• Pablo A. Martín Bosch. "ARITZ".
• 15/ 10/ 2001

We are going to take Basque Mythology to mean the set of myths, legends, tales, sayings, refrains and other types of written or oral narratives relating to the symbolic or fantastic world of the residents that occupied, even at the beginning of the 19th century, the Basque-speaking area, according to the map created by Luis Lucien BONAPARTE. That is to say, the administrative provinces and departments and nowadays includes the Autonomous and Provincial Communities of the Basque Country, Navarre and the Western Pyrenees, in its provinces of Lapurdi, Behe Nafarroa and Zuberoa.

It should also be pointed out that it is not possible to precisely separate such a culture from other adjacent ones, with which it makes up a symbolic whole, as we will see below. Even though the Basque Language has acted as an ancestral link between certain populations, this has not prevented its symbolic twinning with other regions that share economic, symbolic, kinship and any other ties beyond its linguistic frontiers. This implies not being able to speak about a Basque Culture in the Essentialist sense, even though we can talk about a type of beliefs and social relations typical of a specific region, based in our case on the seven Basque-speaking provinces.

We are aware of the broad approach that this involves and of the lack of thoroughness concerning the analysis. However, and in our defence, we have seen the similarity to be found among tales and legends, myths and rituals based on specific symbolic milestones. We have therefore opted to ground the whole of the magical or symbolic world, irrational at the end of the day, under the heading of "Mytholodgy", and, in the same way, when we are dealing with the provinces or regions where, the Basque Language continued to be used at least up to the start of the 19th century, as Luis Lucien BONAPARTE showed, Euskara, we have opted to define this rapprochement to the oral culture as "Basque Mythology".

The Deities: The Pyrenean Pantheon

The leading figure, due to her central and unifying role regarding the myths and beliefs that emerged around her, is a female numen, who (even though she has been given different names depending on where she has appeared or where she is worshiped, and even has been identified with different types of historical figures) we are going to call Mari from here onwards, even though her many names include Amari, Amaia, Maia, Anbotoko Damea, Mariurrika, Sorgiña.

In any case, she is a woman who has certain characteristics that differentiates her from mortals, such as the fact that she can turn into any thing or animal, displaying certain animal characteristics, having the gift of prediction and magic, and, above all, the fact that it is clearly impossible for this figure to fraternize with the dominant western religion, Christianity. We are therefore dealing with a being and a way of being that pre-dates the coming of that religion.

It is true that the name of Mari seems to come from the Basque version of the Virgin Mary, something which is usual, and which has to be accepted when giving new names to the deities. On the other hand, her devilization as Sorgiña or Witch can be explained if it is understood that it is a set of pagan practices and beliefs, and therefore not Christian.

Finally, neither does confusing historical figures with legendary ones, and from there with mythological ones, escape symbolic logic and we can therefore ignore it, as a detailed study into why one and not another being has been accepted as an equivalent would take us too far for our objective, which is only to offer a global vision of the fact.

The case is that the preponderance of the female figure in the Basque fantastic world, and above all in opposition to the mythological and legal practices in its setting, has primarily lead to the hypothesis being raised about there being a matriarchy, that is to say, a political and social system dominated by women, where they control both the political regime and the social and kinship relations. That was the point of view that, starting with J. J. BACHOFEN and developed by F. ENGELS and other authors of the Marxist and Evolutionist school, ends, we believe, with J. G. FRAZER. It is, in short, the result of the premises of the 19th century.

During the first half of the 20th century, the enormous effort made by J. M. BARANDIARAN and other anthropologists led to the situation of a population that was clearly going backwards to be discovered. The Industrial Revolution had meant that workers were brought in from outside the territory and this led to the foundations of the language, the customs, the rituals, the dances and also the age-old beliefs being shaken and new situations being accepted and this would have a bearing on those to come.

At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, a new vision of symbolism has been developed in Europe that has a direct bearing on how the fantastic beliefs of the various peoples are interpreted. Hermeneutics has reached the Basque Country. Andrés Ortíz-Osés opted to soften the early assumptions by talking about ""Matriarchalism", instead of "Matriarchy", which he wanted to mean the symbolic and not economic preponderance of women in the Basque mythical world. This lead to a debate, which was partly fictitious, between the people that defended the (symbolic position) of women and those who identified such a position with economic or social realm.

As a halfway position, and following the instructions of Andrés Ortíz-Osés himself, we have chose to define Basque Mythology as "Naturalist-Matriarchy" in the sense that it is a belief focused on Mother Nature (Mari) who includes every natural being and who can therefore transform herself into any being.

The fact that various female figures with identical characteristics are worshipped in various places may possibly be the reason why they are all treated as being identical, or, at least, with identical value. We can therefore call them "Ahizpak" or "Sisters", in such a way that none of them can be superimposed on the others.

