The snake is a symbol that has left a noticeable mark in the history and culture of many countries. For many centuries, it has caused people to associate with death and rebirth at the same time. Some peoples deified reptiles, others trembled before them. What is known about this mysterious symbol, which haunts researchers even today?

The snake is a symbol of healing

Historians believe that for the first time people guessed to use the image of a snake as an emblem of healing in the second millennium BC. This happened in Ancient Babylon, which researchers explain by the cult of animals that existed in this state. Initially, the reptile was depicted without attributes, but gradually they appeared.

Of course, one cannot fail to mention the most famous symbol. A bowl with a snake is an emblem that appeared in medicine around the seventh century BC. At the same time, the image of the daughter of Aesculapius Gigeia, holding a vessel and a reptile, was actively used. As you know, in ancient times, many diseases were treated with the help of a bowl served as a container for it. The return of this image, forgotten for many years, took place already in the 16th century on the initiative of Paracelsus.

What other attributes were added to (snake)? The ancient people were not limited to the cup, the staff of Asclepius was also popular. Asclepius is a mythical Greek healer who was credited with divine origin. Among his many talents was the ability to resurrect the dead. The legend says that once it was the snake that helped the healer to revive the murdered son.

Christianity

The snake is a symbol that in the Christian faith is associated with good and evil at the same time. On the one hand, the image of a reptile shedding its skin is associated with Jesus Christ, who sacrificed himself and ascended to heaven.

On the other hand, in the Bible, the snake is presented as a tempter, deftly tempting Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Therefore, this image speaks of deceit, greed, disobedience. It is not surprising that the reptile was often endowed with a female head; such drawings symbolized temptation, temptation.

Buddhism, Hinduism

The snake is a symbol that was noted not only in the Christian religion. For example, in Hinduism, sacred cobras, which were considered as protectors, were highly respected. The Hindus believed that the reptiles guard the gods while they enjoy their rest. It is not surprising that the image of Vishnu sitting in the ring of a cobra has become widespread.

In general, in Buddhism there was an ambivalent attitude towards snakes. On the one hand, the followers of this religion also revered the cobras. This can be confirmed by the image of the Buddha, which is comfortably located in the shade of a cobra that protects it from the sun with the help of its hoods. Some Buddhists even saw snakes (cobras) as the most powerful god who reincarnates in order to save humanity from hunger and disease.

On the other hand, a creeping reptile depicted next to a pig and a rooster was considered by adherents of religion as a symbol of sins.

Greece, Rome

The snake is a symbol of wisdom. This statement was never questioned by the inhabitants of Ancient Greece, who loved to depict a reptile in the hands of famous healers and saviors: Hippocrates, Aesculapius, Hermes. In addition, the snake was considered the hypostasis of the legendary healer Aesculapius, who is credited with serious achievements in the field of medicine.

Confirmation that the snake is a symbol associated with wisdom in Ancient Greece can also be the fact that the inhabitants of the country dedicated this reptile to the god Apollo. The Greeks had no doubt that the beautiful god not only protects people from the forces of darkness, but also gives them knowledge. A similar function was assigned to Athena, often depicted in the company of a snake.

Of course, symbols with snakes were very popular in ancient Rome. They were given a meaning similar to that described above, so reptiles were often depicted in the hands of local gods and heroes.

In Russian fairy tales

In Russian culture, the dual symbol of the snake has also been repeatedly noted. The value to it, as in most other countries, was attributed to ambiguous. On the one hand, in many fairy tales one can find a mention that a person who has eaten the heart of a reptile will be able to learn the language of the animal and plant world. This suggests that creeping reptiles were associated in Rus' with wisdom and knowledge.

On the other hand, the famous Serpent Gorynych acts as an insidious villain, with whom brave heroes are forced to risk their lives to fight. The victory over him means nothing else than the absolute triumph of good over evil.

two snakes

Often found in the culture of various countries and an even more mysterious symbol - two snakes. If reptiles twine with each other, such an emblem is associated with the union of two powerful forces - Fate and Time. The image of two creeping reptiles, tightly clinging to each other's tail, hints that even two complete opposites come from the same source.

Often found in culture and the image of two snakes wrapped around a staff or tree. An example of such a symbol is the famous caduceus - an emblem used in medicine. This also indicates the duality of reptiles, capable of bringing poison and healing, health and disease at the same time.

Various images

What does the image of an innocent child playing with a snake symbolize? Such a picture in many cultures is associated with paradise, lost and found again. She also speaks of the liberation of the immortal soul from the corruptible world. For some nations, this image was considered as a symbol of triumph over enemies, liberation from slavery.

In some cultures, it is also customary to depict a snake next to a deer or an eagle. This image speaks of the opposition of light and darkness, and it is the snake that is responsible for the darkness. The combination of a creeping reptile with an eagle or a deer indicates cosmic unity, balance. The reptile that wraps around the female body testifies to the relationship between the feminine and the masculine. A snake curled up in a knot evokes associations with a hidden power that is already ready to break out, overcoming all obstacles in its path.

Alchemists and magicians never doubted that the snake is a symbol of wisdom. Alchemists in the Middle Ages actively used the image of a snake wrapping around a pole. This picture symbolizes the subjugation of the life force. The symbol, which depicts a reptile crawling through a circle, indicated alchemical fusion.

