In the Early Modern period, the beginnings of a larger or smaller society were worshipped as sacred and concerned a certain supernatural sphere. This was the case in both Christian tradition (a description of the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis, symbolic scattering from under the Tower of Babel or bestowing Noe's sons with respective continents and areas of activity and in the Greek and Roman world (the Greek and Roman mythologies are a combination of miraculousness and fantasy with the real world, and the most valuable provenance of a state or nation dated back to the times of the Trojan war. In this way, myths, legends and beliefs developed.
The two cultural circles: the Greek and Roman Antiquity and the Christian tradition were an unparalleled treasury of motifs and associations. The states and nations of West Europe adopted this double tradition already in the Middle Ages. For Italians, it was much easier, but, apart from stories about Romulus and Remus founding the Eternal City, stories were also told about Aeneas fleeing from Troy. The French claimed to have an ancestor related to Priam the King of Troy. Ancestors of the inhabitants of Great Britain were supposed to derive from Aeneas's grandson Brutus. Also the citizens of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth wished to have a longer genealogy than was known. It had to meet the expectations of historiographers, who were representatives of the nobility.
The beginnings of a state, nation or family are positively valued. The golden age was believed to have existed at that time. The times of early origins are closely linked with recent past or contemporaneity – either by continuing past traditions in modern times or by contrast (holy ancestors vs fall of the modern people). In the mythical times are presented not only the origins but also the models and personifications of values important for a given society.
In the noble culture of the Commonwealth of the16th to 18th centuries, a number of mythical times can be identified: the formation of Kingdom of Poland, Grand Duchy of Lithuania and respective noble families. The events that took place back then grow to the rank of miraculous, extraordinary happenings. Everything is presented in terms of opposites: black – white, good – evil, so that no one has problems with taking the right stand.
The times of the early origins of a state or noble family are the best known period of a community that is passed down from generation to generation. In Early Modern writings, the period of formation of the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a time of complete safety, even though meanwhile wars (victorious, of course) were fought. The society was naturally subjected to their ruler – even though laws existed, there was harmony. Maciej Stryjkowski wrote about three classes – harmonious coexistence of peasantry, clergy and knighthood. Such division was additionally sanctioned by the fact that similar solutions had previously been used in Athens, Sparta and Rome. IT was when the respective classes started mixing that things went wrong.
Mythical times were a counterbalance to modern times – the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries – when the drawbacks of the noble society were noticed and broadly discussed. Jan Długosz emphasised that at the beginnings of the Kingdom of Poland, life was modest, without any luxuries or excess that slackens and renders effeminate the austere mind, there was no trade and men did not take foreign wives – unlike in modern times.
In the 16th century, the mythical times of the Kingdom of Poland were concretised. According to Bernard Wapowski, Lech arrived on the Polish lands in 550 and in many books of the nobility, history of the homeland was counted from that date. Human time was compared to divine time – the same as time was counted from the birth of Christ, the history of Poland was counted from the foundation of the state. Another type of religious comparison concerned using biblical motifs. The lands of Poland and Lithuania were presented as the promised land – God directed the founders of the respective states to the lands occupied by them. It is worth noting that the founders of the Polish state (Lech) and Lithuanian state (Palemon) were often said to have been expelled or forced to leave their own homeland. This is how biblical motifs were used – for example the motif of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Paradise.
Mythical times for heraldry experts, like Bartłomiej Paprocki, were the period of awarding noble privileges. Using these privileges by the nobility of the Early Modern period was presented as continuation of the tradition of ancestors. It was also emphasised that the same political system was used at the beginnings of the state. Joachim Pastorius in his Polish Florus claimed that during Lech's reign, the power could not be too proud as it would be a threat to the liberty of the society. At that time, the society had the right to oppose their ruler. Augustyn Kołudzki, too, transferred to the mythical times both vivente rege election and free election. In his vision, the nobility enjoyed freedom from the very dawn of the state. The purpose of transferring the tools of the contemporary political system back to the mythical times was to justify their use by their longevity, in consideration of the tradition.
Translation: Lingua Lab
