Russian mythology is a collection of myths. ideas of the Great Russians, dating back to the ancient Slavic paganism. To speak about any specificity of M. r. in the population of Penza. edge is not possible, because Rus. the inhabitants came here already being Christianized. One can only state certain vestiges of M. p. in everyday life, calendar rituals, superstitions, folklore. Naib. archaic myth. the ideas of the Great Russians appear at the time of primitive agriculture: this is the cult of the Family and Rozhanitsy associated with vital beginning . In Kievan Rus, a pantheon (a set of gods) is being formed, headed by Perun - the god of thunder, lightning and thunder, the patron saint of warriors. Other gods: Khors, Dazhbog, Stribog, Semargl, Mokosh (the only female deity), Veles, Yarilo, Svarog do not have a clear and unambiguous characteristic; all of them are connected with the forces of nature - the sky, the sun, wind, fire, fertility, etc. Among the characters of the "lower" category, Leshy, Domovoy, Vodyanoy, Witches, Mermaids, Kikimora, etc. were revered. Myth. representations were reflected in various rituals, in page - x. calendar, in the household (incantations and protective signs-symbols: carving, embroidery, women's jewelry, utensils, etc.). By the 19th century pagan, myth. the content is weathered; embroiderers and carpenters no longer know how to explain the meaning of patterns, unconsciously repeating traditions. compositions. Forgotten names pl. mythical creatures: Horos, Semargl, etc. The surviving ones become only a part of folklore productions. (fairy tales, epics) or at the everyday level are used in an associative-figurative sense: “Leshy”, “Mermaid”, “Witch”, etc. Elements of language. cults and mythology gradually intertwined with elements of Christ. religions (the feast of the Trinity - pagan. Semik; Christmas time, Maslenitsa, etc.). The most tenacious in the minds of Russian. population of Penza. the edges turned out to be elements of "lower mythology". Ideas about the spirits of nature have been preserved: water, forest, associated with soil fertility, domestic - brownies, water, mermaids, ghouls, etc. In everyday life, Russian. population of Penza. the region preserved customs associated with cult myths. For example, in s. Pustyn N.-Lomov. y. the custom of ploughing the village was preserved in order to prevent an epidemic of livestock disease. The participants in this procedure, which took place at night, were in the main. girls and women dressed in white nightgowns. Several people they carried a plow, and one of the girls put on a collar. Going around the village, the procession stopped in some places and made a furrow with a plow. The procession was accompanied by noise, shouting, uttering conspiracies on the disease of cattle. If an animal was encountered on the way, it was beaten with sticks, sometimes beaten to death. Creatures. side of Russian life. population of Penza. the edges were connected. with the calendar myths of prechrist. holidays - Shrovetide, Semik (or Mermaid Week), Tausen, etc. In the villages of Penz. provinces dressed up 8-10 sledges for Maslenitsa, in which mummers were harnessed in straw. caps and coats. Straw was placed on one of the sledges. stuffed Maslenitsa. This procession went around the whole village, and often traveled from one village to another. In the evening of the same day, an effigy of Maslenitsa along with sheaves of straw taken from each cross. households, burned. Some ritual actions during the wedding ceremony turned out to be quite tenacious, “protecting” the bride and groom from damage, from “evil spirits” (the friend enters the hut ahead of everyone and exorcise evil spirits with a whip; the matchmaker dresses in a folded sheepskin coat to deceive the devil ; the wedding train demonstrates phallic symbols as an image of fertility, offspring, etc.). On Maslenitsa, they put a wheel on the firewood and put “a peasant experienced in fun and lamentations” on it, and decorated people were harnessed to the firewood, etc. Elements of “higher mythology” were preserved in the form of customs, connections. origin with Slavic deities. In with. Lopukhovka (Voskresenskoe) Settlements. y. there was a custom at the dawn of Kupala to collect dew with a clean piece of canvas. The wet cloth was squeezed out, draining the water into bottles. Healing properties were attributed to this dew water and used for all diseases. The origin of the reaping festival that used to exist in the province is connected with the myths about the deities of fertility - Roda and Rozhanitsy. At the end of our harvest. villages gathered in the field to put the squeeze on the last paddocks. The last sheaf was called the birthday boy. He was dressed up in a sundress and a kokoshnik, and then they carried him to the village with songs and sentences.

Mater. incarnation of M. r. received in household utensils, embroidery, woodcarving, although the myths themselves explaining the otd. decorative elements have not been preserved. In many in villages, dwellings (wooden huts) are still decorated with intricate carvings (kameshkir carvers are especially skillful), where each element is significant as a talisman against evil spirits. However, it should be borne in mind that carpenters-decorators in the past were engaged in fishing and brought traditions with them. drawings from other regions. In the same way in clothes, wives. decorations, utensils reflected many myths. representation.

Lit.: PEV. 1877. No. 2; 1878. No. 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24; 1884. No. 7; 1889. No. 15, 16; 1907. No. 18, 24; Rybakov B. A. Paganism of Ancient Rus'. M., 1987; Mythological dictionary. M., 1990; Materials for the geography and statistics of Russia. T. 2; Snegirev I. M. Russian folk holidays and superstitious rites. M., 1990; Russian people. His customs, rituals, legends, superstitions and poetry / Comp. M. Zabylin. M., 1990.

[TO. D. Vishnevsky, A. B. Nikonov. Russian mythology / Penza Encyclopedia. M.: Scientific publishing house "Big Russian Encyclopedia", 2001.]

A special interest in the mythology of the Russian people is associated with a close study of the history of culture, the mythological period of development of which was a natural stage in its development. Mythology opens up opportunities for revealing the features of the worldview of distant ancestors, understanding and evaluating their lives and activities.

Studying antiquity, a person simultaneously better comprehends the features of contemporary culture and himself, living in culture and creating it. The mastery of traditional mythology allows one to disunite in the new myth-making, when the desired is presented as reality, and theories and teachings turn into dogmas.

The word "myth" in the last century was applied exclusively to ancient mythology. Russian mythology was called fable. Myths meant plots about gods and cultural heroes extracted from the works of ancient Greek and Roman poets, playwrights, whose deeds are aimed at the benefit of people, at the extraction or creation of means of management, on the basis of the traditions of collective life. A special epic, called the mythological, is dedicated to the gods and heroes. But Russian, like Slavic culture in general, does not know the mythological epic, similar to the Greek poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey", the German-Scandinavian "Elder" and "Younger Edda".

The mythology of the Russian people was realized in the very everyday life, in beliefs and superstitions, in rites and rituals, in the language of everyday communication. A powerful accumulator of mythology was oral folk art, heroic epic and fairy tales, legends and traditions, as well as almost all ancient Russian literature and fine arts.

According to these sources, it has been actively studied since the beginning of the last century. A worthy contribution was made by I.P. Sakharov, A.N. Afanasiev, F.I. Buslaev, A.S. Famintsyn, A.N. Veselovsky, V.F. Miller, I.V. Yagich, D.N. Anuchin. Much credit goes to A.A. Potebne, N.F. Sumtsov, D.K. Zelenin, V.Ya. Propp, modern researchers V.V. Ivanov, V.N. Toporov, B.A. Rybakov.

Nevertheless, Russian mythology is not yet sufficiently generalized and systematized. This is due to a number of reasons.

One of them is the spread of Christianity, which included all mythical gods and other characters in the category of evil spirits, forming a negative attitude towards them. The other, which began in XX century, the struggle with religion, to which mythology was also attributed. Therefore, Russian mythology was either not studied, or found itself on the periphery of scientific interests.

However, mythology is not a religion. Even the word "God" in relation to ancient mythology began to be used under the influence of religion. Even in Ancient Rus', the concepts “smoke”, “day” were used in the meaning of “heavenly light”, but not god. Pagan mythology does not know the absolute one God. It is widely represented by many heavenly, earthly and underground bots, but the absolute God is absent.

The orderliness of the world and relations between people is attributed to the activities of various gods and patrons, and not just one god, and is revealed through a large number of myths that can represent this activity inconsistently and contradictoryly.

In religion, the idea of ​​God is consistent with ideas about the supernatural world, about the messiah - the mediator between God and people, about the immortality of the soul, which enters the other world. Ancient mythology, on the other hand, does not bring gods and patrons to the opposition between people and m. The gods influence the fate of people, but people also rituallyactions are able to direct their will so that their plan is fulfilled.

"Natural" gods and their assistants make up the everyday environment of people. They act in concert with them, enter into marital relations, instruct heroes, help in battles, donate cultural means. The gods themselves also behave like people, have human vices. They can quarrel among themselves, fight, are able to be jealous, envy, take revenge.

Pagan cults, festivities, rituals are not serving the gods in the religious sense. The festive behavior of a person was coordinated with the appointment of a patron deity, but the deity itself most often found itself on the periphery of ritual actions. After the end of the festival, people tried to cleanse themselves, return to their former way of life. So, after the winter holidays with their "demonic" games and disguise, they bathed in the hole, washed in the bath.

Unlike religion, in myths the past is of the greatest importance, not the future. In religion earthly life regarded as a transitory value and asforerunner of the future eternal afterlife. If the myths also capture the belief in the afterlife continuation, but in the opposite earthly conditions (there you have light darkness, trees grow upside down, etc.), then in religion the belief about retribution in the other world prevails.

Religious commandments indicate the ways of personal salvation to a person. Mythology does not know such commandments. In religion, weighed down by the consciousness of original sin, a person longs for redemption, salvation, that is, he discovers in it a personal, and not a generic meaning. His thoughts and behavior, sacraments, prayers, repentance are aimed at ensuring personal immortality. Mythical heroes strive not for personal salvation, redemption, but for the protection of tribal traditions and customs, their fatherland, captive beauties, and even the entire Russian people.

A deep study of Russian myths was hindered by their opposition to scientific knowledge. This led to the criticism of myths as exclusively false, perverted forms of cognition of reality, as delusions of the human mind. But the most important purpose of myths is not in the knowledge of the laws of the surrounding world, but in expressing the value and meaning of the life of the person himself and the family.

