Raif Esmerović
mong the the oldest myths myths where he is mentioned is located in Mesopotamia and the legend about the deity Guagalanni, better known as the heavenly bull or bull from the sky. Gugalanna was the first husband Ereshkigala, deity of the underworld, dark world without light. Gods sent him to exact revenge upon Gilgamesh because he refused sexual advances of the goddess Inanna. During that occurrence, the heavenly bull, whose kick causes earthquakes, was defeated and dismembered by Gilgamesh and his follower Enkidu. In the middle east religious paradigm of killing a bull is frequent and we can find it in the legend about the genesis shaped in the Persian god Mithra, from whose description of his birth and life the mythological legend of Jesus was created, this god hunted and killed a wild bull. From the body of the dead animal, plants started to grow, from the bones wheat sprang up and from his blood grapevine. That’s when the first people were created. Even after the advent of Islam in these areas the bull didn’t lose his divine characteristic which is best confirmed by the Arabian myth, or better better said cosmological representation, about the white bull Kujuta which stands on the head of a horrible beast Bahamut and holds the earth on his back.
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Bahamut or Behemoth is the name of a mythological giant fish which in Arabic cosmology represented a backbone of earth, and for her mythology claims that she possesses numerous eyes, ears, noses and tongues. Certain myths claim that instead of a fish’s head it has an elephants head or hippopotamus head, and in some versions Bahamut is actually a sea dragon with sharp teeth and limbs. Bahamut holds on his strong body all seven spheres which in Arabic mythology constitute constitute the entire entire universe. On Bahamut, i.e. on his head, the bull named Kujuta is positioned, which holds a mountain made out of rubies on his back. On top of that unusual mountain the angels are holding the seven layers of earth. Alternatively, on the back of Bahamut is actually a surface made out of sand. Kujuta is standing on that sand, and the mountain that he is carrying on his back has a vast ocean in the middle of which earth is floating. Underneath Bahamut is the dark and mysterious part filled with mist and water. Some mythological data claim that underneath that dark sphere there is a fire world in which the snake Falak dwells.
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planet on his back, from whose will depends the fate of earth and all people. Generally, the myth about Tur is short and there are not a lot of details which would reveal something more about the wider representation of Bosnian cosmology and the only exception is Rogatica. Namely, in that part of Bosnia it was believed that underneath the land there was an endless sea, on its surface swam a giant fish, on the fish’s head a bull stood and on his back earth. When that bull moves slightly his ear, the earth shakes, and when he would move his leg or something else, the entire earth would plunge into the sea, but it was believed that Allah created a small fly which constantly flies around the eyes of that bull and he is so afraid of her that he literally can’t move1.
Bahamut is an original mythological creation of the Arabic mythology, data on it appear in cosmological tones which date since 1291. The name itself in Arabic means “the beast”. About it the ancient Arabic historian, Ibn al-Wardi wrote, it is also mentioned in the 1001 night where the story about the man named Isa is mentioned, who after seeing Bahamut out of shock and fear loses his consciousness. Once he awoke, Allah asked him if he had had seen a big fish. Isa replied that he saw a bull standing on top of the fish’s head. The Jews assimiliated this mythological being, like many other religious-mythologicall segments, in their religious-mythologica mythological traditions.
As among the Turks Turks there is no recorded legend not about Bahamot nor Tur, we can conclude that there was no transfer of myths during the Ottoman occupation of BiH, instead it is a rudiment of an ancient pagan cult which was inherited by certain Mediterranean people, and among them the Illyrians. There is a logical probability that Illyrian soldiers serving in the Roman Empire transferred the legend of Tur to the territory of Syria and further, or vice versa, inherited it and brought it to the Balkans. But, no matter how it happened we’re talking about a very old legend from f rom the old, ancient times. The bull had a very significant place for the Illyrians in the religious-magical sense and even if we don’t have many written data about the Pagan rites of our ancestors, we discovered through archeological findings that they preferred to hang the horns of Bos primigenius at the 1
Certain segments of the presented legend have connecting points with Bosnian myths about the gigantic bull Tur, which holds the 2 | P a g e
It is interesting to mention that at one time the people from BiH represented the earth as a big foursquare slab, which in the edges on a hair of the bull leaned on four pillars, and it seemed that she might tip over over at any moment. But it wouldnt, the people claimed, since she stood there according to gods will and mercy. That slab was of an even length and width. Pillars were oily, tall and thin, they were bending, so that it seemed that they might break off at any moment. They were made out of white marble and planted planted in an unmeasured sea depth, since under that entire slab (earth), an endless sea was located, which cannot be seen since it is underneath us. This is a vast sea and all others are small compared to this one.