Various cultures

Why did the symbol (snake) not play a special role in Chinese culture? Because it is extremely rarely separated from the dragon, the image of which has attracted the Chinese from time immemorial. However, it is known that the creeping reptile in this country was associated with the most negative qualities - cunning, deceit, anger, hatred.

The Celts were much more favorable to reptiles, as evidenced by the surviving epics. Snakes were perceived by them as symbols of rebirth, healing. They were often depicted with a ram's head, horns - in this case, the emblem indicated male power. And the image of the goddess Brigid, who adorned her hair with a coiled snake, symbolized fertility, reliably protected the human kingdom from dark forces.

The Aztecs traditionally attributed power to snakes, the ability to command the elements. They also associated these symbols with knowledge, wisdom. In the legends of this people, snakes often acted as mythical ancestors, brave heroes. Reptiles enjoyed great honor in Africa. They were considered as signs of imperial power, symbolized immortality, the return to the world of the living from the world of the dead.

Our days

It is curious that the symbol of the snake has managed to maintain great popularity in our days. It is this image that people from various countries invariably continue to choose, intending to make themselves a spectacular tattoo. The fair sex choose this image, as it is associated with temptation, the forbidden fruit. Men most like the symbols of cobras and other snakes that can emphasize such qualities as authority, the desire to dominate. Those who consider reptiles as a symbol of wisdom and knowledge prefer pictures depicting snakes with bowls.

Regarding the nickname of the Snake, there is no unequivocal opinion. The most common version: he was Gorynych because he lived in caves under the mountains. But this option does not seem to be entirely correct, in many fairy tales the Serpent Gorynych did not even come close to the caves due to the lack of them, as well as mountains, in the area. For example, in the fairy tale about Ivan, the son of a cow, the Serpent lived safely in white-stone chambers. There are many fairy tales where the place of residence of the Serpent is the most remote place in the forest. Nevertheless, he remained Gorynych, regardless of the presence of a cave under the mountain.

Another option - the Serpent is a native of the higher, "mountain" world. That's why Gorynych. But somehow he is too vicious for transcendental spheres.

The snake was called Gorynych because in all fairy tales he certainly spits fire. Here's a fire-breather. Incidentally, it is not at all such an incredible and fantastic story. Nature knows such phenomena. The bombardier beetle fires a flammable liquid to escape enemies. Moreover, the composition of this liquid is close to modern rocket fuel, but it is not created in the laboratory, but directly in the body of the beetle.

Curiously, in the fossilized skulls of some dinosaur species, cavities similar to those used by the bombardier beetle to develop chemical weapons have been found. That is, it can be assumed that these dinosaurs had similar properties. Simply put, they could be fire-breathing.

Now let's add to this a small fact: dragons are present in the folklore of almost all peoples. Of course, one can say that there are no boundaries for fairy tales, and the story told at one end of the globe gradually migrated to the other. But this seems like a stretch.

It is much easier to believe that not all dinosaurs died out by the time human civilization began. "Fire-breathing" varieties could also survive. Or waterfowl (like Quetzalcoatl or the biblical Leviathan, which, by the way, in addition to being a waterfowl, also successfully spewed flames:

“... flames come out of his mouth, fiery sparks jump out; smoke comes out of his nostrils, as from a boiling pot or cauldron. His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes out of his mouth” (Job 40).

Well, since the Red Book did not exist in those days, and the population of dinosaurs was small, they were safely destroyed, as many other animal species were destroyed.

So it is possible that the Serpent Gorynych is an echo of a meeting with a fire-breathing dinosaur. By no means a fairy-tale character, but a very real animal.

But there are other versions of the nickname of the three-headed Serpent of Russian folk tales. And they have nothing to do with the question of whether dinosaurs existed on Earth at the same time as humans or not. Moreover, there is no talk of real animals.

Polesye villages still talk about how in ancient times, when Russian cities invited Varangian warriors to princely tables, one of the northern knights appeared in a remote village, which is located on a small marsh island between the Pripyat and Goryn rivers. His squad was small, but there were few people in the settlement, so the robber knight captured the island without any problems.

And then something unusual happened: instead of sitting down as a prince on a captured island, like other similar northern warriors, the knight knocked out all the local residents without exception. The settlement was surrounded by an oak palisade (oak logs sharpened like pencils - a mosquito will not slip through), and robbery raids began.

The place for the robber camp was very convenient - the knight sat down just on the way "from the Varangians to the Greeks": in those days, boats of merchants ran along Pripyat and Goryn, carrying outlandish and expensive goods. The knight was greedy, he did not collect taxes from merchants for free passage, he always took everything. He did kill people. For such a character, they called him the Serpent, well, and by location - the Serpent from Goryn, or simply - the Serpent Gorynych.

By the way, among the swamps between Pripyat and Gorynya there is a small island, which is still called the Serpent's Settlement. No one has settled on that island for a long time, except for very vicious vipers. They say that it was there that the Serpent Gorynych and his squad were located, until he was lured into a trap by cunning, and the settlement was burned to the ground.

