Since the first breath was taken,
And until the last moment
“I believe in God, God grant me” -
We whisper like a poem.

We trust in Him
Because He is with us everywhere,
And the nature of this life
I owe it to him like a miracle.

And He is in everything, and He is everywhere,
And He is present invisibly
In the earth, and in the sky, and in the water
Always flowing by...

Like a dumb sentry, -
On the verge of sight and hearing
He is Lugovoi and Brownie,
And Shchur, and Leshy, and Vostrukha...

He is Veles, Lizard and Svarog,
Semargl and Makosh, and Kupalo...
I believe in God... God bless me!
Give enough so that everyone has enough:

Earth - both sun and rain,
Soul - both happiness and anxiety,
To the lost - living people,
And the traveler - his roads...

Avsen

World of poetry, World of mythology, Slavic pantheon
In the fall, like in the beginning of spring
On a golden-red horse
Avsen hurries, now in happiness, now in sadness
We are to announce a new day of life...

Protection to all shepherds and horses,
Radiant as the sun and a maple leaf,
He brings his message openly to everyone,
And his path is swift and pure!

Auca

Neither in summer nor in winter does he sleep -
Pot-bellied little Auka,
He sits hidden in the thicket,
Without making a sound there.

But it's only worth it to someone
To appear in his forest wilderness,
He starts to blow his cheeks
And it strives to become an echo,

And the poor travelers are circling
Through the dark forest for hours,
And he himself, howling, is in a hurry
Take cover behind the bushes again

Babai

The mouse sang: “Bay-bye,
If you don’t sleep, Babai will come.”

The little mouse sleeps lightly,
Because I dream
How Babai scratches into the house
And there's a knock on the window.

He came from the reeds
At the hour when it is dark,
One hundred capricious kids
It's in his knapsack.

Bannik

Whether you are a host, a guest or a wanderer -
Water basin, broom, steam
Leave it in the bathhouse so that Bannik
He didn’t turn his anger into insanity.

Leave the rye bread with salt
And - come out one by one!..
Our Bannik is accustomed to freedom:
The fourth par is always his!

Baechnik

Oh, don’t tell me scary stories or dark fairy tales at night!
Shadows may appear from huge invisible hands...

If small children dream of a mustachioed baechnik,
The burning torch will be of immediate use to them:

Disturbed shadows will fly away from the light,
Old Bayechnik darted either under the floor or into the canopy...

And in the morning everyone will think the story is funny
That thing that frightened me so much at night and breathed behind my back...

Beregini


Everywhere - at home, in the forest, on land, on water:
Where did a man once live, and where does he live now?
They follow him invisibly, so as not to cause trouble,
Mysterious creatures - Beregini's friends.

Along the banks of lakes and rivers, and among distant mountains
They sound like clear streams, their voices are everywhere, -
Like an indispensable talisman that has saved us so far
And those who did not trust them, and those who believed in a miracle.

Boliboshka

Grandfather crafty Boliboshka
Lives in berry places,
His path in the forest is cunning,
He points it out himself.

Suddenly he meets and whines:
Like, I lost my bag somewhere,
And he himself is poking into the bushes somewhere,
So that you help and look.

It leads you under a snag,
Then he pulls you by the hand into the ravine...
And if he finds something, -
So only in the thicket of a gulley.

The Witcher


So that witches don't play pranks, -
The Witcher is in charge of them.
About his wonderful power
Every magician he meets knows.

He interferes with plotting,
Defeats the dead
The fate of evil spirits is decided...
And it will decide in the end.

Veles

He walks along a reserved path -
A gray-haired old man with a stick,
Straightening the blades of grass with my hand,
Understanding animal language.

Waiting for a wise word
Hearts are opened before him
An old elk and a sick cow,
And with a trembling lamb the sheep...

Even the gray bunny, daring,
Showed up at the distant bushes...
Let it be for you, Grandfather Veles, -
God of animals, people and forests!

Water

By his clothes on the left
The water is always rolling...
Make him angry
Don't ever try!

With permission from Vodyanoy
The mill grinds flour.
There is no such place in the water
Wherever he would be forever:

And he huddles in wells,
And he lives in the whirlpools, -
And his water is delicious,
And cool all year round.

Volkh

The moonlight flowed like silver silk,
Fog rose from the lakes into the skies...
The Volkh turned into the Gray Prophetic Wolf
And he hurried beyond the mountains and forests, -

Flashed in the steppe, lingered in the swamp,
I dived into the ravine, enveloped in silence...
I was hunting again until dawn today
Son of the Lizard running under the moon...

Vostrukha

From thieves and evil people,
Like your own ear
The house you live in
Takes care of Vostrukha.

Brownie, Vostrukhin grandson,
Helps grandfather
So that over hard times in difficult times
Win a victory,

Wonderful maiden beauty,
Like the apple of my eye,
Grandfather protects from temptations
Fights fiercely.

All his bridesmaids
Very grateful.
If Vostrukha is in the house, there is -
He is happy and strong.

Counter

Dispelling the road dust,
Looking for a Meeter - the spirit of the winds
Souls of true villains
And unscrupulous thieves...

So as not to accidentally perish in it,
There’s no point in shouting “don’t touch!”
The whirlwind will disappear - it’s worth throwing
Deep into his ordinary knife.

Gamayun

About gods, about heroes, about animals and about people
Gamayun narrates from dawn in the wind.
This prophetic bird knows the truth about destinies:
Everything that will happen in the world in thousands of moons...

The forest rustles and trembles, the whirlwinds swirl harshly,
Creaking and rustling everywhere, but at that cherished hour,
Who can hear Gamayun's word,
Afterwards he will remember the prophetic bird more than once in his life.

Dazhbog


Giver of earthly blessings, god of sunlight!
Your shield shines as if it’s summer everywhere...
You were the first to rule the Slavic side in ancient times,
You were the first to establish the law and the calendar.

The chariot is driven by four horses,
And their manes are burning, and your rod is shining...
Dazhbog is a giving god, grant an eternal day,
Where the warmer the light, the more beneficial the shadow!

Dana

Born in the flying darkness
Goddess of life-giving waters,
Oh, Dana, you are alone until now
You grant showers to the whole earth!..

And again your ringing strings
The dark forest and the ear of grain are waiting,
When in your magical water
Perun himself bathes the sky!

Dvorovoy

He will not let evil spirits into the yard,
But there is a feature in it that everyone does not understand:
He does not like gray horse and mare,
And he doesn’t tolerate white cats at all!

But how friendly he is with the goat and the dog! -
They play tag, shake their horns...
And people on pitchforks of all kinds of delicious things
Sometimes they bring him to a warm manger.

Grandfathers

Grandfathers! Save the human race -
Meticulous, unreasonable, different...
May the earth find peace
From evil in an ugly guise!

Among our villages and cities,
Where we lived and where we worked,
More than once we asked the Grandfathers,
So that they pray for us.

And on Parent's Day you
We ask again and again for forgiveness,
Carrying in the cherished hour of sorrow
Treats to your graves.

Dennitsa

Star Dennitsa! At sunrise
As soon as the light of dawn touches you,
How you melt, beckoning from underground
Great shining sun!

Lover of the Month, all night
You sparkle after him, Dennitsa...
Overcome darkness and overcome death
Your radiant soul strives.

The world will open before you, as always,
After all, you are a luminary of the first order,
The same immortal star
What burns away every day without a trace!

Share

Even if the cold blows,
Even if it's night everywhere, -
The share will overcome everything,
To help Mokosh.

No for Goldilocks Share
No obstacles, no obstacles:
On a long journey without fear
Everyone is happy to go with her.

You won't see rainy days with her
And you won’t go down the drain...
She weaves for everyone
Their lucky fate

Brownie

Caring grumpy busybody,
The invisible soul of the home,
You are the floorboards creaking at night,
You are the rustling straw behind the wall,

You are at least magical, but homely, your own,
In the hut the keeper of peace and comfort:
The spirit of our ancestors, good Brownie,
A shaggy economic miracle.

Sandman

Good spirit, night sleeper,
Believe it or not, -
Seeped into the cracks of the house,
Slipped through the door...

So that the pillow does not fall
The one who sleeps
Busy old lady
Affectionately follows:

Adjusts the blanket
Brings up dreams
So that nothing interferes with us
...Except for silence.

Eruslan

Seen a lot of countries
Brave knight Eruslan:
He entered into battle with the heroes,
Enemy hordes of thugs,
Beyond the seas and mountains
The snake won the battle!
Tsar-Fire on an eight-legged
I met him on horseback,
Was the result of the battle
The glory of the knight is doubly.
He married the princess
Once saved by him,
Soon their son was born,
But the hour of farewell has come:
Eruslan went on a hike
Not for a month, not for a year,
And, from my native city
Having been away for many years,
Met another knight
On the remote edge of the earth,
I fought with him in a terrible battle,
And... I noticed around the ring -
It was his son who came to him -
The young knight goes to his father!
So Eruslan returned
To your native home from distant countries.

Hedgehog

Who is in the forest midnight darkness
Wanders around without fear?
Sun, sky and earth
Who gives the hints?
Whose advice is always good?
This is a wise, kind Hedgehog!
He is in a dream and in reality
Protects everyone
And keeps the gap-grass,
What opens locks!
Distinguish lies from truth -
Maybe just the Hedgehog!

Wen

He hangs around food all night
In the kitchenette - in worries and sadness:
Then he licks the bottom of a large frying pan,
In which pancakes squealed during the day,

Then on the plates with your nose - poke and poke:
Like, isn’t it appropriate to have some fat somewhere?..
It’s not for nothing that he’s called “Zhirovik”
And sleeps warm in the owner's basket.

Star


If a Star Falls
Rushing into the darkness,
So somewhere forever
kind soul

Leaves the earthly world
And flies to Judgment,
And she’s already with me
Angels carry...

But while she's flying
And while it's burning.
Those who noticed, those in full
Will thank:

If they have time at this moment
Make a dream
Everything will come true for them,
Those who saw the Star...

Znich


Source of life, Znich, sacred fire!
You are eternal! You are forever inextinguishable!
You give warmth and light to the whole Universe,
Dispelling darkness with your flame!

You are the patron saint of military courage:
For those wounded in furious battle
You are life-giving, like drops of moisture
In the deadly hour of the desert on the edge...

Iriy


The distance is getting emptier and wider.
The autumn sunset is melting.
Over the sea to fabulous Ireland
Birds fly for the winter.
Snakes crawl through the trees
The leaves rustle softly,
In IriY according to ancient beliefs
Every autumn, in a hurry...
Like invisible souls
To the promised lands
Reaching across the sea from the land
Far into the night skies.

Kletnik

He lives in a cage, in a closet,
He sorts through the products there,
What is the income and expense of food?
He's been counting persistently all night.

He is small in stature, has a long beard,
Clothes stained with flour...
As long as he lives in a cage,
There is hope for us in supplies.

Kors

He sits on a barrel, there are jugs everywhere,
Young men and boys rush to him for a drink.

For lovers of beer and strong honey
Luckily, nature came up with Corsa.

Here again on a barrel in a hop wreath
He tries to remember: what week?

...But with a noise the mug falls from his hands,
And nearby the party is still rejoicing!

Kupalo

The god of summer walks through the meadows and through the forbs:
He has a wreath of bright yellow bathing suits,

And in your hands are the fruits of the earthly side of your native...
A light, fresh wind breathes behind him.

And summer bonfires greet Kupala,
And sparks dance in the sky like mosquitoes,

And in the middle of the night young people lead round dances,
And the rye sways in waves in the open field...

Lada

Mother of twelve months - Lada,
Fruitful autumn of the earth, -
And you are an intercessor and a joy:
May everyone be happy!

Let trouble not knock at the gate,
May peace prevail in the family...
Don't leave us alone, Rozhanitsa,
Touch the dove with your mother's hand!

Lelya

Lada's daughter - Lelya-Rozhanitsa!
At the moment the earth awakens
Appear to be born
Spring sprouts were able to!

On the maiden holiday of April,
To round dances under the moon -
We are waiting for you today, Lelya -
Goddess of earthly youth!

chilling

Straw intoxicating spirit
Everything is calming down.
Swelling from sleep Chilling
And he sleeps day after day.

Sighs and yawns,
Sleeping in fresh straw...
Nobody, alas, knows
What does he look like?

Lesavki

They rustle, rustle, rush
Two Lesavkas in autumn foliage
And they are swarming with all their hearts,
Like hedgehogs in the grass at night!

This is Leshy's grandmother and grandfather,
Remembering our youth, we are playful again
Among those flying into the air after
Leaves falling from the sky...

Now there’s not a leaf on the bushes.
The forest is transparent, like a ghost of itself...
Two gray shaggy balls are sleeping,
You can barely hear the groaning and wheezing.

Goblin


Then he is taller than all the trees,
Then he is lower than all the bushes,
Now he is further, now he is closer -
Rushing like a whirlwind without a trace:

No hat, not belted,
Gray hair with green...
In it based on fairy tales and stories
The strength is amazing.

His eyes are green
In the thicket the forest glows
Here he is inspired by the spirit
It's everywhere in the spring...

Whether you are on horseback or on foot,
Even if you are not called by anyone:
Leshy will greet everyone in the forest -
The one-eared one is cunning!

Listin

Old spirit blind listin
Hiding in a pile of leaves
And rustles all night alone,
It's like she's quietly crying.

Round dance of fallen leaves...
Autumn, desolation...
The spirit of Lesavok calls to the circle
Listen to the rustling.

Lugovoy

He reads the smells of the earth syllable by syllable
And the sun's rays intertwine golden flakes,
Walking through the meadows in clothes made of grass,
Where there are bright flowers and thin blades of grass.

And he rejoices when mowing is going on,
And catches light birds hiding in the grass...
And even in the rain in the flying sparks of tears
He jumps barefoot and amuses himself in fun.

Magura


Sacred oak, tree of the Fatherland!
Do you remember how you inspired
Daughter of Perun, winged maiden,
In battles, faith in the victory of the father!

Like Magura's shining helmet
Inspired the regiments in battles,
How her figure came to be
Where they were surrounded by enemies,

How calm everyone was around her,
He didn’t look at the pain or the fear!
Like a dying warrior in battle
I felt a kiss on my lips...

Makosh

Only with her the thread of fate is woven
Human anxieties, hopes and tears,
Until the sun touches
Her loose hair.

Oh, Makosh is forever young -
Mother Goddess - Cheese-Earth!
Your living water is in a hurry
Water the fields to their fill!

You send good luck to those who are faithful
In spite of everything - a dream,
And those in whom the light of faith is lost,
You leave me in the dark

Where awaits them with Dashing One-Eyed
A monstrous army of old women,
So that from the Curve, losing your mind,
It's not easy to fall into the clutches of...

Mara

Everything can be survived: fear, humiliation, hunger,
Homelessness, poverty, despair, illness,
The powerlessness of burning tears, the bitter cold of separation
And the deafness of friends, and the song of hatred...

You can survive anything, accept any punishment,
To endure any blasphemy frantic lash
And even his Death - the goddess Mara herself
The immortal one can be defeated too.

Goddess of winter, oblivion, unconsciousness!
The more rapid snow she has, -
The louder the roar of water in the spring blue skies,
Where there is no death at all, just as there are no shores...

Freezing

Frost came in earnest, struck like a blacksmith,
He declared the end of the damp rainy autumn

And all the unclean power of river and lake waters
The bitter frost drove me under thick ice.

Here is the Sun and the Wind - Frost's faithful friends
Together with him they enter the quiet winter lands...

Welcome, good people, with kutya and jelly
Frost in front of the windows and the sun over the village!

