Tales and myths of ancient Egypt. Evolution of Consciousness in the Tale of Two Brothers The events of fairy tales do not reflect some kind of abstraction, but the current psychic reality of life... Analysis of fairy tales and myths is the way of contact with archetypal ideas. If we understand

What are the myths about the creation of the world?

Russian folk tales “How can I, the old man, not cry. How can I, old, not cry: I lost the golden book In the dark forest, I dropped the key to the church In the blue sea. The Lord God answers the old man: “Don’t cry, old man, don’t sigh, I’m weaving a new book with stars, Golden

Tales and myths of ancient Egypt. Evolution of Consciousness in the Tale of Two Brothers The events of fairy tales do not reflect some kind of abstraction, but the current psychic reality of life... Analysis of fairy tales and myths is a way of contacting archetypal ideas. If we understand

Tales Tales about Vasilisa the Beautiful, about the Gray Wolf and Ivan Tsarevich, about the Pike command were published in Harbin under the editorship of Vs. N. Ivanova. A small book that costs only ten fen and is thus very affordable. At Sun. N. Ivanova had a great idea for a long time about publishing in

Fascinating reading of myths and fairy tales is a pleasure not only for children, but also for adults. Moreover: their history, content, figurative structure, poetics are studied by serious scientists, in whose works the laws of the development of society, the emergence of religions, the rise and fall of civilizations are studied. Myths and fairy tales are an inexhaustible source of information that allows you to penetrate the secrets of the past and the future. Mythical and fabulous plots, complementing each other, make it possible to recreate a complete picture of the world and determine the place of a person in it.
What distinguishes myths from fairy tales and why these genres have not lost their relevance today?
myths- these are the most ancient legends, reflecting in the collective consciousness a generalized image of the surrounding world. In ancient mythological literature, a special epic genre developed, which made it possible, in the form of a figurative narrative, to create an integral system of mythical heroes, which, according to the ancients, determined the fate of a person and the development of historical events.
Our ancestors perceived myths as reality, personifying divine powers and endowing them with the features of earthly people. In myths, with special solemnity, the deeds of the gods and the exploits of the heroes, on which the lives of mere mortals depended, were described. Cataclysms of nature, wars, change of government - all significant events in myths found a simple and convincing explanation.
Myth-making was an integral part of the development of most ethnic cultures. This is evidenced by the well-known literary monuments "Odyssey", "Iliad", "Mahabharata", "Ramayana", "Edda".
Fairy tale also belong to the oldest types of collective folk art. Fairy tale fiction is a way to rethink the laws of human life and explain the order of things, which is determined by the will from above. Fragments of ethnic cult rites and pagan rituals are reflected in the tales of different peoples. They are associated with the magical transformations of heroes, the motif of witchcraft, death and resurrection, the miraculous power of amulets.
If myths convey general ideas about a person's place in a strict hierarchy of earthly and divine forces, then the world of fairy tales is as close as possible to ordinary life. In it you can find interesting details of life, family way of life, customs. Fairy-tale characters are taken and transferred to a fictional world from ordinary life.
Myths, unlike fairy tales, are inhabited by gods and heroes. The structure of the myth is built on the basis of the storyline, which can have multiple repetitions in other stories. The tale has a strictly defined composition. Stable shaping elements help to preserve it: triple repetitions, situations of testing heroes, an abundance of constant epithets.
The style of fairy tales is determined by ordinary colloquial speech with the inclusion of proverbs, sayings, riddles. The description of the life of gods and heroes requires solemnity and a special rhythmic organization of speech.

TheDifference.ru determined that the difference between a myth and a fairy tale is as follows:

Unlike fairy tales, which convey the idea of ​​our ancestors about the world around us at the everyday level, myths reflect a generalized image of reality as an ordered system of interaction of higher forces.
The content of fairy tales is perceived as fiction, myths were created as a nationwide interpretation of real events.
In a fairy tale, a person enters into a confrontation with the forces of evil in order to achieve what he wants, in a myth, the story is about gods and heroes who decide the fate of mere mortals.
The plots of individual myths are interconnected, but develop freely, without strict canons of narration. In fairy tales, a strictly defined composition with stable form-building elements is maintained.
The language of fairy tales is as close as possible to the folk language, myths are distinguished by a special solemnity of speech.

Myth– a multi-valued concept, interpreted in the range from "fiction" to "sacred" tradition, original revelation; a legend that conveys people's ideas about the world, a person's place in it, about the origin of all things, about gods and heroes; closed symbolic system; a certain idea of ​​the world, embodied in separate plots and images. It has the character of faith and conviction. It reflects the desire of a person to comprehend the patterns and meaning of being. The shape is like a fairy tale.

Myth - from the Greek. - legend, legend.

They folded not for entertainment, but to explain, comprehend what was happening in the world. At first, the myth was not just told, but performed.

Gradually, the myth was stratified into a fairy tale, religion and history. So the Trojan War was perceived as a historical event.

Myths are meaningful. Therefore, different assessments were given for the same act. So the myth of Oedipus could be presented either as a model of humility before fate, or a challenge to the gods. They are different from fairy tales.

Fairy tale – a narrative, usually folk-poetic work about fictitious persons and events, mainly with the participation of magical, fantastic forces.

In fairy tales, heroes are not gods, but people. Events repeat once, but in myths every day ( “Every day Ra sails along the heavenly Nile on the daytime boat of Mangeto”).

Legend- poetic legend about some historical event; fiction, something incredible.

Gradually, the word legend spread to other narratives of a religious nature. The content of such stories has always been very serious and instructive. Although it was allowed to joke.

In legends, as a rule, historical and geographical accuracy is preserved. The names of the heroes are not like the names of fairy-tale heroes.

