Tiek žodiniuose, tiek vaizdiniuose žiniasklaidos pranešimuose gausu konotacinių ir mitinių reikšmių, kurių analizei parankios Roland’o Barthes’o teorijos. Šios teorijos sudaro pagrindą žiniasklaidos ...tyrimų metodologijai, tačiau iki šiol nėra instrumentalizuotos ir paverstos patogiais tyrimo įrankiais. Sujungus du R. Barthes’o veikalus, moderniojo mito teoriją, išplėtotą knygoje „Mitologijos“, ir jo įžvalgas esė „Fotografinis pranešimas“, straipsnyje suformuluojama kokybinė metodologija žiniasklaidos pranešimams tirti. Teigiama, kad mito – semiologinės sistemos – schema leidžia pademonstruoti žiniasklaidos konstruojamų mitų vidinę sandarą, mito retorinės figūros padeda atpažinti mitinių pranešimų ideologinį pobūdį, o iliustracijų konotavimo procedūros – nustatyti konotacines reikšmes spaudos fotografijose.
The cultural genome.Space and its ideograms of the mythical storyAs a biological genome determines our biological appearance, so too the cultural genome determines our cultural expression. This is a ...set of findings about the functioning of the universe and rules derived from them. When people verbalize these findings in a narrative, a mythical story occurs. A mythical landscape is a form of the cultural landscape that people created in accordance with their mythical conceptions that they could master the forces of nature with its help. From individual structures of the text fragments of Slavic folk traditions, a composite story in many versions is made, which explains the mechanism of renewal and describes the cyclical changes of the nature. People were using this mythical story as a mental model, which was materialized in specific spaces as spatial ideograms, which are discussed in the next part of the book (‘The cultural genome. Space and its ideograms of the mythical story’).
Focusing on Slovenian mythology the book contains a review of Slovenian mythological, historical, and narrative material. Over 150 supernatural beings are presented, both lexically and according to ...the role that they have in Slovenian folklore. They are classified by type, characteristic, features, and by the message conveyed in their motifs and contents. The material has been analysed in the context of European and some non-European mythological concepts, and the author deals with theory and interpretations as well as the conclusions of domestic and foreign researchers. The book forms new starting points and a classification of supernatural beings within a frame of a number of sources, some of which have been published for the first time in this book.
Besedilo utemeljuje možnost, da bi v sociologiji kulture uporabili Vernantovo koncepcijo mita v antični Grčiji za raziskovanje pojavov v sodobni popularni kulturi, ki jih lahko brez negativnih ...konotacij obravnavamo kot mite. Marxovo misel, da so miti še vedno gradivo umetnostne imaginacije, kar so bili že za Grke, so v kritičnem družboslovju različno predelovali. Praviloma je mit v sodobnosti pri tem reduciran na ideologijo - takšno je celo Barthesovo branje mitov v popularni kulturi v njegovih Mitologijah. Namesto tega se zavzemamo za branje, ki se navezuje na Vernanta in obravnava kot mite tiste polisemične zgodbe, katerih avtorstvo je nepomembno ali pozabljeno in ki jih je mogoče prenašati iz medija, jim odvzemati ali dodajati podrobnosti ter spreminjati smisel, ne da bi bila njihova vitalnost s tem kaj prizadeta.
Plotinova alegoreza, ki povezuje orfiški mit o Dionizu z mitom o Narcisu, temelji na skupnem motivu ogledovanja svoje lastne podobe v ogledalu oziroma v vodi. Temu motivu, ki predstavlja ...pomemben vidik Plotinove metaforike zrenja, dodaja avtor Enead element združitve oziroma poskusa združitve z odsevom, ki ga pred tern ni mogoče zaslediti v ohranjenih različicah nobenega izmed teh mitov, zato pa je prisoten v hermetični kozmogoniji. Kreativni vidik združitve z odsevom prevzame tudi Plotin v svoji teoriji o sestopu in utelešenju duše, za katero uporabi prispodobo Dionizovega ogledala. Nasprotno predstavlja Narcisovo koprnenje pogled vstran, ki ima zanj usodne posledice. Duša, ki se ogleduje v »Dionizovem ogledalu«, ima se vedno pred očmi počelo, iz katerega izhaja, in zato ostaja zvesta svoji naravi, »Narcis« pa se izgubi, ko utone v studencu navideznosti.
