At some point in history, the word "Khokhol" became a name-calling, and even applicable only to the inhabitants of Ukraine, although the famous Cossack forelock or oseledets is an important part of an ancient tradition that does not have a specific "registration", but existed almost everywhere. Wikipedia gives a version that: “In Kievan Rus such a forelock could mean belonging to a noble family. In particular, a Byzantine description of the appearance of Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich has been preserved, indicating that he wore an oseledian: "His head was completely naked, but a tuft of hair hung down on one side - a sign of the nobility of the family."
It also says that for the first time the word "crest" as a nickname for Little Russians was officially attested in writing in the "Trilingual lexicon" by Fyodor Polikarpovich Polikarpov-Orlov in 1704.
But the history of such a "forelock" goes back centuries. It’s even strange that historians do not pay attention to this seemingly strange hairstyle. It is highly symbolic and has many forms. For example, I noted for myself that this haircut is observed even in ancient Greek myths … But first things first.
Overview of options
In our century, a similar haircut has become fashionable again:
Promotional video:
And in general, guys like to "put a forelock", even without shaving their temples:
This is not some kind of innovation. Just an actualization of an old tradition, which was reintroduced into the trend by the famous TV series "Vikings", showing the world a chic style of men's hairstyles:
Now it is called “Scandinavian style”.
Earlier we saw this hairstyle in the movie "Avatar", which is simply stuffed with all kinds of folklore symbols:
And in "Avatar", although there is no direct explanation, it clearly emphasizes at what point in life a man changes his usual hairstyle to such a "Viking" one.
Let's see what else Wikipedia will give us on forelocks:
“A forelock is a lock of men's hair, a whisk. In Russian, this word can refer both to a part of the head of hair, and to a hairstyle that consists entirely of it. The Polish-Lithuanian gentry of the XVI-XVII centuries. a forelock of hair on a bobbed head was a manifestation of the Sarmatian fashion. For the Zaporozhye Cossacks, such a forelock was a kind of distinctive feature of a mature warrior, for young fighters (dzhurs) were not allowed to wear it. The Cossack forelock is also called: oseledets, chuprun, chuprina, crest, leverget. A similar hairstyle (aidar) was adopted from ancient times among the Polovtsians, Khazars, Pechenegs and other nomads of the Great Steppe."
“Aydar is a traditional male hairstyle of the nomadic peoples of the Great Eurasian Steppe (for example, Kazakhs): the hair on the head was cut off and only one large clump of hair was left in the form of a forelock, usually on the crown or back of the head. Often it was braided for convenience in a pigtail, but could not braid ….
… In the case of the Huns, the hair was cut only in the front, while the Bulgarians and Hungarians left a long bun of hair on the shaved head … The Avars also had a Hun hairstyle … Shaving or a haircut for the Bulgarians did not exclude the presence of a bun of long hair left on the crown of the head, which then remained for a long time not only in the hairstyle of the population of the lower Dnieper region, but also of the North Caucasus. According to Rubruk's notes, the “Tatars” of Deshty-Kipchak (Kipchaks, Polovtsy) also wore such a braid as among the Hungarians, Bulgarians, and Khazars.
In the Turkic (Kazakh) tradition, the kekil is distinguished from the aidar of adult (married) men, which is a fringe in the front worn by young people before marriage. When recruiting volunteers for dangerous raids, a young childless warrior with kekil was not taken, so that in case of death his family would not be cut short.