Egoriy - Saint Egoriy

Sergey - Sergiy

Feats are performed with the name of God on their lips, the heroes are Orthodox. Legends were told by the same people as fairy tales. And because fairy tales and legends were constantly mixed.

THUS, myths and legends, fairy tales, completely different in their essence, in terms of the time of their occurrence, in terms of the role they played, are closely related.

The word mythology, if literally translated from Greek, means "a statement of tradition", and indeed, many believe that myths are ancient tales, entertaining stories about gods and heroes created in ancient times. But from the point of view of scientists, mythology is, first of all, an expression of a special form of social consciousness, a way of understanding the world around us.

Myths tried to explain everything: why it rains, how the world came into being, where people came from, why they get sick and die. The myth included the beginnings of religion.

The myths of the peoples of the world are very diverse. However, upon careful study of them, one can notice some similar features, themes, and motives. The most numerous group is myths about animals. Other groups are astral myths (stars, planets, sun). There are myths about the origin of man, about the end of the world, about the origin of cultural goods, calendar myths.

Mythological consciousness was a certain stage in the development of human knowledge. It can be argued that each nation has its own mythology. Of course, not every nation had such extensive and developed mythological systems as the ancient Greeks. But nevertheless, all peoples, including the Slavs, had their own myths.

The world religions that replaced tribal and national religions sought to supplant folk religious and mythological ideas. Myths are partly lost, partly assimilated by world religion, partly coexist with it, forming a level of superstition. Writing contributed to the preservation of myths. That is why we know more about Greek or Egyptian mythology than about Baltic or Slavic mythology.

Slavic mythological texts have not been preserved, firstly, because of the lack of writing of the Slavs in the pagan era, and secondly, because of the decisive struggle of the Christian church against Slavic paganism. The reconstruction of Slavic mythology is carried out on the basis of secondary written data, folklore and material sources.

Ancient literature

Ancient literature is the literature of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, originated several millennia ago. The earliest literature in Europe. Greek literature arose no earlier than the 8th century BC. It was preceded by a huge oral creativity of the Greek people.

Homer Iliad, Odyssey

Sophocles"Ajax the whipbearer", "Philocteus"

Euripides Andromache, Hecuba

Ovid"Metamorphoses", "Heroines"

Virgil"Aeneid"

The heyday of Greek literature - V century BC. In the future, especially when Greece became part of the Roman Empire, Greek literature loses its independence and purity, experiencing various foreign influences.

The first literary monuments in Rome date back to the 3rd century BC. The heyday is the 1st century BC. The story ends with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century BC.

Thus, ancient literature spans 1200 years, from the 8th century BC to the 5th century BC.

Greek literature attracted people with its heroics and lofty humanistic ideas.

Greek literature grew out of mythology.

Until the 8th century BC, the Greeks lived in a communal-tribal system. The whole world seemed like a huge family, in which there were families, children, etc.

The Greeks had a rich imagination. Everywhere they saw fantastic creatures. It was they who held the life of man in their hands. They were all demons or gods.

Sky full of gods Sun – Helios, moon – Selena, dawn – Eos, m ore – Poseidon,forest- God Pan,dungeon- God Hades and goddess Persephone meet and guard the dead. three-headed dog Cerberus guards the entrance to the realm of the dead.

A snow mountain rises above the whole world Olympus where, surrounded by immortal gods, lives Zeus, father and ruler of the universe.

Gera - wife of Zeus Hephaestus- the god of fire, the god of the blacksmith, Apollo- god of arts and sciences, Athena – Pallas- the daughter of Zeus, always ready for battle.

Hercules- the son of Zeus and Alclina - the Theban queen. Hera pursued him all his life, forcing him to serve the insignificant king Ephrisei. But Hercules, fulfilling his orders, at the same time served Greece and the people. He performed 12 major feats, not counting the minor ones.

Hercules kills the Nemean Lion.

“For a long time, the inhabitants of Nemea complained that it was impossible to graze cattle in the meadows near the forest, that you couldn’t walk or drive in the forest, and even in houses you couldn’t sleep peacefully: a huge lion lived in the middle of the Nemean forest, and every day either a sheep from the herd, or a child, then a peaceful traveler disappeared from the road without a trace.

Hercules destroys the Lernaean Hydra.

“Not far from Argos was the vast Lernaean swamp.

A clean and fresh spring flowed here from the earth, but a weak stream could not make its way to the river or to the sea and spread around in the lowlands. The water stagnated, overgrown with moss and swamp grasses, and the huge valley turned into a swamp. The bright greenery that always covered the swamp beckoned the weary traveler, but as soon as he stepped onto the green lawn, a nine-headed monster, the hydra, crawled out of the swamp with a hiss and retinue. She wrapped her snake tail around a man, dragged him into the swamp and devoured him.

Hercules rids the earth of the Erymanthian boar.

“People said that a wild boar lived in an oak grove on the mountain slopes, which descended from the mountains at night and devastated the fields. But his fangs and hooves were so terrible that no one dared to go into the forest and kill the evil predator.

Hercules frees Prometheus.

Prometheus- the son of Themis, the goddess of justice, and the titan Iapetus, from whom the male race began on earth.

“Once upon a time, in ancient times, there were few people on earth. They roamed like animals, chasing prey through the forests, ate raw meat, wild fruits and roots, covered themselves with animal skins and hid in caves and hollows of trees from bad weather. Their mind was like that of small children: they were helpless in organizing their lives and defenseless against predatory animals and formidable forces of nature.

Prometheus took pity on the people and wanted to help them.

"Prometheus went to the forge to Hephaestus, caught the sacred spark and hid it in an empty reed, which he held in his hands." People got fire. Zeus was angry. Prometheus was chained to a mountain.

