Asena

Asena is the name of a female wolf in Turkic mythology. It is associated with a Göktürk ethnogenic myth "full of shamanic symbolism". [André Wink. "Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World". Brill Academic Publishers, 2002. ISBN 0391041738. Page 65.] The legend runs as follows. After a battle, only an injured young boy survives. A she-wolf with a sky-blue mane named Asena finds the injured child and nursed him back to health. He subsequently impregnates the wolf which then gives birth to ten half-wolf, half-human boys. Of these, Ashina becomes their leader and founder of the Ashina clan that ruled the Göktürks and other Turkic nomadic empires. [Findley, Carter Vaughin. "The Turks in World History". Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0195177266. Page 38.] [Roxburgh, D. J. (ed.) "Turks, A Journey of a Thousand Years". Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005. Page 20.] The legend has parallels with folktales of other Turkic peoples, for instance, the Uyghurs.

An alternate of the legend runs as follows: a Turkic village is attacked by Chinese soldiers and everyone is massacred, the commander takes pity on a small baby and only cuts his arms and legs, leaving the infant behind, as the army leaves, the general regrets his decision and returns to kill the baby, but by then the baby had been rescued by a she wolf with a blue mane named Asena. The she wolf nursed and mated with the baby and resulting in a half human, half wolf breed, predecessors to the Ashina clan of Gokturks.

The name of Asena figures prominently in modern Turkish nationalism. Asena inspired the name and has been used as a symbol of the Grey Wolves, the youth organization of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party. Asena was also utilized as an ultra-nationalistic symbol by the Turkish Resistance Organization.

See also

* Ashina (clan)
* Wusun
* Romulus and Remus, a similar legend concerning the foundation of Rome

References