ANTHROPOS

100.2005: 449-462

Mythology and Destiny

Albert Doja

Abstract. - In Albanian tradition, the essential attributes ofthe mythological figures of destiny seem to be symbolicinterchangeable representations of birth itself. Their mythicalcombat is but the symbolic representation of the cyclic returnin the watery and chthonian world of death, leading, like thevegetation, to the cosmic revival of a new birth. Both protectiveand destructive positions of the attributes of birth, symbolizedby the amniotic membranes, the caul, and other singularmarkers, or by the means of the symbolism of maternal water,would be only two antinomic oppositions, two complementaryand interchangeable terms of the mythopoeic opposition ofthe immanence of universal regeneration. The ambivalentrepresentations of soul and destiny are not isolated in Albaniantradition. There are especially those which have also a functionof assistance to childbirth, close to Greek representations of thedestiny, personified there by the Moirai, in Scandinavian andGennanic traditions by Noms and in the Albanian tradition byother local figures. [Albania, birth, myth, destiny]

Albert Doja, doctorate in Social Anthropology (EHESS, Paris1993), postdoctoral degree habilitation (Sorbonne, Paris 2004).He was a research fellow at the Institute of Folk Culture, TheAcademy of the Sciences of Albania (Tirana), and at CNRSin France as well as a lecturer in Social Anthropology atthe University of Paris 8, the University of Aix-en-Provence,and the University of Hull. Currently he is Senior ResearchFellow at the University of Limerick and at University CollegeLondon.

The Marker of Singularity

Albanians attach a good deal of importance toomens and predictions connected with the pla-centa, the umbilical cord, the caul, as later withbaby teeth, locks of hair from the first haircut,among Christian groups, or the circumcised fore-skin, among Muslims, to nail clippings, etc. Gen-erally speaking, these bodily elements all carry astrong polyvalent symbolic value. They are regu-

larly associated with the person's spirit, with theirlife and death, their health, their future character,their successes and setbacks. They symbolize theperson's properties, are the spiritual condensationof their qualities. They have such close mysticalties with the person that merely the way they aredealt with or the aim they are ascribed determinesthe individual's own aptitudes and fate.

Although they are separated from the child'sbody. these pieces are regarded as still being per-manently connected with the individual. Indeedthey continue to carry with them some of the lifeprinciples that structure each individual. From thestandpoint of metonymy, they are effectively anintegral part of that person. That is why Albaniantradition believes that they can be used in variousmagical practices directed against the owner. Careis taken therefore that these separated pieces arenot exposed to misappropriation, that they do notfall into the hands of spiteful people who mightuse them to bring about the person's downfall ordeath. Were the umbilical cord to be burned, forexample, or thrown into the water, or eaten bysome animal. it was believed that the same wouldhappen to the child.

These pieces often carry heavy supernaturalovertones, which can easily be used for wickedends. This is almost always the case of magicalpowers, which can be used for either good orevil. All sacred things are dangerous. Because theyare charged with a strongly ambivalent symbolicvalue, the pieces of body separated when the cordis cut and the placenta delivered are always sub-jected to ritual processes of symbolic destructionor conservation designed to protect the individ-

ANTHROPOS

100.2005: 449-462

Mythology and Destiny

Albert Doja

Abstract. - In Albanian tradition, the essential attributes ofthe mythological figures of destiny seem to be symbolicinterchangeable representations of birth itself. Their mythicalcombat is but the symbolic representation of the cyclic returnin the watery and chthonian world of death, leading, like thevegetation, to the cosmic revival of a new birth. Both protectiveand destructive positions of the attributes of birth, symbolizedby the amniotic membranes, the caul, and other singularmarkers, or by the means of the symbolism of maternal water,would be only two antinomic oppositions, two complementaryand interchangeable terms of the mythopoeic opposition ofthe immanence of universal regeneration. The ambivalentrepresentations of soul and destiny are not isolated in Albaniantradition. There are especially those which have also a functionof assistance to childbirth, close to Greek representations of thedestiny, personified there by the Moirai, in Scandinavian andGermanic traditions by Noms and in the Albanian tradition byother local figures. [Albania, birth, myth, destiny]

Albert Doja, doctorate in Social Anthropology (EHESS, Paris1993), postdoctoral degree habilitation (Sorbonne, Paris 2004).He was a research fellow at the Institute of Folk Culture, TheAcademy of the Sciences of Albania (Tirana), and at CNRSin France as well as a lecturer in Social Anthropology atthe University of Paris 8, the University of Aix-en-Provence,and the University of Hull. Currently he is Senior ResearchFellow at the University of Limerick and at University CollegeLondon.

The Marker of Singularity

Albanians attach a good deal of importance toomens and predictions connected with the pla-centa, the umbilical cord, the caul, as later withbaby teeth, locks of hair from the first haircut,among Christian groups, or the circumcised fore-skin, among Muslims, to nail clippings, etc. Gen-erally speaking, these bodily elements all carry astrong polyvalent symbolic value. They are regu-

lady associated with the person's spirit, with theirlife and death, their health, their future character,their successes and setbacks. They symbolize theperson's properties, are the spiritual condensationof their qualities. They have such close mysticalties with the person that merely the way they aredealt with or the aim they are ascribed determinesthe individual's own aptitudes and fate.

Although they are separated from the child'sbody, these pieces are regarded as still being per-manently connected with the individual. Indeedthey continue to carry with them some of the lifeprinciples that structure each individual. From thestandpoint of metonymy, they are effectively anintegral part of that person. That is why Albaniantradition believes that they can be used in variousmagical practices directed against the owner. Careis taken therefore that these separated pieces arenot exposed to misappropriation, that they do notfall into the hands of spiteful people who mightuse them to bring about the person's downfall ordeath. Were the umbilical cord to be burned, forexample, or thrown into the water, or eaten bysome animal, it was believed that the same wouldhappen to the child.

