Russian folk tale "Kolobok" is a fairy tale about animals.

A fairy tale about how a woman, at the request of her grandfather, baked a bun and "put it on the window to get cold." And the gingerbread man jumped from the window and rolled along the path. While he was rolling, he met various animals (bear, hare, wolf). All the animals wanted to eat the bun, but he sang a song to them and the animals let him go. When he met the fox, the gingerbread man sang a song to her, but she pretended to be deaf and asked the bun to sit on her toe and sing it one more time. The gingerbread man sat on the nose of the fox, and she ate it.

The main characters of the tale are the gingerbread man and the fox. Gingerbread man - kind, simple, courageous. Fox - smart, affectionate.

The moral of the fairy tale: "Speak less, think more", "Guess is not worse than reason", "Intelligently conceived, but done without mind", "It is easy to boast, it is easy to fall down."

In the fairy tale there are repetitions of phrases such as "Gingerbread man, bun, I'll eat you", "Don't eat me, I'll sing a song for you." The song of the kolobok is also repeated.

Children should explain such words as bottom barrel, barn, get cold.

The fairy tale meets the requirements for the content of works for children, that is, it is accessible to children's understanding, interesting for children, small in size, the language is simple, the plot develops quickly, a small number of incomprehensible words.

This tale is intended to be read to children of primary and secondary preschool age.

Bibliography

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Approximate analysis of folk tales

"Fox, Hare and Rooster"

(Russian folk tale for children 3 - 4 years old)

In a simple and fascinating form, the fairy tale conveys to the child the idea of ​​the triumph of justice.

The bunny, taking pity on the fox, let it into the hut to warm itself. She warmed up and drove the bunny out of his own house. He walks through the forest and weeps bitterly. The sympathies of children are on the side of the offended bunny. The animals that he meets along the way sympathize with him and seek to help - they make an attempt to drive the fox out.

The fox invader intimidates the animals, they do not have the courage to resist her threats: the dogs and the bear run away. Only a cockerel does not lend itself to deceptive intimidation. He himself threatens to take off the fox's head. The fox was frightened and ran away, and the bunny began to live again in his hut.

In order for the idea of ​​a fairy tale to become understandable to children, the narrator must create the correct sound pattern of all events, actions of each character. The responsive bunny let the fox warm up. When the fox kicked him out, "a bunny comes and cries bitterly." The fairy tale depicts a weak, defenseless animal. The narrator, with appropriate intonations, must show both the character of the bunny and his grief. The bunny's complaint to the animals it meets sounds bitterly: "How can I not cry? .."

When the bunny sees that neither the dogs nor the bear drove the fox out, he says to the cockerel: “No, you won’t drive out. They drove the dogs - they didn’t drive them out, the bear drove them - they didn’t drive them out, and you won’t drive them out! There is hopelessness in his words.

The image of a fox is negative: it is an invader, an insidious, cruel deceiver. At the very beginning, the tale depicts her behavior. In the words of the narrator: “I got warm, but I kicked him out of the hut” - there should already be a condemnation of her act. Then the cunning of the fox should also be conveyed when she intimidates the animals: “I’ll jump out like that, I’ll jump out like that - shreds will fly along the back streets!” She boldly and boldly scares the animals. It is necessary to show this with the intonation of the voice. Her words at the end of the fairy tale sound completely different: “I’m dressing! .. I’m putting on a fur coat!” Here she herself is frightened by a rooster and after the third insistent demand quickly jumps out of the hut.

Dogs, bear, cockerel sympathize with the bunny. Each of them sympathetically asks: “What are you crying about, bunny?” In appearance and character, the animals are different. To correctly convey their images, the narrator uses a different timbre and tempo of voice: the jerky, fast, sonorous voice of a dog, the slow, low-pitched speech of a bear, the sonorous, melodious voice of a cockerel. For greater persuasiveness, it is good to use onomatopoeia: the dogs should bark, the cockerel should crow.

The general tone of the whole tale, despite the grief of the bunny, is cheerful, cheerful. It is dominated by good start desire to help a friend. Against this cheerful background, the narrator draws the unfolding events.

The composition of the tale is based on a favorite fairy tale device - the repetition of the action: three meetings of a bunny with animals. Each of them is a complete episode and should be separated from the others by a significant pause.

A pause should also be made at the end of the tale to enable children to feel its happy ending.

"Snow Maiden"

(Russian folk tale for children 5 - 6 years old)

The fairy tale "The Snow Maiden" is magical: a miraculous transformation of a snow girl into a living one takes place in it. As in any fairy tale, its miraculous element is intertwined with an everyday realistic basis: the fairy tale depicts the life of childless old people, pictures of native nature at different times of the year, and children's fun.

This tale is somewhat different from other Russian folk tales in terms of the nature of the content. While most of our fairy tales are cheerful, cheerful, this fairy tale is lyrical, with a touch of sadness caused by the death of the Snow Maiden.

Reading carefully the tale in the process of preparation, the narrator notes that in composition it differs from others. It does not have the dynamism characteristic of fairy tales, there is no usual device - a threefold repetition of the action. All attention is focused on the image of the Snow Maiden, her behavior, experiences.

The image of the Snow Maiden was created with great love. Hardworking, smart, friendly. The Snow Maiden is also good in appearance: “every day, everything becomes more beautiful. She herself is white, like snow, her braid is blond to the waist, only there is no blush at all.

The image, created with such love, also requires the narrator to use appropriate lyrical intonations that arouse sympathy for the Snow Maiden in the listeners. The voice of the narrator should sound warm, loving, seeking, but without lisping, without excessive sentimentality.

The contrast of the joyful spring awakening of nature and the growing sadness and melancholy of the Snow Maiden is wonderfully shown in the fairy tale. “Winter has passed. The spring sun is starting to shine. The grass on the thawed patches turned green, the larks sang. In the voice of the narrator, cheerful, cheerful intonations sound, and then, after a short pause, he continues with a touch of sadness: “And the Snow Maiden suddenly became sad.”

The end of the tale is expressive - the death of the Snow Maiden. A miracle happens - the Snow Maiden melted, "turned into a white cloud." The narrator must draw both the surprise and the alarm of her friends when they call her: “Ay, ay, Snow Maiden!”

LITERATURE OF THE COSSACK CLUB SKARB

BRIEF ANALYSIS OF FAIRY TALE

(analysis examples)

Hen Ryaba

In the fairy tale, Grandfather and Baba cannot break a golden egg, when a mouse breaks it, they start crying. The egg in world symbolism means the world, and the golden egg means the golden age of mankind or Paradise. Grandfather and Baba were often called ancestors, in particular Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve, while in Paradise, could not use the main gift of God - free will, directly related to the soul. It is known that in order for the process to start, a potential difference, an inclination on a plane, an anode and a cathode for electric current, an acid and an alkali in chemistry, etc. are needed. In this case, in the biblical legend, such a potential difference is created by a snake associated with the lower world, and in a fairy tale by a mouse, in some cases a witch. The Exodus from Paradise is associated with the weeping of Adam and Eve, Grandfather and Baba are also crying. How does Hen Ryaba console them? She offers to demolish a simple testicle, but a person is like the world, he is a microcosm according to ancient and medieval ideas. In other words, to create a "personal paradise", the appropriate behavior is proposed that is necessary for the salvation of the soul, which will go to Paradise. This refers to the basic idea of ​​Christianity and almost all religions. The hen itself is defined as "pockmarked", i.e. containing white and black feathers, in other words, it is a receptacle for good and evil at the same time. For a better understanding of this allegory, we point out that in medieval scholasticism, in the philosophical and religious dispute about “the primacy of the chicken or the egg,” God was understood by the chicken, and the world by the egg. We can say that this Russian fairy tale conveys the main basic truths of the philosophy of the New and Old Testament in twenty seconds.

By magic

The hero is a typical trickster who denies social norms, doesn’t really work (says “reluctance”), drives the general away, speaks sharply with the king. Such characters appear in world folklore during periods of social tension and transition from one type of government to another. From the tale it is clear that during the attack of a foreign army, the army was defeated. Emelya copes with the enemy. His strength is based on the help of a pike, which he caught and released back into the water. According to Russian symbolism, Pike, one of the symbols of the most ancient ancestor, the image of a pike or its jaws was worn as a talisman. In other words, Emelya is helped by the strength of the ancestors, the strength of folk tradition, which seeks through a person who denies the current social norms to establish new ones that are necessary in an urgent situation.

Teremok

In a fairy tale, completely different animals are asked to live in a tower. According to the folk tale, the teremok is a horse's head. Animals: mouse Noryshka - an underground inhabitant; frog Kvakushka - a resident underwater world; a hare - “a dodge on the mountain”, associated with a hole, the lower world, but also with mountains; the fox - “hop everywhere” - a symbol of cunning; wolf - "because of the bushes, a grabber." However, the bear - "I crush everyone!" the cult ancestor of the Slavs and the tale itself indicates that not everything is compatible in one house.

It is important that the horse and its head are associated with solar symbolism, and sometimes with the symbolism of a happy, “sunny” world. Representatives of the lower underground and underwater world occupy the head - a frog and a mouse. In addition to them, three animal characters in their self-names resemble representatives of hostile peoples. In this case, it is clear why the bear - the symbol of the ancestor crushes them. This indicates that excessive tolerance and tolerance for everything alien can destroy our home - Terem - Teremok.

Kolobok

The gingerbread man can be considered as a symbol of the created world, where the woman and the grandfather are the Creator gods. He leaves the hare - a symbol of speed, the wolf - a symbol of courage and pressure, the bear - a symbol of strength, but he is deceived and destroyed by the fox - a symbol of cunning, deceit and deceit. The point is that the qualities of a fox are the most dangerous and can destroy not only a person, but the whole world.

