『삼국유사』 <신라시조 혁거세왕> 기사‘五陵’ 신화의 ‘地上的’ 의미

Samguk Yusa(The Tales of Three Kingdoms) tells us the story of the tomb of HyukKeoSe, the founder of Silla Dynasty; he died and ascended to heaven but the royal remains were divided into five parts and descended to earth. A large snake appeared and prevented the people from burying them in the same tomb and that is why we have 5 Tombs in Gyeongju. The story is too unusual to understand. So comparing the myth of Egyptian Osiris whose body was cut into 14 parts by his brother Set, some scholars insist that it is a similar myth implying fecundity through death and rebirth. In fact, Five Tombs are not the royal tombs of HyukKeoSe.
I compared it to Jumong’s ascending to heaven in Koguryo birth-myth and came up with an idea that separatedly buried five parts of HyukKeoSe’s body are meant to emphasize the land-based governing principle of Silla. The large snake represents the counteraction on the ideology of a nation trying to unify all countries.
While the early kings of Koguryo showed us their mythical power, the kings buried in the Five Tombs were actually not mythic heroes. They showed the pity for the poor and tried to find the sages, wanted common assent of all the members of the tribe headmen at the meetings.
There are also Aryoung’s tomb, also popularly known as Snake Tomb, in Five Tombs. Aryoung, HyukKeoSe’s wife, was born from under left side ribs of a chicken featured dragon, which seemed to be a similar character to the large snake appearing at the end of HyukKeoSe Myth.
Historians say that Five Tombs were constructed in the fourth century, not at the time of the death of HyukKeoSe. So we can understand as follows; there was Aryoung’s tribe at the site of O-Reung at first, whose totem was a snake, but the tribe of HyukKeoSe from the North came and tried to unify the Saro Province as a whole, Around the fourth century, the tribe of Aryoung took the leadership on the basis of the regional characteristics of Silla, the Southern part of the Peninsular. The myth of falling parted-body of HyukKeoSe seems to a symbolization of the political situation of early Silla.