PREHISTORIC
PART 1
- Ch.XI
Megalithic simulacra of the primitive
Pelasgian divinities
Another type of
megalithic monuments of Dacia, which open a vast perspective on the prehistoric
moral life at the north of the lower Danube, are the archaic simulacra of the
primitive divinities, usually hewn in live rock on the peaks of the mountains,
or on the tops and coasts of the hills.
Some of these
prehistoric sculptures are so rudimentary, so weathered by air, light and rain,
that they appear today more as simple rough columns, while others present more
or less a likeness with the figure of man, when seen especially from afar.
Prince Cantemir has left us in “Descriptio Moldoviae”
(Edit. 1872, p.24-25), written around 1716, the following archaeological notes
about one of the most important and colossal megalithic statue of Dacia: “The
highest mountain of Moldova is Cehleul
(TN – today Ceahlau), and if this mountain were known to the ancient poets, it
would have been as famous as Olympus, Pindus or Pelias. From its peak, which
rises to a huge height in the shape of a
tower, flows a little stream with a very clear water … In the middle of
this peak can be seen a very ancient statue,
5 fathoms high (TN – approx. 9.00m), representing an old woman, encircled, if I am not wrong, by 20 sheep, and from
the natural part of this feminine figure flows a permanent water spring. In
truth, it is difficult to decide, if in this monument nature showed its play,
or if it was formed as such by the able hand of some master. This statue is not
thrust into any base, but it is one with the rest of the mass of the rock, but
up from the abdomen and back it is free … Probably this statue has once served
as an idol for a pagan cult … How high is this mountain can be ascertained from
the fact that, when the sky is clear and the sun descends towards west, this
mountain can be seen very clearly, in its entirety, as if it were close by,
from the city Acherman (Tyras,
Cetatea-Alba / TN – the White Citadel), which is 60 hours away. And on the
hills around it can be seen traces of horses, dogs and birds engraved in rocks,
in such a large number, as if an immense riding army has once passed by”.
The highest peak, or the dome of Cehleu mountain, seen from the eastern
terrace. On the northern part are “The
towers”. (From Jahrbuch d. siebenb.
Karpathenvereines, XVI Jahrg. p.10).
This strong massif, which dominates
with its height all the mountains around, presents a quite curious shape. It
certainly looks like a colossal idol. See the ceramic figures from
About this same
holy mountain of prehistoric antiquity wrote around 1859 the distinguished man
of letters of
“The sailor on the
[1. Romanian folk legends tell that
this simulacrum represents Baba Dochia
(TN – Old woman Dochia) – the Great Mother plus the geographical epithet of Dachia
– who, going up the mountain with her sheep on the first day of March, was
caught on the peak of Cehleu by a great icy cold, was turned to ice together with the sheep, and later into stone (Asaky, Nouvelles historiques, 1859, I. p. 36, 43-50). Regarding
this statue, we also find the following notes with Asaky (TN – translated from
French): “Because of the fame of this place, a monastery was built here, which existed until 1704; but on the day
of Easter … an avalanche starting from the top of Pion (Cehleu) peak, which dislocated and incorporated within it
masses of rocks, engulfed the monastery with all its monks and gave a new shape
to this place … At that time the simulacrum of Dochia, despite its solidity, also suffered a visible change: the
upper part, which represented the head and the bust, crumbled, and can be seen
at some distance on the ground; this mass, composed of small agglomerations
could have figured the face and the hair. The trunk and legs are made of a rock
massif of basalt, the gravel accumulated between the legs barely leave space
for a man to pass; the rivulet Albu
has its source there, as Cantemir
also says. Other agglomerated rocks, representing sheep, encircle the
simulacrum here and there, and on the side there is another quite large rock
called the Eagle”.
According to Frunzescu, (Dict. Top. P. 356), the eastern part of Pion or
Ceahleu, which is the highest, is called Panaghia
or Fecioara (TN - the Virgin), and
the western part is called Turnul
Butului, or Turnurile Budei or Bughei (TN – the Tower of Butu, or the
Towers of Buda or Bugha). The word panagia has the meaning of “saint” in Greek language, and this name
shows that the simulacrum from the
Other simulacra about which we have information, are the following:
At the sources of the river Domna (TN – the Lady), at the
place called Valea-rea in the Muscel district, can be seen even today some stone figures in the shape of women,
and the legend tells that 9 old women went on the mountain in the month of
March, with their goats, but were changed into stone because of the cold.
On the meadow at the source of the river Arges, there is a
rock with the figure of a woman, called “Caprareasa”
(TN – the Goat woman), who had been turned
to stone by the harshness of the wind (Martian,
Analele statistice, 1868, p.120).