Morozko

The tale is characterized by an episode of Alyonushka Frost's three-time test. In folklore, three frosts are known: frost Red nose - invigoration, reddening of the skin, frost Blue nose - the beginning of frostbite, blue skin, frost White or Bone nose - frostbite and death. Accordingly, they correspond with the upper heavenly, earthly middle and lower dead worlds. Alyonushka passes all three tests and does not grumble, to the question “Are you warm, girl?”, She answers: “It’s warm Morozushka.” Having passed the ritual death, she receives a reward: a dowry and a handsome groom. Her sister, who could not stand the test of stamina and patience, is punished. The meaning of the tale is the need to endure all kinds of trials, up to mortal danger, and a reward will follow.

turnip

In a fairy tale, the turnip itself can be understood either as a world or as a complex and important task for life. If a grandfather and a woman are perceived as ancestors, then together with a granddaughter, this is a change of generations, their connection, human society. society itself can be perceived as a kind of horizontal. The animals participating in the process of pulling out the turnip: the dog Zhuchka, the Cat, the Mouse often correlated with the three-term division of the world. The upper world is a dog or a wolf, as satellites of the heavenly gods. Note that in the peasant environment, the wolf until the 19th century. was regarded as the dog of St. George, which he sends as a punishment to sinners. The cat is connected with the earthly world and even the house, and the mouse, like a burrowing animal, with the underground. The idea of ​​a fairy tale is that in the unity of generations and turning to all the forces of the world, heavenly, earthly and underground, you can complete any task, even an impossible one. Strength in unity. In this case, such unity may be personified by the cross, which was a sacred symbol among many peoples, long before the adoption of Christianity.

The Little Humpbacked Horse

In the fairy tale, the evil, greedy, lustful tsar governs, and Ivan carries out his orders. The appearance of the old king corresponds to his inner essence. Ivan is unprepossessing on the outside, but kind and honest inside. As a result, after bathing in a cauldron of boiling water, the tsar dies, and Ivan is reborn as a tsarevich, acquires a correspondence between his internal and external appearance, and marries the Tsar Maiden. The fact is that the cauldron symbolized rebirth and rebirth since ancient times, it was even placed in graves. AT Greek myth Medea in a cauldron turns an old ram into a young lamb. We are talking about the inevitability of karmic retribution, which will bring into line the inner essence of a person, his appearance and fate.

Sword Kladenets.

Our ancestors knew that like is destroyed by like. All sympathetic and love magic is based on this principle. Influence on an image, photograph, influence on parts of the body is considered in magic as an influence on oneself. Here are the most notable examples such a worldview in the folk tradition: a werewolf or a werewolf is destroyed with a silver bullet, since silver is considered the metal of the moon, and werewolves have always been associated with the moon, especially with the full moon. The skeletal Koshchei the Immortal of Russian fairy tales can only be killed by breaking a needle or a bone, which is some kind of him. In Indo-European, and indeed in any other fairy tales, the hero, at the beginning, looks for a treasure sword or some other magical weapon, and then defeats a snake, dragon, giant, as a rule, a chthonic creature. This weapon is most often hidden in a cave, dungeon and belongs to a chthonic creature. The symbolism lies in the fact that it is necessary to resolve any issues in the language and methods of the one with whom you are dealing.

Ivan Tsarevich and the Grey Wolf.

Ivan Tsarevich in the tale does not show any special positive qualities. On the contrary, he is characterized by stupidity and greed, as he disobeys the wolf and grabs first, a golden cage, and then a bridle, because of which he almost dies. In addition, the wolf warns him that he should not brag about his success in front of his brothers, he boasts, and as a result they kill him, appropriating the Firebird, the Horse, and the Princess. The wolf has no motivation to help the prince, although in some versions of the tale the wolf seems to feel sorry for the prince, as he ate his horse. However, no one forced the prince to go to the wolf, as he read on the stone "you will go to the right - you will lose your horse." The stupid behavior of the prince, who not only violates the instructions of the wolf, but also the fact that he constantly "cries", since he is sorry to part , then with a horse, then he can piss anyone off.The question arises: "Why does the wolf help the stupid and greedy prince, and not his older brothers?".

The symbolism of the wolf is associated with hereditary royal power. Let us recall the Persian king Cyrus, Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, the grandfather of Genghis Khan and many other legendary and historical kings, who, according to legend, were fed by a she-wolf. Even the Russian epic prince Volga turns into a wolf, which other heroes never do. The wolf, as a defender of royal power, cannot help the "future fratricides" - the brothers of Ivan Tsarevich. He chooses "the lesser of two evils."

Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka.

(content analysis)

Consider the tale of sister Alyonushka and her brother Ivanushka based on comparative analysis with myths and legends of various Indo-European peoples. The tale begins: "Once upon a time there was a king and a queen; they had a son and a daughter. The son was called Ivanushka, and the daughter Alyonushka. So the king and queen died; the children were left alone and went wandering around the wide world." Why did the parents die overnight? This is not said. War, pestilence, disease are not mentioned. The children themselves are alive and well. It is completely incomprehensible who let the children go around the world alone, especially since these are royal children. Even stray and abandoned children were not abandoned like that, they were raised, they were taken care of. Somehow all this is mentioned in passing, the tsar's children are empty-handed, wandering somewhere alone. If they ran away from the enemy, why are they not caught? The legitimate heirs of the king, for any invader - a tasty prey. It is not clear what in the world they should do alone? Didn't the Tsar's family have a single friend or comrade-in-arms?

And it was, apparently, so. Kings were elected from different tribes and peoples to rule. The king identified the luck of the people and the fertility of the earth. It was believed that if he had no children, lean years became more frequent, or enemy raids were defeated, the king and queen, as carriers of bad luck, could be sacrificed to those gods whom they angered, according to the priests and the people. In the Novgorod epic "Sadko", Sadko himself, as the leader of the merchants, was the first to be thrown as a sacrifice to the Tsar of the Sea during a storm. It is he who is pleasing, as the most expensive and valuable of what a clan, tribe, kingdom, caravan of merchants can give to the gods, in the name of common well-being.

From ancient times in Russia there was a custom - to kill, and at a later time - to expel princes, "kings" who were not pleasing to the gods in Russian fairy tales. Let us recall, for example, that even Alexander Nevsky was expelled from Novgorod by the people's assembly of Novgorod - Veche - several times, regardless of previous merits. So, the only intelligible explanation for the wanderings of the tsar's children - Alyonushka and Ivanushka, in the "wide world" will be that their parents - the king and queen, were sacrificed to the gods for sins or for an unsuccessful, unfortunate rule for the people, and children, as blood carriers of failure, were simply expelled. They took pity on them. By the way, not everyone agreed with such a pity.

We list the possible sins of parents:

1) Disrespect for the ancestors, for their precepts. Violation of the funeral rite, which makes it possible for the rebirth or rebirth of ancestors. The desire of the witch to kill Ivanushka the goat in the text of the tale indirectly points to the custom of sacrificing a goat to facilitate the path of the ancestors to afterworld. The goat was also used as an expiatory sacrifice, including the sins of the ancestors. The goat replaced, in this case, the most ancient human sacrifice. As an example, the biblical "scapegoat" (Leviticus 16:9-10).

2) Insulting the underground, underwater, chthonic gods. The goat was also dedicated to them.

3) Intervention in the battle of the thunder god and chthonic forces. Disrespect for the thunderer or these forces.

Suppose that the plot of the fairy tale was created during the period of matriarchy, then most likely, the second option took place, as well as the first, in terms of disrespect for the precepts of the ancestors. This follows from the fact that the matriarchy relied primarily on the chthonic gods and goddesses associated with the "Mother Raw Earth". Such a god among the Slavs was Veles. In the transition to patriarchy, the heavenly gods, including Perun, come to the fore. These are military male gods. The change in the social system could not but affect the mythological preferences of the Slavs. The transfer of power in the community to the male part of it could not take place peacefully everywhere. The transformation of Ivanushka into a kid is to some extent a mockery of Perun, since the royal son, heir to the throne, is turned into a sacrificial animal of the underground gods, opponents of Perun. Tsars or princes and their children, by their very position and origin, are dedicated to Perun. In some special cases, a goat can be a sacrificial animal and a thunderbolt, but the witch priestess insists on the rite of slaughtering Ivanushka the goat, therefore, the sacrifice to Perun cannot be intended. The priests of Perun were exclusively men. We know that the tsar opposes this sacrifice in every possible way, he is playing for time. Although he, as a king whom Perun especially patronizes, a sacrifice to Perun should be useful. This means that this sacrifice did not belong to the circle of interests of the king, rather the opposite. At that time, people did not differ in sentimentality, and if necessary, sacrificed to the gods anyone and anything. Recall the classic biblical example of Abraham sacrificing his son Iisak, simply because "God commanded it." It seems that the ancient Slavs had no less such "commands of God" than the ancient Jews.

In a fairy tale we read that Ivanushka constantly wanted to drink from the heat. This indicates a too hot summer, destroying crops, and first of all, pastures for livestock. In the tale, crops and cereals are not mentioned, and various livestock are listed in detail. Ivanushka wants to get drunk from places where, according to various traditions, livestock grazes. It is listed in the following sequence: 1) horses 2) cows 3) sheep 4) pigs 5) goats (1 option). 1) cows 2) horses 3) sheep (var. 2). 1) horses 2) cows 3) sheep 4) goats (var. 3). The most stable sequence is: 1) horses 2) cows 3) sheep 4) goats. We can see the same sequence of animals on the golden pectoral of Scythian nomads (4th century BC) found in the mound "Tolstaya Grave" near the town of Ordzhonikidze, Dnepropetrovsk region. On it two men stretch sheepskin, and behind them in both directions are depicted: a horse, a cow, a sheep, a goat. In the Indian Upanishads, the sequence of sacrificial animals is listed in the same order: horse, cow, sheep, goat. Let's take a quick look at this sequence.

Among these animals, it was the goat that was the expiatory sacrifice to the underground gods and at the same time the guide to the underworld. The horse could be a guide, but it, like the bull, is associated with solar symbolism. Sheep and rams are a frequent sacrifice to the spirits of ancestors, but not to the chthonic gods.