Namnoy

Who fell asleep without a bruise,
And I woke up - here he is,
Know: We're in your favor
Kneaded all night. What is there!
A trifle - a small bruise!
The poor man could not wake up...

Sky

The sky was happy, angry,
The sky was crying with rain
And one day it opened
An eternal, starry, clear day.
And the sky covered the earth:
Mountains, rivers and forests,
And the fields are full of ears of grain,
And human voices...
Like in an endless mirror
Among the planets, comets and stars
Earthly secrets have spread
The unsteady speech of birds' nests.

I can't feel the wind

“I don’t feel the wind, I don’t feel the wind,” the winter snows whisper,
River banks sleep under deep snow.
The sorcerers call that grass “unseen by the wind”
What sprouts in reality on the first night of January.
That grass calms the waves among the stormy seas,
And only one can save drowning people.
Only the blind can find it in the darkness -
In the cold among the snow

Cloud chasers

Giant Cloud Runners!
Fans bow to you:

Look into the skies again!
Protect villages and forests -

From the winds blowing mercilessly,
From enemies who shamelessly cast spells,

Help the sun rise
Because of the clouds lying on the way!

Turn back the winds of heaven,
Like dishonest hordes of enemies,

In litigation, quarrel, strife and war -
Just be on our side!

Ovinnik

Laughs, barks, claps his hands,
Makes sure the barn doesn’t burn, -
The ovinnik-spirit also believes in fortune-telling:
He alone knows who will get married.

He will tell every girl's share,
If she touches you, she will immediately understand,
That her betrothed will soon tie his fate with her,
That everything will happen this very year!

Ozem and Sumerla

Greedy hands and worthless thoughts
They reach out and hunger for the treasures of the earth...
Ozem and Sumerla are the gods of the underground,
Didn't you save these riches?

There were a lot of gold and silver people living here,
Fuel oil, expensive stones -
Not stolen, not destroyed,
Cherished by you in the depths of the earth!

If in the snow and polar lights
Our world will be enveloped in winter dreams, -
There, underground, in golden robes
The gods, hugging each other, will fall asleep until spring.

Perun

It swirls and thunders in the skies
And bad weather threatens everywhere -
God the furious red-bearded
In splashes of lightning on dark curls...

So that only righteous judgment occurs
In a world that has become silent, as if in full view, -
Black and white horses
They carry Perun in a chariot!

Under the wings of magic horses
Raindrops fly like a whirlwind,
Lightning strikes the earth alive
And grass sprouts on it.

Refreshed, youthful in spring,
Removed by a cloud of blue -
Defeating the hateful Snake
Slavic God, Lord Perun!

Polkan


When wars are blind fire
I approached the Slavs' dwellings,
Polkan - the great half-horse
He fought valiantly against his enemies.

And equal to his courage
We don't know many examples
He is like a holy deity
We have been revering it since distant times.

Midday

Hot. Midday wanders through the fields.
You can’t hear the wind, but the sun is burning.
Who decided to do business there?
It will fall into the hands of Midday:

Girl in a long whitish shirt
He will quickly start asking riddles...
Young daring spinners are glad to see her:
She teaches you how to spin and how to dance!..

It's quite dangerous to work at noon,
To everyone who is not yet clear about this,
At the hour when the sun rises to its zenith,
A meeting with Midday will explain everything.

Porenuta

When there is a terrible moment at sea,
And the storm roars, and the sails are torn, -
Porenuta to the aid of all ships
Having appeared, he pacifies the heavens...

Always keep an eye on the four winds
That they are rushing from four sides,
He's used to being friendly with sailors,
And fair, like the law of the sea!

Prok

Now “There is no use”, then “For good”, then “There will be good” -
We speak without thinking about the word...
And who is Prok? And he - Slavic god,
From the darkness of centuries he visited us again.

Cunning, calculating in everything,
He strives for the business to prosper:
What I earned - everything goes into the family, everything goes into the house,
And not just anywhere!..

He is not averse to increasing wealth,
But what has been known about him for a long time:
He is always ready to help only those
Who earns their bread honestly.

Pushchevik

In a dark and damp forest
Flashed for a moment
The preserved spirit of the forest -
Zorky Pushchevik:

Hands are like branches, a sigh is like steam,
Green eyes...
He puts out a forest fire,
If suddenly there is a thunderstorm...
and exactly to the floor

Radunitsy


Where is the world's clear boundary?
With the implicit crossed,
Guardians of the dead Radunitsa
In the halls of eternal silence.

Their souls are where everything is different,
They are in a wonderful dream...
The unearthly sky shines
Immortal rejoicing in spring!

Genus

Eternal God, Almighty Rod!
In everything that is given to be born,
Lives from the moment of the first
Your immortal piece!
inspired by you
Everything that is living is from the living -
And the grain that fell into the ground,
And a word flashed in my heart...
Your spirit flew in the sightless darkness
Over the open water
Longing for the future land
And the sky with a fast star...
A moment has passed, and now
You are in us and with us, and above us:
“Nature”, “homeland”, “people” -
Everything has its roots in Rod!

Mermaids

Among the branches of weeping birches during summer thunderstorms
Colored ribbons curl from girls' hair.
And mermaids swing on damp branches,
And in the sky the clear month hears their songs.

Shed

The prankster Sarainik lives in a barn,
He hasn't let anyone down for a long time.
Simple construction, ordinary barn -
But for Sarainik there is a true paradise.

Who will turn to him with a kind word,
Nothing bad can happen to that barn.
However, you need to be more careful in order to
In the dark, don’t hit your forehead with a rake.

Svarga


Twenty-seven thousand times the sky will spread the stars above the earth, -
And the earth will complete a vicious circle through the constellations,
And Lord Perun will slowly remove the axis of heaven
From the North Star, without dropping the wheels from your hands...

Svarga is the starry sky that moves forever,
The wheel that, rotating, makes the laws of the Universe,
Where is the great life that repeats itself endlessly in us?
And she is born again, and, immortal, decay flees!

Svarog

Glorified forever is God the Creator
Since ancient times, nicknamed Svarog!
Potter and carpenter and blacksmith
We owe him a lot...

That's all I dreamed about yesterday,
The sculptor carves from stone,
Here comes the flaming metal
The blacksmith takes it out of the forge.

While in the secrets of the craft
Svarozhye is beginning to glow, -
The soul will not burn out
With a piece of hot metal.

Shine-color


Where the wind is crazy at night
The leaves rustled in the forest,
Suddenly a scarlet flower opened -
All alive, like lightning!

And all night with a wonderful light
Its petals are burning
And it’s called Shine-color
It is with those who are looking for treasure.

Once a year it only gets bright
And according to the fairy tale...
If anyone met him,
I didn't show it to others.

Svyatovit


Light of Rod, warrior-horseman Svyatovit -
The darkness of the night follows everywhere:
The sword sparkles, serving goodness and miracles,
And sparks from the stars fly from under the hooves.

The darkness recedes before the light of day,
The last efforts are insignificant...
The silver scabbard of the sword shines,
And the flight of the winged horse continues!

Semargl

Where Oratai walked yesterday,
And the earth is full of grain, -
Guarded by a winged dog
Grain fields.

Before his eyes
Day after day,
And in the eyes there is such a flame,
What... burn it with fire!

Goats won't spoil the field,
The thief will not approach:
Will save you from any threats
Keep your little pole.

That he is called Semargl -
God of crops and horses, -
Everyone remembers - from the pacer
And to the tips of the roots!

Stepova

In the swirling whirlwinds the owner of the steppe
He walks and shakes his shaggy head.

Though his beard is ashen,
That wanderer does not ask for food or drink.

Here the gray whirlwinds froze for a moment,
And the tall old man froze in place:

He slowly looked around the wide steppe
And he commanded the whirlwinds to spin again.

Stribog

Swiftness and rage are united in him:
He is forever young, he is ahead everywhere -
It flies, flows, tears to shreds like a sail,
A shirt on an open chest...

He did not stop talking on the fierce battlefield,
When, closing again in formation,
Stribozh's grandchildren are proud Slavs
They went to die for their Motherland!

It did not subside when in the hours of separation
The poet dedicated his poems to his beloved...
He is still making sounds again
From the forest thickets flying towards the light.

Stozhar

Among the small red petals
It conceals a furious flame,
In a deep forest among the bushes
Sparkling with fire at times.

When, destroying the forest animals,
From the villages come the ignorant,
He penetrates their huts
Burrs clinging to clothes.

For everything that was taken for nothing
Or destroyed by an evil blow,
Burns down their houses
Fire started by Stozhar.

knotweed

Deity of abundance, shoots, seeds -
A blond boy walking in a field
The spirit of the harvest, which makes you happy and drunk
Cornflower kissed by the wind in the wild.

Knotweed is a double grain before wheat,
After - a mature double, heavy ear, -
Only you alone are given by nature
Awaken the harvest's solemn voice,

So that it sounds everywhere with an abundance of herbs,
Vegetables, nuts, ripe berries...
If only you showed us your true character,
The blond boy is charmingly brave.

Sudenitsa

The peaks sleep in a bed of clouds,
The forest sleeps in the blue mists...
Three candles are burning by the cradle,
Three sisters are holding them in front of her.

The floorboards don't creak under them,
A sleeping child breathes evenly...
About the fate of Sudenica's child
They say, not at all jokingly:

About fate - from birth
And for his entire coming century...
And what the three visions will say,
Man cannot change.
night in winter.

TIRLICH-GRASS

No magic words needed
To immediately turn into someone,
It grows up at night and hides
There is tirlich grass on the steep mountain.
Squeeze out its juice and grind it
Everyone just has to decide
And contact anyone
Can he... Would you like to? Answer.

TRIGLA

The eternally immortal goddess Trigla -
The three life mistress began!
The hand of the people erected your temple
Not where there is a city, a village or a pier,
And in the distance - in a wide open field,
Where in the rain and snow and dry winds -
Water, earth and air serve the will
One and unshakable yours.

DELICIOUS

God of fun, bliss and feasts -
Since ancient times it was called Usladom.
He was everywhere with the goddess Lada next to him,
Accepting the joy of all her gifts.
A sip of wine and a kiss of love
Always dedicated to him first,
He remained a dream among people
Giving them your joys in their dreams.

FINIST

Good fellow - clear falcon -
Remember, Finist, you will be here all night
Again in that high mansion
Father's youngest daughter is waiting!
Waiting, not yet washed with tears
Just a little dawning morning:
Where are the knives in the window frame
Your envy blocked the path...
There are no barriers to beautiful love,
She will go through everything to say:
Hello, Finist, my clear falcon,
Together we are destined to fly!

PHARAOHES

Half-fish, half-human -
Pharaohs on the water
Essentially harmless
They're swimming everywhere again.
They just scream sometimes
Loud word “Pharaoh!”
Because they are with water
He made friends once.

Horse

Wheel of Radiant Light
Slowly floating through the skies...
Everywhere life is warmed by its warmth
And ready for new miracles!

Glory to Horse - the golden disk,
Light to the awakening of spring!..
People are happy about the sun in a simple way,
Like the first pancake in March:

Round dances are held in the clearings,
On the hills the wheels are burning with fire -
In honor of his shining freedom
In the sky, birth day after day!

CMOC

Good spirit - cheerful Tsmok
All lips “smack” and “smack”,
Opens treasures
Adds money.
Where Tsmok came to the house,
More bread and milk.

Chislobog

Opening a flower behind a flower,
Spilling sand behind the sand,

Water and high precision,
Lunar-solar and sand
Chislobog checks his watch -

Patron of the flow of time
All people of the Proto-Slavic tribe,

Watching time run,
A century counting moment by moment...

Shulikun

Pointy muzzle, felt cap -
Little naughty girl as tall as a fist -
Shulikun lost a nickel at the forge
And he sticks his little snout everywhere.

Haven't you seen him? It was just there!
He moved the blacksmith's bellows,
Slipped under the hammer probably a hundred times
He jumped from the anvil like a flea...

A swarm of sparks rush about, flying from the chimney, -
Or is it desperate and powerful,
Having got out of the forge (a mere child!),
Is Shulikun chasing flocks of clouds?..

Shishiga

Confusion, jumping -
Shishiga lives in the reeds,

Little prankster
It looks like nonsense!

In small rivers and lakes
Appears in which, -

A frog croaks
Jumps like a hopper.

Hunchback from birth,
Cold, nimble, pot-bellied:

Where is it located -
The raw spirit starts up.

In the fields among the tall rye
Who will guard our boundaries?

Who keeps the home hearth?
Who is the flame in him and the smoke above him?

Who do we call in fear?
Who takes care of property and home?..

Shchur, kind Ancestor - the spirit of the family,
Where everything is yours, and everyone is yours.

Spirits love to jump into echoes
And watch how among the birches
The echo is rolling with laughter
And bursts into tears.
There is an echo of a brownie in the house,
Echo of the devil in the forests,
In the river there is an echo of water -
Dancing in unsteady voices,
Let's echo from the barn,
Near the bathhouse with a breeze:
To be scared for no reason
Anyone who is unfamiliar with echo.

St. George's Day

All the bad things fade into the shadows:
St. George's Day is coming!
From evil spirits cattle
He takes care of his master's
There are many healing herbs
Collected during this time
So that the medicine helps
Afterwards to everyone who is ill.
Everyone is in a hurry on St. George's Day
Decorate your own home.

Lizard

Oh Lizard! God of the deep sea!
Lord of the formidable underground forces!
At the bottom, where you rule alone,
Not everything is always dark and wild!..

There, deep under the waves,
To you and Belorybitsa-wife
Once upon a time Sadko sang songs
In gardens sparkling with water...

There the ships sleep silently,
The palaces shine like pearls,
And all the treasures of the earth
They sparkle on your doorstep.

Yarilo

As soon as the sun shone
The rays of the spring are in the east,
How the god Yarilo awakened,
Peasant long-awaited god!

How from the earth it hurries to freedom
Life in grain
So the young god rushes across the field
On a white trembling horse...

In his hands there are ears of bread,
There is a wreath of flowers on the head...
Crackling fires - up to the sky -
They burn all night among the forests.

There is a riot of ardent nature
Excites young blood
And returns after years
Spring, Yarila and love!

Sirin.

Sirin is a bird of paradise with the head of a maiden in ancient Russian art and legends. Sirin is believed to represent the Christianization of pagan mermaids - the pitchforks. Often depicted together with another bird of paradise, Alkonost, but the head of Sirin is sometimes uncovered, with a halo around it.

Sirin owes its origin to the literary medieval tradition. The most ancient images of Sirin date back to the 10th century and are preserved on clay plates, kolta and temple rings (Kyiv, Korsun). In medieval Russian legends, Sirin is clearly considered a bird of paradise, which sometimes flies to earth and sings prophetic songs about future bliss, but sometimes these songs can be harmful to a person (you can lose your mind). Therefore, in some legends, Sirin takes on a negative meaning, so that she is even considered a dark bird, a messenger of the underworld. Stories about the sweet and enchanting effect of Sirin’s singing on humans are contained in such literary monuments of the 17th century as Physiologists, Azbukovniki, Chronographs. In apocryphal literature it is reported that the Sirin bird is afraid of loud sounds, and in order to scare it away, people ring bells, shoot cannons, and blow trumpets. ">

Devana.

Devana (Dzewana, Dziewonna) is the goddess of hunting in Western Slavic mythology. According to the “History of Poland” by J. Dlugosz (third quarter of the 15th century), Dzewana is the goddess of the Polish pantheon, corresponding to the Roman Diana.

A. Brückner pointed out that much of Dlugosz’s list is the creation of the chronicler and has no roots in ancient Slavic mythology, and in particular the goddess Dzewana was created by the desire to find a correspondence with the Roman deity. However, modern researchers are inclined to believe that, “despite many inaccuracies and fiction, Dlugosz’s list reflects mythological reality.” In 1824, the goddess Dziewonna was mentioned by the Danish poet B. S. Ingeman among the gods of the northern Slavs.

