Andrei Rublev. Four kingdoms: Babylonian, Macedonian, Roman and Antichrist. Fresco from the cycle "The Last Judgment" in the Assumption Cathedral of Vladimir. 1408
By coincidence of historical circumstances - or by the Creator's plan - Rus' took over the baton of the power of the Orthodox Tsar from Byzantium, crushed by the military power of the Ottoman Turks, the burden of its own sins and mistakes, the unbearable burden of the betrayal of imaginary friends. The historical fate of Rus' developed in such a way that, having gone through the terrible trials of enemy invasions, preserving and strengthening the Orthodox faith under the conditions of a foreign yoke, and in the end, regaining state power, a new strong Rus' appeared to the world in order to carry further the cosmic fire of Christ " right confession" on the way to the worldwide Kingdom of grace.
This theme of salvation of the primordial Christian faith through the assumption by Russia of the mission of the Orthodox "center of power" is reflected in Russian culture. Ancient legends establish a mystical regularity in the development of world civilizations. Universal kingdoms-empires arise, strengthen and perish under certain conditions, and the place of the “center of power” doomed to disappear must be occupied by another one capable of making a breakthrough into the future, meeting the tasks of the Divine Plan.
Legends about the transfer of universal power:
from ancient Babylon to Byzantium
Oral tradition, genetic memory, expressed in folk culture, stores and transmits through many and many generations the truth about the events of bygone eras and relatively recent times. Ancient works make it possible to establish historical truth, determine the place, role and relationship of peoples in common process development of world civilization.
Babylonian cycle of legends
From the end of the XV century. spread in Rus' legends about the Babylonian kingdom, among them - "The Parable of Babylon City"", or "The Tale of the City of Babylon», « Letter from Leo to Babylon And " On the Marriage of Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar Foundling ( character outside historical context ), by the will of fate, having reigned in Babylon – the first world "center of power"- ordered to do " the sign of the serpent» on all city utensils, on clothes, weapons, banners, mansions. A stone serpent was built at the gates of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar made himself a self-cutting sword, a werewolf sword - “ Serpent Asp”, which differs in that during the battle he himself flew out of the scabbard and began to cut enemies without mercy. Before his death, the king of the “scepter-holding Babylonian state” bequeathed to wall up a terrible destructive weapon in the city wall and conjured never to take it out.
Under Nebuchadnezzar's son Basil, Babylon was attacked by "many kings with great powers." Basil sent his commanders against them with a large army, but the army could not withstand the onslaught. The nobles began to force Vasily to get a self-cutting sword. Vasily did not dare to violate his father's ban: “The sword of my father is cursed until the end of time, I did not order it to be taken out” - but they told him: “You, sovereign, for the present time, and when military time passes, and you, king, save him again.” The king took out a self-cut sword and rode with it to the army. The sword flew out of its scabbard and cut off the head of the king and cut down many warriors. And the serpents depicted on various objects suddenly descended and devoured all the Babylonians. “From the same places to the now reigning city of Babylon, the new city has become empty” . Wild animals and all kinds of monsters settled in it. A monstrous serpent sprawled around Babylon - a living stone statue. So Babylon perished through its own fault and from its own superpower, when it violated the paternal covenant.
This story is continued by "Message from Leo the King of Greece, in the holy baptism of Basil ...". The Orthodox king Leo (Levkiy), in baptism Basil, decided to get from Babylon "signs" belonging to three holy youths (according to the Bible, friends of the prophet Daniel) - Onania, Ozaria and Misail. Gathering an army, the Greek king went to Babylon. Fifteen days on the way to Babylon, the tsar decided to send “three men” there: the Greek Gugriy, the “Obezhan” (Abkhazian) Yakov and the Rusyn Lavr. “... and drove to Babylon for three weeks. And when they came there, they did not see the hail: everything was overgrown with past so that the palace was not visible. They let the horses go and found a path along which small animals walked. In the thickets of those there was only part of the grass, and two parts of reptiles; but they had no fear. And they went that way and came to the serpent.”
Having read the inscription above the serpent, composed of phrases in three languages - Greek, "Obez" and Russian, - with great difficulty passing by all the monsters and climbing over the serpent, the messengers entered the dead city of Babylon, bowed to the relics of the saints and drank from the goblet that stood on the coffin And the "voice from the tomb" of the holy youths directed them to the king's chambers, where the ambassadors found two crowns - one of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon and « of the whole universe," and the other his wife. At the crowns was a letter in Greek, it was said: “Until now, these crowns have been hidden, but now, with the prayers of the three holy youths, they should be placed on the God-protected Tsar Basil and on the blessed Empress Alexandra”. The ambassadors took the crowns with the letter and, together with the seized jewels, including, "carnelian crab" With " royal scarlet" delivered to Byzantium.
The holy "sign" - signs of royal power - was transferred to the patriarch. “The patriarch took two crowns and, having read the letter, laid them on Tsar Basil and Tsarina Alexandria, originally from Armenia.”
Nebuchadnezzar - the prototype of the universal king
Babylon in Russian folk art is an archetype, rooted in the Russian consciousness, the personification of non-aggressive power, fabulous wealth, glorious heroic deeds. During its two thousand years of history, the ancient city of Babylon twice became the capital of a great empire. Babylonian kingdom in the XIX-VI centuries. BC. became the cradle of significant scientific and intellectual progress. Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II(605-562 BC) in Rus' - a legendary character, he was revered on a par with epic heroes. In the minds of the people, he is an ideal ruler, victorious, wise and just.
Depiction of the historical Nebuchadnezzar II (630-562 BC). Babylonian cameo
Nebuchadnezzar was one of the greatest rulers in history. He was the son of Nabopolassar, the founder of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom. The aggressive campaigns of Nebuchadnezzar were all aimed at one goal: strengthening the new state within the boundaries of the former Assyro-Babylonian kingdom, destroyed by nomads and internal uprisings. For this purpose, it was necessary to fight with the Egyptians, who invaded Syria. Egypt's repeated and insidious attempts to create an anti-Babylonian coalition with local kings in violation of all agreements led to the conquest of Judea, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon (586 BC), the Babylonian captivity and the devastating campaign of Nebuchadnezzar himself to Egypt (568 BC). BC.). The kingdom he founded extended from Suez to Iran. It was announced that the god Marduk gave Nebuchadnezzar the whole earth under his command, so that "from horizon to horizon he would have no rivals." He reigned for 43 years.
Nebuchadnezzar was a gifted military leader and a talented diplomat. But the most glorious deeds are associated with his peace initiatives. Babylon owes him the restoration as the capital of the world. The technocrat king applied new technologies for the construction of palaces, temples, and city fortifications. He introduced new materials (enamelled brick, asphalt combined with natural materials), advanced defensive and engineering solutions (drainage and irrigation systems, ditches, hanging parks, multi-storey construction of residential buildings, a seven-story 91st ziggurat - tower of babel), built roads, complex defensive complexes. The prayers addressed by him to Marduk have a monotheistic-biblical flavor. "Marduk, lord, grant us eternal life!" However, the role of the “destroyer of the city of God” and the Jerusalem temple were the reason that his name was for a long time the subject of horror and even disgust or even taboo in literature.
