Each of the peoples of the Ancient World had their own deities, powerful and not so powerful. Many of them had unusual abilities and were the owners of wonderful artifacts that gave them additional strength, knowledge and, ultimately, power.

Amaterasu ("Great Goddess Who Illuminates the Heavens")

Country: Japan
Essence: Sun Goddess, ruler of the heavenly fields

Amaterasu is the eldest of three children of the progenitor god Izanaki. She was born from drops of water with which he washed his left eye. She took possession of the upper heavenly world, while her younger brothers got the night and the water kingdom.

Amaterasu taught people how to cultivate rice and weave. The imperial house of Japan traces its ancestry from her. She is considered the great-grandmother of the first Emperor Jimmu. The rice ear, mirror, sword and carved beads given to her became sacred symbols of imperial power. According to tradition, one of the emperor's daughters becomes the High Priestess of Amaterasu.

Yu-Di (“Jade Sovereign”)

Country: China
Essence: Supreme Overlord, Emperor of the Universe

Yu-Di was born at the moment of the creation of Earth and Heaven. The Heavenly, Terrestrial, and Underground worlds are subject to him. All other deities and spirits are subordinate to him.
Yu-Di is absolutely emotionless. He sits on a throne in a robe embroidered with dragons and holding a jade tablet in his hands. Yu Di has an exact address: the god lives in a palace on Mount Yujingshan, which resembles the court of the Chinese emperors. Under it function heavenly councils responsible for various natural phenomena. They perform all sorts of actions that the Lord of Heaven himself does not condescend to do.

Quetzalcoatlus ("Feathered Serpent")

Country: Central America
Essence: Creator of the world, lord of the elements, creator and teacher of people

Quetzalcoatl not only created the world and people, but also taught them the most important skills: from agriculture to astronomical observations. Despite his high status, Quetzalcoatl sometimes acted in a very peculiar way. For example, in order to get maize grains for people, he entered an anthill, turning into an ant himself, and stole them.

Quetzalcoatl was depicted both as a feathered serpent (the body symbolizing the Earth, and the feathers representing vegetation) and as a bearded man wearing a mask.
According to one legend, Quetzalcoatl voluntarily went into overseas exile on a raft of snakes, promising to return. Because of this, the Aztecs initially mistook the conquistador leader Cortes for the returned Quetzalcoatl.

Baal (Balu, Baal, "Lord")

Country: Middle East
Essence: Thunderer, god of rain and elements. In some myths - the creator of the world

Baal, as a rule, was depicted either as a bull or as a warrior riding on a cloud with a lightning spear. During the festivities in his honor, mass orgies took place, often accompanied by self-mutilation. It is believed that human sacrifices were also made to Baal in some areas. From his name comes the name of the biblical demon Beelzebub (Ball-Zebula, “Lord of the Flies”).

Ishtar (Astarte, Inanna, "Lady of Heaven")

Country: Middle East
Essence: Goddess of fertility, sex and war

Ishtar, sister of the Sun and daughter of the Moon, was associated with the planet Venus. Associated with the legend of her journey to the underworld was the myth of nature dying and reborn every year. She often acted as an intercessor for people before the gods. At the same time, Ishtar was responsible for various feuds. The Sumerians even called wars “the dances of Inanna.” As a goddess of war, she was often depicted riding a lion, and was probably a prototype of the Whore of Babylon riding on a beast.
The passion of the loving Ishtar was destructive for both gods and mortals. For her many lovers, everything usually ended in big trouble or even death. The worship of Ishtar included temple prostitution and was accompanied by mass orgies.

Ashur ("Father of the Gods")

Country: Assyria
Essence: God of War
Ashur – main god Assyrians, god of war and hunting. His weapon was a bow and arrow. As a rule, Ashur was depicted together with bulls. Its other symbol is the solar disk above the tree of life. Over time, as the Assyrians expanded their possessions, he began to be considered the consort of Ishtar. The High Priest of Ashur was the Assyrian king himself, and his name often became part of the royal name, as, for example, the famous Ashurbanipal, and the capital of Assyria was called Ashur.