“Centuries have passed. Much has changed on earth. But the torment of Prometheus did not stop. The sun burned his withered body, the icy wind showered him with prickly snow. Every day at the appointed hour, a huge eagle flew in, tore apart the body of a titan with its claws and pecked at his liver. And at night the wounds healed again.

But it was not for nothing that he bore the name “Prometheus”, which means “foreseeing”: he knew that the time would come and a great hero would appear among the people on earth, who would perform many feats in order to cleanse the earth of evil and free him.

In Athens, there were special festivities - "Prometheus". He was glorified as a god who brought people crafts, literacy, culture, or condemned as the cause of all the troubles and misfortunes that haunt the human race. Prometheus became a symbol of self-sacrifice, an example of a fighter for the good of people, for their right to think freely and live with dignity. The image of Prometheus is immortalized not only in literature, but also in music (Liszt, Beethoven, Scriabin).

Orpheus- the famous singer of Thrace (northern Greece). He had a wonderful gift, and his fame spread throughout the land of the Greeks.

For the songs fell in love with him and beauty Eurydice . But happiness was short-lived. Eurydice dies from a snake bite. The songs of Orpheus became sad, he did not want to live anymore and went to the kingdom of the dead. He persuaded the carrier Charon to take him into the boat with him. “The singer approached the throne of the gloomy lord and sang even more inspired: he sang about his love for Eurydice.

Without breathing, Persephone listened to the song, and tears rolled down from her beautiful eyes. Hades agreed to return Eurydice, but Orpheus needed not to look back all the way. Could not stand it, looked back. The shadow of Eurydice has disappeared.

Achilles- Son of Themis. Themis immersed the baby Achilles in the underground river of the kingdom of Hades, and held him by the heel; from this his body became invulnerable and hard as iron, but the water of the Styx did not touch the heels. Hence the expression "Achilles' heel", that is, a vulnerable spot. Achilles - the hero of the Trojan War - died from an arrow of Apollo shot in the heel.

In Greek mythology, we find wonderful stories about the battles of the ancient and new gods, as well as about the exploits of heroes who cleansed the earth from monsters generated by the earth.

The ancient gods TITANS, who personified the gloomy, elemental forces of the earth, entered into battles with the young, so-called Olympic gods, led by Zeus, who established the power of law and order in the world.

The enemies fought continuously for ten years, until Zeus called on the help of the giants of the Hundred Hands.

The titans were pacified and thrown into Tartarus, the deep bowels of the earth, enclosed by a copper wall, the darkness of the night and entwined with the roots of the earth.

Homeric epic

All stages of mythology are presented in the heroic songs of the Greeks, the so-called Homeric epic.

epic – a word about exploits (in Greek, “epos” is a word), songs that were performed by wandering singers. They were sung either by an aed, a songwriter, or a rhapsodist, a performer and collector.

Tradition considers the creator of the ancient Greek epic Homer, a blind wandering aed, a beggar singer. In antiquity, the "wise blind man" Homer enjoyed unquestioned authority as the best poet and "teacher" of Greece.

The time of creation refers to the VIII century. BC, recorded in the VI century. BC e.

The plots of the Iliad and the Odyssey are initially connected with a single mythological circle of legends about the Trojan War. The action of the Iliad is concentrated around the central theme of the poem, stated in the first lines of the poem: “Anger, goddess, sing to Achilles, the son of Peleus ...” First, anger is Achilles’ resentment against the leader of the Greeks Agamneno, who took away the beautiful concubine Briseis from the hero, an insult that prompts Achilles withdraw from the battle as punishment for the Greeks. This offense is nevertheless resolved when the hero accepts Briseis returned by Agamemnon and the pacifying gifts offered by the leader of the Greeks. However, by this time, the theme of anger takes on a new interpretation: the closest friend of Achilles Patroclus dies at the hands of the leader of the Trojans, Hector, and the main character returns to the battle, driven by the desire for revenge. This new "anger" can only be satisfied by the death of Hector, who perishes at the hands of Achilles.

The Iliad, which essentially describes several moments of the battle, gives a panorama of the course of the war, including foreshadowing its final end.

The technique of "inserted episodes" is used, describing numerous previous events, including those that lie outside the Trojan myth. The Trojan myth is essentially a story about the “last battle”, in which, by the will of the gods, a generation of heroes must die. The so-called "divine apparatus" largely organizes the action of the poem, and all events in the world of people are reflected in the divine world. Two heroic camps correspond to two "parties" of gods, respectively standing for the Greeks and for the Trojans. At the same time, in the divine confrontation, the main role is played by the motive of insult and the anger caused by it: Hera and Athena are offended by the choice made at one time by Paris. Poseidon - dishonor inflicted on him, etc. The position of the highest judges is occupied by Zeus. The principle of higher balance is embodied in the scene of weighing the lot of heroes before the duel between Hector and Achilles.

The Odyssey is related to the Iliad not only by a large number of characters. But also obvious parallels of the main themes and motives. If the action of the first poem develops under the sign of "the wrath of Achilles", then in the return home of Odysseus and his revenge on the suitors who sought marriage with his wife Penelope, there is also a motive for insulting the hero and restoring his own honor. Odyssey's desire to "reunite" with his wife contains not so much the idea of ​​unbreakable love as the desire to return to his homeland and acquire the former status of husband and king. It is no coincidence that the suitors are reproached in the poem not so much by the very fact of their harassment by Penelope, but by the fact that they do it in an unworthy way, not bringing gifts to the bride with them and, on the contrary, constantly destroying the good of Odysseus. Destroying the wealth of Odysseus, the suitors encroach on his royal dignity, a sign of which is also marriage to Penelope. As a result, the murder of suitors becomes a retribution for this assassination attempt and proof that Ithaca has regained its king. It is significant that for all the seemingly negative role of the suitors in the narrative, their death is interpreted as the extermination of the “best youth”: it is with these words that Achilles and Agamemnon meet their shadows in the underworld. So the theme of the death of heroes continues.