Nebuchadnezzar. Color engraving. Tate Gallery, London. 1795
In the Bible, the Jewish prophets (Isaiah, 14; Daniel, 4) created the image of a proud villain who, at the end of his life, went mad and began to eat grass like an animal. But this information is doubtful. As "The Encyclopedia Americana" writes ("American Encyclopedia", vol. 20), Nebuchadnezzar until the end of his days was the type of a perfect monarch". In modern sources, he is sometimes compared with Napoleon and Stalin.
The Babylonian captivity and the power of Babylon left such a mark on the historical memory of the Jews that in later written monuments his name was pronounced in a negative context - it became a symbol of a terrible, rich and immoral city. In the "Revelation of John the Theologian" ("Apocalypse") it is said: "Babylon the Great, mother of harlots and abominations of the earth" (Rev. 17:3-6). It should, however, be said that reading from the book of Revelation has never been part of the liturgical practice of the Eastern Church.
Babylon is mentioned in the First Epistle of the Apostle Peter, where he says that he "greets the elected church in Babylon." Some latin writers claimed that under this name ap. Peter understands Rome. The claims of the Roman popes as the successors of the Apostle Peter are thus correlated with the transfer of the universal "center of power", which was Babylon, to Rome.
Symbolism of the "Tales of Babylon"
Babylonian stories are full of symbols, everything seems to be encrypted in them. Participation in the campaign for the "sign" of three representatives Greece (Byzantium), Abkhazia (Georgia) and Rus' indicates the unity of the three peoples in their Christian asceticism. But when Constantinople fell, the Kingdom of Georgia (with Abkhazia in its composition) collapsed, and the separated Abkhazia, as well as Armenia, fell under the yoke of the Ottoman Empire, all rights to the signs of royal dignity were to be transferred to the Russian grand dukes.
Interestingly, the Tale localizes the main geopolitical threat to Orthodoxy by no means in exotic southern countries. : “From there the king wished to go to India. David, the king of Crete, said: “Go to the countries of the north, to the enemies of the infidels, for the Christian race!”
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"Babylonian legends" developed in Byzantium until the 13th century. and symbolically conveyed the idea of the regular succession of royal power by Byzantium from the rulers of Babylon - the greatest and most ancient "universal kingdom". It is difficult to say how they got to Rus': the Greek original of these legends has not come down to us. Perhaps the legends of Babylon were brought by pilgrims from the East. It is also known that at the beginning of the 13th century. Novgorod Bishop Anthony (Dobrynya Andreikovich) traveled to Constantinople and saw there a “drag stone”, according to legend, brought to Emperor Leo (probably Leo VI the Philosopher) from Babylon. Be that as it may, the cycle of legends was included in the hagiographic collection Great Menaion Chetiy, which was especially revered by the Old Believers.
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In the 16th century in Rus', versions of the story about Babylon were already found, where the original Byzantine legend was supplemented with a Russian ending corresponding to the new geopolitical reality. IN "Tales of the Grand Dukes of Vladimir"It is said that the Byzantine tsar Konstantin Monomakh sent Vladimir Vsevolodovich, the Russian prince, purple and the royal scepter, "carnelian crab with all royal linen" and Monomakhov's hat, which is taken from Babylon»: “And from that hour, the Grand Duke Vladimir of Kiev Monomakh passed away, and to this day, throughout Russia, the kings of Moscow are married in this age with viss and royal purple and a Monomakh cap.”
Thus, the "Tale of the Babylonian Kingdom" substantiates historical transition"universal" power to the Russian tsar and the head of the Russian church and gives this act a sacred character. The motifs of the Babylonian story became popular among the people and spread to many Russian medieval works (for example, the life of St. Cyric and Julitta). The legends are filled with folklore-fabulous images that came from ancient myths: here is a serpent guarding the city and emitting a terrible whistle, and a goblet with a magic drink; a wonderful self-cut sword, a journey for jewels in a city inhabited by monsters.
The Serpent and other reptiles that inhabit Babylon are mentioned in the Bible - the Books of Genesis tell of the struggle of the god Yahweh with the monstrous serpent of the depths Leviathan. The image of the snake has the most ancient origin- cuneiform Sumerian texts they tell about the battle of the supreme god of the Sun and light Enlil (Marduk) with the dragon-goddess Tiamat - the Serpent of Darkness, personifying chaos, deceit and vice; about the god Ea - the snake-tempter, about the white king of all snakes - the healing seven-headed white snake Shakhmer.
God Marduk and the Serpent Dragon
The deadly serpent appears in the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh (3000 BC), where the demigod king Gilgamesh searched for and found the flower of eternal life, but the serpent stole immortality from him:
“The flower snake smelled the smell,
She rose from the hole, dragged the flower,
Returning back, shed her skin.
The image of the serpent later moved to Christian tradition. The serpent or dragon is Satan, the enemy of God and a participant in the fall. He personifies the forces of evil, death, destruction, deceit, the enemy.
In the snake of the stories about Babylon, the image of Ouroboros is guessed ( Greekοὐ ροβόρος, lit. “devouring [his] tail”) - a mythological world serpent, wrapping a ring around the Earth, grabbing its own tail.
Depiction of ouroboros in an alchemical treatise from 1478 by Theodore Pelecanos
Ouroboros is one of the first symbols of infinity in human history, a symbol of eternal rebirth, the cyclical nature of the Universe: creation from destruction, Life from Death. It is a symbol of immortality and time, which has neither end nor beginning. The successful overcoming by the Greeks and Rusyns of the obstacle in the form of the Babylonian Serpent in the legend symbolizes what time itself hands over to these peoples. "the Omen power for eternal life.
Fairy-tale images and symbols that have come down to us from ancient times are evidence of the common origin and common historical past of many peoples. The study of their transition from one cultural layer to another makes it possible to recreate a picture of the development of mankind. The roots of the Russian people through the millennia go to ancient Sumer-Babylon.
V.M.Vasnetsov. Fight with a snake
From Nebuchadnezzar to Ivan the Terrible
The legend about the transfer of spiritual and secular power acquired new accents and branched into new plots along with the development of Rus itself. Folk tales about the journey to Babylon Theodora Bormy (Bormy Yaryzhki) behind the royal crown and scepter, they link the transfer of royal signs from Babylon to Rus' with the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible and his adoption of the royal title. In the fairy tale, the envoy of Emperor Leo Fyodor Borma, a pious, devout man, brings purple, a crown and other royal regalia from Babylon to Tsargrad, but finds a war there, sees that the Orthodox tsar is gone, the Christian faith is collapsing, and therefore carries the regalia to the conquered by Grozny Kazan: “And here the porphyry and the crown fell from the city of Babylon on the head of the Terrible Tsar, the faithful Ivan, Tsar Vasilyevich, who destroyed the kingdom of Prohodim, the filthy prince of Kazan.”
