Mitiniai vaizdiniai Donelaičio "Metuose": pirmosios dvylika eilučių
ENAt least three prominent Lithuanian folklorists have noted rich reflections of folklore in the poem Metai and other works of the literary classic Donelaitis: Zenonas Slaviūnas, Ambraziejus Jonynas and Stasys Skrodenis. Nevertheless, not everything has been noticed. In this article, in view of the mythological world-view, the first twelve lines of Metai are studied, and at least five examples of traditional mythological imagery are encountered: 1) the sun as “awakener”; 2) analogy of the phases of the seasons, hours of the day and a person’s life (and death); 3) the trope of the laughing sun or the sun’s laughter; 4) snow and foam as the juxtaposition and opposition of winter and summer; 5) “riddle” about some sort of animal living in the lake, which can be solved with the help of the traditional Baltic legend about a swallow spending the winter in a lake. As can be seen, there is more traditional mythical imagery in Donelaitis’ Metai than was commonly believed; to be honest, they practically make up the whole poem.