The world of the gods is mainly represented by Athena, acting as an assistant to the protagonist. The main opponent is Poseidon, whose anger is dictated by the insult inflicted on God: Odysseus blinded his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus. Zeus again appears as a kind of embodiment of the highest fair balance, but at the same time it is characteristic that this balance is achieved through some agreements between him and other deities.

So he partially satisfies the anger of Poseidon, allowing him to punish the feacs who helped Odysseus, and with his permission, Athena pacifies the strife between Odysseus and the relatives of the dead suitors.

In the future, the plots of the Iliad and the Odyssey were rethought by many writers, the whole set of ancient and medieval interpretations influenced their images in European literature.

In a presentation for children, the Iliad and the Odyssey allow young readers to get acquainted with the life of ancient Greece. The gods are varied and interesting, just like people. People are punished for what they have done. Every thing made by human hands is good and is a work of art. The shield of Achilles is described in detail, etc. A person not only fights and destroys, but strives to create something necessary and beautiful.

pagan myth

Not every people had such extensive and developed mythological systems as the ancient Greeks, but nevertheless, all peoples, including the Slavs, had their own myths.

The ancient Slavs had people whose functions included the preservation and transmission of "sacred" (that is, sacred, mythological) knowledge - blasphemers and button accordions.

Of the animals, the most revered was the bear. Other forest animals were surrounded by reverence: wolves, wild boars, hares, elks, lynxes. The image of a goat (goat) in Slavic mythology is noteworthy. This animal is strongly associated with the idea of ​​fertility and productivity. In one old Belarusian song it is sung:

Dze kaza khodzits, there is a life of birth,

Dze kaza with a boast, there is a bush,

Dze kaza naked, there zhita kappa,

Dze kaza to the horns, there is life to the haystacks.

The goat was an indispensable character in carol and oil rituals.

In the Russian villages, the goat was considered a devil-catcher.

No less than animals, the Slavs revered plants. They revered both individual trees that stood out for something (a large hollow, for example, or struck by a lightning strike), and entire groves. Of the trees, oak and birch were most revered, which can be explained by their prevalence and economic significance.

The attitude towards aspen was different. Aspen has long been considered a strangled tree.

According to one of the Christian apocrypha that circulated in Rus', Judas hanged himself on an aspen, and since then its leaf has been trembling. Witches also use aspen for their witchcraft spells: striking an aspen branch in the chest of a sleeping person, the witch inflicts an invisible wound on him and drinks blood. At the same time, aspen was considered a sure way to fight ghouls. To destroy a ghoul, you need to drive an aspen stake into his back or into his heart. Aspen also served as a magical means of protecting crops from evil forces.

Other plants were revered, especially cereals. The bread was clothed with holiness.

The universe of our ancestors, according to their legends, consisted of three tiers: the highest gods lived in the sky (Perun, Belbog, Khors, Svarog, etc.); the land was given to the spirits of nature (brownies, goblins, mermaids); evil demons (demons, devils) lived underground.

Myth cannot exist apart from ritual. Rite, holiday, carnival - all this is the revival of the myth, its transmission through magical action.

Holidays in Rus' were associated with certain traditions and mythological legends, which spoke of the struggle of heat with cold, spring with winter, sun with darkness.

So, for example, calling and feeding Frost was considered important. The more porridge was sacrificed, the better the harvest was expected.

Soil fertility was also affected by special spells - carols. At the same time, Kolyada (Ovsen, Tausen, Bausen) not only personifies the holiday, but is also directly connected with the winter revival of the sun.

Maslenitsa was one of the most noisy and cheerful holidays. It was the farewell to winter, the meeting of spring. Gluttony had ritual significance and was supposed to affect the harvest.

The holiday of Ivan Kupala was celebrated on July 7th. Kupala personified the highest flowering of nature. The rite is based on the cult of the sun, water and fire, associated with the myth of Yaril. Bathing in water, jumping over a fire, ritual orgies and mischief - all this had a cleansing value, reflecting the desire to preserve and increase the harvest. On the night of Ivan Kupala, all sorts of miracles happened: ferns bloomed, sorcerers turned into dogs, witches spoiled other people's livestock, etc.

Thus, myths, legends, traditions, tales are very instructive. They were addressed by writers of many countries, philosophers, teachers.

"THE MATTERS OF LONG PAST DAYS"

"What is more human- respect for generally accepted rules or disregard for them?- This question worried people in antiquity. One of the possible answers is given in the myth "Five centuries", which is stated by the Russian historian N.A. Kuhn based on the work of the ancient Greek poet Hesiod "Works and Days".

ON THE. kun

"Five Centuries"

Based on Hesiod's poem "Works and Days".

The immortal gods living on Olympus created the first human race happy; it was a golden age. God Kron ruled then in the sky. Like blessed gods, people lived in those days, knowing neither care, nor labor, nor sorrow. Nor did they know feeble old age; their legs and arms were always strong and strong.

Their painless and happy life was an eternal feast. Death, which came after a long life, was like a calm, quiet sleep.

They had everything in abundance during their lifetime. The land itself gave them rich fruits, and they did not have to spend labor on cultivating fields and gardens. Their flocks were numerous, and they grazed quietly on rich pastures. The people of the golden age lived serenely. The gods themselves came to consult them. But the golden age on earth ended, and none of the people of this generation remained. After death, people of the golden age became spirits, patrons of people of new generations. Shrouded in mist, they rush all over the earth, defending the truth and punishing evil. So Zeus rewarded them after their death.