The tale captures the events of the moment: the capture of Kazan with the help of tunnels and explosions of gunpowder is symbolically depicted in Borma's struggle with the "reptiles", when he, with the explosion of twenty-seven barrels of gunpowder, burns the snakes attacking his ship. The kingdom where the royal regalia were kept is called in a fairy tale "serpentine” and is associated with the Kazan kingdom, which in the annalistic story about the capture of Kazan and other sources, the authors call "city of serpents" saturated with Russian blood (repeating the legend that Kazan was founded on the place where the "serpent's nest" used to be), and the "bessermenstvo" expelled from Kazan is depicted as a fiery serpent flying away from the city.
This is how the Byzantine legend developed in Russian folklore, and in fairy tales. symbolic images a cosmogonic picture of the emergence, development, fall of world civilizations and their rebirth in new guises was created. Rus' was becoming a new Ecumenical Kingdom, which was entrusted with a special historical mission: to become an Orthodox "center of power" so that the Divine Plan of the endless development of human civilization would not be interrupted and continued to be carried out.
The program is recommended and rich in biblical motifs "The Legend of the Babylonian Kingdom". This legend can be regarded as a kind of literary monument of the 15th century, a transitional genre from legend to storytelling. It tells how Tsar Levkiy-Vasily sent three young men: the Greek Gugriy, the "Obezhan" Jacob and the Rusian Lavr to get from Babylon the "signs" belonging to the three holy biblical youths. In the ruins of Babylon, they see a huge sleeping serpent and inscriptions above it in the native languages of the ambassadors. The inscriptions open the way for the young men to the treasures. In the royal palace, they find the crowns of King Nebuchadnezzar, precious stones and goblets. After drinking wine from goblets, the ambassadors get tipsy. Returning home, they accidentally wake up the snake, he wakes up and emits a whistle, from which people fall as if dead. Fifteen days later, the whistle of a snake reaches the camp of Basil, and his army falls to the ground dead. After some time, the king's messengers awaken from their sleep and return from Babylon with "signs".
The legend is a kind of monument, which combines the legend of obtaining royal signs, associated with the biblical story of the three youths, and an adventure story close to a fairy tale.
The monument is included in the hagiographic collection "Great Menaion of the Chetia".
The translated novels of the 17th century include "The Tale of Bova the Queen". It widely uses the poetics of folklore, fabulous speech, which turns it into a "folk book". Her characters are close and understandable to the Russian reader. The story is an example of how a literary work appears in its folklore existence.
The story was a great success with readers of the 18th century. The plot of the story was subjected to poetic processing by G.R. Derzhavin, A.N. Radishchev and A.S. Pushkin.
"The Tale of Bova the King" is a legend about the exploits of the knight Bova de Anton, which took shape in medieval France. Came to Rus' in a Serbian-Croatian translation in the 16th century, then retold in Belarusian and mentioned among literary works XVII century, the story was widely distributed until the beginning of the XX century. On Russian soil, there was a process of its processing, rapprochement with a fairy tale. It has an adventurous feel to it. Several editions of the story are known.
The action of the tale begins with the words: "There was no kingdom, in a great state, in glorious city in Anton lived the glorious King Vidon. "This is a fabulous beginning. And in the future everything resembles a fairy tale. The main character is the villain - Bova's mother, Queen Militris, who exhausted her husband and married King Dodon. She tried to kill her son. Escaping from the intrigues of an evil mother, Bova fled to the Armenian kingdom and entered the service of King Zenzevei. There he fell in love with Zenzeveya's daughter Druzhnevna. Since then, his adventures begin: the fight against rivals who are wooing Druzhnevna, with King Markobrun, seeking her hand, a duel with the bogatyr Lukoper, the son of Tsar Saltan Saltanovich.Lukoper appears in a guise very close to the epic Idolishche (epic "Ilya Muromets and the filthy Idolishche"): "his eyes are like a beer cauldron, and between the eyes of the husband's goodness is five, and between the ears of the knee the arrow will fall, and between the shoulders there is a measuring fathom.
Bova, as a fairy-tale hero, goes through a series of adventures: participates in battles and defeats a large army, is captured, imprisoned, escapes from captivity, kidnaps Druzhnevna, loses and finds her again. The story ends happy ending, as in a folk tale, the hero returns to his hometown. He avenges his father, kills Dodon and the criminal mother. "And Bova considered to live in the old days with Druzhnevna, and with his children - to get away hard, but to gain good."
The story is close to a fairy tale and turned into folklore. The image of Bova is close to the images of the epic epic. He is endowed with the same features as the heroes in fairy tales: he is brave, honest, fights for truth and justice, has a huge physical strength beauty, external and internal. He has a good heroic horse and a treasure sword. Just as in the folk epos, the opponents of Bova are also depicted. There are many fairy-tale elements in the story: cakes mixed with snake fat by Militrisa in order to poison Bova, the appearance of Bova in the form of an old man on the eve of Druzhnevna's wedding with Markobrun, a sleeping potion with which the girl gives Markobrun water, etc. Fairy-tale beginnings and endings are also typical in the story, as well as the tale-like manner of "slow narration".
Originally belonging to the genre of chivalric romance, "The Tale of Bova the King" in ancient Russian literature felt like a fairy tale.
QUESTIONS AND TASKS
- Based on the content of "The Tale of Bova the Queen", show it fabulous character: composition, images of heroes, figurative and expressive means.
- Compare the "Tale" with the Russian epics of the Kyiv cycle: "Ilya Muromets and the filthy Idolish", "Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin", "Alyosha and Dobrynya".
- Read an excerpt from the unfinished poem by A.S. Pushkin "Bova". How did Pushkin poetically process the well-known plot?
- What is the place of "The Tale of Bova the King" in the development Literature XVII century?