Marduk ("Son of Clear Sky")

Country: Mesopotamia
Essence: Patron of Babylon, god of wisdom, ruler and judge of the gods
Marduk defeated the embodiment of chaos Tiamat, driving the “evil wind” into her mouth, and took possession of the book of destinies that belonged to her. After that, he cut Tiamat's body and created Heaven and Earth from them, and then created the entire modern, ordered world. The other gods, seeing the power of Marduk, recognized his supremacy.
Marduk's symbol is the dragon Mushkhush, a mixture of scorpion, snake, eagle and lion. Various plants and animals were identified with the body parts and entrails of Marduk. Main temple Marduk - a huge ziggurat (step pyramid) probably became the basis of the legend of the Tower of Babel.

Yahweh (Jehovah, "He Who Is")

Country: Middle East
Essence: Single tribal god of the Jews

Yahweh's main function was to help chosen people. He gave the Jews laws and strictly monitored their implementation. In clashes with enemies, Yahweh provided the chosen people with assistance, sometimes the most direct. In one of the battles, for example, he threw huge stones at his enemies, in another case he abolished the law of nature, stopping the sun.
Unlike most other gods ancient world, Yahweh is extremely jealous, and forbids the worship of any deities other than himself. Severe punishments await those who disobey. The word "Yahweh" is a replacement secret name God, which is forbidden to say out loud. It was impossible to create his images either. In Christianity, Yahweh is sometimes identified with God the Father.

Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd, “God the Wise”)

Country: Persia
Essence: Creator of the World and all that is good in it

Ahura Mazda created the laws by which the world exists. He endowed people with free will, and they can choose the path of good (then Ahura Mazda will favor them in every possible way) or the path of evil (serving Ahura Mazda's eternal enemy Angra Mainyu). Ahura Mazda's assistants are the good beings of Ahura created by him. He is surrounded by them in the fabulous Garodman, the house of chants.
The image of Ahura Mazda is the Sun. He is older than the whole world, but at the same time, eternally young. He knows both the past and the future. In the end, he will achieve the final victory over evil, and the world will become perfect.

Angra Mainyu (Ahriman, "Evil Spirit")

Country: Persia
Essence: The embodiment of evil among the ancient Persians
Angra Mainyu is the source of everything bad that happens in the world. He spoiled the perfect world created by Ahura Mazda, introducing lies and destruction into it. He sends diseases, crop failures, natural disasters, gives birth to predatory animals, poisonous plants and animals. Under the command of Angra Mainyu are the devas, evil spirits, fulfilling his evil will. After Angra Mainyu and his minions are defeated, an era of eternal bliss should begin.

Brahma ("Priest")

Country: India
Essence: God is the creator of the world
Brahma was born from a lotus flower and then created this world. After 100 years of Brahma, 311,040,000,000,000 earthly years, he will die, and after the same period of time a new Brahma will spontaneously generate and create new world.
Brahma has four faces and four arms, which symbolizes the cardinal directions. Its indispensable attributes are a book, rosary, a vessel with water from the sacred Ganges, a crown and a lotus flower, symbols of knowledge and power. Brahma lives on the top of the sacred Mount Meru and rides on a white swan. The descriptions of the action of Brahma's weapon Brahmastra are reminiscent of the description of nuclear weapons.

Vishnu ("All-encompassing")

Country: India
Essence: God is the keeper of the world

The main functions of Vishnu are maintenance existing world and opposition to evil. Vishnu appears in the world and acts through his incarnations, avatars, the most famous of which are Krishna and Rama. Vishnu has blue skin and wears yellow clothes. He has four hands in which he holds a lotus flower, a mace, a conch shell and Sudarshana (a rotating disk of fire, his weapon). Vishnu reclines on the giant multi-headed snake Shesha, which swims in the world's Causal Ocean.

