Psychological Roots of the Myth on the Killing of Elders

Abstract

The mythical origins of the story on the killing of elders asserts a presupposition that such a rite never existed as a common ritual practice among the Balkan peoples, to which their traditions testify. An analysis of the mythical aspect reveals the psychological roots of the tradition, the chief function and meaning of which lie not in factual, but in psychological reality. The account of the rite is a symbolical substitution for an actual ritual that satisfied a community's psychological and social needs for such meaning. Part of folk tradition primarily as a fictive invention, the ritual on the killing of elders clearly sends a message which forbids an act that would bring into question the social, moral and spiritual foundations of a community.