Morana or Mara, Morena, in Slavic mythology, a powerful and formidable deity, the goddess of Winter and Death, the wife of Koshchei and the daughter of Lada, the sister of Zhiva and Lelya.

Marana among the Slavs in ancient times was considered the embodiment of evil spirits. She had no family and wandered in the snow, visiting people from time to time to do her dirty deed. The name Morana (Morena) is indeed related to such words as “pestilence”, “haze”, “darkness”, “haze”, “fool”, “death”.

Legends tell how Morana, with her evil minions, tries to watch and destroy the Sun every morning, but every time she retreats in horror before its radiant power and beauty. Her symbols are the Black Moon, piles of broken skulls and the sickle with which she cuts the Threads of Life.

The domain of Morena, according to Ancient Tales, lies beyond the black Currant River, dividing Reality and Nav, across which the Kalinov Bridge, guarded by the Three-Headed Serpent, is thrown.

In contrast to Zhiva and Yarila, Marena embodies the triumph of Marie - “ Dead Water"(The Will to Death), that is, the Force opposite to the Life-Giving Solar Yari. But Death, bestowed by Madder, is not a complete interruption of the Currents of Life as such, but is only a transition to Another Life, to a new Beginning, for it is so ordained by the Almighty Family that after Winter, which takes away with it everything that has become obsolete, a new Spring always comes.

The straw effigy, which to this day is still burned in some places during the festival of ancient Maslenitsa at the time of the spring equinox, undoubtedly belongs to Morena, the Goddess of death and cold. And every winter she takes power. But even after the departure of Winter-Death, her numerous servants, the maras, remained with the people.

According to the legends of the ancient Slavs, these are evil spirits of disease, they carry their heads under their arms, wander at night under the windows of houses and whisper the names of household members: whoever responds to the voice of the mara will die. The Germans are sure that the Maruts are the spirits of frantic warriors. The Swedes and Danes consider them to be the souls of the dead, the Bulgarians are sure that the Marys are the souls of babies who died unbaptized. Belarusians believed that Morana handed over the dead to Baba Yaga, who fed on the souls of the dead. In Sanskrit the word "ahi" means serpent, serpent.

Vuzhalki.

Vuzhalki are the daughters of the Snake Master. Half of them are beautiful young girls, with long flowing hair, and instead of legs they have something like a snake's tail.

Vuzhalki usually live in the forest, near bodies of water, although this is not necessary. They love to sit on old spreading trees and comb their beautiful hair with golden combs.

Vuzhalki do not have any clothes, despite the fact that their father, the Master of the Snakes, is very rich. There are many treasures under his protection, so his daughters are not denied anything. And there are just so many expensive jewelry items that are not available in Vuzhalki! If someone sees them on a sunny day, it may seem that the sun itself has rolled into the forest - this is how various beads and bracelets sparkle on Vuzhalki. Sometimes one of them may lose some of the decorations. Counts good sign to find such a thing, it usually brings happiness and this person is not afraid of a snake bite.

The Vuzhalki themselves do not do any harm to humans, but around the place where they sit, various reptiles swarm. In this way, the Snake Master protects his daughters. And if, nevertheless, someone offends Vuzhalka, all sorts of misfortunes will fall on that person that will destroy him and his entire family.

Leshy.

Leshy (Belarusian lyasun, lesavik, Ukrainian lisovik; there are many other regional and evaluative names) - the master spirit of the forest in mythology Eastern Slavs. At least since the 18th century, the goblin has been one of the most popular mythological characters, and, despite the modern decline of the tradition, it remains so today. The traditional image of a goblin is complex, multifaceted and vague.

The appearance in which the goblin appears in mythological stories indicates its otherworldly nature and connection with the forest. It happens that this is a completely plant object (tree, bush, stump), or it is a plant with individual human features (shape, branches like hair), or a person with plant features (hair and beard like branches, moss-covered clothes and face, skin like bark), or only plant attributes (a stick in the hands, the green color of the body and clothes), and sometimes the goblin personifies the entire forest. The goblin can appear as an animal (usually wild, but sometimes also domestic), or as a half-man, half-goat, or as a person with signs of an animal (hair, clothes made of animal skin, claws, hooves, tail), or the goblin can be accompanied by some kind of animal. However, more often the goblin looks like a person, however, with some strange features (unnatural color of skin and eyes, the absence of some external organs or their unusual shape); for the goblin it is usual to appear in the guise of relatives and acquaintances, including the dead. Ideas about the height of a goblin range from giant to dwarf, and there are beliefs that he can change it.

It is believed that the goblin is dressed the same as an ordinary person, but his clothes have unusual details (for example, the left hem is thrown over the right, that is, not as was customary), sometimes he is naked. The goblin usually has a whip, batog, club or purse in his hands. Often accompanies the devil strong wind, or he himself may appear to them. He has no shadow and can become invisible. The goblin has enormous power. Various forest sounds are attributed to him, in which people hear whistling, laughter, clapping, screaming, singing and the voices of any animals, but he can also speak humanly.

Tales and tales describe encounters with a goblin anywhere in the forest, as well as outside it. It was believed that the goblin lived in old dry trees, in a hollow, in a hummock, in the roots of an upturned tree, etc.; according to other beliefs, he lives in the very depths of the forest, where it is difficult for a person to reach. More often, a goblin appears to be a solitary creature; in one forest there is only one goblin, but in a number of mythological stories, goblin get together and live in families (the goblin’s wife is a goblin or a kidnapped girl, children are their own goblin’s cubs or also kidnapped) and even villages. The goblin can be portrayed as having a sedate character, or as a fun-loving person, sometimes he is strong and scary, sometimes he is stupid. As the owner, the goblin takes care of the forest, protects it, is the patron of forest animals and plants, but he can also dispose of them as his property.

The people's attitude towards the devil was ambivalent. On the one hand, he was considered to be an evil spirit hostile to man and dangerous to him, however, more often he does not so much purposefully harm people as play pranks and jokes, but he does it rudely and evilly - he scares, leads astray, hides objects. On the other hand, the goblin was considered a fair owner of the forest, who would not harm for no reason, but could punish for inappropriate behavior. According to folk etiquette, the devil’s consent should have been asked for visiting the forest, for any activity in it, for spending the night in a forest hut. The goblin doesn’t like it when people scold and make noise in the forest, they light fires and go to sleep on the trail. By protecting the forest, the goblin can prevent a person from mutilating and cutting down trees and hunting. A goblin who behaved badly in the forest could scare him half to death, confuse him with visions, send illness to him, and tickle him to death. A goblin can also help a person - suggest places rich in mushrooms and berries, show the way, take care of a lost child.

It was believed that the goblin could ensure good luck in the hunt and successful grazing of livestock; for this, hunters and shepherds needed to bring him a gift (an egg, bread with salt, etc.) and conclude an agreement with him obliging them to comply with certain conditions: for example, for a hunter - do not take more prey than definitely or do not go hunting on certain days, for a shepherd - do not look after the cows grazing in the forest (they are grazed by the goblin), do not exploit the forest and do not cause any harm to it, do not touch other people.

The goblin was seen as the root cause of man's wandering in the forest. It was believed that a person got lost because the goblin “bypassed” him, or he crossed the “goblin’s trail”, or the goblin blocked the road with an obstacle-obsession, or forged omens, or “tied” the person to a tree, so that he kept returning to him , or lured a person by pretending to be a travel companion, or lured with the voices of animals, acquaintances or people requiring help. Also, pretending to be an acquaintance, a goblin can loom ahead at a distance, not allowing itself to be caught up and not responding. You can get rid of the devil with the help of prayer, or even simply by mentioning God, with the help of swearing, amulets and other means. To remove his spell, you need to change your clothes the other way around.

The loss of people and livestock in the forest was associated with the goblin. Most often, the reason for kidnapping is a curse, in the form of sending “to the devil.” A goblin can replace babies with a piece of wood or with his deformed child. The goblin take the kidnapped girls as wives and can have children with them. A goblin can also kidnap a person for the purpose of turning him into a slave. According to other stories, the missing are running wild. To find people and livestock missing in the forest, they not only carried out regular searches, but also performed the ritual of “tasting” - they presented a gift or threatened with magic or the intercession of saints. If it was possible to come to an agreement with the goblin, then he would show the missing person the way or even lead him out of the forest himself. There was an idea that those who returned from the devil change - either they go wild, or become unsociable, and acquire supernatural abilities.

The goblin was credited with the ability to predict the future, and therefore there were rituals of invoking and telling fortunes. In stories and fairy tales, the goblin could freely communicate with people; sometimes he accepted help from them, for which he generously thanked them.

The goblin is a popular character in literary fairy tales and poems, fairy-tale plays, films and cartoons, Slavic fantasy, he is found in songs, paintings and other works. Thanks to this, his image acquired new features that do not always correspond to traditional ideas.

Mermaid.

Mermaid is a character from Slavic mythology. One of the most varied images of folk mysticism: ideas about the mermaid that exist in the Russian North, the Volga region, the Urals, and Western Siberia differ significantly from Western Russian and Southern Russian ones. It was believed that mermaids took care of fields, forests and waters.

According to L.N. Vinogradova, it is a harmful spirit that appears in the summer in the form of a long-haired woman in a grain field, in a forest, near water, capable of tickling a person to death or drowning in water. The East Slavic term mermaid is associated with the Old Russian name for the pagan spring festival Rusalia.
According to D.K. Zelenin, the mermaid, in popular belief, was a “hostage deceased”, a drowned woman, the soul of a person who died an unnatural death, usually a young woman, an unbaptized girl, sometimes a girl.

According to V. Ya. Propp, the mermaid was a character associated with the cult of plants, fertility, moisture, the spirit of reservoirs, and the personified element of nature (water, “green” life).

In Little Russia and Galicia, there were several ideas about mermaids. According to some ideas, mermaids are identified with Mavkas, according to others - with wild wives, among the Poles and “pitchforks” among the Serbs and Bulgarians, who owned wells and lakes and knew how to “lock up” waters. In Ukrainian folk beliefs, drowned maidens, unbaptized children, people swimming at inopportune times, and those who were specially dragged away by the merman into his service become mermaids. In western Polesie there is a legend about how the father of a deceased bride-girl tied her body to a pole and thus “married” her so that she would not become a mermaid.

According to some reports, mermaids are credited with the ability to shapeshift. It was believed, for example, that they could take the form of squirrels, rats, frogs, birds (Ukrainian Kharkiv), or appear in the form of a cow, horse, calf, dog, hare and other animals (poles). However, in most stories, mermaids appear in the form of a woman or young girl.

Among the population of the Urals there was an idea that mermaids were cursed wives and virgins. They live in the flesh, invisible to people, and will live like this until the coming of Christ. They live constantly under water, in the company of devils.

Vasilisa is wonderful.

They brought the skull into the upper room; and the eyes from the skull just look at the stepmother and her daughters, and they burn! They wanted to hide, but no matter where they rush, eyes follow them everywhere; by morning they were completely burned into coal; Vasilisa alone was not touched.

Vasilisa the Beautiful is a Russian folk tale and the name of its main character. In the collection “Russian Folk Tales” by A.N. Afanasyev, versions of this tale are numbered: 104 (“Vasilisa the Beautiful”); 219-226 (“The Sea King and Vasilisa the Wise”); 267-269 (“The Frog Princess”). The Soviet film of the same name (1939) and cartoon (1977) have their own plots based on the fairy tale “The Frog Princess” (in them Vasilisa “The Wise” became “The Beautiful”).

Chernobog and Belobog.

Chernobog and Belobog - The belief in Belobog and Chernobog was once common among all Slavic tribes, as evidenced by surviving geographical names and folk legends. The memory of the ancient Belobog was preserved for a long time in the Belarusian legend about Belun, who was depicted as an old man with a long white beard, in white clothes and with a staff in his hands. He was revered as the giver of wealth and fertility. According to popular belief, Belobog appears only during the day and leads travelers who are lost in the dense forest onto the road.

The adjective “white” (Bel-god) means “light”, “clear”. We find this epithet in the expressions “white light” and “white day”. Belobog was called Apollo, Sventovid (Svyatovid) - the god of the daytime, spring, clear sky, and then the lord of the sky, who not only shines with sunlight, but also fights with dark clouds. The name Belobog was combined with the concept of daylight - the sun. A saint, according to the beliefs of the ancient Slavs, is light, white, for the element of light itself is a deity that does not tolerate anything dark, unclean, in the later sense - sinful. The concepts of bright deity and holiness are inseparable.

Koschei the Deathless.

Koschei the Deathless - cult character Slavic mythology, whose folklore image is extremely far from the original one. Koschey Chernobogvich was the youngest son of Chernobog, the great Serpent of Darkness. His older brothers - Goryn and Viy - feared and respected Koshchei for great wisdom and equally great hatred for the enemies of his father - the Irian gods. Koschey owned the deepest and darkest kingdom of Navi - the Koshcheev kingdom, in which the Lunar Palace, the abode of Chernobog, was probably located.

Dragon.

Serpent Gorynych is a fire-breathing dragon with several heads, a representative of the evil principle in Russian folk tales and epics. In Slavic mythology it is found as zmok (Slovak and Czech zmok) or smok (Polish smok, Belarusian tsmok), serpent (V. Luzh. zmij, Ukrainian zmіy), zmai (Slovenian zmaj, S. Croatian . snake), snake (Belarusian and Bulgarian snake).

In some Slavic languages, the meanings of “mountain” and “forest” do not differ, so there is a version that Gorynych is from the word “mountain” in the meaning “forest”.

Gorynych usually lives in the mountains, often near a fiery river, and guards the “Kalinov Bridge,” through which one enters the kingdom of the dead.

The many-headed nature of a snake is its indispensable feature. The number of heads is usually a multiple of three, most often there are 3, 6, 9 and 12, but there are also 5 and 7. Most often, the snake appears three-headed. Other features of the serpent are mentioned less often or not mentioned at all. In most cases, the kite has the ability to fly, but, as a rule, nothing is said about its wings. Thus, in the entire Afanasiev collection of Russian folk tales, “fiery wings” are reported only once (the fairy tale “Frolka-seden”). The body of a snake is not described in fairy tales, but in popular prints depicting a snake, the favorite details are a long arrow tail and clawed paws. Another important feature of the snake is its fiery nature, but how exactly the fire erupts is not described in fairy tales. The snake carries fire within itself and spews it out when attacked. In addition to the fire element, the snake is also associated with the water element, and these two elements do not exclude each other. In some fairy tales, he lives in the water, sleeping on a stone in the sea. At the same time, the snake is also Zmey Gorynych and lives in the mountains (it is also possible that the patronymic came from Slavic name Gorynya). However, such a location does not prevent him from being a sea monster. In some fairy tales, he lives in the mountains, but when the hero approaches him, he comes out of the water. According to Dahl, “Gorynya is a fabulous hero and giant who rocks mountains. Gorynich is a fabulous patronymic given to heroes, sometimes to snakes, or to inhabitants of mountains, dens, and caves.” The three-headed serpent Azhi-Dahak from Iranian mythology and the Serbian Serpent Fire Wolf (Serbian Zmaj Ogeni Vuk) are similar to the Serpent Gorynych.

Actions of Zmey Gorynych:

He kidnaps beautiful girls (among whom there are often princesses) in order to intimidate people or simply to feast on them. In the Russian epic “About Dobrynya Nikitich and the Serpent Gorynych,” the Serpent Gorynych kidnapped Zabava Putyatishna, the niece of the Kyiv prince, and Dobrynya Nikitich freed her. It is curious that before the fight, the hero destroys Gorynych’s cubs, who look more like vipers than a formidable father. Among the southern Slavs, the Serpent was considered the culprit of drought and was expelled in order to cause rain (expulsion of the Serpent).