Shiva ("Merciful")

Country: India
Essence: God is the destroyer
Shiva's main task is to destroy the world at the end of each world cycle in order to make room for a new creation. This happens during the dance of Shiva - Tandava (therefore Shiva is sometimes called the dancing god). However, he also has more peaceful functions - a healer and a deliverer from death.
Shiva sits in lotus position on a tiger skin. There are snake bracelets on his neck and wrists. On Shiva's forehead there is a third eye (it appeared when Shiva's wife, Parvati, jokingly covered his eyes with her palms). Sometimes Shiva is depicted as a lingam (an erect penis). But sometimes he is also depicted as a hermaphrodite, symbolizing the unity of the male and female principles. By folk beliefs Shiva smokes marijuana, so some believers consider this activity a way to understand him.

Ra (Amon, "Sun")

Country: Egypt
Essence: Sun God
Ra, the main god of Ancient Egypt, was born from the primordial ocean of his own free will, and then created the world, including the gods. He is the personification of the Sun, and every day with a large retinue he travels across the sky in a magic boat, thanks to which life in Egypt becomes possible. At night, the boat of Ra sails along the underground Nile through afterworld. The Eye of Ra (sometimes considered an independent deity) had the ability to pacify and subjugate enemies. Egyptian pharaohs traced their origins to Ra, and called themselves his sons.

Osiris (Usir, "The Mighty One")

Country: Egypt
Essence: God of rebirth, ruler and judge of the underworld.

Osiris taught people agriculture. His attributes are associated with plants: the crown and boat are made of papyrus, he holds bundles of reeds in his hands, and the throne is covered with greenery. Osiris was killed and cut into pieces by his brother, the evil god Set, but was resurrected with the help of his wife and sister Isis. However, having conceived the son Horus, Osiris did not remain in the world of the living, but became the ruler and judge of the kingdom of the dead. Because of this, he was often depicted as a swaddled mummy with free hands, in which he holds a scepter and flail. IN Ancient Egypt The tomb of Osiris was highly revered.

Isis ("The Throne")

Country: Egypt
Essence: Intercessor Goddess.
Isis is the embodiment of femininity and motherhood. All segments of the population turned to her with pleas for help, but, first of all, the oppressed. She especially patronized children. And sometimes she acted as a defender of the dead before the afterlife court.
Isis was able to magically resurrect her husband and brother Osiris and give birth to his son Horus. In popular mythology, the floods of the Nile were considered the tears of Isis, which she shed for Osiris, who remained in the world of the dead. The Egyptian pharaohs were called the children of Isis; sometimes she was even depicted as a mother feeding the pharaoh with milk from her breast.
The well-known image is the “veil of Isis,” meaning the concealment of the secrets of nature. This image has long attracted mystics. No wonder Blavatsky’s famous book is called “Isis Unveiled.”

Odin (Wotan, "The Seer")

A country: Northern Europe
Essence: God of war and victory
Odin is the main god of the ancient Germans and Scandinavians. He travels on the eight-legged horse Sleipnir or on the ship Skidbladnir, the size of which can be changed at will. Odin's spear, Gugnir, always flies to the target and hits on the spot. He is accompanied by wise crows and predatory wolves. Odin lives in Valhalla with a squad of the best fallen warriors and warlike Valkyrie maidens.
In order to gain wisdom, Odin sacrificed one eye, and in order to understand the meaning of the runes, he hung on the sacred tree Yggdrasil for nine days, nailed to it with his own spear. Odin's future is predetermined: despite his power, on the day of Ragnarok (the battle preceding the end of the world) he will be killed by the giant wolf Fefnir.

Thor (Thunder)

Country: Northern Europe
Essence: Thunderer

Thor is the god of the elements and fertility among the ancient Germans and Scandinavians. This is a hero god who protects not only people, but also other gods from monsters. Thor was depicted as a giant with a red beard. His weapon is the magic hammer Mjolnir (“lightning”), which can only be held with iron gloves. Thor is girded with a magic belt that doubles his strength. He rides across the sky in a chariot drawn by goats. Sometimes he eats goats, but then resurrects them with his magic hammer. On the day of Ragnarok, the last battle, Thor will deal with the world serpent Jormungandr, but he himself will die from his poison.

This is how God feeds!

