Images of ancient mythology. mythological images

In the poetic cycle "Fairy Tales" there are fantastic images generated by folk art, the consciousness of the author, and realities that acquire such a character in the context. However, the mythological images of Slavic and Western European folklore can be classified as actually mythological. The following groups are distinguished in the poetic cycle (the number of words is indicated in brackets in the numerator, the number of word usages in the denominator): mythological characters (10/80), animals (13/30), plants (7/13), objects (11/14) , characteristics of a magical image (9/19), states and actions (6/9), mythological space (10/46), time (22/78), metals (6/13), minerals (12/28), mythological symbols (14/74), images of heavenly bodies (9/29), images of the elements (52/151).

The most interesting mythological characters are: witch (1), dwarf (4), Serpent (1), Koschey (1), goblin (1), muse (1), mermaid (3), little mermaid (2), Fairy (65), Yaga(1). The image of the Fairy was considered in the article “Thematic Vocabulary of “Fairy Tales” by K.D. Balmont” (11, 87-91). AT " dedication” the author refers to the muse, uses this image to denote poetic inspiration, which is traditional in Russian literature (1, 319).

One of the brightest characters of the fairy country is mermaids. For their nomination, the poet used the lexemes “mermaid”, “mermaid”. In Slavic mythology, mermaids are represented as drowned women - beautiful girls with long flowing green hair, less often - in the form of ugly shaggy women. In the Russian week, they come out of the water, run through the fields, swing in the trees, can tickle those they meet to death and drag them into the water (6, v.2, 390). In the lower mythology of the peoples of Europe, mermaids are water spirits, beautiful girls (sometimes with fish tails) emerging from the water and combing their hair. With their singing and beauty, they lure travelers into the depths, they can destroy them or make them lovers in the underwater kingdom (6, vol. 2, 548-549).

K.D. Balmont characterizes this image with several striking features (2, 305). Mermaids live among reeds in a fairy land in an azure river with steep pearly banks. The eyes and the entire cover of these creatures are emerald green. On bright nights, mermaids invite travelers, enchant with fables, and drag them into the water. The author-narrator succumbs to magic, finds himself in the water, the mermaids tickle him and give him slaps.

The poet draws attention to the fact that mermaids hide in the water in swarms. The lexeme "roy" has a limited range of compatibility in the Russian literary language (8, 672). This is how an associative series is called: a flock of insects, a family of bees, in a figurative sense - a group of memories, thoughts, feelings. Comparison with the image of bees helps to reveal new features of the image of mermaids. Bees in Slavic mythology are the producers and keepers of honey - an immortal drink. The bees swarm around their queen, the moon. Stars are called heavenly bees (3, 194-195). Mermaids of the fairy country are inextricably linked with life-giving moisture. Their appearance becomes possible only in the evening hours with a clear moon. The desire to get close to a beautiful star in the sky singles out one mermaid from among her cheerful, laughing friends (2, 322).

In the poem “At the Monsters,” the poet describes a house on chicken legs, the Serpent, Koshchei, Baba Yaga (1, 324). In the popular imagination, Baba Yaga is a gray-haired old woman with a bone or golden leg. Her house is a hut on chicken legs, often with one window, standing in front of the forest. When meeting with the hero, Baba Yaga sits on a bench, sometimes weaving, spinning tow or golden yarn using a special spindle (3, 53). It is served by wild animals, birds, winds. Inside the hut there may be a black cat, snakes, mice. V. Propp points to the special boundary position of the hut on chicken legs between the world of the dead and the living. For the hero of a fairy tale, this border is insurmountable (9, 41-47). His stay in the hut is associated with the performance of special rituals (eating, going to the bath), passing tests, receiving a gift, recognizing the way forward.

In the poetic cycle, the image of Baba Yaga has some contextual features. As a synonym, Balmont uses the name "Witch", which is not traditional for folk tales, has a slightly different meaning (6, vol. 1, 226). The author meets Yaga in a hut on chicken legs. She doesn't do any work, doesn't enter into conversation. The poet characterizes her as an evil, strict old woman. Only mice squeak, rummage through the crumbs. An explanation of the strict attitude of the old woman towards the animals can be found in folk tradition, where the mouse often sympathizes with the hero, they talk about a possible path to salvation (7, 105-107). In a fairy land, the poet does not need help; the animals behave like ordinary, not magical animals.

The narrator is the hero. He quietly sneaks into the hut and steals two strings of beads. A hero in a fairy land freely crosses the border between the worlds, he does not need to turn the hut. The cap of invisibility he used is a magical gift received from fairy creatures earlier (9, 105-107; 9, 161-165). V. Propp proves that in Russian fairy tales, in order to identify a stranger, Baba Yaga needs to hear his voice or smell (9, 47-51). The hero of Balmont does not speak to the old woman, and she does not notice the stranger until she discovers the missing beads. The hero hides in a haze, that is, disappears, performs a magical action. This serves as another confirmation that the author-narrator already belongs to the magical world.