Note that Ivanushka, in most texts, wanted to drink water from a hoof. "They walked, walked, the cow's hoof is standing. "Sister, sister, I'm thirsty!" - "No, don't drink, you'll be a bull", or "Walk, walk, there is a sheep's hoof ..." etc. Another option: "Walked, walked - the sun is high, the well is far away, the heat is pestering, sweat comes out! A cow's hoof is full of water." The question arises, why is it said about a hoof? In ancient magical ideas, including Slavic ones, it is known that the trace of an animal helps the transformation of a werewolf into this animal. In all nations, the impact on a trace or shadow was used in magical rituals to affect humans or animals. For example, to pierce the trace of a sorcerer with a nail meant to pierce his legs. Throwing a stone at a reflection or image of a person is to hurt a person. Signs associated with the mirror - the carrier of reflection, have ancient magical roots. To grief or death broken mirror. According to ancient beliefs: the soul of the person looking into it is partly reflected in the mirror, and therefore suffers damage when this mirror is broken. Until now, mirrors are curtained when a dead person lies in the house, so that his reflection and himself through this reflection do not harm living relatives, do not take their souls with them to the afterlife. Images of animals with traces of ritual influence have been found in the oldest Neolithic caves. Mutilating or hitting an image is a hit on its prototype. Our ancestors believed that the footprint is an important part of a person or animal. This is his manifestation in the world, the most obvious interaction with him. A living being, interacting with something, especially with the mother of everything - the Earth, opens up, and therefore, it is easiest to influence it through a trace, a shadow, a reflection in the water. Modern conspiracies in the photograph are an action of the same order. Many nationalities still believe that when photographing, the photographer takes their soul. In the animal world, for example, in a herd of zebras, antelopes, etc. , if the male wants to show his superiority and challenge the leader of the herd to a duel, he urinates on the mark from the hoof of the leader. Even our domestic cats, when they are not happy with the owner and want to show their dominance in the house, shit on the bed or favorite resting place of the one they want to "put in their place."

It follows from this that the very fact of drinking or Ivanushka's influence on the trail - the "hoof" of a goat filled with water, indicates that he takes on the role of a goat, moreover, not just a goat, but some kind of "goat king". Drinking from someone else's footprint establishes his superiority over other goats. Alyonushka did not notice him here and the "Fate" happened, i.e. he became exactly the sacrificial animal that he was supposed to become, ridding the evil fate of his parents. The fact of drinking from the trace is also an introduction to the bearer of the trace, sharing fate with him. It is important to point out that if Ivanushka, and not Alyonushka, became the goat, then we are talking about the period of patriarchy or the period of transition from matriarchy to patriarchy. The inheritance, in our case the evil lot of the parents, is passed down through the male line from father to son. Therefore, a certain offense was committed by the king, and not the queen. this offense is not an ordinary streak of misfortunes, for this one king would be punished. Something terrible was done, for which they punished the queen as an accomplice.

At the end of the story, usually bewitched hero takes on its original form. In our case, this is not the case. Alyonushka comes to life and becomes the queen, and Ivanushka only in one version, out of the five considered, turns into a man. Apparently, they believed in the magic of the "hoof" and in the responsibility for the sins of the father. Redemption goes through the male line, this indicates patriarchy, but the temporary death of Alyonushka, her initiation into the queen through this death, rather speaks of a period of transition from matriarchy to patriarchy.

Consider what happens according to the plot of the fairy tale, after the transformation of Ivanushka into a kid. Quite unexpectedly, Alyonushka and Ivanushka are met by "one king". In a number of versions, the kid himself leads Alyonushka to the king's garden. This is a very interesting point. Before Ivanushka turned into a goat, he did not know where they were going and why, but then he immediately brought his sister to the palace. It seems that it was not by chance that he came there, and the qualities of a conductor in him somehow immediately manifested themselves. Let us recall the qualities of a goat as a guide, including into the realm of death. He led to death, both himself and his sister. The tragedy of the situation is emphasized by the presence of the sea near the palace, which, in folk beliefs, has always been associated with the world of death and the chthonic gods.

In a fairy tale about this new feature Ivanushki, it is simply said: "A kid ran, ran, and once ran into the garden to one king." In some versions, it is said about a gentleman passing by, but these are obviously late versions. For example, in a Lithuanian fairy tale, an analogue of the Russian one, “Orphan Elinite and Jonukas is a lamb,” it also says: “In the evening they approached the royal palace. They were afraid to go into the yard, the dogs barked there, climbed onto a haystack, dragged a lamb behind her and fell asleep ".

Let's return to the gift of a guide that appeared at Ivanushka - a goat. Goats are used as leaders of the sheep herd. The sheep are blind, but the goat will find the way to the pasture and home. So Ivanushka the goat found the way to the king's palace. In ancient Indian tradition, the sacrifice of a goat was intended for the fire god Agni. Agni is a divine priest, he conducts the sacrifices of people according to their intended purpose. The goat, as a sacrifice, led the souls of people to their place of refuge. We can conclude that the variant with the appearance of the heroes of the fairy tale in the palace of the king is the most archaic. Moreover, it has semantic counterparts in the ancient Indian Upanishads, which consider the goat as a sacrificial animal, serving as a guide for the victims and souls of ancestors and dedicated to the afterlife.

Consider the Lithuanian version of this tale. The Lithuanian variant is older than the variant with the master, but it is also secondary. In it, the narrator is constantly trying to explain many of the dark places found in the Russian fairy tale. For example, not an outdated concept is used - "hoof", but the phrase: a hoof mark. If in the Russian version one can only guess about the motive of the witch drowning Alyonushka, then the Lithuanian fairy tale says directly: "And the witch lived nearby. She was so afraid that the king would marry her. She envied Elenita and decided to kill her." A difficult moment to understand in a Russian fairy tale, when the dead Alyonushka is talking to her brother, and her body is eaten by fish and snakes, in the Lithuanian version it sounds simplified: "But Elenite did not drown, but turned into a goldfish." Here one can feel the influence of the Karelian-Finnish epic. In one of the songs of Kalevalla, it is said about the beautiful Aina, who does not want to marry an old man, she drowns herself, but does not die, but turns into a goldfish. The idea of ​​turning drowned women into fish was common among Finns, Karelians and Lithuanians, the Slavs believed that drowned women turn into a kind of mermaids. For a Lithuanian listener, Alyonushka's werewolf into a fish and back was more understandable than the speech of a drowned woman:

1) "Ivanushka - brother! A fierce snake sucked out my heart!"

2) "Oh, my brother Ivanushka! A heavy stone frayed his neck, silk grass curled on his hands, yellow sands lay on his chest."

3) "The stone is heavy to the bottom, the white fish has eaten out the eyes, the snake is fierce

sucked out the heart, tangled the silk grass on the legs.

The listener can perceive the transformation of Alyonushka with the help of magic and higher powers, but without explanation it is not clear to him how an almost decomposed drowned woman can speak, and after the tsar took her out of the water, she suddenly comes to life and becomes the former Alyonushka. In such cases, usually, fairy tales provide for the use of living and dead water. In the case of turning into a goldfish, the situation is clearer and more familiar. If Jovanas has already turned into a lamb, why shouldn't Elenite turn into a fish? In the Lithuanian retelling, the sound mind of the narrator, who is not familiar with the ancient rituals of the Slavs, is clearly felt.

Let's move on to the question of future fate Alyonushka, after her appearance in the Tsar's palace. In all versions of the tale, except for the "meaningful" Lithuanian one, the tsar suddenly falls in love with Alyonushka. In the fairy-tale tradition, this is a frequent occurrence, but in our case, falling in love appears after asking: who she is, and finding out that she is the king's daughter. Our assumption that the tale was composed during the period of transition from matriarchy, or female priestly rule, to patriarchy, male hereditary rule, finds indirect confirmation. According to the content of the tale, Alyonushka and Ivanushka walked around the "white world" for one day or a little more than that. They could not walk more than thirty kilometers. Most likely, they wandered around the kingdom of their deceased parents. The young king, who accepted Alyonushka as his wife, contrary to the decision to exile her, is the new head of the tribe. In Russia, there was a tradition of inviting the prince from outside (“calling the Varangians”), which is why this king Alyonushka could not know by sight, but he needed to establish a hereditary succession of power. He marries the daughter of the former king. This practice existed, both in the times of Kievan Rus, and up to the Muscovite kingdom. After such a hasty marriage, a witch unexpectedly appears in the tale, sending damage and illness to Alyonushka, then drowning her in the sea and taking her place as the king's wife. Everything about this situation is weird. In the Lithuanian retelling, the motivation for the witch's act is given: she wanted to marry the king. In the Russian version, this is not specified. The replacement itself is very strange.

The described events take place in the following order: Alyonushka falls ill, and the "loving" husband, as if nothing had happened, goes hunting every day. Psychologically, it is as if someone today, with a severely, possibly fatally ill, young wife, without even trying to find a means to cure her, walked every day in a restaurant. It is difficult to call such a husband loving. It is not known where the passion, which, according to the tale, made the tsar so hastily marry Alyonushka, disappeared overnight. Further in the text, the sick queen, without any escort, alone, on the advice of a witch, goes to the sea for treatment. Neither the king nor his associates interfere with her. It is felt that the king Alyonushka, as a person, is indifferent. Now let's briefly dwell on the appearance of Alyonushka. The story doesn't say a word about it. Here is the strangest thing. In all Russian fairy tales that talk about female characters, especially when the conversation is about marriage, the unusual beauty or ugliness of the bride is indicated. If in our fairy tale they are silent about this, then the love of the tsar has nothing to do with it, it is not Alyonushka herself that is important, but his political calculation, the political situation itself. Further in the story, the drowned Alyonushka is replaced by a witch. She - then just changes into her dress, then turns into her. The king doesn't notice. It is difficult to imagine a situation where a young husband in love cannot distinguish between the substitution of his wife. You can certainly assume that the witch has the power of hypnosis. It may very well be, but when Alyonushka comes to life, the supposed hypnosis of the witch does not even help her escape from the palace.

Events apparently unfolded as follows. The new young leader - the king of the tribe decided, following the example of his unfortunate predecessor, the sacrificed father of Alyonushka and Ivanushka, to throw off the female priestly guardianship. Having a clear example of the fate of his predecessor, he wanted to strengthen his position. He married the daughter of the late king, thus introducing the succession of kinship. The priestesses of the tribe could not arrange such an option for losing their power. They insist that Alyonushka is the bearer of an evil fate and the curse of her parents. She, Alyonushka, could be regarded as an evil witch who bewitched the king. According to a common European tradition recorded in the Middle Ages, a woman was tied up and thrown into the water to determine whether she was a witch or not. If a woman drowned, then she was not a witch, if she swam out, then a witch and she could be burned alive. This is indicated by the Novgorod Chronicle 1, p. 65. In Pskov, such autodaffes were produced until the 15th century. In 1411, "Pskovians burned 12 prophetic women." Pskov Chronicles (M., 1955, vol. 2, p. 36). Or a mention in the annals: "In the summer of 6735 (1227). The same summer, Izhgosh vlhva four - doing intrigues (witchcraft) in action. And God knows! his surroundings, and he most likely did not, such a precocious bride could well be considered a witch. The replacement of the king's wife is a renewal of the old traditions of matriarchy. The wife must be or be listed as a priestess. A similar custom was recorded among many Indo-European peoples in antiquity, it lasted the longest, apparently, among the Etruscans. Ivanushka suffered from the fact that his parents, who died so unexpectedly, according to the text of the tale, wanted to violate the procedure for electing the king and declared him, Ivanushka, the hereditary ruler. He became the goat of the slaughter to appease the angry spirits of the ancestors and gods.