The second human race and the second age were no longer as happy as the first. It was the silver age. The people of the Silver Age were not equal either in strength or intellect to the people of the Golden Age. For a hundred years they grew up foolish in the homes of their mothers, only when they grew up did they leave them. Their life was short in adulthood, and since they were unreasonable, they saw a lot of misfortune and grief in life. The son of Kron, Zeus, destroyed their kind on earth. He was angry with the people of the Silver Age because they did not obey the gods living on Olympus. Zeus settled them in the underground gloomy kingdom. There they live, knowing neither joys nor sorrows; they, too, are honored by the people.

Zeus created the third generation and the third age - the age of copper. It doesn't look like silver. From the shaft of a spear, Zeus created people - terrible and powerful. The people of the copper age loved pride and war, plentiful with groans. They did not know agriculture and did not eat the fruits of the earth, which give gardens and arable land. Zeus gave them enormous growth and indestructible strength. Indomitable, courageous was their heart and irresistible hands. Their weapons were forged from copper, their houses were made of copper, they worked with copper tools. They did not know even in those days of dark iron. The people of the copper age destroyed each other. They quickly descended into the gloomy realm of the terrible Hades. No matter how strong they were, yet the black death stole them, and they left the clear light of the sun.

As soon as this race descended into the kingdom of shadows, Zeus immediately created on earth the fourth century and a new human race, a nobler, more just, equal to the gods race of demigods - heroes. And they all died in evil wars and terrible bloody battles. Some died at the seven gates of Thebes, in the country of Cadmus, fighting for the legacy of Oedipus. Others fell near Troy, where they came for the beautifully curly Helen, sailing across the wide sea in ships. When all of them were kidnapped by death, Zeus the Thunderer settled them on the edge of the earth, away from living people. The heroes live on the islands of the blessed near the stormy waters of the Ocean, a happy, carefree life. There, the fertile land gives them fruits as sweet as honey three times a year.

The last, fifth century and the human race is iron. It continues to this day on earth. Night and day, without ceasing, sadness and exhausting work destroy people. The gods send people heavy worries. True, the gods and good are mixed with evil, but still there is more evil, it reigns everywhere. Children do not honor their parents; a friend is not faithful to a friend; the guest does not find hospitality; there is no love between brothers. People do not keep this oath, they do not appreciate the truth and kindness. Each other destroy the people of the city. Violence reigns everywhere. Only pride and strength are valued.

Goddesses Conscience and Justice left people. In their white clothes, they flew up to the high Olympus to the immortal gods, and only serious troubles remained for people, and they have no protection from evil.

&Questions and tasks

1 Find in the text the epithets that characterize each century as a whole, and the words that characterize the life of people in each century.

2 In the life of people in almost every age, which Hesiod spoke about, there were light and dark sides, joy and sorrow. Which of the centuries is estimated by Hesiod as the most cloudless, the happiest for the people living in it? Why?

3 In what centuries, created, according to the worldview of the ancient Greeks, by the gods of Olympus, did people have the opportunity to choose one or another line of behavior? What choice did they make? What were the consequences of this choice?

CHRISTIAN MYTH
IN LITERARY GENRES

Christian myth. Bible. The myth of the Divine Child. The basis of children's literature is the image of a child performing a miracle. Biblical stories in the works of writers.
The image of Christ in fiction.

The adoption of Christianity in Rus' is the most important stage in the spiritual history of the Eastern Slavs, as a result of which the former pagan beliefs give way to a new religion.

From historical sources it is known that Christianity penetrated into Rus' gradually, even before the official baptism of Kievan Rus by Vladimir.

And yet, baptism could not cross out the previous tradition of paganism. Christianity acquired its own specific features on Russian soil.

The population of Rus' adopted Christianity under pressure from the official authorities, but in the event of disasters, which were explained by the people as the wrath of the gods for disrespecting them, they returned to paganism.

But over time, faith in the old gods is forgotten. There is a displacement of pagan characters into the category of "devilry", impure forces.

Christian saints have become in the popular mind substitutes for pagan deities. Gradually, the life cycle of a Russian person became closely connected with the circle of Christian Orthodox holidays - milestones in the life of Christ, the life of the Virgin, prophets, apostles, the most important saints. Many signs, events, rituals were tied to these dates, internally regulating life, labor activity, and the agricultural cycle. Holidays determined the time of weddings, days of commemoration of the dead, days of fun and festivities.

In the ninth century, the Bible was translated into a language understandable to the inhabitants of ancient Rus'. It was translated by two monks and missionaries Cyril and Methodius. They made their translation of the Bible into Slavic using the Slavic alphabet they developed. This alphabet, called "Cyrillic" after one of the creators, marked the beginning of Russian writing. However, a lot of time passed before the Bible was translated into Russian (attempts have been made since the 16th century).

Finally, in 1876, the complete Russian Bible came out of print for the first time. The publication of the Russian Bible was an important event in the history of Russian Christianity and Russian culture. They knew the Bible very well, many of its images, sayings and teachings were familiar to everyone, so they easily entered into everyday life.

It contains the richest moral and spiritual experience that has developed over many centuries. Suffice it to recall the ten commandments, sealed first by Moses, and then in his own way, but in the same sense, sounded in the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus Christ and in his numerous parables - teachings.

Much of what in the Bible seemed implausible, mythological, fictional, fabulous, was confirmed as a result of archaeological, philological and other research.

The Bible as a religious and literary monument has been translated into 1800 languages ​​of the world. Its influence on the development of world artistic culture is great. Knowledge of the main biblical stories is necessary for every cultured person: without it, it is impossible to deeply comprehend the content of world-famous works.

