Metamorphosis in folklore

Folklorists have become renowned for concentrating on aspects of form and classification to the detriment of content and meaning. "Metamorphosis" seeks to reverse this tendency in showing, through an examination of the folkloric data, that European fairy tales involve complex symbolism. The book seeks to explain the puzzling contradictory attributes of fairy-tale figures that have discouraged the study of meanings in this field; and it proposes that the workings of metamorphosis in fairy tales reveal a pervasive cyclic ontology that underlies mythology and ritual generally. The issue of universal symbolism is again examined—divested from any "archetypal" generalizations—as a worthy subject of reflection.

http://lccn.loc.gov/2002003259"

The use of animal-human metamorphosis in the Lais of Anglo-Norman 12th century writer Marie de France springs from a tradition in oral storytelling in which animals were directly associated with specific human characteristics or behaviors. These animals then served as allegorical tools in popular tales. In the stories Yonec and Bisclavret, Marie de France adapts this symbolism and applies the burgeoning medieval philosophy of humanism. In this way she is able to use commonly known tropes to prove that while humans pride themselves on being masters of the earth, the “human nature” that so many philosophers sought to define was one infinitely connected to the animalistic instincts that all men and women carry within them. No human is ever rid of his or her inner animal, no matter how much the individual or society may try to domesticate it.

In Clouds 340–355 the deified Nephelai are described as shape-shifters, i.e. marvellous beings able to change their appearance at will. This fabulous concept was widespread in ancient Greek and Near Eastern myth and folklore; shape-shifting qualities are attributed to Olympian gods (Zeus, Dionysus), lesser demons (Proteus, Nereus, Thetis, Nemesis), heroic mortals (Periclymenus, Mestra), but also personages of the folk imagination, such as bogeys, wizards, and witches. Aristophanes loved this magical motif, which ultimately expresses the inexhaustible transformations of comic art. Philocleon in the Wasps, a paragon of vitality, performs a long series of simulated metamorphoses in the scenic space, imitating the movements and gestures of various animals or natural elements. The personified Nephelai, however, do not simply turn into anything they like. Rather, they select their form each time in such a way as to reflect the vices of the particular person they meet; they become e.g. deer before a coward, wolves in front of a greedy embezzler, or Centaurs before a lustful man. The Clouds’ serial metamorphoses are thus subjected to an ethical typology of the animal world, similar to the one found in animal fables. Aristophanes combines the magical motif of the shape-shifter with the moral allegory of the Aesopic corpus, and thus turns the folktale patterns into satirical weapons against contemporary politicians. The shape-shifting Nephelai represent the polymorphous poetics of comedy, which uses mimetic forms to visibly criticize the evils of Athenian public life.

NB. The new volume (7, 2017) of the Logeion, our journal on ancient theatre and drama, is now in print. It will be gradually uploaded in the journal website, http://logeion.upatras.gr/. Check regularly the site, in order to read online a range of stimulating papers on ancient drama and its modern performance and reception: from Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes to George Cram Cook, Sikelianos, the Karagiozis shadow theatre, and the American avant-garde. Authors include renowned university scholars, such as Stavros Tsitsiridis, Theodoros Stephanopoulos, Vayos Liapis, Savvas Patsalidis (all from the editorial board), Michael Tiverios (of the Academy of Athens), Stella Drougou, Katerina Arvaniti, Helen Gasti; dynamic researchers of the calibre of Anthi Hotzakoglou, Constantina Ziropoulou, Agis Marinis; and notable representatives of the younger generation, such as Milo Rengel, G. Seferiadi, and above all two brilliant former students of ours in the University of Athens, Dimitrios Kanellakis and Nikos Manousakis, whose contributions would make any department of classical philology extremely proud.

