Trojan's city

On mountain Cer in North Western Serbia, there is a ruined fortress known locally as King Trojan's city. 

According to the local legend, King Trojan had 5 daughters: Kosana, Vida, Koviljka, Soka and Dostana and he built a fortified city for each of them too. The remains of their fortresses can also still be seen today 

These are remains of Kosanin grad (Kosana's city) 

These are remains of Vidin grad (Vida's city) 

These are remains of Koviljkin grad (Koviljka's city) 

These are remains of Dostinik (Dostana's city) 

These are remains of Soko grad (Soka's city)

Usual interpretation of the name of the Soko Grad is "Falcon city", "soko" being Serbian word for falcon. This fortress was originally built by the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. The spa in the valley below the fortress also dates from the Roman time and has interesting legend related to the discovery of medicinal water wells. Here is the legend of the Falcon spa:

All the other fortresses were probably originally Roman fortresses too.

Interestingly a Roman emperor called Trajan Decius (3rd c. AD) was born nearby in Budalija, near Sirmium (today Sremska Mitrovica) 

So is the local legend about King Trojan a faint memory of Roman Emperor Trajan Decius which was preserved by the local population to this day?

Or is king Trojan from the legends old Serbian God Triglav (Trojan means triple and Triglav means three headed)?

By the way, none of these fortresses are being excavated or protected. They are overgrown in vegetation and silently crumbling to dust...😞

Crios - Tkanica

These are traditional Irish "crios" belts. They were woven by hand using six different shades of brightly coloured wool, colours and patterns varying from weaver to weaver.  

They were mostly worn by men, over the trousers, as it can be seen on this picture by David Shaw-Smyth.

They were made by hand using a kind of rudimentary "loom". This is actually just a piece of wood to which warp (base woollen threads) are attached. The piece of wood is then placed under the weaver's feet. The warp is then pulled and kept stretched by left hand while the right hand is used to weave the weft (cross, pattern threads). This 1950's tourist poster for Arran islands shows a man wearing traditional local clothes making a crios belt using such loom.

And this is "tkanica", traditional Serbian hand woven belt. The colours and patters vary greatly from village to village. See any similarity?  

This is a very good picture showing tkanica belts worn by both men and women as part of Central Serbian traditional costume. 

According to the ethnographic data, the belt had a practical purpose too. It was worn tight around the waist to protect the back and stomach from injuries (hernias) during heavy agricultural work. Maybe the Irish crios belts were worn for the same reason?

By the way these kind of woven belts are found in many other Slavic countries, not just Serbia. How common are they in Western Europe?

Sceptre

BronzeAge warrior with a "Shillelagh", type of blackthorn knobstick. Sardinia, Nuragic Culture. 

This is the so called "Ptuj inscription", a line of text written in Noric language, a little known Central European #Celtic language spoken in Roman province of Noricum. 

It reads: ARTEBUDZBROGDUI

This is interpreted as two personal names: Artebudz [son] of Brogduos. The name Artebudz is proposed to mean "bear penis" (compare Welsh arth "bear" and Irish bod "penis")... 

In Serbian we have these two words: 

budža - knobstick, also anything that sticks out, that can be stuck into something else, like a penis. 
budžiti - to stick something like budža into something tight, like a penis into vagina 

This is an Irish knowbstick. I believe most people reading this know what penis looks like 🙂 

Serbian word budža also means someone important, someone who is sticking out...🙂 

In Brittany we find "Penn Bazh" which is exactly the same as the Irish knobstick. 

Penn Bazh was and still is used as a weapon. It literally means head stick where the word "bazh" means stick, basically Celtic "budz" or Serbian "budža" 

Interestingly in Serbian we have another version of the word "budža" meaning someone imortant: "badža" which corresponds with Breton "bazh". So we find both variants of the Celtic word for knobstick, budz and bazh in modern Serbian... 

The official etymology for the Irish word "bod" meaning "penis" is that it comes from Middle Irish "bot" (tail, penis) which comes from Proto-Celtic "*buzdos" (tail, penis).

