more comparative mythology
Another possible connection I've been wondering about recently is between witches (specifically evil stepmother, youth-sucking, child-eating types found in stories like Snow White, various Baba Yaga tales, or Hansel and Gretel) and certain varieties of eastern vampire such as the shtriga, which preys exclusively on children and is generally depicted as a hag. (And yes, the only reason I even know these exist in folklore is because of Supernatural. I'm suitably ashamed despite the surface research I've done on the topic since then.)
The reason I'm curious is because I've been reading Andreas Johns's Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale, and a few really weird omissions have caught my attention. One is the lack of mention of the similarity between Italian stregas and Baba Yaga, both when discussing the rather murky etymology of her name and all its variants, and when discussing the role of witches with similar functions. (And honest to God, he discusses North African fairy tales, but totally skips Greece and Italy. WTF?) Nor is there any comparison (that I remember right now) with the shtriga or strigoi from Hungary and southeastern Europe. But stregas, shtrigas, and strigoi all perform similar functions to Baba Yaga at her most terrifying, when acting as the eater of children (I don't know if stregas actually eat kids; I'm having a really hard time tracking down Italian folklore. Go figure.) The linguistic similarity seems to be there; certainly that connection is no weirder than any of the theories he addresses in the etymology section. And while I don't think that all of Baba Yaga's features are Indo-European (I favor the theory of native Siberian or Saami influence myself, particularly with regards to her chicken-legged or spindle-mounted hut), some of them are, or at least have been widely adopted and are instantly recognizable in fairy tales all over Europe, around the Mediterranean rim and into the Middle East. I wish I could make claims for Siberian folklore, but that's way harder to find than non-Roman Italian.
I also think that these child-eating female witches may have some influence from creatures like the lilitu demon in Mesopotamian mythology. She had some traits we would call vampiric, and preyed exclusively on children. The etymology isn't there, but I'm not sure it matters.
eta: Bird feet. I forgot to mention the link between 'bony-legged' Baba Yaga and the lilitu demon, who has feet like a bird. Weird coincidence.
The reason I'm curious is because I've been reading Andreas Johns's Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale, and a few really weird omissions have caught my attention. One is the lack of mention of the similarity between Italian stregas and Baba Yaga, both when discussing the rather murky etymology of her name and all its variants, and when discussing the role of witches with similar functions. (And honest to God, he discusses North African fairy tales, but totally skips Greece and Italy. WTF?) Nor is there any comparison (that I remember right now) with the shtriga or strigoi from Hungary and southeastern Europe. But stregas, shtrigas, and strigoi all perform similar functions to Baba Yaga at her most terrifying, when acting as the eater of children (I don't know if stregas actually eat kids; I'm having a really hard time tracking down Italian folklore. Go figure.) The linguistic similarity seems to be there; certainly that connection is no weirder than any of the theories he addresses in the etymology section. And while I don't think that all of Baba Yaga's features are Indo-European (I favor the theory of native Siberian or Saami influence myself, particularly with regards to her chicken-legged or spindle-mounted hut), some of them are, or at least have been widely adopted and are instantly recognizable in fairy tales all over Europe, around the Mediterranean rim and into the Middle East. I wish I could make claims for Siberian folklore, but that's way harder to find than non-Roman Italian.
I also think that these child-eating female witches may have some influence from creatures like the lilitu demon in Mesopotamian mythology. She had some traits we would call vampiric, and preyed exclusively on children. The etymology isn't there, but I'm not sure it matters.
eta: Bird feet. I forgot to mention the link between 'bony-legged' Baba Yaga and the lilitu demon, who has feet like a bird. Weird coincidence.