Myth and science are not opposites, but coexisting cultural phenomena. Moreover, concrete rather than "pure" science can be mythological. Thus, the Newtonian mechanistic idea of ​​a homogeneous space turned out to be a myth when the theory of relativity was discovered.

The frivolous attitude to the myth was expressed in the fact that it was equated with a fairy tale. Myth is different from fairy tale. If “a fairy tale is a lie” and no one believes in fairy tale events, then the myth is always taken for reality, for reality.

The most honorable time and events in myths refer to the "golden age", when the world and people's lives were organized, customs and rituals were established, which were inherited by new generations. The goal of the hero's exploits is the restoration of the once existing ideal world order. The idea of ​​a return to the ideal past sets a cyclical rather than a historical model of time.

The formation of mythological consciousness and mythological culture as a whole, which began in the Neolithic era, took place as man actively separated from the natural world through labor activity. But since the tools of labor were primitive, man was extremely dependent on nature. Naturally, he comprehended and experienced himself and the primitive collective in connection with natural cycles. And vice versa, in his mind, a person transferred to nature the features of collective life acquired human qualities, the shape of your body.

The natural prerequisite for mythological consciousness was the development of ideas about the multitude of life-giving and deadening forces that coexist and oppose in the surrounding world. The concept of revival most accurately conveys the specifics of the mythological world outlook.

The revival of nature took place in the process of development of human practical activity. Not all nature was revived, but that part of it that was involved in economic activity. Human life and labor depend on the coexistence and confrontation of life-giving and deadening forces. Their division into “good” and “evil” occurred under the influence of religion, in which Good and Evil are initially opposed to each other.

Three can be distinguished critical milestones development of mythology: from the veneration of faceless "living" forces to their personification and deification. Initially, people revered the elements themselves and objects of nature: the sun, rain, wind, springs, trees, stones. They treated their ancestors with the same respect. If necessary, they turned for help and support to the elements and ancestors, and not to the patrons, the owners of the heavenly, earthly and underground worlds.

Personification is a more complex level of development of mythological consciousness and the ritual practice associated with it. During personification, a relative separation of the “living” force from its carrier and its expression in the form of a zoomorphic or anthropomorphic creature is carried out. These creatures command the natural elements, affect people's lives.

Almost everything that a person is connected with, what he does, what he thinks about, what he experiences is subjected to mythological personification. Mythical characters appear, embodying the elements of the universe, calendar dates, “works and days” of a person, his fate, mental states, illnesses: Avsen, Maslenitsa, Brownie, Polevik, Share, Grief, Fever and many others.

The deification and the appearance of a host of especially revered gods became the highest stage in the development of mythology. Together with the gods, the demiurges (the creators of various parts of the Universe from any material, unlike the Christian God, who creates the world from nothing by means of the word “And God said...”) and cultural heroes begin to act. They supplement the deeds of the higher deities in organizing the world, transforming the lands, introduce customs, rituals and cults, teach the use of fire, give tools and trade weapons, and become patrons of people.

The separation of life-giving and deadening forces gives rise to the idea of ​​the duality of the worlds. The unity in myths decomposes into opposites: Heaven - Earth, Day - Night, Life (Belly) - Death, White light- “that light”, or “gloomy glow”. Mythical heroes, as a rule, have their own antagonists. This is how the all-encompassing principle of mythological thinking is formed - the principle of duality and opposition.

Not only Cosmos is opposed to Chaos, but also “one's own” world to “alien”. One's own world is always perceived as the center of the universe, the middle of the earth. Exotic peoples live happily outside it, either there are wild people with an incredibly pathological appearance, or people who do not differ from animals.

Slavs are clearly speaking, speaking in an understandable language. All other Germans, or dumb people who don't speak given language and those who do not understand it.

Mythological views on the symmetry and opposition of the worlds, "light" and "dark", life-giving and deadly principles are combined with ideas about werewolves. To get to another world, the hero also needs to turn around, roll over, turn the ring. The same meaning has the turning of the hut of Baba Yaga, which stands in front of the forest, that is, to someone else's space. The traveling hero, by the power of a magic word, can unfold the hut and enter it, like Orpheus from ancient myth, who penetrates into the kingdom of Hades by the power of music.

The duality and turnover of the worlds are consistent with the mythological principle of dying and rebirth. This principle is implemented in the motives of the Sun leaving for the winter months to distant countries, and for the night - to the underworld. The celebration of Shrovetide is both the death of Winter and the birth of Spring.

All varieties of initiatory rites of initiation, wedding and funeral rites, as well as conspiracies, plowmen's actions aimed at healing (damaging) a person and damaging him (dying) had a similar mythological basis. The wedding laments that sounded before the wedding testified to the dying of the bride for the past maiden life.After the wedding, or her birth as a wife, mistress, future mother, there was no ritual crying.

The duality, opposition and reversibility of the worlds are consistent with their multiplicity. The mythical space is qualitatively heterogeneous and correlated with diverse mythical characters acting as patrons and hosts. It is divided into zones, spheres, layers, kingdoms, which have their own boundaries, which are overcome by the hero through bridges, ladders, holes in the sky and in the ground.<…>

The study of Russian mythology allows not only to comprehend the origins folk culture, but also the professional work of outstanding artists. The mythology of the Russian people nourished the work of K.D. Balmont, I.A. Bunina, P.D. Buturlina, N.V. Gogol, F.M. Dostoevsky, M.Yu. Lermontov, N.A. Maykova, A.S. Pushkin, L.N. Tolstoy, A.A. Fet and many other writers. It was reflected in the fine arts of I.Ya. Bilibina, V.M. Vasnetsova, A.G. Venetsianova, M.A. Vrubel,S.T. Konenkova, P.D. Korina, K.A. Korovina, I.I. Kramskoy, B.M. Kustodieva, I.I. Levitan, V.M. Maksimova, I.E. Repin, N.M. Romadina, A.P. Ryabushkina, V.I. Surikov. Mythological images and plots entered the musical art of A.P. Borodin, M.I. Glinka, A.K. Lyadova, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, P.I. Tchaikovsky, R.K. Shchedrin.

This short list indicates that the perception of the work of outstanding artists can be significantly enriched due to the development of Russian mythological culture.

Shuklin V.V. Russian mythological dictionary. - Yekaterinburg: Ural publishing house, 2001. S. 3-11.

West Slavic twin idol

The beliefs of the Slavs and the Balts were very close. This applies to the names of such deities as Perun (Perkunas) and Veles. There is a similarity in the names of the gods of the Slavs and Thracians (most often they cite Dazhbog as an example). There is also a lot in common with German, in particular with Scandinavian, mythology (the motif of the world tree, the cult of dragons, etc.).

In the same period, with the division of the Proto-Slavic community, the tribal beliefs of the Slavs began to form, which had significant regional differences. Along with the common Slavic deities (Svarog, Perun, Lada), each tribe developed its own pantheon of gods, the same gods received various titles. It can be argued that in the early Middle Ages, the beliefs of the western Baltic Slavs and the eastern Dnieper Slavs were divided, while the paganism of the southern, eastern and also Polish Slavs largely retained unity.

During the resettlement of Slavic tribes in - centuries. their culture mixed with the beliefs of the local Finno-Ugric, Baltic and Turkic peoples.

Worldview of the Slavs

The nature of beliefs

Slavic paganism refers to polytheistic religions, that is, the Slavs recognized the existence of many gods. The pagan, using the word "god", did not mean a specific deity.

A feature of Slavic paganism is often the allocation of its main deity for each tribe. So in the treaties of Rus' with Byzantium, Perun is called "our god", "in whom we believe." Helmold speaks of the worship of Svyatovit, "to whom they dedicated the temple and idol to the greatest splendor, attributing to him the primacy among the gods."

At the same time, the Slavs, like the Balts, had an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe supreme deity.

Animals and a female bird, figurines of the Ant type of the 6th-7th centuries, Velestino

Paganism is often referred to as the deification of natural forces. Slavic pagans praised their ancestors and the surrounding nature (thunder and lightning, wind, rain, fire). The Slavs are characterized by the veneration of animals (bear, wolf, lizard, eagle, horse, rooster, duck, tour, wild boar). But totemism is practically unknown.

The sun, moving around the world of people along its own path ("Khors' path"), visits both the sky and the underworld (the night Sun). A special place is occupied by the moments of sunrise and sunset (images of the evening and morning Dawn).

The Slavs singled out four or eight cardinal directions. The most significant were the west, as the orientation of the body of the deceased in the grave, and the northeast, as the orientation of the temples to the point of sunrise on the day of the summer solstice.

The element that binds the universe for the Slavs was fire. It was used in offering sacrifices, at funerals, at holidays, for protective purposes, etc. Fire was a symbol of eternity. The personification of fire was Svarog. Researchers call Svarog the god of the universe. Arab authors call Slavs and Russes fire-worshippers.

It is believed that the Slavs had ideas about " paradise", Which in East Slavic folklore is called Iriy (Vyriy), this place is associated with the Sun and birds, is located in the south or underground (under water, in a well). The souls of the dead go there. There are also ideas about Buyan Island, also identified with the other world. In medieval Novgorod, there was an idea that paradise could be reached by sea, and that allegedly one of the Novgorodians did this by going east. Ibn Fadlan (vek) conveys the views and vision of paradise during the funeral of the Rus as follows:

And there was a certain Russian husband next to me ... and he said: “You, O Arabs, are stupid ... Truly, you take the person most beloved to you and from you the most respected by you and throw him into the dust, and eat his dust and vile, and worms, and we burn him in the twinkling of an eye, so that he enters Paradise immediately and immediately.”

The Eastern Slavs associate the origin of people with Dazhbog, the son of Svarog. In the "Word of Igor's Campaign" (XII century), he is called the ancestor of the princes and Russian people in general, and in the "Sofia Time" (XIII century) - the first king of the Slavs.