The Mari family

Mari, or under her various names, finds a male partner and couples with him, which is said to cause the storms that are so frequent in this region. This male partner takes the name of Maju, Sugaar and Sogoi, even though he sometimes appear as the son of the Great Mother, in such a way that he is her husband and son, which we should not be surprised at, since there are similar cases in classical Greek mythology, amongst others.

The figure of Sugoi, the same as that of Sugaar, is incarnated in the male snake that lives underground and has hidden magical powers. He usually also takes on a human form in the tales and after having suffered some misfortune with human beings, such as in the case of Dima and the Baltzola cave, he wants to gets his revenge on the person that has thrown a stone at him. He gives the person a present of a gerriko (girdle or belt) which, for different reason, coils around a tree that immediately bursts into flames. He is therefore the rebel son, the magic genie that has immortal powers and destructive and binding powers, like the ties to other mythologies.

Mari, on the other hand, symbolises the passing of time and is therefore grand-mother, mother and daughter and she also usually appears as the ancestral queen in Basque legends, the wife of an important lord, such as in the case of Jaun Zuria, who is worshipped as the founder of the Bizkaia lineage, and mothers, among the others under the name of Mari, in such a way that the Goddess is also Mother and Daughter, as is the case of the Greek Parcas or Erinias who incarnated the three ages of the human being. Mari thus sends her daughter to look for the flock, but she refuses to obey her mother's orders who then curses her in a clear display of the obedience owed to the parents (in this case to the mother) and condemns her to leave the house. Mari (mother) send Mari (daughter) to the underworld, which also happens with certain Greek goddess of fertility who are kidnapped by the Kings of the underworld.

But Mari also appears with her two sons, Atarrabi and Mikelats, the former with a generous nature and the opposite to the latter. We once again find different names for these genies, and even associations to different types of historical figures, thus, for example, instead of Atarrabi we find Hondarrabi, Hondarribio or Axular, the literary priest of Sara. It is a legend where the good son (a priest in this case) that after studying in the school of the devil, manages to make fun of him and even deafeated him using his magic powers when he conjures up the storm that approaches. Such tales are more typical of Gipuzkoa and Navarra that of Bizkaia, although we cannot just presume that they are not to be found in this region.

Other characters linked to Mari

Even though it is true that Mari acts as Mother Nature under various names throughout the culture of the Western Pyrenees, she also appears as the Queen of the Underworld in the Basque Country and the inhabitants of this world are her subjects. The closest amongst these may be the Lamiñak. In the same way as Mari, they are known under various names, depending on each place and therefore shown different characteristics in each region. The first group is going to include the Lamiñak (Maide for the males in the Northern Pyrenees), Latsari (known as Lavanderas in other nearby regions), Mairi, Amilamia and Elilamia, who also show features in common with other figures, such as the giantesses , Basandere, etcetera.

In any case, they are female characters that act as intermediaries between the Mortal and immortal World. They therefore usually appear at dawn or dusk, even though, later on as they were stigmatized, they were identified with the night and with the practices of the Dark. The Lamia was changed into súcubo, the she-devil.

In an earlier version, although not necessarily in a chronological order, the Lamia could be compared to the Nymphs of Nature. They live underground, where they guard treasures of mild and honey and change to different animals, in the same way as their Queen, such as insects, fish, rams, cats, dogs, horses, etc, and can therefore help or harm humans depending on how the latter treat them. They usually appear along the coast, in the same way as the Mermaids in other regions, with the lower part of their body in the shape of the fish, and inland, with goat's hooves, the webbed feet of the goose and other features that show that they are ambivalent being, half woman and half animal. When considering the Mouras, similar being to the ones we are discussing, but in Galicia, Mª DEL MAR LLINARES interprets this as the desire of the peasant to "dominate" the "wild" femininity of the young woman who is going to marry. In fact, the Lamiñak, in the same way as Mari, use two very important tools from the symbolic point of view: the Golden Comb with which they spend time combing their hair and the Mirror that they use to look at themselves. They use both objects, seen as the attempt to please the male by the aforementioned author in the Galician case, to furrow on their own skin, and are therefore the symbol of the fertility and Life and of fixation and Death in the version that offers Andrés Ortíz-Oses. The Lamiña, in the same way as their Queen Mari, acts as the Goddess of Life and Death.

Julio CARO BAROJA preferred to research the origin of the name, that led them back to Queen Lamia of Libya,accused of being blind about the outrages committed against her people, and of Vampirism, as she bled her citizens due to the taxes imposed. The Romans brought this myth to the peninsula and it reached the Basque Country and formed part of its folklore. What is true is that Lamia or Lamiñak also appear linked to such activities in this land.