Other mythological creatures met by the poet are the Serpent and Koschei. In popular belief, the Serpent is a multi-headed creature. The number of its heads is different, 3, 6, 9, 12 heads predominate, less often 5 or 7 (6, vol. 1, 209). The description of his flight is reminiscent of the flight of Baba Yaga. Sometimes there is an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Serpent as a rider on a fire-breathing horse. V. Propp speaks of the dual nature of the serpent, fire and water (9, 217-221). The name of the character “Serpent-Gorynych”, the location of his cave in the mountain indicates that this is the native place of the Serpent (9, 209-211). Koschei is a mysterious creature in folklore. His death is in an egg, often inside several animals, birds, in a casket, at the top of the world tree (7, 183-188). Serpents and Koschei kidnap girls, mothers, brides, then to keep or eat them. Their flight is associated with a gust of wind of great strength, a whirlwind.

In the poetic cycle, Koschey is represented as the keeper of the pearls necessary for the author to acquire the gift of song. The serpent hides secrets in its mouth. To understand the images of Koshchei and the Serpent, the correlation of their nature with the element of water is very important. A.N. Afanasiev in work " Poetic views Slavs to nature” explains: “The same wonderful gift of wisdom, according to Russian and German legends, goes to the lot of those who taste snake meat or blood, that is, drink living water flowing in the veins of a snake-cloud” (3, 203) . The poetic comparison of dew drops, rain with pearls explains Koshchei's involvement in this element. As stated earlier, the Serpent is related to the elements of water. In Western European mythology, Odin and his daughter Saga (in Greek - Zeus and the Muses) drink a drink from a cold spring, which gives them poetic inspiration, the ability to prophesy, the ability to read and understand secret writing (runes).

Gnomes , in the lower mythology of the peoples of Europe, small creatures of small stature, from a child or a finger, but endowed with supernatural power. They notice long beards, sometimes goat legs or crow's feet. They live much longer than humans. Their home is in the mountains or in the forest. In the bowels of the earth, little men keep treasures - gems and metals, they are skilled craftsmen who can forge magical rings, swords and more. Gnomes often give people good advice, treasures, and occasionally kidnap beautiful girls. Little men do not like field work that harms their underground economy (6, vol. 1, 307).

In the poetic cycle, the gnomes are put by the author on a par with fears and snakes (1, 319). These images are united by the common meaning of a possible threat coming from the darkness. In fairy land, these characters build castles in the dark for their kings. A crowd of dwarfs makes the poet laugh, and their ugliness - small stature - disgust. Comparing the dwarf with the mole, the author, as it were, exposes the mystery of the images, however, by doing so, he points to the ability to be a werewolf (2, 304).

When creating the world of "Fairy Tales" K.D. Balmont used mythological images. The poet turned to Slavic and Western European folklore, but final choice funds artistic expressiveness was dictated by the desire to give each image unique individual features. Free circulation with folklore materials, the combination of Slavic and Western European allowed K.D. Balmont to creatively perceive, use mythological images in an original way and create a unique world of Fairy Tales.

Literature

1. Balmont K.D. Poems. - L .: Soviet writer, 1969.

2. Balmont K.D. Selected: Poems. Translations. Articles. – M.: Pravda, 1991

3. Afanasiev A.N. Poetic views of the Slavs on nature. – M.: Soviet writer, 1995.

4. Grimm VK, I. Collected Works. Per. ed. P.N. Field. - "Algorithm", 1998.

5. Grushko E.K., Medvedev Yu.M. Dictionary of Slavic mythology. - Nizhny Novgorod: "Russian merchant" and "Brothers-Slavs", 1996.

6. Myths of the peoples of the world. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1980.

7. Russian folk tales A.N. Afanasiev in three books. book 1 - M .: Moscow news, 1992.

8. Ozhegov S.I., Shvedova N.Yu. Dictionary Russian language. - M.: Az, 1996.

9. Propp V. Complete collection of works: In 8 vols. vol. 2: The historical roots of the Fairy Tale. – M.: Labyrinth, 1988.

10. Slavic mythology: Encyclopedic Dictionary. – M.: Ellis Luck, 1995.

Introduction

Any mythology is the flesh of the flesh of the people who created it. It reflects, as in a mirror, the character of the parent people, the values ​​that it extols and cherishes, and the anti-values ​​that it condemns and denies: also mythology, or rather, its very spirit, is in direct connection with the habitat of the myth-creating people. And it is very curious to compare the mythological systems of different nations among themselves, revealing in the latter the above-mentioned correspondences and oppositions. Especially rich material for comparisons of this kind is provided by Europe - because of its compactness in comparison with other continents. The farther north from the cradle of civilization - the Mediterranean - the more severe the spirit of mythology becomes, the more cruel the gods become, the bloodier the battles, the more tragic the conflicts and the more hopeless fate. And this "increase in drama" reaches its apogee in the mythology of the extreme European North - in the mythology of the Scandinavians.

