Generic Porosity: Fables and Anecdotes

Generic Porosity: Fables and Anecdotes Thursday, August 3, 2023 I've started working my way through Iordanis Pampoukis' Mythoi tis Oinois tou Pontou (Athens: Myrtides, 1963). In it he publishes some 200 Pontic fables from the town of Oinoe, in the western part of the Pontos. It was a coastal city (still is, under the name Turkish name Unye) that lay between Kotyora/Ordu and Amisos/Samsun.  According to the website <a href="https://pontosworld.com/index.php/pontus/settlements/162-oinoy">Pontos World</a>, it was once the frequent target of raids by Laz pirates. Other relevant historical details from that site: In 1838 the city was completely destroyed by fire, and 1.500 Greek homes were burnt to the ground. In 1914 the city had a population of around 10,000, of whom 2,500 were Greeks, 1,000 were Armenians, and the remainder were Turks. The Greek community ran two mixed schools and a girls' school. The city had two parish churches: Saint Nicholas and  Holy Trinity Church. The Armenian residents were exterminated in 1915 while in 1916 Ottoman forces took 520 Greeks hostage and at the same time attacked armed Greek guerillas that had fortified themselves at the village of Keris. After the guerillas escaped, Ottoman forces killed the hostages and burnt their villages. In 1917 the Greeks of Oinoe were deported to the interior to places such as Tokat, Sivas, and Amasya, where the majority perished from hunger and cold. The few that survived were expelled to Greece. Back to the fables. Today I looked at the first nine stories in his collection, which he has categorized by subject, a method that medieval(?) or ancient(?) collectors also liked. He lists three fables about Thoughtlessness, one each for Misfortune, Ingratitude, Necessity, Changing Faith, and Husband, and finally one for the (odd) category Current Things that concerns a goat that aspires to be an imam.  A fable is a story with a moral, and Pampoukis writes that he identified them by their openers (not included in the actual texts in the book). In the introduction, he tells, Στην κατάτααξη πήρα βάση το αντικείμενο των μύθων, όπως μου το δήλωναν οι αφηγητές κάθε φορά με μια φράση: “Στά’ ας λέω σ’ έεναν αγνιάρι για τη γνώση!” (Στάσου να σου πω ένα παράξενο για τη γνώση!) “Ελ’ ας λέω σ’ έεναν αφιλοή για την παραδοπιστία!” (Έλα να σου πω μια κουβέντα για την παραδοπιστία!) “Στά’ ας λέω σ’ έναν παραμυθίτσα για τη φτωχεϊα!” (Στασου να σου πω ένα παραμυθακι για τη φώχεια!) (p. 8). As is true of other fables, like the Aesopic collection that Laura Gibbs studies, fables were a way of encoding folk wisdom. As David Daube wrote, and has been noted elsewhere, fables are a useful tool for the oppressed or embattled. They are vivid and easily remembered. They are simple, undemanding, and require little education to understand. But they allow someone to make her point clearly if indirectly would be more acceptable than a forthright objection. "Psychologically, the transfer to an imaginary world renders any hostility or criticism less personal."  But because fables are often funny, we find instances when they switch genres. Pampoukis himself noted at least three instances when one of his fables were also collected (by others) as anecdotes, the humorous stories that virtually always open with a tag to a particular known person. So "Geni-Kostis" collected from an unknown location by G. Tornikidou in Pontiaka Fylla tells essentially the same story of a Turk converting to Christianity but struggling to maintain the Lenten fast as Pampoukis #1, "When God Doesn't Want Something..." collected by P.V. Ypsilantis from Argyroupolis/Haldia is essentially the same story of a rich man who is continually thwarted in his attempts to benefit his destitute friend as Pampoukis #7, and "The Mavrenetsa Girl" collected by Pantelis Melanofrydes also from Argyroupolis/Haldia is essentially the same story of a foolish girl who weeps over her dead son who hasn't even been born yet as Pampoukis #6. Only now, presumably, they were told for the humor and their entertainment value, and attached to a person who was supposed to have existed rather than for their "wisdom" acted out by generic characters.     <div>  <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /> <div id="ftn1"> <a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title="">[1]</a> Gibbs, x. </div> </div>