Archaic Poetry on Death

Abstract

Despite its specific characteristics, archaic poetry has been studied alongside oral poetry of the European nations. But researchers who deal with archaic poetry should be aware of the fact that oral poetry represents the entire literary production of the archaic nations and not only a part of it, as is the case with oral poetry of the European nations. Most of archaic poetry is accessible only in the form of translated written text, so we cannot deal with its original feature. When reading and interpreting archaic poetry, the variety of communicative codes should be taken into account, while one can with no serious consequences ignore the syncretic union of a text, melody, music and movement, dealing with each aspect separately. Authors of archaic poetry were highly appreciated individuals, and the poetic creation was considered a conscious process of verbal expression comparable to the most important social achievements. Most poems could be conditionally classified as lyrics. In classifying them according to literary types, a combination of motive-thematic and functional model (ritual, hunting and fighting, love, mourning, etc. poems) should be adopted. – According to Gadamer, to understand art, one has to establish an equal dialogue about “the same thing”. In the communication between the tradition of archaic people and today, the phenomenon of death could be viewed as “the same thing”. Individual understanding of death by archaic people in many regards exceeds the established cultural patterns (religion, mythology), according to which death is viewed as a passage to another, better world. Against such social interpretations, and through the medium of art, some outstanding individuals created a non-identical comprehension of death as an unalienable and the most adequate possibility of being. It seems that the phenomenon of death and that of individuality exist in a close relationship and reach their best expression just in archaic poems on death. It is here that through the confrontation with the phenomenon of “death of mine” the process of individualization takes place. The subjects of this process are some “extraordinary individuals” (poets). Besides, one can find in these poems the birth of fiction in the modern sense, not only because the theme of “death of mine” represents imaginary objects which have no “appropriate”, or in any way graspable meaning, but also because of the oral character of archaic poetry which is particularly suitable for the growth (and re-creation) of fiction. The interpretation of poems has proved that among archaic people fiction had a great existential meaning in the ordinary life of “extraordinary individuals” because it gave them the opportunity to emphasize their individuality beyond a real conflict with society. The contemporary crisis of individuality is undoubtedly closely connected with the growing tabooization of the phenomenon of death, which tums out blindness for death. In spite of its apparent naivety, archaic poetry on death provides a more genuine answer to the being-question How to accept my own death. It answers with the courage for death and for this reason it does deserve our attention.