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buber.net > Basque > Folklore > Basque Mythology: Odei
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Basque Mythology: Odei


The following was translated from an article originally in Spanish at the Encyclopedia Auñamendi.

Odei is the name which is given at times to thunder; at others, the storm cloud or simply the agent of the thunder, the thunder clap. When it is heard to thunder, is said: Odeiak jo du «the thunder clap has sounded»; when it thunders strongly, Odei asarrea «the thunder clap is angry»; when dark clouds appear, Odeia dator «the thunder clap or the tormentous cloud comes»; Odei dago «it is stormy weather». In these or similar phrases, common in the rural vocabulary, the two main senses of the word odei appear: thunder and spirit of the storm or of the storm cloud. Juztulodai «thunder cloud» is another name that comes that follows this theme. In Guesalibar (Mondragón) they call Odeiaixe «wind of Odei or of the thunder clap» to an east wind that brings storms. My informant said that Odeiaixe can pass without dischargeing neither rain nor hail, provided that the north wind does not intercept it. But, if upon formation of the storm, the north wind brings its battery of clouds and causes them to run to the sides of Udalatx, the encounter of both winds causes a strong storm of rain or hail. This is more furious still, if the other third wind -- Naparraixe -- intervenes bursting from the side of Muru or the mountain that is toward Guesalibar. It tries to dominate Odei by means of magical procedures, or resorts to God so that the scourge of the terrible element does not arrive, we as indicate in AIDE- GAXTO.

-J. M. of B.

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