And first of all, this applies to stories about the Divine child. The myth of the Divine Child was formed in ancient cultures along with the Myths of the Mother, the Father, the World Tree, the creation of the world, the lost paradise, the purification of the earth and sea, the theft of fire from the gods, and others no less significant. It is included in the system of mythological representations of different peoples, manifesting itself in fairy tales, beliefs, maternal poetry and children's play. The plots and motifs of children's folklore and children's literature are closely connected with the mythology of the Divine Child.

The central hero of children's literature is a child, while the child's "I" can be embodied both in the image of a direct child and in the images of a giant, dwarf, monster or animal. The main function of the central character of children's literature is to do the extraordinary, i.e. be a miracle. From ancient literatures, the image of a child is inseparable from the miracles that he performs.

The mythologeme of the Divine Child has a number of structure-forming motifs, and each of them is reflected in children's literature.

The birth of a Child is often preceded by misfortune - a married couple experiences their childlessness, like Samson's parents according to the Old Testament or the parents of the Virgin Mary - Joachim and Anna - according to the Protoevangelium of James.

The divine child is clearly raised above the rest of the characters, the scale of his image is increased. In the history of Moses, this increase is emphasized as physical: Josephus writes about Moses that even at the age of three he was surprisingly tall, so that when he passed, everyone involuntarily stopped to look at him.

Often the Divine Child has some physical difference that makes it beautiful or terrible. Such is the Old Testament story about the miraculous birth of the deliverer of the people of Israel - Samson. Samson was the son of the childless - Manoah and his wife. His birth was announced by an angel, who announced to the wife of Manoah, “that she will conceive and give birth to a son, and the razor will not touch him, because from the very womb this baby will be the Nazarene of God, and he will begin to save Israel from the hands of the Philistines, the main enemies in those days Jews. Manoah himself heard the same news from an angel rising in the flames of the altar. And indeed, a son was born to them and was named Samson. He grew up a strong man and a lover of life, his beauty was multiplied by beautiful hair. One day he fell asleep, and a woman treacherously cut off strands of his hair: then the strength left him, and he could not fight and protect his people from enemies - until the hair grew back.

The childhood of Jesus Christ is portrayed as the era of the first miraculous deeds. There are many miracles of healing: with one touch, little Jesus heals the foot of a young man, a woodcutter, cut with an ax. And there may be miracles of pranks, full of hidden meanings. On Saturday, when all work is prohibited according to Jewish law, baby Jesus molds sparrows by the stream from clay, and when the scribe Anna complained to Father Jacob and he went to stop Jesus’ studies, then by the will of Jesus, twelve sparrows flew away.

So, the basis of children's literature is the image of a child performing a miracle. The plots of children's literature largely consist of "good deeds", exploits, pranks and revelations of the child's soul. Poet O.E. Grigoriev created a comic portrait of a little intruder - a miracle worker, voluntarily or involuntarily likening it to a significant portrait of Jesus with sparrows:

Petrov waged war

With twos and ones

tore out the sheets,

Cleverly folded

And they flew out the window like birds.

According to ancient book traditions, childhood is the time allotted for people to feel respect for the divine essence of the child. A child amazes adults not only with miracles, but also with wisdom. The mind of a child is perceived as a miracle.

The ancient scribes emphasized that the boy Moses was "beautiful before God" and "taught all the Egyptian wisdom", "he was strong in words and deeds." The Gospel of Thomas tells how difficult it was for the teachers to teach the little Jesus to read and write: he understood the philosophy of letters more deeply than they did.

Respect for the wisdom and divinity of the child is associated not only with respect from adults, but also with their fear of them. In the twentieth century, this topic has become more relevant than ever. World-famous novels about children - cruel monsters, for example, "Lord of the Flies" by W. Golding, "Children of the Corn" by S. King, etc.

In ancient texts, as well as in new ones, the child-deity is depicted in a system of confrontations. The plots are based on conflicts: child and parents, child and power.

Along with the characters - children, as if hovering over ordinary mortals, "non-divine" children appear from the beginning. One parable in the Old Testament seems to be spirally folded as a lesson to little tomboys.

The prophet Elisha was walking along the road, mischievous guys surrounded him and let's mock his bald head: “Go, bald! Go, baldhead!" Elisha looked at his little pursuers and cursed them with the name of the god Yahweh. And then two she-bears jumped out of the forest and tore to pieces forty-two children.

Probably, people have long told terrible edifying tales. M.Yu. Lermontov created the image of the ridiculed prophet (the poem "The Prophet"), Sasha Cherny rethought the image of Elisha in one of his short stories for children. F.M. Dostoevsky included a story about the persecution of a beggar official by children in the novel The Brothers Karamazov. An echo of this plot in the tragedy of A.S. Pushkin "Boris Godunov", when the holy fool Mikolka asks Tsar Boris to kill the boys who offended him. VC. Zheleznyakov in the story "Scarecrow" painted a picture of the persecution of the "wonderful" Lena Bessoltseva and her grandfather by cruel children (he continued this theme in the work "Scarecrow-2").

The Old Testament story about the twins Esau and Jacob also tells about "non-divine" children. He recreates the everyday situation when there is no equality between equals. One of the twins, Esau, will grow up to be a skilled hunter, a man of the fields, and Jacob will be a meek "man of tents."

Such "duets" appear in well-known children's books (Mark Twain, A. Gaidar, L. Panteleev, N. Nosov, and others).

Mark Twain noted that the biblical texts not only constituted the reading circle of children, but played the role of real children's literature, because in them, in these texts, there are specific properties - freedom of fiction with full seriousness, "realness" of the purpose of the story. For this ancient literature puts the child at the center of the world, declaring him the main miracle of this world, the guarantee of his salvation.

If you choose one of the four New Testament gospels for children's reading or an adapted retelling, then most likely you should opt for the Gospel of Luke: it is most saturated with beautiful details, colored with fabulous fiction. The mystery of Christmas, especially beloved by children, is only there.