The story is told in a slightly different way. They say that Goryn was then a nameless river. But when they burned the Serpent's settlement (they say that with Greek fire - some monk helped, made a mixture for a good cause), and the evil flame soared up to the very sky, the river got the name - Horyn. And the knight, who until that time was just a Serpent, entered the legends already as the Serpent Gorynych.

But if it is more or less clear with Gorynych, you can choose any version - both biological and historical, then with his many heads it is more difficult. Here biology rests: if some archaeological finds allow us to conclude that fire-breathing dinosaurs existed in prehistoric times, then three-headed, and even more so six-, nine- or twelve-headed ones, have not been found. All dinosaurs modestly ran on four legs (of course, land) and had one head per body unit.

In Polissya, they say that Zmey Gorynych had two sons, who, together with their father, commanded a squad. And they were as cruel and greedy as the Serpent himself. For which they were called Serpents, and even Serpent Heads. So it turned out in the legends of the Serpent not only Gorynych, but also the Three-Headed.

True, in some tales the Serpent Gorynych is amazingly many-headed. Some varieties had the same ability as the famous Lernaean Hydra - a new head immediately grew in place of a severed head. True, if the head of the hydra (more precisely, the head - instead of one cut down two brand new ones) grew quite independently, then the Serpent Gorynych had to strike a severed head with a fiery finger.

Polissya narrators explain this by the fact that the Serpent from Goryn had not only sons - the main Heads, along with the knightly one, but also military leaders. So to speak, company commanders. And sometimes it was much more difficult to cope with them than with the Serpent himself.

By the way, if the Serpent Gorynych was such as they say in the Polissya villages, then it is understandable why he collected tribute from young girls. If he was a fire-breathing dinosaur, a logical question arises: why would a dinosaur need girls, and even beautiful ones? Or maybe it's a gastronomic delight? Archeology and biology have not yet found an answer to this question.

A popular character in the folklore tradition of the Slavs. She took her place among the images of Russian folklore, where she is found in fairy tales and conspiracies, in mythological stories and legends, in beliefs and signs. The image of a snake is most fully represented in fairy tales, although the number of fairy tale plots where this character acts is limited. In folklore, they are combined into plot types under the names "Wonderful object", "Wonderful ability", "Wonderful husband". There are other, more rare, plots.

The plot "A wonderful object" is found in Russian fairy-tale material more often than others. He was also known on the territory of Karelia (collections “Tales and legends of the Northern Territory in the notes of I. V. Karnaukhova”, “Tales of the Karelian White Sea” (tales of M. M. Korguev), “Russian fairy tales in Karelia: old records”). At the beginning of a fairy tale "Magic Ring" from A. N. Afanasyev’s collection “Folk Russian Tales”, the hero saves a dog and a cat from death, buying them from their tormentors, and then saves a snake girl from the fire, who turns out to be the daughter of the “underground king”, the owner of the treasures. In gratitude, the king gives the hero "miraculous" ring, fulfilling wishes, warning: “Don’t tell anyone about the ring, otherwise you will drag yourself into big trouble!” With the help of a magic ring, the hero builds a palace, a cathedral and a bridge and marries the princess, who tries to find out the secret of his omnipotence, and then steals the ring. At her wish, the hero loses his wealth and goes to prison. A dog and a cat help him out of trouble: they get a ring from the princess and return it to its owner.
The main intrigue and "moral" of this plot is not connected with the snake, which appears only in the first part of the tale, and then disappears. Nevertheless, the mythological basis of this image clearly comes through here - the werewolf nature of the snake - a beautiful girl and daughter of the ruler of the underworld. This is her constant trait, she is inherent snake and in "The Tale of the Ring of the Twelve Screws" from the same collection.

The tale also traces the connection of the snake with fire. At the moment of the meeting with the hero, the snake burns in a fire, that is, it apparently dies, although it follows from the narrative that the fire is rather a comfortable element for it: , not to guess ... ". In light of this, her meeting with the hero appears as if prepared: the situation of the imaginary death of the snake in the fire is needed in order to reward the good hero.
However, the hero of this story is not always kind. In the fairy tale “The Snake Princess”, having received a wonderful barrel for saving the snake from the fire, the hero exchanges it for a self-cutting sword from a certain old man - and immediately kills him with this sword in order to take possession of the barrel again. And the snake gift itself turns out to be not only a boon. Violation of the conditions of possession brings misfortune to the hero of a fairy tale.

The ambiguous nature of the snake's gift is also confirmed by another fairy tale - "Wonderful Ability". This plot is less typical for Russian fairy tales. The action here develops in the same way as in the previous type. The hero frees a snake from under a stone, and snake gives him the ability to understand the language of animals and birds on the condition that he does not tell anyone about it under the threat of death. Thanks to this ability, the hero learns from the conversations of animals what he could not know before. The hero's wife inquires about the reasons for his omniscience, and he decides to tell her and die, just to put an end to this. Here the hero hears the mockery of the rooster, who reproaches the owner for the fact that he cannot cope with a single wife. The hero beats his wife, and since then she has not asked him anything else.
In this tale, the gift of the snake, the ability to understand the language of animals, goes back, as the researchers note, to the mythological image of the snake - the owner of the forest and any forest creature. But here, too, possession of it almost plunges the hero into trouble, although in this story this motive is almost comic in nature.

