Romanian Values and Myths
"Why Is There Enmity Between the Crow and the Hawk?"
THE myth
All the crow ever wanted was to maintain a family, but as soon as an infant crow was hatched, a hawk would swoop down and eat them. To do whatever it could to have a family, the crow approached a hawk and asked if it would like to be the godmother to its babies. Granting the position, the hawk felt it would be nice to be compassionate and build a friendship through this position. The crow asked for the new godmother to grant one wish - don't eat my babies, and the hawk had agreed. The hawk had asked what the babies looked like, and the crow had replied that her babies were beautiful.
The first two days after the agreement, the hawk had gone hungry, but on the third day, the hawk had spotted hideous bird and assured herself that they weren't the crows babies because the babies were supposed to be majestic. Knowing this, the hawk had eaten all the babies and left unsatisfied because the food was ugly and disgusting. Returning home, the crow had known her babies would be safe, but once she had arrived her nest, her babies were gone.
The next day, the crow had went to the hawk furious for breaking the promise. The hawk claimed that she didn't know because the babies she had eaten were ugly and not beautiful or majestic like the crow had described. She then said that the babies she had eaten were not satisfying either, which made the crow more mad. From then on, the hawk attacks the crow whenever they are seen together, and the crow despises the hawk for breaking a promise, and being full of rude remarks.
The Cultrue Behind the Myth
Romania's basic foundation is the Romanian Orthodox Church, also known as the Eastern Orthodox Church, which is an off branch of Christianity, just like Catholics, Protestants, Presbyterians, Methodists, and much more. This form of religion was destroyed when communism came in place around the time of WWII, but was brought back up in the 1990s, where even the Romanian government helped to build new cathedrals.
I personally interpreted this myth as a representation of a story from the bible, Judas Iscariot and Jesus. Jesus chose Judas Iscariot as his 12th disciple of 12 disciples, just like how the crow chose the hawk to looks over its baby. With the greed for money, and the confusion from hunger, Judas Iscariot turned in Jesus for several pounds of silver, exactly how the hawk had eaten the crow's infant. The lead up to Jesus's death exemplifies the myth perfectly.
The Values
1.Reliability (Promise-Keeping)
This trait is shown when the crow depends on the hawk to keep her family safe and alive. In the Bible, Jesus relies on all his disciples to spread the "Good News" and follow him in his journey.
2.Betrayal
Betrayal is shown like how I stated before, the hawk betrayed the crow while breaking the promise, and in the Bible, Judas Iscariot had turned Jesus in to the Roman soldiers to get crucified.
3.Compassion
Lastly, compassion is portrayed when the hawk agrees to help the crow out with a simple task. Comparing to this trait, the Bible talks about many times where Jesus is compassionate to everyone around him, but specifically, Jesus claims to the world that he loves everyone no matter what even when someone like Judas Iscariot leads him to his death.