Be in the Babylonian kingdom, King Axerxes, with glory and majesty above many great kings, having reigned in the reigning city of Babylon for many years. But he had such a temper in his heart: if he sees a prince, or a boyar, or a nobleman, or from ordinary people, red on his forehead, with a penny, and Tsar Axerxes orders those people to be sent out of the city to the forest for twenty fields from the city, yes, let them live, and even though they die, and the king Akserks taco Babylon kept the hail from pestilence: that is a sign of pestilence. Having passed that familiar moon for a long time, the parents of those people bring them out of the hail of food and lay on stumps, but do not get along with their parents. The same king Axerxes reposed from his kingdom, died. The same people are tenacious in the forest, they have not seen any bird or beast. Those people heard that there was no king in Babylon, and they began to gather, although they wanted to go to the city. And having found an owl on a pine tree, and right there under a pine tree a baby, and a wild goat near the same pine tree. And those people did not know how to give the baby a name, and called the name Nosor to the owl, and the name Akha to the goat, and the name Navkhod to the baby. And give the baby [second name] Navkhodnosor. And taking the baby, and starting to feed him, and having gone all the people innumerably into the city of Babylon, and having entered all the people into the city from the forest, and there was great joy in the city of Babylon, that all the relatives were condescending, and others were dying in the forest. The princes, and the boyars, and the nobles, and all the Babylonians, live for a short time, until there was no king. On some day, the princes and boyars and grandees and all the Babylonian knights descended to the place of execution and made advice, how would they find a king for themselves in Babylon, so that the king over them would be great. And all the princes and boyars and grandees and all the Babylonians said: "It is impossible for us to choose a king from among the princes and from the boyars and from the nobles, but there are many great and noble ones." And inventing all, and condemning all the Babylonians, that they should put a horn with izmyr in the gates of the city, and commanding all the prince and boyar and nobles and all the Babylonians to go and go out of the city and into the city of Viehati, and over whom the horn is boiled, that and the king wake over us in Babylon. And having made tacos, having placed a horn with myrrh in the gates of the city. The same hour, for one, all the princes and boyars and grandees and all the Babylonians ride horseback and on foot from the city and into the city many times, and the horn did not boil over anyone. As the found baby Nafkhodnosor rode from the city and to the city, that hour the horn boiled with izmyrny. The princes and the boyars and the nobles and all the Babylonians saw such a great miracle, and descended from their horses, and were with the footmen together, and bowing together all to Nefhodnosor, and saying to all: "Rejoice, Nefhodnosor, the king of Babylon, reigning on the throne sitting in a scepter-holding great glorious state. And wake us and the entire Babylonian state as a champion and intercessor with your veleum sense and great brave courage from finding great kings. "And bringing him into the royal house, and laying on him the royal robe, and placing the royal crown on his head, and the royal scepter in his hand vdasha to him, and seated him on the royal throne, and all the princes, and the boyars and nobles, and all the Babylonian knights bowed. The same Nafkhodnezzar, the king of Babylon, was very young, but old in veleum wisdom and courage, having begun to reign and was very wise.
On some day, the king Nefkhodnosor ordered to be all the prince, and the boyar, and the nobles, and all the Babylonians that hour. And everyone gathered, Nafkhodnosor the king began to say: "Princes, and boyars, and nobles and all the Babylonian knights, create for me a new city of Babylon about seven walls, seven miles, and entry and exit are one gate, and near the city create a great serpent. In the head of the serpent would enter the city. All of them, the princes, and the boyars, and the nobles, and all the Babylonian knights, and all the Babylonians, did not disobey the king, creating the new city of Babylon velmi chuden. Fall in love with the new city of Babylon Nefhodnosor the king. And the king entered the new king's house, and all the princes, and the boyars, and the nobles, and their new houses. And King Nafchodnezor commanded in all the city of Babylon to put a banner on a dress, and on weapons, and on horses, and on bridles, and on saddles, and on mansions, on every log, and on doors, and on windows, and on ships, on staves, and on dishes, and on horsebacks, and on all ships, and on all cattle, the banner of all snakes. The king fell in love with that banner and commanded himself to make a self-cut sword asp snake. And he took for himself a queen from the great family of the king, and took with her the son of the prince named Vasily. On some day of the great Nafkhodnosor, the king commanded at the gates of the city, at the head of the serpent on both sides of the lattice, to make copper, and for those lattices he commanded to dung coal. And as during the arrival of the embassy, when the ambassadors come from the great kings or from the great kingdoms, and then Nafkhodnezzar, the king of Babylon, will command his formidable governors outside the city and on the field, twenty miles to the city, to arrange the regiments of the great and on the shelves the banners of lions, and in all half a workshop of alarms, and lays, and many-voiced trumpets. Whenever the ambassadors go through the great regiments, then in all the regiments the governors will command to strike at all the alarms and nakras and at the many-voiced trumpets, and then the ambassadors will walk merrily. And when they come near the gates of the city, and then three hundred blacksmiths will start blowing into the bellows, igniting the coal. And then smoke and sparks. And when the ambassadors enter the gate at the head of the serpent, and then the fire and breaking will sprinkle the ambassadors. And then the ambassadors of great horror will be filled and, having come to the great king Nafkhodnosor, they will bow down and tremble with their hearts and barely complete the embassy ...
[Further on, we are talking about the fact that many kings with great forces went to Babylon. The battles of the Babylonians with enemies are described. The advantage is always on the side of the Babylonians. They finally win when Nebuchadnezzar himself enters the battle: his self-cutting sword, the asp-serpent, fluttered out of the king's scabbard and began to flog everyone around without mercy. After that, Nebuchadnezzar reigned for many years and before his death ordered the self-cutting sword to be walled up in the city wall, conjuring not to take it out until the end of time. After Nebuchadnezzar, his son Basil Nebuchadnezzar became king.]
In some days, many kings heard that the king of Nefhodnezzar was gone in Babylon, and his son king Basil reigns in Babylon, and many kings copulated with great powers and went to Babylon. And when you entered the Babylonian borders, then announcing to Tsar Vasily Navkhodnosorovich about the coming of many great kings with great forces, the same hour Tsar Vasilei Navkhodnosorovich ordered his formidable commanders to organize regiments of wills, as if there were 30,000, and ordered them to fight. They were the threats of the governors of Babylonia, who began to fight, but not by virtue of them, they forced them back to the city. Terrible voevodas, princes, and boyars, and nobles, approaching the great Tsar Vasily and rekosha all loudly: “Great Tsar Vasily Navchodnosorovich, it’s not in our power to fight with many great tsars. Take, sovereign king, from the city walls of your father the sword of self-cut, the asp of the serpent, for the current military time, but protect us and the Babylonian state from finding many foreign kings. The king of Basil said to them: "The sword of my father is cursed until the end of time, he did not order it to be taken out." They are all the Babylonians in a voice of voice rekosha: "You, sovereign, for the present time, and when the time of war passes, and you, the king, save it again." He, the great king, took pity on the Babylonians, commanded them to fight, and the great king Basil himself, taking out the sword of his father, self-cut, and commanded himself to saddle the great horse, and hid in golden royal military armor, and girded the self-cut sword on his thigh, and all the time on great horse, and taking with him the brave knights of the Babylonians, and go out of the city to help your own. When Tsar Vasily Navkhodnosorovich was imputed to his regiments, he wanted to fight, the same hour the self-cutting sword, the asp of the serpent, fluttered out of the sheath from the king and cut off the head of Tsar Vasily and the kings of the great cuts with great forces, and the Babylonian knights had everything they had there was a banner on a dress, and on weapons, on horses, and on bridles, and on saddles, and all sorts of military snakes, those snakes all became alive, they all ate the Babylonian army, and in the city that was the banner of the serpent, wives and children ate and all cattle, and what was a great serpent near the city of stones, and he became alive, whistling and roaring. From the same places to the now reigning city of Babylon, the new city has become empty, and this is the end of this matter.