Another fairy tale with a snake, "Wonderful Husband", differs significantly from the previous two. He also lived in Karelia (fairy tale "Guy-bastard", collection of I. V. Karnaukhova "Tales and legends of the Northern Territory"). However, the two considered plots are united by the same motif of the gift of the snake, which helps to clarify the functions of this character.
The snake in the tales of the gift of the snake, although it plays a key role in the fate of the hero, is still a character in one episode. Her episodic role is indicated by the fact that sometimes she completely disappears from the fairy tale, which retains all other plot links. (the fairy tale "The Ring" from the collection "Great Russian Tales. Great Russian Riddles" by I. A. Khudyakov; "Three Palaces and the Underground Kingdom" from the collection "Great Russian Tales of the Vyatka Province" by D. K. Zelenin; "About the Ring" in the collection "Tales and legends of the Northern Territory in the notes of I. V. Karnaukhova "; "Dog and Cat" in the collection "Tales of the Karelian White Sea"). The snake acts as an intermediary between the world of people, where the hero of the fairy tale operates, and the underworld, part of the properties of which she transfers to the hero in the form of a wonderful gift.

In addition to fairy tales, the snake appears in the conspiracy genre. This genre has both oral and written form of existence and therefore is at the intersection of folklore and book manuscript tradition. Its purpose - the impact on the natural world and man with the help of magical verbal formulas - was also reflected in the image of the snake, which appears here in a completely different way than in a fairy tale.

Conspiracies that mention a snake are even more rare than fairy tales with a snake. This applies not only to the Russian charm tradition - despite the fact that in the North and in the former Olonets province, modern Karelia, it was rich and well developed - but also to the charm tradition of the people neighboring the Russians, the Veps. In the collections Russian conspiracies from handwritten sources of the 17th - first half of the 19th centuries. “and “Russian Conspiracies of Karelia”, which together contains about a thousand incantation texts from the 17th to the 20th century, less than two dozen incantations with a snake.

Snake conspiracies are divided into two varieties: therapeutic, prophylactic (to protect against a bite) - and love (prisushki). Unlike prisushka, conspiracies of a therapeutic and preventive nature deal with real snakes - with the consequences of an unsuccessful meeting with them or with the danger that they carry. The accompanying instructions for treating the wound also serve as a reference to the reality of healing conspiracies. In both healing and love plots, the snake acts as a participant in a ritual, played out dialogue. In the first plot, she, as in a fairy tale, appears as the mistress of the forest kingdom. In a peculiar hierarchy of snakes, she rules over other snakes - forest creatures. Archangel Gabriel and St. Nicholas, especially revered by the people, are mentioned as a powerful force opposing the snake. In the second conspiracy cited, very little is said about the snake itself. It is present in the plot and at the same time, as it were, remains outside the verbal text. The only epithet "snake-flame" is not so much a metaphor as a reference to her mythological connection with fire. Another reminder of her other mythological characteristic - belonging to the other world - is contained in the commentary with which the performer precedes the conspiracy: you need to read it at the rosstan - a crossroads, which is considered in beliefs to be the place of residence of the otherworldly force.

When we talk about the image of a snake in the genres of Russian folklore, another of his characters comes to mind - a snake. Bearing the same name and similar in appearance, how do serpents and serpents relate to each other? In this regard, we can recall another folklore text - the Pudozh legend about the birth of snakes, which goes back to spiritual verses, according to which snakes originated from the ashes of the burnt remains of the Dragon Serpent.

With a possible common origin in the depths of myths, snakes and snakes in folklore have more differences than similarities. Their first difference is genres, where each of these images is manifested with greater completeness. For a snake, this is a narrative genre, a fairy tale; for a snake, these are the classic epic genres of epics and spiritual poems. Another difference is in the functions that snakes and snakes perform in folklore stories. The snake does not have as many of them as the snake. In its main genre, it acts as a wonderful assistant to the hero, while the serpent is most often his opponent. True, in one of the functions of the snake and the snakes come together - in the role of an underground creature that stores some treasures or wonderful gifts. But in general, their images are too different. A typical snake is a demonic character, alien and frightening, a typical fairy tale snake is located towards the hero and much more attractive.

D. Abrosimova, Art. n. employee of the sector of scientific and exposition work of the department of history and ethnography.

Everyone who has ever heard or read Russian folk tales must know about the Serpent Gorynych - a fire-breathing dragon, greedy for treasures and red maidens; right and left destroying good fellows and brave heroes. But few people realize how mysterious the appearance of this character seems to modern scientists, especially philologists!

Dragon.

There are several hypotheses trying to explain the origin of the fabulous image of the Serpent Gorynych. For example, academician Boris Alexandrovich Rybakov believed that this was nothing but a memory of mammoths (!), which had undergone significant transformations. Other researchers connect the legends about the fire-breathing snake with the attempts of the ancients to understand the essence of the aurora borealis or draw an analogy between the Serpent Gorynych and a tornado.

An assumption of a different order was also expressed: the image of the Serpent Gorynych could have been generated by the struggle of the Slavs with the steppe nomads at the end of the 1st - the beginning of the 2nd millennium.