The custom of inheritance through a wife has ancient roots. As a possible plot parallel, consider the ancient Khet myth about the snake - the dragon Illuyanka. His summary such. Illuyanka defeated the thunder god in duel and stole his heart and eyes. To take revenge, the defeated thunder god marries a man's daughter. From her he has a son. His son marries the daughter of the serpent Illuyanka and, entering his father-in-law's house, asks for himself (on his father's advice) the heart and eyes of the thunder god. He has a right to them, as the closest, through his wife, heir to the snake. After the return of the eyes and heart, the god of thunder restores his appearance and enters into a new fight with Illuyanka. In this battle, he kills the serpent and his son, who is standing next to the serpent. The son tells his father not to spare him. The episode with the death of his son is easily explained. Among the Indo-Aryan peoples, including the Hittites, a wife or husband who enters the house of his spouse becomes there blood, tribal relatives. The son of the thunder god, having betrayed his blood relative - the snake Illuyanka, thereby committed the greatest sin. He has no forgiveness. What he did for his father is irrelevant. His father himself punishes him for forced betrayal. If the plot of our fairy tale originated in equally archaic times, then the attitude towards Alyonushka, as having passed into the family, the clan of her husband - the king, should have been similar. By her very appearance, she violated the priestly matriarchal structure of power. The king became not just an invited mercenary, but ancestral heir the previous king, i.e. power "de facto" became hereditary. Let us recall historical examples from the history of Russia, when kinship through a wife gave the rights of a blood relative. This is the brother of the mother of Prince Vladimir, who baptized Russia, Dobrynya. Vladimir's mother, Malusha, was a commoner, she worked as a housekeeper for Vladimir's father, Svyatoslav. Her brother was also a simple warrior. It is important that Vladimir made Dobrynya his "right hand", even the governor in Novgorod. This was done to the detriment of the well-born relatives on the father's side. At a later time, Catherine the Great ruled Russia on the basis that she was the widow of Tsar Peter III. Boris Godunov became the Russian autocrat on the grounds that his daughter was married to Tsar Fyodor Ioanovich. Dozens of examples can be cited about the role of kinship of spouses in state government in Russia. It is important for us that Alyonushka, having become the wife of the tsar, acquired, in addition to the hereditary right to power through her parents, also the right to power through her husband. This position of hers made her a dangerous competitor to any person wishing to influence the king and his decisions. In addition, she, as it were, took responsibility for both her parents and her husband-king.

But to whom and why did the witch throw Alyonushka into the sea? Why didn't she die there and even be able to talk to her brother?

Let us return to the Hitt myth of Illuyanka. Serpent Illuyanka - the personification of chthonic forces. He steals the thunder god's heart and eyes. In one version of our fairy tale, Alyonushka, at the request of Ivanushka to come out to him from the sea, says that "the white fish ate out the eyes, the fierce snake sucked out the heart." White fish or "white fish", in various versions of the epic about Sadko, is the wife of the Sea King. Academician Rybakov B. A. in "Paganism ancient Russia"proves the identity of the Sea King and the god of the Volkhov River and Lake Ilmen - the Lizard. Rybakov shows that Sadko's meeting with sea ​​king takes place near Volosovaya (Velesovaya) street in Novgorod. This already indicates the possible identity of the Lizard and Veles. According to ancient legends, the Lizard has another name - Volkh.

“The greater son of this prince Sloven is Volkhov, the disliked and sorcerer, then fierce in people, and by demonic tricks and dreams, creating and transforming into the image of a fierce beast korkodel and lying in that river Volkhov the waterway. " - we read in the annals.

We are interested in the name Volkhov. God Veles was also called Volos, the epithets hairy, hairy are synonyms. The word "hairy" is more ancient. So we can conclude that the Sea King - the Lizard appears in the epic about Sadko under his real name Volkh or Voloh, the transition of the sound "X" into the sound "C" in the words "hairy" - "hairy", gives rise to the same transition in the words "hair" - "hair".

It is important for us that Volkh, who has a fierce snake (Veles or Lizard) as a father, has the ability to be a werewolf. Werewolves have always belonged to chthonic forces, Veles himself had the ability to be a werewolf. This follows, at least from his numerous incarnations, including in the image of a man. The name Volkh Vseslavovich also connects the epic hero with a werewolf - the son of Prince Sloven Korkodile-Volkh, whom Rybakov associates with the Lizard of the Volkhov River.

It is interesting that at the birth of Volkh Vseslavievich from the epic of the same name, natural disasters occur. So it should be at the birth of the son of the god Veles or his incarnation. It is interesting that the impact of the birth of Volkh occurs on the moon - the antithesis of the sun, on the blue sea and on the swaying of the earth, that is, on those natural objects to which the chthonic serpent - Volos is directly related. Animals and birds, in which the Volkh is able to turn, are clearly of a solar nature. The tour was attributed to Veles after the adoption of Christianity in Russia. The falcon (remember the fairy tale "Finist the Clear Falcon"), the wolf, the tour in which Volkh Vseslavich turned into - indicate the sunny, kind side of Veles. He is on this earth to fertilize it. It is no coincidence that the epic ends with the fact that, having conquered the Indian kingdom, Volkh leaves only three thousand girls alive for his squad, and then distributes gold. The kindness of Volkh-Veles is somewhat bloody and peculiar, but at that cruel time it was the norm.

We have established that the serpent of the Khet myth, the Sea King in the epic "Sadko", the Lizard and the god Veles are one and the same serpentine mythological character. Illuyanka robs the thunder god of heart and eyes. In a Russian fairy tale, these same organs are taken from Alyonushka by snakes and his white fish wife. The heart in mythology was perceived as the center of the life force, soul, physical strength of the character. Eyes, in addition to the function of orientation in the world, carried the following function: to lose an eye means illness or death of children. So Alyonushka, in addition to personal strength, was deprived of the opportunity to have offspring. Illuyanka is the main opponent of the Thunderer. If Alyonushka was subjected to the same punishment as the Khet Thunderer, then she is equated with the main enemies of the chthonic god - Veles. The opponent of Veles is Perun. Alyonushka, as the king's daughter and queen, and as we said, a woman who has great value in the structure of the kingdom, undoubtedly, belonged to the jurisdiction of Perun, as the patron of the royal-princely clan power. The ancient Hitt myth, even more likely the laws of creation of this myth, was comprehended by the Slavs in a similar, but in a specific Slavic situation. To determine the character of mythology, to whom the sacrifice of Alyonushka and the goat - Ivanushka is intended, we must pay attention to the ancient chthonic gods of the times of matriarchy. One of the victims - Alyonushka, the witch-priestess herself sacrifices, and on the other - the goat - Ivanushka, she insists. Of the female Slavic gods known to us, this could be Makosh. She is the goddess of fate and earthly fertility, but a goat was not sacrificed to her. A sacrificial woman, in our case Alyonushka, is not pleasing to her and would be an insult to her. Most likely it is Veles. Veles is a cattle god, associated with the fertility of the earth, he is the opponent of Perun, the patron saint of warriors and men. Sacrifice to Veles - Alyonushka and Ivanushka, this is both the punishment of the ambitious king and the final deliverance from the sins of Alyonushka's parents, and the restoration of the foundations of matriarchy.

According to ancient ideas, Veles could be represented as a snake. Novgorod chthonic, snake-like Yasha-lizard could be the hypostasis of the same Veles. The lizard was sacrificed, "given as wives" - girls, as B. A. Rybakov points out in "The Paganism of Ancient Russia". But Alyonushka was not thrown into the water as a wife to the chthonic god. Alyonushka, being married, lost her virginity and therefore was not fit to be a wife to God. They drowned her to remove the curse from the tribe for violating tribal laws and for political reasons. Alyonushka's repeated phrase: "The fierce snake sucked out her heart" - indicates her sacrifice, namely to the snake-like Veles, or another similar character. It is the heart, as the bearer of the soul of man, his strength, that is pleasing to God. Let us recall the bloody rites of the Mayan Indians with tearing out the victim's heart.

The following reasoning also speaks for the candidacy of Veles. More Propp V.Ya. in the book "Russian Agrarian Holidays" (pp. 47 - 48). established that Ivanushka's complaint:

"Alyonushka, my sister! Swim out to the shore: Flammable fires are burning, Cauldrons are boiling, Damascus knives are sharpening, They want to kill me!"

"Beyond the fast river. The forests are dense, The great fires are burning, There are benches around the fires, The benches are oak, Good fellows are on those benches, Good fellows, red-haired girls. Sing songs of the kolodushka (carols) In the middle of them an old man sits, He sharpens his damask knife. The cauldron boils fuel, Near the cauldron a goat stands - They want to slaughter the goat ... "

Academician Rybakov B. A. in "The Paganism of Ancient Russia" writes: "... the Slavic Lizard, who married a drowned girl, corresponds to Hades, the god of the underworld, the wife of Persephone. And the sacrifice was not made to these forces of seasonal action, but to the constantly existing ruler all underground - underwater forces that contribute to fertility, i.e. Lizard, Hades, Poseidon. Rybakov B.A. further suggests that Alyonushka is Kupala. “Alyonushka is Kupala herself, a victim doomed to become “drowned in water.” We cannot agree with this statement. Firstly, it is precisely established that the goat sacrifice was made for Kolyada. was burned. Drowning was extremely rare. What could be a ritual murder if, as during the Shemyakinov Court, a pike is thrown into the water? To drown an "unclean", married woman was also a sin before God, especially if she was intended for him, God, wife. The mistake, apparently, occurred for the following reason. According to the common European custom, evil witches were thrown into the water. If the all-cleansing water (remember the rite of baptism) accepted a woman, then she, a drowned woman, was clean before God and people. The night of Kupala, from ancient times was considered night of revelry evil spirits and various sorcerers and witches. They were afraid. Apparently, therefore, in order to protect themselves, that night they drowned women who fell under suspicion of black witchcraft. Over time, when such arbitrariness began to be pursued and punished by the state, this custom was gradually mixed with the ritual ritual burning of Morena. We talked about the Kolyada holiday. On this winter holiday, a goat mask was obligatory, special cookies were baked - goats and distributed to caroling youth. In addition to the previously cited song, they sang:

"Seto, seto for the new summer! Where the horse's tail is, There it lives with a bush. Where the goat's horn, There is haystack" ... or: "The goat jumped On the block, on the block. Tausen, tausen" ... etc. .