I note that the word "kekil" very much resembles our "crest" (well, and the cockle at the same time; compare also with "cock, coq, kokkr" - both "cock" and "penis", and in the Middle Ages they also called lively apprentices - this is also important, in the end you will understand why)
V. Dal writes the following about “Aydar”: “Aydar M. Cossack. ardar lower-mak. round Cossack haircut, under the top, under the forelock, round cut, not in brackets. Uncropped top, contrary to custom, in the bottom. lips. along the Volga"
Max Fasmer adds: “round Cossack haircut, Volga region. (Dahl); also ardar - the same, nizhegor. Most likely from Kazakh. aidar “an unshaven tuft of hair on a top; braid ". Kalmyks have altyn aidar "golden braid", which is worn by young devils in Kazakh fairy tales"
Something similar was the Chinese Bian-fa: “辮 髪 -“pigtails”- the traditional male hairstyle of the nomadic peoples of the Great Eurasian steppe, in the 19th century in the countries of the West and Russia, it was mistaken for a Chinese tradition. It was a forelock or a pigtail, which was braided at the back of the head, crown or temples. The hairstyle of the Manchus is known, who braided a braid of three bundles at the back of the head, exposing the forehead and temples. Their predecessors, the Khitan, wore the same hairstyle on the crown. Among the noble medieval Mongols (both men and women), hairstyles with two braids were widespread, which were braided over the temples behind the ears … The Chinese, who protested against the Manchu regime during the Taiping uprising in 1856-1864, wore long hair.
A similar hairstyle was also worn by the Greek "kurets", in connection with which Strabo tried to bring the etymology of this ethnonym to the Greek word "hairstyle". Euripides in "The Bacchae" wrote about the birth of Zeus, around which the kurets were jumping in a military dance:
Krita is a holy vale, Gloomy shelter of kuret, You are ripe the birth of Zeus
With a triple crest on the helmet …"
So, we see that there were dozens of variants of the same symbol - a highlighted strand of hair on the head worn by men (women also had their own version, but in this article I'm talking about men's fashion). Moreover, this is either a military tradition, or a pre-war one, as in the case of kekil. And in fact, this, in my opinion, does not matter, since it is connected not so much with military tradition as with age.
Natural interpretation
First, let's see two identical words in Dahl's explanatory dictionary:
“KHOHOL m. Khokholok, khokholochek, khokhlik, khokhlischa - forelock, a tuft of wool, hair, feathers on the head; whipped up hair over the forehead, crest hairstyle; clump of long hair on the crown of the head, maloros. donkey"
"KHOHOL m. Vologodsk. Khakhal - lover, friend"
To understand this, let us go to our smaller and larger brothers.
The brightest representatives of the fauna, wearing a similar "hairstyle" and included in folklore and heraldry, are Roosters, Horses, Lions. The first have a Crest, the second and third have a Mane. Words, as we understand it, are one-root.
Cockscomb is an indicator of male health. The larger and redder he is, the more masculine the male is. This was proven in an experiment with capons - castrated roosters, in which the scallop is very weakly developed.
Cock.
Capon.
Even their meat tastes different: capons have it tender. It's all about testosterone. No testes - little testosterone. Low testosterone - small scallop. That is, there is a biological analogue of the medieval aphorism "what is above, so below." And without the main male hormone, the man is no longer the same in his aspirations.
The same principle applies to the mane of horses. The health of the animal is determined by it and the tail.
And of course His Majesty the Lion! Here is an excerpt from Vicki: “The mane begins to develop in approximately six-month-old animals and becomes larger, thicker and fuller with age. The mane becomes fully developed by the age of three, reaching its maximum development and splendor in old lions…. The mane visually enlarges the lion in size, and also helps to intimidate other males and attract females. In prides, where two or three males compete, females prefer lions with the most luxuriant and darkest manes … The presence or absence of a mane, its color and size are associated with genetic prerequisites, sexual maturity, climate and testosterone production. Based on a study in Tanzania, it has been suggested that the length of the mane may be used to differentiate the strength of the male in duels with other lions. Individuals with a dark mane have a greater reproductive ability … The growth of the mane is directly related to the release of the hormone testosterone - for this reason, castrated lions either have only a small mane, or do not have it at all."
That, in fact, is all you need to know to understand fashion and human hairstyles a la "mane" or "comb", or just a protruding or long forelock.
This is an indicator of puberty, the ability to make children and the emerging "masculine" character.
