same, but there is a difference in form. Hellada being more removed from
the theatre of events, the Greek legend has been altered; it has taken the
character of a simple fabulous tale, while the Romanian version has preserved
its fundamental historical character, and therefore a more original form.
The Romanian
tradition about Tanislav the brave,
Tanislav the renowned, “big in stature and terrible at sight”, and about his
mother Matusa, helps in establishing
that the titan Atlas of the Greek mythology, this representative of the ancient
Pelasgian generation, has been one of the legendary heroes from the Carpathians
and the Danube [1]
[1. Medusa (Matusa) is one and the same with Clymene (“Renowned” for her beauty).
She was in the beginning an entirely
distinct personality than the legendary Gorgon. As Pliny writes (VI. 36. 3. 4), the Gorgons were some wild hairy women, while according to Diodorus Siculus (III. 54. 55), the Gorgons were a nation of women always
warring with the Amazons.
The legend of the ancient Gorgon, or
the terrible Gorgon, is also found in Romanian heroic songs. She is “a wild maid”, who dwells in “the plain
of Nistru” at the shore “of the seas”. She has an entirely sinister figure,
when one sees her, shivers of death run through him. The most warlike hero of
Romanian traditions, Old Novac, goes
to cut the head of this wild girl, whom he finds asleep, like Perseus had found
Medusa. Novac wakes her up, fights her, beheads her, puts her head on top of
his spear and takes it home, as trophy of victory (Catana, Balade, p. 108)].