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front of the house which had a magical function to protect the family and give it fertility. Also we shouldn’t forget to mention the traditional custom among Illyrian tribes of offering sacrifice, gift of blood and meat to the gods for a successful successful harvest of wheat, when they would slaughter a bull during august up on a hill.
Other bypasses in the legend itself are evident, namely, as the Arabic mythology claims Bahamut will when judgment day comes be destroyed by its creator i.e. god, to whom this beast is only subjugated. Among the Bosnians it is narrated that judgment day will take place on the day “when Tur shakes his body”, i.e. there are no claims about the classic notion of Judgement day where everything happens by god’s will, which gives us ample space to conclude that Tur holder of the earth is the ruler of the planet and people. Similarly, while in Arabic mythology the bull Kujuta is depicted with totally white skin in Bosnian mythology he is black, and is truly connected to an actual animal (Bos primigenius) which died out in Europe in the middle ages. The best proof of its presence on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina are toponyms which give a deeper historical connotation to everything. Tur in Bosnian tradition is without a doubt doubt a deity and in in that form it is not seen anywhere else on the Balkans, nor in Europe, which in and of itself implicates that we’re talking about an ancient supernatural being. In the past it was assumed that his name Tur comes from the abbreviation of the Latin word Taurus but it is clear that the original o riginal name stems from the actual name of the wild bovine Bos primigenius.
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In the traditional life of Bosnia and Herzegovina a castrated bull i.e. ox was an integral part part of a village household and it replaced the horse, which had a higher market price and that’s why he wasn’t owned by numerous village households. Researching ethnological build and oral tradition of the belief of Bosnian people about the ox it is noticeable that he was treated with care and attention primarily because of the existential but also holly purpose. When the summer plowing begins to the ox which was on the right side people would wrap around his right horn a red knit (thread), a chicken egg would be cracked on his forehead and his neck would be covered with butter. All of these ritual measures were undertaken with the goal of protection from evil and summoning good luck and fertility. In folk astronomy the constellation out of seven stars so called pleiad is called the Volovi (oxen). It is interesting interesting because the pleiad (Messier 45) is located in the constellation of the bull. Though Wikipedia claims that pleiad is represented in all mythologies from the southern hemisphere it is evident through legends about Tur, but also other folk beliefs and traditions, that we can notice a mythological connection with the pleiad in Bosnian mythology. Segments of the divine cult of Tur are hinted out of the two folk names of the constellations which are located one next to the other and they are Orion, assembly of three stars, which in Bosnia were called Štapovi (sticks) and the already mentioned Volovi (oxen) 2. In the spring, when it is time for sowing, when the Štapovi are visible on the sky, it is a sign that dawn occurred, morning is nearing, and 2
In Bosnian love magic a girl, if she is casting a spell with walnuts, looks at the oxen in the sky, since theyre numerous and powerful, and if she wishes to see (dream) her future husband then before going to bed she looks towards the pillars and utters the following: following: “Illuminate me Žarinko Nasiba, Nasiba, set me on fire Planinko Nasiba, so I can see my future husband. To see him tonight in my dream as in real life, or to see his face, or to hear his name. Until I see him he shouldn’t walk nor work!"
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that oxen must be fed and harnessed so they can plow. Together these two constellations represent the one which operates the oxen i.e. ploughs the land i.e. represents the mythological divine sower, which could be no one else than the Illyrian god Vidasus, known as Žeteocc – the one Žeteo one that that reaps reaps (wheat). (wheat). In addition to that goes the data that the plough was invented by the Illyrians.