Interestingly, there is a Serbian word "buzdovan" means a knobstick, battle club just like "budža". So we have two old Irish words (bod, buzd) in Serbian both meaning the penis (knob), knobstick.

In English the phrases "to be a knob" or "to be a dick" both mean that the person in question is showing off, is full of himself, is unpleasant, offensive or even abusive. Like someone who has or thinks he has absolute power, superior worth and right over others.

In Serbian when someone has power over others, he is called "budža" literally a penis, a knob, a knobstick. This is not a derogatory term, but an expression of respect. Knobstick is here directly linked to importance and power over others and is the symbol of that power

In Serbian when someone is "budža", has power over others he is also "neki kurac" meaning a penis, a knob. Like in "on misli da je neki kurac" meaning he thinks that he is important. This directly links a knobstick and knob, the power over others and reproductive power...

Here is a perfect example of the use of "neki kurac": "Modern paradox: The bigger cunt you are (obvious), the bigger chance you have to become a dick (not obvious, means powerful, important)"🙂

This is completely natural and logical, because in clan societies, where all clan members are blood relatives, the oldest male, "Djed" (grandfather) is the one who holds the position of power over others. And unsurprisingly in the Balkans, knobstick is the symbol of that power

Like on this medieval fresco from Macedonia where the elders called "Djed" (grandfather) carry knobsticks both as weapons and as symbols of power.

I believe that this is ancient. It is the simplest the most direct expression of the patriarchal power that you can get. I made you, you came from my penis, therefore I have power over you. 

In Serbian the word for descended from is "potekao" literally "poured out of (his penis)" 🙂

Originally the elders probably held their penises as symbols of powers. In Serbian when someone is behaving like he has power we say "kurči se", meaning "he is showing off, he is being a dick" but literally "he is sticking his dick out" and "he is wielding his knob" 🙂

In Serbian the expression "ponaša se kao da je uhvatio boga za kurac" means "he is behaving like he has absolut power", but literally means "he is behaving like he is holding God's dick". 🙂

Serbs believed that they descend from god Dabog. That they were children of Dabog. So Dabog being the oldest male, the DJED, means that his dick is the symbol of absolute god given power. Is knobstick the symbol of the Dabog's dick? And is this where sceptre of power comes from?

These medieval stećak standing stones from Bosnia all have engraved knobsick. As all the medieval stećak standing stone engravings have religious symbolism, this shows that knobsick was a symbol of not just civil but also religious power at the time. These were djed, elder graves...

And just so you know I am not the only one who has seen penis as the original sceptre, here is a line form the Sumerian lexicon by John A. Halloran:

ñišuš-bar: ruler's staff; scepter. Literally 'penis'+'to see,show'

Ear

Pulling kids by the ear was one of favourite school punishments the world over. But was this done just out of cruelty or was there originally another deeper reason for pulling kids ears which was over time forgotten?

In Serbia in the past, a teacher would ask kids a question, and would go through the class untill he found someone who knew the answer. That kid would then be told to go and pull the ears of all the kids who didn't know the answer. 

The licking clean of ears by snakes was a common theme in Greek mythology. The snake licked clean the ears of Asclepius, allowing him to learn knowledge and skill that had previously been hidden to man...

During Roman time, in court, a witness would be pulled by the ear by a person saying "memento!" to help the witness to remember what happened better... 

Babrius (Greek: Βάβριος) was the author of a collection of Greek fables. In one of them, while dying father is telling his son what he is leaving him, he is pulling the son by the ear, so he doesn't forget what he is being told. 

Pliny the elder wrote that people believed that the memory was located in the earlobes...Hence pulling the earlobes in Roman courts to stimulate the memory... 

While writing about kings and wars Virgil was pulled by the ear by Apollo. Servius says that this was because "ear is the seat of memory, just like the forehead is the seat of genius"...

The reason why Buddha has big earlobes is because big earlobes are the sign of knowledge and enlightenment...

This is why in India school kids are "punished" by "thoppukaranam". You pull your earlobes by opposite hands and you squat 10 times. By the way this is the same ritual performed in front of Buddha, the enlightened one. 