As A.Ya. Gurevich in the preface to the Russian edition of the "Elder Edda" in the "Library of World Literature", "the image of the world, developed by the thought of the peoples of Northern Europe, largely depended on their way of life. Pastoralists, hunters, fishermen and sailors, to a lesser extent farmers, they lived in an environment of harsh and poorly mastered nature, which their rich imagination easily inhabited by hostile forces. The center of their life is a separate rural yard. Accordingly, the entire universe was modeled by them in the form of a system of estates. Just as uncultivated wastelands or rocks stretched around their estates, so the whole world was conceived by them as consisting of spheres sharply opposed to each other ... ”It is enough to compare the picture of the Scandinavian mythological universe with a similar picture, for example, Greek mythology, in order to feel the difference in the worldview of peoples : icy wilderness with rare farms among the Scandinavians - and sun-drenched, fertile, densely populated lands among the Greeks. The “discrepancy between mentalities” is so obvious that you will inevitably doubt the legitimacy of attributing both the Greek and Scandinavian mythological systems to the common Indo-European mythopoetic tradition.

Based on the above facts, we formulated the topic of our study: mythological images in the minds of the Russian and English people.

The object of our study is the national consciousness of the Russian and English people.

The subject of the study is mythological images in the minds of the Russian and English people

The purpose of the study is to reveal the role of mythological images in the minds of the Russian and English people

Research objectives:

1.Analyze by research topic.

2.Describe the main concepts of the work.

.Reveal the role of mythological images in the minds of the Russian and English people

Chapter 1. The concept of consciousness

.1 Worldview and historical development of the Russian people

The central issue today has become the question of the formation in the public mind of a state-patriotic ideology, a modern national idea, which can only become a strategy for the development of the Nation and the State, and for the present - and the basis of the concept of overcoming the protracted crisis.

From a concrete historical point of view, there is no doubt that the Soviet system was the cumulative result of the activities of millions of people - citizens of Russia, who for the most part had a vague idea of ​​​​Marxism and the theory of socialism. The slogans and ideas of "Russian Marxism-Leninism", which determined historical development, in many respects did not coincide with the essence and practice of the real historical process. The emerging Soviet society, despite its specificity, was a product of the natural-historical development of the Eurasian Russian civilization. Three revolutions over a decade and a half not only turned the course of Russian civilization, but formed a new social structure of society, modified the mentality of the population and determined the objective laws of the development of a new society. In practice, it had little resemblance to its image in both Soviet and Western social science literature, subordinated to the solution of propaganda tasks.

Peoples of geopolitical successor Russian Empire- The USSR developed within the framework of such a civilizational wave, which deviated even more from Western patterns of development than Russian traditional civilization. At the same time, it should be noted that the development of a new Soviet community in the first half of the 20th century. a huge impact had a negative foreign policy environment, which put it in the conditions of an armed struggle for existence and survival. The collapse of the monarchical system and the horrendous devastation after the First World War immediately put the socialists on the track of creating a rigidly centralized statehood. This element of the Eurasian civilization received hypertrophied significance and resounded with particular force. Civil War and the military intervention of 14 states consolidated the trend of centralization. The industrialization of a country with a poor, illiterate population, among which there were dozens of nationalities with feudal and even tribal social relations, required an even greater mobilization of all the forces of society by the authoritarian-bureaucratic regime. The mobilization-revolutionary nature of the development of Soviet Russia on the basis of the exploitation of the temporary revolutionary enthusiasm of one part of the masses and the forced subjugation of the other has become a characteristic quality of this society. Totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship of the 30-50s. fully reflected, contrary to the theories of Marxism, this feature of the process of building socialism in one single country. Soviet society certainly bore the pronounced stamp of totalitarianism, but at the same time it is impossible to deny that it guaranteed the working people a certain social minimum, including the realization of the right to work, free education and health care, recreation and housing. If Western civilization could not get rid of economic crises, unemployment, wars, drug addiction, then Soviet society could not get rid of the shortage of goods, restrictions on democracy, and the growth of the militarization of the economy. The Great Patriotic War and the unleashed Cold War again created extremely unfavorable conditions for the realization of the socialist idea in its original form, and this again stimulated the mobilization nature of the development of society. With the beginning of Khrushchev's de-Stalinization, the political system was updated, but the revival of the rights of the individual, his property and freedoms did not happen.

In the USSR, a collectivist and egalitarian psychology was established, which has deep historical roots. This mentality was stimulated by an all-encompassing Soviet state which stood above and controlled civil society. The special archetype of culture that developed in Soviet society was based on the ideology of Marxist socialism, which in many respects reproduced the Old Testament biblical categories - (the code of the builder of communism), which gave it a religious character. The preservation of the functions of Orthodoxy in the state ideology (with its formal denial of other elements of the Russian patriotic idea - “Great Russia forever rallied”) gave the socialist ideology a very special “sacred” meaning. It was a kind of religion, not subject to criticism, renewal, improvement from the standpoint of new conditions and requirements of scientific and technical progress. The Marxist ideology became dogmatized and deadened, detached from the masses. The generation of Soviet people who grew up in the second half of the 20th century became in its mass apolitical, predisposed to the assimilation of individualism and the cult of consumerism.