The rite of burning Badnyak was associated with Kalyada. This happened most often among the southern Slavs. In the "Myths of the Peoples of the World" we read: "Badnyak is associated (according to etymological studies) with the image of a snake at the roots of a tree. The burning of Badnyak at the end of the old year is equivalent, therefore, to the defeat of a snake by fire, the embodiment of the lower world, a harmful beginning and signifies the beginning of a new seasonal cycle, guarantees fertility, etc." We see that at the Kolyada festival there is both a chthonic world and a snake, and a connection with goat symbolism and the sacrifice of a goat. In the case of our fairy tale, there is also a chthonic world in the form of a sea in which Alyonushka is drowned. Alyonushka's phrase: "The fierce snake sucked out the heart", indicates the presence of a snake, the sacrifice of Ivanushka the goat, again corresponds to the Kalyada holiday.

Veles is associated with the Kalyada holiday, as the owner of the underground and underwater world. Veles is many-sided. He is the incarnation of an ancient serpent, is associated with a bear - the owner of the forest, and one of his incarnations is a goat. A characteristic custom is to hit the burning image of Badnyak with a stick and watch how many sparks rose into the air. The more sparks at such a blow, the greater the offspring of livestock is expected. Veles - "cattle god", the attitude to the offspring of cattle, both Badnyak and Veles, once again indicates their connection and even identity.

The symbolism and songs of Kalyada are associated with a goat, the winter solstice holiday - Kalyada, is dedicated to Veles, which means the simplest conclusion: the goat is the hypostasis of Veles. Veles has Indo-European relatives: the Asia Minor Dionysus, associated with fertility and incarnated in a goat, as well as Greek and Roman seleniums, satyrs, the god Pan, who are associated with fertility and have goat legs. His distant relative is the Egyptian Osiris. These characters are chthonic in nature, their festivities are similar in rituals and are associated with riots and noisy games. The southern Slavs preferred the serpentine image of Veles under the name Badnyak, the eastern ones celebrated the same holiday, but preferred to honor Veles in the form of a goat. For the image of Satan as a goat, the source is this holiday and its paraphernalia. We have determined the connection of the goat with the world of the dead. Veles, among other duties, was a shepherd of the world of the dead. He performed the function of the Greek Hades.

Fraser, in The Golden Bough, points out that the sacrifice of the god of fertility in order to rejuvenate him and increase his strength was widespread. "Golden Branch" p. 541.: "Participants in Roman and Slavic rites treated the representative of God not only as a deity of vegetation, but also as a redeemer of other people's sins. This is evidenced by at least his exile - after all, there is no need to expel him outside cities or villages of the god of vegetation as such. Another thing is if this god is also a "scapegoat", further p. 543. responsible for his growth. It might give the impression that he fell under the influence of witchcraft or grew old and decrepit. Therefore, the god in the person of his representative was put to death with all due pomp, so that, having been reborn again, he could pour the energy of his youth into the sluggish course of natural processes ."

Kalyada coped on the days of the winter solstice. It was during this calendar period, when the day should turn to profit, that the earth had to be given new strength. The funeral of Dionysus and Osiris and their revival is akin to burning the old Badnjak and replacing it with Bozic. The sacrifice of a goat to Kalyada acquires in this case a new sacred meaning. Ivanushka not only became the "goat of atonement" for the sins of his father and tribe, but could personify the god Veles himself. With his blood he had to give a new birth to the immortal god. Let us add that the winter solstice, and hence the Kalyada holiday, falls on the astrological time of Capricorn, also associated with the goat and the chthonic world.

The serpentine Badnyak on Kolyada among the southern Slavs and a similar rite associated with a goat among Eastern Slavs, speaks of the correspondence of the various hypostases of Veles. In addition, it indicates the time of creation of the fairy tale. This time corresponds to the unity of the Slavic peoples, when both hypostases of God were considered as equal. Veles in the form of a snake or Lizard sucks blood from the heart of the drowned Alyonushka, Veles in the form of a goat - Ivanushki is sacrificed to give him new strength and rejuvenation. In the South Slavic version, the serpentine Badnyak is burned for the same purpose. Veles is associated with fertility. Let us show that the Serpent, Lizard, Badnyak are associated with the same fertility. The Belarusian song has been preserved:

"The Lizard sits under the fireworks, On the walnut bush, Where the walnut lusna ... (I want to Zhanitisya) - Take the girl that you want ..."

Lizard-Veles sacrificed girls. But in our case, not the bride. The main thing here is the mention of nuts. Nut - in the perception of the ancient Slavs, was akin to an egg. The egg is a symbol of life and the universe, a nut is a vegetable version of the egg. An egg, like a nut, has a hard shell that hides its fertile, life-giving essence for the time being. The lizard gnaws nuts, i.e., releases this essence into the wild. This is a kind of "trampling death by death", as is sung in the Easter Christian prayer. The kernel of the nut is the germ of life, the germ flora. The lizard releases this hidden plant power, like the earth itself, he demands the death of the bride in song, but through death is born new life. So the grain dies and is reborn again, so the gods Osiris, Dionysus, Badnyak - Veles, die and are born in order to be reborn again. There is a Russian sign that if there is a harvest for nuts, then there will be a large harvest of bread for next year. It is worth mentioning the Russian fairy tale "Where is the goat with the nuts." Nuts have nothing to do with goats, but in this tale, the goat fights hard for the goat to bring nuts. It is also important that the hazel was considered a sacred tree, inaccessible to Perun's lightning. Where else can Veles hide from these lightnings, if not under a hazel tree. We see that Veles is associated with a hazel, but under the hazel or on it, as the song says, the Lizard also sits, the goat of the Russian fairy tale also strives to possess nuts. The nut was considered a talisman against chthonic creatures, primarily snakes. Many nuts were collected and stored in the ground, so they are clearly related to the ground. In Bulgaria, Macedonia, Eastern Serbia, the walnut was considered the habitat of the souls of ancestors. Veles, also the king and shepherd of these souls. Now it becomes clear what the Lizard is doing under the hazel tree, this is a symbol of his underworld, and the "bride" is a sacrifice to him. Veles, the Lizard, the goat are united by their connection with the nut, as a symbol of the kingdom of the souls of the ancestors, the afterlife, the underworld kingdom. We add that according to Slavic beliefs, the goat is associated with the winds. Maybe he'll let them in. In the already mentioned fairy tale "Where is the goat with nuts", it is the wind that obeys the goat and helps to bring the goat with nuts. According to the Tale of Igor's Campaign, the winds are Stribog's grandchildren. They blow from the sea - a chthonic place. During the period of dual faith in Russia, there was a legend that Saint Kosyan, who correlated with Chernobog and chthonic forces, holds twelve winds underground on a chain and commands them. In Europe, mainly in Germany, when the wind blows across the field, they say: "the goat is coming." It is also interesting that Stribog, who is correlated with Saturn, commands the winds. It is clearly chthonic. In addition, it is correlated with the constellation Sagittarius. A. Znoiko proves his astral character. In Thrace, on the new moon, which falls on the constellation Sagittarius, a festival was held, during which the Thracians led a goat through the streets. Wrote about it ancient Greek philosopher Plato and the Roman historian Titus Livius. On the Dnieper, a goat was also driven on the new moon. From this it is clear that Stribog could also be associated with Veles or his kingdom. Consider another aspect of the image of Veles and its connection with the sacrifice of the goat - Ivanushka. In Fraser's "Golden Bough" it is said that in Lower Bavaria they say about a man reaping the last sheaf: "He has a bread goat." Horns are stuck into the last sheaf and the horned goat is called. In East Prussia, a woman knitting the last sheaf is shouted: "And there is a goat sitting in the sheaf." In Swabia and Bavaria, the last sheaf is called a goat. In the same place, a goat figurine is cut out and put on the fields during harvesting. Similar rites and customs are found throughout Europe. The last sheaf, the reaper knitting the last sheaf, the last strip of bread is the goat. And in Russia, the last strip of bread - "Veles on the beard." The last stack is "Veles' beard." The goat has a beard, rare in the animal kingdom. Throughout Europe - allegorical - a goat, in Russia the true name of God is used - Veles.

We can draw the following conclusions. The fairy tale we are considering is no younger than the oldest ancient Greek myths. It reflects the period of transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, from the female priestly rule of the tribe to the male autochthonous one. This is the period when even leaders could be sacrificed, for sins before the gods and the tribe, for failure, as an analogue of God - for the speedy revival of God. The tale is not built on magic, as in later times. She operates with true magical techniques and rituals. You can specify such fundamental magical techniques as the magic of the trace, the magic of similarity, the magic of a substitute victim, the magic of rebirth through sacrificial death.

We believe that, precisely, Veles was supposed to dedicate the sacrifice of a goat - Ivanushka. The drowning and resurrection of Alyonushka recalls, but in a more cruel, archaic form, the myth of Proserpina and Hades. Here Veles the Serpent is the master of the underworld, Alyonushka is a sacrifice to him. The salvation of Alyonushka and the goat Ivanushka is Perun's victory over Veles. This is the victory of patriarchy over matriarchy, the royal-princely method of government over the female - priestly. Goat - Ivanushka, according to most variants of the tale, remains a goat. He, as it were, is already serving Perun as a guide to the kingdom of Veles. In the realm of underground forces, with the help of his chthonic weapons, Perun can win, overthrow Veles. The murder or exile of the witch-priestess is the apotheosis, the triumph of the tale.