The latest research data from India says that this ear pulling yoga exercise balances the left and right hemispheres of our brains. Interestingly, ears contain acupuncture points that affect to all the other parts of the body. The earlobe corresponds to the head🙂 

Now where did this "belief" that pulling your earlobes will stimulate your memory originated? Maybe in India and was brought to Europe during various westward migrations? Serbs have preserved the memory of "motherland India" in their epics. I wrote about this in my post "Triglav, Trojan, Trinity, Trimurti, Agni"

But maybe it originated in Europe during Bronze age and was brought to India during one of many eastward migrations? After all, the earliest possible acupuncture evidence comes from Europe. The so called "Ötzi the Iceman" is the  5300 years old body found frozen in the German Alps. The Iceman's tattoos align with classic acupuncture points, and the plants found amongst his belongings have well-known medical applications .

Or maybe it originated in ancient Sumer. In "Ancient Near Eastern Gods Enki and Ea: Diachronical Analysis of Texts and Images from the Earliest Sources to the Neo-Sumerian Period" by Peeter Espak we read that:

The quality most often given to a king by Enki starting from the Early-Dynastic royal inscriptions is "geštu". The word means "ear(s); hearing; understanding, intelligence" and is in relation to Enki used to denote capability to receive through the ears,  practical skill, understanding, and cleverness. This feature is repeated in relation to Enki throughout the history of Sumerian texts. It seems that for Sumerians, the human ear was considered as the seat of intelligence. In the same sense the Akkadian uznu (ear, wisdom) was used. 

Live fire

In Serbia, during certain ceremonies, like when first fire is lit in the new house, the fire has to be lit using the "old way" (rubbing two pieces of wood against each-other). This process is known as "pulling living fire out of the wood"

Interestingly, the man who is about to perform the fire ritual, to "draw living fire out of the wood" had to have abstained from sex for a period of time.

Fire is male principle (Sun, Fire, Heat, Increasing, Yang) as water is female principle (Earth, Water, Cold, Decreasing, Yin). I wrote about how Yin-Yang relates to Earth-Sun climatic system in my post "Yin and Yang".

This is direct link between Fire and Male Fire. In Slavic mythology both are represented by Jarilo (Slavic young sun god) whose name means brightly burning, raging, young, green. He is the one who every spring brings "living fire" back into the world.

I talked about Serbian rituals related to building new house and moving into the new house in my post "New house".

The name"living fire" is very interesting. The only other "living fire" I know about is Deified Fire, Agni. And in my post "Triglav, Trojan, Trinity, Trimurti, Agni" I talked about Serbian belief, recorded in the Epic poetry, that Serbs came to the Balkans from India...Agni was said to be "hiding in a cave" from where he had to be summoned into the world. This is fire drill, instrument used for  "pulling living fire out of the wood". 

You can see that the initial smouldering amber is created inside of the hole made by the fire stick. Is this the "cave from which Agni had to be summoned into the world"? 

This is another reason why only men are allowed to summon "living fire"...

In Serbia, living fire was believed to have medicinal properties. This is why it was "pulled out of the wood, summoned" when both people and animals had to be protected from dangerous deceases. Animals were walked between, or around fires which were started with "living fire" to be purified. People jumped over these fires "for health". Ash scraped from "Agni's cave" was mixed in water and given to sick people as medicine...

During "pulling of living fire" ceremonies, if a man who was operating the fire drill couldn't make fire   from the amber three times in a row, he would step away from the fire drill saying: "It is not meant for me to make the cure". Then some other man would go to the fire drill and try himself...

This use of living fire as a medicine is interesting because when Agni came out of his cave, he was told that he will be "the purifier"... 

Sowing

In Serbia in the past people lived in extended families called "zadruga". When grain needed to be sown, the family would choose one man to do all the sowing. He had to abstain from sex from that moment until all the seeds were sown. 

Sowing (spreading of seeds) is here directly linked with ejaculation (spreading of semen). Male reproductive energy which is usually used to impregnate a woman has to be during sowing period preserved and used to impregnate the Earth... 