Man's attempts to create a picture of the universe were carried out in the form of myths. For a long time, the myth was considered a fantastic fiction, a fairy tale created by ignorant savages. But in this case, it remains incomprehensible why a person, in the conditions of a cruel "struggle for existence, would tell fairy tales to each other?

Through the efforts of a whole generation of researchers, the importance of myth for the development of culture has been revealed. What is a myth and how did it appear?

"Myth" is a "word", "tradition". By definition, N.A. Berdyaev, a myth is a desacralization / removal of holiness, mysticism, "secularization" / of secret, magical knowledge. This is essentially true, although it sounds somewhat one-sided. Myth is really a word that establishes a connection between the real world and the secret, sacred world. However, to say that myth only "secularizes" the sacred is to say half the truth. Bringing higher meanings into the world, the myth arranges it, harmonizes it, makes it manageable.

A whole epoch of the spiritual life of mankind, the formation and flourishing of ancient civilizations was the realm of myth, created by the imagination of man, this great gift of nature, creative energy. The imagination created the Iliad and the Ramayana, the Legends of Cosmic Thought and the Aeneid; it called the Parthenon and the majestic Egyptian pyramids to life; it also satisfied the aesthetic needs of people who were trying to unravel the mysteries of the universe and the relationship of man with life. Myth thus appears, according to the definition of the Russian philosopher, religious thinker A.F. Losev, as a magic word that reveals the secret essence of the world and allows you to simultaneously influence the world, subdue it. It is quite natural that an ancient man, looking at the cosmos surrounding him, observed a huge number of phenomena, to which he gave his names. In naming a separate object, a mental act of generalization was carried out. That is, any object outside of a person or a thing created by him served as a mirror of the mobile human spirit, as in Mandelstam: "On the glass of eternity has already laid // My breath, my warmth ...". It is enough to designate a thing in a cosmological perspective, so necessary in archaic models of the world, embracing the creation of the Universe itself, the Earth, the "primary" conditions for the life of plants, animals, the establishment of the principles of material / food, clothing, etc. / and spiritual life / moral law, a system of marriage rules and prohibitions: a scheme for organizing social life, the beginning of knowledge, etc. / and arises as a result of the consistent actions of some sacredly marked personality - God, the hero of divine nature, the first man or some kind of impersonal life-giving force. The meaning of this demiurgical activity is not only in creating the conditions for human life, but also in teaching a person the very principle of maintaining, developing and improving these conditions in relation to any external and internal changes in the situation. Bringing the person to. some boundary line, the divine character-creator, as it were, releases "" him, transferring his creative function to the person himself in the hope that he has learned the lessons of "creation" not only at the level of principles, but also concretely, practically, in relation to each phenomenon and the subject, which together form a chain of changing conditions of human existence.

So, for example, fire, flaring up! from - a lightning strike, lights glowing in the night and other phenomena of "fiery power" received the name "Hephaestus". A word was born, a myth about Hephaestus with all further consequences, since the mental act is directly connected with sensory perception, fiction, depicting the origin of fiery power, is generalized by life experience.

Looking at a ripening ear, at a stem breaking through the turf, at green grass or blooming fruit trees, an ancient man called all these growth phenomena in a generalized way - Demeter, that is, mother - Earth, the one that gives birth, grows, feeds. Hence the complex and entertaining biography of Demeter, grieving for her daughter, rejoicing in her appearance, which is accompanied either by the impoverishment of nature in dry times or in winter, or by a bountiful harvest in autumn.

In order to create a culture, a person had to acquire a certain gift, the ability to create something that is not enshrined in his specific program. Such an unexpected acquisition is expressed in the myth of Prometheus, who became the embodiment of courage and stamina, proud resistance to the old order, love for freedom and for people. Few of the mythical heroes have received such attention as Prometheus. For more than two and a half thousand years, he continues to live in the works of thinkers and poets. Of course, everyone interpreted this image in their own way and in accordance with their time. However, its main features, unchanged in any image, have become "the common property of mankind." Prometheus breathed hope into people and gave them a powerful weapon in their hands - fire from the sacred hearth on Olympus, which helped people survive. They ceased to depend on the weather, learned to melt metals, work, count and write. Prometheus brought a person out of a natural wild state, having taught him to think and act rationally, for which he was doomed to eternal torment.

What meaning can be drawn from this myth? First of all, it should be emphasized that culture is supranatural - it is a gift from above.

So, a person becomes a creator, and the creation of everything necessary for one's own existence and survival is an actually unfolding stage. A person not only sees and experiences it, but also, being inside this ethane, testifies to it by acting as a creator.

The idea preceded the thing, and the thing, having arisen, gave rise to ideas.

Myth and fairy tale ... At first glance, they are similar, but looking more closely, you can find differences, although both are fiction.

It is more expedient to start with the space, the artistic space in which important events take place. In myth it is the Universe, the macrocosm. Quite a life-like space: people live and act on Earth, the sky is higher, Olympus, etc. - the gods, and in the lower tier of the multi-stage structure of the world, under the Earth - the kingdom of the dead. The most important feature of the magical space, namely, a fairy tale, and not an everyday fairy tale, is compared with the glyph and its structure / fairy tales lies solely in the fact that it does not resemble the real one and, on the contrary, more or less clearly and persistently emphasizes its fundamental unreality. For example, the hero of a fairy tale must make his way through the forest, in which there is a forest house, a magical creature, the hut of Baba Yaga. The hero at the same time does not touch the branches that could scratch him. So, Marya, following Finist, must wear out 3 pairs / 6, 12 pairs / of iron shoes on her way, and we do not know © the state of her legs in this situation, we will not meet mentions of fatigue, thirst, etc. Fairy space creates no resistance; and the mythological is filled with all sorts of obstacles, which the material environment should provide. The same applies to the time of action - in a fairy tale it simply does not exist, it means real time, in which a person does not change, grows old. In myths, it is long: the gods live for centuries, millennia, although "twilight" comes for them; and mortal people go at the end of life to the afterlife.