Period 60-80s. in history, it represented a qualitatively new - mature - changed type of society, with transformed signs of a general civilizational complex. The state, as before, was the dominant element of the political system, but it was no longer viewed as an instrument of the dictatorship of one class, but as a one-party system of governing society from the standpoint of the declared interests of the whole people. In the social structure of the USSR, there was an erasure of class barriers and a real departure from the class model of society. The existing social groups differed among themselves mainly in the nature of work. The relations of public property gradually turned into a supra-class institution that formally regulated social relations. In the party-state ideology of the 80s. more and more common human values ​​were used (the so-called policy of "new thinking"). Within the framework of the Soviet political system, its own political closed elite was formed on the basis of the highest party apparatus bureaucracy, which broke away from the masses. On the one hand, this testified to the crisis of social justice in society, on the other hand, it corresponded to the global trends in the development of elites. The socialist cultural archetype was intensively developing in the country. Culture was understood as the generation of socialist values ​​containing universal human ideals in a transformed form. Despite censorship and pressure from the authorities, outstanding works of literature, cinema, theater, painting, etc. were created. The population of the USSR was considered as a socio-psychological phenomenon - the "Soviet people", which was positively perceived by them. There were no interethnic wars and armed conflicts in the country, separatism was successfully suppressed without pronounced consequences. The peoples of the USSR were, on the whole, a global community, relatively closed in conditions of self-isolation, functioning on the basis of a special, socialist mode of production. The main form of social movement gradually became not revolutionary mobilization, but social evolution, which led to a certain increase in the level of material well-being of the population. The main source of the country's development was not mobilization and terror, but the increased exploitation of subsoil and resources, which, however, also had no prospects. The complete rejection of private property relations, civilized market relations, the ossification of the political system and ideology, the preservation of the traditions of neo-Stalinism, the mobilization economy, the decay of the political elite - all this did not allow the creation of a mechanism for self-regulation of Soviet society and plunged it into a systemic crisis. An attempt to create a new civilization on fundamentally new principles ended in obvious failure. The failure of real socialism testifies to its "mutant" character. Since social development turned out to be aimed mainly at confrontation with the capitalist system, the creative potential of the broad masses turned out to be unclaimed. People striving for their unification as masters of economic and political life turned out to be alienated both from the authorities and from their own enterprises. The dictatorship of state institutions, led by a reborn political elite, preserved Soviet society in its transitional state. Socialist civilization did not take place and Russian society went into a deep crisis.

The nation and society as a whole, and not just individual parties and even unions, need a new worldview, or an ideology that unites in its main features the majority of representatives of the Nation, some kind of national idea that can save the Nation.

The strategic task today, however strange it may seem, is the task of creating and introducing into the mass consciousness a new state-patriotic ideology and value system for the majority of the Nation, and not for the supporters of individual parties.

And this task is urgent, because rightly they say: "He who saves on the creation of his own national-state ideology is doomed to nurture and profess someone else's." Let's add - with all the ensuing consequences in the economy, social sphere, state building, not to mention foreign and military policy. How can one talk about a coherent concept, a program for the development of society and the state in some particular area, let's say the economy, without having a clear idea of ​​the ultimate goal of development?

From the point of view of the state-patriotic ideology, one of the answers is as follows: the state needs a powerful economy, which is based on the rates of development of science-intensive products that are ahead of the advanced countries, those industries that today determine the level of scientific and technological progress. Science-intensive means less energy-intensive, less metal-intensive, resource-saving in general, and also the least damaging to the country's ecology.

This example makes it possible to realize the true scale of the task of forming a state-patriotic ideology, not just as another "ism", but as an "intellectual breakthrough", so necessary for the Nation, a common denominator for the leading political forces.

And the second, no less important side of the problem: without an "intellectual breakthrough" there will be no political victory, because it must be preceded by an intellectual victory.

1.2 Worldview and historical development of the English people

The indigenous population of Britain - the Britons (Celts) - by the beginning of the 1st millennium was under the domination of the Roman Empire. Scattered tribes were going through the stage of formation of their supra-communal administration. The inclusion of the Britons in the tax and military service system of the empire accelerated and modified this process. With the collapse of the Roman Empire, “the inhabitants of the island of Britain united with some Celtic peoples in order to break away from Roman power and, no longer obeying Roman laws, live at their own discretion,” the chronicler recorded a little later than these events. “So the British took up arms, liberated their communities from the barbarians who threatened them.” Military struggle for independence by the 4th - 5th centuries. advanced the process of strengthening the power of military leaders and began the military-democratic system.

In the middle of the VI century. the independent development of the British communities was interrupted: the Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded from the continent. The age-old struggle against the invasion (remaining in world culture as myths about the knights of the "round table" and King Arthur - the semi-legendary leader Ambrose, about 500) ended in defeat. Britain was dominated by the Anglo-Saxons. However, back in the 7th century. separate tribal associations (kingdoms, Britons, etc.)