He devours young girls when he is not hungry, and because of this, in ancient tribes he was called the “girl eater.”

Serves Koshchei the Immortal.

Volkola.

Volkola - Volkodlak - in Slavic mythology, a werewolf who takes on the image of a wolf: this is either a sorcerer who takes on an animal form, or a simple person who is transformed into a wolf by the spell of witchcraft.

The Slavs associate werewolves with the idea of ​​creatures devouring the Sun and Moon.

The German werewolf is similar to the werewolf (from the ancient German wer - man and wolf - wolf, the German Werwolf and the English werewolf were formed); and also Spanish hombre lobo; French loupgarou; Italian lupo mannaro; Portuguese lobisomem; among the ancient Romans - faunus ficarius, among the Armenians - mardagail.

South Russian and Ukrainian beliefs

In Ukrainian popular belief, sorcerers or witches, wanting to turn someone into a wolf, throw a wolf skin over him and whisper magic words.

Sometimes the sorcerer places a belt twisted from bast under the threshold of the hut; whoever steps over this belt turns into a wolf and can only receive his former human image when the sorcerer’s belt wears out and bursts, or when someone puts on him a belt he has taken off, on which he had previously tied knots and when tying each time said: Lord have mercy.

The sorcerers and witches themselves, wanting to transform into animals, throw a ring of bast around themselves or somersault through hoops.

To turn the wedding train into a pack of wolves, the sorcerer takes as many belts and washcloths as there are persons on the train, whispers spells over the belts and washcloths, and then girds them around the train passengers one by one; those who are belted immediately become a werewolf.

You can only act against such spells with charms or conspiracies, which are called amulets. In the Kharkov province, the people believed so much in the power of these amulets that they did not consider it necessary for them to be pronounced by a healer: they could be read by anyone playing the role of a groomsman at a wedding.

In Ukraine, there are two genera of werewolves. Werewolves transformed from ordinary people, seem to be creatures not malicious, but suffering, unfortunate, deserving of complete compassion: they live in dens, roam the forests, howl like a wolf, but retain human meaning. The werewolves who transform voluntarily, especially sorcerers and witches, do not experience any suffering and use the transformation for their own purposes; prowling like wolves at night, by dawn they again take on human form. In this distinction, two facts stand out very clearly, to which such widespread beliefs in the werewolf can be reduced.
Suffering wolves are representatives of a special type of insanity in which patients imagine that they have been turned or can turn into wolves. This disease, known as lycanthropy, was common in Europe in the Middle Ages; Patients of this kind are still found in Russian villages; A similar disease is known in Abyssinia and Assam, only there the role of the wolf is played by the hyena and the tiger.

In the beliefs about evil wolves, echoes of mystical ideas are visible, in which the wolf is the personification of the hostile forces of nature. South Slavic beliefs associate the werewolf with a ghoul (vampire). According to the beliefs of the southern Slavs, the werewolf causes hunger, sucks blood from people and dogs; sometimes he takes the form of a handsome guy and forces a young widow to enter into a marriage relationship with him, and the fruit of this relationship are children who, as a rule, have no bones. Every person who during life was on friendly terms with veshtits (witches), or evil pitchforks, or devils and died without repentance, becomes a werewolf after death: a certain devilish spirit, entering the body of a dead person, animates him and forces him to cause all sorts of misfortunes to a person. However, sometimes virtuous people also expect afterlife the fate of the werewolf. This happens when a cat, dog or chicken runs across the deceased while he is lying on the table. Therefore, the southern Slavs drive these animals out of their houses for the entire time the deceased is there. Children born from a marriage between a werewolf and a woman, as well as people who have incurred the anger and vengeance of a sorcerer or witch, also turn into werewolves. Then at night he comes to them evil spirit with a wolf skin and orders to put it on; after that, they begin to prowl like wolves at night, and at dawn, having taken off their wolf skin, they again take on a human form.

Maya Zlatogorka.

Maya Zlatogorka - In Slavic mythology, Zlata Maya, aka Maya-Zlatogorka, is the goddess of summer, a powerful warrior, the ancestor of the Slavs, born from the rays of golden stars, the daughter of Svyatogor and the wife of Dazhdbog. Maya was a skilled craftswoman, she embroidered with pure gold: “I sewed the first pattern - the red Sun, and the second pattern - the bright Moon, sewed the third pattern - then frequent stars.”

Simargl.

Simargl - (Semargl) - the Slavic god of the primordial fire, the god-mediator between the world of people and the world of gods, protects the sun from earthly evil. Guardian of the harvest. He is also called Fire God, He is one of the Svarozhichi, i.e. sons of Svarog, appeared from the blow of Svarog’s hammer on the Alatyr stone. There is an opinion that it was not one god, but two “Sima” and “Regla”.

Brownie.

The brownie is a kind spirit, the keeper of the house and everything that is in it. The brownie looks like a small old man (20-30 centimeters tall) with a large beard. It is believed that the older the brownie, the younger he looks, since they are born old men and die babies. The god Veles patronizes the brownies, from whom the spirits inherited several abilities, for example, the ability to predict the future, but the main thing, of course, is wisdom and the ability to heal people and animals. The brownie lives in almost every home, choosing secluded places to live.

The brownie takes every possible care of his home and the family that lives in it, protecting them from evil spirits and misfortunes. If a family keeps animals, then the brownie will look after them, but if the brownie doesn’t like the animal, he can beat it to death.

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Library "RESEARCHER"

Alexandra Karacharova - Slavic antiquities

INTRODUCTION

THE FIRST DEITIES

BOOKS AND LODES

DENIED (CANCELLED) BOOKS

LEGENDS OF THE SWAROG CYCLE

VELESOV (VLESOV) BOOKS

SERVANTS OF PAGAN GODS

SACRIFICIAL RITES OF THE SLAVS

HOLIDAYS

SEASONS

NATURE AND ANIMALS IN SLAVIC MYTHOLOGY

ANIMALS

MOTHER IS THE CHEESE EARTH

HERBS

TREES

WATER

FORTUNE

The history of the Slavs is bizarre and full of mysteries. Is it true that during the time of the great migration of peoples they came to Europe from the depths of Asia, from India, from the Iranian plateau? What was their common proto-language, from which, like an apple from a seed, a noisy garden of dialects and dialects grew and blossomed? Scientists have been puzzling over these questions for centuries. Their difficulties are understandable: almost no material evidence of extreme antiquity has been preserved, as well as images of the gods of our distant ancestors. A. S. Kaisarov wrote in 1804 in “Slavic and Russian Mythology” that in Russia there were no traces of pagan, pre-Christian beliefs left because “our ancestors very zealously took up their new faith; they smashed, destroyed everything and did not want to so that their posterity may retain signs of the error to which they have hitherto indulged.”

New Christians in all countries were distinguished by such zeal, but if in Greece or Italy time has preserved at least a small number of marvelous marble sculptures, then Ancient Rus' stood among the forests, and, as you know, the Tsar - the fire, raging, did not spare anything: neither human dwellings, nor temples, nor wooden images of gods, nor information about them, written Slavic runes on wooden planks.

And so it happened that only quiet echoes reached us from the pagan distances, when the bizarre world of Slavic mythology lived, flourished, and reigned.

The concept of “mythology” here is understood quite broadly: not only the names of gods and heroes, but also everything wonderful, magical, with which the life of our Slav ancestor was connected: a spell word, the magical power of herbs and stones, concepts about heavenly bodies, natural phenomena and other things

Meeting the world of Slavic mythology and its inhabitants, you do not believe that gods and mysterious forces are generated only by fear of natural disasters. “In the childish babble of pagan thinking,” wrote I. E. Zabelin in “The History of Russian Life from Ancient Times,” “the same prophetic voice is constantly and invariably heard: I want to know everything, see everything, exist everywhere. After all, among the amazing deities, which our ancestors worshiped, there are no repulsive, ugly, disgusting ones. There are evil, scary, strange ones - but much more beautiful, mysterious, kind, smart ones. early XIX century G. A. Glinka, author of the book " Ancient religion Slavs "Slavic" faith is the purest among many pagan ones. For their gods are natural actions, having an influence on man through their beneficence and serving to fear and punish lawlessness..."

The sun, month and stars were the first deities of the ancient Slavs. In folk tales, heroes turn to the sun, moon and stars in difficult situations in life, and the deity of the day, compassionate with misfortune, helps them. At the same time, the sun is also the punisher of all evil, that is, according to the original view, the punisher of evil spirits, darkness and cold, untruth and wickedness.

According to popular belief, the sun is born or lights up in the morning, and in the evening it plunges into the sea to rest: “Get up (wake up),” exclaims a young man in a Serbian song. “Light up, sun and moon,” says the Latvian spellcaster. “The sun is bathing in the sea,” “the sun has fallen asleep,” say the Galician and Ugric Rusyns. The spring rays of the sun awaken nature from its winter torpor. As the sun approaches the point of its lowest station, darkness and cold gain preponderance over heat and light, nature freezes and freezes, bound, like the winter sun itself, by the spells of the evil spirits of the underworld, until the life-giving power of the reborn spring sun breaks these shackles, not will warm and not awaken nature to new life, to new activity. It is clear that while a person is completely dependent on the position of the sun, the entire structure of his life has developed under the influence of this dependence.

Sight ancient Slav the beneficial nature of the sun is reflected in the following excerpt from a Slovinian ritual song, which is sung under the linden tree to welcome spring:

Well, wait, wait, sun,

Oh, rosy sun!

I have a lot to tell you

And ask even more.

I can not stop,

I have a lot to cover

All the valleys and mountains,

And all my orphans.

In the songs of the southern Slavs, namely the Serbian ones, the relationship of the sun with other heavenly bodies is often mentioned. The bright moon is his brother, the bright moon is his sister. And in Rus', the moon and stars are considered the family of the sun. The Litvins recognize the month as the husband, and the stars as the children of the sun.

The sun in different sayings Slavic peoples appears with the meaning of a good, merciful deity, bringing happiness to the house into which it looks: “Also, through my window, shine the sun,” the Galician Rusyns say, “de sunce, there is the Lord” (Little Russian), “look into the sun and into our end” (Belarusian) - common sayings.

The sun received the names in the popular language: god, sun - king or prince, sun of God, child of God, righteous sun, red sun, bright and most luminous sun. The sun is invoked in songs, lamentations and spells, and it is often called “mother”, it is asked to look through and illuminate and warm the earth, or to give beauty (i.e. to illuminate with light and, as it were, to cleanse the face of an ugly appearance), it is asked how the all-seeing and omniscient god about what is happening in distant places, they pray for protection and help in different cases Finally, they turn to him with complaints and complaints about their lack of life.

Bulgarian girls call on the sun when they need it to dry bread, hay, etc.:

Ovens, ovens, servants! Bake, bake, sunshine!

From Serbian songs:

It's hot sun, both of your faces! - Hot sun, illuminate my face!

Blue hot from the source, sun! - Shine hot from the east, sun,

And look at my face! - And cheered up my pale face.

From Great Russian songs:

Rise, clear sun,

Warm us, good fellows,

Good fellows, with the girls.

When the weather is cloudy for a long time, children call up the sun:

Rise, rise, sunshine!

We'll make you some borscht,

Let's put it on the Christmas tree,

Let's cover it with a plate

Let's lay an egg

The egg will roll

The sun will catch on.

From the wedding song:

Shine, shine, month,

To our cow!

Take a look, take a look, sun,

To our cow!

From the lamentation used to call out deceased parents:

You are the sun, the clear sun! You rise, rise from midnight, you illuminate all the graves with a joyful light, so that our dead do not sit in darkness, do not grieve with misfortune, do not grieve with longing.

The sun constantly makes its revolutions: illuminating the earth during the day, leaving it in darkness at night; warming in spring and summer, it leaves it to the power of cold in the autumn and winter months. The sun is closest to the abode of God. He has no father, only a mother. The sun eats, drinks, sleeps. One day he liked a pullet on earth and wanted to get married, but the hedgehog dissuaded him, citing ancient instructions: it is not good for a deity to take an earthly woman!

The dwelling of the Sun is at the very edge of the world, in the heavens, but not far from the earth; a person, if he is lucky, can get there. Mermaids, Samodivs, Orisnitsa and other spirits and deities live there.

In the morning the Sun is in a good mood, so it doesn’t get too hot. By lunchtime it will be hungry, angry and burn mercilessly. At sunset, it gets tired and wants only one thing: to quickly roll into its home on the seashore. His mother had already prepared dinner for him - bread, meat, wine. No one dares to disturb the Sun's meal. At this time, it tells its mother about everything that it saw on earth that day. After dinner it comes into a good mood and soon goes to bed. In the morning, Dennitsa, the first star in the sky, awakens him.

There is a legend: when the Sun is ready to leave its palace to take a daytime walk around the world, all devilry gathers and waits for his appearance, hoping to capture the deity of heavenly fire and kill him. But at the very approach of the Sun, the evil spirits scatter, feeling their powerlessness.

This was the name in ancient times for “magical, enchanting, fortune-telling, and all kinds of books and writings forbidden by the church” brought to Rus' from Byzantium and partly from the West; these included those sheets and notebooks in which they wrote down folk conspiracies, signs, beliefs and superstitious instructions.

Officially, the following were prohibited and subject to immediate destruction by fire:

"Ostrologist" (other names: "Martiloi", "Ostronomy", "Stargazer" and "Zodius"). The law on false books says this: “Stargazer” - 12 stars; another “Stargazer”, his name is “Sixth Day”: in them, crazy believers cast magic, have their birthdays, receive ranks and life lessons.”

This is a collection of astrological notes on the entry of the sun into various signs of the zodiac, on the influence of planets on the happiness of newborn babies (the same as “Birthman”, “Genealogy”), as well as on the fate of entire nations and public welfare: whether there will be a pestilence or a war, a harvest or famine, widespread health or pestilence.

“Gromnik” or “Gromovnik” - contains various omens arranged by month (about the state of the weather, about future harvests, diseases, etc.), connected with thunder and an earthquake; This is sometimes accompanied by notes “about the state of the moon, right or hollow,” indicating the meaning of such signs in different times of the year.

"Molnik" ("Lightning Man") - information is collected here on what days of the month what portends a lightning strike.

“Kolednik” (“Kolyadnik”) - contains signs determined by the days on which the Nativity of Christ falls (the holiday of Kolyada), for example: “If the Nativity of Christ is on Wednesday - the winter is great and warm, spring is rainy, the harvest of goodness, wheat Little by little, there is a lot of wine, pestilence for the wives, destruction for the old.”

“Myslennik” is probably the same as “Razumnik”, containing legends about the creation of the world and man.

“The Magician” is a collection of superstitious signs, “here it is: the temple is cracking, the earring, the raven, the hen-cry, the okomig, the fire is roaring, the dog is howling,” and so on.

"Throwing" ("Metanyeimets", or "Rozgometets") - a book of fortune telling by casting lots.

There were also books: “Note on the days and hours of good and evil”, “Snosudets” (“Dream Book”), etc.

Unfortunately, most of the renounced books were mercilessly destroyed under Alexei Mikhailovich, the father of Peter the Great: they were burned by cartloads, and their contents can only be judged by their titles.

Any folk faith involves rituals, the performance of which is entrusted chosen people, respected for their virtues and wisdom. These are intermediaries between the people and the spirit or deity. Such people were called wise men, priests, witches and witches.