A MESSAGE FROM LEVO, THE KING OF GREEK, IN THE HOLY BAPTISM OF BASIL, WHAT MESSENGERS SENT TO BABYLON HISTORY TO TEST AND TAKE THE SIGN FROM THE HOLY THREE YOUTHS - ANANIA, AND AZARIA, AND MISAEL
Before the Greek Tsar Basil, although send to Babylon the city of two people of a different language, a Christian family, they also rekosha tsarto: “We are not worthy of two youths, because the path is narrow; Slavic". And this word was pleasing to Tsar Basil: having done this, as if his envoys desired, and the ambassador of three pious men: the first Christian family, named Yuri, the second Greek Iyakov, the third obezhanet Esaul the Slav. When she sent them, and Tsar Vasily himself gathered an army and set off in the wake of his messengers; and having reached the king Basil of Babylon city for 15 races, and calling his messengers, and saying to them: "Listen to me: I say to you, Yuri, Esaule and Jacob, now go from me to Babylon city, led by God. If you find the verb a sign from the holy three youths, but bring this to the place, then I myself will not leave this place, but I will be an advocate against enemies for the Orthodox faith and for the Christian race.
Three men, having heard the verb from the king, and bowed down to the ground and went from the king on the way to the city of Babylon. Idosha of the messenger slowly green, because the path is narrow, and with great need, Idosha; and they had already come near the city, and they did not see anything, neither the city nor the battlements. And they deserted their horses in the field and found a small beast; the former great ones have grown, like a thistle, the grass is undesirable, the circle of the whole city of Babylon; and far from the city of Babylon, that grass is 16 miles away; for that there were two grasses, and against those grasses of all kinds of reptiles, snakes and great toads, and diversity, there are no more numbers, like great haystacks, winding from the ground and to the top: ovi whistle, and others hissing, and from others it’s cold out, like it’s cold in winter. By the will of God and the prayers of the holy three youths, do not be a messenger of that fear and not a single one from those reptiles, but all the reptiles themselves fleeing from them with great noise, covering the heads of soybeans, and running along the paths to the shares, to the grass of that past. On the third day, the messengers came and reached that great serpent, even as the circle of the whole city lies, and having turned around, as the small serpent, bent over, lies. And along the wall a ladder from a cypress tree was laid through that great serpent on the city wall; but whoever put up that ladder, no one knows, only Christ himself knows; and the height of the ladder is 18 steps; three letters are written on the same ladder: the first in Greek, the second in Obezhan, and the third in Slavic and Russian. And it is written that it says: in Greek: "whatever man God brings, go to the ladder"; now, in Obezhanian language, he says: "Climb this ladder without fear through the great serpent"; and in Slovene he says: "Yes, go up the other ladder to the city and to the very same church, not being afraid." Be there inside the city through that great serpent; that great serpent itself turned around the circle of the whole city of Babylon, and bent its trunk from another country to the same gates where the head lies. The messengers, out of fear, went to the ladder through that great serpent and along the second ladder went inside, where it was placed, from the city walls and to the church, and there three letters were written on that ladder, as on the first ladder; he commands those reptiles, neither to be afraid of that great serpent, nor of his majesty.
The messengers, having entered the churches of the three holy youths, and being filled with fragrance from the saints, be in the church of the holy three youths, many of their writings and deeds were written in faces on the church walls. These three pious men bowed to the tomb of the three youths and said: “I come to worship you, the holy youth Ananias, and Azarias, and Misail, by God’s will of the sovereign of our Greek king Leo, in holy baptism Basil, to bring from you to him, there are you please give." And seeing the envoy, the goblet standing on the tomb was very green, created from gold and decorated with pearls and precious stones; that goblet is worth full of peace and lebanon. The messengers, having taken that cup, drank from it, had fun and slept for a long time, and awakened from their sleep, and wanting to take that cup with the fragrance of it and carry it to the king. But at that time, from the tombs at the ninth hour of the day, there was a voice: "Do not dare to take this cup, but go to the royal treasures, this speech is in the king's court, and there take a sign." Messengers are terrible. Then a third voice came to them: "Do not be afraid, but go to the king's chambers." They are vostasha and poidosha. But the court of the kings stands from the church, how it is possible to shoot from a bow; but in the court of the king there is a great multitude. But one coat was great and decorated more than the previous coats with many things. The messengers, however, entered inside the skirt of the toy, in the chamber of that there stands a royal bed made from other patterns and decorated, on it there are two royal crowns: the first king of Babylon and the whole universe, [another] his queen; and then I saw a letter lying, written in Greek; the verb: “These crowns were created, when Nevchadnezzar, the king, created a golden body, at that time, waking up from his sleep and wanting to take Deira in the field, and those crowns were created from the stone of samphira, and from the bisar dragago, and from the gold of the Arabites, the essence was created and hitherto a god, but now be on the Greek king Leo, in the holy baptism of Basil, and on his queen Alexandra with the prayers of the holy youths. The envoys took the crowns and the letter, and went to the second floor, and there they saw the other curtains, and this was the speech of the royal veil. The envoys, though, take them with your hands, and the chains crumble to dust, and lie down for many years. In the same one, seeing a middle-dollar crab, in it there was a royal scarlet, this speech of porphyry; Yes, right there, and you see, there are two caskets filled with gold, and silver, and pearl beads, and valuable stones, and right there you see a golden goblet, the same as in the church of the saints on the tomb of St. Ananias. The messengers, taking up the crab, and gold, and that cup, and the royal scarlet, and crowns, and stones of others in the number of 25 stones, and those other things, as if they could be carried to Tsar Basil, and returning from the royal court; and having come again to the church of the three holy youths and bowed to their tomb, and already to them there was no voice from those tombs. For the sake of this, the messengers were in great sorrow, and approached with fear to the tomb of the holy lad Ananias, and took the cup, drank from that cup, and be cheerful, as before this, and fell asleep for the whole night.
In the morning, winding Sunday days at the 1st hour, be it a voice, second verb: "Wash your faces." The messengers quickly rose up and saw a standing church cup with water; but they took him up, and thinking their faces, and giving praise to God and the holy three youths; and when the singing of the morning hours was completed, then your voice would say to them: "What sign will you take from us, and now go on your way, led by God, to Tsar Basil." They, having heard this, bowed down with the tomb of the holy three youths, and also drank three cups from that goblet; but that goblet, by the grace of God, stands full: it does not decrease from it. Then the messengers went up to the ladder and carried their heavy burdens, which they took in the city of Babylon, and went up on the ladder from the city and the second ladder through that great serpent. One of them, Jacob obezhanin, step from the top to the third step and fall from the ladder onto that great serpent and wake him from sleep. That great serpent heard him, and the scales rose on him, like the waves of the sea, and began to waver; the envoys, having taken up their third friend Yakov, and soon ran to Tsar Basil, and found the former, and already around noon they ran, and found their horses in place, where they left them, and put both their burdens on their horses. And at the same hour a great serpent hung down, and such a zuk could not be heard anywhere else. The messengers, from the whistling of that from the horses, fell to the ground and lay on the ground for a long hour of death; little by little, the timers woke up and mounted their horses, and going to the place, where Tsar Basil stood with his army, and there was no king, no army, no news about him, just seeing a lot of dead. At some time, that great serpent hung down, and at that time in the camp of the king a great attack occurred to Tsar Basil and his people: his people and all the army fell from their horses, and they died from the whistling of that, and many horses died. Tsar Basil was afraid of this and retreated from that place for 15 fields to the second place from the city of Babylon for 30 fields. Tsar Basil was sad about those three men, their own ambassador to Babylon city, the verb about them: "My children have already died from the whistling of that serpent." Thus, the tsar sighed about the envoys of one and his children, and then tsar Basil said taco: "Let us wait for them in this place for a short time: they are saved by the living God and the prayers of the holy three youths."