Traditional ideas about the Mongol invasion of Rus', based on the school history course and popular films, draw our imaginations of wild hordes of nomads that flooded the steppe. We are accustomed to consider the surprise of the attack, the overwhelming numerical superiority of the conquerors, and their barbaric cruelty to be the main reasons for the military successes of this horde. Meanwhile, serious researchers unanimously assert that the army of Genghis Khan and Batu in that historical era was one of the best armies in the world. Its high combat qualities are largely due to the borrowing and assimilation of foreign military experience. The same can be said about the weapons of the Mongol warriors. In particular, there is no doubt that they had artillery weapons, mainly of Chinese production. These were various types of launchers that used firing projectiles, the main component of which was a powder charge.

Everyone knows that gunpowder is a Chinese invention. But at the same time, there is an opinion that its original purpose was the device of fireworks, and only much later it began to be used in military affairs. However, fire weapons have long occupied an important place in the military art of the Chinese. Europe did not know and did not have anything like this then. Already at that time, the Chinese had a fairly diverse arsenal of gunpowder weapons. For example, incendiary projectiles - "fire hawks" - were wooden vessels with gunpowder or clay pots filled with molten low-melting metal. Fragmentation shells filled with gunpowder were used against the enemy's manpower and scattered iron spikes, fragments of an iron or porcelain shell during the explosion. The explosion of such a projectile could be heard at a distance of about 50 kilometers, and its fragments easily pierced armor.

The Chinese also had a kind of chemical weapon: smoke balls that emitted multi-colored smoke, sometimes with additives of asphyxiating substances or, for example, balls of poisonous smoke filled with gunpowder mixed with potent plant poisons (aconite, henbane and others). There were also shells stuffed with quicklime in the Chinese arsenal. In addition to them, in Chinese chronicles there are references to fire arrows that were thrown from a bow or crossbow, setting fire to a powder charge before that, due to which the arrow received an additional reactive impulse. There were also rockets (!) - hollow bamboo tubes stuffed with gunpowder.

Thanks to military-economic espionage and the use of the knowledge and experience of captured Chinese specialists, the new weapon did not remain the exclusive property of the Chinese army for long. It is known that already at the end of the 11th century it appeared among the northern neighbors of China. The Mongol conquerors who invaded Northern China at the beginning of the 13th century also actively mastered fire weapons.

The army of Genghis Khan successfully used oil grenades and fire arrows with an incendiary wick: for example, in 1206, the Mongols burned the fleet of one of the Chinese commanders. In 1225, besieging Khorezm, the Mongols fired on the city with rockets and powder explosive shells. Thus, the Mongol army had various types of fire weapons even before the invasion of Rus'. It would be strange if the troops sent to conquer Europe were not equipped with such an effective means of waging war.

And now let's return to the Serpent Gorynych and compare the characteristic features of this epic-fairy-tale character with some of the above information about Chinese artillery. The Serpent Gorynych invariably appears as a bearer of fire ("flames burst from the nostrils") and smoke ("smoke pours out of the ears"). And Chinese fire shells were primarily gushing grenades: in flight or after hitting the target, their contents, set on fire before launch, burned out, throwing fire and smoke through the hole left.

Serpent Gorynych has several heads. And the Chinese fire shells were shaped like a ball or a barrel and could really resemble the heads of some kind of monster. In addition, it is likely that some shells were painted by enterprising conquerors under the heads of dragons and could be perceived by the defenders of the fortresses as the heads of real reptiles cut off by someone.

The Serpent Gorynych has "trunks" with which he can suffocate or bruise. According to Dahl's dictionary, the Old Russian "trunk" meant "tail", as well as "bend" and "arc". It is quite possible that this word originally described plumes of smoke trailing behind shells and rockets. Such smoke could both suffocate and "bruise", since some types of shells were designed for this.

The serpent Gorynych in Russian fairy tales always attacks from above and never appears from the forest or from the water, which is typical for dragons from the folklore of other peoples. And Chinese shells and rockets really fell literally from the sky.

The flight of the Serpent Gorynych in the legends is always accompanied by a terrible whistle and roar. This is quite understandable, since the powder shells in flight and during the explosion made both a whistle and a roar.

Another interesting point: the Serpent Gorynych has black blood, which does not soak into the ground for a long time, because "the Russian land does not want to accept it." This blood could well have been a black, oily liquid flowing from unexploded shells and oil grenades. By the way, it actually does not absorb well into the soil.

The Serpent Gorynych always appears unexpectedly, his appearance in smoke and flame contrasts with the emphatically good weather. Of course, shelling with gunpowder weapons in rainy weather was impossible, since the water extinguished the ignited shells and rockets.

The nickname of the Serpent is Gorynych. It is traditionally customary to associate this nickname with the concept of "mountain": he is either the son of a large cloud, like a mountain, or he himself is huge like a mountain. But it must be borne in mind that legends, epics and tales about the Serpent Gorynych were recorded mainly in the Great Russian regions, while the struggle between Dobrynya and the Serpent, to which they go back, took place in the era of Kievan Rus to the south. Perhaps the original nickname of the Serpent was associated with the word "burn", and later and further north it was rethought.

