SymbolicThemes in the European Cinderella Cycle - iscte-iul

SymbolicThemes in the European Cinderella
Cycle
FronciscoVazda Silaa
Instead of setting out, in orthodox fashion, to archive the endless variations characteristic of fairv tales into fixed types-rendering fragrnented,
thus meaningless materials-the following analysis u'ill try to bring forth
from the given flux its underlying symbolic themes. This approach will be
presentedas applied to Iberian rnaterialsof the "Cinderella" cycle, considered in a conparative perspective; then some thoughts rvill be proposed on
the nature of fairv tales' symbolism.
It has long been recognized that the "Cinderella" theme is rnore complex than meets the eye. In 1893,Marian Cox integrated in the "Cinderella
t1pe" rnany tales in which the heroine is expelled fron, instead of being
forced to remain at, home. This author defined three basic headings r,vithin
the Cinderella type: "Cinderella proper" as the heroine ill-treated by a
stepmother at home, later to be recognized try means of a shoe; "CAtskin,"
defined as one'r,r'hoflees horne disguised in sorne skin to avoid marrving
her "unnatural father"; and "Cap o' Rushes," expelled by her father and
later disguised under sone rough cover for answerins in an apparently
unsatisfactory way-usuall,v involving a comparison to salt-the qucstion:
"how rnuch do you love rne?" Furthermore, Cox construed a fourth heacling to accommoclate a large nurnber of "indeterminate tales" not fitting
anv of the preceding classes,and yet a fifth relating to a male Cinderella
(1893:lrxv).In 1951, this whole field-the indetcrminacy of r,vhoseborders
was candidly admitted by Cox (nxiv)-has been termed by Anna Rooth
the "Cinderella Cycle" (1951). Within this field, Christine Goldberg recently noted, "however the tales are defined, there will inevitablv be some
variants that have characteristics of tr,voor rnore types" (1997.28).
As far as Iberian tradition is concerned, Aur6lio Espinosa strove to
detlne each of Cox's three nain groups in the following way: Cinderella
proper is ill-treated at home, but is helped out by her dead mother, a fairy
SournenNForrrone57:2(2000),pp.| 59-I 80
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meetsthe
nasical dresses,
the \trgin Mâry or yet bv an animal.Shereceir.es
thence.After
princeat the churchor in a ball,anddropsa shoeassheescapes
(1947: +15-16,
beingrecognizedthroughthe iostshoe,marriageis celebrated
42.1).Catskin,for her partl fleesher incestuousfather.The cleadmother, a
fairv or the \trgin helpsher.At the ballssheneets the prince,r'vholendsher
introducesinto food shepreparesfor the
three gifts.These she afterw'ards
her; rnarriageis cellovesickprince, u'ho healsinstantlvas he recogprizes
ebratecl(.i12).Last,her fathersentences
Cap o' Rushesto death.Sheis howeversparedby the executioners,
and then findsu'ork asa fov'l keeperat the
royal palace.The prince fallsin love u,'ithher.At the marriagecelebration,
the
all f'oodservedto the bride'sfatheris salt-free.fu he finalh,'understands
valueof salt,the father makespeaceli'ith his daughter(409).
Nthough Espinosapresumesto presentthus the "Flispanictv'pe" of
Cap o' Rushes,the "perfect version" of Catskin, and the "fundamental
form" of Cinderella(1947:109,+12,+15),he is v'ell awareof the prevailing
mixture of themesin this group of tales,and henceof the idealcharacterof
the aboveclassification.Indeed, this author noticesthat the rnain differthe rest of the talesbeing
encesare to be found in the initial sequences,
basicallyidentical.Sinceclassifications
are built upon preciselythoseinitial variations,which he moreover takesas secondaryhe cannot but acknowledgethe unsatisfactoryresults of tlpological endeavors,which he
neverthelesspursues(+07,+16).
Espinosafinds himself entangledin the hopelesstaskof atternptingto
distinguishinseparabletalesbecausehe fails to ask:how are they simultaneouslyalike and different?In other words: what is the underlving founclationof observeddifferences?
For, indeed,it is onlv on semanticgroundsby askingwhat is the basisfor the equivalenceof different motifs-that the
paralyzing.oppositronbetweenunfathomableunity anclsuperficialdifferencescan Deovercome.
In what follows, while I will first turn my attention to preciselysuch
differencesashaveservedto split a comlnon field into meaninglessshreds,
I will attempt using them to reconstitutethe underlying picture of which
For a start, I will then ask:what is there in
they are variant expressions.
comlnon betweenfleeing a pressingfather and being expelledby an angry
father?And betweenbeing forced to leavehome by a loving father and
being kept home by a hateful stepmother?The very neatnessof theseinversionsbetravsa seriesof variationson a single theme. But u'hat is this
therne?This I will try to ascertainin the following section,entitledRejrrcenotion.Then, in sectionsnamed Skins,Flowers,Sah, and Riddle,I will at-
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tempt to sheclsomelight on the main symbolicclustersinvolved.Finally,
someconcludingremarkswill be offered.
While all resultswill be inferred from analysisof Europeanmaterials
in and by themselves,I shali occasionallvcall attention to the fact that
many symbolic traits laid forth are not exclusivelyEuropean.Indeed it is
operating
usefulto keepin mind that different systemsof representations,
in r.r'idelydifferent cultures,often displayequivalents1'mbolicfbundations.
Analysisconductedwithin one single context gains depth; comparative
awarenessgrants perspective.Ultimately, I think, depth and perspective
shouldstrengthenone another.
Rejuvenation
According to a Pornrgueseversion of Catskin (entitlecl "The Wooden
Doll"), a king and a queenhavea very ugly daughter.Sheis so ugly,in fact,
that when they attend to the birthday party of a neighboring prince she
dancesonly with her father.Then the queendiesafter extorting from the
king the promise to remarry only a bride who is renderedbeautiful by a
head-kerchiefsheleavesbehind.Only the daughterfits this condition;hence
the king decidesto marry her. The daughterfleeshome within a wooden
doll, works as a fowl keeper at the palaceof the neighboring king, ancl
theremarriesthe prince(Oliveira,1:56-59).Note that the king'sclecision
to rrrarryhis daughterstemsfrom a promisernadeto his dying wife, and
the girl becomesbeautifulasshetries on her mother'skerchief'.In fact,this
is one of manvwaysof sayingthat the daughteris, or becomes,just like her
mother.Thus, in other Europeanversionsthe rnother'snecklace(Oliveira,
2:226-28),ring (Pedroso1984:no.16)or shoes(Dozon 1881:no.6) u'ill fit
only her daughter,who has golden teeth (Canziani 1928:216-38;Cox
1893:no.t47) or hair just like her mother,of whom-in short-she is the
live sernblance(Grimm no. 65). The so-called"unnaturalf'ather"woos
then in his daughtera new versionof his wife, ashe follows the promiseextolledby the deceased-of marrying no other woman.