The Slavs considered the Danube lands to be their ancestral home. Procopius of Caesarea (VI century) called the ancestral home of the Slavs “the country of Sporaden”, the Bavarian Geographer (IX century) left the following legend about the Danube region of Zaryania: “Zeruyans (Zeriuani), who alone have a kingdom and from whom all the tribes of the Slavs, like them assert, originate and lead their own kind. In the annals of the 17th century, in the legend of the ancestor Slovene, Zardan is named among the Danube ancestors. Some historians also note that among the Slavs there were ideas about the Carpathians as the Holy Mountains, where their ancient ancestors (“foremothers”) lived. The personification of such ideas is the epic giant Svyatogor.

Each tribe told about their migration from their ancestral home, naming their ancestors: Radim and Vyatko, Kriv, Chekh and Lekh. Legends were transmitted about the founders of dynasties and cities - Kiy, Krak (Krok), Piast.

The Slavs believed in life after death, believed in immortality, and according to some researchers, in reincarnation.

Periodization of the development of Slavic paganism

There were also ideas about the Stone Age and the Iron Age. The legends about the Asilk giants say that they did not know God and threw stone clubs into the sky. In the north of Rus' there were legends about "divine people" who changed fur for iron things. As far back as the century, the Slavs, according to Theophylact Simokatta, spoke about the production of iron as follows:

There were also tribes that had personalized gods, and those that did not have idols. Helmold (XII century) writes that some Slavs did not have idols:

“The Slavs have many different types of idolatry. For not all of them adhere to the same pagan customs. Some cover the unimaginable statues of their idols with temples, such as, for example, the idol in Plun, whose name is Podaga; among others, deities inhabit forests and groves, like Prove, the god of the Aldenburg land, - they do not have any idols.

B. A. Rybakov also draws attention to the ideas of the ancient Russian scribe that before the establishment of faith in Perun, the Slavs believed in Rod, and even earlier - only in ghouls and beregins. Thus, paganism developed from beliefs with lesser personification of deities to idolatry. B - cc. part of the tribes retained paganism without the personification of gods and without idols, the other part - worshiped the idols of the gods.

The issue of idol worship in Europe was discussed as early as the time of Pythagoras, who lived in the century BC. e. Iamblichus (-3rd century BC) and other authors describing the life of this ancient Greek sage tell that a Scythian priest of Apollo named Abaris came to him, who was interested in particular in the veneration of the gods through idols:

“When Pythagoras was in captivity ... a wise man appeared to him, a native of Hyperboreans, named Abaris, who arrived precisely for a conversation with him, and offered him questions about the most sacred objects, namely about idols, about the most reverent way of worshiping God ... "

The very first Slavic idols can be dated to -VII centuries, although there are also earlier datings of idols - centuries. D.N. Kozak and Ya.E. Borovsky tend to combine all monuments of paganism of the Zarubinets culture with monuments of a later time into a common branch of evolution, supporting the “Scythian” concept of B.A. Rybakov, who sees in the Scythian funeral idols of the 7th-4th centuries. BC e. statues of the Slavic-Scythian god Goytosir. Apparently personification. Slavic gods took place in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e., when the Iron Age began, and at the beginning of our era. By the century, the Slavs knew both weapons (Pshevorsk swords) and strong princely power (Prince Bozh), and, probably, the first gods. This is evidenced by indirect references to names formed from the names of deities. In the 5th century, the vandals were led by a leader named Radigast (Radogais), who was also worn by the god of the Baltic Slavs (Veneti) Radegast. In the century, among the mercenaries in Byzantium was a Slavic warrior named Svaruna, whose name contains the same root as the name Svarog. In the description of Procopius of Caesarea (v.), the main god of the Slavs and Antes is the Thunderer, therefore, we can talk about the personification of Perun. There are also studies that bring together the already mentioned Apollo and Leto with Kupala and Lada, the personification of which was never completed, but took place from the earliest centuries of the development of Slavic paganism.

The third stage, identified by Rybakov, is recognized by most researchers who tend to separate pre-state paganism (“the paganism of the ancient Slavs”) and the paganism of the state period (“the paganism of Ancient Rus'”). In the most general framework this period is limited to -XII centuries. So it is generally accepted that with the advent of the state, Perun becomes the head of the gods of the Eastern Slavs, as the patron of the prince and squad.

In addition, state paganism evolved into state polytheism, when the prince selected some gods for the pantheon and did not accept others.

It is also necessary to single out the period of development of paganism after the adoption of Christianity, when the latter significantly influenced traditional beliefs and mythology. This period in the most general framework can be limited to -XIV centuries. This period is characterized by “dual faith”, and for Rus' of the XII-XIII centuries they even talk about a pagan renaissance.

In the future, open manifestations of paganism among the Slavs can rarely be found. Pagan beliefs become part of popular culture, remnants that are found in Christian culture to this day, but are not seen as opposed to it (except for the Church's struggle with superstitions).

At the present stage pagan beliefs are being revived in the form of neo-paganism, including the Slavic Rodnoverie.

Myths of the ancient Slavs

Sources of information about myths

Quite a lot of texts, collections of myths, Russian fairy tales and significant pictorial compositions on mythological themes such as "The Tale of the Prophetic Oleg". The Tale of Bygone Years says: "All these tribes had their own customs, and the laws of their fathers, and traditions, and each had its own temper."

Scientists also reconstruct Slavic mythology according to various other sources.

First, this written sources. Texts of Byzantine authors - centuries: Procopius of Caesarea, Theophylact Simocatta, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Leo the Deacon and others. Western European authors -XIII centuries: Bavarian Geographer, Titmar of Merseburg, Helmold, Saxo Grammaticus and others. Arab authors -XIII centuries: al- Masudi, Ibn Fadlan, Ibn Ruste and others. In the Scandinavian sagas of the 13th century, in the Elder and Younger Eddas, there is also information that can be used to reconstruct Slavic paganism. Russian, West Slavic (Kozma of Prague) and South Slavic sources - centuries: chronicles, teachings and instructions against the pagans (Kirill of Turovsky, Kirik Novgorodets, etc.) and inserts in translated literature, including apocrypha. A special place is occupied by The Tale of Igor's Campaign, which reflects a significant layer pagan myths mentioned by the heir and bearer of pagan culture - an anonymous songwriter. All these texts do not contain any holistic expositions of mythology or individual myths.

Secondly, written sources -XVII centuries. and folklore sources of the 18th - centuries, which are less close to paganism, but contain a number of information from earlier sources that have not come down to us, as well as detailed records of legends, fairy tales, epics, conspiracies, bylichki and byvalshchina, proverbs and sayings, on which it is possible to reconstruct ancient myths. A special role is played by the information of Polish, Czech and German authors and historians who wrote down the local legends of the Western Slavs, who preserved the information from ancient Russian sources. In Russia XVI-XVII centuries. some information was recorded by Western diplomats, military men and travelers (Sigismund Herberstein, Olearius, etc.). Among folklore stories, epics about Svyatogor, Potyk, Volga (Volkh), Mikul are usually attributed to paganism; fairy tales about Kashchei the Immortal, Zmeya Gorynych, Baba Yaga, Alyonushka and Ivanushka. The difficulty of interpreting these sources lies in the fact that later layers, fabrications of authors, storytellers, collectors of folklore are superimposed on ancient ideas. Among the authoritative researchers of folklore Sakharov I.P., Afanasyev A.N., Propp V.Ya. and others.

Archaeological sources are more reliable, but less informative: information from excavations of places of worship, finds of idols, ritual objects, jewelry, pagan symbols, inscriptions mentioning pagan gods or pagans, remnants of sacrifices and ritual actions. A significant contribution to the study of pagan antiquities was made by Nederle L., Lyavdansky A. N., Hermann I., Kyassovskaya E., Gyassovsky E., Losinsky V., Lapinsky A., Sedov V. V., Tretyakov P. N., Rybakov B. A., Vinokur I. S., Tolochko P. P., Kozak D. N., Borovsky Ya. E., Timoshchuk B. A., Rusanova I. P. et al.

No less important are the information of linguistics, comparative religion and the study of mythological subjects from other peoples. In addition to the world authority in this area, D. Fraser, we can name Tokorev S. A., Toporov V. N. and Ivanov V. V. Many Slavic myths are known from scientific reconstructions.

Mythological connections in the "Tale of Igor's Campaign", XII century.

A figurine in the Antian style from Velestino, 6th-7th centuries, depicting a baby lizard in the arms of a mother holding a seven-stringed harp depicting a nightingale.

Chi whether it was sung, Boyana things, Velesov's granddaughter ... About Boyana, the nightingale of the old time!

A div sitting on top of a tree (perhaps the world tree) predicts disaster with his cry, like an eclipse of the Sun

The sun blocks the way for him with darkness; night, moaning to him with a thunderstorm, wake the bird; whistle beast vsta; Zbisya Div, calls to the top of the tree

Anyhow, you tickled the regiments, jumping ... rushing into the path of Troyan through the fields to the mountains ... There were veches of Trojans ... Resentment arose in the forces of Dazhdbozh's grandson, entered the land of Troyan as a virgin ...

now they began to put the words of the rags, Rodow and the women in childbirth, before Perown their god, and before that they laid the treb with the opirem and the coast ... So it’s up to the sloven to reach these words, and you began to lay the treb to the Family and the Rozhanits, ... and now the Egyptians put the treb to the Nile and fire, the river Nile is a fruit-bearer and a grower of a class.

Pagan wrote, Novgorod. Miniature idols are depicted: a lizard, twins, a lizard, a four-faced god.

Reconstruction of the myth about Svarog and Svarozhichs

The fourth idol is Lado. This name is the god of joy and all prosperity. Offering sacrifices to him who is preparing for marriage, with the help of Lada, imagine good fun and kindly acquire life. This charm from the most ancient idolaters originated, even some gods Lel and Polel are honored, their Bogomeric name is still proclaimed in some countries in the hosts of merrymakers with the singing of Lelyum-Polel. So is the mother of Lelev and Polelev - Lado, singing: Lado, Lado! And that idol of the decrepit charm of the devil at the wedding oars, splashing his hands and beating on the table, sing.