These pieces often carry heavy supernaturalovertones, which can easily be used for wickedends. This is almost always the case of magicalpowers, which can be used for either good orevil. All sacred things are dangerous. Because theyare charged with a strongly ambivalent symbolicvalue, the pieces of body separated when the cordis cut and the placenta delivered are always sub-jected to ritual processes of symbolic destructionor conservation designed to protect the individ-

International Review of Anthropology and Linguistics

http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/18364/; http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00425170/fr/

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ual from the many possible dangers. The piecesare often placed, buried, or discarded in symbolicspots, which capture the cosmic energy: ancienttrees, ancestors' graves, the threshold or the roof ofthe house, crossroads, flowing water, etc. In everycase they unfailingly undergo a specific operation,which consists of excluding them from the habitualsecular circuit of exchange.

In different parts of Albania, the placenta isregularly buried in the ground, under the thresholdor in the inner courtyard of the house, or at thebase of a fruit tree or a very old tree. Becauseone of the models for fertility is plant growth andthe other is gestation, the placenta is thus placedin relation with plant fertility after having been inrelation with human or at least animal fertility.!If the placenta was not expelled and buried, itwas believed that the baby was not fully born.No doubt, with respect to the fertilizing powersof the earth, only such practices could mark thecompletiou of the ritual.

The relationship of the placenta and the umbil-ical cord with the mother is an ambivalent one.Being connected with the baby's growth and withthe fertility that they transmit to the woman, asthey are with the fertility of the earth and thefruit tree under which they are buried, they havefertilizing powers. They are used by sterile womenin different conception rites, or by new mothersand more generally young mothers in connectionwith lactation. Use of the placenta ensures thatthe woman will have enough milk and that it willnot dry up, which would spell death for the child.In the region of Korl'a, in southeastern Albania,for instance, a sterile woman is supposed to standover the still warm placenta of a uewly born baby(Frasheri 1936: 29).

Just as they provided nourishment to the foetusin the womb, so the placenta and the umbilicalcord ensure the same function at the symbolic lev-el. But the functions the placenta fulfilled for thechild are cancelled after the birth precisely becausethey are always separated at the moment of birth.Alternatively, Albanians keep the umbilical cordand the caul, and conserve them with care. Theyare attached to the child and he or she may evenwear them as a lucky charm throughout life. Giventhat the umbilical cord once really linked the moth-er and her child, it was believed that it was still

1 A complementary metaphorical relationship is introducedby means of egg symbolism. Sometimes, as in the regionof Devoll in southeastern Albania, it is the custom to burythe shell of an egg that has been dipped in the baby's firstbathwater (Sheshori 1944: 16).

Albert Doja

capable of representing the protection the mothermust afford her child even after birth. However,since this tie must be severed at birth, the umbilicalcord represents at the same time the independencethe child must acquire in order to become an adult.

These elements are not merely useful whenseparated from the child's body. They are alsopart of the individual's organic identity at birthand belong to the history of his or her person. Thecaul, a piece of amniotic sack that can adhere to thechild for a number of reasons, is a special case. TheAlbanian terms for the caul are related, like thoseof the Germanic and Slavic zones, to terms for anitem of clothing, in particular a garment worn nextto the body, ki!misha, chemise, undershirt, shift. Itis always regarded as a good omen. It brings thechild luck, good fortune, and happiness throughoutlife. The proverbial expression, liruiur me ki!mishi!,"born in a chemise," is used in particular todescribe people who are always lucky. The child"born in a chemise" succeeds in everything. Byanalogy, the same favors are often attributed tochildren born with a lock of hair on the forehead.Among Albanians as among southern Slavs, thecaul is often kept and sewn into a pouch that thechild wears around his neck as a lucky charm. Itis his Jatum, his companion spirit. The rare fact ofbeing born with a caul creates a durable interactionbetween the child and the maternal membranethat effectively surrounded and protected it in thewomb. It was thus believed that the caul actuallyoffered protection, especially against demons.

Among the supernatural powers Albanians at-tribute to the caul are the gifts of seeing andhealing, the qualities of dexterity and cunning,etc., which are also found among other groupsin Europe. Bnt it is especially the immunity itgives from dying by water, by fire or from awound that seems to be its fundamental power.In her book "l.es signes de la naissance" (1971),Nicole Belmont analyses this threefold immunityin detail, with emphasis, in regard to the child,on the belief that the caul gives immunity fromdrowning. Before its birth, the amniotic membraneenabled the child to live in water, while after birththe caul can protect it from dying in water. Thisbelief, found in the Albanian tradition, is one ofthe rare instances in mythology where the caulgives rise to the myth, in particular, by its power toprotect against storm demons, also present in theHebrew tradition. This is presented in the myth ofthe dragua, which, to my knowledge, is not foundin the same terms in any other group.

In Albanian tradition, the cases of children bornwith a caul, or "in a chemise," to which other

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cases of singular birth can be compared, such asbirthmarks on the shoulder, under the arm, on thechest, or elsewhere, are regarded as the sign thatsupernatural protective powers intend to presideover the social status of these individuals through-out their life. By this attribute, they are assigned tofulfill certain cultural functions. It is the replace-ment of the real maternal protection by a symbolicprotection that makes the child into a culture hero,passing unscathed through the adversities and theexploits of his life, like the child protected dur-ing its intrauterine life. The splitting off from thereal mother of a symbolic mother represented bythe caul or other related signs, which substitutesfor the real mother, guarantees constant protectionprecisely because she moves to the symbolic level(Belmont 1971: 80-89).

