Mari (goddess)
Mari or Maddi is the main goddess of pre-Christian Basque mythology. She is a feminine divinity that inhabits all the peaks of the Basque mountains, receiving a name for each mountain (in addition to being related to and sometimes confused with Amalur ). The most important of their dwellings is the cave on the east side of the Anboto, which is known as «Cueva de Mari» («Mariren Koba» or «Mariurrika Kobea"), which gives Mari the name "Mari of Anboto" or "Lady of Anboto" («Anbotoko Dama»). She also exists in Aragonese mythology under the name of Mariuena .
Description
Mari, personification of mother earth, is queen of nature and all the elements that compose it. She generally appears with the body and face of a woman, elegantly dressed (generally in green), and can also appear in the hybrid form of a tree and a woman with goat legs and the claws of a bird of prey, or as a woman of fire, an inflamed rainbow. or a horse that drags the clouds. In her form as a woman she appears with abundant blonde hair that she combs, in the sun, with a golden comb.
His consort is Maju or Sugaar, his assistants are sorginas, and he has two sons: Mikelatz (or Mikelats, the perverse son) and Atarrabi (or Atagorri, the kind son), who are always facing each other, an early Christian representation of good and of evil (Bat-arra-bi is the version suggested by Jorge Oteiza, in The white book of the pre-Indo-European, to solve the sonema that is missing in the etymology that he proposes).
It lives in caves in different mountains, although its main dwelling is located in the cave located in the impressive eastern vertical wall of Amboto, just below the summit. In these caves he receives his faithful, who must observe a strict protocol:
- He must be tempted (talking him in hika).
- We have to get out of the cave the same way it got in.
- You never have to sit down, even receiving the invitation to do so, while talking to her.
Mari is the mistress of the earth and meteors. She has dominion over the forces of the weather and the interior of the earth. Among her missions is to punish lies, theft and pride. From her come the goods of the earth and the water from the springs.
With men she behaves in a tyrannical way, or quite the opposite, she manages to make them fall in love by showing herself as a docile and hard-working woman, but always with the aim of imparting justice through the rule of no: if you lie, denying that you have something that is yours, Mari takes it from you. Thus, effectively, you no longer have it, and justice occurs. She heralds storms and determines the weather. She is also known for her ability to fly. When she is in her Amboto's abode, the summit is in the clouds; this is the manifestation of her presence.
Although all these legends on which the tradition of Mari is based are post-Christian, Mari is more similar to Gaea, since she lives in the caves, and to all the goddesses of fertility and love, for the same reason, and because it provides fruits and gifts.
However, not all researchers agree with this identification. For the anthropologist Anuntzi Arana, Mari has more similarities with the supreme celestial gods Zeus or Jupiter, since, like them, she governs meteorological phenomena and imparts justice.
Legends
Mari drinks the life of men and makes them unhappy. In the Aragonese tradition Mari is, however, a beneficial being that helps humans.
The climate depending on which house you are in
Although her main residence is in Anboto, the peaks of Oiz and Aketegi (also known as the «Lady of Aketegi» or «Aketegiko Dama») are also of importance to her, along with others such as the Murumendi or the Txindoki. They say that every seven years she changes her home, and in that change she can be seen flying through the skies in a chariot of fire; depending on the summit you live in, this will be the weather, rainy or dry. Another characteristic of her is her long blonde hair and the custom of combing it in the sun with a golden comb at the entrance of her cave.
One of the most important legends is the one that tells us why Mari inhabits and is seen in all the Basque mountains. Mari is in charge of bringing good and bad weather from one place to another in the Basque Country, and it is said that when Mari is in Anboto it rains, when she is in There is a drought in Aloña and when it is in the Supelegor cave (Itxina massif in Gorbea, in Orozco) the crops are abundant.
The resemblance on the mountain
Her presence is even visible to those who observe the effect of the profile of the mountains, which resembles a lying lady: the lady's nose (the Alluitz), the mouth (the so-called devil's pass or bridge of the hell, Infernuko zubia) and the feet (the Amboto).
The compromise with the devil
Different legends tell of the origin of Mari; The best known says that in a family without descendants, the woman desired to have a child, despite the fact that at the age of twenty she had to take the devil, and in the end she became pregnant with a beautiful girl. Days before the girl turned twenty, her mother locked her in a glass box and watched her day and night, a futile effort, since the very day of her birthday the devil, breaking the box, took her with him to the top of Amboto, where he has lived since then.
Another of the legends about the origin of Mari, of which there are different versions, tells that a mother and a daughter lived together. One day the mother, angry, cursed the girl saying: "I hope the devil takes you." Saying this, the devil himself appeared and took her away, leaving her wandering through the mountains of the area forever.
In other versions of this legend, the mother's curse is different: "I hope you fly through the air for as many years as there are grains in a bushel of red beans".
Eguzkilore
Gaueko ("of the night"), the god of darkness, was said to eat shepherds and sheep, and was therefore feared. Fearing those who lived there, the humans asked Mari to help them. She blessed them with the light of her first daughter, Ilargi (the moon), but her light was insufficient and the humans again asked Mari for her help, this time for her. Goddess blessed them with her second daughter, Eguzki (the sun). But the night remained dangerous, and Mari blessed with her protection any dwelling that had an Eguzkilore ("sun flower", Carlina acanthifolia, flower similar to the thistle very abundant in the Basque Country) at the entrance. If an evil spirit tried to enter the house and found an Eguzkilore , she had to stop to count the numerous hairs or bracts of the inflorescence and the day would surprise her without having finished her task.