Not only in the temples, but also at every consecrated tree, at every holy spring, there were guardians who lived nearby, in small huts, and ate the remains of sacrifices offered to the deities. The priests-magi led the rites of pagan worship, made sacrifices on behalf of the entire people, compiled wise calendars, and knew “traits and cuts” ( ancient writing), kept in memory the history of tribes and ancient legends and myths.

There were many different ranks within the priestly class. There are known sorcerers - cloud chasers or cloud chasers, who were supposed to predict - and with their magical action create the weather necessary for people. There were magicians - healers who treated people with means traditional medicine; Later churchmen recognized their medical successes, but considered it sinful to turn to them. There were magi - guardians who made various amulets - amulets and images of gods. Magi - blasphemers - this is the name given to the storytellers of "blasphemous" ancient legends and epic tales. Storytellers were also called “bayans” - from the verb “bayat” - to tell, sing, conjure.

In addition to the Magi, there were also women - sorceresses, witches (from “vedat” - to know), enchantresses, “tricksters”.

The priests enjoyed popular respect, had the exclusive right to grow a long beard, sit during sacrifices and enter the sanctuary at any time. The rulers of the people welcomed deference to the priests. Many priests, for their closeness to the gods, received the unlimited trust of the people and acquired enormous power.

So the high priest of Rügen, respected more than the king himself, ruled over many Slavic tribes who did not dare to fight or make peace without his consent; imposed taxes; maintained a strong army, and not a single popular decision could be made without his consent, although he was only the mouth of God on earth.

The priests made sacrifices to the gods and predicted the future.

The place where sacrifices were made to gods and deities was called a temple or a temple. Sanctuaries under open air They were often round, consisting of two concentric shafts on which circular fires were built. Idols, usually wooden, were placed in the inner circle; here the altar burned and here they “ate to the demons,” that is, they made sacrifices to the gods. This was called a temple. The outer circle was probably intended for the consumption of sacrificial ritual food and was called the treasury. The round shape of the sanctuaries determined their name as mansions (from “horo” - circle), and in other pronunciation - temples. Later, Christian churchmen retained this ancient word for Orthodox ritual buildings, although their form does not correspond to the etymology of the word “temple.”

Sometimes the Slavs served their gods right in the forest or in the mountains, on the banks of rivers or the sea, for example, Studenets itself was a sanctuary, and every pool in which a watery one could hide, every birch tree where mermaids swayed, was a temple. The Magi, in the presence of the people, performed rites of faith on natural altars, which served as huge stones, majestic trees, and mountain peaks. But over time, wanting to have a stronger influence on people and serve the gods more respectfully, the Priests protected their idols from rain and snow with a roof, and such a simple building was called a temple. Later, the Slavs began to build tall wooden churches, decorating them with carvings.

Most of the Slavic lands were surrounded by forests, but the northwestern tribes lived on the seashore or in the mountains, where there was plenty of stone to build even more magnificent and durable temples. Travelers of those times left admiring reviews of these sanctuaries.

In the sanctuaries there was a statue of the god to whom this temple was dedicated. For example, in the ancient city of Stetin, according to reviews of ancient travelers, there were four temples, and the main one was distinguished by its art, decorated inside with convex images of people, birds and animals, so similar to nature that they seemed alive. The colors on the outside of the temple were not washed off by rain, did not fade or fade.

Following the ancient custom of their ancestors, the inhabitants of the city gave a tenth of their military booty and the weapons of the defeated enemy to the temple. The sanctuary contained silver and gold bowls, from which noble people ate and drank on ceremonial occasions, and buffalo horns set in gold: they served as charms and trumpets.

The other treasures collected there surprised with their wealth. In three other temples, less decorated and less sacred, benches were placed around the walls, since the Slavs loved to gather in temples to discuss important matters, as well as for feasts and fun.

They describe that wooden temple Arkonsky was cut down very skillfully, decorated with carvings and paintings; one gate served to enter its fence; The outer courtyard, surrounded by a wall, was separated from the inner courtyard only by purple carpets hung between four pillars, and was under the same roof. There was an idol of Svyatovid in the sanctuary, and the treasury and jewelry were kept in a separate building.

The temple at Retra, also made of wood, was famous for the images of gods and goddesses carved on its outer walls; Inside there were idols in helmets and armor, and in peacetime banners were kept there. This place was surrounded by a dense forest: through the clearing, in the distance, the sea could be seen looking menacing and majestic.

The Slavs respected the shrines of temples and even in enemy lands tried not to desecrate them.

In ancient times, the Slavs killed animals in the name of the gods, but sometimes stained their treasures with the blood of captives or unfortunates chosen by lot. This was typical in those merciless times, because human life was not valued at that time: too many dangers awaited people on their life’s path.

Two ancient ritual songs of the Eastern Slavs have reached us. The first of them is sung during a night procession that serves to drive out the “cow death” (an evil creature that brings death to the entire peasant herd). It depicts a propitiatory sacrifice in which a curse on death is pronounced (death is conjured):

Old elders...

They stab, they chop tightly

The whole belly of heaven.

On a steep mountain, high,

The boiling pots are boiling.

In those boiling cauldrons

Burns with unquenchable fire

Every belly of heaven.

Around boiling cauldrons

The old elders are standing,

The old elders are singing

About life, about death,

About the whole human race.

Old elders lay down

The whole world has long bellies.

Like that evil death

Old elders lay down

The curse is great.

Another song, a Christmas song, depicts preparations for the sacrificial slaughter of a goat on Kolyada (the embodiment of the primordially repeating annual cycle), which undoubtedly confirms both the chorus repeated several times in the song: “Oh, carol!”, and the direct reference in the song to singing by young men and women "carol songs":

Beyond the fast river,

Oh carol, oh carol!

The forests are dense,

In those forests the fires are burning,

Great fires are burning,

There are benches around the lights,

The benches are oak,

There are good fellows on those benches,

Good fellows, beautiful girls

Carols sing songs.

Oh carol, oh carol!

An old man sits in the middle of them,

He sharpens his damask knife.

The cauldron is boiling flammable,

There is a goat standing near the cauldron,

They want to slaughter a goat.

Oh carol, oh carol!...

After the public sacrifice was completed, the meat of the sacrificial animal was eaten - a sacrificial meal (feast) and a drinking party with games, songs and dances.

In the song sung during the expulsion of “cow death”, the elders, before proceeding to the slaughter of animals,

They set up white oak tables,

They lay broken tablecloths.

Obviously, these verses depict preparations for the upcoming sacrificial feast. The meat of sacrificial animals is boiled in “boiling cauldrons” in order to be subsequently eaten by the donors. The meat of the goat doomed to slaughter, mentioned in the Christmas song, undoubtedly has the same purpose. They are going to cut him near a blazing fire and a boiling “cauldron of fuel.” In some places in Russia, when plowing, peasants make mash, take some of the lamb, a black rooster and bread to church to bless, and then feast together with the whole village. In addition, there is a custom, in known holidays, for example, Elijah’s day, Peter’s day, the day of Procopius the harvestman and others, kill and then boil or fry and eat a bull, calf or lamb bought at public expense, cut and eat the “Christmas boar”, “Easter lamb” and the like.

All this represents undoubted remnants of pagan sacrifices with the public feasts that followed them. A lamb slaughtered on the day of Procopius the harvester is eaten with songs and dances. Inedible parts of the sacrificial animal (head, bones, entrails, etc.), after fortune telling was performed on some of them, if it was part of the ritual of sacrifice, were probably buried in the ground, burned or drowned in water, or, finally, preserved as a miraculous talisman . This is indicated by the currently observed customs of burying the bones of the Easter lamb in the fields in order to protect them from hail, or saving them and then throwing them into the fire during a thunderstorm so that lightning would not strike the hut, burying the bones of the Christmas boar in a secluded place, also bones of a pig slaughtered on New Year's Eve, drowning feathers, entrails and bones of "three-chicken chickens" and the like.

Feasts and drinking parties were naturally combined with games and songs: “I look like games,” writes Nestor, “dancing and all the demonic games,” and in another place: “but with these the devil flatters other morals, with all kinds of flattery, adding us from God , trumpets and buffoons, guslmi and mermaids."

Among the northern Slavs, priests used horses to tell fortunes. A white horse was kept in the Arkon temple, and people had no doubt that Svyatovid rode it every night. Expecting some important prophecy, the horse was forced to step over spears: if he stepped with his right foot and not his left, the people expected glory and wealth, all kinds of good luck. Well, in Stetin there was such a horse - the prophet was black and foreshadowed success if he never touched the nine spears with his feet when he stepped over them. In Retra, fortune tellers turned to the earth, to its depths. Some priests, asking about the future, threw three small tablets onto the ground, one side of which was black and the other white: If they lay white up, they promised something good; black foreshadowed trouble.

Slavic calendars have been known for about two thousand years. On some of them, the whole year was reproduced “in strokes and pains”, on others - its summer or winter part, and the main festivals were celebrated.

In ancient times, the year began on March 1, when Avsen (Ovsen, Tausen, Usen) was celebrated. To call for spring, they baked “larks” and “waders” from dough; children climbed with them onto the roofs of barns, onto trees and called for a warm, early spring. Meanwhile, adults gathered on the hills, sang “spring songs,” addressing the storks and cranes: quickly carry the blessed spring time on your wings. Bonfires were made on the banks of rivers and round dances were held. They threw snow off the roofs of houses and gave melt water to the sick. And finally, with general rejoicing, they burned an effigy of Mara - the personification of death and winter.

Three weeks later, on the day of the spring solstice, a cheerful, riotous Maslyanitsa was celebrated. Usually they dressed a straw doll in a caftan, put on a hat, put on bast shoes and seated him in a large sleigh harnessed to several horses. The sleigh was followed by mummers, the girls wearing men's clothing and the boys wearing women's clothing. Having traveled around the entire village, they headed to the neighboring one, where they rampaged throughout the next day. And on the third day, Maslyanitsa was burned - with jokes, obscene shouts, abuse and mockery of the undressed effigy. At the end of the week, they commemorated their ancestors, released birds from their cages, fumigated clothes over fires - it was, as it were, the beginning of a new life, farewell to winter, preparation for summer.

Green Christmastide or Semik is a holiday of growing seeds, young foliage, and first flowers. In this “Mermaid Week,” when the red summer began, the fun did not subside night and day. “Funeral of mermaids”, “Funeral of a cuckoo”, “Funeral of Kostroma” - these rituals said goodbye to spring, and the coming summer was personified by the birch tree. Homes were decorated with its branches, and the tree itself was decorated with colored ribbons and towels; sometimes the birch tree was dressed in a dress and dances were performed around it. On Semitskaya week, the dead are remembered and the rite of baptism of cuckoos is performed (our ancient beliefs depict human soul in the form of a cuckoo; in Ukrainian folk songs the cuckoo flies to mourn the dead; she is the personification of heartfelt sadness for the dead. In the wedding song, the orphan bride sends a cuckoo for her dead relatives so that they come from the other world to bless her for a new happy life). The girls come to the grove, find two weeping birch trees, put flower wreaths on them, bend and tie their branches with multi-colored ribbons, scarves and towels in the form of a wreath; grass is placed above the wreath - a cuckoo or a handmade stuffed bird, and crosses are hung on the sides. Two girls who want to kiss (baptize a cuckoo) must walk around these birches - one towards the other, then kiss three times through a wreath and pass a yellow or red painted egg to each other through the wreath.

At this time the round dance sings:

You are a cuckoo,

Who are you godfather to?

Let's kiss each other, godmothers,

Let's kiss each other, my dears!

The said godmothers exchange crosses and rings, and the “cuckoo” is divided into three parts and kept as a souvenir of nepotism. This is always followed by a merry feast, the necessary accompaniment of which is scrambled eggs.

Those who encroached on Semik go on Trinity Day to develop wreaths or throw them into the water, and sing:

Let's get over it, gossips!

Let's figure it out, my dears!

Yes yo, yo -

Semik and Trinity!

From the Green Christmastide to the Kupala holiday is just a stone's throw away. Kupala is the deity of summer, wildflowers and fruits. By this time, all the herbs are gaining healing and supernatural powers, so on Kupala night and the next day one should stock up on healing potions for future use.

On the night of Ivan Kupala, they looked for the treasured fern flower in the forest in order to find the fruits. The temptation to get rich overnight was great - but considerable dangers awaited the daredevil, for Kupalo was also a festival for water creatures, goblins, witches, mermaids, and sorcerers.

After the Day of Perun (July 20), harvest festivals followed: honey Savior, pea day, bread Savior, fescue, folding and brotherhood - right up to the Intercession of the Day (October 1), when the ground was already covered with snow.

The longest and noisiest annual holiday in Rus' is winter Christmastide (from December 25 to January 6). The sun was turning towards summer, although winter was still ahead. The first six evenings of Christmastide were “holy”, the next six were “terrible”, for evil spirits of all kinds went on a rampage and harmed people in every possible way. At Christmas time they wondered about the future harvest, about brides and grooms, about their own fate.

In 1492, when seven thousand years passed from the mythical creation of the world, New Year postponed to September 1, and later to January 1. However, holidays and rituals associated with them have been preserved in Rus', as in the old days.

In the successive transformations of nature, the ancient tribes saw not the manifestation of natural laws, but the action of animated forces - beneficial and hostile, their eternal struggle among themselves, the triumph of one side or the other. Therefore, the seasons seemed to our ancestors not as abstract concepts, but as living embodiments of elemental gods and goddesses, who alternately descend from heavenly heights to the earth and establish their dominion on it. According to the instructions of the ancient Easter calendars (calendars), “spring will be called, like a virgin, adorned with beauty and kindness, shining wonderfully and gloriously... Summer will be called a quiet man, rich and beautiful, feeding many people and looking after his home, and loving his work diligently , and without laziness, rising from morning to evening and working without rest. Autumn is like a woman who is already old and rich and has many children; sometimes she is sad because of the scarcity of the fruit of the earth and the famine of man, and sometimes she is cheerful, full of fruit and abundant in all fruits, and is quiet and serene. Winter is like an evil and discordant and merciless stepmother, fierce and unmerciful; sometimes it is merciful, but even then it punishes;

Winter breathes such a chilling breath on everything it meets that even the evil spirits about which good people they are afraid to remember at night, (and if someone inadvertently slips up, then he immediately stipulates his mistake with the words: “Don’t be remembered at night!”), even all the spirits of darkness are in a hurry to take cover - I’ll say hello somewhere far away and deeper from the red-cheeked, white-faced a beauty who freezes the blood in her veins with her kisses. Servants of Winter - blizzards, blizzards, drifting snow - creeping crawlers. In a long retinue they follow the trail of the mistress, ask her for some land, and when Winter gives them work, snow whirlwinds spin above the ground, blizzards sweep, blizzards rage. Winter tries to make everything around it white - white, snowy - snowy. At the very beginning, Winter brings joy to all people, bright holidays: Christmas, New Year, Epiphany. However time goes by, Winter is getting old, and then expect dirty tricks from it like Cow Death - a disease-causing, evil old woman who especially tries to penetrate the villages in February. Yes, and fevers - fevers, evil sisters, are especially rampant in winter. And by March - the month, on the eve of the arrival of Spring - the Red Maiden, Winter in popular imagination turns into an ugly, malicious old woman, whom we dream of sending as soon as possible back to where she came from: over the mountain - over the seas, into snowy, icy mansions, so that the sleeping earth can enjoy the warmth, awaken and bloom.

Poetic personifications of the seasons came from ancient times and belonged to the Slavs along with all other related tribes.

We find more visual personifications of the seasons among Belarusians. They call spring Lyalya, summer Tsetsya, autumn Zhytsen, winter Zyuzya.