In Albanian mythological tradition, individualsborn "in a chemise," but also with two and some-times four little wings under the arm, are predes-tined to change into dragita, obliged to fight andvanquish the kulshedra2 (:abej calls attention tothe two semantic sides of the figure of the dragitain Albanian tradition. The earliest authors writingin Albanian represent the dragita as a monster, likethe Roman and Balkan dragon or hydra. The oc-currences furnished by dialectology and toponomyshow that this belief is also transmitted in the oraltradition. However, there is another semantic sensefairly widespread in collective beliefs whereby thedragita is presented as the male conqueror of thefemale monster kulshedra, whom he must fightto death. This representation is already attested inworks written in Albanian as early as the seven-teenth century, for example, in the 1635 "Dictiona-rium Latino-Epiroticum" of Frang Bardhi (Roques1932). But, Lambertz stresses, the dragita are notonly fabled beings of yore. As every mountainAlbanian firmly believed until recently, - and thereare old women, like the one I came across inthe southern Albanian region of Permet, who stillbelieve - dragita can be born every day.

In collective beliefs, the kulshedra is repre-sented as the demon of storms, a huge frightful,disgusting, horrible being, a female being with big

2 Most data concerning the dragua and the kulshedra aretaken from Lambertz (1922). Later authors repeat, use, or inthe best of cases confirm the same information. For a recentaccount see (Tirta 2004: 121-132). The words designatingthe dragua and the kulshedra are found throughout theAlbanian zone, with dialectal variants that, in the first case,derive from the Latin draco and, in the second, the Latinchersydrus, from the ancient Greek cersudroi, "a kind ofserpent that lives in water or on land" (c;abej 1987: 300-302).

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breasts that hang down to the ground, a long taleand nine heads with lolling tongues, fire spewingfrom the gaping maws and the head and bodycovered with long red hair. When she is in thevicinity, the weather turns foul, black clouds gatherand big storms break. It is said that small stormsare the work of her offspring. According to thecollective representations in central Albania, shelives in springs and fountains. She often dries uprivers, blocking the waters and causing drought,but also bad weather, or flooding, or other naturaldisasters, which can only be ended by human sacri-fices. In the South, I noted in the villages of Vraka,Kotodesh, and in Katjel in lower Mokra in south-eastern Albania, that she is represented as a bigfemale serpent who encircles the world with hermouth touching her tail. "If she were ever to takeher tail in her teeth, she would destroy the wholeworld. For accepting to postpone the catastrophe,she requires daily human sacrifices" (Doja 1986).Here the beliefs are clearly mixed with the An-dromeda theme. Other mythic representations, too,are embodied in the kulshedra figure. In traditionalAlbanian tales of the supernatural, for example,she is also contaminated by the Circe or Sphinxthemes.

Only the dragita is capable of saving hu-mankind from the monster. He sets upon the kul-shedra with the beam of the plow and the plow-share (Nopcsa 1923), with the pitchfork and thepost from the threshing floor, and with the bigmillstones (Shkurti 1989). He also hurls lightningbolts, meteors, tall trees from the forest, boulders,and whole houses torn from their foundations. Itused to be believed that the thunder that growledon dark winter nights was the sound of their clash-ing weapons. The dragita's impressive battles withthe kulshedra took place, for instance, in the GreatNorthern Mountains in the bend of the river Drini,near the Vizier's Bridge. There, at the place knownas Rana-e-Hedhme, the huge boulders strewing thebed and banks of the river tell of this eternal, nev-er-ending battle between enemy forces that clashso terrifyingly during a storm. Sometimes, in orderthat she perishes forever, the dragita must drownthe kulshedra, otherwise she might come back tolife. In the (:ermenika Mountains near Elbasan,in central Albania, for example, it was believedthat, having knocked the kulshedra senseless, thedragita had been able to destroy her only afterhaving drowned her in the Shkumbini, the big riverrunning from east to west through central Albania.Another important detail is that the dragita fendsoff his enemy's blows for the most part by usinghis cradle as a shield. Curiously, the main weapons

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used by the kulshedra in the fight are her urine andthe poisonous milk from her breasts.

These heroes may live unnoticed among hu-mans. The gifts heralded at birth by the caul orother special signs can appear at any age, and inmost cases go unremarked. As in the case of otherheroes of European mythology, the gift is oftendisplayed by the baby while still in the cradle,hence the role of the cradle as the primary de-fensive attribute. Whenever there was thunder andlightning, people believed the dragua were goingwith their cradles to the place where all the draguamet. In Albanian, the word dragua is related todrangi!, dri!ngi!, dri!ngi!zi!, "a small fresh-water fishthat does not grow very big", and to drangi!, "kit-ten, puppy, bear cub, in general a usually wild ba-by animal" (

Mythology and Destiny

that human and social development, as well as thefamily, kin, and territorial groups' economic, agri-cultural, and patriarchal development, stand for.Might it, therefore, not be possible to see in thisfemale demon what Fran"oise Heritier (1996: 87-132), analyzing essentially African documents, re-ports as a symbolic constaut, which she identi-fies iu the collective patterns of representation asnatural ill-feelings on the part of females towardsthe transmission of life, a hostility that ueedsto be overcome by appropriate ritual and socialtechniques, with the intent of mystically gainingthe good will of the genetic powers peculiar towomen and obtaining their favors. In this vein, wecould mention the fact that, in Albanian tradition,in some southern regions, the mother of the newmother must not come to see the baby in thefirst two days for fear of vexiug the three Fates(Sheshori 1944: 10). It must be recalled that oneof the kulshedra's weapons is her poisonous breastmilk. And she has to do battle with a cradle thatserves as a shield.

The dragua on the other hand has become theprotecting hero who symbolically represents thecommunity of family, kin, and territmy. He stopsthe stonns which spoil the crops, he slays thekulshedra, he delivers victims, he unleashes thewaters and gives them to humans. He appears asa symbol of war and victory, a cultural championfor humankind. The plow, the pitchfork, the post,and the millstones are his attributes, representingeconomic development through agriculture, justas the cradle is his attribute representing thedevelopment of the lineage through new births.

