Asena a Turkish Myth

Asena a Turkish Myth Just like the Roman myth of Romulus and Remus, the twin brothers who were raised by a she-wolf that built Rome; the world of Turkish mythology present a similar case of their origin. Therefore, not only Rome presents a creation through wolf but also Turkish nation does though there are some other myths surrounding the Turkish nation.

According to the myth there was a massive battle that happened to kill all Turks but only one was spared, a small boy who hid in a marsh for safety. Having been left alone after the death of his entire kinfolk a female wolf finds him. The she-wolf took the boy to her lair and he is raised along side cubs of the she-wolf.

After sometime, when the boy had grown up to become a full grown man they engaged into sex with the she-wolf and as a result ten sons were given birth. Among the sons was Asena, who became a great leader within the Turks of Turkistan, and had an emblem of a wolf's head which he used. Since myths and legends will always have different versions, Asena story as well has its other version.

According to the other version, a Turkic village came under attack by Chinese solders who went ahead to kill all the people, however the commander of the army had pity on a boy and instead of ending his life he just cut off his arms and legs and left him behind. After the army started to make their way back after finishing their duty the commander suddenly regretted the decision he made of sparing the life of that boy, and made his way back to completely kill the boy.

However, when he reached there he found that the boy had already been rescued by a she-wolf with a blue mane, with the name Asena. This wolf takes care of the boy until he is grown up person then went a head to mate with him. Their children were an entirely breed of half-human and half-wolf, and they turns out to be the predecessors to the Ashina clan of Gokturks.

Generally the ancient peoples believes that the wolf possessed spiritual powers, and that some parts of its body retained specific powers that could be used for different needs by the people (Turks). Moreover, in the modern Turkish nationalism the name Asena figures prominently. Asena have tended to inspire the names and have been used as a symbol of the Grey Wolves, the youth organization of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party. In another area the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party utilized the name Asena as an ultra-nationalistic symbol.

As Turkish political groups known as Grey wolf ("Bozkurtla" in Turkish) and Idealist Youth ("Genclik" in Turkish) it has formed ultra-nationalistic neofascist youth organization. Such organization has been named after Asena who is the she-wolf in the mythodology associated with the Turkic ethnic origins. The baseline of this Turkic myth is to explain the way the Turkic people were created. The grey wolf 'Bozkurt' has been the main totem of ancient Turkish tribes and was once the national symbol from Hun to Ottoman Empire.

Prior to the adoption of Islam by the Turks, a head of a grey wolf was used when putting tips of flag poles, though was replaced later by crescent.