Danube under Margit Hid, Budapest


Everything runs into Emajõgi

Emajõgi (direct translation from Estonian: mother river), the pulsating vessel that runs through Tartu and distinguishes the North and East European landscape paradigms (in my opinion South Estonia belongs to the inland paradigm that covers the eastern part of the Baltic States, Poland, European Russia, Belarus, North Ukraine). The huge inner European rivers begin from South Estonia, Emajõgi on top, just like a monument. Rivers are earth`s blood vessels, carrying the same stream. It`s not just a romantic translation of reality, but it`s something that goes on in language and consciousness, in the cultural layer of landscape.

Emajõgi in German is Embach. There are several villages named like that around München and Innsbruck. Emajõgi in Latvian is Mètra, it`s direct translation is peppermint, Mentha Piperita in Latin. All roads lead to Rome and from Rome to Ancient Greece, so you can see how Mentha Piperita transforms into Mintha, the underworld goddesses, associated with underworld rivers, like Kokytos. If we leave this track and try another association Mètra - Mithra, we will face a specific Persian religion, the cult of Mithra. In Aquincum, on the shore of Danube, there used to be the temple of Mithra, built by Roman soldiers from eastern areas of the empire.

A holy place, set up by trees around an amphitheatre, which i rather see as a signifier of the Mètra cult

Does it mean that all associations, all the roads lead to Rome? It`s up to us to decide, if we want to give ourselves to the historical narrative and support the institutional set-up of reality, or if all these villages around München and Innsbruck are dedicated to Emajõgi and so is the Mithra (Mètra) temple in Aquincum? Rivers are older than culture. Emajõgi and Danube speak the same language and flow in the same direction, from west to east, though Danube has got more spacial influences, it can speak in different dialects. It starts from the Black Forest, in Central-Europe, it`s water is blue-green and the stones in it`s bottom are white, though near the delta it`s quite similar to Emajõgi in it`s delta. It`s like a mirror effect - to the North from Emajõgi delta, there is Varnja village on the shore of lake Peipus; to the South from Danube delta, there is Varna city on the shore of Black Sea. Emajõgi is still like a miniature monument of Danube, or on contrary - it`s the result of something that happened in Black Forest and that flew into Black Sea.