The kulshedra is essentially a stonn demon.Her other functions, as they appear in Albanianmyths and tales, are secondary. The dragua isrelated to her inasmuch as he, too, is in essencea stonn demon. His main function and his raisond'etre are to fight the kulshedra, and one of hisvisible attributes is the lightning bolt. He is thepositive principle opposing the negative principle.In the interests of humankind, he takes on thetask of protecting humans from stonns, whereasthe kulshedra represents the harmful, destructivepower of the storm. Yet the death of one andthe other is represented, in Albanian mytholo-gy, as a symbolic return to the womb wheucethey came. Just as the dragua opposes the kul-shedra, the essential attributes of the one andth~ other ar~ opposed in relations of substitu-tion and complementarity. As an aquatic monster,the kulshedra must definitively perish in water,just as the dragua, a hero made invulnerableby his birth, can die only if the singular con-

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junction produced at his birth is repeated onceagam.

Their essential attributes would thus be inter-changeable symbolic representations of birth, theamniotic membrane or the fluid itself. Their finalconfrontation would be the symbolic representa-tion of the cyclic return to the aquatic and chtho-nian world of death in order, like plant life, toaccomplish the cosmic renewal of rebirth. The pro-tecting and destroying positions of the attributes ofthe newborn, represented by the amniotic mem-brane and other singular marks, or by the sym-bolism of the mother's waters, would simply bethe two antinomic, opposing forces involved inthe struggle between good and evil, the two in-terchangeable, complementary tenns of the myth-ic and poetic opposition between immanence anduniversal regeneration.

Given the present state of these beliefs, then,should we not consider the dissociation of themetaphoric from the metonymic axis not as a caseof diminished understanding, as Nicole Belmontbelieved, but rather as an "euphemization" of themeaning of the beliefs?' This must have then re-sulted in expressing only the univalent side of therepresentations, the reconciliation of the unleashedantinomic forces, as the only way to ensure andguarantee some protection in the open perspectiveof human destiny.

Symbolic Ambivalence

The Albanian myth relating the struggle betweenthe drag,la and the kulshedra represents yet onemore relation between the caul, or singular birth-marks, and the gift of metamorphosis in the formof a "second skin," that bears similarities withcertain representations in Germanic and Slavicmythology. In particular, Slavic beliefs hold thatthe child born with a caul will turn into a were-wolf. This person's spirit can leave the sleepingbody and perfonn feats of superhuman strength byassuming the shape of an animal, usually a wolf.The internal relationship between being born witha caul and the ability to change one's shape, as itappears in both Slavic and Nordic traditions, couldnot escape someone like Jakobson. In a work onthe "Vseslav Epos," he drew an equation betweenthe themes of the serpent father, the caul, and the

3 lowe this idea to Andre Burgiere, who suggested it to meduring a discussion following a paper I presented to theSeminar on Comparative History and Anthropology at theEcole des Hautes Etudes in Paris, 26 November 1993.

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werewolf. In Serbian, kosulja, "chemise," meansboth "caul" and "snakeskin." The serpent, able toshed its skin, engenders a son endowed at birthwith a second skin and the lycanthropic ability tochange skins (Jakobson 1966).

In Albanian tradition, the dragua is mainlyrepresented as a normal man, but he can alsohave werewolf features and appear in the shapeof an animal, which is always male - a ram, ox,bird, rooster, etc. Likewise, in Slavic tradition, thewerewolf prince often appears as a falcon, a wolf,a wild ox, a pike, etc. With the approach of astorm, the dragua leaves the company of the othermen on the pretext of retiring for the night, and noone except his mother knows the real reason forhis departure. He goes to bed, but his soul leaveshis body to join the other dragua. His place in thebed is occupied by a log, as the real dragua is faraway. The dragua can also take on the aspect ofa serpent (Tirta 2004: 121-132). Albanian draguaare often men with three or seven hearts, or whohave snakes in their belly.

Sometimes the kulshedra can also appear inthe shape of an ordinary woman, in the region ofDukagjini, for example, as Sokol Kondi told me.She also appears as an eel, a frog, a tortoise ora lizard, all of them always female. Informationattested from at least the beginning of the lastcentury (Durham (910) relates that the kulshedrais usually represented as a serpent. In the southernregion of Lower Mokra, she is notably representedas the great serpent that encircles the world withits mouth touching its tail (Doja 1986). In Tirana,it was believed that the newly born kulshedra hidin a dark hole where, at the end of six months,they turned into snakes, and it was only afteranother six months that the snakes could be calledkulshedra and began to take up their activity assuch. In the Kosova town of Prishtina, it is told thatthe kulshedra is called bolla, "a kind of serpent,"after twelve years. However, the representations ofthe kulshedra' s development in the Great NorthernMountains are no doubt the most interesting. Whena serpent manages to live fifty years without beingnoticed by anyone, it becomes a bullar, a reptilethat provides the venomous snakes with their poi-son by giving them its milk. If it lives anotherfitiy years without being seen, it becomes an er-shaj, a reptile that wraps itself around people andplunges into their chest to eat their heart. When anersha) lives another hundred years without beingseen, it finally becomes a kulshedra (Lambertz1922). The words bolla, bullar, ersha) effectivelymean "serpent or snake" in Albanian or, dependingon the region, a particular kind of snake. In the

Albert Doja

Zadrima region, in northwestern Albania, theyoung kulshedra is also represented as an eel thatlives in the depths of springs where, in the spaceof a few years, it grows so big that, if it wantsto leave its hole, it is obliged to scrape off itsskin and so loses a great quantity of blood. It isnoteworthy that, in Slavic tradition, Prince Vseslavis conceived through a miracle that is reminiscentof related conceptions: his mother is struck on thethigh by the tail of a snake (Jakobson 1966).

