Cossack Mamay, also known as Cossack Banduryst is a Ukrainian folkloric hero, and stories about the Cossack have become the stuff of legend. As is common, the Banduryst Box contains an image of the Cossack playing kobza, also known as bandura, a lute-like musical instrument that is a symbol of the Ukrainian soul. In the minds of Ukrainians, the Cossack personifies the people’s will to resist subjugation and fight against enslavers. The image of a Cossack in folk paintings at a time when the
Zaporizhzhya army no longer exists is perceived as a kind of monument to the heroic past of the Ukrainian people. Cossack Mamay was painted on canvases and on the walls of houses, on doors and shutters, on tiles and chests, and similar "Mamaevs" could be found in almost every home in Ukraine.