Lelya appears to be a young, beautiful and slender maiden; There is a saying: “Pretty, like Lyalya!” In her honor they celebrate on the eve of St. George's Day, and this holiday is known under the name Lyalnik. Peasant girls gather in a clear meadow; Having chosen the most beautiful friend, they dress her up in white veils, bandage her hands, neck and waist with fresh greenery, and put a wreath of spring flowers on her head: this is Lyalya.

She sits down on the turf; Various supplies are placed near it (bread, milk, butter, cottage cheese, sour cream, eggs) and green wreaths are placed; the girls, holding hands, lead a round dance around Lyalya, sing ritual songs and turn to her asking for a good harvest. Lyalya distributes wreaths to them and treats everyone to the prepared dishes.

The wreaths and greenery that Lyalya dressed up in are saved until next spring.

Tsetsya - portly beautiful woman; in the summer, she appears in the fields, harvested with ripe ears, and holds juicy fruits in her hands.

Zhytsen appears to be a short, thin, elderly creature, with a stern expression on his face, three eyes and disheveled, shaggy hair.

He appears in the fields and gardens after harvesting the bread and vegetables and inspects whether everything has been properly harvested in a good economy. Having noticed many ears of corn that were not cut or dropped by the reapers, he collects them, ties them into a sheaf and transfers them to the owner’s plot, where the grain is harvested cleanly, that is, with frugality; as a result of this on next year where Zhytsen picked up the ears of grain, there is a crop failure, and where he carried the tied sheaf, there is a bountiful harvest.

When Zhitsen wanders in the form of a beggar and, when meeting people, shakes his finger at them, this serves as a harbinger of a general crop failure and famine next year. During the autumn sowings, he is invisibly present in the fields and tramples scattered grains into the ground so that not a single one goes to waste.

Zyuzya is an old man of small stature, with snow-white hair and a long gray beard, walks barefoot, with his head uncovered, in warm white clothes and carries an iron mace in his hands. He spends most of the winter in the forest, but sometimes he enters the village, foreshadowing a severe cold with his appearance.

The Southern Slavs have a belief: a long time ago, all animals were people, but subsequently, those of them who took false oaths, insulted their mother, committed crimes, raped, were turned into animals, fish and birds.

Any animal sees everything, hears everything and even foresees everything; Moreover, it also knows what a person feels. This divine gift is received in exchange for the gift of speech. However, being deprived of human speech, animals talk to each other. Fish, plants, even stones were once endowed with speech and freely communicated with each other. It’s not for nothing that there are proverbs: “And the mountain has eyes,” “And the walls have ears,” “And the stones speak.”

With its clumsy appearance, the bear is imprinted in many proverbs, sayings, jokes and riddles of the forest governor. The Russian people dubbed him Mishka, Mikhail Ivanovich, Toptygin. If you don’t touch him, he’s gentle and even kind in his own, bearish way. But the hunters who come at him with an ax and a spear are completely in vain to rely on his kindness: he will soon turn from a “clubfooted bear” into a ferocious forest monster. Inveterate bear hunters are called “inveterate,” and every time they go out hunting, they are escorted to death. "Bear to the devil" brother“God forbid I meet him!” say the forest dwellers. By the bear’s will, the cold winter continues: as soon as he turns on the other side in his den, the winter is exactly halfway until spring.

People call the fox Patrikeevna and Kumushka. “To pass like a fox” is tantamount to cheating with the word; there is even a special word - “foxing”. The fox is weaker than the wolf, yes, thanks to its cunning habit, it lives much more well-fed than it.

She will “lead seven wolves”: no matter how hard the dog guards the yard from her, she will get chicken. “Even in a dream, a fox counts chickens in a man’s barn!”, “Even in a dream, a fox has ears on the top of its head!”, “Where I walk like a fox, there are no auras for three years!”, “Whoever is promoted to the rank of a fox will be in rank - a wolf!", "When you look for a fox in front, she is behind!", "The fox will cover everything with its tail!" - ancient proverbs and sayings interrupt one another. "He has a fox tail!" - it is said about flattering cunning people.

The hare is the embodiment of weakness and timidity. "A roast fox in a fur coat is running through the forest - the forest!" - they say about him. "Cowardly as a hare!" - they say in common parlance about people who are too timid. The hare is not only the embodiment of cowardice, but also the personification of speed. Therefore, a quick, subtle flickering of the reflection of the sun's rays on the walls, ceiling and floor is called a bunny. This name also popularly refers to blue lights running across burning coals.

A popular superstition does not advise thinking about a hare while swimming: a merman could drown for this.

Surprisingly, from ancient times the hare was also the embodiment of voluptuousness and male power. As one of the round dance songs says:

Zayushka, with whom did you sleep and spend the night?

Belenky, who did you sleep with and spend the night with? -

I was sleeping, I was sleeping, my sir,

I slept, I slept, my heart,

On Katyukha's hand,

On Maryukha's breasts,

And Dunka has widow's marks all over her stomach.

People still believe that seeing a hare in a dream means an early pregnancy. And among the southern Slavs, to help the natural method, you still need to drink the blood of a young hare.

Herbs that were supposed to have mysterious powers were collected on the night of Ivan Kupala or Agrafena Bathing, when all earthly herbs received supernatural power: both evil and good. And they say there was such a herb - a witchcraft one - that if you find it, squeeze out the juice and smear it on your feet, you can walk on any sea - and your feet will not get wet.

The night grasses bloomed with fire. These were the black fern, the king, the king, the lion, the dove and others. Another color glowed with a motionless, strong flame, another had the appearance of lightning, a flying, ghostly fire. “Lion grass,” it is said about one of them in the oldest of the “Zaleiniki,” “grows small, but looks like a lion. You can’t even notice it during the day, it shines at night. There are two colors on it, one yellow, and the other at night like a candle burning. There is no grass nearby, but what is there, she bowed before her.” And here is what is said about the wondrous grass of the cinema gate: “Even though there is a storm, it bows to the east with all its trunks; the same thing if there is no wind.”

Some herbs had to be torn, outlining the area around it with gold or silver, which was called “piercing through silver or gold.” This was done like this: they placed silver (coins, jewelry) on the ground near the grass on four sides or scattered a gold hryvnia (a heavy neck chain) around. This is how the whooper pierced the grass (or thorns), the odolen - grass, broom, heartless fern and some other most mysterious and mysterious herbs.

Well, when they fell into the hands of a healer, their power still could not be felt without a magical, charming word. It was as if the herbs had to be persuaded to help a person - or harm him.

Grass, illness, love, the elements - these were all living beings for our ancestor, with whom he talked on equal terms, with each - in his own language.

At that time they knew this language, and felt a special, now incomprehensible connection with nature. This is probably why among the herbs in ancient times there were magical and enchanting stories, but now only medicinal herbs remain, and even those do not help everyone.

The Slavs, living in forests, treated trees with great respect, endowing almost every one with supernatural properties. The legend about the world tree, which embraces the earth with its roots and holds the vault of heaven with its branches, is attributed by the Slavs to the oak tree. Their memory preserved a legend about oak trees that existed before the creation of the world. Even at a time when there was neither earth nor sky, but only one blue sea (ocean of air), in the middle of this sea there were two oak trees, and two doves sat on the oak trees; The pigeons descended to the bottom of the sea, took out sand and stone, from which the earth, sky and all the heavenly bodies were created.

There is a legend about an iron oak on which water, fire and earth rest, and its root rests on divine power. There was a belief that oak seeds fly from Iriy in the spring. In ancient times, our ancestors practiced justice and truth under old oak trees.

Oak, as well as any other tree that was struck by lightning, received the same healing, life-giving properties that are attributed to spring rain and thunder arrows. To have good horses (in body), it is advised to place a piece of wood broken by thunder in the stable. If you support a tree (or a wooden wall) with your back during the first thunder of spring, your back will not hurt. Children suffering from dry fever are placed for some time in a forked tree, then they are walked around the tree three times nine times and children's shirts are hung on its branches. Upon returning home, they are bathed in water taken from nine rivers or wells and sprinkled with ashes from seven furnaces. For fever and other diseases, peasants bathe in rivers, forest springs and wells, and after bathing they wipe themselves with a clean rag and hang it on a nearby tree or broom bush; Instead of a rag, they also hang a shirt or a piece of their clothing and leave them until they completely decay. The meaning of the ritual is as follows: washing away and erasing the illness from his body, the patient, as it were, takes it off himself and, together with a rag and a discarded shirt, passes it on to a bush or tree, as earthly representatives of that heavenly, paradise tree, which drains living water that heals all diseases. Just as an abandoned rag or shirt decays, so must the disease itself disappear. Later, with the loss of a clear understanding of ancient ideas, this ritual took on the character of a sacrificial offering to forest and water spirits.

No less curious beliefs connect the people with the aspen - a tree that has acquired mythical properties, perhaps due to the affinity of its name with the word ash. Just as the ash tree is given the power to numb snakes, so they say about the aspen tree that a killed snake should be hung on this very tree; otherwise it will come to life and bite. When the hero Dobrynya killed the snake, he hung her on an aspen tree: “You are drying, Serpent Gorynchishche, on that aspen tree with gags.” Aspen has a similar saving effect against sorcerers, ghouls and witches. The sharpened aspen stake received the meaning of Perun’s club in the eyes of the people. To prevent the dead man, who is suspected of being an evil sorcerer, ghoul or witch, from leaving the grave, the peasants drive an aspen stake into his back; to protect cows and calves from attacks by witches, they place aspen trees, cut down or uprooted, on the gates and in the corners of the barnyard; during the cattle plague, to drive away the Cow Death, they beat it (that is, wave it through the air) with aspen logs. According to fairy tales, sorcerers who come from graves have an aspen stake driven into their hearts and burned on an aspen bonfire. In turn, the witch can use aspen stake or a branch for her magic spells: striking this branch into the chest of a sleepy man, she inflicts an invisible wound on him and greedily drinks his blood. Having milked the black cow, the witch pours the milk into the ground and immediately drives an aspen stake: with this spell she takes the milk away from the cows.

As a saving weapon against demonic obsession, aspen can also serve to expel diseases. They read the spell over aspen rods, which are then placed on the patient. When your teeth hurt, they take an aspen pod and read the spell over it three times: “On the sea, on the okiyan, on the island on Buyan, there are three tall trees, under those trees lies a hare; you moved, toothache to that hare!”

After that, an aspen knot is applied to the diseased teeth.

Birch is also a sacred tree in Slavic mythology. She was revered as a symbol of the beregins, mermaids, during the spring holiday of Semik, when a blossoming tree was brought into the village and the girls put on birch wreaths. The goblin wrote petitions on birch bark and nailed them to the trees: to return, for example, a lost cow, to bring game to the hunter’s gun, to help him not to get lost when the girls are walking through the raspberries.

The Slavs generally considered the birch to be the main, world tree, the support of the entire earth, as stated in the old conspiracy: “On the sea, on the ocean, on the island of Buyan, there is a white birch tree with its branches down and its roots up.” The female spirit Birch, the patroness of young maidens, was also honored in this tree.

In paradise gardens and groves, on shady trees, golden fruits (apples) ripen, giving eternal youth, health and beauty. In terms of their wonderful properties, these fruits are completely identical with the immortal drink - living water. Russian legend gives them the name rejuvenating, or youthful: you just have to taste these fruits, and you will immediately become young and healthy, despite your advanced years. A curious Russian fairy tale about rejuvenating apples and living water tells one of the most ancient myths. The old and blind king, spoken of in the fairy tale, personifies the winter time, when everything on earth withers, the universal eye becomes decrepit - the sun loses its bright shine. Depicting the seasons as living, humanoid creatures, folk fantasy represented spring as a beautiful maiden, and winter as a white-haired and gray-haired old man.

To restore the king’s youth and sight, the prince’s son must obtain living water, which heals blindness, and youthful golden apples, that is, bring about spring with its beneficial rains, golden lightning, the radiant sun and all the luxury of the plant kingdom. Living water and golden apples equally renew a decrepit old man, make him a blooming youth and even liken him to a seven-year-old child; the sick are given strength and health, the dead are given life, ugliness is transformed into beauty, powerlessness into heroic power; both are found in a distant country - in an ever-fading garden - and are protected by dragons and giants.

Over time, legends about heavenly, paradise gardens began to be attached to earthly gardens and groves and gave them a sacred character. Forests became the habitat of cloud spirits, and later man gave them the character of goblin. They live in forest slums and wastelands, but usually with the first frosts (in early October) they fall through the ground, disappearing for the whole winter, and in the spring they jump out of the ground again - as if nothing had happened.

Water is popularly called “mother”, “queen”. Still at dawn human history people were clearly aware of the great importance of the water element. This is confirmed by the mythology of all countries and all peoples, and later philosophical systems: just as there is no culture without fire, so without water there is and cannot be life. In accordance with this understanding of the global role of water pagan peoples they invariably idolized this element as an inexhaustible source of life, as an ever-living spring, with the help of which another great element - the earth - was fertilized.

Later, with the spread of Christianity, belief in divine origin Although the water died, from its ruins a conviction grew in the holiness and miraculous power of this element. One of the legacies of hoary antiquity is blind faith in springs and respect for them as guardians of mysterious healing powers.

Behind the rivers, in the form of legends, traces of their personification as living beings of the heroic type have been preserved. There is a well-known story about a dispute between Volga and Vazuza over eldership. These two rivers decided to end their dispute in this way: both should go to bed, and the one that gets up earlier and runs to the Khvalynsk (Caspian) Sea sooner will prevail. At night, Vazuza got up earlier and silently, in a direct and short way, flowed forward. The awakened Volga walked neither quietly nor quickly, but as it should. But in Zubtsov she caught up with Vazuza, and she was in such a formidable form that her rival got scared, called herself her younger sister and asked Volga to take her in her arms and carry her to the Khvalynsky Sea.

The Dnieper in epics appears in the form of a woman, under the name Nepra Korolevichna. She enters into a heroic argument at a feast at the Prince of Kyiv with Don Ivanovich. In single combat she remained defeated. The Don killed her with a red-hot arrow and, in despair, fell on the knife - the dagger. It was from this blood that the Nepr River flowed, “a river twenty fathoms deep, a river forty fathoms wide.”

In view of such widespread veneration of water, the first enlighteners of dark people and the founders of monasteries who followed them, holy hermits, made digging wells one of their main concerns.

In the popular imagination, those wells became sacred, the appearance of which was caused by some emergency, for example, the so-called thunder (rattles) springs, gushing from under a stone and, according to popular belief, caused by a lightning strike (the fiery arrows of Elijah the prophet or from under the hooves of the heroic horse Ilya Muromets, and even before that - Perun). Near such keys they always rush to build a chapel and hang an image of the Mother of God.

The people also named small lakes, scattered in large numbers throughout forested Russia, as saints, and not only those that were adjacent to monasteries. Some of these holy lakes are associated with poetic legends about sunken cities and churches. From the depths of these lakes, pious people can hear the ringing of bells, church singing and you can see crosses and domes of sunken temples. The most famous and outstanding lakes: in northwestern Rus' - Lake Svityaz near Grodno Novogrudok and Svetloyar in the Kerzhensky Trans-Volga forests near the city of Semenov. The latter still attracts thousands of people to its shores, who believe that in the bright streams of a deserted forest lake, the city of Bolshoy Kitezh, which miraculously disappeared during the time of Batu’s invasion, is preserved.

When the holy and life-giving cross is immersed in water, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the devil’s filth is expelled from it, and therefore all water becomes pure and certainly holy, that is, equipped with the grace of healing not only physical ailments, but also mental ones. “Epiphany water” in this regard is given primary importance everywhere, and it, like a shrine, together with the Annunciation prosphora and the Thursday candle, was placed in the most prominent place in homes, in the front right corner, next to the icons. In ordinary times, when necessary, drink this water on an empty stomach. At the same time, there is a widespread, unshakable belief that this water, stored all year round until new, never spoils, and if something like that happens, it is explained by the touch of someone’s unclean hand to the vessel. In the same way, the superstitious belief remains everywhere that the upper layers of water consecrated in bowls contain the most beneficial powers that eliminate ailments and heal illnesses.