All these considerations allow us to formulate the following hypothesis. In ancient mythology, the theme of the struggle of a hero with a fire-breathing dragon-serpent was widely used. In particular, ideas about incomprehensible, frightening natural phenomena, refracted in folk fantasy, could be clothed in such a form, be it a thunderstorm, a comet or ball lightning. As a result, many peoples have a traditional image of the dragon - the guardian of the waters and the master of the natural elements. In the mythology of the Slavs, who encountered mysterious and terrible fiery weapons during the period of the Mongol invasion, this traditional theme received a completely different turn. The Serpent Gorynych became the personification of such a weapon, turned into a metaphorical image of artillery shelling.

(Continuation of the article "The meaning of sleep in a Russian fairy tale")

In the collection of Ivan Khudyakov published in 1860, the author writes: “Faith in the pagan miraculous is still extremely widespread among the people; so, for example, in the same Zholchin, one grandmother at the grave of a just buried relative shouted that he flew a kite towards her. It was the summer of this year "(p. 132, Khudyakov I.A. Great Russian fairy tales. Great Russian riddles. St. Petersburg: Troyanov's Trail Publishing House, 2001. - 479 p. - (Complete collection of Russian fairy tales. Early collections. - T. 6).

With this quote, I specifically began the article in order to orient the reader regarding the understanding in the Russian folk tradition of the “serpent” with which the heroes of Russian fairy tales fight. Otherwise, the stereotype developed by the education system regarding fairy tales in general will not allow us to draw the right conclusions. Only now, when science has confirmed the existence of lucid dreams as a phenomenon, can we unbiasedly evaluate the information about this phenomenon preserved in the oral tradition by the Russian people. And you can't call it paganism. This is ancient knowledge about the structure of the world and man, now being restored. They do not mean disbelief in God. The Russian people believed in the Almighty and the trinity, which was called Triglav, and it was made up of three gods - Svarog, Perun and Veles. Subsequently, Veles was replaced by Svyatovit. One of the main secrets was considered to be the knowledge that the three gods actually represent one - the triune. But pride does not bring anyone to good. The Russians were the first to call neighboring peoples pagans, and paid the price for it: the surrounding peoples united, created their own religions, and called ancient Russian beliefs paganism. But besides religious beliefs, there were applied knowledge concerning the life of people in a dream. After all, in the old days, a dream was considered a message from the gods, they talked about it, tried to interpret it, and no one dared to neglect sleep. For example, Alexander the Great ordered the execution of a soldier who dreamed that he had killed his commander.

Earlier I already quoted a fairy tale, which speaks of three princesses who had several husbands, including snakes. The mother of Ivan, a peasant son, also lived with her husband and with the snake at the same time. We came to the conclusion that the snake is a creature of the magical (dream) world, as well as magical helpers such as wolves, horses, sivka-burkas, various old men, Baba Yaga, Marya Tsarevna, Elena the Beautiful and the like. We also found that when moving from the dream world to the real world, the hero often forgets about what happened to him in the magical world. Having married there and returned to his father and mother in the real world, the hero of the fairy tale marries again, and only at the cost of great efforts does the magical wife help him remember himself.

This feature of the difficulty of memorization during the transition from one world to another has been explained by us more than once. For example, in the fairy tale “1. Vasilisa the Wise" collection of Karnaukhova I.V. Ivan Tsarevich in the real world at a wedding feast, marrying another, did not recognize Vasilisa the Wise from the magical kingdom, even when she approached him and placed a cake she had baked in front of him. And I remembered only when I heard a conversation between a dove and a dove flying out of the pie. And Ivan Tsarevich could hear and understand pigeons only by entering an altered state of consciousness, characteristic of the magical world. Seeing at that moment Vasilisa the Wise in front of him, he was able to link both memories into one, restoring his integrity.

To connect the possibility of sexual relations, as it were, a mythical character from Russian fairy tales - a snake - with modern ideas about the structure of the world and, in particular, the recently officially created science that studies lucid dreams - oneirology, we turn to the book by Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold "Investigation of the World of Lucid Dreams" . Let me remind you that on the topic of lucid dreaming, Stephen LaBerge defended his doctoral dissertation at Stanford University, where he conducted research for more than ten years.

“In 1983, we undertook a study to investigate the extent to which sexual activity in a lucid REM dream affected physiological outcomes.
A woman was chosen for the experiment, as women reported more likely to have orgasms in their dreams. She had various physiological parameters that are usually affected by sexual arousal: respiration, heart rate, vaginal muscle tone, and vaginal pulsation amplitude. In the experiment, she was required to give a special signal with her eyes in the following situations: when she realizes that she is sleeping, when imaginary sexual acts begin, and when she has an orgasm.
According to her, she exactly fulfilled the conditions of the task. An analysis of the recordings revealed a significant correlation between "what she did in the dream and all but one of the physiological parameters. Within fifteen seconds, which she defined as the period of orgasm, the activity of her vaginal muscles, the amplitude of the pulsations of the vagina and the frequency of breathing reached a maximum for the whole night, and significantly exceeded those of the rest of this REM period.Heart rate, contrary to expectations, increased only slightly.
After that, we conducted similar experiments with two men. In both cases, there was a sharp increase in breathing, but again no significant changes in heart rate. Remarkably, while both oneironauts reported intense orgasms in their lucid dreams, neither of them ejaculated, unlike normal adolescents.<мокрых снов>which are often not accompanied by erotic dreams.