The bad woman
There is yet another legend of Ataun, with its corresponding variants, which refers to the origin of Mari in another way. According to this legend, there was a very bad woman, married to a good Christian and mother of five children, who lived in a farmhouse in Beasain (Guipúzcoa). Since she did not want the children to be baptized, the father put them in a car, tied the mother to it, and they headed towards the church in search of baptism for the little ones. But on the way the woman was engulfed in flames, burned the ties that tied her to the car, and, flying through the air, she shouted: "My children to heaven and now I to Muru." And she towards the Murumendi she went, where she has been since then. On occasions she has been seen near an existing chasm on that mountain, sitting in the sun, combing her long blonde hair with a golden comb. Legend of similar characteristics is known in Arano.
Related to the lords of Vizcaya
The “Lady” has often been associated with characters from the history of Vizcaya, creating a symbiosis between mythology and history, giving rise to legends with different versions:
One of the legends tells how Doña Urraca, daughter of the King of Navarre, married Pedro Ruiz, lord of the house of Muntsaratz de Abadiano. The eldest son, Ibon, was the one destined to be the heir of such a noble lineage and hated by his younger sister, Mariurrika. One day when they were on Mount Amboto, after eating, while her brother was sleeping, moved by hatred and envy, she threw her brother, with the help of a maid, from the vertical walls of the mountain. When she returned, she said that her brother had fallen off a cliff. Harassed by conscience, one night the ximelgorris or devilish geniuses appeared in Muntsaratz. Since then it has disappeared and it is said that it lives in the Amboto caves.
In the same vein, another legend says that when Urraca de Pedro Ruiz became a widow, one night he disappeared from the Muntsaratz tower, moving to live in the Amboto cave.
She is also linked to the first historical lord of the territory of Vizcaya, Diego López I de Haro, to whom she is supposed to have married. When they got married she made him promise that she would never cross herself inside the house, but one day he broke her promise and Mari immediately flew out of the house with her daughter. This legend is similar to the one that narrates another story, the curse of Melusina. Due to a curse placed on her by her mother, Melusina is forced to become a half-serpent on Saturday nights, which she hid from her husband until he discovered it, which caused her to fly away. she.
Historical existence
There is a documentary reference to Doña Urraca, the will she wrote on October 2, 1212, where she indicates that she is the daughter of the King of Navarre. She also points out that she married Pedro Ruiz in the year 1172. There is a suspicion that the document is false and that it was used for the benefit of the lords of Muntsaratz. There is no reference that the King of Navarre at that time had a daughter named Urraca or Mari Urraca.
In the outbreak of heresy that occurred in Durango at the beginning of the 15th century, known as "the one of the witches of Amboto", one of the defendants was the lady of Muntsaratz. This lady was popularly associated with Mari, Mari Urrique or Urraca.
Survival of Mari
The late Christianization that José Miguel de Barandiarán pointed out in his work The primitive man in the Basque Country, especially in those parts far from the Roman access roads, could be the cause of the survival of the primitive Basque religion until very late stages compared to the rest of Europe. Due to this, it would not be surprising if the archetype of the goddess Mari has survived to the present day, although in many cases she was demonized by the Church.
Etymology
There are two theories. One suggests that it is an adaptation of the Christian name of Mary. The other possibility, much more probable, associates the origin of the name with the Basque language itself. Within this second theory, two possibilities are considered: that the name comes from the elimination of the first vowel of a word (apheresis), possibly its origin being Amari (Ama + ari), that is, the job of being a mother, or else Emari (Eman + ari): don, gift; the second possibility associates the origin of the name with the Mairu (genies that inhabit the mountains and lovers of lamias) or Maidi (souls of the ancestors). In addition, it must be added that in certain areas it is called Maddi.
Amboto's home
Of the many dwellings that Mari has in the mountains of Euskal Herria, the main one is in Amboto. The so-called Mariurrika kobea or Mariren kobia is located at an altitude of 1,200 meters, just below the summit of this mountain. Its entrance is located in the impressive verticality of the east wall, which forms with the west of Azkilar the impressive channel of Artaungo sakona.
Location of the cave Mari on the east face of the Anboto.
Entrance of the cave.
Inside passage leading to the simas.
Rocky formation that forms the face Mari.
The cave has a large entrance, in height, that opens a corridor to a room illuminated by an opening into the abyss. This "window" is visible from below, while the entrance is hidden because it is located in a chamfer of the rock. At her side a trickle of water falls, drops in summer, from which you have to drink if you want the wish that you have asked of the goddess to come true. Another corridor leads from the illuminated room towards the interior of the mountain. On it there is a natural formation reminiscent of a woman's face in which some believe they see Mari. This corridor ends in a chasm 70 m deep. To the right, passing through a small opening, we access another smaller chasm.
To get to Mariurrika Kobea, you have to go up to the Aguindi pass, which is formed between the Amboto mountain range and the Fraile Atxa spur, and from there follow the small path to the east that leads us, under the summit, to the vertical wall where the cavity is located. When we reach the edge of it, a natural tunnel allows us to access the cliff.
Mariuena, Mari in Aragon
In Alto Aragón, Mari is known by the name Mariuena. In the Aragonese tradition the goddess is good.