Mityczne dzieje Stefana Wielkiego w kontekście wierzeń potocznych i ikonografii malowanych cerkwii na Bukowinie

Abstract

The article attempts to show how the great legends and myths of the Romanian culture, created under the influence of the romantic political ideas of the 19th and 20th centuries influenced many motives of a heroic legend of the Moldavian hospodar Stefan the Great. The basis of interest of the author were ancient and contemporary legends and beliefs concerning the painted from the outside Moldavian Orthodox churches. The understanding of the sense and meaning of these stories and the meanings imposed by the popular culture on some icons of the churches and monasteries situated in the Southern Bukovina needed a consideration of the national mythology and especially the so-called (Eliade) myth of the 'Latin beginning' that is vivid especially in the explanations of the ethnogenesis of the Romanians. The article shows how the contemporary founded language epithets concerning Stefan the Great referring to the titles earlier used by the Latin emperors (among others the Great Father of the Land, Emperor) were formed. Also the practice of placing Stefan the Great together with the characters of the pre-Christian mythology, great heroes of the Roman times (among others with Decebal) as well as with saints (St. George) whose cult is most characteristic for the Latin Christianity circle is an important issue in this paper. The author shows how the figure of Stefan the Great was included in the Romanian folk culture, into the 'great heroes of the common mind' with the use of traditional motives characteristic for the archetypical heroic legends and myths.