The messengers, they came to the second place of Tsar Basil and his army, and came to bow to Tsar Basil. Tsar Basil saw his messengers, and rejoiced greatly, and glorified God and the holy three youths. The envoys told Tsar Vasily all that was in a row, and the cross was a miracle among the holy youths, and about the great serpent, and about themselves, how they suffered from that serpent, and giving Tsar Vasily a letter that he had taken in the tsar’s court in a coat. The king, having taken from the messengers, went to the patriarch; the patriarch, take the royal crowns from the envoys and put them on the head of Tsar Basil, and the other Tsar Alexandra and bless them. Tsar Basil will take from his envoys 20 stones, and 5 stones, and a goblet and an ambassador to Jerusalem and five stones, leave for yourself, and that they are envoys bringing gold and silver and pearls and all sorts of royal ornaments, and then declare everything to the king Basil. Tsar Basil did not take anything from them, and gave them and more than that gave them his gift of 50 pieces of gold; And thus did Tsar Basil say: "Come with me and ask of me as much as you want, and I will give you at your request and with the second." The envoys, having heard this from Tsar Basil, bowed to him and descended to glorify God and the pious Tsar Leo, in holy baptism Basil. Glory to our God.
The legend of Trojan War known in manuscripts under the title "The Parable of the Kralekh". This legend arose not on the basis of Homer's poems, but on later traditions associated with the names of Dictys and Dareth. Diktis was a Greek from the island of Crete, a companion of Idomeneo. He allegedly described the Trojan War; and his writing remained in obscurity for a long time. Under Nero, an earthquake once occurred, as a result of which the tomb of Dictis was opened, in which his work was kept. According to his origin, Dictis depicts with attractive features Greek heroes and calls the Trojans barbarians who swear over the corpses of enemies. The legend of Diktys is preserved in Latin translation. From the opposite point of view, Darthe, who was the Trojan priest of Hephaestus and wrote the Phrygian Iliad, expounds the Trojan War: he portrays the Trojans with sympathetic features. The legend of Daret was especially popular among the Western European peoples, who traced their cultural origin to Rome, and through Rome to Aeneas and Troy. This legend has been preserved in Latin translation with the name of Cornelius Nepos. Tales of the Trojan War are found in the chronicles of Malala and Manasseh, translated into the ancient Bulgarian language.
The tales of both Dictys and Daret do not represent such a poetic treatment as "Alexandria": this is a compressed list of events that Dictys and Daret allegedly witnessed.
In the Parable of the Kralekh, at the beginning, the Trojan area is described and the genealogy of the kings up to Priam is described, then the story itself follows. Hecuba sees an ominous dream: the son that will be born to her will be the cause of the death of Troy. To prevent this fate, the born boy, Paris (Paris), is abandoned. He is brought up by shepherds. At the wedding of Peleus, Paris decides the dispute between the three goddesses in favor of Venus, who promises him beautiful Elena. Cassandra, a Trojan prophetess, warns Paris against going to King Menelaus. But he does not obey these warnings, goes to Greece, declares his love to Elena and, despite Elena's warning, takes her to Troy. Further, the events from the campaign of the Greek kings to the death of Polymnestor are summarized concisely and briefly. The "Parable of the Kings" ends with the following conclusion: "Thus ended the Trojan kingship.. so God humbles those who rise up and destroys the seed of the wicked, as the prophet proclaimed, saying: I saw the wicked being exalted and exalted, and I passed by, and his place was not found, because God righteous and loves the truth, but he destroys the ways of the wicked and opposes the proud with his arm, and the right gives grace to those who walk and does not deprive those who walk without malice from good. This conclusion, probably drawn by a Slavic translator, is purely outwardly attached to the "Parable" and internally completely unrelated to it.
POEM "DEVGIEV'S ACT"
Devgeny, the hero of the legend of the Russian-Slavic edition, corresponds to Basil Digenis Akritus, the hero of the Byzatian poem of the 10th century. It consists of 10 songs, which tells about the origin of Digenis and depicts his exploits in the fight against the Saracens on the borders of Byzantium near the Euphrates. Its content is this.
In the reign of Theodora and Leo the Wise, the widow of the famous figure Andronicus Duca had five sons and one daughter, who was distinguished by remarkable beauty. Once, when the mother was in the church, and the brothers were hunting, the Arabian king Amir (Emir) kidnaps the beauty. The mother sends her sons to catch up with the Amirs. The brothers set off and catch up with Amir. They reproach him for the fact that he took his sister away with a "tatboy" and demand her return. Amir, pointing to the mountain, informs them that there lies the corpse of their sister, who was killed by him. The brothers are looking for the corpse of their sister and, not finding it, return to Amir with threats. Then Amir tells them that their sister is alive and he loves her; out of love for her, he is ready to renounce Mohammed and settle within the empire. The brothers, having seen their sister, asked her how Amir treated her. The sister described the respectful and impeccable behavior of Amir and stated that if Amir is baptized, then they don’t need a better son-in-law, because he is glorious in glory, and strong in strength, and wise in wisdom, and rich in wealth. The brothers agreed, and Amir, having collected his treasures, renounced his kingdom and left for Byzantium. Amir is baptized and married, which is solemnly celebrated.
Amir's mother, having learned about her son's departure, sends him a letter in which she reproaches him for betraying the faith of his ancestors and demands, under the threat of a curse, to return back. Amir decides to go to see his mother and then come back. He manages to persuade his mother to accept Christianity, and she comes to Byzantium with her son.
Amir's son Vasily is born, who received the name Digenis (cousin, i.e. from a Saracen father and a Greek mother), in Russian-Slavic translations - Devgenia. Digenis is growing by leaps and bounds. He very early performs a series of feats on the hunt, leading to the admiration of his father and uncle. His beauty is amazing.
When the upbringing of Digenis ended, Amir exclusively devoted himself to the exploits of piety, and Digenis became the head of the pallikars, collided with apelates-robbers, and his name soon gained fame and instilled fear.
At this time, Digenis heard rumors about the beauty of Eudoxia, the daughter of the strategist Doukas. Digenis felt love for Evdokia. Strategist Duka does not want to give his daughter for Digenis. Then Digenis, with the consent of Evdokia, kidnaps her. Duka sends his sons after him. Digenis fights them and knocks them out of the saddle. Duka is forced to agree to the marriage of his daughter with Digenis. The marriage festivities continue for three months. All nature takes part in the celebration: the earth blossomed with joy, the mountains dance, the rocks sing, the rivers slowed down their course.