Decorative types of Ukrainians
What else would I like to say. Do you think there were no "forelocks" in antiquity? There were! Take a look at the classic antique helmet with the Sultan at the top:
And this is how the Greeks portrayed him:
It was often decorated with horsehair:
“… And he captured the shield, both huge and strong;
A helmet on a mighty head, brightly shining, pulled
With a horse mane; a terrible crest worried over him …"
(Homer. Iliad. 3: 335-337)
And it seems to me that the American Indians, using eagle feathers in their headdresses, proceed from the same tradition of “forelocks”.
And here is another interesting antique image of a warrior:
AND! What is it? !!! Just tell me after this that a Chub or a Comb is not a symbol, but "just decoration." No, that's a sign! In the next image, exactly the same, but no longer belonging to a human figure:
Returning to the comparison with roosters, it is worth remembering that in the Slavic tradition a rooster is, first of all, a protector. A little boy is not able to protect his family, but as he grows up, he gains strength and courage, thanks to the testosterone gushing in him. That is why the image of puberty and a warrior merged together in this crest. After all, the youth went to war, as well as to any adventure in general, where nature itself pushes them.
Deeper into myth
And here's another thing that this whole story reminded me of. Among the archetypes, Zeus is a son-turned-father. According to Greek myths, Zeus had many children and love affairs. But one child was born not from a relationship with a woman, but simply from within God the Father. Moreover, apparently, this was the first child of Zeus in general, born even before his love affairs.
Of course, we are talking about Athena, who, attention! - WENT OUT OF THE HEAD OF ZEUS in full combat gear.
Athena comes out of Zeus's head.
From the Head, Karl, from the HEAD !!!
Therefore, carefully look again at the penultimate image above, where something comes out of the head of a person and a "creature" (just ts-sss, don't tell anyone, but actually this is the ornament of the Great Goddess, whom Rybakov called "a woman in labor", others call Makosh, but I'll tell you about this some other time).
Many images have combined in Athena, but here I want to highlight some of her most important roles: she is the goddess of wisdom and crafts, above all. That is, this is what makes a skillful person out of a simple ignoramus. By the way, the Greek word "σοφίᾱ", which is translated to us as "wisdom", actually means more precisely skill, skill, possession of knowledge. It is through this that everyday and life wisdom is achieved. This is what distinguishes the boy from the man, and it is precisely by finding "Athena" that Zeus became not just Cronidus - the son of Cronus, but God the Father.
In this regard, I can offer a non-standard etymology "Athens (Ἀθηνᾶ)" (who would have forbidden it, because so far no one has really deciphered her name): on the one hand, it sees the word "Father", which does not mean specifically "the main a man in the house”, but more refers to the image of generational change in the family, the transmission of traditions (seen from Sanskrit, where Atta-Tata is both Father, Mother, and Son).
On the other hand, it is worth remembering that Athena is almost always depicted in an Attic (or Corinthian) helmet with a high crest. Over time, this decoration has become what is called the French word "plumage" (plumage - "plumage"), which is used not only to decorate ladies' hats, but also military hats (in fact, the same Indian feathers):
In Old English, the word "Fine" meant "decorated, ostentatious, prominent." In Latin, "penna" is "feather, wing", from which the current "pen" - "feather" (writing, now a ballpoint pen), and "fin" - fin (fish "comb", the name of the forelock "sedentary ", That is," herring ").
The similarity of this root with "Athena" seemed to me quite interesting in the context of this topic.
Athena is the patroness of heroism, health, skills, reason … - qualities that a young man should have, matured (key word) to create a family and benefit his fatherland. Such "ripeness" (biological and social - the same "to conceive a child, build a house, plant a tree" - the last Athena does in a dispute with Poseidon over the city of Athens) and was expressed in the symbol of a horse's mane, a bird's feather that emerges from the head in the form of a forelock or aidar of a still recent "youth" (again, Athena is a virgin, not yet touched, which symbolizes a quite definite transitional age), and now a "husband". The symbol known throughout the Great Steppe, from China to the Mediterranean, called by cartographers the word "Tartary" …
Author: peremyshlin