In Albanian, the epithet dragua is the veryimage of heroism. As in Byzantine heroic poet-ry, where the heroes are named Dracoi, Albanianheroic songs also give their heroes the honorableepithet of trim dragiia, "dragua hero." Alterna-tively, the common term of praise for Skanderbegin the ancient texts is "the Kulshedra of Albania,"a metaphor showing the terror he spread among theOttoman ranks in the fifteenth century. Accordingto an old legend, transmitted by Marin Barletius ina work written in Latin and published in Rome be-tween 1508 and 1510, in other words relayed by alearned tradition, the day Skanderbeg was born, hismother is reported to have dreamed of a kulshedrawhose body covered the entire territory of Albania.Its head reached to the border of the OttomanTurkish lands, where it devoured all enemies withits bloody mouth, while its twisted tail plungedinto the depths of the Adtiatic sea (Barletius 1508-1510: 64 f.). Alternatively, in oral tradition, Skan-derbeg was born like the dragua in the tales andcollective beliefs (Haxhihasani 1967: 24 f.):

Ate s'e zinte plumi, s'e pritte shpata, se ka pase Ie mekmishii, sir; lejne drangojt. Ka Ie me fietii niIn sjetull, sikurlejne drangojt. Ka Ie me ni shej shpate n'krah dhe mejiete nan sqete"ll.

He was invulnerable: neither bullet nor sword couldpierce him, for he was born with a caul, "in a chemise,"as all dragua are bom. He was born with wings in hisarmpit, as all dragua are born. He was born with themark of a sword on his arm and with wings in his armpit.

He is sometimes even portrayed as doing battlewith the kulshedra (Haxhihasani 1967: 116):

Kur kishte ardhe Skenderbegju n}i herif ne Bulqize", kishtedale" me gjue aty afrr katundit, Lango}t e vet, qi kishinhike pe'rpara, i gjet tu u zane" me ni kuh;cder, Ngre atagari! Ii! mdhej Ski!nderbg)u, )a fug) kulr;edri!s dhe e Ietop ne' vent, Curet gjinden te Rrasa e Doriret dhe quhenGurift e Skenderbeut,

While Skanderbeg was in Bulqiza, he went hunting nearthe village" His dogs had run ahead; when he reachedthem he found them struggling with a kulshedra. So

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Skanderbeg picked up these boulders, and hurled themat the kulshedra, which he killed outright. The boulderscan be found at the place known as Rrasa e Dorivet, andare called Skanderbeg's Boulders.

Lambertz was the first to point out the internalrelation between being born with a caul and thegifts of invulnerability and metamorphosis as theyappear in the Slavic and Nordic traditions, and inthe Albanian myth of the dragua/kulshedra. Healso established a relation between these represen-tations and those of the Slavo-Germanic werewolfand the Nordic berserkers (Lambertz 1922: 11-16), fierce, animal-like warriors that take the shapeof werewolves or bear-men in the Old Norse Sagasof the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The in-terpretations of the Nordic berserksgangr includethe personal or collective gifts of trance and lycan-thropy. The myths associate the berserkers primar-ily with the god Odin (Lindow 1987). One explicitdescription of the Odin berserksgangr from theseventh Saga of Yngling is strangely reminiscentof the Albanian dragua: "If Odin wanted to changeshape, his body would lie there as though he weresleeping or dead, but he himself was a bird or awild animal, a fish or a snake. He could thus goin a twinkling to the most remote lands" (Lindow,quoted in Belmont 1971: 54).

The symbolic representations of the dragua/kul-shedra myth also lend themselves to comparisonwith Icelandic figures such as the fylgja and thehamingja, both of which are interpreted as ambiva-lent representations of the amniotic sack and themother's waters (Belmont 1971: 52-60). The caulis termedfylgja in Icelandic, and it is the dwelling-place of the child's guardian spirit, which is partof the soul or one of the child's souls. The waythis spirit or soul is used depends on what is donewith the caul. If it is burned, the fylgja will showitself as a light; if it is thrown into running water,the fylgja will be a star; on the other hand, if it iseaten by an animal, the fylgja will embody itself inthe same animal (Bartels 1900). The hamingja isclose in conception to the fylgja. However, morethan a guardian spirit, it is a personal life force.The hamingja implies the possibility of metamor-phosis. The soul can take the shape of an animal, inthe form of which it moves about and acts, whilethe body lies inert. The caul may, therefore, beseen as both the dwelling-place of the outer souland the support of the inner soul. It is this type ofmetamorphosis that is often described in the Eddieliterature, in which one sees, for example, the god-dess Freyja or the god Odin change their humanappearance or slip into the skin of an animal.

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The question of reciprocal influences betweenSlavic and Nordic mythologies, as between Al-banian and Slavic mythologies, remains highlycontroversial. The heroic role of the dragua, forinstance, which is completely antinomic to that ofthe monster, may be an ancient, surely pre-Roman,layer of Albanian mythology (

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to note that the ambivalent representations of thesoul and fate or destiny, as they appear in thedragila figure, as in most Indo-European traditions,are not isolated in the Albanian tradition either. Inparticular, those entities whose function it is toassist women in childbirth should be comparedwith the Greek conceptions of fate personifiedhere by the Moirai, in the Nordic and Germanictraditions by the Noms, in the Lithuanian traditionby the Laima and in the Albanian tradition by theFatat, Fatite or Mirat, and by the Ora and the Zanaor by the Vitore. These are birth goddesses parexcellence, not only because they attend the birthof each human being and foretell their future, butalso because they organize the appearance of allhumankind. These cosmological and anthropolog-ical activities are analogous and parallel, and theirdivine status can no longer be identified, as somefolklorists would probably argue, with the imageof the "good fairy" of fairy-tale fame. They appearamong the ranks of the earliest generation of godswho, as in Scandinavian and Greek mythology, arecontemporaries of the race of Giants.

