The work investigates the zoological mythology of early agricultural and pastoral societies, focusing primarily on the central figures of the cow and the bull in ancient texts and folklore. The author demonstrates how atmospheric and celestial phenomena—such as the luminous vault of the sky, gathering storm clouds, morning and evening twilights, and the changing phases of the moon—were originally perceived as divine bovines by ancient poets and pastoralists.
Building upon the testimonies of the Rigveda, the text connects these primordial pastoral deities with the epic narratives of the Aryan world. The beneficent powers of nature, the life-giving rains, and the radiant dawn are consistently represented as nourishing cows, while the sun, the wind, and the thundering storm are portrayed as powerful bulls. These celestial archetypes engage in cosmic battles against monsters of darkness and drought, reflecting the eternal struggle between light and shadow.
The inquiry then broadens to examine the domestic and legal codification of bovine worship in India, tracing the evolution of ritual sacrifices from horses down to vegetable products. The narrative follows these motifs as they migrate westward through Iranian Avestan texts, Turanian Siberian legends, and ultimately into the rich vernacular folklore of Slavonic Europe.
Throughout these diverse cultural transmissions, recurring structural patterns emerge. The archetype of the three brothers—where the youngest is invariably the most astute and fortunate—appears alongside the motifs of the hero exposed during infancy, the quest for the lost bride, and the trials of endurance and riddles.
The volume illustrates how these elementary natural observations progressively detached themselves from mere meteorological allegory to generate an immense corpus of popular fairy tales, hero epics, and religious superstitions, preserving ancient cosmological truths beneath layers of domestic folk tradition.