Now, whateverelse lies behind the answerthat Cap o' Rushesprovidesto her father'squestionof "how much do you love me," it seernsclear
that the father expelsher on accountof not loving hirn enough.\\(lliam
Shakespeare
expresses
this very clearly as he has Cordelia-his own version of the f-airytale heroine-say, after her sisters'hyperbolicexpressions
of feignedlove, "I love your majestyaccordingto my bond, no Inore nor
less" (19f14:24).The father'swrath at this measuredansrveqseenin the
light of his joy at the equivalentanswerby'the eldestdaughterin a Porru-
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Sou'r'nrnxForxronn 57:2
plrese oral version (Barbosa l9l5:21'l), betrays a definite infaruation for
the younger daughter. Indeed, Nan Dundes perceptively renarked, "the
'love like
salt' plot appears to be a u'eakened form of the folktale plot in
w h i c h a ' m a d ' f a t h e r t r i e s t o m a r r y h i s o u ' n d a u g h t e r " ( 1 9 8 0 : 2 1 5 ) .O n e
should not lose sight of the fact, hou'ever, that the "mad" father is really
the deceased rnother's puppet. More preciselv, then, the "love like salt"
motif is a variation on the wooing, bv a father, of the live irnage of his
deceasedwife. Consequendv it is still the dead mother, reproduced in the
daughter for whom the king cannot contain his longing, rvho hovers behind the scenes.
Furthermore, the stepmother fizure in fairv tales is essentialh'a negative replacement for the mother. More exacth,',the "dark" stepmother replacing the "golclen" mother is, quite literally, the dead u.onan's "dark
shaclow" on earth. As Charles Ploix understood, the plight of the heroine
under her stepmother's tyrannv is a form of enchantment ( I 89 1: 103 -'1); it
is, in other words, a sy'rnbolicdeath. One might thus say that the heroine
relegated to temporary death by the stepmother taps then the life-giving
aspect of her departed rnother, and thus emerges beautiful-as a rejur-enated mother-from the death-connoting cinders. In other u'ords the stepmother leads the heroine into death, resurrection and marriage as a living
image of the mother, just as, in "The Wooden Doll," the dving mother's
injunction actually leads to the marriage of the daughter who perpetuates
her. Both the excessively ioving father and the relentlessly hating stepmother represent then the dead rnother in apparently rnonstrous ways, as
they operate the deceasedwoman's rejuvenation through the daughter ied
into marriage to become a mother. The fundarnental theme reflected in
various guises in the Cinderella cycle is then that of the rejuvenation of a
supernatural woman through her daughter, bv means of a process of death
and resurrection.
This simple pattern is sotnetitnes complicated by the fact that in the
Iberian tradition the mother's death is often replicated in an animal shape.
Thus the heroine is sent out to tend a cow variously associatedwith the
deceasedmother, who assistsher. The stepmother decides to have the cow
killed; the aninal instructs the girl to rvash its entrails in a brook, and then
follow whatever colnes out of them. The girl is lecl into the aquatic dwelling of three fairies, or else neets the celestialMother. Then she receivesa
series of three gifts such as marvelous beauty, golden hair or a shining
golden rnoon or star on her forehead, and the abiliq, to produce flowers or
gems whenever she speaks.Note hos'the motherly cow' put to death bv
the stepmother, leads the girl to fairies rv'ho elaborate on the gift of beauty
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as seenin "The \Vooden Doll." The essentialidentity betweenthe cow
and the rnother is explicitly statedin EasternEuropeanversions,and furthermore the equationbetweenthe mother and the fairiesis madeclearby
Iberian texts in which the dying mother bestowson her daughterone or
more of the same"three graces"(Espinosano. 111-13;Pedrosono. 23).
Skins
Indeed,the usualdepiction of the heroine and her mother asmarvelously
beautiful,with golden hair, is certainlycomparableto that of fairies(P6cs
1989,14-15), while the stepmotheris often similar to that of a witch. Now,
fairiesappearboth unclerbenign and malevolent("witchy") aspects.Such
ambivalenceis clearestin taleswheneverfairiesput contrastedspellsupon
one single girl thus made to alternatebetweentwo states(seeCardigos
1996 128).For instance,in Italian talesthree out of four fairiesmay grant
the heroine her usual three graces,while the fourth fhirv spellsher into
becominga serpent(Calvino1982:no.150).Or else,four out of five frogs
late her to "shine like the sun, even when it is cloudy," but the fifth (to
whom sheinadvertentlybroke a leg) spellsher to changeinto a snake"the
minute sheseesa rav of sun" (no. 64).The heroineis thus turned into both
the ray of sun and the serpent,by fairiesasfrogs-that is, in a zoomorphic
shaperelatedto the underworld(Calvino'227;cf. P6cs1 1989:13).
C)ftenthe girl'.sduality is projectedonto contrastedpersonr. In Iberian versionsof Cinderella an envioushalf-sisterfrequently impersonates
the grirn dimensionas she attemptsto replicatethe heroinelsadventure,
only to becomeblack asnight, receivea donkey'stail or goat horn on her
forehead,and be cursedto produceexcrement,toadsor serpentswhenever
shespeaks.After this happens,the stepmotherdoesher bestto tarnish the
stepdaughter's
shineby placingher under cindersor in a dark place,and
attenpts to marry off her own daughterto the prince while disguisingher
the girl who
ugliness.'fhereis then a cyclical,invertedcorrelationbetr.r'een
becolnesluminous,is thereforeplungedinto darknessand emergestherein
elevatedto
in full radiance,and the one'il.hobecomesblack,is nevertheless
to excrementand serpents.More
the lirnelight,but endsher davsassociated
areastwo aspects
of onesingleentiw,the "black"
preciselvthe two stepsisters
dimensionof which ernergeson stages'heneverthe bright one is put into
clarkness.
