Information about Basque Mythology

Ancient Basque mythology is centered around the figure of the goddess Mari, and her consort Sugaar (also called Maju). It is considered a chthonic religion as all its characters dwell on earth or below it. The sky is seen mostly as an empty corridor through which the divinities travel and herd clouds.

Mari and her court

Mari is considered the supreme goddess, and her consort Sugaar the supreme god. Mari is depicted in many different forms: sometimes as various women, as different red animals, as the black he-goat, etc. Sugaar, however, appears only as a man or a serpent/dragon.

Mari is said to be served by the sorginak, semi-mythical creatures impossible to differentiate from actual witches or pagan priestesses. The nucleus of witches near Zugarramurdi met at the Akelarre field and were the target of a process in Logroño that was the major action of the Spanish Inquisition against witchcraft. As a result, akelarre in Basque and aquelarre in Spanish are still today the local names of the sabbat.

Other creatures and characters

• Lamiak or laminak: a type of nymphs with bird-feet that dwelled in rivers and springs.
• Iratxoak: imps.
• Jentilak (gentiles): giants, sometimes portrayed throwing rocks at churches. They are believed to be Pagan Basques themselves, seen from a partly Christianized viewpoint. A surviving jentil is Olentzero, the Basque equivalent of Santa Claus.
• Mairuak or Intxisuak are the male equivalent of lamiak in the Pyrenean region, where they are said to have built up the cromlechs.
• Tartalo: the Basque version of the Greco-Roman Cyclops.
• Basajaun: the wild man of the woods and his female version: basandere.
• Gaueko is an evil character of the night.
• Odei is a personification of storm clouds.
• Ama Lur: Mother Earth. It may be a modern creation or may be another name of Mari.
• Eki or Eguzki is the known name of the Sun, considered a daughter of Ama Lur.
• Ile or Ilargi are the known names of the Moon, also a daughter of Ama Lur.

Other minor characters appear only in isolated legends:

• Galtzagorriak are a specific type of iratxoak (imps).
• San Martin Txiki, a popular local Christian character, is a trickster.
• Atxular and Mikelatz are said to be sons of Mari, among others.
• Jaun Zuria is the mythical first Lord of Biscay, said to be born of a Scottish princess who had an encounter with the god Sugaar in the village of Mundaka.
• Herensuge is the name of a dragon who plays an important role in a few legends.
• Erge is an evil spirit that takes men's lives.
• Adur is not a character but the abstraction of luck, destiny or magic. It's said to be the power of soothsayers (aztiak). In common language it also means saliva. It's also the name of a river (vide Adour).
• Sorginak are both mythological beings that travel with Mari and real witches.

Urtzi

Urtzi, Ortz or Ost seems to have been the name by which Basque referred to the sky and the divinities (normally foreign) that embodied it. In the Middle Ages, the Codex Calixtinus by the French pilgrim Aymericus Picaudus mentions that "they call God Urcia". While no legend has survived on the possible nature of this divinity, many composite Basque names (of weekdays or meteorological events) seem to point to Ost, Ortz or Urtzi being the old name of the sky and its divine personifications.

Christianity

After Christianization, the Basques kept producing and importing myths.

• The battle of Roncesvalles was mythified in the cycle of the Matter of France.
• In Aralar, Saint Michael was said to appear to assist a local noble turned hermit.
• The coat of arms of Navarre was said to come from a feat in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa.
• The battle of Amaiur was the battle where Navarre lost the independence against Castilla.

Modern myths

Besides the religious beliefs of ancient Basques, we can understand mythology to include other stories of emotional, cultural, moral or ethical value to a nation. Taken broadly, then, Basque mythology can include any narrative which has contributed to the shaping of Basque values and belief systems.

Some modern myths were created in the 19th century, as Basque national consciousness arose. Spanish historians and apologists placed the Iberians and Basques in the Babel narrative as descendants of Tubal. Biscayne apologists argued that unlike the rest of Spain, Basque blood had not been polluted by miscegenation with Moors or Jews and, under the system of limpieza de sangre, they were natural born nobles, free of the Castilian taxes and authorities. In the 19th century, Souletin writer Augustin Chaho created Tubal's descendant Aitor to be the forefather of all Basques. Chaho also twisted the name of herensuge (dragon) to create Leherensuge a semi-divine creature that was present at the origins (lehen) and will be present also in the future or end (heren) of the Basque people. In this sense Leherensuge can somehow be associated with Sugaar.

The Guernica Tree also became a symbol of the Basque freedoms. Another tree, the Malato Tree marked the limit of the Basque armies and was used as an argument to refuse Basque involvement in the Spanish army.

External links

• Buber's Basque page on mythology
• Arcadia on Basque mythology
• MythHome: Basque Summary

References

• Andrés Ortíz-Osés "Antropología simbólica vasca", Anthropos, 1985. "El matriarcalismo vasco, Universidad de Deusto, 1988. "El inconsciente colectivo vasco", 1982.
• Juan Ignacio Hartsuaga "Euskal Mitologia Konparatua" ("Compared Basque Mythology"), Kriseilu, 1987.
• Michael Everson, "Tenacity in religion, myth, and folklore: the Neolithic Goddess of Old Europe preserved in a non-Indo-European setting", Journal of Indo-European Studies 17, 277 (1989). http://www.evertype.com/misc/basque-jies/basque-jies.html