The sadhus walked further until they came across a village, where they stopped for the night at the Maruti temple. As a rule, they were content with one hot meal a day. In the evening, Ramcharandas, if possible, ate some light food. Almost all the villages of Maharashtra - and almost all of India - have a temple and an adjoining dharamshala. During this journey they invariably spent the nights in the temple or in the dharamshala and always set out early in the morning. They made their first stop for “lunch” at the roadside village where midday found them.

The next day they were approaching a village where they planned to stop for the day.

- Ram, have you forgotten that we no longer ask for alms? – just in case, Ramdas reminded. – Rely completely on God in this matter. Let's just go to the temple, sit quietly and engage in chanting His name.

Entering the village, they walked towards the Vittala temple and sat down on the veranda. It was past noon. A local resident entered the temple and, seeing the sadhu, asked: “Why are you sitting here inactive? It's lunch time. Go to the Brahmin community and beg there.”

Ramdas did not answer, Ramcharandas also remained silent. The man left. Another half hour passed. With all his appearance, Ramcharandas showed that he was very skeptical. About ten minutes later another man entered the temple.

-Have you already had lunch? - followed the question. – Hearing Ramdas’ negative answer, he asked:

– How are you going to get food?

“God will send,” Ramdas answered modestly. “It looks like his words went to the right place.”

“This God you talk about obliges me to invite you to dinner at my home,” the friend assessed the situation. “But the difficulty is that I am from the tailor caste.” You may not want to accept food from my hands.

“You are the Lord yourself in the eyes of these sadhus,” Ramdas hastened to assure him. – Therefore there can be no objections.

“I’ll be right back,” he answered and disappeared, only to reappear almost immediately with a bucket and rope. He took the sadhus to the well and helped them wash, after which they proceeded to his house, which stood a few yards from the temple. The tailor's wife and children greeted them with great joy and warmth and heartily fed them a hearty lunch. After leaving the house, they returned to the temple and rested a little, and then set off again.

On the way, Ramdas asked Ramcharandas:

- Well, don’t you believe that God himself fed us with such love?

Ramcharandas was not inclined to engage in conversation and remained silent. The day passed and another came. By noon they approached another village and took refuge in the local Vithoba temple. The sun has passed its zenith. Time flew quickly and was approaching one hour. There have been no signals for lunch yet. Ramcharandas fidgeted restlessly, his patience running out.

“Swamiji,” he couldn’t resist, “this time Vithoba hesitated a lot.” I'm afraid he has completely forgotten about us.

“Stop thinking about food, Ram,” Ramdas urged. – Just remember Him. Let us submit to His will.

After waiting a little longer and making sure that no events were coming, Ramcharandas said that he would rather take a nap. He lay down, covering his head, but what kind of sleep was there if his stomach was cramping from hunger? The guy kept turning back the edge of his clothes and looking through the crack to see if there was anyone on the street. Every second he checked to see if food was coming. It must have been two o'clock when Ramcharandas suddenly sat up and shouted:

- Swamiji, Swamiji, Vithoba is finally coming - look, here he is on the street, running towards us!

Indeed, a dark-skinned man was hurrying towards the temple. He went straight to the sadhu and immediately asked if they had lunch (as if he didn’t know!). Having received a negative answer, he ran away and returned a few minutes later with two plates of food. Having placed them in front of the sadhu, he began to eagerly ask them to taste the treat. Of course, there was no need to persuade them, and they immediately started dinner. At that very moment, a group of about ten kirtan performers entered the temple with cymbals, mrdanga and veena. While the sadhus were busy with the contents of their plates, they danced and sang the famous hymns of Tukaram. What does all this mean? God was not content to provide them with food for the body, but also provided them with a spiritual feast. How merciful are your deeds, Lord!

This text is an introductory fragment.

Chaos, Gaia, Uranus. Chaos was born first in the Universe. No one can say what it is or what it looked like. It was a black haze, similar to a huge open mouth (even the name Chaos itself comes from Greek word, meaning “yawn”). All the principles of the future world were mixed in it: earth and water, air and fire. Following Chaos appeared Gaia - the Earth, the dark underground abyss - Tartarus and the most beautiful among all the gods - Eros (Love), whose power moves everything in the Universe and to which not only people and animals, but also the immortal gods themselves are subject.