Sorgiñak

The name of Sorgiña, says Rafael CASTELLANO, comes from "Sorte" and "Egin" and has come to mean the person that casts the die, in such a way that she has occupied the place of the soothsayers. In our case, we have to differentiate between various senses of the term "Sorgiña". First of all, Sorgiña is a mythological being, comparable to the Lamiñak and other beings. Their more negative side includes vampiress and child kidnappers, but they are also attributed with building legendary castles and bridges.

Secondly, the Sorgiñak, and their companions, the Aztiak, are real people, who according to popular belief, possess supernatural powers and may even be in contact with the Devil. Researchers have come up with various reasons to explain the phenomena of witchcraft in the Basque Country and, in general, along the Pyrenees.

First of all, remnants of an age-old naturalist religion, invoking the evil forces from the earth came up against the opposition of the official church, whose sun rituals and fundamental paternal figure ostracised the Grand Mothers, goddesses of fertility. We believe that Estrabón is referring to that moment when he talks about the night festivities and it was also one of the causes, though not the only one, for the inquisiton trials that were held from the 14th to 16th centuries. The people that physically took part in the rituals (whether pagan or Jewish, outside those ordained by the ecclesiastical authorities were persecuted for dealing with the devil.

Secondly, the fact that women were mainly involved in ointments and folk medicine, which men specialised in setting broken bones, in a rural society where the doctors tried not to have anything to do with the doctors as they could not afford to pay them, seems to be another reason why official medicine, barbers at their service and folk healers would clash with the former coming out as the winners.

A third reason to be taken into account when looking at the phenomena of witchcraft consisted in people being accused of being possessed by the devil, when today all they would need would be a short stay in a psychiatric hospital, or not even that. The fact is that once the person had been accused, he or she appeared before the Court and therefore left their work, which led to his or her lands being put up for public auction after a period of time had passed.

There was also a fourth reason, which was also a religious one, for the courts of the Holy Inquisition to be set up and that was the persecution of the heretics (the Cataros of Durango, for example) and the Protestantism that was entering the Peninsula from the other side of the Pyrenees and which was partly encourage by the Kingdom of Navarre, which was Protestant.

Finally, the desire to conquer the neighbouring kingdoms involved the annexation of the Mountains using weapons and diplomatic strategies. The accusations of witchcraft in the Pyrenees seems to have thus been in reaction to a series of issues that the political and religious authorities needed to rapidly escalate.

As far as symbolism is concerned, insofar as the ancient beliefs were increasingly identified with the power of Satan and opposite to the official moral values (and also symbolic), the female numenic beings abandoned their ambivalence, their appearances at dawn and dusk, their jovial attitude, their love games, their playful activities, getting dressed up and seeking pleasure, to become classified as íncubos and súcubos, devils and witches, with harmful attitudes and shameless dances, that were performed during the night so that nobody could see them, sealing pacts with Beelzebub incarnated in the male goat and looking after toads and other vermin. This would be when the way for the black masses, said in Latin from start to finish, was accepted, a way that could only be taken by someone who knew the complete ritual of the mass and enough Latin to recite the service backwards. It is not strange therefore that a priest or two were victims of the trials.

Before continuing with the fantastic beings of Basque mythology, we should point out that similar beings to these female fairies (Mari, Lamiñak, Sorgiñak...) can be found all the way along the coast of Cantabria and along the Pyrenean mountain range to the Mediterranean, even though different names are used, such as the mouras and meigas of Galicia, Queen Xana (similar to Mari), the Xanas, Ayalgas and Atalayas of Asturies, the Anjanas of Cantabria, Moricas of Aragón, or the Donas DŽAigua of Catalonia, as well as the fairies, enchanted beings, ladies and other such titles to be found throughout the territory.

Legendary giants

The mythological Giant possibly owes its origin to the anthropomorphic figure of the mountain and the sky. On the one hand, we therefore find giants or beings with incredible strength, who are said to have created huge, natural or artificial constructions, such as precipices, mountain passes, domens, menhirs, and others similar ones, and which have taken the name of the beings that are said to have forged them. They are also either historical figures, such is the case of Roldán (Errolan), or biblical ones, such as Samson.

There is another type of more primitive giant, whose body appeared to be covered totally in hair (as if he had come out of the woods), who lives in the jungles and occasionally has one only one circular foot and at other times with a single eye in the centre of his forehead (the sun in the firmament), on others with several rows of teeth (possibly indicating the danger that anyone who wanders into his domains faces). He usually eats whole flocks, even though in other tales he is scalped by the civilizing hero. He is the supernatural being that under the name of Jentil, Basajaun and his wife Basandere, Tartalo (as in Greek mythology), Torto, Alarabi, Antxo, etcetera, is to be found throughout Basque culture and extending beyond that under names such as Ojáncano and Ojáncana in Cantabria, and many others. We should also point out that the being known as Ujanko is to be found in the Basque Country, according to J. M. BARANDIARAN, who, in the same way as the ones described above, is huge and whose special feature is that he has 365 eyes and he closes one as each day finishes until the end of the year, when he opens them all. The similarity between Ujanko, Juanico, Ojáncano and Juan (San Juan: festivity marking the solstice) are clear. Standing up to the giant who is a dim-wit, but who also controls the art of agriculture, the mountains, construction and many others, is the civilizing hero, generally, an anonymous being or incarnated as a tiny young man who manages to steal the most essential secrets for the development of the culture (Martin Txiki).