This of coursereplicatesthe relationshipbetweenmother andstepmother asseenabove,since-as CharlesPerraultv'askeenenoughto point
out-the contrastedhalf-sisterstakeafter their own nothers.
Now, the observedmodesof cyclicaldualitv stronglv suggestthat to
be enchantedamountsto revertto an onhidiancondition.In order to brieflv
164
Soultrnx Folxroxr 57:2
confirm this, I will resort to widely known materials.The aquaticsetring
of fairiesin the Iberian tradition corresoondsto Mother Hollet underw.ater realm in Grimm no. 24, and moreor-erthe fact that Iberian fairiesoften
appearto the girls in the guiseof birds(Pedroso1984:no.1B,
37)is akin to
the appearanceof Aschenputtel'sdeadmother in the sameguise(Grimm
no.21). This is significant,sincethe Grimms describethe girl who first
visits N{other Holle asthe "Cinderella of the house,"and indeed this girl
gets her golden hue from Mother Holle after spendinga snowv rvinrer
underground,just asAschenputtelproper receivesher clothesfrom a tree
sheplantedon her mother'stornb after thaur In both instances,the means
for the heroine'.s
marriagethen comein Springtimefrom an underground/
underwaterreahn, the nafure of ll'hich is made clear bv the fact that the
skin covering the fleeing heroine at the samepoint is often that of a recentlydeadwoman(seeCox 1893:nos.l1l, 117,155, 2 I 5, 2BI ; cf. Cosquin
-6; Goldberg 1997:33-38;Hartland 1886:317).
1922:5
In view of this, it is v'orrh noting that Mother Holle is said to have
suchlarge teeth that the "good" girl getsfrightenedupon first seeingher.
In a British version,the samecharacteris describedasa green lady whom
both girls (peepingthrough a kevhole)seedancingwith a bogev,and the
food offered in this housetakesthose who would ear it to the graveyard
(Briggs 199l:286-89).Furthern'rore,the joint considerarionof the British
greenlady and of the big-tootheclGerman fair1,.
living in an underground,
aquaticrealm suggestsan ophidian entity, which indeedsrandsclearlyrevealedin the caseof Arie, a Frenchcognateof Holle (Gennepl9B7:3019-23;
Grimm 1882:412).From the perspectiveof the conrinuirybetweenthe
deadrnother and her daughter,the deadmother'simagereappearingat her
prime through her daughtert shed of a skin therefore sug€iesrs
rhe
self-rejuvenationof an ophidian enriry.Reconsider,in this perspecrive,the
(lrimms' version of "Cinderella." Here the dying mother tells her child
that she will watch her from up above,dren is buried down below.A tree
growing on the grave,fiom rv'hichboughsa bird helpsout tlle heroine,slnthesizesthis apparentpolarity.As Marija Gimbutasremarked,a rreeand a vertically spiralledserpentare interchangeable
srmrbolsconnoting "a column
of life rising from cavesand tombs," since "the life force of the snakeis
linked to that of the dead.. . . Thus the snakesl.mbolizesthe continuity of
life betweenthe generations"
(1989:121,136-37).Inthe Grimrns'version
the tree symbolizes,I suggest,suchophidian-likecontinuiry by linking the
nother and the daughterasavianentiries-the first appearingin the guise
of pigeons;the latter asa "goose,"commanding"all the birds beneaththe
sky" and betrayingher identity by hiding in the dove-cote.
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This brings us back to the Iberian fairiesappearingasbirds, and sugidentin.There is nothingregestsan overallpal(ernof the serpenr,/bird
ally new about this. Carl Ker6nyi, for one, noted that in ancient (]reece
the daughtersof the serpent-tailed"Old One of the Sea"were "maidens
resemblingswans"(1998:42-46,5 l, 99).Likewise,William Ralstonpointed
ogt that in Russiantradition "beauteousmaidenswho usuallylive beneath
the wave,but who can transform thernselvesinto birds and fly wherever
thevplease,"aremostlythe daughtersof the "Water Kitg" (1873:119-20)'
Not surprisingly,Claude Gaignebet-who acknowledgesthat the
"woman-bird was one of the shapesof the supernaturalbride of whom
M6lusine is the typical example"-is then well aware of Cinderella''s
"otherworldly"origin (Gaignebetand Florentin 1974:95,103).From another point of view, Girnbutasbrought to notice a very old symbolismof
life renewalclusteringaround a self-regeneratingentity that she ascribed
to the "mlthic vi'aterysphere"(1989:25) and described"asseparatefigures
and as a single divinity. . . . She is one and she is two, sometimessnake,
the
I suggest,
bird" (1982,11 2).The sarnenotion unclerscores,
solnetimes
buried
Cinderella'.s
homology asfound in the Grimms' collectionbetween
nother appearingin the guise of a bird, and Holle connoting a serpent
linked to the watery reahn.
Note that Percht:r-a Gemranicvariant of Holle-would supposedlv
blind anyonewho would peepat her on her annualvisitsto houses(Frazer
the GreenLady also
1983,3:565-67).IntheBritish talereferredto aborre,
(but
in
her well restoresthe
water
the
her
blinds both girls asthey peepat
from the mother's
birds
"good" girl'sevesight).In Grirnms"'Aschenputtel,"
grave'stree provide the heroine with shining garments'but pluck out the
one girl by granting her a
half-sisters'eyes.Mother Holle insteadre\\.'ards
goldenhue, and punishesthe other by turning her black.The equivalence
t"t*"gtr turning blind and pitch-dark (aswell asbetweenshining out and
regaining eyesight)is clear from Iberian texts in whicl-rthe heroine endowedwith "three graces"undergoesher period of darkness-from which
sheemergesto light-not under ground,cinders,hidesetc.,but rather asa
tirne of blindness.Isabel Cardigos notes that' as "the heroine'seyesare
of her darkercompanion
gougedout . . . shelivesin blackness,the essence
Further-trlte ttt. latterperfbrmsthe role of the king'sbride" (199(t,129).
more, this author remarksthat the deathof the "black" girl in "The \\4rite
Bride and the Black Bride" theme correspondsto the end of a single
heroine'senchantmentasa snake(128, 1+1).
Comnare also.the Grimms' version in which Cinderella'ssistersbecone lame just beforeturning blind (Grimm no. 21), to the above-quoted
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For-xronE 57 :2
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Italian versionin which a lame frog fatesthe girl to be a serpent(Calvino
no. 64).Reciprocally,
the irnageof the Grimms'half uncoveredCinderella
being recognizedby the prince as she standson a hear'1'clog and on a
golden slipper (Grimm no. 21)-also presentin Iberian oral tradition
(Oliveira,1:409-11)-suggests(betweendarknessandlight) an unevengait.