In the fairy tale, the witch personifies old life, she replaces the young queen Alyonushka. The kid is associated with the ancient generic Slavic god Veles, who is directly related to the cult of ancestors. In the fairy tale there is a partial rejection of this cult, and instead appears new system reign, where the witch, the guardian of ancient tribal traditions, is replaced by a young queen. A partial separation from the family precepts is also connected with the fact that at the beginning of the tale it is said that the parents of Ivanushka and Alyonushka have died, therefore, they have to build their own lives.

In this article, we wanted to show the archaism and mythology hidden in an ordinary, well-known fairy tale. It remains to be studied all the richness of our folklore and the symbolism hidden behind it.

WEAPONS OF THE THUNDERS AND THEIR GUIDES

We list the types of weapons of the Indo-European thundermen. These are: the hammer of the German Thor, the perun of Zeus, the perun of the Slavic Perun and the Lithuanian Perkunas, the Vajra of the Indian Indra.

The origin of this weapon, i.e. what makes these gods thunderers and kings is chthonic. This means that they either directly or indirectly received their power from Mother Earth, or the corresponding chthonic forces.

This is connected with the main issue - the ancient role of the thunder gods in mythology. The gods of thunder and thunder, in their most ancient incarnation, were opponents of chthonic, evil creatures opposing the sky, creatures of the earth. We can observe this confrontation in almost all Indo-European mythologies. In ancient Greek, these are Zeus and the Titans, in Slavic - Perun and Veles, in ancient Indian - this is Indra and the monster Vritra, in Scandinavian - the confrontation between Thor and the frost giants, in the Hittite and Luvian mythologies - Teshub and the serpent Illuyanka, etc.

This confrontation is the content of the main Indo-European myth, during the period of transition from pre-mythological ideas to mythological ones.

Let us consider one of the most important pre-mythological magical ideas that still exists today: like is destroyed by like. All sympathetic and love magic to this day is based on this principle. This can be an impact on an image or photograph, or any other image of a person, an impact on a part of the body: hair, nails, sweat, blood, sperm, an impact on a person’s belongings: his things, his trace.

If stones were thought of as part of the earth, i.e. its bones and veins, and the chthonic gods always opposed Heaven, then weapons against them were used of chthonic origin. The action takes place according to the proverb: "The wedge is knocked out with a wedge." There are still beliefs that impure, chthonic power can be destroyed with special weapons.

1) Wolfdog or werewolf - with a silver bullet. Silver is the metal of the Moon, and wolves - people, wolves, and werewolves in general, have always been associated with the Moon, especially the full moon.

2) Ghouls and ghouls, according to legend, can be killed with an aspen stake. Ghouls and ghouls cursed during life (embarrassed) souls. Aspen, also a cursed tree. The Lithuanian folk legend "Spruce Queen of snakes" says that the daughter of Eli - Aspen betrayed her mother and father, caused their death. After death, the girl Aspen turned into an aspen tree. In the Christian tradition, it is believed that Judas strangled himself on an aspen after the betrayal of Jesus Christ. In the encyclopedic dictionary "Slavic mythology" ed. "Ellis Luck" M. 1995 says: "Etymological myths connect the" shaking "of the aspen with God's curse imposed on the aspen because it was used to make the cross on which Christ was crucified, the nails with which he was nailed to the cross, and also the "knitting needles" that Christ's tormentors drove under his nails. In some places among the Eastern Slavs, aspen was also considered a "devil's tree", cf. the characteristic Hutsul name for the feature is "osinovets". In places where aspen grows, according to popular belief, devils “twist.” We see a correlation - a cursed tree kills ghouls and ghouls who are cursed during their lifetime.

3) Koshchei the Immortal can only be killed by breaking a needle or a bone. Destruction of a needle or a bone - similar to Koshchei - leads to his death.

4) In Indo-European, and indeed in any other fairy tales, the hero first looks for a treasure sword, or some other magical weapon, and then defeats a snake, dragon, giant, as a rule, a chthonic creature. This weapon is most often hidden in the dungeon and belongs to a chthonic creature. Even the sword to King Arthur, in the cycle of Celtic legends about round table, gave a hand from the lake or from the "other world". After Arthur's death, the sword was returned to the bottom of the lake. A special weapon, directed against a certain character of myth or legend, after fulfilling its purpose, returns to the chthonic world. This emphasizes that it does not belong to our earthly world.

5) All folk conspiracies are built on the phrase: "As that toto does, so let it be."

We can note that it is precisely the most ancient specificity of the god of thunder, as a serpent fighter, that connects him with the chthonic world through a special weapon, primarily a stone.

The folk etymology of the word "perun" is interesting. Root words: stare (a piercing, piercing look), stare - pierce, poper - onslaught, overcoming, pen - something sharp (a pen, like a knife among criminals), flying, penetrating the air. Words: before, forward - the same root.

German Thor - has a meaning at the root of the name: to beat - to break through, tour - a bull, turn - sharply discard, thorny (man) - brave, skillful, fast, resourceful.

Perun is penetrating, breaking through the earth's firmament, in search of a chthonic enemy. The name of the god of the Scandinavians Thor, according to the same etymology - to beat, to beat, to break through. That is why the weapon of the Greek Zeus is Perun (piercing).

We needed to separate the late Perun (10th - 15th centuries), from the most ancient Indo-Aryan serpent fighter. Just as a first-grader girl is not exactly the same person as she is at the age of forty, so the most ancient Perun does not correspond in everything to the Perun of Prince Vladimir.

It is known that Perun, at least in Novgorod, was depicted with a stone in his hand. This stone, by analogy with flint and flint among people, was the source of heavenly lightning and thunder. Sacred stones dedicated to both Perun and his Lithuanian counterpart - Perkunas, speak of their connection with the stone and, consequently, with the earth. In the Russian fairy tale tradition, the sacred stone Alatyr is apparently also associated with Perun. Let us also pay attention to the fact that the stone is still called the arrows of Perun. Stones, according to the Indo-European and a number of other peoples, are the bones of Mother Earth. They, the stones, are clearly chthonic, earthly in origin. Neighbors, both Slavs and Lithuanians, the Karellis and the Finns, a group of Finno-Ugric peoples, have a thunder god named Ukko. It is important for us that in a number of traditions, Ukko strikes lightning by striking stones (sometimes the knee serves as an anvil and the fist serves as a hammer), the fist and knee, as it were, turn to stone. It is no coincidence that the earthly incarnation of Ukko, the elder Väinämöinen, thus, using a petrified knee and fist, strikes fire in the giant's belly. Sacred stones throughout the area of ​​the Fino-Karelian settlement, dedicated to Ukko, indicate that the Fino-Karelian thunderer, like his Indo-European counterparts Perun and Perkunas, has a stone as a tool for the production of lightning and thunder. Similarly to them, on the basis of the main function, he - Ukko, is associated with a stone and a stone can be represented. The names of the Slavic Perun and the Lithuanian Perkunas are associated with the concept of a thunderstorm: thunder, thunder. If we return to the concept of carving a spark-lightning when stones strike, then both to stones and to the underworld. Compare Estonian porgu, "underworld" and Russian: blizzard, as a manifestation of chthonic forces. Old Icelandic Fjorgyn, the name of the mother of the Thunderer Thor - mountain, stone mountain, cf. Gothic fairguni, "mountain", Khet peruna - "rock", ancient Indian parvata "mountain", the very name of the Slavic Perun and its connection with a stone, perun, like a weapon of the Greek Zeus.

The sky itself, according to the ancient peoples, was made of stone, or there are stones of Perun, Ukko, Perkunas on it. This corresponds to the Indo-European mythology of the stone sky. Sometimes the Lithuanian Perkūnas himself is the creator of his weapon Akmeninis kalvis, "stone smith". This name clearly indicates the connection of the weapon of Perkunas with the stone, as in Perun and Ukko. The Finns and Karelians, both ethnically and according to cultural mythological and other traditions, as well as according to historical references, are most likely a branch of the Indo-European peoples, and not the Finno-Ugric ones. The adoption of a foreign language, in this case, apparently, the language of the Saami, is a frequent occurrence in the history of peoples. In our time, entire peoples in South and Central America speak Spanish, but remain Indians, American blacks speak English while remaining blacks. It is impossible to confuse the Finn and the Mongoloid Ob Ugrian, but by linguistic similarity they are classified as one group of peoples.

Consider the image of Perun. If we take it in the meaning that was assigned to it in the 10th century. n. e., as the god of the prince and the princely squad in the city, as a god associated with the agricultural cycle - in the village, then there is nothing chthonic that can connect him with a goat in his appearance. But the fact is that the meaning and functions of the gods can be developed and rethought over time in the mythology of any people. To understand the ancient function of the Indo-European thunderers in more detail, we will consider their weapons and against whom it is directed. In this case, we will be able to combine historical, mythological, archaeological and other materials and draw correct conclusions about the thundermen themselves.

1) Perkunas (Lithuania), Perkons (Latvia), Perkunas (Prussia). Weapon ax or hammer, stones. Later, a sword that strikes with lightning, a bow and arrows, a club, whips.

Perkūnas is called "stone smith", his weapon is made of earth bone stone, hence Perkūnas's power from earth is chthonic.

2) Perun's main weapon is stones. According to the memoirs of Europeans, in Novgorod the idol of Perun stood with a stone in his hand. Later weapons: axe, bow and arrows ("thunder arrows"). The sick stone is popularly considered the arrow of Perun. The Polish historian Stryikovsky (16th century) wrote that the idol - the idol of Perun (Perkun) held a stone in his hand, and a sacred fire constantly burned in front of him. In the annals, this is written as follows: "Perkonos, this is Perun, they had the oldest god, a likeness of a man was created, in his hands there was a stone, valuable like fire, he is constantly fired from an oak tree." If the fire went out, then a new flame was carved by the priests from the stone in the hand of the idol. One should compare the description of the precious stone burning like fire in the hand of Perun with the description of the Vajra of the ancient Indian god Indra given below.