Dragon

The Dragon is one of the most interesting being in Basque Mythology, as the huge Sierpe is associated with Sugoi and Sugaar, the son and son-lover of Mari, the Great Goddess of Nature. Yet its own nature changes each time it shreds its skin and due to its association with the underworld mainly populated by female Lamiñak, its curves, the number of heads that it has (seven), identical to magic (for example, according to popular belief, each time a bolt of lightening enters seven measures into the earth, it turns to gold), or taking into account the legends and research into the cultural setting (from Galicia to Catalonia), the Dragon also appears as the custodian of the meek woman and is the incarnation of its own aggressiveness, as Mª Mar LLINARES has pointed out about the Galician case. Man has to learn to dominate the beast (with all due respect) so that it becomes a woman, is the conclusion reached by the author. In other words: the Dragon is Sierpe, but it is both male and female. In both cases it has to be killed (if it is male for representing the enemy, if it is female for not being the right one, even though not completely, as it has to be allowed to turn into a princess or the ideal woman. There is the possibility to rear the ungrateful serpent, like in the case of the crow, which we also find in our legends or the misfortune not to find it, and it will then decide to go to the Bermejos Seas, the land beyond.

Even though psychoanalysis favours the former interpretation of the dragon as aggressive sexuality associated with the non-submissive woman, we cannot ignore many other possibilities including the fact that its figure, along more functionalist lines, contains the being that lives in caves (underground), devours people and animals (ground) and ends its development by flying off towards the Bermejos seas, thus representing the three levels of reality, the world axis (M. ELIADE), and, finally, it has scales (water), lives in caves (earth), breathes fire (fire) and flies (air) and the four fundamental elements are thus associated with him. The death of the dragon can therefore represent the end of Chaos and the emergence of a new situation. Perhaps it is in this second sense, rather than in the previous one, in which the fight between the forces of Good (San Miguel or Samiel, Patxi the blacksmith, the civilizing hero, the people etc.,) over Evil (Etsai and Herensuge as Dragon with feminine parts) has been interpreted, which has in turn lead to the dance of Xemeingo Ezpata Dantza, which is performed in honour of San Miguel, being re-interpreted with so much apologetics.

Livestock

Mari, as the Goddess of all things, of all beings, of all animals, can theoretically change herself into any of them. However, legends, leaving aside another type of fables, seem to prefer some in particular associated with this divinity or her kind.

It is said that the donkey is sacred in some religions for having carried Jesus Christ. But Mari, in her different manifestations, appears riding or next to a male goat (Aker, Akerbeltz) in the entrances to the caves and combing her hair with a golden comb, also as livestock with a range of ages and conditions (Aatxe, Beigorri, Txaalgorri, Txekorgorri, or Zezengorri, Zaldi) and, even as a dog (Zakur). Witches usually opt for cats (katu) and for insects and we therefore come to the so-called "familiars".

The familiars

These are those fantasy beings that live in the homes and which are to be found throughout Europe and which in the Basque Country go under the names of Gorri Txiki or "Small Lefty", Mamur, Mozorro, Pattuek and Prakagorriak (the one with Red Longjohns). Their duty is to help the inhabitants of the home, even though they sometimes become unbearable and have to be ordered to execute an impossible or illogical order to get rid of them. In general, the ideal date to take control of them is during the night of San Juan, by putting a sheet in an open space in such a way that any insect that remains with will be considered as an elf and will be looked after as such.

The forces of nature

The Goddess of Nature also shows her power through such phenomena as the Earth itself (Lur, Lurbira), that does not have a beginning or an end, and her daughters (both female) the Moon (Ilazki) and the day or the Sun (Egu, Eguzki).

The former has the dark world by means of the power of Gaueko (He of the Night), who acts against anyone that enters in his domains without permission, and Gauargi, or fatuous light.

Ortzi (Urcia), the firmament, is situated in the second case. A set of genies, anthropomorphes, some without a specific form and other such as clouds (Odei), the bad wind (Aidegaixto), fog (Lañaide), illnesses (Inguma, etc), the whistling of the wind (Mateo Txistu...), storms at sea (Traganarru) or inland, etc are established around both of them.

The house

Finally, the House finds its being in the ancestors, in Etxajaun (Lord of the House) in Su (fire) to whom, as in Roman times, food was offered during the night for its protections.

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