The simplest form of a specially organized cult place among the Slavs is cult sites with idols and sacrificial pits. Such places were supposedly called "demands", on which they "made treb", or "temple"- from "kap", that is, they performed what was necessary to glorify their native gods. Sacrificial pits were located on the outskirts of the villages and did not have fences. Sometimes several idols-drops were arranged in a geometric order on the cult sites: the main idol stood in the center or behind, and the secondary idols stood around or in front.

Sometimes places of worship and idols were fenced off. The fence could be "stamens", on which the skulls of sacrificial animals were hung, or from pillars on which the curtain was attached. The fenced area became a sacred area. The most common form of fencing was a rampart, a moat, and artificial elevation. Some temples are oriented to the northeast, in which case the entrance was in the southwest, and entering the temple one could watch the sunrise on the day of the summer solstice.

Among the settlements-sanctuaries, there are large cult centers, which included a trespass, several temples, sacred paths (roads to temples), temple buildings with idols, wells, springs and buildings for holidays. On the territory of the sanctuaries there were ritual burials of older members of the clan, which became objects of veneration.

Cultists, sacrifices and predictions

The sources contain references to special men and women who performed pagan rites and took care of the temple. According to various sources, their names are as follows: sorcerers (“volkh” - a wolf, from “hairy” - shaggy, lost from the custom of putting on clothes with fur outward when performing certain ceremonies), princes (among the Western Slavs, it approaches “prince”), keepers ( creators of amulets - amulets), panders and indulgences ("indulgence" - secret ritual actions), cloud chasers and wolves (from "wolf" and "skin"), blasphemers ("koshchi" - words at burial, keepers of the wisdom of departed ancestors), sorcerers and sorceresses, enchantresses and enchantresses (from “ charm" - ritual vessels and magical actions), bayans (" bayat" - to speak, tell), "healers", sorcerers, witches (from "to know" - to know) and sorcerers (from " broadcast"), sorcerers (from "kudesa" - a tambourine), obavniki, kobniki ("kob" - fortune-telling about fate, fortune-telling by the flight of birds, "koben" - unusual body movements), fortune tellers (from "thief" - a fence), nauzniki and nauznitsy (from "nauzy" - in a special way tied knots). In synchronous Russian sources, the word "magicians" was most often used.

The various titles of pagan priests are related to their status, the cult they served, and the activities they performed. Most often, the main duty of the priests was to conduct rituals, glorify the gods and make sacrifices in accordance with which god the holiday was in honor of. In addition, such designations of victims as “treat” and “treba” were used. Drinks (wine), food (pie), part of the crop (grain, straw) were used as sacrifices, there were birds (roosters and chickens) for the celebration of Perun's day.

Sacrifices are closely related to predictions. Procopius of Caesarea (v.) writes about the faith of the Slavs and Antes:

When they gather there to offer sacrifice to the idols, or to appease their wrath, they sit while the rest stand by; secretly whispering to each other, they dig the earth with trepidation, and, having cast lots, they learn the truth in matters of doubt. Having finished this, they cover the lot with green turf, and, having stuck 2 pointed spears crosswise into the ground, with humble obedience, they lead a horse through them, which is considered the largest among the others and therefore is revered as sacred; despite the already thrown lot, which they observed earlier, through this, allegedly divine animal, they again carry out divination. And if in both cases the same sign falls out, the plan is carried out; if not, the saddened people give up the idea. An ancient legend, entangled in various superstitions, testifies that when they are in the terrible danger of a long rebellion, a huge boar comes out of the said sea with white fangs shining with foam, and happily wallowing in the mud, reveals itself to many.

When it was supposed to start a war against any country, according to custom, ministers placed three spears in front of the temple. Of these, two were stuck with tips into the ground and connected [by the third] across; these structures were placed at an equal distance. To them, a horse, during a marching performance, after a solemn prayer, was led out in a harness by a priest from the entrance. If the erected structures were crossed with the right foot before the left, this was considered a sign of the coup of the war; if he stepped on the left before the right, then the direction of the campaign was changed. Speaking also at various enterprises, predictions were received from the first movement of the animal. If it was happy, they joyfully moved on; if unfortunate, they turned back.

Three wooden boards, white on one side and black on the other, were thrown into the pit as a lot; white meant good luck, black meant bad luck.

The same said: “The gods tell us: you can’t do anything to us!” ... When they were beaten and torn out with a split beard, Yan asked them: “What do the gods say to you?” They answered: “We stand before Svyatoslav ... But if you let us go, you will have a lot of good; if you destroy us, you will receive a lot of sadness and evil ”... Such a sorcerer also appeared under Gleb in Novgorod; he spoke to people, pretending to be a god, and he deceived many, almost the whole city, he said after all: "I foresee everything"

So it is said that his mother was a prophetess... Such was their custom that on the first evening of Yule they had to bring her to a chair in front of the king's high seat. And ... the king asks his mother, does not see or does not know if she knows any threat or damage hanging over his state, or the approach of any non-peace or danger, or an attempt by someone on his possessions. She replies: “I do not see anything, my son, that, I would know, could harm you or your state, as well as anything that would frighten away your happiness. And yet I see a great and beautiful vision. The son of a king in Noreg was born at this time ... "

The Magi differed from other people in clothing, long hair, a special staff (for example, in Novgorod - with the head of a god) and a way of life. Only priests in a number of cases could enter the sacred zone of temples, temples and sacred groves. Priests were held in high esteem by the people.

In separate tribes or among the priests of individual gods, a hierarchy developed, high priests stood out. Saxo Grammatik about the priests of Svyatovit:

To maintain the idol, each inhabitant of the island of both sexes contributed a coin. He was also given a third of the booty, believing that his protection would grant success. In addition, he had at his disposal three hundred horses and the same number of horsemen, who handed over everything that was obtained in battle to the high priest ... This god also had temples in very many other places, ruled by priests of lesser importance.

They revere the priest more than the king. They send their army where divination will show, and when they win, they take gold and silver to the treasury of their god, and divide the rest among themselves.

They have healers, of whom others command the king, as if they were their bosses (Rus). It happens that they order to sacrifice to their creator, whatever they want: women, men and horses, and even when the healers order, it is impossible not to fulfill their order in any way.

Bogomil, superior to the priests of the Slavs, named Nightingale because of sweetness, strictly forbade people to submit to forced Christian baptism.

B. A. Rybakov recognized the historicity of Bogomil and even attributed to him the Novgorod gusli of the 11th century with the inscription “Slavisha”.

From the sources, only a few names of people are known that can be attributed to pagan ministers. Firstly, this is Prince Vseslav of Polotsk, who, being a Christian, according to the annals, was born from sorcery, “in a shirt”, and “The Tale of Igor's Campaign” endows him with such features of the Magi as the ability to guess about fate by lot, werewolf ( “jump away from them like a fierce beast”, “jump like a wolf”) and guidance (“get pissed off in the blue mist”). Another character is the Kiev witch Potvora, whose name is written on a whorl from the 13th century treasure. Along with the whorl, a knife was found, possibly of a ritual nature.

Holidays and rituals

Pagan holidays: a dancing bird woman, a harper, military games, a treat for a deity, a run, a feast. Draw images of ancient Russian bracelets of the XII-XIII centuries.

Calendar holidays

The calendar holidays of the Slavs were associated with the agricultural cycle and astronomical phenomena. There are a huge number of reconstructions of the calendar Slavic holidays, while there are quite a few synchronous sources on this issue. Important Information archeology provides information about festive rituals, but again all this data has to be interpreted through the late folk calendar.

Most researchers refer to pagan holidays as Maslenitsa (“komoeditsy”), the day of Ivan (Yanka) Kupala, Kolyada. Less well known is Tausen (Ovsen), which belongs to a number of these holidays associated with the days of the solstice and equinox. The symbolism of these holidays is associated with the sun, fertility and procreation. The burning of an effigy of Mary (the goddess of winter and death) on Maslenitsa, round dances on Ivan Kupala record the ritual dances and marriage customs of antiquity. Kupala cult is marked on Slavic calendars 4th century from the village of Romashki and the village of Lepesovka, as well as on the Zbruch idol of the 10th century.

On the Romashkin calendar, the holidays of Perun on July 12 and 20 are marked - which was replaced by Christians with "Ilyin's Day". Day of Veles (patron of wisdom and housekeeping) - was also replaced by Christianity on the day of St. Blaise (patron of livestock)

The calendar also records the holidays that lasted several days or even weeks: the “Rusal Week” and “Ladovanie” that preceded the Kupala holiday. Such a holiday is known to many peoples and at the beginning of autumn - "Indian summer", it lasted from one to two weeks.

Saxo Grammatik described in detail the feast in the church of Svyatovit, which took place in August:

Every year, after the harvest, a mixed crowd from all over the island in front of the temple of the god, sacrificing cattle, celebrated a solemn feast, which was called sacred. His priest… the small sanctuary… was carefully cleaning… The next day, when the people stood at the entrance, he, taking a vessel from the statue, carefully observed whether the level of the poured liquid had dropped, and then he expected a crop failure next year… Having made a cake with honey wine round shape, the size of such that it was almost equal to human growth, proceeded to the sacrifice. Putting him between himself and the people, the priest, according to custom, asked if the rouge could see him. When they answered that they saw, he wished that in a year they would not be able to see. With this kind of prayer, he asked not for his own or the people's fate, but for the growth of the future harvest. Then, on behalf of God, he congratulated the crowd present, for a long time called on them to worship this god and diligently perform sacrificial rites, and promised the surest reward for worship and victory on land and sea. Having finished this, they themselves turned the sacrificial dishes into a feast food ...

wedding customs

Wedding customs varied among different tribes depending on the type of marriage. Slavic marriage was strictly monogamous, that is, it allowed only one wife or husband. The Tale of Bygone Years distinguishes two types of marriage and wedding ceremonies among the Slavs, which can be conditionally called patriarchal and matriarchal.

