The Albanian hero and the death situations in Epos

• Pages: 37-44

37

Balkan Journal of Interdisciplinary Research

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

ISSN 2410-759X

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

Vol. 7 No.3

January, 2022

The Albanian hero and the death situations in Epos

Dr. Ermira Ymeraj

Albania / Shkodër

Abstract

Indo-European epic literature, gives numerous examples, of the survival of an event, through

song. The hero is a creation of narrative art and everything narrative identies its own heroine

in its own national colors. The mythological feeds of the Indo-European peoples give other

examples on the role of the death of the hero, the Homeric hero Achilles, such as the hero of

the Indian Karna, who asserts, “I chose fame on earth, at the expense of my life. The glorious man

reaches heaven, the unknown man dies” (MBh. 284. 31).

Keywords: death, resurrection, the death punishment, the opposite motives.

1. Introduction

Indo-European epic literature, gives numerous examples, of the survival of an

event, through song. The hero is a creation of narrative art and everything narrative

identies its own heroine in its own national colors. The mythological feeds of the

Indo-European peoples give other examples on the role of the death of the hero, the

Homeric hero Achilles, such as the hero of the Indian Karna, who asserts, “I chose fame

on earth, at the expense of my life. The glorious man reaches heaven, the unknown man dies”

(MBh. 284. 31). One such example is the Caucasian Narts1 who were all in agreement.

“Defeating all earthly enemies, they decide to measure themselves with God Himself. The Lord

sent a message: “If I can beat you, what do you want? “Either you will wipe out your race

altogether, or some of your descendants will remain inferior?” The Narts looked at each other

and said, “If he is going to destroy our race, let him do it completely!” Some thought, “Beer

to have ospring than to have none”. But Uryzmeg replied, “No! Beer to be left without

descendants than to leave inferior. What do you love about the afterlife? We do not need

it. Let him give us eternal fame2! “And all the Narts agreed with him.”

One of the earliest superstitions of mankind in the customary ethnoculture of many

peoples is “the dead should not be disturbed.” Beating the grave disrupts the ow of life

“beyond the grave”.

This motive expresses relationships within the ritual and canonical environment of

the heroes, where the feeling of anger, anxiety towards the concern that is made to

the “vakëf” land is dominant. “Punishment after death” is an ancient motive in many

literatures. Hector crawls (The Iliad) and is condemned by Achilles to stand on the

ground, the beating of Halil’s tomb by Harambashi and Muji by the sea urchin in

the Albanian cycle brings the cult of punishment of the tomb and reinforces the

sanctication of the “temple land”.

These are evidences of the presence of the myth of the resurrection, as evidences of

man’s power to maintain moral decay. In the midst of this complexity, of the duality

of the myth, its original and constitutive units reveal their signicant nature not in the