Bosniaks - snake people

According to Bosnian mythology the snake is the first being that God created, it appeared 40 years before the first man and animal were created. This mythological data is especially interesting from the aspect of perceiving numerous other beliefs and legends about the snake in BiH since it gives us a basis for understanding the entire concept of the snake cult phenomenon. We should especially note the connection of this cult with the tradition of our people whose Illyrian genes justify denomination of Bosniaks as snake people.

 

Among the multitude of beliefs a legend about a giant snake stands out, this snake encircles the entire globe, forming a belt around it, which when analysed geometrically depicts a circle which has a dot in the centre. In such a way we get the symbol of the sun which is inseparable from the snake cult. We shouldn't disregard the peculiarity  of this transcendental myth which directs us towards a mystical idea that a snake has a celestial form besides its earthly one.

Folk beliefs claim that the snake is as large as a mountain in its original form but thanks to its mystical powers it manages to appear in its miniature form in front of humans. It is, according to all aforesaid, a being of exceptional magical power and one of the greatest forces that exist in the universe. The cult of mountain peaks, which certain folklorists and ethnologists hypothesised to belong to the solar cult, can be directly connected with the snake cult through simple logic and folk descriptions of the snake as a gigantic appearance which is compared to that of a mountain. In such a manner we again confirm the hypothesis about the inseparable connection of the sun and the snake in folk beliefs.

Illyrian religion in Bosnia

Illyrian religion was based on totemism - belief in holly animals which represented with their divine significance and supernatural characteristics specific deities, its manifestation or even the spirit of nature. While it is definitely known that the supreme deity was a snake, the forefather of all Illyrians, for other mythological creatures we can presume that they are hiding in the form of individual animals which are most widespread in folk beliefs. But, surely the thing that can be concluded, by detailed research and analysis of certain segments of Bosnian mythology, is that all those animals which are represented in folk beliefs and magical practice belong to the cult of fertility, a very important part of the Illyrian religious tradition.  

According to that, even though a snake in Bosnian tradition and mythology it has superpowers compared to other animals, zviždenjak and frog are more widespread in folk religion, especially through various beliefs and rituals. In certain beliefs there are identical claims like the one in which a witch can transform into snake and frog, or that in the grave a dead man is being eaten by zviždenjak but also snake, etc. However, each individual animal has its own individual powers and characteristics which at the same time make them connected but also independent part of the cult of fertility.

While in Roman tradition we come across the cult of ancestors - protectors of the household, family and food (Penati, Lari, Mani) among the Illyrians that cult role is taken over by certain animals, such as a snake and a frog. Why did the Illyrians choose animal instead of spiritual  guardians is not hard to discern especially because of the fact that their religious structure in certain segments is pretty different from the Greco-Roman one. As we all know the Greeks and Romans were particularly prone to raising grandiose temples and statues nurturing in such a way the cult of man. Unlike them, the Illyrians aspired to a more intimate contact with nature and its forces which resulted in building temples, or better to say chapels, which were both architecturally and dimensionally very modest. Their sacral rituals were observed on tops of hills and mountains, near water, forest or some other ambient in the vicinity in order to subject their religious work to natural cycles.