The Anglo-Saxon conquerors were only at the stage above the communal administration, they did not have royal power, and the first leaders were more leaders, ancient German hertzes. The Britons were at a slightly higher stage of development politically. Formed by the VI - VII centuries. associations were only proto-states of the barbarian type, however (unlike the Visigoths, Franks or Lombards in Europe, the almost lack of influence of Roman state institutions predetermined the weakness of state principles. Only in the 6th century did the first kings with honorary rights, subordinates and squads appear. An important role in accelerating State formation played the role of the spread of Christianity in Britain (591 - 688.) From the very beginning, isolation from the Roman center made the patronage of kings more important for British bishops. At the end of the 7th century, the church was granted exemption from taxes and duties, and other privileges.

By the beginning of the 7th century in southern Britain, 19 proto-state associations were formed with their own “legacy”. Gradually, 7-8 proto-states acquired the greatest influence and importance - the largest and most stable were Northumbria Mercia, Essex, Wessex, Kent (they also differed ethnically, at times the kingdoms recognized the dominance of one of them in a general conditional union, the heads of such temporary associations took the special title of bradwald. But in general, Britain was the so-called "seven-kings" (heptarchy). Within the framework of the heptarchy, during the 7th - 9th centuries, the process of the development of proto-states into early state formations gradually completed. On the one hand, this process was expressed in the growth of the rights and importance of the royal If in the 7th century the kings were considered as one of the members of the tribe, the encroachment on which is a kind of generic "insult" and must be redeemed, then by the 8th - 9th centuries the rudiments of public powers are recognized for the kings: the right to order, punish, judge , to lead the communal authorities and their guarantors.The special right of kings to patronize is recognized - as a result This forms a special circle (near and distant) approximate kings, occupying a special place in society, in a special way protected by law. Usurping tribal rights, kings make awards - rights, and then lands. On the other hand, the process of formation of early statehood was expressed in the emergence of a state organization: administrators, taxes, coercive power. especially importance in the formation of the early administration, the church had: due to special ties with the kings, church leaders are entrusted with many public functions. At the same time, the royal court and the hierarchy of military service officials were formed, who were entrusted with local administration and the execution of royal orders, and the collection of taxes. In the 8th century the unconditional supreme right (akin to the former Roman imperium) to command is recognized for the kings. Royal legislation becomes a permanent function of power. At the turn of the VII - VIII centuries. in connection with the growth of legislative regulation, the scope of the state (royal) court expanded, actions without trial were prohibited. People's meetings and other remnants of the military-democratic order have gone out of use.

By the beginning of the IX century. political leadership in southern Britain passed to the most powerful kingdom of the heptarchy - Wessex. In the reign of King Egbert (802 - 839), the kingdom achieved hegemony over all others. Such dominance ensured the accelerated formation of state royal power: the rise of the king already above the tribal and territorial nobility, the introduction of the highest punishments for encroachments on the king into law. For a single ruler, with the help of the church, the procedure for anointing to the kingdom is introduced (akin to the Franks) - the king from now on symbolizes the ruler of God's grace with the corresponding supreme rights in relation to all subjects. The final strengthening of statehood took place at the end of IX - ser. X century, when a single Anglo-Saxon kingdom was formed with a new social hierarchy and a well-established early territorial organization (instead of tribal associations).

Until the 7th century the Germano-Celtic society formed as a result of the conquest was poorly differentiated. Along with free community members, ancient laws mentioned semi-free people and slaves - which was typical for the Germans at the stage of pre-state life. There were practically no private land holdings so important for the process of feudalization on the continent - estates, villas, etc. Social stratification did not anticipate the formation of the state hierarchy, but occurred at least in parallel with it, sometimes to the greatest extent This was one of the indicative features of the formation of early feudal statehood in Britain. From the 7th century The church organization became a factor that aggravated social and ethnic disunity: the Germanic tribes adopted Christianity earlier than others, and the local peoples for a long time retained remnants of paganism and Celtic beliefs.

During the period of proto-states, official stratification, due to the place in the military-druzhina hierarchy and proximity to the kings, was supplemented by delimitation based on land holdings. Land5 was considered as a common property (folkland), the right to dispose of which was gradually appropriated by the kings. From the 7th century practice included land grants on behalf of the kings to members, first of their kind, and then enjoying the patronage of the kings (bokland). These awards were granted under the condition of fulfilling certain obligations of a state and personal nature (akin to continental beneficiation). The award was accompanied by the approval of the recipient (tan) of certain immunity rights, tax and judicial powers over the land received and the people given to him in power. “The law of the tan is that he use his rights received by letter and perform three duties from his land: participation in the militia, in the restoration of fortresses and in the construction of bridges” (“Treatise on Administration”, X century). The most significant awards were addressed to the church, which, in turn, formed, as it were, a secondary circle of holders dependent on it. But by virtue of the recognized patronage over the church, the kings stood unquestionably at the head of the entire emerging hierarchy of proprietary and service-personal ties.

