Abstract
The worldwide spread cosmogonic myth of the creation of the World from the primordial Waters is encountered in the Romanian folklore as well. When God decided to create the World, he sent Satan at the bottom of the sea to take soil from there and bring it to the surface. Satan succeeded in doing so on its third attempt, bringing some soil under his nails, and God made a little bread out of it and sat on it to get some rest. Satan, thinking that God felt asleep, wanted to drown God, but the closer he pushed God to the water, the bigger the ground became. That’s how the World came to be. A part that has remained unknown so far to the researchers would be the time and place of this legend within a ritual scenario, which can be identified in a variant version of the cosmogonic myth recited during the wedding ritual recorded in 1975 in a village located on Tutova Valley, in the southern part of Moldavia. The ritual text recited at the wedding marks the beginning of a new life for the recently formed family, and the unpublished variant presented in this paper contains very old ritual reminiscences, sign of a remarkable religious syncretism in this dynamic geographic and historical space from south-eastern Europe, where different cultural and religious movements intercross.
Keywords: cosmogonic myth, Creation of the World, wedding ritual, Romanian mythology.
Cuvinte-cheie: mit cosmogonic, Facerea Lumii, ritual de nuntă, mitologie românească.