The Deities

On the third night after the child's birth, at thetime of the principal ceremonies celebrating thebirth: purificatory bath, symbolic cutting of theumbilical cord, naming, dressing, circumambula-tion of the fireplace, laying before the fireplace oron the kneading trough, laying in the cradle, andwhen the family and kin group gave vent to theirjoy as never at other times, with feasting, gifts,joyful singing, and dancing, it was believed thatthree invisible old women drew near the cradle anddetermined the baby's destiny (Doja 1991: IDS):

Sonte eshte e freta nate,qii ndahen-o nafakate,ja vezir, ja kushullate,ja si gjyshleret e pare,dhe nga babaj m'i larte!

Today will be the third night,in which destiny will be spoken,like a grand vizier or grand dame,or like the ancestors of old,and greater than the father!

That day the dogs are kept out of the courtyard,the doors are left ajar, three places are set withsilverware, a cup of honey with three almonds,and three pieces of bread for the three Fates (Halm1854: 162). In different parts of the South, these

Albert Doja

apparitions are called Fatat, or Fatite, from theLatin fatum, or Mirat as a reminder of the GreekMoirai, who made their way into Albanian myththrough a popular etymology with mire, "good,"since there is the expression fata mire, "the goodfairy," but also fatmire, literally "of good fate."They give the baby their blessing and determinehis or her destiny. Even the southern Albanians'fatalistic commiseration with any event is oftenexpressed, as often in the case of the Greek Moirai,by the saying Keshtu e kane shkruar fatite "that'swhat the Fates decided," literally "wrote," for peo-ple believed that the old women wrote their deci-sion on the forehead of their new protege. Like-wise, they lidhin, "attach," or presin, "cut out," thebaby's fate. Often in Albanian tales the followingprediction cancels out the preceding, so that theyoungest of the three fairies' prediction is the onethat comes true, in spite of all the obstacles that, asin ancient Greek tragedy, expedite the fnlfillmentof the fateful prediction.

In Cameria, an Albanian zone in the northernGreek region of Epirns, the role of these figures isplayed by the Vitore (Pedersen 1898: 205), a wordanalyzed as meaning "a spinster, a woman whospins": vejtare > vektare > vek/vegj, "loom" (

Mythology and Destiny

the turning of the child in the womb before birth. Itwas Cannentis who was responsible for this turn-ing. The legend of the origin of Rome has coloredthis figure, and that is where, no doubt under theinfluence of Greek sources, the power of her namebecame associated with prophecy. But at the timeof the Republic, Carmentis interested people, inparticular women, for another power: she attend-ed to births. More precisely, according to certainLatin authors, Cannentis is a Moira, a goddess offate, who presides over birth. From this specificinterest, easily accorded with her value as prophet-ess, Cannentis went on to more technical inter-ventions, and some texts even make her an actualmidwife. But this is a debate that, in the presentstate of our knowledge, cannot be concluded. Theone thing we know for certain is that the god-dess had two opposing cognomens, which causedseveral authors to create two more Cannentes, hercompanions: Postvorta and Antevorta (or Prorsaand Porrima); other authors attribute these twoadjectives to the two extreme presentations of thechild to be born: turned the right way around, thatis to say that the baby turns around before birth,which then proceeds normally, head first; or turnedthe wrong way around, that is to say that the babydoes not turn around before birth, which is thenabnormal, feet first (Dumezil 1987: 397).

Diana, too, who must be regarded as a virginsince she was assimilated to the rigorous Artemis,had power over the procreation and birth of chil-dren. Archaeological excavations have unearthednumerous ex-votos that leave no doubt as to theirmeaning: these are images of male and femalegenitalia, statuettes of mothers nursing their baby,or women clothed but with the front of their bodylaid open. On her feast day, the Ides of August,women would go in procession to her wood car-rying torches in sign of gratitude for her services.In this wood was a spring where there lived a sortof nymph, Egeria, whose name refers to childbirth(e-gerere) and to whom, in effect, pregnant womenwould make sacrifices to ensure an easy delivery(Dumezil 1987: 410).

It is perhaps not uninteresting to recall theexceptional frequency of inscriptions dedicated tothe cult of Diana, in Albania and throughout theBalkan Peninsula, dating from antiquity (Patsch1922). This particular frequency attests that thisis probably more an interpretatio latina of a localpre-Roman goddess (

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Vitore-snake is given to a woman who is clever,pretty, fertile, and brings her family good fortnne,as can be seen in this song of praise (Komnino1955: 326):

I hoqe kyeet e mezit,sf trimi armd e brezit,emrin e keshe grua,po jeshe trim e fajkua;verje peqin nder brez,mhaje punen me erz.o Vitoreja ndi! mur,tek rrije liishoje nUT,gjithi! jelen me nder,ti! huron gaja sheqer.

You removed the keys from your waistbandas weapons from the belt of a warnor.You were known as a lady,and were heroic as a falcoo.You tucked your hem in your belt,you did your chores with honour.Oh VitoIe, house snake in the wall,while you lived, you gave us grace,and you lived your life in honour,from you came but sugar-sweet words.5

In the mythological cycle reconnting the deedsof Muyi, it was Ora who, in the form of a snake,gave the hero his supernatural powers (Haxhi-hasani 1955: 302 0. In other situations, when thehero is badly wounded in a battle with his enemies,she stays at his bedside to keep watch over him,has a snake lick his wounds and places wild beastsat his feet to prevent his soul from escaping intothe other world (Haxhihasani 1955: 191):

A po e she! kef ore,qu m'rri ke kryet?Nate e diU! njikshtu m'ruen.Per ndimi! t'madheZoti rna ka dhanii,nan' soj harnashper nan gjuhe m'i ka,tri here n'ditetane varri!t po m'i Ian.Kur dhimbat teper m'lodhin,athere nise gjarpni me ki!ndue,nji soj kangesh,qi kurrkund s' ndi,harroj dhimbat e bi n 'kllapi;m'duket vetja tu) f;:etue,m'duket vetja tuj mrizue,here me dhi marr c;etat perpjet,

5 Unless otherwise indicated, all translations from the Alba-nian have been made by Robert Elsie, in collaboration withthe author.

