Personalization of an Individual and Gender Aspects in Ossetian Folklore

Abstract

Women in folklore are often associated with traditions and their observance. Some people think that this is because women have less power. In Caucasian folklore, in the Ossetian Nart Saga, a woman plays a traditional role. In addition, in the Nart Saga we meet a different model of personalization of a woman. An important hero of the Ossetian folklore, the Nart Saga, is Satana, a woman who issimultaneously a symbol of female beauty, eternal youth, wisdom and prudence. Satana is the syncretic face of a woman and it combines the models of a woman, mother, lover, elder, beauty, enchantress and virgin.