In the IX - X centuries. the most permanent awards are developing; already in estates (manors), in which, along with the free, dependent peasants-geburs also live. Former free peasants moved to the position of genites and pledged to fulfill land duties, pay taxes in kind, “strengthen the master's house, receive those who come to the village, pay; church tribute and alms, to carry guards and horse guards, to go on assignments, where it will be ordered. Geburah were employed in the corvee several days a week, and in addition, they also performed natural duties. In the ninth century began to impose bans on nepexoda farmers from one property to another. In the X century. the law prescribed for all the freemen a compulsory commendation: everyone had to choose a glaford (master, patron) with whom to establish vassal relations. Separate royal powers, especially judicial and financial ones, began to be transferred to the holders of large estates-manors in the right of immunity privileges.

During the heyday of the Anglo-Saxon state, under the influence of the legal policy of the kings, a peculiar estate system was formed there, equally based on the traditional privileges of the nobility and on the difference in land rights. The upper layer was made up of great thanes (wealthy patrimonials and influential combatants); they, as a rule, had their own jurisdiction, which was the most important of their feudal rights. On a par with them (in terms of legal status, protection of life and honor, land rights, financial and judicial privileges) were bishops and abbots, holders of large land grants to the church. The second most important social stratum was represented by local thanes - holders of land from the king, obliged to carry military service. The local priesthood also had a similar legal status. All of them - great tans, clergy, tans-knights - were united in the general concept of nobility - erls. In this respect, they were opposed to small landowners - erlams, who, although they had their own lands, were not directly dependent on the king and therefore were under the leadership of the local nobility. However, both earls and kerls could equally have the rights of patronage in relation to subordinates (of course, of different significance), they could be commanded, etc.

In terms of its internal organization, the Anglo-Saxon state was generally related to the barbarian kingdoms of continental Europe: state-political relations were concentrated in the institution of royal power. Personal and official relations with the king as the highest patron, lord, nominal owner of state lands replaced, to a large extent, state-administrative and legal relations.

The king was considered the bearer of supreme powers, his personality and rights enjoyed special protection of law. He certainly had the legislative power, the right of the highest court, the right to appoint officials to whom the population was obliged to obey. On behalf of the king and under his guarantee, lands were allocated from the public fund - mainly to churches and private owners. From this right of the king to dispose of the lands of the country followed his special prerogatives: the supreme disposal of harbors, marinas, high roads, mines; treasures, wrecked ships belonged exclusively to the crown. One of the most important economically and economically advantageous was the exclusive right of the king to all the forests of the country. The king had the right to the labor of the population, that is, to engage in public works, the right to confiscated property. From the supreme police powers of the king to maintain public order came the right to collect fees in favor of the crown (there were no direct taxes in the kingdom). The kings exercised patronage over the church, as a result of which they could interfere in the internal affairs of church districts, in appointments to church positions. The property of the king was subject to greater legal protection than the property of other estates. The power of the kings was not, however, completely hereditary: the endowment of the new king with state powers had the form of his election by the top of the country's upper classes.

The beginning of the new English state was the Norman conquest of Britain in the second half of the 11th century. In 1066 the Duke of Normandy William (Northern France), at the head of knightly squads, invaded Britain. At the Battle of Hastings, the troops of the last Anglo-Saxon King Harold were defeated, and over the next few years, South and Central Britain were subject to the conquerors. The landed estates of the Anglo-Saxon nobility were confiscated and most of them transferred to the Normans, the main wealth was concentrated in the hands of the crown, including almost all the cities. Political power passed to immigrants from Normandy. However, the newcomers continued to rule and live in the main according to the old traditions and according to English law, the former English property as a result of the "silent revolution" passed into the wrong hands - the social and political basis of the state remained, in fact, the same. Already by the XII century. the social assimilation of the conquerors became noticeable, by the beginning of the 13th century. even ethnic differences have practically disappeared ( French remained only official for some time). As a result, the new state became the state of a new single English nation.

The invasion of the Normans and the establishment of a new monarchy did not significantly change the former state system of the kingdom. The need for a stronger military organization in the conquered country and its administrative subordination contributed to a sharp increase in the central royal power. The conquest strengthened the system of feudal relations, in short time transferring them from the level of personal-social ties and responsibilities to the level of state-political ties. As a result of the conquest, the English kingdom was formed into a fief monarchy, the basis of which was the relationship of suzerainty-vassalage, the feudal military-service hierarchy and the system of estate land ownership and royal grants interconnected with it.

Feudal-feudal relations in the new monarchy were distinguished by significant originality. Wilhelm and his immediate successors sought to strengthen the state role of the crown on the basis of declaring the king the supreme owner of the kingdom's lands (which, however, was in full accordance with the Anglo-Saxon tradition, somewhat weakened during the years of the Danish conquest) and centralized intervention in grassroots feudal relations.