After the wedding, Digenis goes with his wife to the borders to protect them. He performs many feats in the fight against heroes and beasts and receives the nickname Akrita (invincible). He fights the dragon that attacked Evdokia, defeats the lion, takes a duel with the three leaders of the robber apelates and defeats everyone. One of the leaders of Philopapp, calls against Digenis the militant girl Maximo, descended from the Amazons. In a duel, Digenis defeats Maximo. At the request of Maximo, the fight resumes the next day. Maximo appears in luxurious clothes, in a golden armor and on a snow-white horse. Digenis wounds Maximo in the fingers of his right hand, and she drops her sword. Maximo offers his love to Digenis. Digenis is cheating on his wife. The wife, suspecting why her husband did not return for a long time after the second duel with Maximo, forgives her husband's offense and fears only God's justice over him. Digenis does not dare to confess his misdeed to his wife and reassures her: “Maximo was wounded: I bandaged her hand.
IN latest songs The poem depicts the life of Digenis in his beautiful palace on the banks of the Euphrates, describes the death of his father, mother and his own death. The wife did not survive the death of her husband.
The Russian-Slavic edition of the poem has some significant differences from the Greek one: firstly, the historical, geographical and genealogical side of the poem in the Russian-Slavic edition was erased, and the poem took on the character of a fairy tale, the action of which takes place far away in the distant kingdom. Even individual details are fabulous; so, Amir's mother does not send a letter to her son, but sends three Saracens who must take the king back with his beloved girl; she gives them three prophetic books and three horses: one horse is an anemone, the other is thunder, the third is lightning; the Saracens, having brought Amir out, will sit on an anemone, and no one will be able to see them; when they enter the Saracen land and sit on a thunder-horse, then all the Arabians will hear about it; and when they sit on the lightning horse they will become invisible in the Greek land. Secondly, individual episodes have undergone changes; so, for example, subjected to significant changes episode with Maximo; the defeated Maximo begs Devgeny to marry her: "then no one will be able to resist both of us": but the wise Devgeny, who, according to the Russian-Slavic version, is not yet married, looked into a prophetic book about "his life and death" and saw there, that if he marries Maximo, he will live sixteen years, and if he takes possession of Evdokia, he will live thirty-six years; therefore, Devgeny refuses an alliance with Maximo. Thus, the Romanic element is replaced in the Russian-Slavic edition by a religious-mystical element. Thirdly, the struggle of the Greeks with the Saracens in the Russian-Slavic edition, defined in the Greek poem, as the struggle of the Orthodox with the filthy in general; preparing for battle christian heroes sing an angelic song; where they stand, the sun shines; where Amir is being played, there, like darkness, it is dark.
Probably, the Russian-Slavic edition of "Devgiev's deeds" had as its source some Greek or South Slavic adaptation of the poem in a fairy-tale style with Christian illumination.
"TALE OF THE BABYLON KINGDOM"
The basis of this legend was the idea of the world power of Byzantium. It tells how Nebuchadnezzar the foundling, having reigned in Babylon, ordered the "sign of the serpent" to be made on all city utensils, on clothes, weapons, banners, mansions. For himself, Nebuchadnezzar made a self-cutting sword, the "asp-serpent", the property of which was that during the battle he himself flew out of the scabbard and began to cut enemies without mercy. Before his death, Nebuchadnezzar bequeathed to close up the sword in the city wall and conjured not to take it out until the end of time.
The son of Nebuchadnezzar Basil, in a moment of danger, prompted by the Babylonians, decides to resort to the help of a self-cutting sword. But as soon as the self-cutting sword was taken out of the wall, it flew out of its scabbard, cut off the head of the king and cut down many Babylonians; at the same time, serpents depicted on various objects suddenly descended and devoured all the Babylonians. Babylon was deserted, and wild beasts and all kinds of monsters settled in it; around Babylon a monstrous serpent sprawled.
Much time later, the Greek emperor Leo sent three ambassadors to Babylon, a Greek, an obezhanin and a Slav, in order to find out how the bodies of the three youths, Ananias, Azarias and Misail, were, and to take a sign from them. The ambassadors stumble upon a series of wonders and dangers, but they manage to infiltrate Babylon. Here they bowed to the relics of saints. They wanted to take their goblet of myrrh and frankincense from the tomb and take it to the king as a sign. But at this time a voice was heard, ordering them to go to the royal chambers and take a sign from there. Entering the chambers, the ambassadors found two crowns - one of Nebuchadnezzar - the king of Babylon and "the whole universe", and the other - his wife. At the crowns was a letter in Greek: it was said that these crowns should be on the emperor Leo and his wife. The ambassadors took crowns with a letter, seized another carnelian crab with purple and delivered all this to Byzantium. Patriarch crowns Byzantine emperor sign of Babylon.
Thus, the story symbolically depicts the transfer of power over the universe from Babylon to Byzantium. (...)
"TALE OF THE WHITE CLOBE"
Constantine the Great, having defeated Mansentius, at the behest of the apostles Peter and Paul, who appeared to him in a dream, is baptized by Pope Sylvester. Constantine reveres Sylvester as God and father, and even wants to place a royal crown on his head, but the pope does not agree to this. The apostles Peter and Paul appear to the emperor, who show him in their hands "a white robe, which is worthy to be worn by a saint on his head." The emperor covenanted "the wearer of the wisest" and orders them to create "a white hood for the blessed pope." This white hood is solemnly placed on the head of the pope. In the thirteenth year of his reign, Constantine came to the conclusion that where there is hierarchical authority, where the head of Christian piety is established by the heavenly king himself, there should not be the authority of an earthly king. On this basis, Constantine, having taken a blessing from the pope, entrusted him with Rome, and he built himself a new city, which he called Constantinople.
After the death of Pope Silvester, the white hood initially enjoyed great reverence. But then other times came: the devil raised up a certain king Karul (Charles the Great) and Pope Farmus (Formosa), whom he taught to deceive the Christian race with false teachings. They ordered to leave Orthodox faith and tear apart the holy apostolic church; they fell into the Apolinaric heresy and imputed unleavened bread to the truth (the Apolinaric heresy was the use of unleavened bread: according to the teachings of Apolinarius, the Son of God received only flesh from the Mother of God, without a soul; whoever partakes of unleavened bread, he takes dead flesh, and not living, because the dough itself is soulless to oneself; kvass is for the dough what the soul is for the body). Since that time, they have not taken a liking to the holy white klobuk either, and have imprisoned him "in a side chapel of some kind of church walls."
“After many times,” another pope of the Latin ministry arose, who began to reject the worship of holy icons. He is trying to burn the white hood, send it to distant countries and there to scold him and exterminate him. But he does not succeed: a storm breaks the ship on which the hood was carried; a certain Jeremiah, who secretly adhered to Orthodoxy, saves the klobuk. Through his prayer, the storm on the sea subsides; Constantine and Sylvester draw a plank to Jeremiah, which he grasps, and tell him to go and tell what happened. The Pope, having learned about this, was horrified and ordered to put a hood in the church, "but he did not give him any honor." In a dream, an angel of the Lord of a terrible appearance appears to the pope with a flaming sword in his hand and tells the pope to send the holy klobuk to Constantinople to the patriarch. The Pope is following God's command. At that time in Constantinople the patriarch was Philotheus, distinguished by fasting and other virtues, and the king was Ivan Kandakuzen.