From Chaos arose the black Night and the gloomy Darkness - Erebus, who then, having entered into marriage, gave birth to the Ether, in which the immortal gods live, and the shining Day - Hemera. Gaia-Earth also gave birth to offspring. She first of all gave birth to Uranus, the starry Sky, which was equal to her in its boundless expanse, then - nymphs, forest goddesses, and finally - Pontus, the noisy boundless sea.

Uranus became Gaia's husband. The Earth spreads wide, mighty, giving life to everything, the mountains born of the Earth proudly rose to the Sky. Uranus looked at Gaia with tenderness: and then drops of life-giving rain fell from the sky to the earth - and she gave birth to flowers, trees, animals and birds. Rivers began to flow from the rain, and all the depressions filled with water, forming lakes.

Three generations of giants. Soon three children were born to Gaia and Uranus. But they were not born to the joy of their parents: after all, they turned out to be terrible monsters - giants, as high as a mountain, each had fifty heads and a hundred hands (that’s why they called them hecatoncheires - “hundred-handed”). Uranus looked at his children and was afraid of their exorbitant strength. He imprisoned them in the bowels of the Earth, in the depths and darkness, and did not allow them to come into the light. Earth-Gaia trembled under their weight, but did not dare to argue with her husband.

Then three more children were born to Uranus and Gaia, but they were few better than the first. True, they had one head and two arms, but they were also giants, and one eye burned fiercely in their foreheads. They called them Cyclopes, and Uranus treated them as he did with their brothers.

Finally, the third generation of children of Uranus and Gaia was born, who were later called the Titans. Uranus and Gaia had six titan sons - Oceanus, Coy, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus and the most terrible of them, the youngest of the titans - the cunning Kronos; In addition to sons, six Titanide daughters were born - Fairy, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Tethys and Phoebe. All of them, like the Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes before them, were imprisoned in Tartarus.

Giant titans and their children. Gaia suffered cruelly from the weight of her own children imprisoned in her bowels; She began to persuade her titan children to rebel against their father and deprive him of power. All the titans were afraid of the evil deed, and only the cunning and treacherous Kronos agreed to this. Having waylaid his father, he mutilated him with a blow from a sickle and thereby deprived him of all his strength and power. Since then, the children of Uranus and Gaia, who stretched out their hands to the wicked deed, were called titans, forming this word from the Greek verb meaning “to stretch out.” And from the blood of Uranus, spilled on the earth, the terrible goddess of vengeance Erinyes and the mighty snake-footed giants were born.

This is how the titans acquired power in the world. Soon they had many children, among whom were Helios-Sun, and Selene-Moon, and ruddy Eos-Dawn and many others. Little by little, order was established in the world. The young sun was shining above the earth, heavy rains fell from the clouds, and the grass became even greener; The stars shone in the dark expanses of the night, and when they turned pale, the birds greeted the dawn with a welcoming song.

Rhea hands Kron the stone,
wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Kronos became the ruler of the world. But he had no peace: after all, he had gained power by unjust means, cursed his bleeding Uranus, and therefore was afraid that one of his children would do to him the same way as he did to his father. He decided to destroy his children: as soon as his daughter or son was born, he ordered the child to be brought to him and swallowed him. So he devoured three daughters, Hestia, Demeter and Hera, and two sons, Hades and Poseidon.

Birth of Zeus. When another son, Zeus, was born, the goddess Rhea, his mother, felt sorry for giving the baby to be eaten by his father, and, on the advice of Earth-Gaia, she gave Kronos a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes; Kronos swallowed it and did not notice anything. And Gaia-Earth hid little Zeus on the island of Crete, in a deep cave on Mount Ida, where he grew up in secret from his father. Little Zeus was looked after by nymph goddesses, they fed him honey and gave him the milk of the wonderful goat Amalthea. Later, Zeus thanked her for this by raising her to heaven and making her the constellation Capricorn. In addition, he turned one of Amalthea’s horns into a Cornucopia, which, at the request of its owner, can provide any food and drink.