According to folk tales tales from Velika Kladuša in ancient times lived a greedy man which had seven oxen. As he had an uneven number he yearned for another ox in order to have eight of them i.e. to have an even number. One day he remembered that in the neighboring village there was a poor man that owned only one ox. –When he has only one he doesn't need even that one, he concluded and he came up with a plan with his son to go there after midnight and steal the ox. What they conceived off they undertook. When they came half way home some unrest caught the father and he told his son they should stop so they can rest. Seeing a bale of hay close by he ordered him to bring hay and put it into nine small heaps, one next to the other, once this was done he let the stolen ox feast f east on the hay. But, instead of eating from the first pile the ox hesitated, he he sniffed and only stopped at the seventh pile where he started to ear. That horrified the father and he said: “Can you see that, my son, what a sin we made by stealing this ox from that poor man, his curse will follow us up to our seventh generation!”. But, greed in him overcame his fear and he continued his way home. Somehow at that time, since dawn was nearing, the poor man awoke and headed towards the barn to feed the ox but as soon as he entered the barn he had seen that the ox was gone and that someone stole him. From sorrow and pain he started crying and he cursed the thief, let God punish him and 4 | P a g e
take from him what the thief took from f rom this poor man. Soon the father and son, together with the stolen animal, came close to their house. When they came next to the barn, barn, the father was surprised by the silence that he noticed in the barn, he hurried to light a candle. The pale light of the candle shone light on the barn quickly. The barn was completely empty. There were no oxen. The father ran out wildly and and he held his his head out of torment and pain. He then looked to the sky wanting to wallow to God to what had happened to him and before he opened his mouth he noticed in the sky seven shining stars flickering together and wide eyed he realized that he cannot cry out to god, since he punished him because of his great sin that he did towards that poor man. That’s how, according to folk tales, the constellation of oxen (Plejade) came to be, as as a warning to all that you shouldn’t steel from other people especially oxen3.
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Motif of teleportation of a terrestrial occurrence which symbolizes a great sin onto the s ky, which represents the worldly stage, is common in Bosnian traditions. Another famous folk tale about divine intervention and public punishment is the one in which god immediately put to death a disobedient son, when he swung his axe towards his mother, wanting to kill her, and his body, together with the axe, god teleported to the surface of the moon, so that it serves as a warning to all people that mothers must be respected.
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Tur was from the old days an important animal for the survival of mankind; that’s why the drawings and descriptions of it are present even inscriptions “Comments on the Gaelic wars (Commentarii de bello, Gallico) from Julius Cesar. His character became the status symbol of numerous European states and cities: Alba-lulia, Kaunas, Romania, Moldavia, Turka, province Mecklenburg and Swiss canton Uri, which was named after him.
Tur (taxonomically and Latin: Bos primigenius) is an extinct genus of a wild bovine, which lived in Europe, Asia and North Africa, Africa, it is a forefather of today’s cattle. The last European exemplar lived until 1627.
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Tur was larger than cattle today which is familiar to us. It was 160-180 cm tall (males) and 150 (females), 2.8 meters long without the tail, the tail was 0,8 meters long. Tur’s had pronounced sexual differences, besides the basic biological differences in the built of sexual organs, they differentiated themselves by colour and size, females were shorter and smaller (smaller backbone) than males. Males were black-brown, and females red-brown, both had light, almost white, horns with black tops. Tur was abundant in almost entire entire Europe. Their Their habitat were usually steppe, taiga, wet swampy forests and river valleys. These bovines lived in herds, except a few older bulls which lived alone, until the mating season when they would join the herd. In the herd which had a few dozen units, there was a dominant male, and during the mating period there were fights over the females. mating took place during the end of summer, and calf’s were born during the end of spring. Tur usually fed off of grass, but also fruit, leaves and softer branches. Unlike most cattle today which are in essence day animals, Tur was active at dusk and night. According to the research of the paleontological museum of the University in Oslo, the first exemplars appeared on the area of today’s India before
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two million years BC, from where they migrated to the Middle East and other parts of Asia. They reached Europe around the year 250 00.
In the religion of our Illyrian forefathers Tur was one of the main segments of the ancient cult of fertility whose influence was retained until today among the Bosnian people. Aleksandar Stipčević, Stipčević, Alojz Benac authors authors of the book “Cult symbols among the Illyrians: structure and contributions of systematization” (1981) mention the following:
In farming cultures of the earlier iron iron age, in which the role of a woman, especially in terms of land cultivation is of the utmost importance for the life of the community, the cult of the bull as a principle of fertility represents a dominant component of the entire belief belief of people at the time. Bull, Bull, i.e. bovine, becomes an animal tied to the fertility of earth as the plough farming developed and the role of a woman in ploughing and farming in general lead to incorporation of the symbol of the bull as the principle of fertility in the basic of the religious cosmos of the matriarchal society. iconographicaly reduced to the horns, the bovine quickly became the symbol of the moon because of the similarity of the horns with the new moon. And the moon, as we mentioned earlier, is closely tied to the fertility of nature itself. Hence, the role of the woman in farming work, help of the bovine in the work, similarity of the bovine horns with the new moon, correspondence of 6 | P a g e
the moon phases with the length of menstrual cycles of women, all of this gave an extremely important role to the bovine in the symbolic system of farming cultures from the earlier iron age onward. With the weakening of matriarchy and its substitution by patriarchy in the metal age didn’tt lead to the disappearance didn’ disappearance of the bull as the principle of fertility. In Greek and Roman religion the bull plays a large role as a sacrificial animal tied to the cult of fertility .