The natural purity of water, which made it the only true and easy cleansing agent, required, in the most distant pagan times, a special celebration, expressed in the solemn holiday of Kupala. In many places there are still certain days when dousing with water is obligatory - a custom that has become a tradition. Christian holidays. They pour cold water over everyone who has slept through one matins on the week of Holy Pascha. The custom of pouring water has a completely different character in those cases where it receives the name "mokrida": in this form it retains obvious fragments of the pagan festivals of making rain.

In the past, our people highly revered rainwater. Running out into the streets barefoot, with bare heads, village and city people stood under the blessed heavenly streams of the first spring rain, taking in handfuls of water to wash their faces three times. People took out cups, collecting healing moisture, and kept it in tightly sealed bottles for a whole year, until another similar rain. In the same way, the people honored river water after the opening of the rivers.

As soon as the ice passed along the rivers and streams in the spring, all the children, adults and old people ran to the shore: scooped up handfuls of water and washed their faces, heads and hands three times.

These customs lead us to a whole series of superstitious fortune-telling, where water is given the main place, like the so-called scooping of water and forgiveness from the water.

In the first case, when domestic animals are sick or due to some kind of trouble, they douse a cross or a copper icon with water, trying to let this water fall onto the coals, covered with wax and previously sprinkled with Epiphany water; at the same time, they read homemade prayers to themselves and sprinkle and water those who need medical help. “Forgiveness by the water” is asked for by the sick and disadvantaged. This custom is based on the belief that water takes revenge for insults inflicted on it by sending illnesses to people. Therefore, in order to get rid of such diseases, a piece of bread is lowered onto the water with a low bow: “I came to you, mother water, with a hanging and guilty head, forgive me, forgive me too, water grandfathers and great-grandfathers! " Stepping back one step at a time, repeating this sentence up to three times with a bow and, during the entire spell, they try not to talk to anyone, not to turn around and not even once, of course, to impose the sign of the cross on themselves.

“God gave the will to water and fire,” the people say in consolation and reassurance in those cases when the balance in nature is disturbed and the water, which moderately nourished the earth, turns into a fierce enemy, instilling fear and despair: “Where there is a lot of water, wait there.” troubles"; “The good thing about farm laborers is fire and water, but God forbid they should live with their minds.” No amount of fortune-telling can foresee those troubles, no amount of conspiracies can eliminate them - the only hope left is to pray for God’s help, not only at the time when the misfortune has occurred, but, mainly, when it is just about to happen.

Our ancestors used to tell fortunes by the flight and cries of birds and animals. They peered at the movement of fire and smoke in the fire. They threw up wooden circles, white on one side, black on the other. They asked about the future of Svyatovidov’s horse. Looking into the running water, they guessed by its flow, foam and streams.

Enchanted Kupala night the girls lowered wreaths with lit splinters into the waves and watched them: the one whose wreath floats the farthest will be the happiest, and the one whose splinter burns the longest will live a long, long life.

But the most interesting and mysterious fortune telling We visited, of course, at Christmas or Epiphany. Only on Christmas night can you bring a cow skin to the ice hole and, sitting on it, make a wish: for example, to be in the house of the future groom, or to visit the royal palace, or to fly to the distant kingdom. As soon as midnight comes, the water demons will come out of the hole, pick up the skin and fly where they are commanded: they themselves are invisible and have made that person invisible. But when they fly back, they will rush to dive into their hole together with the fortune teller. At this point you have to stop yawning and say in time: “Out of this place!” - otherwise inevitable death awaits.

They also poured gold, lead or wax into the water, wishing that they wanted to know, and then looked at the image and looked for signs of the future in it. Some listened under the windows on a fortune-telling night, and whichever word they heard first, they predicted their fate.

The girls, of course, told fortunes about their grooms on Epiphany evening. There were a great many such fortune tellings. For example, they take a log from a woodpile in the dark, and if it is smooth, then the husband will be good, but if it is knotty, with cracks, then he will be bad and angry. And others, on the contrary, believed that if the log was knotty, then the girl would be for the rich, and if she came across a smooth one, then for the poor. The girls also made a bridge out of twigs and put it under their pillow at night, saying: “Whoever is my betrothed, whoever is my mummer, will take me across the bridge.” And whoever she dreams about will be her husband.

The most terrible thing, but also the most accurate, is Epiphany fortune-telling.

A girl comes into an empty room alone, puts two cutlery, a candle and a mirror, on the table, and, looking in the mirror, thinks: “Betrothed, mummer, come to me for dinner.” When someone comes and starts looking over her shoulder in the mirror, you need to cover it up and, remembering the future groom, quickly say: “Crazy for this place!” so that the unclean, unknown force that took the image of the groom will disappear without causing harm.

You need to know, however, that any fortune telling is a dangerous thing. Fate does not like to be tortured, and therefore fortune tellers and fortune tellers are rarely happy, even if they predict a happy fate for other people.

Many have survived to this day in Rus'. pagan rituals and customs that coexist peacefully with Christianity. Hence the dual world in which the Slav lived and still lives, hence the dual faith.

World of Slavic pagan gods was majestic - and at the same time simple, naturally merged with everyday life and being. Perhaps this is why the Slavs, even if they turned to Orthodoxy, could not renounce their ancient poetic beliefs. The beliefs by which our ancestors lived, who deified, along with the humanoid rulers of thunder, winds and the sun, the smallest, weakest, most innocent phenomena of nature and human nature. As I. N. Snegirev, an expert on Russian proverbs and rituals, wrote in the last century, Slavic paganism is the deification of the elements.

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He even provided comprehensive evidence in the form of photographs in this article. Why did I talk about mermaids, yes because mermaid is a mythical creature found in many stories and fairy tales. And this time I want to talk about mythical creatures that existed at one time according to legends: Grants, Dryads, Kraken, Griffins, Mandrake, Hippogriff, Pegasus, Lernaean Hydra, Sphinx, Chimera, Cerberus, Phoenix, Basilisk, Unicorn, Wyvern. Let's get to know these creatures better.

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1. Wyvern

Wyvern-This creature is considered a “relative” of the dragon, but it only has two legs. instead of the front one there are bat wings. It is characterized by a long snake-like neck and a very long, movable tail, ending with a sting in the form of a heart-shaped arrow or spear tip. With this sting, the wyvern manages to cut or stab the victim, and under the right conditions, even pierce it right through. In addition, the sting is poisonous.
The wyvern is often found in alchemical iconography, in which (like most dragons) it personifies primordial, raw, unprocessed matter or metal. In religious iconography it can be seen in paintings depicting the struggle of Saints Michael or George. The wyvern can also be found on heraldic coats of arms, for example, on the Polish coat of arms of the Latskys, the coat of arms of the Drake family or the Enmity of Kunvald.

2. Asp

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Aspid- In the ancient Alphabet Books there is a mention of the asp - this is a serpent (or snake, asp) “winged, with a bird’s nose and two trunks, and in the land in which it is committed, that land will be devastated.” That is, everything around will be destroyed and devastated. The famous scientist M. Zabylin says that the adder, according to popular belief, can be found in the gloomy northern mountains and that it never lands on the ground, but only on a stone. The only way to speak and exterminate the destroyer serpent is with a “trumpet voice” that makes the mountains shake. Then the sorcerer or healer grabbed the stunned asp with red-hot pincers and held it “until the snake died.”

3. Unicorn

Unicorn- Symbolizes chastity, and also serves as an emblem of the sword. Tradition usually represents him as a white horse with one horn protruding from his forehead; however, according to esoteric beliefs, it has a white body, a red head and blue eyes. In early traditions, the unicorn was depicted with the body of a bull, in later traditions with the body of a goat, and only in later legends with the body of a horse. Legend claims that he is insatiable when pursued, but obediently lies down on the ground if a virgin approaches him. In general, it is impossible to catch a unicorn, but if you do, you can only hold it with a golden bridle.
“His back was curved and his ruby ​​eyes glowed; at the withers he reached 2 meters. Just above his eyes, almost parallel to the ground, his horn grew; straight and thin. His manes and tail were scattered in small curls, and drooping and unnaturally for albinos black eyelashes cast fluffy shadows on pink nostrils." (S. Drugal "Basilisk")
They feed on flowers, especially rosehip flowers, and honey, and drink morning dew. They also look for small lakes in the depths of the forest in which they swim and drink from there, and the water in these lakes usually becomes very clean and has the properties of living water. In Russian "alphabet books" of the 16th -17th centuries. The unicorn is described as a terrible and invincible beast, like a horse, all the strength of which lies in the horn. Healing properties were attributed to the unicorn's horn (according to folklore, the unicorn uses its horn to purify water poisoned by a snake). The unicorn is a creature of another world and most often foreshadows happiness.

4. Basilisk

Basilisk- a monster with the head of a rooster, the eyes of a toad, the wings of a bat and the body of a dragon (according to some sources, a huge lizard) that exists in the mythologies of many peoples. His gaze turns all living things to stone. Basilisk - is born from an egg laid by a seven-year-old black rooster (in some sources from an egg hatched by a toad) into a warm dung heap. According to legend, if the Basilisk sees its reflection in the mirror, it will die. The Basilisk's habitat is caves, which are also its source of food, since the Basilisk only eats stones. He can only leave his shelter at night because he cannot stand the crowing of a rooster. And he is also afraid of unicorns because they are too “pure” animals.
“He moved his horns, his eyes were so green with a purple tint, his warty hood was swelling. And he himself was purple-black with a spiky tail. The triangular head with a black-pink mouth opened wide...
Its saliva is extremely poisonous and if it gets on living matter, it will immediately replace carbon with silicon. Simply put, all living things turn into stone and die, although there are disputes that the Basilisk’s gaze also petrifies, but those who wanted to check this did not return...” (“S. Drugal “Basilisk”).
5. Manticore

Manticore- The story about this creepy creature can be found in Aristotle (IV century BC) and Pliny the Elder (1st century AD). The manticore is the size of a horse, has a human face, three rows of teeth, a lion's body and a scorpion's tail, and red, bloodshot eyes. The manticore runs so fast that it covers any distance in the blink of an eye. This makes it extremely dangerous - after all, it is almost impossible to escape from it, and the monster feeds only on fresh human meat. Therefore, in medieval miniatures you can often see an image of a manticore with a human hand or foot in its teeth. In medieval works on natural history, the manticore was considered real, but living in deserted places.

6. Valkyries

Valkyries- beautiful warrior maidens who fulfill the will of Odin and are his companions. They invisibly take part in every battle, granting victory to those to whom the gods award it, and then take the dead warriors to Valhala, the castle of the extra-celestial Asgard, and serve them at the table there. Legends also call heavenly Valkyries, who determine the fate of each person.

7. Anka

Anka- In Muslim mythology, wonderful birds created by Allah and hostile to people. It is believed that anka exist to this day: there are simply so few of them that they are extremely rare. Anka is in many ways similar in its properties to the phoenix bird that lived in the Arabian desert (one can assume that anka is a phoenix).

8. Phoenix

Phoenix- In monumental sculptures, stone pyramids and buried mummies, the Egyptians sought to find eternity; It is quite natural that it was in their country that the myth of a cyclically reborn, immortal bird should have arisen, although the subsequent development of the myth was carried out by the Greeks and Romans. Adolf Erman writes that in the mythology of Heliopolis, the Phoenix is ​​the patron of anniversaries, or large time cycles. Herodotus, in a famous passage, expounds with marked skepticism the original version of the legend:

“There is another sacred bird there, its name is Phoenix. I myself have never seen it, except as a drawing, for in Egypt it appears rarely, once every 500 years, as the inhabitants of Heliopolis say. According to them, it flies when it dies father (that is, she herself) If the images correctly show her size and size and appearance, her plumage is partly golden, partly red. Her appearance and size resemble an eagle.

9. Echidna

Echidna- half-woman, half-snake, daughter of Tartarus and Rhea, gave birth to Typhon and many monsters (Lernaean Hydra, Cerberus, Chimera, Nemean Lion, Sphinx)

10. Sinister

Sinister- pagan evil spirits of the ancient Slavs. They are also called krixes or khmyri - swamp spirits, which are dangerous because they can stick to a person, even move into him, especially in old age, if the person has never loved anyone in his life and has not had children. Sinister has an indefinite appearance (speaks, but is invisible). She can turn into a little man, a small child, or an old beggar. In the Christmas game, the evil one personifies poverty, misery, and winter darkness. In the house, evil spirits most often settle behind the stove, but they also love to suddenly jump on a person’s back or shoulders and “ride” him. There may be several more evil ones. However, with some ingenuity, you can catch them by locking them in some kind of container.

11. Cerberus

Cerberus- one of Echidna's children. A three-headed dog, on whose neck snakes move with a menacing hiss, and instead of a tail he has a poisonous snake... Serves Hades (the god of the Kingdom of the Dead) stands on the threshold of Hell and guards its entrance. He made sure that no one came out of the underground kingdom of the dead, because there is no return from the kingdom of the dead. When Cerberus was on earth (This happened because of Hercules, who, on the instructions of King Eurystheus, brought him from Hades) the monstrous dog dropped drops of bloody foam from his mouth; from which the poisonous grass aconite grew.

12. Chimera

Chimera- V Greek mythology a monster spewing fire with the head and neck of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a dragon (according to another version, the Chimera had three heads - a lion, a goat and a dragon) Apparently, Chimera is the personification of a fire-breathing volcano. In a figurative sense, a chimera is a fantasy, an unfulfilled desire or action. In sculpture, chimeras are images of fantastic monsters (for example, chimeras of the cathedral Notre Dame of Paris) but it is believed that stone chimeras can come to life to terrify people.

13. Sphinx

Sphinx from or Sfinga to ancient greek mythology a winged monster with the face and chest of a woman and the body of a lion. She is the offspring of the hundred-headed dragon Typhon and Echidna. The name of the Sphinx is associated with the verb "sphingo" - "to squeeze, suffocate." Sent by Hero to Thebes as punishment. The Sphinx was located on a mountain near Thebes (or in the city square) and asked everyone who passed a riddle (“Which living creature walks on four legs in the morning, on two in the afternoon, and on three in the evening?”). The Sphinx killed the one who was unable to give a solution and thus killed many noble Thebans, including the son of King Creon. The king, overcome with grief, announced that he would give the kingdom and the hand of his sister Jocasta to the one who would deliver Thebes from the Sphinx. Oedipus solved the riddle, the Sphinx in despair threw herself into the abyss and fell to her death, and Oedipus became the Theban king.

14. Lernaean Hydra

Lernaean Hydra- a monster with the body of a snake and nine heads of a dragon. The hydra lived in a swamp near the city of Lerna. She crawled out of her lair and destroyed entire herds. The victory over the hydra was one of the labors of Hercules.

15. Naiads

Naiads- Every river, every source or stream in Greek mythology had its own leader - a naiad. This cheerful tribe of patronesses of waters, prophetesses and healers was not covered by any statistics; every Greek with a poetic streak heard the carefree chatter of naiads in the murmur of waters. They belong to the descendants of Oceanus and Tethys; they number up to three thousand.
“No one can name all their names. Only those who live nearby know the name of the stream.”

