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Lina Belyarova. Abkhazia in legends
Abkhazian legend of how God divided up lands among nations
Ethnogenetic legends
Myth of the Atsan dwarfs
Legend about how Noah built the ark to save mankind from the flood
The Abkhazian Nart epic family
About the Apswara and religion
Legend of Satanay Gwasha’s spindle
Legend about Gunda the Beautiful
How Sasryqwa the Nart hero captured earth’s fire for the Narts
Legend of how the Narts acquired fruits
Legends of drinks of the Nart heroes
Winemaking traditions in Abkhazia
Legend of Anana Gunda
Abryskil, the Prometheus of Abkhazia
The legend of the birth of Abryskil
Why Abryskil chopped grapevines
About mythical Colchis
The myth of the Golden Fleece
The background of the Greek legend
A sacred tree on which the Golden Fleece was hung
Hecate’s magic herb garden in Colchis
Prometheus’s flower plant
Colchicum – Medea’s magic potion
About inebriating rhododendron honey
Dioscurias – the Atlantis of the Black Sea
Abkhazian legend about a Sea spirit
Legends about the Great Wall of Abkhazia
Legend about Lake Ritsa
Legend about Abaata Fortress
Legend about Pitsunda
Legend about Gudauta
Legend about hospitality
Legend about good neighbourliness
Legend of the children of the Land of Apsny
Legend of the origin of the Akhymaa
Legend of the Acharpyn reed pipe
Source Index
About the author
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Abkhazia is a land of ancient civilisations, ecological tourism, and intensive subtropical agriculture. The Abkhazians (also called the Abkhaz) refer to their homeland as “Apsny”, meaning according to folk-etymology the “land of the soul”. It is a beautiful and hospitable land. Abkhazia is also the land of myths and legends.
One of the most popular legends goes as follows: “God called on nations from all over the world and began to share out forests, valleys, and meadows among them. An Abkhaz (a messenger from the Abkhazian folk) appeared before God later than the others did that day. God told the Abkhaz that He had already assigned everything except for seas and wildernesses and decided to find out the cause of the Abkhaz’s delay. The Abkhaz replied that he couldn’t come, for he had been entertaining a guest that day and added that a guest was always sacred to his folk. God favoured the hospitable Abkhaz and gifted him a paradise-like land that He had been keeping for himself. God willed that that land of joy to be called Abkhazia in honour of the Abkhaz and that the people of Abkhazia should live and labour on that land”
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One of the Nart epic tales describes the campaign of the Narts to the land of the Blackamoors. Later, the Narts returned to their ancestral land together with them. A smaller number of those Blackamoors have remained in Abkhazia.
Abkhazians have preserved to the present day legends dealing also with their origins in Asia Minor or Egypt.
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