At the source of Gilort, in the Gorj district, there is another rock which
represents a “Baba” (TN – Old woman)
turned to stone because of the cold.
Downhill from Tismana monastery, on the eastern coast of the valley, there is an archaic figure sculpted in rock on the
edge of a precipice. The folk call it “Mama”
(TN – Mother).
On the territory of the villages Balta and Gornovita in Mehedinti district, there existed until recent times figures hewn in rocks, which
represented Baba Dochia and her son Dragomir. The village Gornovita
is situated on “Delul Babelor” (TN –
the Hill of the old women) (Cf. Spineanu,
Dict. Jud. Mehedinti, p.10,138).
Close to Vama Buzeului, in the valley called Urlatore, there is the stone face of a woman called Baba Dochia, and from there springs a
very clear water.
At the village Caragelele, Buzeu district, there is a stone with the shape of a man, which the legend says had been
thrown from the mountain by a daughter of giants.
On the mountain Serba in Suceva district, at the place called
Petrele rosii, there are rocks and stones which resemble men and animals.
In
On the mountains near
Piatra-Craiului, near Zernesci in
Transilvania, there is a rock with the
face of a woman. On the territory of the village Vaida-Recea in the
On the mountain near the village Cetea in Transilvania, rise two high
peaks, which look from afar like two monks,
one of whom seems to hold a bowl in his hand. About another similar simulacrum
writes Muller (Siebenburgische
Sagen, p.168).
In the
In Banat, on the mountain near Almas,
there are two stone posts which, according to the folk legend, represent an old woman and her son turned to stone
by cold (Schott, Walach Marchen, nr.
6, p.112-115, 330)].
This primitive
statue from the highest
On the road from
Trebici towards Mezerici, writes the Moravian man of letters Schuller, can be seen a rock boulder
with a particular shape, which seems to resemble a woman with a cover on her
head. The locals call this stone figure “The
old Mother” or “The Grandmother from
Trebici”, and the legend tells us that this megalithic statue represented a
very wise old woman, with the name of “Altruna”
(Pelasgian divinity Larunda, the
Mother of the Lari, Alraun in German
legends), who dwelt close to this rock. She knew the healing power of plants
and healed with kindness all the sick people who called on her. Later though,
she became wicked and because of her greed for money she was turned to stone on
the top of that rock (Sagen aus Mahren, 1888, p.164). Another rock with the
figure of a woman called “The stone
maiden” is in the
The general
character of all these monuments of megalithic sculpture is that the types are
hewn in gigantic style and in irregular shapes; that generally these simulacra
have the appearance of human figures only when seen from a distance; that these
primitive images appear everywhere only on tops of mountains or hills, on the
coasts of valleys, around spring sources, around mountain passes and in the
proximity of roads, from where vast perspectives open.
In the most ancient
times known by history, statues representing the faces of divinities in an
artistic form did not exist, either in
For the pious
feeling, but tough, of those times, a simple shapeless figure made of wood or
stone, and symbolizing the divinity, was enough.
This is how a
womanly figure, sculpted in rock in a primitive fashion, had become legendary
even in ante-Homeric times (Homer,
Iliad, XXIV.602 seqq).
This huge statue,
hewn in rock on the top of the mountain Sipyl
in
Niobe, proud that
she was the happy mother of twelve children, and apart from this, a beautiful
woman of divine origin, the wife of a rich king reigning over extensive
territories, had the vanity to consider herself higher than Latona, the powerful and popular
goddess, about whom she said with contempt that she had only two children, Apollo and Diana. Aspiring to divine honors in Latona’s place, Niobe invited
her people to desert the altars of this goddess, and stopped them from bringing
her honors and sacrifices. Latona, resentful of Niobe’s insolence, and of her
contesting her divinity, asked her children for help. They, in order to avenge
the offense brought to their mother, killed with their arrows all the children
of Niobe, while Niobe was turned into stone and taken by winds to the top of
the mountain Sipyl in Lidia in Asia Minor, where this stone figure shed tears
day and night (Apollodorus, Bibl.
III. 5.6; Ovid, Metam. VI. 146
seqq).
Pausanias writes about this legendary monument of
prehistoric antiquity (lib. I c. 21.3; lib.VIII c. 2. 7): “I saw and examined
this statue of Niobe, after I climbed on Sipyl mountain. It is a hard rock,
with a precipitous edge. When someone is close to this rock, it doesn’t appear
to have any shape of woman or human being who cries, but when someone looks at
it from afar, it appears as a sad woman who cries. (It seems that in ancient
times the primitive statue from Cehleu also “shed tears”: “Of grief over my
young one, the rocks cry on Cehleu -
Tocilescu, Material folcloric,
This colossal
statue of Niobe on Sipyl mountain was therefore so ancient, that its cult had
disappeared even around the beginning of the historical epoch, and all that had
been preserved at the time of Homer was only a simple legend, about the turning
into stone of an arrogant and impious woman.