In addition to the powers transferred from the Anglo-Saxon ancient monarchy to land grants (now free from the consent of the Hutans) and to legislation, the Norman kings during the 11th - 12th centuries. secured significant new rights. The king became the bearer of the highest military power: the fief militia-militia was in the position of the king's squad, he single-handedly determined the time of convocation and the number of militias; in this respect also the ancient rights of the Anglo-Saxon kings as a military leader were revived on a new basis. The judicial supremacy of the king was established - not only in the form of rights to his own royal court, but also to determine all judges in general in the kingdom, to review the decisions of lower courts, even those associated with communal traditions. The administrative and police supremacy of the crown became especially significant: the authorities conducted mandatory censuses and audits of the lands and population, prohibited or restricted the movement of the population for these purposes, offenders were taken on bail on behalf of the crown, which freed them temporarily or permanently from liability, the representatives of the king began to take mandatory participation in the investigation of crimes on the ground, and from the XIII century. there were commissions of inquiry under the supervision of the vice-count (a commissioner appointed by the king).

During the period of the fief monarchy, the formation of a new estate system of English society was completed. Like the original, Anglo-Saxon, it was based on a feudal military hierarchy and interconnectedness with landed property. However, during the period of the fief monarchy, various immunities and privileges granted by state power became no less significant.

The bourgeois state and law of England arose in the course of two English revolutions of the 17th century, which received the names "Great Revolt" and "Glorious Revolution". The ideological shell of the movement was formed by the slogans of the reform of the dominant church and the restoration of "ancient customs and liberties", characteristic of the social movements of the Middle Ages. At the same time, in the English bourgeois revolution, for the first time, the main patterns of development of the bourgeois revolutions of modern times were clearly manifested, which made it possible to call it the prototype of the Great French bourgeois revolution.

The main features of the English bourgeois revolution are due to a peculiar, but historically natural for England, alignment of socio-political forces. The English bourgeoisie came out against the feudal monarchy, the feudal nobility and the ruling church, not in alliance with the people, but in alliance with the "new nobility". The split of the English nobility and the transfer of its greater, bourgeois part to the camp of the opposition made it possible for the English bourgeoisie, still insufficiently strong, to triumph over absolutism.

This union gave the English revolution an unfinished character, and led to the limited socio-economic and political gains.

The preservation of large landownership by the English landlords, the solution of the agrarian question without allocating land to the peasantry is the main indicator of the incompleteness of the English revolution in the economic sphere. In the political sphere, the bourgeoisie had to share power with the new landed aristocracy, with the latter playing the decisive role. The influence of the aristocracy affected the formation in England of such a variety of bourgeois, constitutional monarchy, which, along with the representative body, retained feudal institutions, including strong royal power, the House of Lords, and the Privy Council. Followed in the XVIII and XIX centuries. the agrarian and industrial revolutions ultimately ensured the dominance of capitalist production relations and the leadership of the industrial bourgeoisie in the exercise of political power. During this time, the semi-feudal, aristocratic political system of Britain slowly and gradually turned into a bourgeois-democratic one.

The evolution of the world model of capitalism in the last quarter of the 19th century. had a great influence on the position of Great Britain in the world and the development of its political system. During this period, Great Britain, which used to be the "workshop of the world", lost the world championship in industrial production. At the end of XIX - beginning of XX century. The basis of British capitalism was not industrial and commercial, but colonial monopoly.

The difficulties associated with the loss of the industrial monopoly and the decline of traditional industries were especially exacerbated as a result of the global economic crisis of the 1920s and early 1930s. The severe consequences of the crisis forced the ruling circles to expand state intervention in the economy and in the sphere of social relations in order to stabilize it.

The most radical step in this direction was taken after the Second World War, when the Labor government carried out the nationalization of a number of leading industries: coal, steel, energy, as well as transport, communications, and civil aviation. Housing stock and healthcare facilities accounted for a significant share of state property. The public sector covered 20% of the country's economy. As a result of this, an extensive system of special units related to the regulation of the economy was created in the British state apparatus. Among them, a special place was occupied by public corporations, which were created mainly in nationalized industries. These institutions were subordinate to the general management of the relevant ministries, but were managed by a special board and were distinguished by administrative and financial independence in operational activities (British Railway Authority, London Transport Authority, Post Office, etc.). Mixed bodies, whose leadership included both officials of the state apparatus, and representatives of the largest companies, and sometimes representatives of the leadership of trade unions (National Economic Development Council, Financial Corporation for Industry, etc.), also gained considerable popularity.

Along with the strengthening of the regulatory role of the state in the economic sphere in the post-war period, its growing intervention in social relations was also observed. Extension social function The British state was accompanied by the creation of special bodies, such as, for example, the Commission on Industrial Relations, industrial tribunals, acting as a "third party" in the regulation of "relations in industry", between workers and entrepreneurs. Relations in industry and other social issues, including the regulation of national and racial relations, began to be devoted to an increasing number of regulations.

However, at the turn of the 80s. the Conservative government was one of the first in the world to carry out a radical reorientation of economic policy aimed at reducing state intervention in the economy in favor of a "free market economy" and "personal initiative", privatizing the economy as much as possible and weakening the influence of trade unions. The main form of denationalization or privatization in the UK has become open sale shares to investors, including the sale or gratuitous distribution of shares to workers and employees of state enterprises, the sale at a discount of state housing stock, etc. Such a policy was called "people's" or "workers'" capitalism. Already by the beginning of the 90s. the share of the public sector in British industry has fallen by almost half since 1979, and the number of small shareholders has tripled.