En reconsidérant les récits noyaux des rites de passage de transformations en loups garous, dans les récits de la Grèce antique jusqu’au folklore contemporain de la France – domaine principal de notre thèse en anthropologie des religions (Armand, 2012) – en passant par les rapports issus à la Renaissance des pays baltes (Livonie), il apparaît que la présence d’une forte composante aquatique chez les loups-garous a été clairement sous-estimée, par rapport à l’accent répétitivement mis sur l’influence de la lune. Et ce n’est pas seulement que le processus de la métamorphose se réalise par le passage à travers les eaux, stagnantes ou courantes, car il peut se produire qu’un mégalithe avec cupule fréquenté par les garous serve dans un rite païen de confirmation du baptême (les loups-garous étant réputés avoir été mal baptisés). Sans compter d’autres êtres fantastiques proprement aquatiques qui se révèlent être des loups garous déclarés. En remettant en phase la relation de fertilité impliquant la lune et les eaux par rapport à ce cadre rituel, il devient clair que l’on peut dorénavant placer sur le même pied leurs médiations dans cette métamorphose matricielle qu’est la lycanthropie.

Reconsidering core narratives of lycanthropic rites of passage, from ancient Greece to contemporaneous French folklore – the main field of our thesis in anthropology of religion (Armand, 2012) – via Baltic reports giving a first view of Renaissance in Livonia, it appears that there is a strong aquatic component which has been underestimated in werewolves, compared to the emphasis put upon moon influence. Not only metamorphosis occurs when crossing ponds or rivers, but even cup marks on megaliths can contribute to a pagan confirmation rite just after christening (remember that werewolves are reputedly wrong baptized infants). Not to speak of other fantastic aquatic beings which are recognized as true werewolves. Resetting the fertility relationship between waters and the moon into this ritual framework proved to be the key for understanding their mediations on the same footing in this metamorphosis matrix : lycanthropy.

This article examines an obscure custom found in Iberian ethnography: that of having one’s eldest children serve as godparents for their own youngest siblings, starting with the seventh. The paper’s main working hypothesis is that this custom is to be understood in the context of underlying conceptions that fairytales convey in a symbolical guise. The argument highlights the relationship of examined notions with the “Dragon Slayer” theme, to bring out stable themata concerning ontological complexity and metamorphosis, in the light of which the Iberian custom is interpreted.

L’histoire du joyau des cœurs pétrifiés (Xin jian jinshi zhuan 心堅金石傳) est une nouvelle en chinois classique incluse par Tao Fu 陶輔 (1441- ?) dans son recueil « Ombres de fleurs » (Huaying ji 花影集). Ce récit, qui commence comme une banale histoire d’amour entre brillant lettré et belle courtisane, tourne brusquement au romantisme macabre lorsque les protagonistes, séparés, meurent tour à tour : dans le cœur de chacun d’entre eux, on découvre une figurine de jade à l’image de l’amant(e) perdu(e). Mais les deux figurines, assemblées dans un coffret par le « méchant » de l’histoire pour être offertes à un puissant ministre, redeviennent caillots de sang putréfié : le désir frustré dont les statuettes magiques représentait la cristallisation, désormais assouvi par la réunion post-mortem des cœurs des amants, les a ramenés à la condition mortelle commune. L’article, après avoir analysé et retracé la fortune éditoriale du récit, notamment via l’inclusion par le grand anthologiste Feng Menglong馮夢龍 (1574-1646) dans son « Abrégé thématique d’une histoire des passions » (Qingshi leilüe情史類略), au chapitre « métamorphoses », propose une traduction intégrale du récit ainsi que des contes plus brefs qui l’accompagnent dans l’anthologie de Feng.

In spite of its centrality to the plot of the Segunda Parte del Lazarillo (Antwerp,
1555), the detailed account of Lázaro’s conversion—i.e., the series of events leading to his
metamorphosis and the vicissitudes of assuming a new identity—has received so far scarce
scholarly attention. Through a close reading of key moments in the 1555 sequel, the present
study attempts to explore Lázaro’s subjective experience as it is conveyed in the text, and reflect
on the construction of converso subjectivity in Golden Age Spanish imaginary.