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In Riders
to The Sea, Synge uses elemental objects as props and colors as cues in the play such as rope, sticks, black,
white, horses, and pigs.
Although these are simple things, Synge
may have had a deeper meaning in mind. Many of the Irish in his day still had at least a memory of old pagan customs such
as Samhain.
Samhain was the beginning of the Celtic
new year. Hogmanay was the Scottish new year.
The origin of Hogmanay
Synge would have been closer in time to the days of old customs, and he was familiar with
many Irish folk tales and customs on the Aran Islands. In learning Irish, he could have compared the sounds of words in English
and Irish and realized that with the merging of cultures, many of the words from the Celts, Norse, and Scots sounded
like false cognates.
Synge often uses a cultural reference and backs up its meaning by using a
word rich with cultural connotation. He does this most effectively in Riders to The Sea with the word Samhain
occurring in what was a particularly dark and sinister time of year. In English, the first syllable of Samhain looks
like Sam in English, but it sounded more like sow in Irish.
Maurya imentions it in her speech about great sleeping in the long nights after Samhain.
There is a possibility of a double meaning in the pronunciation of the name of Odin's
horse Sleipnir too.(Will she be sleeping with one eye open or with One-Eye Odin?)
Holiday Symbols gives a brief overview of Samhain, also known today
as Halloween and All Hallow's Eve:
"Samhain (pronounced sah-win) is an Irish word meaning summer's end... Samhain was
the Celtic NEW YEARS DAY, a time of transition between the old and new year, when the souls of those who had died during the
previous year gathered to travel to the land of the dead. Since Samhain was also a harvest festival, people made offerings
of fruit and vegetables to honor the dead" (Thompson, 429).
"...The Celtic Year began on November 1st with the festival of Samhain,
which means 'summer'...The festival ran from the beginning of October 31st to the end of November 1st, referred to in Irish
texts as the 'Three Nights of Samhain' - the Celts reckoned in nights rather than days" (Fleming, 40).
The Druids also counted time by nights rather than days.
Mythology tells us that the pig was sacred to Demeter who
was often portrayed as carrying or being escorted by that animal. The suggestion is made that Demeter and Persephone were
originally pigs.
The Mythic Image provides a discussion about this
conclusion "that then the animal which at first had been slain in the character of the god, comes to be viewed as a victim
offered to the god...in short, the god is sacrificed to himself on the ground that he is his own enemy" (Campbell 451,
465-467).
In Egyptian mythology, Horus transformed himself into a
black boar, and in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Seth in a whirlwind, turned himself into the form of a black pig
"that burned out the left eye (the lunar eye) of Horus" when he gazed upon it, something like looking at Medusa.
The eye of Horus is an important idea in mythology, since the one-eyed
appears in many mythologies. Although there seems to be a contradiction as
to which eye Horus lost, depending on the source, the main theme was his lost eye.
This brings up another question: which eye did Odin lose?
In English, there are some archaic expressions that sound like pig
but with unexpected meanings.
For instance, "pigsnye [From] Anglo-Saxon piga, a virgin. [Worcester]
A darling, a pet, a 'dear little eye', commonly used as an endearing form of address to a girl [Skeat] The Romans used oculus,
the eye, as a term of endearment, and perhaps piggesnie, in vulgar language...the eyes of a pig being remarkably small. [Tyrwhitt]
See bellibone, cowfyne, snoutfair" (Kacick, 142).
Considering the missing eye of Odin and the many words that sound
like sow, hog, and pig, it would be interesting to consider that English language, deriving many
of its words from Anglo-Saxon, evolved various meanings around features of what was once a popular and pervading
cult.
The origin
of words can be unknown and still play a role in how to understand a subject.
The Word
Museum explains that the archaic word pigsnye is "[From] Anglo-Saxon,
a virgin. [Worcester] A darling, a pet, a 'dear little eye', commonly used as an endearment form of
address to a girl. [Skeat] The Romans used oculus, the eye as a term of endearment, and perhaps piggesnie, in vulgar language...the eyes of a pig being remarkably small. [Tyrwhitt] SEE bellibone, cowfyne, snoutfair" (Kacirk,
142).
Bellibone, from the same book is "A woman excelling both in beauty and goodness. [Johnson] From French belle, beautiful, and bonne, good.
{Stormonth]..." (Kacirk, 26).
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