„Похищението" на слънцето и месеца
"The ravishment" of the sun and the moon

Summary/Abstract: The article concerns the beliefs of ravishment of the luminaries (sun and moon) by a terrestrial antagonist (a smoke or a dragon, a wolf or a ghoul; an elf etc.) which are firmly preserved in the Bulgarian traditional culture at the end of 19th — the middle of 20th century. On the basis of this concrete example an attempt to reveal the semantics and the functions of the mythological theft is made. The direction of the analysis is from the mythological characters (provisionally called "object" and "subject" of my mythological theft) towards revealing of the notional content of the mythological action. In cosmogonical aspect the theft carries the idea of a creative change; of movement leading to a formation of a new condition. The constructive function of the mythological theft gives an opportunity for comparing it with the motif of the conception and the origination-the basis of the cosmogonical element of the myth "hierogamy/incest". The possibility the two main cosmogonical motives to be interpreted at the same time either as taking or as giving for the both acting sides provides an oppurtunity to define them as a form of exchange. The subject that ravishes "the source of life" is also this one due to whom the life is created. The semantic synonymity of the mythological characters and the constructive actions (copulation/ insemination-theft) is interpreted as a sign of combination of vertical and horizontal cosmic pattern connected with different economic mode of life and culture. In the article it is also paid attention to the ethic rationalization of the ravishment-theme that will be continued in the future researches on the ritual theft.

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