Albert Doja

here b/1j not neper ujna e det;kur m 'lshojne andrratm'lshojne dhimbat.Njiky uk, qi m'rri te kamel,me kalue kerkendnuk asht tue lane.

Can you see that Ora,standing at my bedside?She holds vigil over me day and night.This serpent slithers over my wounds to heal them.God bestowed it upon meto come to my assistance.It has nine types of medicationunder that tongue.Three times a dayit washes my wounds.When the pain causes me to tire,the serpent then begins to sing.All manner of songswhich I have never heard before!I forget my pain and fall into delirium.And rave that I am out hunting,and rave that I am taking my noonday rest,sometimes taking my goat herds up the mountain,sometimes swimming in the rivers and the sea.When my dreams leave me,the pain leaves me, too.That wolf resting at my feet,lets no one pass and enter.

Beliefs about protecting serpents, whether itis Ora, Vitore, or the "house snake," are foundthroughout the Albanian culture zone. Many Al-banians believe that one must not disturb a snakeeven when one finds it in the baby's cradle, be-cause it is the ora that belongs to the house andthe baby. The original female ancestor of the kingroup, called the "mother of the home," who is inreality merely another representation of the MagnaMater, is also represented as a serpent. Everywhereamong Albanian populations, snakes are the objectof different rituals of propitiation, fertility, andfecundity, and even the children's developmentand education, for instance, in rituals designedto help children leam to talk. Similar representa-tions can also be found in Albanian oral literatureand traditional art. Many researchers consider thatthese representations stem from a paleo-Balkancult, probably Illyrian (Tirta 2004). Others analyzethe archaeological, anthropological, linguistic, andhistorical data, which reveal the functional featuresof this cult to be an extension of the Illyrian-Albanian tradition.

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Ideology

Whatever the case may be, given the ambivalenceof their symbolic representations as they appearthroughout the Indo-European zone, the figuresof the soul and of fate must be very old gods,probably of Oriental origin, and, at least in Greekmythology, linked with the elements of the naturalcycle of regeneration and destruction, of birth anddeath. As such, they arouse ambivalent feelingsand attitudes: They are both loved and hated,desirable and awe-inspiring. They personify theiron law of. the extinction of the individual onbehalf of the group. Every individual comes froman extrahuman power, identified on the third dayafter the birth, and every birth is thus proof of thetolerance for human life shown by the forces thatare naturally hostile to it.

The structural method presupposes the exis-tence of an empty slot that the gods of fate oughtto occupy by their appearance and activity. Indeed,if, from the anthropological standpoint, these arethe goddesses who determine the life and deathof each person, from the cosmological standpoint,having had a role in the birth of humankind, theyshould also manifest themselves wherever a threatof death hangs over the human race. Their placein this catastrophe is assured not only because thisposition is secured by the internal consistency ofthe sphere of their divine action but also because itis implicitly attested by the ethuographic sources.Just as, in the first section of this chapter, I dis-cussed the ambivalence of the dragita/kulshedramyth, figures that are clearly connected with theother Albanian gods of fate, who preside overbirth and death, so, too, in the Lithuanian tradition,Greimas normally introduces into the sphere of theLaima, goddess of life and death, her functionsas bearer of the plague, regarded as threateningcollective death (1985: 184-187).

Yet the predictions made the third day afterthe birth by the goddesses of destiny merely con-firm one of their essential functions: namely tomaintain the order of the universe and enforceits laws. The supreme god himself only carriesout what has been foreordained. However greathis power, it is no more than an executive pow-er. In Roman mythology, Jupiter is at the sametime a cosmic power and the absolute master ofeach person's fate. However he shares this latterproperty with Fortuna, or at least with the godand goddess presented as her equivalents, althoughtheir connection is not always explicitly stated.At the opening of one of Horace's "Odes," forexample, Fortuna is alone, without Jupiter, but

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her action and the ensuing upheaval are imbuedwith something of the majesty of the absent god(Dumezil 1986: 239). Likewise, the division ofroles between the goddess of birth and fate, Laima,who does the predicting, and Perkunas, who keepswatch and carries out the predictions, is confirmedin the Lithuanian semicultural context. Her activityis so importaut that other variants attribute it toPrakorimas himself. The two divine figures coverthe same sacred space, except that, as the sovereigngod, Prakorimas tends to stay in the background,while Laima intervenes more readily in the outsideworld, as his messenger and herald of his will(Greimas 1985: 152, 157, 180).

Yet because they detennine a given mass of life,these forces do not operate at the level of the ac-tions and roles that differentiate individuals. Theydo not foreordain anything and do not determinea person's destiny. They merely give voice to thefate that awaits the new baby. Their role as heraldsis conceivable only on condition that they knowthis fate. It is, therefore, the knowledge and notthe power to decide that is their essential attribute(Greimas 1985: 145). So if their principal functionis to announce this knowledge, it is clear that fateitself lies elsewhere.

