Algirdo Juliaus Greimo lietuvių mitologijos studija "Apie dievus ir žmones"

ENAlgirdas Julius Greimas, a world-renowned literary scientist and semio- tician, whose centenary is celebrated by UNESCO, is also one of the most insightful and sensitive Lithuanian mythology scholars. Although Lithuanian mythology, as Greimas himself admitted, was only interested in leisure time, prompted by his teacher Claude Lėvi-Strauss and colleague Georges Dumesil, eventually it became the greatest passion of his life. A great stimulus was also the idea of the famous Indo-Europeanist Emile Benveniste that all that has been done in linguistics and comparative mythology so far should be overestimated when Lithuanian mythology and linguistics are known. Among the most important incentives was the perception of the importance of mythology in the history of culture. Greimas’ childhood passed in Kupiškis, in the prosperous spiritual world of traditional culture. This left him an indelible impression for his whole life. A direct experience for a prospective researcher had an invaluable value, as he later testified, “this direct experience of the mythical world gives us a different look at our folklore and ethnographic sources.” The most important Lithuanian mythology studies by A. J. Greimas - “Of Gods and Men” and “In Search of National Memory” today are translated into English, French, Italian and other languages, won the Prize of the American Society of Lithuanian Community Culture Council. According to Greimas, mythology is a form of humanistic figurative thinking, it addresses the basic ideological and philosophical problems. It is a certain form of culture, its specific expression. Greimas’ Lithuanian mythology studies are not an endearing thing, in particular, it is a means of revealing the culture of a nation, especially its period, which is not reflected in any written sources.Greimas discusses the relationship of mythology and ideology, philosophy, culture, ethnology, religion, history and poetry in the book “About Gods and Men.” After comparing oral narratives and ritual texts consisting of descriptions of works and holidays, customs and beliefs, dances and games, he observes that this is not less meaningful mythical expression, which is manifested in gestures and behavior of the body, which can be analyzed using the same methods as linguistic texts. The book tries to discuss the mythical characters of different rank, to determine their hierarchy, sovereignty areas and functions. Greimas faced a very difficult task, since the oldest historical sources (mostly from the 16th and 17th centuries) were fragmented, often mistakenly captured, mixed, contradictory and unreliable, and ethnographic materials of later times, stored in Lithuanian archives, were only partially available. Here he could rely on semiotic methodology, language skills, good knowledge of Indo-European (especially Roman) mythology and genius intuition. Greimas manages to restore the various types of mythical characters - Kaukas, Aitva ras, Laima and many others, their functions and sovereignty areas - to reconstruct the already extinct winter, spring and autumn festivals and their rites. He managed to discuss individual deities in the context of the Indo-European mythology, and thus revealed the peculiarity of Lithuanian mythology. The works of the Greimas are relevant, stimulate further research and still waiting for due assessment.