The motif of Icarus is richly represented in small objects, such as gems and cameos, as well as in wall paintings, but appears only rarely in stone sculpture. As pointed out by Arnold Schober, it has ...achieved its greatest popularity in Noricum and especially in Pannonia: outside these provinces, a larger number is represented only in Regio X Venetia et Histria. Icarus is accompanied by Daedalus or one of the Parcae, who is attaching wings to his arms. The majority of the statuettes shows Icarus standing, naked or draped only in a chlamys, with large wings attached to his shoulders. Since the Roman Empire has so few representations of the young hero just before or during the fight, Schober has labelled this motif as a special feature of Norico-Pannonian sepulchral monuments. Most of the statuettes were found in the territory of a Roman necropolis, and they apparently belonged to the decoration of the sepulchral monuments. They usually served as the acroteria of the tympanums of the aedicule tomb, which is confirmed by their more or less rudimentary workmanship and in some cases by a pair of holes in the plinth. Icarus was also one of the rare mythological motifs depicted on the sepulchral monuments of the eastern part of Gallia Cisalpina, where it doubtlessly decorated the acroterium. Statues were found in the necropolises of Aquileia and Altinum. All date to the Julio-Claudian era and resemble those from Noricum and Pannonia. The theme probably came to the Danubian provinces with a time delay through well-established merchant connections. The high-quality fragment from Flavia Solva shows sitting on Icarus’ left side a naked woman, usually interpreted as one of the Parcae, who is securing his wings. In this position she replaces Daedalus, who is sculpted beside Icarus especially from the 5th century BC onward. She might be an allusion to Icarus’ premature death. An almost identical composition is found in a wall painting from Echzell (Germania Superior), where the Parca is replaced with Daedalus, and on a sarcophagus from Asia Minor depicting Icarus’ life. Based on the narrative cycle of Icarus’ life on that sarcophagus, Salvatore Calderone has pointed out a Neoplatonic explanation of the myth: that the fight and fall could symbolise the soul which goes into the sky, from where it falls to Earth again. As Icarus in the Danubian provinces is never shown falling but rather flying or about to take wing (the only exception being the relief from Carnuntum), the image may express a Neoplatonic thesis and the apotheosis of the deceased. The provinces display at least three elementary types: Icarus standing alone with outstretched winged arms – this type probably derives from Aquileia; Icarus in relief, together with the Parca or Daedalus; and the bust of Icarus in the tympanum of the stele or acroterium. The fragment in Joanneum has most probably arrived from one of the Attic sarcophagi, where the Parca often appears by the side of the protagonists who die prematurely.
Kdo ve, kako bi se razvijala novejša slovenska dramatika, ko bi se Dominik Smole navdihoval pri Higinovem poročilu o Antigoni; po njem je Kreont po razkritju Antigono »predal svojemu sinu Hajmonu, s ...katerim je bila zaročena, da bi jo usmrtil. Hajmon pa iz ljubezni do Antigone ni ubogal očetovega ukaza, temveč jo je zaupal v varstvo pastirjem in se zlagal, da jo je ubil. Rodila je sina in ko je odrastel v moža, je prišel v Tebe na športne igre ...«
The research focuses on the folklore regarding two monolith ‘Babas’ in the Karst region of Slovenia. From the Karst to the Vipava Valley and Croatian Istria, parents used the ‘baba’ to frighten their ...children, telling them that they would have to kiss or blow up the buttocks of the ugly ‘old baba’ (crone’) or swallow her snivel on their first visit to a neighbouring town (for example, Trieste). Throughout the area, stone ‘Babas’ were represented as personifications of a repulsive old woman. At Grobnik in Croatian Istria, a ‘Baba’ with pronounced female attributes is carved in rock at the entrance to the old town. In some parts, the imaginary or stone ‘Babas’ were given offerings of crops. At Golec in Cicarija, a three-day ritual to ‘Baba’ was performed on Midsummer Day, offering her water, soil and ashes (from a bonfire). Immolation and rituals performed in the immediate vicinity of ‘Babas’ are recorded also in Macedonia, as well as in France and Italy. The ‘Baba’ appears to be an omnipresent, yet fragmentarily preserved phenomenon in the traditions of all Slavic peoples. It encompasses different phenomena. On the one hand it represents old age, infertility, and on the other young, fertile things, or a structural support or basis. In Slavic traditions, the ‘baba’ is connected with water or equated with precipitation phenomena (rain, hail, places where storms break, etc.). She is associated with moisture through some adjectives (‘snotty’, ‘muddy’) or through the location of the stone monoliths by the water. According to the Rodik tradition, the ‘baba’s’ urine turns to rain, her fart to wind, and by lifting her skirt she brings clear weather. Slavic and Indo-European folklore material points to a close connection between bodily winds and conception, birth, and new souls. The lifting of the skirt is reminiscent of the obscene gesture by Baubó in Greek mythology. In several rituals of the Balkans, crawling under the skirt of the ‘baba’ (the oldest woman in the village) is believed to protect from diseases and bring fertility. The ‘baba’ is most commonly associated with a mountain, which could point to the wider Eurasian representations of the mountain as the earth and a woman/mother. The Karst tradition which has it that a person falling on the ground has kissed ‘the snotty baba’ could also suggest that the ‘snotty baba’ is nothing but the earth itself. As stone monoliths or mountain names, ‘Babas’ commonly appear in the vicinity of archaeological sites. The toponyms show a pattern of the Baba opposed to a celestial male deity (Slavic