20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

Comparison of characters and motives in Mongol and Greek myths 509nation and told his brother Dobu Mergen (Dobu the wise) to marry her.Duva Sohor’s single eye was not normal human eye, but foreseeing eye(bilgiin melmii). It was common in oriental mythological thinking, religionand philosophy to portray foreseeing single eye being in the midst of theforehead. Unlike to arrogant Merz (Lalar) Duva Sohor was the man whowas able to see the future and to mentor others. But his surname Sohormeaning blind was not in its contemporary literal meaning but meant“single eye”, deriving its root from the word ’soh’, which means ’onlyone’. Mongolian word Sohor meaning ’blind’ had an alternative meaningof ’bard’ and ’storyteller’. All these suggest that Duva Sohor may havebeen a bard and a storyteller. Or his name had some association with SohorTarvaa’s (Tarvaa the blind) name, famous hero who is said to be descendeddownward to the hell and learned tales and myths. A Mongolian sayingstates “Squinted blind is the one who tells story, neck craning blind is theone who asks a riddle” (Űlger helvel őliison sohor, Onsogo helvel oliisonsohor) It doesn’t mean that when someone tells a story he/she loses his/hersight, but it means there is no one like him/her to tell a wonderful story.In the following, I will compare narratives and motifs in Mongol andGreek myths. One of the famous heroes in the Homer’s tales was the skilfuland clever Odysseus, the king of Ithaca. His followers are mentionedsometimes. We have many fairy tale heroes like Tuntger Khar Ovgon, oldman, who have ten thousand black sheep, three boys who travel to the westseeking better education, and a man who also seeks his lost animal etc.They all represent nomads. In the tale of Tuntger Khar Ovgon there are fewmen captured in the cave of Lalar. These roles of those men are similar tothe followers of Odysseus.In Greek myths an overlord of the single-eyed giants are presented asthe main role of the opposing part. (Kun 1989: 378) According to Greekmyths, Polyphemus was the son of Poseidon, the god of sea, and Tosa,the daughter of Fork the nymph. Homer portrayed him as an arrogantand most dangerous one among the single-eyed giants. (Grimal 1986:386) In Greek myth, Odysseus says: “We expect you to treat us as guestsotherwise, as you know, you will be punished by Zeus” when he addressesPolyphemus. Polyphemus responds him in an abasement saying: “Who areyou, strange wanderer, to think me of fearing of your god Zeus!”. (Kun1989: 379) It is evident that he does not worship heaven and gods but arepresentative of a ’barbarian’ community that worships earth and water.