The legend of the white hood was intended to establish symbolically the transfer of spiritual power to Christian world from pope to Byzantine patriarch (...)
ABOUT SYNAGRIP AND HIS ADVISER AKIR
The story "About Synagrip" is of eastern origin. She was reflected in the legendary biography of Aesop and was included in the Arabic collection of fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights". In the Russian-Slavic edition, which is based on the Byzantine reworking of the story, the names of the characters and places are distorted: Sankherib, the ruler of Arabia (Assur) and Nineveh, turned into Sinagrip, Sinograph, the king of Ador (Thor, Assur) and Nalivskaya (i.e. Nineveh ) countries, or in the king of Anevitz (Aravitian) and Azores (Assyrian); Geykar - in Akira and Nadan - in Anadana, Anadona, Anadama. Probably, among the Byzantines, this story acquired a Christian-instructive character. The instructive element, expressed in a whole genus of aphorisms transmitted by Akir to Anadan, enjoyed such popularity that it was even separated from the story and distributed in independent lists. The content of the story is as follows.
Akir, the wise adviser to the king Sinagripa, has many riches, but God did not give him one thing: children. He prays to God: "Lord, my God! If I die without an heir, they will say: here Akir was righteous and served God, but he died and no one was found from the male sex who would stand at his tomb, nor from the maiden, who I would mourn him." In response, a voice is heard from the sky, telling Akira that he will not have offspring, and advising him to adopt the "sister of the son" Anadan. Akir followed this advice. He began to teach Anadan all the wisdom that he himself possessed. After saturating Anadan with his teachings, "like bread and wine," Akir gives him a series of instructions: "Man, listen to my words, my lord, Nadan!.. If you hear something from the king, or see something in his house, let it remain in your soul and do not tell people about it... Tame your son from childhood, and if you do not tame, he will prematurely age you... Do not be long-winded, so as not to sin before your master... A deceitful person will first be loved, but in the end they will laugh at him ... If you are invited to dinner, then do not go at the first invitation; if you are invited a second time, it will mean that you are really honored ... Better for a person good death than evil death... It is better to have a sheep's leg in your hand than a sheep's shoulder in someone else's hand; a sheep that is near is better than an ox that is far away. Better is one sparrow that you have in your hand than a thousand birds flying in the air. It is better to be ill with fire (to be in a fever) or a shaker than to live with an evil wife ... When the water in the river flows to its source, when the bird begins to fly backwards, or blue or Saracen turns white or bile becomes sweet as honey, then only the insane will learn the mind-reason."
After such instructions, Akir puts his nephew in his place as an adviser to the king. But Anadan proved ungrateful to Akira. Convinced of this, Akir gave his house not to Anadan, but to his younger brother. Then Anadan decided to destroy Akira. He allegedly wrote letters on behalf of Akir to the kings of Egypt and Persian with a proposal to transfer the possessions of Sinagrip to them without a fight, and planted these letters in the palace. The letters were received by the king. The king believed that Akir had betrayed him and ordered him to be executed. But the servant who was supposed to fulfill the order, instead of Akira, executes another, similar to him, and Akira imprisons.
Some time later, the Egyptian king, having heard about the execution of Akir, sends an embassy to Sinagrip with a demand to send him a skilled builder who would build a house between heaven and earth and answer all his questions. If Sinagrip sends such a wise man, the pharaoh promises to pay tribute for four years; if he does not send, Sinagrip will pay tribute to him. Synagrip addresses Anadan; but Anadan is unable to give advice on what to do, and everyone involuntarily remembers the wise Akir. Then the servant decides to reveal to the king that Akir is alive. The king, in great joy, hastens to release Akira and sends him to Egypt under a false name. Arriving in Egypt, Akir wittily answers the pharaoh's tricky questions. So, the pharaoh asks Akira the following riddle: there is an oak log, on it there are twelve pine trees, each with thirty wheels, and on the wheel there are two mice - one black and the other white. Akir solves the riddle: a log - a year, 12 pine trees - 12 months, 30 wheels - 30 days, a black mouse - night, a white mouse - day. The demand of the pharaoh to build a house between heaven and earth he fulfilled as follows: the hawks of Akir taught two eagles to fly into the air with a cage tied to them; there was a boy in the cage who was shouting: "Here, the laborers are ripe, bring stone and lime! Akir says to the king: "Command them to carry stone and lime, so that laborers do not hesitate." "How to carry them to such a height?" answers the king and refuses from his venture.
When Akir, having successfully completed his task, returns home, Sinagrip showers him with honors and rewards, and Anadan is punished.
"THE MIRACLE OF ST. NICHOLAS ABOUT THE KING SYNAGRIP"
In connection with previous story there is a story about the miracle of St. Nicholas with King Sinagrip.
King Sinagrip is sent by sea to war. A storm is rising that threatens to sink the ship. The king had at that time an adviser named Akir, very wise and "very peasant" (ie a deep Christian). Akir advises the king to turn to St. Nicholas and promise him eve and a candle. The king rejoiced at the advice and began to call on Saint Nicholas. The storm began to subside, and the ship safely reached its hometown. Upon arrival, the king said to Akira: "Who is Saint Nicholas? Call him to me!" Akir replied: "There is a metropolitan in Chalcedon, named Theoctirist: he can call on Nikola in the form of a man." The tsar sent to invite the metropolitan to him, as he "promised St. Nicholas at sea the eve and candles, and the meals and tables were ready." Theoctrist has arrived. To call on St. Nicholas, it was necessary to build a church. In three days the church was ready. Liturgy, a prayer service were served, and the eve was consecrated. Everyone sat down to a meal and Theoktrist prepared a place for St. Nicholas. Those present doubted that St. Nikola actually appeared, when suddenly Theoktirist was the first to see the walking saint. Theoktirist jumped up and went to meet the saint with candles and a censer. Approaching, St. Nikola said: "I was on the Sea of Tiberias, and a great storm arose, and they began to call my name, and I delivered a ship from the sea." Theoctirist asks the saint what the saved have given him. The saint answered: "They promised me eve and candles and thyme, and they gave me a baked dough chicken" - and showed Feoktirist a gift. Theoktirist remarked to the saint with "philosophy": "And I would not have stepped three steps for the sake of this dough chicken." Hearing these words, St. Nikola turned to leave and said to Theoktirist: "You are proud, and you are called a saint, but I will make a prayer for you to the Most High King, Christ God." The frightened Theoctirist fell at the saint's feet with weeping, and the king and all those present began to beg the saint to enter the royal chamber. The saint came in, spoke out the brashna and wine and drink; began to eat and drink, and St. Nikola became invisible. The king and all people glorified God and created St. Nikloe is an honest holiday. For the "three steps" the holy fathers ordered to commemorate Saint Theoktirist in three years in the fourth century. leap year, and Saint Nicholas is commemorated three times a year: on his birthday, on his assumption and on the transfer of his relics.
