ACROSS THE RED-GREEN SEA

According to Rene Girard myths narrate the founding murder, which resolves the mimetic crisis. As a consequence, myths contain motifs symbolizing both the mimetic crisis and the founding murder. In Slovene folklore the mimetic crisis is often rendered by the image of the sea, particularly the red and/or green sea, as an undifferentiated, formless entity, or a principle of a state before the emergence of social structure or of a state during and after its downfall. This paper compares representations of the sea in Slovene folk songs and tales and in some Slovene poets and painters.