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DOI: 10.46698/VNC.2023.22.15.004
ALARDY AND MADY MAYRAM: ON THE QUESTION OF THE CHRISTIAN SOURCES OF THE SEMANTIC AND SACRED CONNECTION OF THE OSSETIAN SAINTS
Ktsoeva, Sultana G.
Kavkaz Forum. 2023. Issue 15.
Abstract:
The article identifies and analyzes the semantic and functional connection
between two dzuars (saints) of the Ossetian ethno-religious pantheon - Alardy
(patron of smallpox) and Mady Mairam (patron of women and childbirth).
Scientists (L.A. Chibirov, V.S. Uarziati, V.Kh. Tmenov) have already paid attention
to their relationship, but they explained it by the fact that both Alards and Mady
Mairam were female deities. Perhaps the main basis for such a conclusion here is
the ethnographic mention that in the festivities in honor of the patron of smallpox,
strong drink arrack was not consumed, but only drinks that were difficult to
get drunk from. At the same time, for example, B. Gatiev’s work “Superstitions
and Prejudices of the Ossetians” contains opposite information. This study has
undertaken an analysis of all the input data available on this issue, and has
concluded that Alardy, most likely, was not a female deity, and the only factor
bringing Alardy and Mady Mairam together is the intercessory role of the latter in
the face of a dangerous illness. However, to come to such a conclusion is possible
only by turning to the analysis of the purely Christian component of both dzuars,
where Mady Mairam is considered as the Mother of God, and Alardy as John the
Baptist. Christian reminiscences of the image, cult and even the theonym Alarda
were pointed out by V.I. Abaev, B.A. Kaloev et al. The research is synchronic and
carried out within the framework of the methodological concept of structuralism
by C. Levi-Strauss, according to which all cultural systems (language, mythology,
religion, art, customs, traditions) are studied as sign systems.
Keywords: Mady Mayram, Alardy, Mother of God, John the Baptist, smallpox, Ossetian folk Orthodoxy.
For citation: Ktsoeva, S.G. Alardy and Mady Mayram: on the question of the Christian
sources of the semantic and sacred connection of the Ossetian saints. KAVKAZ-FORUM.
2023, iss. 15(22), pp. 54-66. (In Russian). DOI 10.46698/VNC.2023.22.15.004
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