Zeus returns sisters and brothers. The golden cradle of little Zeus hung on a tree so that Kronos could not notice him either on earth, or in heaven, or in the sea. She was surrounded by Rhea's servants - the Kuretes; if a child began to cry, then they hit the shields with spears and performed a noisy dance so that the crying would not reach Kronos.

Many years passed like this. Zeus grew up, matured and decided to return to the world the sisters and brothers swallowed by Kronos, so that together with them he could take revenge on his father. On the advice of the daughter of Ocean Metis (Wisdom), he quietly mixed salt and mustard into the honey drink that Kronos drank, so that he immediately vomited out first a stone that replaced Zeus, then his two brothers - Poseidon and Hades, and finally three sisters - Hera, Demeter and Hestia. Therefore, they said about Hestia that she was born both the first of the children of Kronos, and the last - after all, she was the first to be born by Rhea and the last to be vomited out by Kronos.

The fight of the children of Kronos with the titans. All the children of Kronos were safe and sound and, in gratitude, offered Zeus to lead their fight against the Titans. Thus began the terrible war of the Kronids (children of Kronos) and the Titan gods, which lasted ten years. Neither one nor the other could win: their forces were equal. Then Gaia gave Zeus advice to win over to his side the terrible allies imprisoned in the bowels of the Earth, the Hecatoncheires and Cyclops (after all, Kronos, having deprived his father of power, brought only the titans out of Tartarus). Zeus, obeying the foremother of all living, went to Tartarus. Having freed the prisoners, Zeus gave them a taste of nectar and ambrosia - the food of the gods, which supports immortality - and the giants rose up, were filled with strength and took the side of Zeus in the fight.

The nymph Adrastea feeds the baby
whom Zeus from the horn of the goat Amalthea.
Pan is standing on the right.

For the decisive battle, the Cyclopes forged weapons for the god brothers: Hades - an invisibility helmet, Poseidon - a trident, and Zeus - thunder and lightning. The gods fortified themselves on the top of Mount Olympus. The titans moved towards her. The boundless sea roared terribly, the earth groaned, even the wide sky trembled, and the great Olympus trembled to its feet. Zeus began to throw his thunder and lightning - the earth roared from the heat, the flames swirled, the forest caught fire, the waters of the ancient gray Ocean began to boil. The hundred-armed giants broke off pieces of rocks and threw them at the titans, three hundred stones at a time, so that the stones obscured the sunlight. The noise from the battle was such that it seemed as if the sky had fallen on the earth and broken it into innumerable pieces.

Finally, the Titans were defeated and imprisoned in gloomy Tartarus, the gates of which Zeus set to guard the Hecatoncheires. There, in the underground darkness, they were supposed to remain forever.

The fate of Atlas and the Cyclopes. One Titan, Atlas, who was the leader of their army in the battle, received a different punishment. The gods placed him in the extreme west of the world, where he holds the vault of heaven on his shoulders. As for the Cyclopes, allies of Zeus, dangerous with their fierce, uncontrollable power, they too were removed away from sunlight. Zeus placed them in an underground forge, where they were to forge him his formidable weapon.

The War with the Titans was the first of Zeus' battles for power over the world. He had two more terrible battles ahead - with the giants and with Typhon.

Battle with giants. The role of Hercules. The first to attack the gods were the giants - the children of Gaia, born from the blood of Uranus, outraged by the fact that their titan brothers were imprisoned in Tartarus. Each of them was huge and scary, they all had long beards and had writhing snake bodies instead of legs.

From the tops of the mountains on which they lived, they showered the sky with huge stones and burning tree trunks, and their terrible onslaught at first even pushed the gods back. Unlike titans, giants were mortal, but only humans could defeat them. The gods had to turn to the mortal hero Hercules for help. Gaia found out about this and decided to protect her children from the arrows of Hercules with the help of magic grass. However, she failed to find the grass - Zeus found out about her intentions and forbade Eos, Helios and Selene to appear in the sky. The world was covered in darkness, and in this darkness Zeus himself found the necessary grass and cut it, depriving the giants of hope of victory.