Glades have the custom of their fathers meek and quiet, bashful in front of their daughters-in-law and sisters, mothers and parents; before mothers-in-law and brothers-in-law they have great modesty; they also have a marriage custom: the son-in-law does not go for the bride, but brings her the day before, and the next day they bring for her - what they give.

Similar customs are described as early as the 6th century. Among the Rus, the payment for the bride was called "veno". Mention is made of the wedding ceremony of "taking off the shoes" of the groom.

... And they didn’t have marriages, but they kidnapped girls by the water ... And they shamed them under their fathers and daughters-in-law, and they didn’t have marriages, but games were arranged between villages, and they converged on these games, on dances and on all kinds of demonic songs, and here they kidnapped their wives in collusion with them.

At the end of May - June, round dances (“ladovanie”) were held, representatives of different clans (villages) gathered around the fire on Ivan Kupala and chose brides and grooms from another clan (such a marriage is called exogamous). Women played the role of the “eldest child” in families; when the husband changed, the boys were sent to their father. The symbolism of such a marriage is two crosses, a wedding ring, wreaths, tufts of hair or a belt with which plants or trees were tied. Love conspiracies are considered traditional for the Slavs, with the help of which girls or boys could influence their fate, attracting the attention of the chosen one. A number of conspiracies (on different languages) is read in the birch bark letters of Novgorod - centuries.

Funeral rites

Funeral rites of various groups of Slavs in different time were different. It is believed that the ancestors of the Slavs were carriers of the culture of the "fields of funeral urns" (II millennium BC), that is, they burned the dead, and the ashes were placed in an earthen vessel and buried in a shallow pit, marking the grave with a mound. Subsequently, the rite of cremation prevailed, but the shape of the burials changed: volotovki (round hill mounds with a wooden fence) - among the Slovenes, long family mounds - among the Krivichi, cremation in a boat and a barrow mound - among the Rus.

The Russian chronicle very briefly describes the funeral rite of the northerners, Krivichi, Radimichi and Vyatichi:

And if someone died, they arranged a funeral feast for him, and then they made a large deck, and laid the dead man on this deck, and burned it, and then, having collected the bones, they put them in a small vessel and placed them on poles along the roads, as they still do now. Vyatichi.

The described rite is recorded among the Vyatichi and some Baltic Slavs - archaeologists note the absence of burials, suspecting the "scattering" of ashes, but ethnographic data and some written sources speak of dominas ("theaters of death") - funerary buildings at the forks in the roads where urns with ashes were stored. Outwardly, they sometimes resemble the “hut on chicken legs” of Baba Yaga in Russian fairy tales, and Baba Yaga herself is sometimes regarded as a priestess who performed the cremation. TO XIII century Vyatichi began to build barrows.

"Krada" (treasure, deck) is a funeral pyre. It is customary to distinguish between "feast" (feast at the grave and military games) and "strava" (memorial feast). Princess Olga describes the feast in this way in an appeal to the Drevlyans: “I’m already coming to you, prepare many honeys in the city where my husband was killed, but I’ll cry on his grave and create a feast for my husband.” Ibn Fadlan describes an old woman and her daughters, who led the funeral of the Rus, killed sacrificial animals and a concubine, he calls her "the angel of death." Funeral idols ("bdyn"), installed over the grave, are also mentioned. They depicted the deceased and had an inscription containing his name and the name of the prince.

In mythology with funeral rite the deities of the wind (Stribog, Viy) and the sun were connected. The wind fanned the fire, and the sun delivered the souls of the dead to the world of shadows, so the time of burial (sunrise, sunset or night) and the orientation of the grave during the burial were of particular importance. Such animals as a rooster, a horse, a dog were associated with the burial. The serpent was the collector of the bodies of the buried. The Tale of Igor's Campaign mentions Karna and Zhlya (Zhelya), who are preparing the burial of the dead soldiers, their names are reconstructed from the words "reproach" and "regret" ("zhalnik" - a burial mound). In the "Word of St. Dionysius about those who are sorry" it is said about behavior during burial:

“Is there any benefit to the departed souls there from pity? The devil teaches pity and causes others to fight for the dead, while others drown in water and teaches them to drown.

White mourning clothes of women and the ritual of cutting faces and tearing their hair are also mentioned.

The burial rites of the Rus and Slavs are described in detail by the Arab authors Ibn Ruste and Ibn Fadlan. The rite of inhumation (body position) is also described, which is indirectly mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years and legends in relation to princes and various revered characters. Burials by the type of inhumation are typical for ritual burials.

The most famous pagan funerary monument is the Black Grave of the 10th century in Chernihiv.

Calendar and writing

Old Slavic calendar

From the "Sofia Time" we learn about the presence of the Slavs lunar and solar calendars. It is generally believed that the lunar calendar was adopted by the Slavs from the Bulgarians. But in the “Teaching about Numbers” by Kirik of Novgorod (XII century), one of the options for the lunar calendar is described, other options were used in Easter tables, and in Russian chronicles - centuries. dates are marked according to the lunar calendar - all this allows researchers to assert that, along with the solar calendar of 12 months, a lunar calendar of 13 months also constantly existed in Rus'. The earliest date of the lunar calendar is applied to the campaign of Oleg the Prophetic Year in the Chronograph of the Western Russian edition: "This summer is evil: 13 months to have."

Due to differences in the solar and lunar calendar, as well as variants of the lunar calendar, the Slavs have the same month names, but they do not match when paired with the months of the modern solar calendar, that is, the Slavs did not have a single chronology.

Calendar ornament on a Chernyakhiv jug of the 4th century, the arrow marks the sign of the holiday of Perun on July 20

The number 5 has a lunar character and is found on Ant fibulae and temporal rings of the Slovenian tribe.

Some authors claim that the number 5 is the number of days in the Slavic week, which was later supplemented with Saturday and Sunday. There is no evidence for this, except for the five Slavic names of the days of the week, on the contrary, the number 7 is also sacred and is often found in the symbolism of idols. The days of the week were dedicated to different gods among the Eastern and Southern Slavs: Thursday - Perun, and Friday - Mokosh. In Russian Orthodoxy, the veneration of 12 Fridays a year has been preserved. Friday had, apparently, an important meaning when conjugating the lunar and solar calendar, since there is a Russian proverb: "Seven Fridays in a week." For example, in some Christian calendars, the time count began from the creation of the world, starting from Friday.

On the question of when the Slavs began the year, there are several opinions. Most often referred to as March. The March New Year was tied in Rus' for up to a century either to March 1 or to the 20th of the month. A number of researchers claim that the Slavs had a January New Year. In any case, all calendar calculations were consistent with the points of the equinox and solstice. The conjugation of the lunar and solar calendar took place in the spring. According to an old belief, the sun meets the month in April, and from the first frost they diverge to far sides: one to the east, the other to the west, and from then on they do not meet each other until the very spring (Indo-European motif of the wedding of the month and the sun).

Features and cuts

A number of sources mention writing among the pagan Slavs. Chernorizet Khrabr called this writing "features and cuts", with the help of which they "counted and guessed." Al-Masudi speaks of multiple inscriptions on the walls (stones) in the temples of the Slavs, containing predictions. Ibn Fadlan mentions the inscriptions of names on the grave idol of the Rus. Titmar of Merseburg knows about the inscriptions of names on the idols of the Baltic Slavs.

This kind of use of letters can speak of the runic nature of writing, when the letters had sacred, verbal and sound meanings.

Some archaeological finds allow us to speak of "features and cuts". The inscriptions on the idols of the Baltic Slavs, which may form the alphabet, but are considered fake, have analogues among the Prussians and on the “Novocherkassk eggplants” (Khazar lands), but there are no serious studies on this issue.

Runic signs from the temple of Lepesovka, II-IV centuries.

The earliest signs of the runic type, which can be attributed to the Slavic, are found in the temple of the Chernyakhov time c. Lepesovka. In the same temple, two divination bowls with clay rings on the handles were found. There is a lot of ceramics with Greek inscriptions, and the material culture of the settlement belongs to the Wielbar culture (presumably the Goths). Three inscriptions were found. One of them is “karakul-shaped” on the whorl, the other two are on ceramics and correlate with Germanic runes. E. A. Melnikova read one of the inscriptions as lwl, but could not identify it with the German language.

Signs on ceramics, which are attributed to the Slavs, are also known in a later period, for example, on ceramics from the village. Alekanovka.

Literature

Literature of the 18th - first half of the 20th century.

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Popular literature of the mid-20th - early 21st centuries

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Scientific literature of the middle of the XX-beginning of the XXI century

• Slavic Antiquities: Ethnolinguistic Dictionary. In 5 volumes / Ed. N. I. Tolstoy.

T.1. M., 1995. T.2. M., 1999. T.3. M., 2004.

• Slavic mythology: encyclopedic Dictionary. AND I. M., 1995.414, 2nd ed. / Ed. S. M. Tolstaya. M., 2002.509 p.

• Belova O. V. Slavic bestiary: Dictionary of names and symbols. M., 2001.
• Vasiliev M. A. Paganism of the Eastern Slavs on the Eve of the Baptism of Rus': Religious and Mythological Interaction with the Iranian World. The pagan reform of Prince Vladimir. M., Indrik. 1999.325 p.
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• Wojcicka U. From the history of Russian culture: Pagan heritage in traditional culture. Bydgoszcz.2002.265 s (in Russian)
• Gura A.V. The symbolism of animals in the Slavic folk tradition. M., Indrik. 1997.910 p.
• Dubov I.V. And bow to the stone idol ... St. Petersburg, 1995.100 p.
• Zhuravlev A.F. Language and myth. Linguistic commentary on the work of A. N. Afanasyev "Poetic views of the Slavs on nature." M., 2005.
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• Aladzhov Zh. Pmentnitsa on Proto-Blgarian Hezichestvo: [Album]. Sofia.1999.44+71 p.
• Wrazinowski T. Folk mitology in Macedonian. Skopje, 1998.

