Alpamys Batyr
Kazakh · mortal · Kazakh traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Alpamys Batyr is the Kazakh embodiment of one of the great pan-Turkic epics, sung from the Altai to the Oghuz lands in many forms. A hero of the Konyrat, he wins by feats of strength the beautiful Gulbarshyn, then rides against the tyrant Taishyk Khan, is betrayed, and is cast into a deep pit or dungeon where he languishes for years. Freed at last, he returns home in beggar's disguise to find his wife besieged by a usurper's suit, and reveals himself only by stringing the great bow that no other man can bend. The tale of the long-absent husband's homecoming links Alpamys to a heroic pattern of vast antiquity, and the epic remains a cornerstone of the Kazakh oral repertoire.
Domains
- heroism valor
- war battle
Powers
- survives long captivity and returns
Epithets
- Алпамыс батыр — Alpamys the HeroChadwick and Zhirmunsky, Oral Epics of Central Asia (1969). (secondary)
Sources
- Alpamys Batyr is the Kazakh hero of a pan-Turkic epic, a champion of the Konyrat who wins the maiden Gulbarshyn, is imprisoned by an enemy khan, and returns in disguise to restore his household.: Zhirmunsky, Skazanie ob Alpamyshe i bogatyrskaya skazka (1960). (secondary); Chadwick and Zhirmunsky, Oral Epics of Central Asia (1969). (secondary)