XXXVIII

PART 6 – Ch.XXXVIII.5

The Great Pelasgian empire

(The memory of Saturn in Romanian historical traditions)

XXXVIII. 5. The war of Jove with Saturn in Romanian epic poems.

In Romanian folk literature we have still another series of epic poems, in which is sung the famous war of Jove against Saturn. In these poems, Saturn figures under his traditional name Novac, and Jove is called Iovita and Iova. This Iovita is a natural son of Novac. His mother, one of the most famous women in the world, is called Litva, Lidva, Livda, Lida and Lita.

Litva was known also to Greek traditions. She is one of the famous courtesans of ante-Homeric times. Her adventures seem to have been many. With Cedrenus (I. 245), she figures under the name Lytva, and is the mother of Telephus, otherwise named Latinus, whose kingdom was in the southern parts of the Danube.

She is one of the most distinguished mistresses of Jove and Hercules, under the names Leda (Homer, Hymn. 16, 3; 33. 2; Apollon. Rh. Argon. I. 146; Apollod. Bibl. III. 10. 5) and Lyda (Pausanias, Gr. Descr. II. 31. 3), and under the name Libya (Andronis Halic. fragm. 1 in Fragm. Hist. gr. II. 349; Ioannis Antiochenus, Chronica, fr. 15 in Fragm. Hist. gr. IV. 544), she is a daughter of Oceanos (Istru), married with Neptune.

Finally, the priestesses of Bachus were also called Lydae (Lydai) (Athen. V. 198) in antiquity, they, who celebrated the cult of this god at night, when they committed all sorts of excesses, scandals and infamous deeds. The historian Philo also tells us that the ancient goddesses had been public courtesans regularly, and sold for profit their love and favor to all they met (Hist. Phoen. Fragm. 2 in Fragm. Hist. gr. IV. 566).

The fight of Novac with Iovita takes place, according to Romanian epic poems, in the same region of Dacia, where had also taken place the fight of Saturn with Jove, at “Muntele sec” (TN – dry mountain) near Cerna, mountain to which the hill called Pregleda, Greek Phlegra, also belongs. The war scenes are presented here also through the singular fight of the leaders.

The text of this poem, according to a version from Muntenia (Tara Noua, An. III, 1887, p. 124), is the following:

[1. “Oca”, weight of about three pounds].

[2. This is an epic popular form of the legend about the thunderbolts thrown by Jove against the Titans].

[3. Novac is also called Cres Novac in other traditional Romanian poems. According to Arrianus of Nicomedia (fragm. 70), Kras was a king of Crete, who had hidden Jove, the son of Saturn, in the mountain called Dicte. So there existed in Greek antiquity a traditional connection between Saturn, the father of Jove, and the king called Cres. We also note that the Phrygians called Saturn Acrisias (see Tocilescu, Dacia, p. 553).

In this poem it is also mentioned a particular episode from the ancient times. According to the historian Thallus (1^st century), Belus, the king of Chaldea and Assyria, had helped Saturn in his war with Jove (fragm. 2 in Fragm. Hist. gr. III. 517). This Belus figures in the above epic poem under the name Balaban. He is brother with Novac, as Belus is brother with Saturn II, with the historian Philo.

Belus, under the name Baligan, appears also in the German historical poem Biterolf (Grimm, Deutsche Heldensage, p. 149). The mother of Belus was, according to ancient traditions, Libya, the daughter of Oceanos (Malalas, Chronogr. p. 30; Fragm. Hist. gr. IV. 544. 15), or Istru.

In the German poem, Baligan is from Libia (Libya). Belus reigns over Chaldea and Assyria, Baligan over Persia, so the name “Baligan” from the German poem indicates how ancient and widespread had once been the form “Balaban” in heroic popular poetry.

Finally, we must also remark the archaic epic character of the above Romanian historical poem. The weapons of the heroes are prodigious; they surpass the weapons of Homer’s gods and heroes; these are ancient stylistic forms, destined to emphasize even more the virtue and glory of the heroes. We also find in the text of this poem, archaic words and expressions.

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