16. Rukhh

Rukhh- In the East, people have long been talking about the giant bird Rukh (or Ruk, Fear-rah, Nogoi, Nagai). Some people even met her. For example, the hero of Arabian fairy tales, Sinbad the Sailor. One day he found himself on a desert island. Looking around, he saw a huge white dome without windows or doors, so large that he could not climb onto it.
“And I,” Sinbad narrates, “walked around the dome, measuring its circumference, and counted fifty full steps. Suddenly the sun disappeared, and the air darkened, and the light was blocked from me. And I thought that a cloud had come over the sun (and it was summer time), and I was surprised, and raised my head, and saw a bird with a huge body and wide wings flying through the air - and it was she who covered the sun and blocked it over the island . And I remembered one story that was told long ago by people wandering and traveling, namely: on some islands there is a bird called Rukh, which feeds its children with elephants. And I became convinced that the dome I walked around was the Rukh egg. And I began to marvel at what the great Allah has created. And at this time the bird suddenly landed on the dome, and hugged it with its wings, and stretched out its legs on the ground behind it, and fell asleep on it, may Allah be praised, who never sleeps! And then I, untying my turban, tied myself to the feet of this bird, saying to myself: “Perhaps she will take me to countries with cities and populations. It will be better than sitting here on this island." And when the dawn rose and the day rose, the bird took off from the egg and soared into the air with me. And then it began to descend and landed on some ground, and, having reached the ground, I I quickly got rid of her legs, afraid of the bird, but the bird didn’t know about me and didn’t feel me.”

Not only the fabulous Sinbad the Sailor, but also the very real Florentine traveler Marco Polo, who visited Persia, India and China in the 13th century, heard about this bird. He said that the Mongol Khan Kublai Khan once sent loyal people to catch a bird. The messengers found her homeland: the African island of Madagascar. They did not see the bird itself, but they brought its feather: it was twelve steps long, and the diameter of the feather shaft was equal to two palm trunks. They said that the wind produced by the wings of Rukh knocks a person down, her claws are like bull horns, and her meat restores youth. But try to catch this Rukh if ​​she can carry off a unicorn along with three elephants impaled on her horn! author of the encyclopedia Alexandrova Anastasia They knew this monstrous bird in Rus', they called it Fear, Nog or Noga, and gave it even new fabulous features.
“The bird-leg is so strong that it can lift an ox, flies through the air and walks on the ground with four legs,” says the ancient Russian “Azbukovnik” of the 16th century.
The famous traveler Marco Polo tried to explain the mystery of the winged giant: “They call this bird on the islands Ruk, but they don’t call it in our language, but it’s a vulture!” Only... greatly grown in the human imagination.

17. Khukhlik

Khukhlik in Russian superstitions there is a water devil; mummer. The name hukhlyak, hukhlik, apparently comes from the Karelian huhlakka - “to weird”, tus - “ghost, ghost”, “dressed strangely” (Cherepanova 1983). The appearance of the hukhlyak is unclear, but they say that it is similar to the shilikun. This unclean spirit most often appears from water and becomes especially active during Christmas time. Likes to make fun of people.

18. Pegasus

Pegasus- V Greek mythology winged horse. Son of Poseidon and the gorgon Medusa. He was born from the body of the gorgon killed by Perseus. He received the name Pegasus because he was born at the source of the Ocean (Greek “source”). Pegasus ascended to Olympus, where he delivered thunder and lightning to Zeus. Pegasus is also called the horse of the muses, since he knocked Hippocrene out of the ground with his hoof - the source of the muses, which has the property of inspiring poets. Pegasus, like a unicorn, can only be caught with a golden bridle. According to another myth, the gods gave Pegasus. Bellerophon, and he, taking off on it, killed the winged monster chimera, which was devastating the country.

19 Hippogriff

Hippogriff- in the mythology of the European Middle Ages, wanting to indicate the impossibility or incongruity, Virgil speaks of an attempt to cross a horse and a vulture. Four centuries later, his commentator Servius claims that vultures or griffins are animals whose front part is eagle-like and the back part lion-like. To support his statement, he adds that they hate horses. Over time, the expression “Jungentur jam grypes eguis” (“crossing vultures with horses”) became a proverb; at the beginning of the sixteenth century, Ludovico Ariosto remembered him and invented the hippogriff. Pietro Michelli notes that the hippogriff is a more harmonious creature, even than the winged Pegasus. In "Roland the Furious" a detailed description of the hippogriff is given, as if intended for a textbook of fantastic zoology:

Not a ghostly horse under the magician - a mare
Born into the world, his father was a vulture;
Like his father, he was a wide-winged bird, -
He was in front of his father: like that one, zealous;
Everything else was like the uterus,
And that horse was called a hippogriff.
The borders of the Riphean mountains are glorious for them,
Far beyond the icy seas

20 Mandrake

Mandrake. The role of Mandrake in mythopoetic ideas is explained by the presence of certain hypnotic and stimulating properties in this plant, as well as the similarity of its root with the lower part human body(Pythagoras called Mandrake a “human-like plant,” and Columella called “half-human grass”). In some folk traditions Based on the type of Mandrake root, they distinguish between male and female plants and even give them appropriate names. In old herbalists, Mandrake roots are depicted as male or female forms, with a tuft of leaves growing from the head, sometimes with a dog on a chain or an agonizing dog. According to legends, anyone who hears the groan made by the Mandrake as it is dug out of the ground must die; to avoid the death of a person and at the same time satisfy the thirst for blood supposedly inherent in Mandrake. When digging Mandrake, they tied a dog, which was believed to die in agony.

21. Griffins

Griffin- winged monsters with a lion's body and an eagle's head, guardians of gold. In particular, it is known that the treasures of the Riphean Mountains are protected. From his scream the flowers wither and the grass withers, and if there is anyone alive, then everyone falls dead. The griffin's eyes have a golden tint. The head was the size of a wolf's with a huge, terrifying-looking beak a foot long. Wings with a strange second joint to make them easier to fold. In Slavic mythology, all approaches to the Irian Garden, Alatyr Mountain and an apple tree with golden apples are guarded by griffins and basilisks. Whoever tries these golden apples will receive eternal youth and power over the Universe. And the apple tree itself with golden apples is guarded by the dragon Ladon. There is no passage here for either foot or horse.

22. Kraken

Kraken is the Scandinavian version of Saratan and the Arabian dragon, or sea serpent. The Kraken's back is one and a half miles wide, and its tentacles are capable of enveloping the largest ship. This huge back protrudes from the sea, like a huge island. The Kraken has a habit of obscuring sea ​​water eruption of some liquid. This statement gave rise to the hypothesis that the Kraken is an octopus, only enlarged. Among Tenison's youthful works one can find a poem dedicated to this remarkable creature:

From time immemorial in the depths of the ocean
The giant Kraken sleeps soundly
He is blind and deaf, over the carcass of a giant
Only from time to time a pale ray glides.
Giant sponges sway above him,
And from deep, dark holes
Polyps innumerable choir
Extends tentacles like hands.
The Kraken will rest there for thousands of years,
So it was and so it will be in the future,
Until the last fire burns through the abyss
And the heat will scorch the living firmament.
Then he will wake up from sleep,
Will appear before angels and people
And, emerging with a howl, he will meet death.

23. Golden dog

golden dog.- This is a dog made of gold that guarded Zeus when he was pursued by Kronos. The fact that Tantalus did not want to give up this dog was his first strong offense before the gods, which the gods later took into account when choosing his punishment.

“...In Crete, the homeland of the Thunderer, there was a golden dog. She once guarded the newborn Zeus and the wonderful goat Amalthea who fed him. When Zeus grew up and took away the power over the world from Cronus, he left this dog in Crete to guard his sanctuary. The king of Ephesus, Pandareus, seduced by the beauty and strength of this dog, secretly came to Crete and took it away on his ship from Crete. But where to hide this wonderful animal? Pandarey thought about this for a long time during his journey across the sea and finally decided to give the golden dog to Tantalus for safekeeping. King Sipila hid the wonderful animal from the gods. Zeus was angry. He called his son, the messenger of the gods Hermes, and sent him to Tantalus to demand the return of the golden dog. In the blink of an eye, fast Hermes rushed from Olympus to Sipylus, appeared before Tantalus and said to him:
- The king of Ephesus, Pandareus, stole a golden dog from the sanctuary of Zeus in Crete and gave it to you for safekeeping. The gods of Olympus know everything, mortals cannot hide anything from them! Return the dog to Zeus. Beware of incurring the wrath of the Thunderer!
Tantalus answered the messenger of the gods this way:
- It is in vain that you threaten me with the wrath of Zeus. I haven't seen a golden dog. The gods are wrong, I don’t have it.
Tantalus swore a terrible oath that he was telling the truth. With this oath he angered Zeus even more. This was the first insult inflicted by tantalum on the gods...

24. Dryads

Dryads- in Greek mythology, female tree spirits (nymphs). they live in a tree which they protect and often die along with this tree. Dryads are the only nymphs who are mortal. Tree nymphs are inseparable from the tree in which they live. It was believed that those who plant and care for trees enjoy the special protection of dryads.

25. Grants

Grant- In English folklore, a werewolf, who most often appears as a mortal in the guise of a horse. At the same time, he walks on his hind legs, and his eyes glow with fire. Grant is a city fairy, he can often be seen on the street, at noon or towards sunset. Meeting with a grant portends misfortune - a fire or something else in the same spirit.

The Southern Slavs have a belief: long ago, all animals were people, but subsequently, those who took false oaths, insulted their mother, committed crimes, raped, were turned into animals, fish and birds. (jcomments on)

Any animal sees everything, hears everything and even foresees everything; Moreover, it also knows what a person feels. This divine gift is received in exchange for the gift of speech. However, being deprived of human speech, animals talk to each other. Fish, plants, even stones were once endowed with speech and freely communicated with each other. It’s not for nothing that there are proverbs: “And the mountain has eyes,” “And the walls have ears,” “And the stones speak.”

With its clumsy appearance, the bear is imprinted in many proverbs, sayings, jokes and riddles of the forest governor. The Russian people dubbed him Mishka, Mikhail Ivanovich, Toptygin. If you don’t touch him, he’s gentle and even kind in his own, bearish way. But the hunters who come at him with an ax and a spear are completely in vain to rely on his kindness: he will soon turn from a “clubfooted bear” into a ferocious forest monster. Inveterate bear hunters are called “inveterate,” and every time they go out hunting, they are escorted to death. “The bear is the goblin’s brother, God forbid you meet him!” - say the forest dwellers. According to the bear's will, the cold winter continues: as soon as he turns on the other side in his den, the winter is exactly halfway until spring.

People call the fox Patrikeevna and Kumushka. “To pass like a fox” is tantamount to cheating with the word; there is even a special word - “foxing”. The fox is weaker than the wolf, yes, thanks to its cunning habit, it lives much more well-fed than it.

She will “lead seven wolves”: no matter how hard the dog guards the yard from her, she will get chicken. “Even in a dream, a fox counts chickens in a man’s barn!”, “Even in a dream, a fox has ears on top of its head!”, “Where I walk like a fox, the chickens won’t lay eggs for three years!”, “Whoever is promoted to the rank of fox will be in rank - a wolf!”, “When you look for a fox in front, she is behind!”, “The fox will cover everything with its tail!” - ancient proverbs and sayings interrupt one another. “He has a fox tail!” - it is said about flattering cunning people.

The hare is the embodiment of weakness and timidity. “A roast fox in a fur coat is running through the forest!” - they say about him. “Cowardly as a hare!” - they say in common parlance about people who are too timid. The hare is not only the embodiment of cowardice, but also the personification of speed. Therefore, a quick, subtle flickering of the reflection of the sun's rays on the walls, ceiling and floor is called a bunny. This name also popularly refers to blue lights running across burning coals.

A popular superstition does not advise thinking about a hare while swimming: a merman could drown for this.

Surprisingly, from ancient times the hare was also the embodiment of voluptuousness and male power. As one of the round dance songs says:

Zayushka, with whom did you sleep and spend the night?

Belenky, who did you sleep with and spend the night with? I was sleeping, I was sleeping, my sir,

I slept, I slept, my heart,

On Katyukha’s hand,

On Maryukha’s breasts,

And Dunka has widow's marks all over her stomach.

People still believe that seeing a hare in a dream means an early pregnancy. And among the southern Slavs, to help the natural method, you still need to drink the blood of a young hare.

The most beloved and important character in Slavic mythology from ancient times to the present day is Mother Earth.

Mother - Cheese Earth seemed to the imagination of a pagan who deified nature as a living humanoid creature. Herbs, flowers, bushes, trees seemed to him like her lush hair; he recognized stone rocks as bones; tenacious roots of trees replaced veins, the blood of the earth was the water oozing from its depths. And, like a living woman, she gave birth to earthly creatures, she moaned in pain in a storm, she was angry, causing earthquakes, she smiled under the sun, giving people unprecedented beauty, she fell asleep in the cold winter and woke up in the spring, she died, burned by drought. And, just like a true mother, a person resorted to her at every time of his life. The hero will fall to the damp earth and be filled with new strength. He will hit the ground with a spear - and it will swallow the black one, poisonous snake blood, restoring the lives of lost people.

Whoever does not respect the earth as a nurse, according to the plowman, she will not give him bread - not only to his full, but even from hand to mouth; whoever does not bow to the Mother, the Raw Earth, with a filial bow, on his coffin she will lie not as light fluff, but as a heavy stone. Whoever does not take a handful of his native land with him on a long journey will never see his homeland again, our ancestors believed.

In the old days, sick people went out into an open field, bowed to all four sides, chanting: “Forgive me, side, Mother is the Cheese Earth!” “Whatever you are sick with, heal yourself!” - they say among the people, and old people advise to take those who were hurt or crashed to that very place and pray to the earth for forgiveness.

The earth itself is revered by the people as a healing agent: with it, soaked in saliva, healers heal wounds, stop bleeding, and also apply it to a sore head. “As healthy is the earth,” it is said, “so my head would be healthy!”

“Mother is the Cheese Earth! Stop every unclean reptile from love spells and dashing deeds!” - is pronounced in some places even now during the first pasture of cattle for spring pasture.

“Let Mother - Cheese Earth - cover me forever if I’m lying!” - says a person, taking an oath, and such an oath is sacred and inviolable. Those who fraternize for life and death mix blood from cut fingers and give each other a handful of earth: this means that from now on their kinship is eternal.

And in ancient times there were such sorcerers - healers - that they could tell fortunes from a handful of earth taken from under the left foot of someone who wanted to know their fate.

“Take out a trace” from a person is still considered the most unkind intention. To whisper skillfully over this taken out trace means, according to the ancient belief, to bind the will of the one whose trace is hand and foot. Superstitious people fear this like fire. “Mother is a nurse, my dear soil is damp,” they report from such a misfortune, “protect me from the fierce gaze, from any accidental misfortune. Protect me from the evil eye, from the evil tongue, from the slander of demons. My word is strong as iron. With seven seals it comes to you, nurse Mother - Cheese Earth, sealed - for many days, for many years, for an eternal life!

According to the southern Slavs, the earth is flat and round. At the edge of the world, the dome of the sky connects with the Earth. The earth is held on the horn of an ox or buffalo; from time to time he gets tired and transfers the burden to another horn - hence the earthquakes.

People also live in the underground world, everything there is arranged in our way: the same plants, birds, animals.

At the creation of the world, the whole earth was level, but when the Lord dug the beds of rivers and seas, he had to create hills and mountains from sand and stones.

“The earth was created like man, and has former hairs instead of hair!” - the ancient omniscients assured, and therefore endowed the former, potion - grass - with the magical properties of the Mother - the Damp Earth. “The herb is healing if you pick it wisely,” people say. Such special experts in herbal potions and “fierce roots” were called zaleiniki, herbalists, and they walked through meadows and forests, as if in a garden planted with their own hands: they knew the properties and place of every grass, every blade of grass.

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