The battle took place in the homeland of the giants, on the Phlegrean Fields in Greece. However, the arrows of Hercules did not at first bring victory to the gods. The giant Alcyoneus, struck by him, fell to the ground, immediately jumped up and rushed into battle with renewed vigor. Then it became clear to the gods that in their native land, which gave them strength, it was impossible to kill the giants. Athena found a way out: Hercules dragged the giants slain by the gods outside the Phlegrean fields and finished them off there with his club. Thus the giants were defeated.

The death of the old and the creation of a new world

Almost all of the above and many other legends about the appearance of the moon, the sun, changes in the direction of movement of the luminaries, the fall of fiery bodies to the earth, the fires that engulfed it, the plunging of the Earth into darkness, the emergence of new heavens and earth, the creation of new people are accompanied by the statement that all these events occurred when the old and new worlds changed. The new world is almost universally called the “world of people.”
The Old World in some legends (Slavic, Scandinavian, Iranian, Old Testament, South American, apparently Egyptian, Japanese, etc.) is called (or is considered, although not called) the first world, in others - the second (legends of the Hopi Indians, Arawaks , Maya, apparently, Sumerian legends, etc.), in third - third or fourth (Mayan, Aztec legends, most Indian and Chinese legends), in fourth - fifth (Aztec legends), in fifth - sixth and even seventh ( some Indian legends). But this does not change anything, because the mythology of most peoples living on Earth says that in the old world there were no real or “new” people (their creation occurred at the border of the old and new worlds). A old world, according to the legends of the Mayans, Nahuas and Aztecs, as well as Indian, Chinese, German-Scandinavian and other legends, differentgiants (and) who were vegetarians.
In the mythology of many peoples of the world, the old world is compared with Paradise (and). Thus, Slavic legends say that on the first Earth, which was called Finger, It was eternal spring (there was no night yet), everything was blooming and fragrant.After the death of the first world, Svarog raised his palace high and protected it with an icy firmament. And on top of the firmament he created a new one,a more beautiful Azure world and transferred Paradise-Iriy there and built a new road there - Star Trek, along which the Raya-river flows, so that those worthy of Raya-Iria can reach it this way.Then Svarog poured water on the burning Finger, extinguished the fires, and from the destroyed, perished Azure World he created a new world, a new nature, and called it Earth, which means “to be in suffering”.
Ancient Iranian legends also report that the first world created by Ahura Mazda was the worldlight, warmth, peace and life.Then it was destroyed by Angra Mainyu, who created death, winter, cold, flood. Ahura Mazda saved people from all these hardships by building a shelter for them underground.
The legend of the Hopi Indians states that the Second World of Tokpa or Dark Midnight (corresponding to the Fourth World Age of the Aztecs) was not as perfect as the first, but was also beautiful in its own way.
In contrast to this, in"Popol Vuh" Mayaand most Aztec codices, the Fourth World is described in the darkest colors. According to some Aztec legends, the Third World Age (Second Mayan World), according to others, the Fourth (Third Mayan World) was a world of endless bloody wars, hunger, cold and disease. To this we can add “and darkness” if we extend it to at least part of the Fourth World Age. Gods, demons and “old” people began to mercilessly destroy each other.
According to Vatican Codex A, during the Fourth World Age there was a war between the gods and there was a terrible famine on Earth. Many Sumerian, Indian and, apparently, Chinese legends tell about this.
So, in Sumerian myth about the creation of people it says:
« In the days of yore, when the heavens were separated from the earth, in the nights of yore, when the earth was separated from
Heaven separated, the tribe of celestials multiplied and due to lack of food
suffered O. The immortal foremothers prayed,
begging her to satisfy their hunger. Enki woke up Namma:
- Wake up, my son! Banish the dream! Deliver the gods from torment!...
...You didn’t create assistants who would take your worries on their shoulders...
… Of people …Let them be similar in appearance to your brothers, but they do not know immortality».
The Akkadian and Babylonian poem “When Above” tells first about the long period of carefree life of Marduk in his heavenly palace, and then about those times when the gods began to endure hunger and cold and came to him for help. Marduk decided to create "people" so that they would feed the gods, and went to Ea for bones and blood. By sacrificing the dragon to King, he blinded the “people.”
