The Romanian Mythology—Between National Identity and Globalization

Abstract

Although the soul of a people is not an eternal, unchangeable substance, the national specificity is still a permanent one. Starting from the idea that mythology occupies an essential place in a culture, it is important to know the national mythology, because it presents in a specific form the themes of the everlasting thought, whose discovery makes sense to a life, and illustrates at the same time, the specificity of the national spirituality and even of the cultural identity. The national identity means differentiation and, at the same time, a specific opening to the existence where a collective consciousness is reflected, starting from the idea that a people’s mentality can be a collective self-portrait.

In the following study, we shall only refer to two of the myths specific to our people, namely: Miorita and Manole, the Artisan. For the Romanian spirituality, mioritism is a profound, ontological and anthropo-historical dimension where one can speak of a human becoming in layers of interference. An alternative to the popular Carpathian vision of existence from the plan of the native psycho-social Universe is the positive value of the abyssal categories of the culture where the man is fulfilled by creation. As a follow-up to this statement, the myth of the creative sacrifice, exemplified here by Manole, the Artisan, highlights the man’s destiny to become a culture creator. Culture is a necessary and complementary dimension of the human-specific way of being.