3) Scandinavian Thor, Old Norse Borr, German Donar. The weapon is an ax or a hammer, often made of stone. According to legend, the weapons were forged or mined by underground dwarfs - tsvergs. These miniatures were originally worms in the body of the first-born giant Ymir. And from the body of Ymir, the Earth was created. Tsvergi live in the earth and stones, like worms. They are afraid of the light. When light hits them, they die, turn into stone. These tsvergs are very reminiscent of the magma of the earth. Magma, like water, could be thought of as living. Magma is fluid, passes through the "veins of the earth", after hitting the surface, the magma solidifies - "turns into stone." The myths often talk about the treasures of the tsvergs. Magma brings various minerals to the surface. These minerals and precious ores could be thought of as treasures. Tsvergi are clearly chthonic creatures. The weapon of the god Thor is therefore of chthonic origin. It is worth noting that the name of Thor's hammer is Mjollnir, Mjollnir has the same root as the Russian word for "lightning" - Perun's weapon, his arrow.

4) Scandinavian Saami, neighbors of the Scandinavians. "Thunder old man" god of thunder. Miniature stone hammers were sacrificed to him.

5) Karelian and Finnish Ukko, Estonian Uku - in the Balto-Finnish mythology, the supreme god of thunder. Attributes: lightning, ax, sword - of a secondary nature. Initially, Ukko rolls heavenly stones (thunder) and strikes evil spirits with thunder and lightning. Shrines of Ukko - groves and stones. The connection between Ukko's weapon and the stone is clearly visible.

6) The ancient Indian thunderer Indra had the weapon Vajra (vajra). She was conceived as a club, a club. According to the Vedic tradition, the Vajra was forged for Indra by Tvashtar. Tvashtar is the creator. The word create is from the same root. Tvashtar is a creator, but he is married to a demoness from the Assurian family. This shows his chthonicity. He, as an indirect chthonic principle, which is akin to Mother Earth among the Slavs and the goddess Gaia-Earth among the ancient Greeks, gave birth to the enemy of Heaven and Indra - the three-headed monster Vishvarupu. Later, he again appears as a chthonic king progenitor. He gives birth to the monster Vritra from fire and soma. Vritra is the main opponent of Indra. The victory over Vritra is the main merit of Indra, as the king of the heavenly gods. From here one can see the chthonic, even chaotic nature of Tvashtar and his creation of the Vajra, the main weapon of Indra. Tvashtar carries the principle: everything in it, all forms and essences. This completely coincides with the ancient Greek definition of Chaos.

According to the text of the Rigveda (1, 121 12, V 342) - Vajra was in the ocean, in the waters, in the first matter. We can assume that this is the same magma that, petrified in the light, became the Vajra. This is confirmed by her epithets: she is any, copper, gold, iron, and what is important, both from stone or from rock. In this case, the chthonic, stone, and possibly magmatic origin of the Vajra, as the main weapon of the thunderer, is beyond doubt.

7) Thunderer of the Khet and Khurit mythology Teshub. In the myth, the thunderer Teshub defeats the blind and deaf chthonic monster that threatens to destroy the world - Ulikumme. He cuts it off from the rock that supports the sky with a stone cutter with which the Earth was separated from Heaven. The chthonicity of the origin of the weapon is obvious. It was still at the time of Chaos, the mixing of Earth and Sky. Perhaps it was associated with the same frozen magma, as a symbol of chaos and confusion.

8) Greek Thunderer Zeus. In Crete, the weapon of Zeus was revered as a double ax, giving and taking away life. In Delphi, Zeus was revered as a fetish otfal ("navel of the earth") - a stone swallowed by Cronus, or a stone, like the navel of an infant Zeus. The weapon of Zeus is chthonic. This weapon was forged by the children of the Earth - Gaia, hundred-armed Cyclopes. They forged it in an underground, or in other words, a volcanic forge. The origin of the weapons of Zeus is clearly magmatic, associated with volcanic activity. origin. These weapons - thunder, lightning and perun, made Zeus the king of the gods.

It is important to note the fact that during a volcanic eruption, when igneous rock is poured out with its "treasures" and "semi-finished products" for weapons, severe thunderstorms and earthquakes occur. A mythological reflection of this may be the battle of a thunderbolt with a terrible chthonic monster shaking the earth. The universality of the myth of the flood and the earthquake and volcanic eruptions associated with it confirms this hypothesis (see Fraser's "Golden Bough").

Solid igneous rocks that come to the surface after an eruption are the most accessible and unique material for making weapons back in the Neolithic era. Only heroes could dare to go on a campaign for such dangerous weapons located on the slopes of volcanoes. These heroes, in ancient times, through acquired weapons and personal courage, could seize power in the tribes, become the first kings - princes. Episodes of such a seizure of power back in Neolithic times could serve as an occasion for the creation of some myths about a thunderer - a king and a hero. The weapon, made from a piece of solidified lava, was of a mystical and magical nature in its origin, in addition, it could "sparkle" with inclusions of minerals and ores. The very appearance and origin of the weapons of the Neolithic hero could terrify his enemies, deprive them of their strength. This weapon, over time, acquired legends, and eventually passed to the heavenly thunderer, and the ancestor hero himself could merge with him. For example, in Germanic mythology, the thunder god Thor is both a god and an ancestor of the Germans. The description of the weapon as a cudgel, stone hammer or club indicates the appearance of these myths about the weapons of the Thunderers in the Neolithic time. Mace, club, stone ax or hammer - were the most formidable weapons of ancient man.

Let's note a few more reasons why the main weapon of the thunderer is stone or made of stone.

1) In the Neolithic era, the main tool of people was a stone.

2) Fire could be hewn by striking stones, such as flints.

3) The sky was conceived, like the earth as stone.

4) The fall of the metiarites - "heavenly stones", pointed to the stone as an instrument of the heavenly gods. These stones were revered, such as the sacred Muslim stone of the Kaaba.

5) Stones are "veins of the earth", they are chthonic. There is an old Lithuanian fairy tale "Well done and the devil" (Lithuanian folk tales "The Swan Queen", Vilnius, 1965), which corresponds in content to Russian folk tales about the Sea King. In it, the devil, living in the underground or underwater chthonic kingdom, bears the name "Gray mountain bone". By analogy with the Russian Koshchei (Kostei), he personifies a stone, like a bone of the earth. In Germanic mythology, stones and mountains of the earth were made from the bones of the giant Ymir. In the Great Russian Christian apocryphal legends "The Pigeon Book" it is said:

"Bones are strong from stone,

Our bodies are from damp earth,

Blood-ore from the black sea."

The chthonicity of the stone is determined even modern name- "ore vein". This name hints that the stone is part of the living organism of the earth.

The chthonic deities of the earth are responsible for the stones: the Cyclopes, the Koschei of Russian fairy tales, the Slavic god Veles, gnomes, dwarfs, tsvirgs, and later, as a collective, devils.

The connection of the ancient Perun with the chthonic world occurs not only through weapons. The most ancient thundermen had a goat as a vehicle. The goat played the role of their guide to another, underground, chthonic world.

The goat is a chthonic animal, not directly related to heavenly and thunderous forces. This is true, but still this connection exists, the goat is related to the thunderers, the chthonic element is associated with the thunderers. But there is one thing... This connection is mediated, through the weapons of the thunderers, through one of their functions. In the encyclopedia "Myths of the peoples of the world" the connection between the goat and thundermen is indicated. Let's consider this question in more detail.

Let's make some digression, consider the ancient Indian god Agni. Agni literally means fire in Sanskrit. In Russia, they turned to fire: Father, you are the King of Fire. He is Agni in Vedic mythology, the god of fire, the god of the hearth (connection with ancestors), the sacrificial fire. In the Rig Veda, Agni is the main of the earthly gods, about 200 hymns are dedicated to him. He central character the main ancient Indian ritual. His main function mediation between gods and people. Agni is a divine priest. The hypostasis of Agni is the fire of the sun and lightning, but he is also the fire in the waters, the fire of the sacrificial fire. Agni was born in three places: in the sky, among people and in the waters. He has three heads, three languages, three dwellings, threefold light, three lives, three powers.

For us, this is important because the goat in the Vedic tradition was almost always sacrificed to Agni. This was done in order to connect with the world of spirits and ancestors. The ancient Indian, Vedic Indra is associated with the goat as a sacrificial animal. A goat was sometimes sacrificed to Indra, there is an indication of this in the Upanishads, but a sacrificial goat was dedicated to the god Agni six to seven times more often. Moreover, the sacrifice of a goat to Indra implied a connection with the ancestors. Indra, as the king of the gods, at the moment of sacrificing a goat to him, took upon himself the function of Agni. There was also a formal basis for this. Agni was the twin brother of Indra. In a number of traditions, twin brothers were treated as one person. First of all, this refers to the ancient Indian tradition: Ashvins, Maruts. In the Greek tradition, these are the Dioscuri - Castor and Polydeuces. Indra, and indeed any king of the gods, personifies his entire kingdom, including chthonic, underground forces. We will talk about the relationship between these forces and the thunderers in this section.

In the future, the function of the goat was taken over by the horse. Hence the contradictions in the interpretation of the image of the horse. The horse, being mainly a symbol of the sun, carries some chthonicity left over from the image of a goat. Being a symbol of the sun or an attribute of the solar god, the horse gradually became an attribute of royal power. With the development of religious teaching, the idea of ​​posthumous retribution, including rewards, appears. The development of these ideas made the horse a guide in realm of the dead. The horse, as it were, contributes to the reign of the deceased in the afterlife. The sun makes a cycle through the day and night side of the world, so the horse must carry its rider through death to a new rebirth, to a new life.

Scandinavian Thor rode goats and took them for food. Perkūnas led a goat on a rope and sometimes rode it. Zeus was fed in Crete by the goat Amalthea. Aegis or aegis ("goat skin") is an attribute of Zeus. The goat connects the Thunderer with the underworld, like a bird or a solar horse with the sky. Without the goat, the thunderer, who, as a rule, is the king of the gods, could not rule the underworld either. Most often, this rule comes down to the possibility of punishment and persecution of dark forces. The goat, in this case, is not only the conductor of the Thunderer, but he is also a kind of military attribute in the fight against dark forces. In this regard, it is similar to the chthonic weapon of the Thunderer. We have already pointed out that, according to ancient views, like should be influenced by like. For example, according to Slavic beliefs, a water (aquatic chthonic creature) can be propitiated with the hair of a black goat, an evil brownie torments all animals in the household, except for a dog and a goat. The Devil has a goat's hoof and one of his favorite victims is a goat. The goat, as it were, disguises the thunderbolt. He finds a way to the chthonic kingdom and makes his companion in some way invulnerable to the forces of this kingdom, he is a kind of amulet. It is known that many ancient Slavic amulets were made according to the principle: from the contrary. The image of the jaw of a predator was protection from predators, the key was protection from thieves, small hatchets or knives were protection from enemy weapons, cookies - a goat (the image of a goat) for the winter holiday Kolyada - protection from dark forces.

