ИСТИНА

Pomaks are Slavic-speaking Muslims, descendants of Bulgarian Christians who converted to Islam during the Ottoman period, they live mainly it the Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. The paper is based on materials collected during fieldwork at Pomak villages in Greece (Xanthi region) by the Russian scientific ethnolinguistic expeditions (Elena Uzeneva and Ksenia Klimova, Institute for Slavic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences) in 2018, 2019, and 2023. The traditional lifestyle of the Pomaks in Greece remains largely intact, even in their daily lives. The folk mythology of the Xanthi Pomaks includes several key characters such as джинове ‘genies’, фърката змие ‘flying snake’ (‘dragon’), джадые ‘witches’. During the fieldwork, Balkan mythological characters were also documented, including юда ‘juda, a female mythological character’, мрава ‘mrava, a personified nightmare’, ступан ‘stopan, a demon-keeper’, караконджур ‘karakondzhur, a Christmas demon’, ламьо ‘lamja’, смок ‘smok, a big snake’ etc. Elements of Muslim culture are of great importance in the Pomak mythological believes: hodjas, Islamic religious leaders, are portrayed as antagonists of witches, and the Quran is considered a significant amulet for protection against demons. The term джин ‘genie’ is the most commonly used lexeme for mythological characters, encompassing both water and air demons and serving as a generic designation. The geographic location of the settlement also plays a significant role in Pomak mythology. Remote mountain villages tend to exhibit more archaic Slavic beliefs (e.g. smok, juda, mrava, lamjo) while villages situated in the valley to the east of Xanthi predominantly feature narratives about genies, influenced by Turkish (Islamic) traditions. In contrast, there appears to be minimal or no influence from the modern Greek mythological system on Pomak demonology. Some instances of comparing Pomak and Greek mythological characters seem to be the result of internal "translation" rather than linguistic and cultural interference. However, in southeastern villages like Simantra, there is a strong influence from the Turkish tradition, featuring mythological characters such as peri, which are typically uncharacteristic of Pomak folk demonology.