In the oral tradition of the supernatural tale, fateis depicted as the inexorable unfolding of time, likea motionless backdrop behind a conditioned flowof events. If a given act occurs, a given series ofevents must ensue. The only characteristic of thistime is its division into alternating favorable andunfavorable periods. The successive periods canbe given different figurative formulations. One daycan be considered to be lucky, another unlucky. Ifa man is born at a certain hour, he will be rich,at another, poor. The child born before cockcrowwill be a thief, born after, a priest. Neverthelessthe periodization of duration and the difference inthe length of the periods is secondary and cannotconceal the fundamental conception of fate. Thetime in which human life is imbedded is goodor bad, and holds within itself the principles offortune and misfortune.

The knowledge displayed by the goddesses ofdestiny gives them a fairly specific function. Theyestablish a relationship between isolated eventsand the modulated flow of time. Even as theyconnect chance events, such as birth, to time con-ceived as an immutable framework of the universe,they give human life a meaning. Establishing arelationship between chance and necessity cancelsout chance, as it were, by the very fact that it be-comes inscribed in the order of the universe. Whiletime, through its uninterrupted unfolding, engen-

460

ders the concept of necessity, its classification, itsdivision into repeated favorable and unfavorableperiods already constitutes the organization of du-ration that founds the cosmic order.

Just as the gods who preside at the child'sbirth establish the event by giving life as a sta-ble, definitive state, according to another Albanianmyth from the Albanian and Indo-European tra-dition, the first cuckoo call, like a frozen image,freezes human activity by changing it into fate. InAlbanian tradition, someone who happens to hearthe first cuckoo call should note the number ofcuckoos. They indicate the number of years he hasleft to live. Whereas the Lithuanian tradition tellsthat someone who happens to hear the first cuckoowhile working will have to work all year long,while someone at rest will be lazy, someone whois hungry will suffer from hunger and someonewith money in his pocket will be rich (Greimas1985: 147). In either case, whether it is the birth ofa human or the birth of the world, the interventionof fate changes chance into necessity.

In Roman tradition, the notion of fors indicatedthe occurrence of an event that could neither bepredicted nor explained afterwards through reason-ing (even as an act of a god) nor, consequently,prevented, controlled, or modified. It is an exper-imental notion, suggested by all the situations inwhich a person is at once taken by surprise andpowerless. Romans would, therefore, turn not toFors but to Fortuna. The essence of this goddess,as the formation of her name indicates is that sheis the "mistress of fors," that she has a no lessmysterious guiding power over the irrational and,consequently, the power to turn it around to servehuman beings (DumeziI1986: 243-245). From thestandpoint of their action, necessitas and fors coverthe same domain: everything over which humansare powerless. However, the concepts are in radicalopposition as far as understanding them goes. Thatwhich is due to chance cannot be understood, cal-culated or foreseen, whereas that which is neces-sary implies a flawless logical articulation, even ifthe chain of cause and effect is not apparent to ourlimited intelligence. The coinciding fields and theopposition of values means that neeessitas andforscannot exist at the same time on the same plane.

Although these are forces of fate, fa/urn, thisdoes not imply inevitability. They determine thelimits within which human will can act effectively,but they do not determine this will. They set limitson freedom but they do not prevent freedom. Inthis conception of fate, an individual is free notonly to accept his role and try to make the bestuse of it, in the knowledge that, when his hour

Albert Doja

has come, he can hope to survive as an ancestorin the memory of his descendants. The "true man"is someone who triumphs over death and fate, notby avoiding them but on the contrary, by accept-ing both risk and necessity. The "true man" liveswithout fear, with the aim of personalizing hispassage and turning his biological life into a socialbiography. In this way these purely death-bringing,awe-inspiring, destructive figures become deter-mining, giving, liberating, and emancipating. Theycreate the space in which each person can develophis freedom, activity, and future.

Ja vezir, ja kushullati?'!

Grand vizier or grand dame!

This valorization is grounded in the aesthetic andmythic, or rather my/hopoetie, principle of ideal-ization, which concerns not the individual's ad-vancement along the extratemporal vertical axis tothe top levels of the social pyramid and immortal-ity, but the forward movement of the whole groupalong the horizontal axis of social equalities andhistorical time. In the historical dimension, humanlife acquires meaning only when placed within theframework of cosmic time. Once their personalwork is finished, the individual will age and die,but the collective body and soul, nurtured by theworld of ancestral traditions, will be constantlyrenewed and continue its uninterrupted advancein the path of historical progress. When it hasrecourse to the symbolic forms and collective rep-resentations surrounding the celebration of birth,the social group does not ask for immortality ofthe soul outside the body, nor for the promotionof the individual outside the group, but for an alto-gether different kind of immortality, an altogetherdifferent advancement, connected with the bodyand earthly life, and accessible to collective expe-rience. The group asks for immortality of the nameand of cultural actions. Through the symbolictraditions surrounding birth and socialization, theworthy man, at the end of his life, hopes to see hisperson, his old age, and his declining strength re-generated, rejuvenated, and flourishing in the newyouth of his sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons.In these traditions, biology is inseparable fromsocial history and culture. The aged father and hisascendants are not present to the same degree inthe sons and grandsons but to a different, new, andhigher degree. In being regenerated, life is not re-peated, it is improved and perfected. The image ofold age regenerated in new youth takes on a histor-ical, cultural, and social dimension. This regenera-tion and rejuvenation are not those of the biologi-

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Mythology and Destiny

cal individual but those of the historical individual,of the culture of the family, kin, and social groups.

Ja si gjyshleret e pare,dhe nga babaj m'i larte!

Or like the ancestors of old,and greater than the father!

The good wishes, expressed directly or in song, rit-ual, and ceremonial forms, are always shot throughwith optimism and unfailing confidence, nurturedby the desire that the future life of the new-ly born individual will be better, happier, moreworthwhile. They are thus an attempt to directlyinduce good fortune and prosperity, based bothon the group's aspiration or the best examplesfound among the ascendants of the family and kingroups, and on the importance of respecting thesame collective and ancestral traditions.

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