Perun), often in a tripartite structure. The lasciviousness of the traditions about the ‘baba’ can be compared to those surrounding the Slavic goddess Mokosh. Both figures are associated with adjectives of moisture, debauchery, sexual traits, and to Mother Earth. However, the analogies go beyond the Slavic world. The traditions of ‘kissing the crone on the buttocks’ on going somewhere for the first time are known also in Liguria, the valleys of Adda and Mera, and Friuli in northern Italy, in Benevento in southern Italy, and in France up to Brittany. Like in Slovenia, people in northern Italy used to predict bad weather by observing the mountain ridge named after the ‘baba’ or ‘crone’. Moreover, Liguria has the same saying about falling down on the ground as the Karst tradition mentioned above. The widespread analogies all over Europe suggest a much more ancient background for the ‘baba’ than has been supposed. Particularly striking is the similarity between such specific grotesque, lascivious traditions as ‘kissing the baba or blowing up her buttocks’. The ‘Baba’ is an ambivalent folklore figure. Her degraded principle can be seen in horrifying representations and in the threats with repulsive, muddy, and snotty ‘crones’ on entering a town, in her connection with a sudden cold, winter, etc. Her vital, generative principle can be discerned in the representations of the ‘baba’ that symbolise fertility: exaggerated female attributes, association with water, personification of (moist) earth, her power over the weather, her role of providing structural support, etc. With the Karst tradition of burning the last sheaf of grain, again called ‘baba’, people asked for the return of the same in the following year. The ‘baba’ concludes the yearly cycle, which has to finish with ‘death’ so as to be renewed in the following year. What presents the basis or support of the entire macrocosmos, the grounds for construction, for life, is also its end. Despite criticisms of the ‘Great Mother’ theories, it is difficult to avoid comparisons to the ambivalent deities and female figures from European folklore. But such a deity would probably be part of a larger tripartite belief system, demonstrated in the recent researches. This would be corroborated by the immolation of the three basic nature elements to ‘Baba’ and by her inclusion in the tradition of ‘trocan’, a reflection of the old beliefs in the three primary forces of nature from western Slovenia. The common opinion perceives the traditions of ‘kissing the baba on her buttocks’ just as a ‘fairytale’ intended to frighten children. However, the presence of such a specific tradition all over Europe suggests the remnant of an initiation rite on first entering a place, a rite connected to an ancient European goddess governing the forces of nature.
L’Euridice, composta in musica in stile rappresentativo by Giulio Caccini (1551–1618) is considered the first fully preserved and printed opera in music history. It was composed in 1600 to the ...libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini, itself commissioned for the wedding celebrations of Maria de Medici and her spouse, the French king Henry IV. The score was printed in 1600 in Florence and dedicated to Count Giovanni Bardi; in 1615 it was reprinted in Venice, but without the dedication. In fact, Caccini had not been commissioned to write the music for that occasion: in 1600 the official composer of the opera Euridice had been Jacopo Peri, whose version, with approximately one sixth of Caccini’s music – the parts sung by Caccini’s family members, including Euridice’s part – was performed in Florence on 6 October 1600. At this hybrid performance, parts of Giulio Caccini’s opera were heard for the first time. The only known full staging of Caccini’s opera took place on 5 December 1602 at Palazzo Pitti in Florence to honour Cardinal Montalto. It entertained the noble public for two hours. Considering the simplicity and shortness of the extant score, the performance cannot have been a simple one: it would have included repetitions, dances, and other unwritten additions. In the tradition of humanist Florentine circles, Ottavio Rinuccini’s libretto follows one of the most famous classical myths – the story of the divine singer Orpheus, which was particularly appropriate for a first attempt to resurrect the classical tragedy, believed to have been entirely sung. Yet Rinuccini was inspired not only by Ovid’s and Virgil’s narratives of the myth but also by Angelo Poliziano’s Favola di Orfeo and some other, earlier Renaissance sources. Thee story itself was partly changed and adapted to the occasion of an important state marriage, a common practice in later operatic texts as well. It tells only the first part of the myth, centred on the tragic loss of Eurydice and on Orpheus’ despair: on his ‘magic’ song that makes the underworld deities return his beloved to life. Omitting Eurydice’s second death, the opera has her and her Orpheus return to the meadow, where it ends with a happy chorus of nymphs and shepherds. Caccini’s Euridice did not have a wide dissemination in the early 17th century, but somehow the score (published in a single volume, as a score for a single voice and instrumental bass with some four- and five-part choruses) found its way into the music collection of the Cathedral of Ljubljana, where it was first recorded in 1620 as »Euridice Giulii Cazini in folio«. Another hand added »desunt«, meaning that the second review had found it missing. At the next review, however, a third hand added new information, »L’euridice composta Julii Caccini liber solus«, probably referring to the same copy – now found – rather than to a second copy. Unfortunately neither of the music items listed in the above-mentioned inventory survives, so these two short notes are the only testimony to an early presence of Giulio Caccini’s Euridice in Ljubljana. The article discusses some possible theories on why and how the score might have entered the Ljubljana inventory.