The implication is clear:a bride emergingfrom a snake-likecondition in
the netherworld cannot immediatelywalk steadily.This callsattention to
For example,"in Scotthe recurringidentificationof brideswith serpents.
land a serpentwassupposedto emergefrom the hills on Imbolc, the Day
of Bride (Brigit) ('Todav is the day of Bride; the serpentshall come from
the hole')" (Girnbutas1989:135).Nso, in Greecethe word "nymph" means
"bride," up to modern times the marriageof men with Nereidswas regarded "a credible occurrence,"and indeed brides were customarilyassirnilatedto such descendantsof the serpent-like"Old One of the Sea"
(Lawson1964:13
1, 133-34; cf. Ker6nyi 1998:42-15,99).In the satnevein,
French
the widespread
custornof abductinga bride'sshoe-occasionally
replacing it by a clog-erplicitly involves the idea of presentinga lame
1-12).It wr-ruldthus seemasif serbride for marriage(Gennep1980:2:'11
pentswere at the origin of brides;an unevengait in preparationfor marriagebetrayingan ophidianorigin, just asbecominglameupon renouncing marriagerneansa return to basics.
In the light of the idea that the mother/daughter axis of continuity
entailsa rejuvenationin the bird/serpentshapecharacteristicofenchanted,
deathphases,it becornessignificantthat the Catskin/Capo' Rushesheroine should often watch fbwl as she goes under hide. C)ne conclusionempiricallyborne out by Spanishvariantsin which the fowl keeperdresses
in a pelican suit (Thggart 1990:94-99,106-9)-is that the bird-keeping
heroine is herselflike a bird. Indeed,GermaineMaillet points out the
equivalencebetween enduring one'sfate as a gooseherdand having the
goose-shaped
or othenvisedeformedfoot characteristicof Berthe/Perchta/
(Maillet
The Grimmsthem1980:lB5-89;cf.Grimm lBB2:129-33).
Holle
selveswerewell-awareof the closeconnectionbetweenBertheanda goose
girl (Bunt l968:2:383;cf. Goldberg 1996).Moreover Propp noticedthe
betweenfurry and feathercoveringsin tales(1983,173-74),
equivalence
with the irnplicationthat the heroine'sfurrv skin is alsolike a bird's plumage.Likewise the bear/wild rnan figure, in which Propp rightfully recogappearsin
nized the male equivalentof Grirnm'sNlerleirauh (1983:173),
French Carnival custolnsin either fur or feathers(Gennep 1979922-21).
v'ith geeseor otherfowl, corresponding
The furrvheroine'scloseassociation
to her identificationwith birds in "Cinderella" versions,is then to be un-
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derstoodasone more instanceof the examinedbird/snakeequivalence,to
which firrry animalsrnay now be addedunder the common denorninator
of an engulfing secondskin.
Frorn this point of view it is understandable
that oneItaliantellershould
describethe heroine'shide as both a wolf's fur and an old \\'omanlsskin
(Cox 1893,no. 147),asindeedthis equivalence
and the geriatricconnota(Frazer
1984:78-79n. 8; Girnbutas1989:13-5)
tion of the serpent'sslough
are one and the samethin€f.It alsomakessensethat, u'herethe snakesvrnbolismis not apparent,the deadrnothershouldbe presentedasa horned
animal;horns aptly representingthe notion of a swing betweenperiodsof
time, henceof becoming(Chassanylc)89 194-96;Gaignebetand Florentin
; a i g n e b eat n d L a j o u x
1 9 7 1 : 5 4 - 5 5 , 7 8 - 7l91,2 , 1 3 1 , 1 3 5 - 3 6 1, 5 8 - 6 1 G
Nl in
1985:I00;Gimbutasl9B2:91-95Gimbutasl9B9:75-79,265-75).
all, tl'ren,to live undera "black"woman'styrannyin cinders(oftentimesrepresentedasa "cindersskin"),to go under a hide,to follorvthrough waterthe
entrailsof a horned animal,to becomea bird and to join a serpentunderground are so manv imagesof rr s}'rnbolicdeath representedin terms of a
shape-shiftingsecondskin, the sheddingof which figuresrebirth.
This is seeminglya fundamentalimage in syrnbolicthought. Ananda
Coomaraswamynoted that "in the traditional doctrine about transformaall changesofappearance
arethoughtofin tennsof
tion or shape-shifting
the putting on or taking offof a skin or cloak," of v'hich he speaksin the
(1945,398).More specifically,James
on regeneration
contextof a discussion
George Frazer'sperceptionof the unity of old Nlediterraneanareabeliefs
in birds' and serpents're.iuvenationthrough the molting of feathersand
the castingof skins (198478-79)correspondsto Gimbutas'ssuglgestion
that pre-historicalfigurines of "a combined snakeand water bird u'ith a
long phallic neck" conveyan androplynous
theme linked to death and regeneration,traceableto Upper Paleolithictimesin Old Europe(1982:144-45,
152-53).But let me go backto the tales.
Flowers
One major inferenceto draw out of the equivalencebetweena maiden's
enchantmentas envelopedrvithin a skin or cinders,and as joining a serpent undergroundis that sucha theme amountsto that of a maidenswallowed, or kept underground,by a dragon.Thke fbr examplethis Spanish
tale in which a hero disenchantsa princessfrom a palaceof no returnserpent
referredto asan "enchantment"-by killing there a seven-headecl
(Espinosa1946,no. 139).In a variantthe "enchantment"is actuallythe
enchantedmaiden, imprisoned bv a giant whose life lies within an egg
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within a serpent(Espinosa1987:no.66).Accordingto a third versionthe
naiden definesher own enchantmentasthe f'actthat her u'ardenv-ill not
die unlessa hedgehog-appearing as the giant'salter ego as u'eil as the
serpent'sallornotif-is defeated(Espinosa1916,no. 141).Furthermore,a
Portugueseversion clearlystatesthat the maiden'senchantmentis "a serpent" (Coelho,no. 22).