Book 1. 351 p. Book 2. Ethnographic and folklore materials. 323 p.

• Gimbutas M. Slavs are the sons of Perun. / Per. from English. M., 2003.
• Zubov M.I. Linguistics and textology of the middle words of the Yansk people against paganism. Odessa.2004.335 p.
• Ivanov J. The cult of Perun among the southern Slavs. M., 2005.
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• Panchovski I. G. Pantheon in the ancient Slavs and mitology to them. Sofia.1993.280 p.
• Petrovic S. Serbian Mitology. At 5 books. Nis, Prosveta.2000.

Book 1. System srpske mitology. 404 p. Book 2. Mitołoška Mape sa pregled of the South Slavic space. 312 p. Book 3. Anthropology of the Serbian ritual. 225 p. Book 4. Mitology coloring. 187 p. Book 5. Mitology, magic and custom: the destruction of the region. 512 p.

• Chausidis N. Slick slicks in slovenian. Skopju, 1994.546 p.
• Kosman M. Zmierzch Perkuna, czyli ostatni paganie over Baltykiem. Warszawa.1981.389 p.
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It was bad with evil spirits in Rus'. So many bogatyrs have recently divorced that the number of Gorynychs has plummeted. Only once flashed Ivan a ray of hope: an elderly peasant who called himself Susanin promised to lead him to the very lair of Likha One-Eyed ... But he stumbled only on a rickety ancient hut with broken windows and a broken door. On the wall was scrawled: “Checked. Leech is not. Bogatyr Popovich.

Sergey Lukyanenko, Yuly Burkin, Ostrov Rus

"Slavic monsters" - you must admit, it sounds wild. Mermaids, goblin, mermen - they are all familiar to us from childhood and make us remember fairy tales. That is why the fauna of "Slavic fantasy" is still undeservedly considered something naive, frivolous and even slightly stupid. Now, when it comes to magical monsters, we often think of zombies or dragons, although there are such ancient creatures in our mythology, compared with which Lovecraft's monsters may seem like petty dirty tricks.

The inhabitants of the Slavic pagan legends are not a joyful brownie Kuzya or a sentimental monster with scarlet flower. Our ancestors seriously believed in the evil spirits that we now consider worthy only of children's horror stories.

Almost no original source describing fictional creatures from Slavic mythology has survived to our time. Something was covered with the darkness of history, something was destroyed during the baptism of Rus'. What do we have, except for vague, contradictory and often dissimilar legends of different Slavic peoples? A few references in the works of the Danish historian Saxo Grammar (1150-1220) - times. "Chronica Slavorum" by the German historian Helmold (1125-1177) - two. And finally, we should recall the collection "Veda Slovena" - a compilation of ancient Bulgarian ritual songs, from which one can also draw conclusions about the pagan beliefs of the ancient Slavs. The objectivity of church sources and annals, by virtue of obvious reasons is under great doubt.

Book of Veles

"The Book of Veles" ("The Book of Veles", Isenbek's tablets) for a long time were presented as a unique monument of ancient Slavic mythology and history dating from the period of the 7th century BC - 9th century AD.

Her text was allegedly carved (or burned) on small wooden planks, some of the "pages" were partially rotted. According to legend, the “Book of Veles” was discovered in 1919 near Kharkov by a white colonel Fyodor Izenbek, who took it to Brussels and handed it over to the Slavist Mirolubov for study. He made several copies, and in August 1941, during the German offensive, the plates were lost. Versions were put forward that they were hidden by the Nazis in the “archive of the Aryan past” under Annenerb, or taken out after the war to the USA).

Alas, the authenticity of the book initially caused great doubts, and recently it was finally proved that the entire text of the book is a falsification made in the middle of the 20th century. The language of this fake is a mixture of different Slavic dialects. Despite the exposure, some writers still use the "Book of Veles" as a source of knowledge.

The only available image of one of the boards of the "Book of Veles", beginning with the words "We dedicate this book to Veles."

The history of Slavic fairy-tale creatures may be the envy of another European monster. The age of pagan legends is impressive: according to some estimates, it reaches 3000 years, and its roots go back to the Neolithic or even the Mesolithic - that is, about 9000 BC.

There was no common Slavic fairy-tale "menagerie" - in different places they spoke about completely different creatures. The Slavs did not have sea or mountain monsters, but forest and river evil spirits were abundant. There was no megalomania either: our ancestors very rarely thought about evil giants like the Greek Cyclopes or the Scandinavian Etuns. Some wonderful creatures appeared among the Slavs relatively late, during the period of their Christianization - most often they were borrowed from Greek legends and introduced into national mythology, thus creating a bizarre mixture of beliefs.

Alkonost

According to the ancient Greek myth, Alcyone, the wife of the Thessalian king Keikos, having learned about the death of her husband, threw herself into the sea and was turned into a bird, named after her alcyone (kingfisher). The word "Alkonost" entered the Russian language as a result of a distortion of the old saying "Alcyone is a bird."

Slavic Alkonost is a bird of paradise with a surprisingly sweet, euphonious voice. She lays her eggs on sea ​​shore, then plunges them into the sea - and the waves calm down for a week. When the chicks hatch from the eggs, a storm begins. In the Orthodox tradition, Alkonost is considered a divine messenger - she lives in heaven and descends to convey the highest will to people.

Asp

A winged snake with two trunks and a bird's beak. He lives high in the mountains and periodically makes devastating raids on villages. It gravitates towards rocks so much that it cannot even sit on damp ground - only on a stone. Asp is invulnerable to conventional weapons, it cannot be killed with a sword or arrow, but can only be burned. The name comes from the Greek aspis, a poisonous snake.

Auka

A kind of mischievous forest spirit, small, pot-bellied, with round cheeks. He does not sleep either in winter or in summer. He likes to fool people in the forest, responding to their cry "Ay!" from all sides. Leads travelers into a dense thicket and throws them there.

Baba Yaga

Slavic witch, popular folk character. Usually depicted as a nasty old woman with disheveled hair, a hooked nose, a "bone leg", long claws, and several teeth in her mouth. Baba Yaga is an ambiguous character. Most often, she performs the functions of a pest, with pronounced inclinations towards cannibalism, however, on occasion, this witch can voluntarily help a brave hero by questioning him, steaming in a bathhouse and bestowing magical gifts (or providing valuable information).

It is known that Baba Yaga lives in a dense forest. There stands her hut on chicken legs, surrounded by a palisade of human bones and skulls. It was sometimes said that instead of constipation, there were hands on the gate to Yagi's house, and a small toothy mouth served as a keyhole. The house of Baba Yaga is enchanted - you can only enter it by saying: "Hut-hut, turn your front to me, and back to the forest."
Like Western European witches, Baba Yaga can fly. To do this, she needs a large wooden mortar and a magic broom. With Baba Yaga, you can often meet animals (familiars): a black cat or a crow helping her in witchcraft.

The origin of the Baba Yaga estate is unclear. Perhaps it came from the Turkic languages, perhaps it was formed from the old Serbian "ega" - a disease.

Baba Yaga, bone leg. A witch, an ogre, and the first female pilot. Paintings by Viktor Vasnetsov and Ivan Bilibin.

Hut on kurnogs

A forest hut on chicken legs, where there are no windows or doors, is not fiction. This is how the hunters of the Urals, Siberia and the Finno-Ugric tribes built temporary dwellings. Houses with blank walls and an entrance through a hatch in the floor, raised 2-3 meters above the ground, protected both from rodents hungry for supplies and from large predators. Siberian pagans kept stone idols in similar structures. It can be assumed that the figurine of some female deity, placed in small house“on chicken legs”, and gave rise to the myth of Baba Yaga, who can hardly fit in her house: her legs are in one corner, her head is in another, and her nose rests on the ceiling.

Bannik

The spirit living in the baths was usually represented as a little old man with a long beard. Like all Slavic spirits, mischievous. If people in the bath slip, get burned, faint from the heat, scald with boiling water, hear the crackling of stones in the oven or knocking on the wall - all these are the tricks of the bannik.

In a big way, a bannik rarely harms, only when people behave incorrectly (wash themselves on holidays or late at night). Most of the time he helps them. Among the Slavs, the bath was associated with mystical, life-giving forces - they often took birth or guessed here (it was believed that the bannik could predict the future).

Like other spirits, the bannik was fed - they left him black bread with salt or buried a strangled black chicken under the threshold of the bath. There was also a female variety of a bannik - a bannitsa, or obderiha. Shishiga also lived in the baths - an evil spirit that appears only to those who go to the bath without praying. Shishiga takes the form of a friend or relative, calls a person to bathe with her and can steam to death.

Bash Celik (Man of Steel)

A popular character in Serbian folklore, a demon or evil sorcerer. According to legend, the king bequeathed to his three sons to give their sisters to the one who first asks for their hand. One night, someone with a thunderous voice came to the palace and demanded the younger princess as his wife. The sons fulfilled the will of their father, and soon lost their middle and older sisters in this way.

Soon the brothers came to their senses and went in search of them. The younger brother met a beautiful princess and took her as his wife. Looking out of curiosity into the forbidden room, the prince saw a man in chains. He introduced himself as Bash Chelik and asked for three glasses of water. The naive young man gave the stranger a drink, he regained his strength, broke the chains, released his wings, grabbed the princess and flew away. Saddened, the prince went in search. He found out that the thunderous voices that his sisters demanded as wives belonged to the lords of dragons, falcons and eagles. They agreed to help him, and together they defeated the evil Bash Chelik.

This is how Bash Celik looks like in the view of V. Tauber.

Ghouls

The living dead rising from their graves. Like any other vampires, ghouls drink blood and can devastate entire villages. First of all, they kill relatives and friends.

Gamayun

Like Alkonost, a divine bird woman whose main function is the fulfillment of predictions. The proverb “Gamayun is a prophetic bird” is well known. She also knew how to control the weather. It was believed that when Gamayun flies from the direction of sunrise, a storm comes after her.