Once a man finished sowing grain seeds, it was female fertile energy of the "Mother Earth" which then turned each grain seed into a grain plant full of new grain seeds...Slavs believed that this fertile energy was taken away from the "Mother Earth" when the grain was harvested...

So, in the past in Russia, after the last sheaf of grain was cut, women harvesters would lie down on the ground and roll around the field "to return the strength to the earth"...

These Slavic harvest customs directly link female fertility with "mother earth" and male fertility with "father sky", who "fertilises mother earth with his semen, rain"...

You can find loads of stuff related to agricultural "magic", customs, folklore, beliefs in my twitter threads and in my blog posts, like these ones: "Diduch", "Wheat wreath", "Walking sheafs of wheat", "Catching rooster", "Partridge" 

New house

In the past in Serbia, during the building of a house people performed many rituals designed to insure success of the building process and subsequent survival of the house and happiness of the house inhabitants. 

A place for a new house was chosen carefully. In Central Serbia, it was believed that the best place to build the house on was the one which a flock of sheep chose as it's resting place. 

Before the new house was built, four rocks were placed on the ground where the house corners were supposed to stand in the evening. If in the morning bugs were found under the rocks, the house would stand in that place for a long time.

One more ritual performed to determine if the place for the house was chosen correctly involved placing a glass of water or wine in the middle of plot in the evening. If in the morning "something alive" was found drowned in the glass, the place was chosen correctly. 

Finally, the testing of whether a location was good for building a house included the rolling of  bread. In Levač and Temnić, if the rolled bread fell on “its head”, it was considered that the location was advantageous for building a new house...

Every new build required a blood sacrifice. Before the building started, a lamb or a cockerel was slaughtered on the foundation stone. The head of the animal was built into the wall, and the meat was roasted and eaten by the family and the workers.

 

It was believed that someone from the family will soon die after they move into the new house, because every house wants to have its protective spirit, which is the spirit of the first person to die in the house.  

To prevent this from happening, during the move, people made sure that a rooster was the first to cross the doorstep of the new house. This was done so that the rooster would "drive the evils spirits out". 

 

But straight after the rooster entered the house, he caught and was then killed on the doorstep, (the seat of the dead) by the man of the house...

Cockerel's blood was then sprinkled on the outside walls and into all four corners of the house, and his head was buried under the fireplace, the seat of the domestic cult.

What is very interesting here is that there are many indications that sacrificing a cockerel was among serbs a replacement for a human sacrifice...I talked about this in my post "Cock bashing" and "The third death"...

People avoided walking by a building site of a new house, because it was believed that the builders would build person's shadow into the house walls, to create a protective house spirit. The owner of the shadow would then soon die and become the house spirit. 

This is probably a remnant of the old custom to build people alive into the house walls or foundations. Serbian epic poetry is full of stories about this ritual which was used "when fairies would not allow a town, bridge, church..." to be built. I talked about this in my post "Blood and mortar"...

When the foundation was dug, a handful of grains, a few coins and a piece of frankincense were placed in each corner of the house, so that "the people in the house always had enough bread and money". Frankincense protected the house from vampires.

 

Moving into the new house was also full of special rituals. 

It was believed that the best time to move into the new house was on the days of the full moon. 

The fireplace was considered to be the heart of the house. If a family was moving from an old, still existing, house into a new house, a fire from the old fireplace had to be brought into the new fireplace, to ensure the continuation of the family.

 

If it was not possible to bring the fire from the old house, a brand new "live" fire (need fire) had to be kindled "in the old way", by "rubbing wood on wood", using fire drill or fire saw. These kind of fires were believed to have magical properties.

 

The sourdough starter, was by Serbs possibly associated with the (protective) ancestor (spirit). Maybe because the starter was passed from generation to generation...This could be why Serbs believe that when moving from an old house to a new house, the starter in the old house should be destroyed and a new starter should be made for the new house...

After the fire was lit, new bread was made. This new bread was then broken and eaten by the members of the family dipped into salt, a traditional welcome offering. After that all the other things are brought in. 

The last thing the family needed to do to "put roots down" in the new house was to plant a fruit tree next to the house, which had to be done by the man of the house not later than one year after the family moved in.