Studying the description of living habits of Tur, especially the one about fertility, I immediately noticed a connection with the folk (agronomical) calendar of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is divided in only two season sea sonss – sum summer mer and win winter ter – and in whi which ch there is a very interesting segment, which was unclear to me from the very beginning, as a student of BiH ethnology. Namely, it is no coincidence that the Bosnian folk calendar begins when summer ends i.e. in the middle of autumn, when mating
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season of Tur began, and and ends in spring, spring, time when new members of the species are born. That we are talking about such a phenomenon is well demonstrated by the belief in three occurrences called Stablići, Kablići and Štapići, each lasts three days, which sums sums up to nine days, a lunar number and represents a stap, long wooden bowl in which one “pounded” milk and made butterfat, štap or mećajica i.e. an item which was used used to “pou “pound” nd” and kabao – wooden vessel for storage of milk. All three names are closely tied to cattle and a nd signified a very important thing, namely, when a cow brings a calf to this world she becomes lactic, in her udders milk is building up which is used to feed the calf but also members of the family which own the cow. That’s why it is clear that this belief stems from the the distant past and is directly tied to the Illyrian cult of fertility and Tur.
Further, Stipčević mentions another interesting part which is directly tied to Tur: “In Donja Dolina, near Sanski Most, during excavations excav ations in villages villages a skull of the bull forefather has been found (Bos primigenius) which was, as Ć. Truhelka believes fastened to façade of the house and had a function of bucrania .” .” As an inevitable symbol and bearer of fertility, among our forefathers Illyrians, the bull had a central role in celebration of the harvest, when at the beginning of August the bull was slaughtered in the name of the goddess Grand Mother. In that ceremonial segment of sacrificial offering, Celtic-Persian influence is dominant, through through celebration celebration of the pagan circle of the year with the ancient myth about the solar god of fertility Mithra, 7 | P a g e
which the Romans inherited from the Persians. Goths which were at one time mixed with the Illyrians and enriched not only genetically but also culturallyc ulturallyreligiously the habit of ancient Bosnians, they saw in Tur much more than an ordinary animal, because of his priceless importance in land tillage, and also the cult of fertility, he was identified with the land, as its guardian and ruler. Identification with the fertile land, which brings food and maintains the community, its physical strength and endurance and striking look of the horns, elevated Tur in the pantheon to the level of divine being in Bosnian mythology. He becomes a gigantic bull which is holding the entire earth on his back. In that way he rules over the destiny of humans, but also everything else. With that he receives the label of Tur land keeper. But, everything is not only left on the mythological representation and iconography which is evident in certain ethnological records which record the ancient practice of dedicating prayers to this heavenly being, which hasn’t been interrupted with the advent of Christianity and Islam to the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the book “Syncretic elements in Islam in BiH” M. Hadžijahić states an interesting part in which he describes the religious practice: “From a poor elderly lady, Puhalovka Alijaginica which lived in Čebedžije in Sarajevo, I managed to record this: “On Wednesday afternoon prayer is performed and one bows down to: Ognju and Ognjevu Piru, Tur, Hadži Dedi, Hadži Kasapi, Sitoj Nefisi, Vejsil Karanij, his mother and father…” Under the name Oganj and Ognjev Pir is hidden the god of sun (Oganj name for fire) and his son, from mythological notion that the sun is “born” and “dies”, but for this text the name Tur is the most interesting, as we see, he did not disappear from the religious consciousness of the Bosnian people until the middle of the twentieth century, century, and after that he was wa s mentioned solely as a mythological being
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which is holding the earth. In the book the author mentions another perfect example about the preservation of the Illyrian religion in Bosnia. Namely, in the village Turovo underneath Jahorina each year a celebration of Vida was held i.e. Ilyrian god Vidasus, which was converted converted into a saint with the advent of Christianity in Bosnia, and from then on he is worshipped as holly Vid. Tur and Vidasus, Vidasus, with this toponym and somewhat shortened name, actually best represent how well entrenched the Illyrian religion is amongst the Bosnian people.
Illyrian crest has the sign of a half -moon as a symbol of the horn of Tur.
See:
https://www.scribd.com/document/36885 https://www.scribd.com/ document/368857971/Mysterious-Bosnia-and 7971/Mysterious-Bosnia-and-Herzegovina-Raif-Herzegovina-RaifEsmerovic
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