Gamayun-Gamayun, how long do I have left to live? - Ku. - Why so ma ...?

Divya people

Demihumans with one eye, one leg and one arm. To move, they had to fold in half. They live somewhere on the edge of the world, multiply artificially, forging their own kind from iron. The smoke of their forges carries with it pestilence, smallpox and fevers.

Brownie

In the most generalized view - a domestic spirit, the patron of the hearth, a little old man with a beard (or all covered with hair). It was believed that every house has its own brownie. In the houses they were rarely called "brownies", preferring the affectionate "grandfather".

If people established normal relations with him, fed him (left a saucer with milk, bread and salt on the floor) and considered him a member of their family, then the brownie helped them do minor housework, watched the cattle, guarded the household, warned of danger.

On the other hand, an angry brownie could be very dangerous - at night he pinched people to bruises, strangled them, killed horses and cows, made noise, broke dishes and even set fire to the house. It was believed that the brownie lived behind the stove or in the stable.

Drekavak (drekavac)

A half-forgotten creature from the folklore of the southern Slavs. Its exact description does not exist - some consider it an animal, others a bird, and in central Serbia there is a belief that the drekavak is the soul of a dead unbaptized baby. They only agree on one thing - the drekavak can scream terribly.

Usually drekavak is the hero of children's horror stories, but in remote areas (for example, mountainous Zlatibor in Serbia), even adults believe in this creature. Residents of the village of Tometino Polie from time to time report strange attacks on their livestock - it is difficult to determine what kind of predator it was by the nature of the injuries. The villagers claim to have heard eerie screams, so the drekavak must have been involved.

Firebird

An image familiar to us from childhood, a beautiful bird with bright, dazzling fiery feathers (“like the heat burns”). The traditional test for fairy-tale heroes is to get a feather from the tail of this feathered one. For the Slavs, the firebird was more of a metaphor than a real being. She personified fire, light, the sun, perhaps knowledge. Its closest relative is the medieval Phoenix bird, known both in the West and in Rus'.

It is impossible not to recall such an inhabitant of Slavic mythology as the Rarog bird (probably distorted from Svarog - the blacksmith god). The fiery falcon, which may also look like a whirlwind of flame, Rarog is depicted on the coat of arms of the Rurikids (“Rarogs” in German) - the first dynasty of Russian rulers. The highly stylized diving Rarog eventually began to look like a trident - this is how the modern coat of arms of Ukraine appeared.

Kikimora (shishimora, mara)

An evil spirit (sometimes the brownie's wife), appearing in the form of a little ugly old woman. If a kikimora lives in a house behind a stove or in an attic, then he constantly harms people: he makes noise, knocks on walls, interferes with sleep, tears yarn, breaks dishes, poisons livestock. It was sometimes believed that infants who died without baptism became kikimora, or evil carpenters or stove-makers could let the kikimora into the house under construction. Kikimora, living in a swamp or in a forest, does much less harm - basically it only frightens stray travelers.

Koschei the Immortal (Kashchei)

One of the old Slavic negative characters well known to us, usually represented as a thin, skeletal old man with a repulsive appearance. Aggressive, vindictive, greedy and stingy. It is difficult to say whether he was the personification of the external enemies of the Slavs, an evil spirit, a powerful wizard, or a unique kind of undead.

It is indisputable that Koschey owned very strong magic, shunned people and often did the favorite thing for all the villains in the world - he kidnapped girls. In Russian science fiction, the image of Koshchei is quite popular, and he is presented in different ways: in a comic light (“Island of Rus” by Lukyanenko and Burkin), or, for example, as a cyborg (“The Fate of Koshchei in the Cyberozoic Era” by Alexander Tyurin).

Koshchei's "trademark" feature was immortality, and far from being absolute. As we all probably remember, on the magical island of Buyan (capable of suddenly disappearing and appearing in front of travelers) there is a large old oak tree on which a chest hangs. There is a hare in the chest, a duck in the hare, an egg in the duck, and a magic needle in the egg, where Koshchei's death is hidden. He can be killed by breaking this needle (according to some versions, by breaking an egg on Koshchei's head).

Koschey as presented by Vasnetsov and Bilibin.

Georgy Millyar - best performer roles of Koshchei and Baba Yaga in Soviet film fairy tales.

Goblin

Forest spirit, protector of animals. Looks like a tall man with a long beard and hair all over his body. In fact, not evil - he walks through the forest, protects him from people, occasionally shows himself in front of his eyes, for which he can take on any appearance - a plant, a mushroom (a giant talking fly agaric), an animal or even a person. Leshy can be distinguished from other people by two signs - his eyes burn with magical fire, and his shoes are worn backwards.

Sometimes a meeting with a goblin can end badly - it will lead a person into the forest and throw it to be eaten by animals. However, those who respect nature can even befriend this creature and get help from it.

famously one-eyed

The spirit of evil, failure, a symbol of grief. There is no certainty about Likh's appearance - it is either a one-eyed giant, or a tall, thin woman with one eye in the middle of her forehead. Famously, they are often compared with the Cyclopes, although apart from one eye and high growth, they have nothing in common.

The proverb has come down to our time: "Do not wake Likho while it is quiet." In the literal and allegorical sense, Likho meant trouble - it became attached to a person, sat on his neck (in some legends, the unfortunate tried to drown Likho by throwing himself into the water and drowned himself) and prevented him from living.
Likha, however, could be disposed of - deceived, driven away by willpower, or, as it is occasionally mentioned, transferred to another person along with some kind of gift. According to very gloomy prejudices, Likho could come and devour you.

Mermaid

In Slavic mythology, mermaids are a kind of mischievous evil spirits. They were drowned women, girls who died near a reservoir, or people bathing at inopportune hours. Mermaids were sometimes identified with "mavki" (from the Old Slavonic "nav" - a dead man) - children who died without baptism or were strangled by their mothers.

The eyes of such mermaids burn with green fire. By their nature, they are nasty and evil creatures, they grab bathing people by the legs, pull them under water, or lure them from the shore, wrap their arms around them and drown them. There was a belief that the laughter of a mermaid could cause death (this makes them look like Irish banshees).

Some beliefs called mermaids the lower spirits of nature (for example, good "shorelines"), which have nothing to do with drowned people and willingly save drowning people.

There were also "tree mermaids" living in the branches of trees. Some researchers rank as mermaids middays (in Poland - lakanits) - lower spirits, taking the form of girls in transparent white clothes, living in the fields and helping the field. The latter is also a nature spirit - it is believed that he looks like a little old man with a white beard. Polevoi lives in cultivated fields and usually patronizes peasants - except when they work at noon. For this, he sends noondays to the peasants so that they will deprive them of their minds with their magic.

Mention should also be made of the crowberry - a kind of mermaid, a baptized drowned woman who does not belong to the category of evil spirits, and therefore is relatively kind. Vodyanitsy love deep pools, but most often they settle under the mill wheels, ride them, spoil the millstones, muddy the water, wash out the pits, tear the nets.

It was believed that the waterwomen were the wives of watermen - spirits appearing in the form of old men with a long green beard made of algae and (rarely) fish scales instead of skin. Buggy-eyed, fat, creepy, merman lives at great depths in pools, commands mermaids and other underwater inhabitants. It was believed that he rides around his underwater kingdom on catfish, for which this fish was sometimes called the "devil's horse" by the people.

The merman is not malicious by nature and even acts as the patron of sailors, fishermen or millers, but from time to time he likes to play pranks, dragging a gaping (or offending) bather under water. Sometimes the merman was endowed with the ability to shapeshift - turning into fish, animals, or even logs.

Over time, the image of the water as the patron of rivers and lakes has changed - he began to be seen as a powerful "sea king" living under water in a chic palace. From the spirit of nature, the water one turned into a kind of magical tyrant, with whom the heroes folk epic(for example, Sadko) could communicate, conclude agreements and even defeat him with cunning.

Vodyanyye as imagined by Bilibin and V. Vladimirov.

Sirin

Another creature with the head of a woman and the body of an owl (owl), possessing charming voice. Unlike Alkonost and Gamayun, Sirin is not a messenger from above, but a direct threat to life. These birds are believed to live in Indian lands next to paradise, ”or on the Euphrates River, and they sing such songs for the saints in heaven, upon hearing which, people completely lose their memory and will, and their ships are wrecked.

It is not difficult to guess that Sirin is a mythological adaptation of the Greek sirens. However, unlike them, the Sirin bird is not negative character, but rather a metaphor for the temptation of a person by all sorts of temptations.

Nightingale the Robber (Nightingale Odikhmantievich)

The character of late Slavic legends, a complex image that combines the features of a bird, an evil wizard and a hero. The nightingale the robber lived in the forests near Chernigov near the Smorodina River and for 30 years guarded the road to Kyiv, not letting anyone in, deafening travelers with a monstrous whistle and roar.

The Nightingale the Robber had a nest on seven oaks, but the legend also says that he had a tower and three daughters. The epic hero Ilya Muromets was not afraid of the adversary and knocked out his eye with an arrow from a bow, and during their fight the whistle of the Nightingale the Robber knocked down the entire forest in the district. The hero brought the captive villain to Kyiv, where Prince Vladimir, for the sake of interest, asked the Nightingale the Robber to whistle - to check whether the rumor about the super-abilities of this villain is true. The nightingale, of course, whistled, so much so that he almost destroyed half the city. After that, Ilya Muromets took him to the forest and cut off his head so that such an outrage would not happen again (according to another version, the Nightingale the Robber later acted as an assistant to Ilya Muromets in battle).

For his first novels and poems, Vladimir Nabokov used the pseudonym Sirin.

In 2004, the village of Kukoboy (Pervomaisky district of the Yaroslavl region) was declared the "homeland" of Baba Yaga. Her "birthday" is celebrated on July 26th. The Orthodox Church came out with a sharp condemnation of the "worship of Baba Yaga."