So, we can conclude that sexual relations exist in the dream world, they are often more emotional than in the real world and are accompanied by corresponding changes in the state of the physical body, except for an increase in heart rate. Knowing this, we can return to the study of the tale, while understanding the sexual underpinnings of the serpent's claims.

Snakes often kidnap princesses and marry them. So, in the fairy tale “32. Svetozor ”three-, six- and nine-headed snakes kidnap three princesses and live with them in copper, silver and gold palaces in luxury and contentment. When Svetozor kills all three snakes, the princesses are very sorry that they are forced to leave all their property here. Fortunately, Svetozor has a magic handkerchief with which he turns palaces into eggs: copper, silver and gold (p. 104, Folk tales collected by rural teachers. Collection of A.A. Erlenwein. Russian folk tales, jokes and fables. Collection of E. A. Chudinsky. St. Petersburg: Tropa Troyanov Publishing House, 2005. - 287 pp. - (Complete collection of Russian fairy tales. Early collections. - T. 11).

In the fairy tale "28. Bur-khraber” of A.A. Erlenvein’s collection, the tsar’s daughter, kidnapped by Bur-khraber and Dimitri Tsarevich, began to lose weight. She said it was her snake that was harassing her. Having caught the snake, Bur-khraber forced the snake to take himself to living and dead water, thanks to which he received his sight, and Demetrius the prince grew legs.

Sometimes snakes win their wives in battle. In the fairy tale "3. Ivan, the widow's son and Grisha, the nine-headed serpent approaches the fortress of a certain capital of the kingdom and demands from the king his daughter to marry him. “If you don’t marry me,” he says, “I’ll take you out of everything, and I’ll burn your kingdom” (p. 172, Folk tales collected by rural teachers. Collection of A.A. Erlenwein. Russian folk tales, Jokes and fables. Collection of E. A. Chudinsky. St. Petersburg: Tropa Troyanov Publishing House, 2005. - 287 p. - (Complete collection of Russian fairy tales. Early collections. - T. 11).

It also happens that snakes are not enemies, but rather help the hero. In the same collection, in the fairy tale “24. Ivan Tsarevich and Marya Tsarevna ”the three sisters of Ivan Tsarevich marry the first beggars they meet, who, as a result, turn out to be three snakes: twenty-, thirty- and forty-headed. These sons-in-law not only feed and give Ivan Tsarevich water, but also give him magical items. In particular, they personally sew three peacock feathers into his clothes. They do this by turning into beautiful fellows (pp. 70-71, ibid.).

In the fairy tale "87. Ivan-Tsarevich and Marya-yellow color "three brothers - a snake help the Cossack, who is stubbornly called Ivan Tsarevich, complete the task. Then they warn him of the danger and invite him to come visit. Thus, the fight against snakes occurs mainly when they kidnap women, or cohabit with them against their will. In this case, a defender is sought, trained to fight them, and in our opinion, a professional magician is a dreamer.

Another conflict arises when snakes devour the population of a village or kingdom. Moreover, the snake does not calm down until it eats everyone, or it is not killed. For some reason, he cannot eat a person in this village this week, and in another one the next. And again, for some reason, he most often requires young girls. It is hard to believe that this is due to some gastronomic features. Although in the fairy tale “3. Horns" collection of Karnaukhova I.V. tells about Princess Marya, to whom “... a kite flies. It flies, but it drinks blood. She is completely unable, she has become thin. But still, most likely, these predilections of snakes are associated with sexual differences. In almost all fairy tales, snakes are only male. Only occasionally is their mother mentioned.

In the fairy tale "117. Bogatyr” says: “There were snakes in not our kingdom; and the younger serpent has twenty-eight heads. And Prince Golitsyn had daughters and a son. The snakes of these sisters completely took possession. Here, this prince Golitsyn asked our tsar to take time off to fight on kites, to free the sisters. (p. 353, Khudyakov I.A. Great Russian fairy tales. Great Russian riddles. St. Petersburg: Tropa Troyanov Publishing House, 2001. - 479 p. - (Complete collection of Russian fairy tales. Early collections. - T. 6). Along with the use new material (Prince Golitsyn) basically the presentation of the tale is traditional, including the rolling of barrels with strong and weak water.Moreover, here we find new information.Thirty years have passed by the time the hero freed his sisters, and their father and mother did not immediately recognize.

In the fairy tale "108. Moon and Star” directly indicates that the serpent is a spirit (p. 329, ibid.). In the fairy tale "14. About the Three Bogatyrs - Vechernik, Polunoshnik and Svetovik ”of the collection of M.K. Azadovsky tells, among other things, about three snakes - three-headed, nine-headed and twelve-headed, and the following explanation is given: staffs people if bayalis". The narrator even calls one by his name: "the three-headed Zmey Svetlan." In the fairy tale "89. Ivan-Goroshko" collection of Karnaukhova I.V. it is said that a snake wizard lived near the village, who kidnapped the girl. Thus, three times we meet an indication that the snakes were spirits, and in the second and third cases - people-spirits trained in magic.