Also on the
mountain Sipyl in Lidia, on the rock called Codin, there was during the Graeco-Roman epoch a primitive statue
of “The Great Mother” or “The Mother of Gods”, which, as Pausanias tells us (lib. III. c. 22 4),
was “the most archaic of all the
simulacra of this divinity, belonging to the same epoch as the ancient
figure of Niobe from another
The Phrygians
believed that the divinity of the Great
Mother, sleeps over winter, and in summer wakes up (Plutarc, Oeuvres, Tom. XI, 1794, p.367). This has the same common
idea with the Romanian legend about the turning to ice of the “Old women”
(Babe).
On the mountain Liban in
In the town Paphos in
The inhabitants of
the town Thespiae in Beotia, according to Pausanias (lib. IX. 27.1), venerated
most among all the divinities, even from the beginning of their religion, Eros (Cupid), the most beautiful of all
the gods, but his statue was only a
rough stone, but very ancient.
Hesiod tells us in his Theogony (v.497) about the stone which Rhea had presented to
Saturn to swallow when she had given birth to Jove, that this new monarch
of the ancient world thrust it later into the ground near the town Pytho, to be a future monument of
veneration by the mortals.
On the territory of
the town
In the town Orchomenos in Beotia, the most ancient temple was that of the Graces, and their statues were just
some simple rough stones (Pausanias, lib. IX. 38. 1).
Also near the town Gyteon in the
Pausanias writes also the following:
In the town Pharae in Achaia, near the statue of Hermes, there are some 30 stones stuck into the ground, having
a tetragonal shape, which the inhabitants of Pharae venerate, giving to each
stone the name of a god, and “once all
the Greeks used only rough stones as simulacra, to which they gave divine
honors” (Ibid.VII.22.4).
At the village
called Hyett in Beotia, there still existed in his time an ancient temple,
dedicated to Hercules, and a statue
of this god, which was not an artistic work, but a simple rough stone, as dictated by the archaic rite (Ibid. IX. 24.3).
Other sacred stones
dedicated to Hercules existed in
On the sacred promontory
of
Around 204 bc, the
Roman state was in one of its most difficult situations. Hannibal, its sworn
enemy, had been for 16 years on the land of lower
The legates
appeared on the shores of
Regarding other
rough simulacra considered as antique images of divinities, Lampridius writes that Heliogabalus had
wanted to lift from the
So, there existed
in Roman religion, even during the time of the empire, a strong tendency of
archaism in regard to the figure of divinities.
The legend of Ariadna turned to stone has a special
significance for the history of the
megalithic simulacra of
In the island called
The poet Ovid presents this ancient legend in
the following way (Heroid. X):
“There was a
mountain”, says Ariadna, “on the top of which were only a few trees, and on
this mountain rises a rock, polished by the waves of the sea. I climb on this
rock and measure with my eyes the vast expanse of the sea. From here, where
very cold winds blow on me, I saw the sails of your ship, swelled by the
dangerous wind (Boreas). Once I saw them, or maybe I thought I saw them, I was
seized by shivers much colder than ice, and I got numb … With my eyes aimed towards the sea and turned to ice, I sat on the rock, and I turned into stone, exactly like
that stone seat. Look at me now if you could, not with your eyes, by in your
thought, how I sit on top of this rock, on which beat the restless waves of the
sea”.
The origin of this
antique simulacrum from the island
As Diodorus Siculus tells us (lib. V. 50),
the island
In conclusion:
Even from the most
remote times of prehistory, there existed in the eastern parts of Europe and
western Asia, a type of megalithic monuments, archaic simulacra, some sculpted in live rock, on the tops or
coasts of mountains and hills, others stuck into the ground as menhirs, or rough
columns, near temples and other holy places; monuments which, by the religious
belief of the peoples of those times, represented
certain divinities. Many of these megalithic simulacra had an extremely
great age, so that the memory of their origin and cult had been lost even
before the beginnings of Greek history; on the other hand, the time had erased
from these stones almost all traces of human hand, like for example the statues
of Niobe and Ariadna, and all that had been preserved in local traditions was
only a confused reminiscence, a simple mythical legend [2].
[2. We also find traces of primitive
statues of the Great Mother in the mountains of
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