Semiotiсs of the Mirror in Folklore and Ethnographic Traditions of the Ossetians

The use of mirrors in ritual practices as well as a vast variety of artistic images of the mirror and related motifs common in folklore and ethnographic traditions of different peoples had an obvious impact on the symbolic status of the mirror. The article aims to provide a reasoned analysis of the problem of semiotic peculiarities of the mirror as a symbol which determined its multifunctional and polysemantic role in religious and mythological beliefs of the Ossetians. The applied semiotic research method allows to consider the image of the mirror as a multiple set that bears numerous meanings in the ceremonial and ritual complex of the Ossetians. The study is based on a methodological framework defined in terms and principles of a structural and semantic analysis of ethnographic descriptions and folklore texts with elements of comparison and confrontment which significantly enhances opportunities for interdisciplinary studies. The analysis revealed the ambivalent nature of mirrors and peculiarities of their semiotic potential which stimulates the mythological imagination. With evidence from field study materials the feature of transcendence of the people’s world outlook connected with the mythologeme of the mirror has been considered, as well as mythological ideas of the mirror as a symbol of the feminine expressed through beliefs in generative powers of the item, thus, determining its role in the wedding rites. It is confirmed that the mirror is used in the wedding ritual due to its semantics and sacred relationship with women's patron saints ensuring a happy marriage and conferring the power of fertility. The work also analyzes the prototypicality of the mirror in the context of various magic ‘optical devices’ and introduces their symbolic meanings and semiotic nature. According to the research, Arvaydæn (Heavenly Mirror) semiotically correlates with ancient Indo-Iranian ideas of the three planes of space and is able to show all visible and invisible objects in the three worlds: the upper, middle and lower ones. The Heavenly Mirror can also display all events of past, present and future. Accordingly, the miraculous properties of the Heavenly Mirror including reproduction of objects and events in both the vertical and horizontal spatial-temporal plane is the result of its semiotic nature which distinguishes it from an ordinary mirror that reflects only ‘visible’ objects placed directly before it. In the end, the vast variety of folklore genres containing the ‘mirror’ motifs and its wide use in the ceremonial and ritual complex allow for the conclusion about a significant role of the mythologeme in the semiotic system of Ossetian traditional culture.

mirror, Nart epos, semiotics, Heavenly mirror, mythological thinking, Wonderful bead, wedding ceremonialism

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