So,the "enchantment"is both the princessandher rvarden.-Nforeprecisely,"enchantment" denotesa situation in r.vhichthe princessis counected to a snakethat is male and yet representshe. cotidition, u,hich is
drerefore both internal to her and externalized.Thus Cardigos remarks
"the link betweentl'redragonandthe rnaiden"asshe,too "losesher tongue"
(in the sensethat she becomesnute) u'hen the dragon is killecl and his
tonppes cut out (1996:64).But then, to liberate a princessby slaying a
dragonshouldbe tantamountto slavingthe dragonin her (Coornaras\r'arlv
is
1915:393,399-lM ; Holbek 1987:425-26). l{oreover, suchequivalence
another wav of saving that a rnaiden is disenchantedfrom an ophidian
condition into marriage.
For
Indeed,marriagedrivesthe serpentau'av(seeCardigos1996:141).
example,accordingto a Spanishversion of the "Blind Girl" therne,a gdrl
wasborn alongwith a serpent.The snakelivesunder an orangetree,washes
and cornbsher "sister" everyda1'.As the girl rnarries,the serpentretreats
into the deepsea.After marrying and givine birth the heroine is blinded
disenchants
ofher husband;then the serpentreappears,
and dispossessed
her sister by replacingher eyesin their sockets,and again goes awav
(funpudia1925:no.9). Or takethis Germanversionof Cinderella/Catskin
in which the jealousstepmotheru'ishesto get rid of the heroineby getting
her married. She therefore causesher stepdaughterto swallow a voung
serpent.As the heroine'sbelly grows she is calumniatedand expelledin
tw.elvehandsornedressescoveredby a wood mantle. She works as a
the princebeholdsher dresses
asshestripsto follou'the geese
goosehercl,
into the water,then- afterthe maidenfallsasleepin the shade-he u'atches
a huge serpentcome out of her lips. This snakehe drives au'aywith the
very goldenring he u'ill useasa marriagetoken (Cox:no.298).
Furthermore, betweenthe maiden and her serpentthere is a blood
dragon-slayer
tale,a drop of the serpent'sblood
connection.In a Portug;uese
falling on the princess'shandkerchiefforeshadowshappinessin rnarriage
(Oliveiran.d., 1:148-50).
Accordingto anotherPortu€pesetale the delivered maiden is only really free for married life after the death of a
serpent,one drop ofu.hoseblood spillsonto the bride asshe
seven-headed
lies in the bridal bed (Oliveiran.d., 1:106-08).Note also that it is after
\:AZ DA SILVA:EtrnopE.txCxlrRp,lr-,r Clc;l-t,
r59
spilling sorneown blood from a finger that the persecutedrnaiden descendsinto Frau l{olle's r.r'ell.In such r,vellanother German verslon Ieportsa water-nixie(Hunt 196i3,1:371).Accordingto a Spanishversionthe
heroineherselfis turnedinto a kind of water-nixie-insteadof beingblinded
asabove-as shesuffersattackafter giving birth to a child (Curiel Nlerchfn
lg44:257-61).In yet anotherrexr reportedby the Grirnns, such attack
consistsin beingthrown into a well of blood (Hunt 1968,l:364).In short'
then, to shedblood asa naiden brings t-rnecloseto a serpentwithin a well
(cf. verdier 1979:242-13);to marry is tantamountto bleedingthe serpent
and driving it backinto the deepwaters;but to give birth amountsto temporarily return into a serpent-likecondition akin to being plunged into a
well of blood. Nl in all, the serpentappears,then, as the shedblood of
femalephysiology.
In this sense,note that the blood of pubertvis frequentlynamed"flowg15"-gtrugthe expressions
"fleurs rouges,""Rosencrantz"for menses(See
3)-and that a Corsicanmaidenhasjust srnelleda flower
Grahn 1993:231-3
when sheis kidnappedby a dragon into a well (Massignon:no. 7). C)ther
times a maiden is taken into the rnonster'sundergrouncllair after her father cutsa rosethat bleeds(Belmont 1996:6(t).Ina sensethe rosieris the
serDentlthus the snakelivesunder the rosebash(loc. cit.), the plant itself
immobilizesthe girl'sfatherin snake-liketangles(Cox:no.297),thedragon's
blood is to be seenby the rosebush(Oliveiran.d., l:72-71),a1d the roses'
scentturlts men into stone(cf. Oliveira, l:59-62,78-82).IJou'ever,it is
also true that the maiden asksher fhther fbr a rose as beautiful as herself
Nasconcelos:no.111)or is otherwiseidentifiedto whateverflower sheasks
or \\'ashes
B),is fatedto producerosesasshespeaks
fbr (cosquin 1978,2:21
(Espinosa:no.
l1 1), asksfor a dress"'w'ithall sortsof rosesin the rvorld"
(funpuclia,n
o. 32; cf.Thggart1990:113),and is indeedin one casenamed
"Flolr,.erof the Rose;"her mother being the roseplant and shethe bloom
The girl unclerthe dragon'sspellthereforebleecls
(Barbosa1917:107-08).
while beingin bloom; indeed,sheis a maiden"in flowers"in the senseof the
it
fille en fleurs"(see!'erdier1979:67,70-71.,193).
Frenchexpression,,jeune
is therefrrreunderstandablethat the serpent'spou''erceases'and that
,,serpent's,'
blood should appear,asthe naiden is deflowered(cf. cardigos
aftermarriage,howeveqthe serpent'sspellreturnscyclicall,v,
1996:61).Even
everymonth and at everybirth (cf. Coomaraswamv1915:397-99)
spell now appearsas the very essenceof the fnother/
The serpent'.s
daughter'scontinuity.This we haveseenso far asboth skin sheddingand
cvcic blood. The rwo irnagesare closelyrelatedsincethe notiorl of such
both logicallyanclin actualcross-culfuralconbiood as"flowers" supposes,
t70
Sou'lul.rN Folru.onr. 57:2
ceptions,a processof bloomingandgoinginto fruit (CalameGriaule1987,
74) whereby
28; Delaney,Lupton, and Toth 198ti:168;Gottlieb 19BB:58,
threeg;enerations-inour talesthe rosier,its bloom, andthe fr-uitto
are implied. Furthermore, to shed blood and to cast a skin are generallv
equivalentmodesof going about such renovation.As Gaignebetpersuasivelycallsattention to the equivalencebetweenthe bird/defbrmedfoot, a
skin and menstruationasrelatedto Europeanf'emalefiguresnamed
shagpX,
afterrosesor the neu'moon,the implicationis indeedthat nenstruadonis
changeofskin (1985:106-10).
like a regenerating
From a comparativeanalysisof Vedic and Celtic textsunder a different perspective,Coomaraswalnvlikev'iseshowsthat the lunar periodiciff
of women reflectsthe transformationof a Serpentinto the PerfectBride as
effectedby femalesbearing floral names,and he speakstherefbre of "reFrom
generation,thought of asthe castingof the slough"(19'15:397-99).
yet a different point of view, Chris Knight, working on Australian data,
of rycling and snakewomen (1991:'l5B).
positsthe equivalence
Quite independentlvStevenl{ugh-Jones,working on an AmazonianIndian community, statesthat "fbr the Barasana,to changeskinsis a wav to rejuvenation and henceto immortality. . . . Menstruation, they say,is an internal
changingof skin. . . . Immortality and periodicity are linked. . . . Creatures
that shedtheir skins,a signof periodicity,arealsoimmortal"(1979:182-83).