The hero of the fairy tale also goes to the afterlife. However, if this happens in mythology, then there is no way out of the kingdom of Hades. For example, Orpheus could not bring Eurydice out of there. And in fact, no one has ever returned from there, at least the history of such cases will not remember. The fairy-tale character, passing into the sphere of action of other world forces and laws, there is everything "the very best": the firebird, the golden-maned horse, the sword-treasurer, Vasilisa the Beautiful, evidence of which are burials, mounds - the "other" world, where they sent equipping a person for a long time into an unknown life, he tries to do everything to return. He solves “difficult tasks” there, thus struggling with forces unknown to him: he steals, peeps, eavesdrops, contributes to the “bathing” of the local king in boiling water, etc. The fact is that fairy tales grew up on the basis of myths, and people wanted to live as long as the gods, and for this it is necessary to defeat death. And there is no question of moral guidelines - all means are good. After all, the purpose of the tale lies in the words: "And they lived happily ever after", gaining at the same time the firebird, the horse, the beauty maiden, and the royal throne. This is a significant difference between a fairy tale and a myth, although interest in both is equally great.

Studying long-vanished cultures, examining the monuments of folk art that have come down to us, scientists have noticed that all the peoples of the globe have stories about some fantastic characters and all sorts of miracles. But since these stories were considered fiction, artistic fantasy, they began to be called mythology, and each individual such story was called a myth, which in Greek means nothing more than a word.

It has now been reliably established that a mythological stage existed in the cultural development of every nation. After all, myths replaced literature and history, and also served as an example to the younger generation, and the imitation of a certain mythology gave a person a sense of unity with other people.

It was the myths that told about gods and other divine heroes that gave people patterns of behavior. Models that have stood the test of time have helped many peoples to survive, then turning into moral norms.

As early as the 19th century, philologists began to compare the myths that the peoples of different countries had and came to the unequivocal conclusion that their subject matter was not very diverse. For example, almost all peoples have mythical stories about the origin of the earth and sky, about cultural ancestors and about various cataclysms in nature. This could mean that people who belonged to different cultures thought about the world and about themselves in very similar ways, which in turn indicated common prerequisites for mutual understanding and communication.

General concepts of a fairy tale

Scholars interpret the story in different ways. Some of them characterize fairy tale fiction as out of touch with reality, while others are trying to understand how the attitude of storytellers to the reality that surrounds them is refracted in fairy-tale fantasy. The fairy tale has not only many interpretations, but also many definitions. So a number of scholars involved in folklore called each oral story a fairy tale. Others believed that the fairy tale contains an entertaining, but not devoid of fantasy fiction. But one thing, no doubt, a fairy tale is a wonderful work of art, since the treasures of the colloquial speech of the common people are embodied in fairy tales with unusual generosity.

In fairy tales there is boundless imagination and fiction, which inspires confidence in victory over evil forces. Fairy tales do not know irreparable misfortunes and troubles. They advise not to put up with evil, but to fight with it, condemn profit, self-interest and greed, teach goodness and justice. Fairy tales are filled with miracles, especially fairy tales.

Thus, fairy tales are oral artistic narratives of a prosaic nature with content that requires fantastic techniques when depicting reality.

fairy tale fantasy

The fantasy of fairy tales is created by the collective efforts of the people. In it, as in a mirror, his life is reflected. It is thanks to fairy tales that the centuries-old history of the people is revealed.

Fairy tale fantasy has a real basis, since any change in the life of the people necessarily leads to a change in the fantastic images present in a particular fairy tale. Fairy tale fiction, having arisen once, develops in connection with the existing ideas of the people and their concepts, then undergoing new processing, and changes over the centuries explain the features of this or that fiction, which is the basis of fairy tales.

Varieties of fairy tales

Fairy tales are about animals, fairy tales and short stories. Each such variety has not only its own characteristics, but also a number of very specific features that distinguish each variety of fairy tales from one another. These features have developed as a result of the creativity of the people, their artistic practice, which has been developing over several centuries.

The meaning of fairy tales

Fairy tales have never been unfounded fantasy. Reproduction in fairy tales of reality has always been combined with the thought of its authors. Therefore, even today, in the age of technological progress, people still need a fairy tale. After all, the human soul, as in ancient times, is open to charms and the more stunning technical discoveries, the stronger the human feelings that affirm people in the greatness of life and the infinity of its beauty.

Similarities Between Fairy Tale and Myth

So, what unites a fairy tale and a myth? Philologists, when comparing a fairy tale and a myth, came to the conclusion that both a fairy tale and a myth created by the people, both have some kind of plot with a fantastic bias and fictional characters. But that's probably where the similarity ends.

The difference between a fairy tale and a myth

Along with similarities, there are differences between a fairy tale and a myth, which are as follows:

1. The fairy tale is fiction, and the myth is reality. In other words, the myth animates everything and strives to find magic in every human practice.
2. A fairy tale tells about a story from the point of view of an individual person or personalities, but a myth deals with events of a global scale. For example, about the origin of the earth and sky, about cultural ancestors and about various cataclysms in nature.
3. A fairy tale teaches how to act in a given situation, and a myth tells about the structure of the whole world.
4. Only a fairy tale can be considered the art of the artistic word. The myth does not belong entirely to art, it is interesting only in the transfer of reality.
5. A fairy tale, unlike myths, can have authorship.