Consider another aspect of the connection between the Thunderer and the goat. In the reconstructed Indo-European myth, the thunderer was associated with the mountain, or rather with the rock. The battle of the Thunderer with a serpentine enemy of chthonic origin (in the Russian tradition, Veles (Volos)) was either at the rock, or under the rock, or through the rock. The weapons were, as shown above, stones or some objects of chthonic origin. It is important for us that the goat by its nature is associated with mountains and rocks, and therefore, in this aspect, it can also be associated with the battle of a thunderer and his chthonic opponent. Moreover, he is a goat, he can still provide the thunderer with the help of spirits - the ancestors of people, as a link with them.

So we have established that the weapons and attributes of the Indo-Aryan thunderers are associated with the chthonic forces against which these thunderers are fighting, and this, in turn, is a reflection of the most ancient pre-mythological magic of influencing an object or phenomenon through its likeness.

YARILA, DIONYSUS, FAUN, MANIA, GOAT

Often compared South Slavic Badnyak and Yarila. Yarila is the god of vitality, sexual power - yari. Yaril is wrong, under the influence of Ostrovsky's fairy tale "The Snow Maiden", they compare it with the sun. Yarila bears a sign of strength and fertilization, but this fertilization is earthly, it is chthonic. It is no coincidence that one of the attributes of Yarila is a dead head, an indisputable attribute of death. Yarilo, apparently, is a later Slavic modification of the Lizard, Veles, Badnyak. He is completely akin to the Asia Minor Dionysus. Dionysus is adorned with grape leaves from which wine is made. Yarilo is decorated with hop leaves, from which beer is made. Dionysus and Yarilo are revered noisily, cheerfully. Often the holidays dedicated to them turn into orgies. Girls are kidnapped on the Yarila holidays. The same thing happened on the feasts of Dionysus. Dionysus is chthonic, in many ways corresponds to Veles. it is associated with fertility. Yarila is also associated with fertility, carries a dead head with her, which means she is associated with the world of death. Effinity, gender mixing are present in the figure of Dionysus. Yarila was portrayed by a girl dressed as a young man, which can also indicate the character's bisexuality. The chthonicity of Yarila emphasizes the fact that on his holidays it often came to murder and unbridled sexual orgies. The holidays of Dionysus did not differ from the holidays of Yarila in this respect. There were seasonal funerals of Yarila, which corresponds to the veneration of both Dionysus and Badnyak - Veles. The symbol of both Yarila and Dionysus was the phalos. Dionysus came to the Greek Olympus from Thrace, and in Thrace, according to a number of recent theories, Proto-Slavic tribes lived. As an example, let us cite the wearing of a sedentary (forelock) among the ancient Russians, in the Zaporizhzhya Sich and in Thrace. Dionysus, like Yarila, apparently, is a later hypostasis of the most ancient Indo-European god Veles - Volos - Lizard - Badnyak. Most likely, the development of the image of Veles in his fertilizing, earthly function led to the isolation of his given incarnation into the images of Yarila and Dionysus. Yarila's clothes are white. The white color of the Slavs is the color of death, the color of the shroud. The white dress of the bride indicated her death in the parental family. From this idea comes the custom of mourning the bride as if she had died. In the Apocalypse of St. John, the horse of death is called "the pale horse."

Let us turn to the character of Roman mythology - the Faun. Faun - corresponds to the Greek god Pan, who is part of the retinue of Dionysus. This very fact should draw our attention. Faun (Faunus, from favere, "to help", also Fatuus, Fatulcus, from fatuor, "to be possessed", fando, "to prophesy", Serv. Verg. Aen. VII 47), is considered in Roman mythology the god of forests, pastures, fields , animals. The functions of the Faun largely coincide with the functions of Veles. Faun had a female counterpart - Faun. Faun gave predictions in verse. Boyan, in "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", is called Veles' grandson. Boyan also spoke in verse and gave prophecies, he speaks of this, even if his epithet is "prophetic". It follows that Veles was directly related to prophecies and verses. Faun, when Numa caught him by cunning, was forced to tell how to turn away the lightning of Jupiter. Interestingly, the god Veles also knows how to hide from the lightning of Perun. The faun is chthonic, he can steal children, send nightmares and diseases. The same can be said about Veles. Faun entered into a relationship with all animals and seduced women. This is the quality of the chthonic god of fertility, associated with the most ancient ritual-mystical orgies aimed at the fertilization of all living things. Until the beginning of the 20th century, there was a custom in Russia: during the first spring plowing, a peasant went out alone into the field, made a hole in the ground and performed an act of sacred intercourse with Mother Raw Earth. With his seed, the peasant mystically fertilized all nature, united his masculine principle with the female giving birth.

During the festival of the Lupercalia, a goat was sacrificed to the Faun. After the sacrifice, the Luperki priests, wearing nothing but a goat skin on their thighs, ran around and whipped the women they met with belts cut from the skin of the sacrificial goat. This quilting was supposed to make women fertile. Among other things, Faun, like Veles, was the patron of cattle breeding. Faun, like Dionysus, could also be a development of the image of the most ancient Indo-European god - Veles. He is obviously more archaic than Dionysus and Yarila, he has not yet lost his anthropomorphic features, but he has lost his magical werewolf and the image of a snake. The closer connection of the Faun with the goat, in comparison with Dionysus, suggests that he appeared during the time of matriarchy, at the time of the heyday of female organistic mysteries. Such mysteries, already in ancient Greece, were sharply condemned and preserved for the longest time, perhaps, among the Etruscans and among the plebeians of Rome. The Feast of the Faun was a rite associated with the time of matriarchy. On the feast of the Faun, the terrible chthonic goddess Mania was coaxed. Mania is the goddess of darkness and madness, her cult is associated with the cult of dead ancestors. She, like Veles, was responsible for the posthumous existence of her ancestors. Initially, boys were sacrificed to her (a clear feature of matriarchy). In later times, as in Russia on the Kupala holiday, a sacrificial doll was made and carried around the city. The boy was placed on a dais so that he could be better seen by the goddess. The boy's head was touched with a knife dipped in the blood of a sacrificial goat. The boy laughed, tried to show madness, and thereby arouse the favor of the goddess Mania. In this holiday, the human sacrifice is replaced by a sacrifice, namely, a goat. The chthonic character of the Faun, and even more so of Mania, is beyond doubt. We have shown the ratio of Faun and Veles. The Roman holiday is similar to the Slavic one and is also interesting because the goddess Mania is clearly the goddess of the times of matriarchy, like the entire ritual dedicated to her. The similarity of the main sacred actions - the sacrifice of a boy to the chthonic gods associated with the cult of ancestors, and his later replacement with a goat, allows us to attribute the Slavic rite of such sacrifice to the time of matriarchy.

Consider this image of the Slavic gods, making the assumption that these images are authentic in their main features. If this is so, then a certain logic should be traced in the composition of the characters and their symbolism. The first we see is the image of Perun in his animal incarnation. It is known that ancient gods in the Indo-European and other traditions, at the beginning they had an animal appearance, and only with the development of worldview concepts did they acquire anthropomorphism - a human appearance. There are three characteristic features in this image. Archaism - bestiality of the image. The protruding tongue is a symbol of death (see V. Shcherbakov's instructions on the meaning of the protruding tongue in the Roman, Greek, Etruscan pictorial systems and similar images of the dead Humbaba in the Assyro-Babylonian tradition). The poured female breast is a symbol of fertility and feeding. Recall that Perun, being a thunderer, was also associated with rain, and therefore soldering / feeding the earth. A protruding tongue may indicate the cyclical annual nature of natural phenomena - the dying and rebirth of nature. Consequently, Perun is depicted as the king of life and death. The next image of Mokosh has the same protruding tongue as an indication of death and seasonality. Images of Mokosh and Khors have goat legs - which determine its chthonicity and connection with fertility. This connects him with the "goat" hypostasis of the Greek Dianis and his goat-footed retinue. Mokosh's body resembles a twisted thread on a spindle, which is associated with her patronage of spinning, including spinning the thread of fate, like Greco-Roman parks. On the head of Khors and Mokosh there are some processes resembling either horns - a sign of chthonicity, or young shoots. Makosh is associated with the generative power of the earth - therefore, an indication of her chthonicity - goat-legged, sprouts on her head, as a symbol of plant life and an indication of cyclicality - the dying of nature (protruding tongue) are fully consistent with her image. Horse is depicted as a ruler. He has a scoper - a symbol of power, his left hand in a patronizing imperious gesture is stretched out above the ground, "sprouts" are on his head. Khorsa is usually associated with the Sun by the etymology of the name "horo" - "kolo" - a circle, movement in a circle, rotation, the wheel of the sun. It is worth noting that the sun, according to the ideas of the ancients, also made a night journey through the underworld, in addition, the rotation of the Sun was associated with seasonal changes. In this case, there could be an indication of the hypostasis of Khors as the lord of the underworld, seasonal changes and fertility. Stribog, by the etymology of the name, is associated with the Etruscan god of underground fire Satre and the Greco-Roman Saturn - the masters of the underworld. The large ears at the image of Stribog and Khors indicate the predominant importance of hearing in these gods and, therefore, a certain blindness characteristic of chthonic characters. The fire of Stribog is an underground volcanic fire associated with both the Satra of the Etruscans and the Saturn of the Greeks (see. more details Art. I. Belkin about Chernobog). The image of one head is an indication of the character's chthonicity (M. Evzlin "Myth and Ritual" 1992). Underground fire and winds (Stribog grandchildren - SoPI) associated with this character affect weather conditions and fertility. We can conclude that all images of the Slavic gods or their incarnations are associated with seasonal cycles and the regenerating fruitful power of the earth. If they were in the same temple, then it was a temple of fertility. We do not find any serious contradictions between these images and the functions of the characters.