That this renderingof remotebeliefssoaptlysumsup the foregoinganalysis
has been
goesto suggest,I think, that a fundamentallayer of s1'rnbolisrn
attained.
Salt
Since the expelledheroine'spermanenceunder a skin is often explicitly
to salt,a convincinganalysiscannotproceedwithout taking this
associated
into account.It must noq'be askeclwhy is it that the heroineis condemned
to death as soon as she expresses
"love like salt" to her father?Why is it
that during her exilesheis actuallydepictedascoveredwith salt?And how
do theseproblemsrelate to the foregoing analysis?
In Iberianvariantsthe heroineusuallyanswersher father'squestionby
tellinghim that sheloveshirn "asthe tasteof salt"(Barbosano. 15)"assalt
in food" (Miii y Fontanals,no. 5), "as the flavor of flavors" (Soromenho
and Soromenho,no.733); or "as food [or meatl wants salt" (Braga
1987:175-76; Espinosa1946,no. 107; Oliveiran.d., | :372 74; Soromenho
and Soromenhono. 731); or yet "as salt wants water" (Curiel MerchSn
no. 120,121,
Espinosa,no.122);"assaltin water"(Espinosa,
1944:346.18;
shebluntly declaresto love him "like a good shit"
123, 124).Occasionally',
VAZ DA SILVA: Errnopr.q.r CrNornBr-r-eCvcr.l:
t7l
(Espinosa,no. 108; SanchezPerez, no. 87). The obvious messageis that
the heroine expressesher love in a ciphered way (scatological references
helping to the effect) so that the father misses her point. Beyond this superficial level of misunderstood true love for the "flavor of flavors," one
must however account as much for the fact that both the heroine and her
father are actually assimilated to salt, as for the ineluctable necessity of the
father/daughter separation as soon as this comrnon value is mentioned. So,
what exactly is the "value of salt" in the cultural context of these tales?
Yvonne Verdier, basedon fieldwork conducted in a French village, notes
that salt is syrnbolically akin to saucesas both enhance the flavor of food.
Furthennore, she adduces evidence for a relationship "barely metaphorical, almost concrete" between sauces and menstruation, which of course
supposesthe equivalence of menstruation and salt. Indeed, "avoir le cul en
meurette" (literally, having the assas in a special sort of wine sauce)means
menstruation, otherwise also called la salaison des femmes, "the salt of
women." Flowever, salt is also conceived as a rnale, fertilizing principle;
thus (male) trousers are called saloir ("salting trough") even though one
name for this brine container is "rnother"l which points back to the "salt of
women" fl/erdier 1979 32,40; cf. Testart 1991:43).Therefore we are faced
with an equivalence between semen and menstruation under the common
value of salt. Indeed, Alain Testart pointedly stressesthe cross-cultural
equivalence of salt to both blood and semen, and he deduces from it a
general underlying identiqr of these substances.Consequently, he interprets a widespread salt taboo enforced on nenstruating and pregnant
women as a precaution against cumulating two instancesof one single value
(1991 13-44, 47). Indeed this goes to explain both the recurrent ban on
sexual relations during menses and the fact, reported from both France
and Portugal, that feminine blood threatens meat preserved by salt
(Lawrcnce 1988:124; Verdier 1979:36-37, 40).
Incidentally, the fact that feces appear as an allomotif of salt may be
tentatively accounted for on the same grounds. \\4rereas semen and menstrual blood are bodily emissions peculiar to each sex, feces are sex-ually
unnarked and, therefore, equivalent to salt as a synthetic value shared by
both father and daughter. One interesting Spanish variant, discussed by
Jarnes Taggart (1990:106-11), associatesputting on the pelican suit, the
releaseof excrement and an implicit menstrual connotation, then links the
final shedding of the skin to the notion of defecation prevented by means
of a purple thread. Compare this to another text in w-hich the filthy defecating father is ordered to wash up so as to concede his daughter's hand in
marriaqe (S'inchez Perez 1942:313). In other words both defecation and a
172
Sou'ruEnxFor-rronE57:2
connection to salt, virrually uniting the father and his daughter, must stop
before her marriage takes place.
