CODES OF SLAV CULTURES
journal of slavic folkloristics and ethno-lingvistics

No. 1

PLANTS 

Serbo-Croatian jablan, a masculine noun meaning `black-poplar', was in Common-Slavic a feminine designating an `apple-tree'. The semantic shift is probably due to the influence of a similar Balkanic word for `black-poplar', the existence of which seems to be testified by Hesychius' gloss apellon `aígeiros', while the change of gender may be due to the fact that Jablan occurs in the South-Slavic folklore as the proper name of a male mythological figure. It is a winged man with long golden hair, riding on a flying horse; his song or music makes the sun shine; trees and stones, and even mountains grow; with his fairy sisters (nine or twelve in number) he has the capacity of healing any wound and even raising the dead back to life. All these features recall the mythology of Apollo and the Muses, and seem to support an old explanation of Apollo's name: it was Arthur B. Cook who, ninety-two years ago, derived Apollon/Apéllon from apellón `black-poplar', and he did not omit to compare the latter with its Serbo-Croatian synonym jablan (Folk-Lore XV/1904, 420; repeated in his Zeus II, Oxford 1925, 484 ff.). In support of his hypothesis the English scholar produced mythological evidence showing a certain connection of the black-poplar with Apollo: the love story of Apollo and Dryope, as told by Nikandros (Anton. Lib. 32), and the myth of Heliades in Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica (IV 596 ff.). The answer to the question why Apollo came to be associated with this particular tree is probably to be found in its technological features: the black-poplar burns slowly and for this reason it is suitable for kindling, especially when fire is to be transported; even today it is used in fabricating matches. Recently I related the Common-Slavic designation of the black-poplar *agn'ed *ogn'ed to OInd. agnídh-, agnim-indhá- `fire-kindler'. In the Rigveda, the word designates a priest who kindles the sacred fire, and there are many indices to suppose that Apollo himself originates from the same Indo-European prototype as the Vedic fire-god Agni, the divine priest and mediator between men and gods. In Serbia Jablan was invoked in a folksong accompaning an archaic rite, which closely resembles the silver coins of Apollonia in South-Illyria representing three Nymphs, torch in hand, dancing round the sacred fire.

Web designed by Megabit