Ilya Muromets - the only one epic hero, canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Baba Yaga is found even in Western comics, for example - "Hellboy" by Mike Mignola. In the first episode of the computer game Quest for Glory, Baba Yaga is the main plot villain. IN role play"Vampire: The Masquerade" Baba Yaga is a vampire of the Nosferatu clan (differ in ugliness and secrecy). After Gorbachev left the political arena, she came out of hiding and killed all the vampires of the Bruja clan that controlled the Soviet Union.

* * *

It is very difficult to list all the fabulous creatures of the Slavs: most of them have been studied very poorly and are local varieties of spirits - forest, water or domestic, and some of them were very similar to each other. In general, the abundance of non-material beings is very different Slavic bestiary from more "mundane" collections of monsters from other cultures
.
Among the Slavic "monsters" there are very few monsters as such. Our ancestors led a calm, measured life, and therefore the creatures that they invented for themselves were associated with elemental elements that were neutral in nature. If they resisted people, then, for the most part, only protecting mother nature and tribal traditions. The stories of Russian folklore teach us to be kinder, more tolerant, love nature and respect the ancient heritage of our ancestors.

The latter is especially important, because ancient legends are quickly forgotten, and instead of mysterious and mischievous Russian mermaids, Disney fish girls with shells on their breasts come to us. Do not be ashamed to study Slavic legends - especially in their original versions, not adapted for children's books. Our bestiary is archaic and in a sense even naive, but we can be proud of it, because it is one of the most ancient in Europe.

Painting by Boris Olshansky.

Long time ago, in Soviet times, somehow thought about this. I know Greek myths well, Hindu, Arabic, Chinese and Scandinavian myths are a little worse, I have an idea of ​​some others. I asked myself the question: do I know Russian mythology? At first I even doubted: is it there? I thought that there should be one, but I did not know her at all. Almost nothing.

Then I could name several dozen heroes of Greek myths, I tried to remember the names of Russian gods. I strained my memory and realized that I remember only two or three. I even felt ashamed myself.

They say that every cultured person for general development should know Greek myths. I will not argue, probably this is so, but each person first of all needs to know HIS, native, primordial. And you need to know your mythology at least twice as well as any other.

But in those days it was almost impossible to learn anything about Russian mythology. I had to wait for better times.

Seven years ago, I finally discovered wonderful world Russian myths, and was simply stunned by the enchanting picture that opened up to me - as if the city of Kitezh of indescribable beauty surfaced in front of me from unknown waters. There was a truly Russian spirit here, there was a smell of Russia.

Almost immediately I found paintings by great artists who painted on these topics: Boris Olshansky, Viktor Korolkov, Vsevolod Ivanov, Andrei Klimenko, Vladimir Suvorov, Nonna Kukel, Viktor Krizhanivsky. The brilliant Konstantin Vasiliev became clearer to me, he also has images of mythical Rus' ...

Below is very briefly about the main gods and goddesses of Russian mythology:

"Kind of heaven" - artist Nonna Kukel.

GENUS. Born from the Golden Egg, created by the thought of the Almighty. He, in turn, created the entire visible world. He divided the world into three parts: upper, middle and lower. The top one is in the sky. There are gods who rule over people. They do the right thing, and therefore the inhabited heavens are called Rule. Below is human world, which we clearly see - that's why its name is Yav. The lower one is the world of the past, Nav. The ancestors went there.

"Svarog" - artist Viktor Korolkov.

SVAROG. Creator of earth and heaven. Svarog is the source of fire and its master. He creates not with a word, not with magic, unlike Veles, but with his hands, he creates the material world.

TRIGLAV. This is a triune god. In this most important symbol, the very essence of our ancient faith: God is one, but he has many manifestations. Most often, it combined three main essence-hypostases - Svarog, Perun and Svyatovit (Sventovit). It was believed that Triglav vigilantly monitors all the kingdoms: Rule, Yavu and Navu.

Great Horse" - artist Viktor Korolkov.

HORSE. Ancient Slavic god of the Sun, son of Rod, brother of Veles. Khors is the god of solar, yellow, light. In Rus', at least three sun gods simultaneously existed: Dazhdbog, Khors and Yarilo. Their difference was as follows: Dazhdbog personified the heavenly light shedding on the earth, into the world of Reveal. Khors is the god of solar, yellow, light. Yarilo was the gods of spring light, sometimes personified the sun.

"Veles" - artist Andrey Klimenko.

VELES (Volos). One of the greatest gods of the ancient world, son of Rod, brother of Svarog. He set the world created by Rod and Svarog in motion. He was called the god of material wealth, wealth, prosperity, the patron of domestic animals, fertility, was considered an underground god, the Serpent, the ruler of the Lower World. Veles is the master of wildlife, the master of Navi, a powerful wizard and werewolf, interpreter of laws, teacher of arts, patron of travelers and merchants, god of luck.

"Dazhdbog" - artist Nonna Kukel.

DAZHDBOG. The giver of heat and light, the god of fertility and life-giving force, the time of the ripening of the crop.

"Perun" - artist Nonna Kukel.

PERUN. Perun - god thunderclouds, thunder and lightning; the god-governor, the god who punishes for non-compliance with laws, can cause rain. The most famous of the Svarozhich brothers. The god of thunder Perun was presented as a middle-aged strong man with a gray silvered head, with a golden mustache and beard. He rode across the sky on a horse or on a flaming chariot, armed with lightning bolts, axes or arrows. He commanded the clouds and heavenly waters.

YARILO. God of spring, spring light, warmth, fun; young, impetuous and uncontrollable force; deity of passion and fertility.

"Stribog" - artist Viktor Korolkov.

STRIBOG. The lord of the air elements, the lord of the winds, shoots them with arrows from the sea. He can summon and tame a storm and can transform into his assistant, the mythical bird Stratim. The air in Rus' was considered as a container of seven winds, seventy whirlwinds and seven hundred winds.

"Sventovit" - artist Konstantin Vasiliev.

SVYATOVIT (Sventovit). The four-headed god of prosperity and war. His symbol is the cornucopia. And although Dazhdbog commands the sun, he is not as influential as Svetovit. The four heads of Svetovit watch the universe in all directions. Svetovit counted on the supreme power, but Perun thought the same: they are eternal rivals.

ROOF. Among the ancient Russian gods, Rod, Svarog, Perun and others, Kryshnya is usually missed, but meanwhile, he is one of the main ones. The son of the Almighty and the goddess Maya, is brought as a brother to the very first creator of the world Rod, although he was much younger than him.

"Semargl" - artist Anna Zinkovskaya.

SEMARGL (Simargl). Son of Svarog, god of fire and moon, fire sacrifices, home and hearth, keeper of seeds and crops. Could turn into a sacred winged dog. Satellite of the sun Dazhdbog.

"Belobog" - artist Nonna Kukel.

BELBOG (Belobog, Belun). The embodiment of light, the personification of the daytime and spring sky. The God of good luck, happiness, kindness, goodness, He is also considered the giver of wealth and fertility.

CHERNOBOG (black Serpent, Koschey). God destroyer. God of cold, destruction, death, evil; the god of madness and the embodiment of everything bad and black. Chernobog is the lord of Navi, Darkness and the Pekelny kingdom. The Slavs believed that the brothers Belobog and Chernobog are eternal rivals - like good and evil, light and darkness, life and death. They follow a person everywhere and write down all his deeds, good and evil, in the books of fate.

KITOVRAS (Polkan). Half-horse - centaur. This is the god-builder, wizard, scientist and inventor. It has supernatural power. The legends about Kitovras refer to ancient times common Aryan unity and therefore known to many peoples. The Slavs believe that Kitovras guards the solar horses of Sventovit.

KOLYADA. The ancient god of merry feasts. Teacher of the Third Law of Life. He told people about the Great Kolo of Svarog, about the Day and Night of Svarog, and also established the first calendar.

FALL. The younger twin brother of Kolyada. He got the role of putting into practice the divine knowledge that Kolyada taught people.

"Number God" - artist Viktor Korolkov.

NUMBERBOG - the ruler of the current time.

"Lel" - (there are doubts in the artist's name, sorry, that's why I don't write (.

LEL (Lel, Lelya, Lelyo, Lyubich). In the mythology of the ancient Slavs, the god of love, the son of the goddess of beauty and love Lada. He was depicted as a golden-haired, like a mother, winged baby: after all, love is free and elusive.

"Makosh" - artist Nonna Kukel.

MAKOSH (Mokosh). Goddess of the earth, fertility, mother of crops, Fate, as well as the patroness of sheep breeding, women's needlework and prosperity in the house. The mother of the gods, perhaps the wife or incarnation of Veles-Mokos-Mokosh.

"Bereginya" - artist Boris Olshansky.

BEREGINYA. The great ancient Slavic goddess who gave birth to all things. She is accompanied everywhere by radiant riders, personifying the sun.

"Lada" - (the artist is unknown to me, alas).

LADA. Goddess of love and beauty. In the name of Lada, the ancient Slavs called not only the original goddess of love, but also the whole system of life - a way where everything should have been fine, that is, good. Perunitsa is one of the incarnations of the goddess Lada, the wife of the Thunderer Perun. She is sometimes called the thunder maiden, as if emphasizing that she shares power over thunderstorms with her husband. Lada is the goddess of marriage and love, abundance, the ripening time of the harvest.

"Marena - Mother Winter" - artist Nonna Kukel.

MARENA (Mara, Morena, Marana). Goddess of winter and death, the world of the dead. Daughter of Lada, sister of Zhiva and Lelya. She is the wife of Koshchei.

"Devana" - artist Pyotr Orlovsky.

DEVANA (Zevana, Dzevana). Goddess of the hunt, wife of the forest god Svyatobor. The ancient Slavs represented Devana in the guise of a beauty dressed in a rich marten fur coat trimmed with a squirrel; with drawn bow and arrows. Instead of epancha (outerwear), a bearskin was thrown over, and the head of the beast served as a hat.

"Rusalia" - artist Boris Olshansky.

Sobral A.Ziborov

(According to Russian media)