Now, the equivalence betv'een menstruation and the "flavor of flavors" is not a trivial one. Consider Nma Gottlieb's assertion that the haute
cuisine of the Beng of Ivory Coast is a cuisine of menstruation, since women
are supposed to cook better u.hen therr are menstruating; this being especially true of a much relished dish that, after cooking for many hours, "develops intt-r a rich, deep red, not unlike the color of menstrual blood"
(1988:7l-72). Note that in our tales the heroine cooks both for her future
husband and for her father. Cooking for tire prince generallv leads to the
shedding of her skin. While some variants present the princess in her radiant dressesas she cooks (Ctrnziani 1928:238),according to others she still
drops salt fiorn her chest rvhile cloing so (Thggart 1990:96, cf. 102; Curiel
Merchdn 1941:316-18; cf. Espinosa, no. 120). The result of the cooking
is the actual
act that redeems both the bride and the bridegroom-that
food, offered as the skin is shed, that heals dre love-sick prince-mav then
be interpreted as a rnenstrual cuisine of enhanced flavor, as opposed to the
insipid food served to the f'ather. I mean therefbre a cuisine of amorously
enhanced flavor, in accordance u'ith both the equir.alence of flavorenhancing salt and saucesto rnenstrual blood and u'ith the association of
this substance to arnorous passion, as perceived by Verdier in contemporary France (1979 45-17). In this sense,the heroine'sinitial definitions of
"love like salt" for her father-she as food and he as salt, she as salt and he
as waster, her love for him as salt in water-definitely carry an incestuous
connotation, as pointed out by Dundes from a different perspective
(1980:2l+-22). Note, however, that frorn the moment when the heroine
defines her lor.'e in terns of salt she suffers radical separation from her
father while being covered with salt and shedding salt-water tears. Conversely, it is as she marries a younger \\'ooer that she banishes salt frorn her
relationship with her father. In other words the heroine's identification
with father in terr-nsof salt triggers their radical separation, often decreed
as a death sentence. Symrmetrically, her identity to mother requires that
the older woman die frorn the outset; other-wisethe "Sno'il'\\hite" therne
of a murderous lnotherwould crop up.As the daughter replacing her mother
in terms of feminine blood becornes equivalent to father in terns of salt,
the essential affinity between mother and fhther thus becomes clear in the
terms of the fbrrnula "blood is to blood as salt is to blood" (Testart 1991:14)
which, therefore, defines the essential identity of the three actors. Furthermore, the displacement of the value of salt from the king f'ather to the
VAZ DA SILVA:EuROpra^-CrNol.Rrl.r.,c
Cycrp
r73
prince wooer suggests that the older and the younger man are united by
salt as the t\,vowomen are by blood. Indeed, the compatibilitv of the incest
theme to the f'act that the father/daughter's proxirnity triggers their parting demands thatwe suppose-in accordancewithMaria Thtar (l9il7:152)that the heroine as a rejuvenated mother finally marries, in the prince, her
rejuvenated father. A definite overall incestuous configuration thus appears,
fbr as long as one takes the view that all drarnatis persona are discrete
units. Howevet the obserued essentiirlunity of the characters encourages
one to speak instead of a fundamental androglny underlying all aspectsof
a complex, ophidian entity that self-rejuvenates through a process of death
and resurrection, on the model of a serpent's cast of skin.
Riddle
Recall that I have proposed that the mother rejuvenatesthrough her daughter as a snake shedding its skin and that the dragon is a male warden representing, nevertheless, the maiden's condition. Occasionallv the enchanted
maiden is said to be kept underground by her own father (Ampudia, no.
12), and Bengt Holbek thus rightly identified the draplon as a paternal figure (1987:425-26).This is however much t<,rosimple, since, as we saq the
dragon as a flower is both a male and the essencethe girl inherits from
rnother. That the dragon appears as fatheq nother, and the girl herself
suggeststherefore a s1'rnboliclink between intimacy during menstruation
and incest (cf. H6ritier 199,1:80).This can be stated more precisely by saying that the heroine appears engulfed in her own blood, in the ernbracing
sense-suggested by the equivalence of salt and menses-of undifferentiated kin essence.
In this case,a theme of obscured identitv should lie at the core of this
group of tales. Indeed, my present model calls attention to the fact that the
heroine under hide is-quite literally-an enigma to be unraveled
(Goldberg 1997:29). Either as she hints, at the balls, that she is the same
lowly wretch the prince loathes and mistreats at hone, or as she implies, at
home, that she is the same radiant girl her step-relatives saw at the balls, no
one can unveil the riddle in her until her hide falls off. The p-ist of this
theme is, then, that the hidden maiden appearsas rwo ,.prrni. persons,
the final identification of whom leads to marriage.
It is therefbre interestins that Claude L6vi-Strauss has come ro see
such final "identification ofpersonr at tlrst presented as distinct" as characteristic of Oedipus-like thernes worldwide (1973:32). This author noticed a persistent correlation of enigrna and incest in narratives that "a1-
t74
SoLrlilrn' For-xronr. 57:2
ways assimilatethe discoveryof incest to the solution of a live enigma
personifiedby the hero." The reasonfor this, he suggests,is that "like the
solvedenigma,incestunites terms that ought to remain separate:the son
sexuallyjoins the mother, and the brother his sister,as the answerunexpectedlyjoins the question"(3,1).Note that L6vi-Straussis actuallysaying
two things:first, that a solvedenigmais tantamountto incest(thus,solving
the riddle of the Sphinx gets Oedipusinto wedlockwith his mother-see
Vernant 1986:54),and second,that incestitself is like an unresolvedenigma
(in the sensethat incesruousOedipus is finally the very enigma he proposesto discover-seeVernant 1972:101-105).
Indeed,Sophoclespointedly saysthat Oeclipusbecameone with his father (1209-12)and a brother
to his own children(1481-82)ashe procreatedu'ith his mother.The hero
synthesizingthree generations-thus figurativelyhal'ing four, two, and three
feet-therefore becornesthe very enigma of the Sphinx,which he has to
handle anew as he discovershimself (Edmunds 1995:160;!'ernant
I 986:54-55).
In otherwords,L6r'i-Strauss's
modelimpliesthat to solvea riddleleads
to incest, which constitutesits perpetratoiitrtn the very enigma he was
wont to solve.Beyondthe hornologvbetweenan answerjoining a forbidding question and a forbidden relative joining another,this model thus
highlights the fact that incest operatesa dissolutionof the perpetrator's
identitywithin a group of closestkin. As Sophoclesstresses
that Oedipus
shedin his father'sblood his own blood,andthen repeatedthe sameact bv
"plowing," in his mother's womb, the very place where he rvas"sown"
(l+96-+99)-therefore becomingone with his father and a brother to his
own children-the implication seemsto be that the incestuoushero becomesengulfedin both own and kin blood ashe returns to his o$'n roots.
Now, the foregoing considerationsby L6vi-Straussv.ere basedon a
definition of enigma as "a questionto which there will be presumablvno
answer,"and its oppositeas"an answerto u.hichtherehasbeenno question" (L6vi-Strauss1973:33).Marie-Louise Tendzeplacedher discussion
on the "fairy tale asgenre"within this frame assheproposedto define"the
'question,'the acquisitionof the
inversionplacingthe 'ansu'er'beforethe
of suchtales(1970:20-21).
meansbeforeits end,"asthe definingcharacteristic
prophetic
By this sherneansnot merelv that the main characterpossesses
is
the
preset
(2
heroine
the
hero
or
powers 3), but more fundamentallvthat
(29-31).
of
Tendze's
C)neconsequence
solutionto a challengeyet to emerge
insight is that the fairv tale'srnain characteris a living enigmafor aslong as
the motivating challengehasnot yet come into being. In the terms of the
VAZ DA SIL\A: EuRopt'r-i:-Cxnpnp,r-r.l Cvct-E
t75
above discussion one might then say that the fairv tale'.smain charlcter is,
structurally, an incestuous one.