And here is another Sumerian myth on the same topic - about the battle of Ninurta with the army of the country of Kuru,"which knows no return" (dragons and other chthonic forces), which I compare in the book “The Land Before the Flood - the World of Sorcerers and Werewolves” with Indra’s son Arjuna:
“The waters of death fell on the glorious city of Ninurta, flooding the earth, and the water of life was blocked. Then the gods were alarmed, carrying baskets on their shoulders and loosening the earth with hoes. Famine struck the country, as the poisonous waters of death flowed through the canals. The mountaineers descended after them, destroying everything on their way, turning people into slavery.”
The myth of Ninurta describes in bright, vibrant colors what was happening on Earth at that time.War, destruction, devastation, land and water were poisoned.
What was the reason for such different attitudes towards the lost world? different nations, I will tell you in the final part of the work.
And now I repeat once again thatthe new world, unlike the previous one, became contrasting and polar. A different sun, moon, seasonal and climatic zonation, glaciers, deserts, etc. appeared in it.
Thus, the Avesta reports that formerly motionless « the sun began to move across the sky and regulate the seasons in accordance with the truth-asha.”
The Sumerian myth “The Mountain of Heaven” states that after the earth-born god Nanna (Moon) ascended to heaven, he began to show mortals the change of times.
In the Egyptian world "Ra Continues to Create the World" it is said that at the moment of transferring the earthly throne from Ra (the old Sun) to Geb (the new Sun), he announced:
“Let my serpents and my enemies know,” declared the god of gods, “that although I am moving away, I still shine above them. You, Geb, will now be ruler on earth!
Thus ended the era of the earthly reign of Ra-Horakhty. The era of Geb's reign has begun.»
According to another myth, Ra abdicated the throne in favor of Thoth (the moon god). However, Thoth did not agree to reign alone, and then the gods divided power: Ra and Thoth began to replace each other on the throne, so the time of day began to change.
The Scandinavian legend about the last battle of the gods, Ragnarok, says that almost all people died in a fire and flood. However, our planet has been reborn: a new sky has emerged, new land and a new underground world. The younger gods (Vidar, Vali, Magni, Modi, the resurrected Balder) survived and populated the restored Asgard. Two people also survived - the man Livtrasir and the woman Liv, who laid the foundation for a new humanity.
The land, previously raised from the sea, sank back into it, ice and fire destroyed the universe.
The Book of Genesis, the Book of Enoch and the main Kabbalistic book “Zohar” also contain an indication of a catastrophe, which with a very high degree of probability occurred at the turn of the Fourth and Fifth world eras of the Aztecs. This catastrophe occurred during the presence of fallen angels (and) on Earth - the sons of God, guardians, nephilim and their descendants - rephaim, and expressed in the descent from heaven of the sun, moon and stars and their submission to the fallen angels (as before they were subject to the Holy One).
According to Kabbalistic teachings, the previous world perished as a result of the catastrophe“which preceded the present, but died before its emergence” Punishment fallen angels they were imprisoned underground.
As the final “chord” of the creation of a new world, we can cite the Chinese legend about the reign of the legendary emperorZhuan-xuya. According to him, Zhuang-xu instructed the spirit Chun (Jun) to rule the south, heaven and spirits, and the spirit Li to rule the north, earth and people, so that people and gods would not mix, and order would reign everywhere. By order of Zhuan-xu, Chun and Li interrupted communication between heaven and earth, and people could no longer ascend to heaven.Light and darkness began to alternate sequentially, and, as the legend says, there was peace in the human world and in heaven.

My work “Legends and hypotheses about the lunar rabbit, the churning of the ocean, the unwinding of the firmament, the origin of the Moon and the connection of the Moon with death and immortality - a description of catastrophes at the turn of the Third and Fourth and the Fourth and Fifth world eras, the acquisition of the Earth modern look and appearance modern man- Homo Sapiens", which complements this work, as well as the series of my works "Eras of human development in the mythologies of the Mayans, Nahuas and Aztecs" in the section "Five World Ages and Humanities of the Mayans, Nahuas and Aztecs"
Read also my work on the time of existence of a water-vapor shell above the Earth"

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