As for the description of kites, their appearance, it has to be collected according to different fairy tales. There are references to the number of goals, which is most often a multiple of three, but still not always. There are mentions of twenty-four heads, and thirty and even forty. Such diversity itself makes one think about the reality of this character. We have to admit that such a monster is possible only in the magical world of sleep, where nothing is impossible. The storytellers purposefully introduced this character into the fairy tale, endowed him with properties impossible in the physical world, the main of which is precisely the large number of heads, in order to show that the action of the fairy tale takes place in a magical dream world.

Another property of serpents is that they scorch fire. “They began to fight with the monster. The monster does not let anyone close to him for five fathoms. So he burns and scorches everyone with fire, and he began to beat and crush the royal army very much ”(p. 172, Folk tales collected by rural teachers. Collection of A.A. Erlenwein. Russian folk tales, jokes and fables. Collection of E.A. Chudinsky St. Petersburg: Tropa Troyanov Publishing House, 2005. - 287 pp. - (Complete collection of Russian fairy tales. Early collections. - T. 11).

Often snakes ride horses, which implies they have legs, but, say, not fins. Sometimes their horses fly. So, in the fairy tale “30. Ivanushka the Joker and Bethleyevna the Bogatyrska "serpent" ... mounted his horse (and snake horses fly under the clouds), he soared under the clouds - and you can barely see them "(p. 97, ibid.).

IN 1. In the tale of Vasilisa with a golden scythe, uncovered beauty, and Ivan Pea "of the collection of Bogdan Bronnitsyn, we find an indication that the snake has wings:" Ah! it's you guys! cried the Serpent, flapping its wings. Further, an even more detailed description: “Suddenly a terrible whistle was heard: the Fierce Serpent is rushing; his horse whirlwind flies like an arrow, bursts with flame; in appearance, the Serpent is a hero, and the head is a snake. When he flies, for another ten miles the whole palace will begin to turn, move from place to place ... "

In the fairy tale "6. Dobrynya Nikitich” of the collection of I.P. Sakharov tells about the trunk, with which the Serpent Gorynchischi almost bruised Dobrynya Nikitich. What is meant by the trunk is completely incomprehensible. If like an elephant, then the snake on the snake's head also has a trunk. There are no explanations here or anywhere else. True, there is a guess what else can be called a "trunk", but we will not voice this, and therefore we recognize this detail as atypical. In the fairy tale "9. Akundin" of the same collection tells about the wide tail of the snake Tugarin, with which he began to muddy the river Oka.

In the fairy tale "100. How the Brothers Searched for the Truth” of the collection “Tales of Kupriyanikha” three snakes (about three heads, about six heads and about nine heads) guard a beautiful bird with red feathers. And they keep her behind nine mountains, behind nine doors, behind nine locks.

In the fairy tale "65. Light-Moon” of the collection by I.V. Karnaukhova Ivan the Bogatyr has lost his sorceress wife, called Light-Moon, and is looking for her in the magical kingdom. The rarest case in a Russian fairy tale is that the heroine turns into a snake, flies to Baba Yaga, and even spits fire at her husband, breaks out and flies away. But it is precisely this case that especially makes it possible to attribute the snake to the personalities of sleep.

Sometimes snakes fight with swords, which indicates that they have hands. This is also evidenced by the fact that snakes often send written messages in fairy tales about their demands, or announce their arrival. At the same time, snakes often fly, in connection with which there are references to their wings. Snakes can turn into a man, and they become fine fellows more beautiful than Ivan Tsarevich. And, finally, the most important thing: snakes can cohabit with the women of the physical world. Nowhere, however, is there any mention of the fact that children were born from such cohabitation. But the fact that the structure of the body is similar to the human one is obvious. Perhaps that is why in fairy tales there is no mention of the skin, eyes, fingers, membranes, legs, or hands of snakes, their growth. But everywhere the serpent speaks human language.

Thus, it should be recognized that the serpent is a magical creature, its habitat is the world of dreams. Through this world, he can come into contact with people. Through this world, he enters into sexual relations with women, and often against their will. Snakes are more related to the world of spirits than the physical. At the same time, they have the opportunity to communicate with people due to the fact that people have a dream body. As practice shows, when communicating with people, the main tactic for snakes is intimidation. They feed on people's emotions, causing real harm to people's health already in the real physical world. Thus, our ancestors described to us the main enemy of the dream world, gave us instructions on how to penetrate this world, described the rules that exist in this world. That is, they prepared us for a meeting with a new world, as old as the whole world, and at the same time diverse.

Fighting snakes is possible only in the dream world, but you need to realize the need to fight them in the physical world. At the same time, one must understand that it is impossible to destroy the being of the dream world, it can only be defeated. You can cut it into pieces, burn them, and then scatter the ashes into the wind - this will show your new status in the dream world: no longer meat, but a player. Further, you still have to enter into relationships with spirits, learn the rules of communication, become a real player with full awareness - that is, become a person who is able to control his consciousness in two worlds. This will allow you not to waste energy on feeding the beings of the spirit world, but to accumulate it for your own growth of awareness. And after that, the path to the third world awaits us - the world of the soul, or, as it is called in some religions - the mental world.