However, asTdneze remarkably suggeststhat all remaining characters
appear as manifestations of either the main character or the antagonistand that the latter may ultinately fuse with the forrner-(197029-31), the
notion of incest appears, once trrore, as but a partial pointer to a {irndamental unity beyond contrasts; in other u.ords, as a reflection in sociologi-lestart
cal terms of the "monist philosophy" that
seesas characteristic of
symbolic thoug'ht generally(1991:22,6+-65).Incleecl,in the obserwedtales,
the unity of the white and red substancesof consanguinity under the common value <,rfsalt su€igestsan undifferentiated kin essencepen'ading an
ophidian entiw that self-rejuvenates through a process ofdeath and resurrection. Now this is a variant irnage of the Dragon Slayer therne, seen by
Propp as the basisof the entire store of fairy tales (1968:11.1),in which, to
quote Propp's words, "he who u'asborn fiom the dragon w'ill kill the dragon"
( 1 9 8 3 : 3 6 3 ,c f . 2 9 0 - 9 1 )a n d , t o u s e H o l b e l k ' se x p r e s s i o n",t h e h e r o w i n s t h e
princessby slavine her father in efEgy" (1987,560), really (still accorcling
to Holbek) by overcoming "the father in his daughter" (426).
Conclusion:The Problem in Perspective
It has been au.hile now since Coomaraswarny highlighted the "metaphysical foundations" of "serpent worship and its icclnography" in relation to a
principle of "Suprerne Identity" beyond "outu,-ardly opposing forces"
(1935:1), and pointecl out the operation of such notions in folklore
(1914:120-25; 19.1-i:+02-04). Indeed, it is in this perspectivethat Propp's
anclHolbek's jointlr.'quoted statements-not so intendecl by their authorsdeploy the fulI qualiw of their meaning. This of course posesa problem,
which I will best introduce by drawing on the insights of anthropologists
who likewise recognized, albeit in an altogether different context, the metaphysical implications of serpent symbolisrn.
((hoq'
As far as Australian ethnography goes, Kenneth Maddock notes
hard it is to do justice to aboriginal imagern if working within RadcliffeBrorvn's conception of the rainbow serpent" as a "clearly delineated figure." The reason fbr this, as Madclock explains, is that "what are called
rainbow serpents belong among a host of fleeting fonns in and through
which a fundamental conception of the world is expressed"(1978a:1, 5).
This world conception he seesas generallvcyclical (1978b:1I 5), anclmoreover subjected to a "metaphysical imperative" as it unites contraries in order to grasp the essenceof things (1978a:10).Following this lead, Knight
176
Sou'lul.rx FolxrcnE 57:2
proposesto seein the Australianrainbowsnakethe expression
of a "logic of
alternation,metarnorphosisand change,perpetuailyincorporatingwithin
itself its own opposite"(1988:244).The convergenceof this view with resultsof my foregoinganalysisis ail the more remarkablein that Knight, still
reasoningfiorn Australianmaterials,joins Sophoclesin perceivingincestdefinedas"a 'return to the womb"'-21d blood-spillingas"merelvdifferent
aspectsof one samesin of excessively
stressingblood connection"(1991,
'173).Furthennore, Knight definessymbolicdeathin Australianrites and
mvths as a "self-dissolutioninto the corporate identity of 'the Snake,'a
self-renunciationexplicitlvlikenedto an 'incestuous'return to 'the wornb'
'death'eachrnonth" (l9gl, +65).
[. . .l otr the model of a -orna,l'stemporary
There areof courseno evolutionistconclusionsto draw fron this convergence.That analyseson Australiandatarelating to snakeslrnbolism so
preciselycorrespondto the schernepainstakinglyfbund through the analysis
of European fairy tales would seem to imply, rather, that "traclitional"
worldviews,embodiedin both Europeanand other customsand lore, are
closer to each other than any of them is to the basictenets of Western
rationalism.One interestingepistemologicalimplication follows.Knight,
for one, remarksthat becausesnakes\.mbolismin Australiais associated
with the innermostmysteriesof secretrites and cults, their meaningis
hardly likely to be "immediately recognizableor familiar to thosewhose
belief systemis rooted in the scientific rationalism of Western culture"
(1988:242).One variant of this problem concerningthe srudyof myths
and fairy talesgenerallyis highlighted by Wendy O'Flaherw as she asks,
"why is it that people have attemptedto applv hard scientificcriteria to
phenomenathat they themselves
havedefinedassoft?"(198.1:10).
Indeed it seemedobvious to Stith Thompson that "beforeit can becomean objectof seriousandwell-consideredstudy,everybranchof knowledgeneedsto be classified" (1977 413,mv emphasis).Likewise,it appears
self-evidentto Propp that "classificationis one of thefir'st and ntostitnportant stepsof study"( 1968:11, my emphasis).
To acknowledgethat the "hard"
criteria implied in this notion of scientificg;roundu'orkcannot but fail to
capture such "soft" properties as arc essentialto the object seerns,how
eveqcrucialfrom the point of vieu,'ofanalytical(asopposedto merelydescriptive)studiesof worldview(Dundes1995,230),in which-as this paper
strivesto suggest-fairv tale analysisis to be included.
D ep arto?nento de Antropo login
Institnto Superior de Ciencitrstlo Ti'abolho e da Em.presa
Lisbon, Portugal
VAZ DA SILVA:Eunopp,rl- CrxutnrLL,r Cycr.n
177
NOTES
This article is the revisedversion ofa paper read at an adclressorglnized b,vthe Portuguese Studies Prograrn at the Universitl- of California, Berkcley (Spring 1999). I{y
stav at UC-Berkelev ,,1'35
maclepossible b-vthe kind invitation of Candace Slater and
the Departn-rer-rt
of Spanislrand Portuguese,a six-rnonths sabbaticalleave granted br,'
my home institution in Lisbon, and a Fulbright scirolarship.To all personsanclinstitutions inr-olveclI acknov'ledgemv gratinrde. Specialthanks are due to Nan Dundes for
constant sLtpportand constr-uctivecriticism. Tu.o other articles addressingovcrlappinE;
aspectsof the same semantic field can be found in the journal Xlnnels tnd Thlesand in
Studia X[ythologitt Shxicd, both in the 2000 volumc vear.
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