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The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI issue article summary
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Abstract: A comparison of the phenomenon of death in the Romanian novel „Baltagul” by Mihail Sadoveanu and the myth of Isis and Osiris. In the novel „Baltagul” (“The Hatchet”), written by the great Romanian writer Mihail Sadoveanu, there is a poetic rythm of a thriller from which no one can escape. Deep in the mountains a shepherd is killed. The killers take off with his money which he gets for his sheep, and leave his body in a ravine, fodder for the wolves. When his dog comes home alone his wife decides to investigate. She leaves her young son in charge of the farm and starts to recreate the manʼs journey. Aided by her husbandʼs dog and her own common sense, she finds the manʼs body, and enough clues to help her demonstrate the community who the murderers were. The tale is set at the beginning of the century. The central character of the novel, Vitoria Lipan, is a woman of great strenght of character and little affectation. She has so formal education, she is not given to philosophical musings, and she has an endearing self deprecating style. Her mind is sharp like a razor and she is a good psychologist. The novel has some similarities with the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris. Osiris was murdered by his brother, Seth, but Isis is who travels to find her husbandʼs body. Isis finds and restore Osirisʼ body with the help of some deities, including Thot and Anubis. Osiris was resurrected. Due to his experience, Osiris became Lord of the Dead and the Afterlife. There are similarities between the two stories: two different woman, who go for finding their husbands and after a long way of search and struggle, even inner struggle, Isis and Vitoria arrive to the end of their journey. One is dead and remains dead, the other becomes the Lord of the Afterlife. „Love” is the proper word which can define the feeling which charge the two women to go in a new way: a way of initiation.
Keywords: myth, judgement, initiation
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