The program of turning the British into "a nation of homeowners and shareholders" was supposed to contribute, in the opinion of its authors, to the strengthening of social stability in the country. But they did not take into account the negative consequences of these radical neo-liberal reforms, which led to a sharp concentration of wealth and influence in the hands of a fairly narrow elite group. A peculiar response to this was the coming to power in 1997 after a long permanent leadership of the country by the Conservatives, the Labor government. Without abandoning the heritage of the Conservatives in general, the Labor government seeks to find new forms of preserving the regulatory role of the state in the conditions of a free development of the market and global integration processes.

Chapter 2. Mythology

.1 Slavic mythology

Slavic mythology is distinguished by a noticeable originality against the background of Indo-European mythology. mythological tradition Moreover, it is not similar to the mythological systems of Egypt, China, the Far North and other parts of the ecumene. It does not have a variety of plots, gods, heroes, as in Greek mythology, the strict hierarchy of the Roman pantheon, the mystery, mystery and ambiguity of Indian and Iranian myths, the twilight gloominess of Scandinavian mythology. This originality manifested itself even in terminology: many researchers prefer to talk not about mythology, but about paganism, thereby emphasizing a certain isolation of the religious ideas of the ancient Slavs. Nevertheless, it would be a methodological and substantive mistake to separate Slavic paganism from the processes in the world development of mythological thinking, of which it is a part. It is necessary to clearly understand that, firstly, Slavic mythology is an integral part of the mythology of the Indo-European peoples, so that among the gods of the ancient Slavs one can find analogues to Zeus, and Indra, and Odin, and other well-known gods and heroes of developed mythological systems; secondly, the mythology of the ancient Balts, the ancestors of the current Lithuanians and Latvians, is closest to the Slavic one, in these systems there is even almost complete match the names of the main gods - the Slavic Perun and the Baltic Perkonas / Perkunas; thirdly, Slavic paganism has its roots in the agricultural spiritual culture of the ancient Slavs, which will be discussed in more detail below; Finally, there are objective difficulties in studying and describing the mythological ideas of the Slavs of antiquity.

These difficulties are due to two reasons. The main one is the extreme scarcity of information about the mythological views of the ancient Slavs, the almost complete absence of texts of myths, plots, mythological traditions, etc., which is associated with the peculiarities of the history of religion among the Slavic peoples. As you know, Christianity as a monotheistic religion came to the Slavs relatively late, in the 9th-10th centuries. n. e., when tribal unions were replaced by early feudal state formations, in which the idea of ​​centralization of power dominated, its concentration in the hands of the monarch - the grand duke, king, kagan, etc .; this idea sharply contradicted the idea of ​​polytheism, polytheism, inherent in mythological consciousness, when each tribe or union of tribes preferred some of their favorite gods, as was the case in ancient Novgorod, where the cult of Veles / Volos dominated, in contrast to Kyiv, which revered Perun and left Veles/Volos to the cares of the common people who lived in Podil, in the low-lying part of the city. Unlike the Mediterranean, where Christianity originated as a religion of slaves and mob and only a few centuries later became the state religion of feudal Europe, among the Slavs Christianity, both in the form of Orthodoxy (South and Eastern Slavs) and in the form of Catholicism (Western Slavs) was planted from above, volitional decision of the supreme power: Kyiv prince Vladimir overnight made his subjects Orthodox. A one-time, strong-willed change in the ideological paradigm, the command to pray not to Perun and Mokosh, but to the one God determined both the state and church policy of the first centuries of Christianity among the Slavs - the policy of a powerful offensive against paganism, exposing all the vices of polytheism and completely debunking the former idols. Of course, the common people could not so easily abandon their habitual beliefs, consecrated by tradition, but they could not ignore the new religion: according to the Russian archaeologist V.V. Sedov, in the northern Russian territories, during excavations of settlements of the XIV century, skeletons were found, on the chest of which, next to the Orthodox cross, a pagan amulet rested peacefully. The farther from Kyiv and other cities Ancient Russia, the longer paganism persisted, but even it could not resist the furious pressure of the official church, which literally burned out the memory of the pagan past with fire: paganism could not win in this confrontation between the two religious systems, gradually going into the so-called superstition, transforming into demonology, remaining directly or indirectly in folk beliefs, traditions, signs and folklore texts. To the credit of Christianity, among the Slavs, its introduction went peacefully, primarily in the form of sermons against paganism (pagan temples, temples, statues of gods, obviously, some texts, objects of worship, but not people). One of these sermons of the 12th century had an eloquently exhaustive title: “The word of St. Gregory (the Theologian) is depicted in the crowd about what the first trash of the existing tongues bowed to the idol and laid trebs on them; even now they are doing it ”(in scientific use it is called“ The Word about idols ”). These sermons against paganism, along with the aforementioned folklore and elements of spiritual culture, primarily demonology, as well as evidence, extremely fragmentary and incomplete, of ancient chronicles, chronicles and original fiction (here the "Lay of Igor's Campaign" comes first), are perhaps the only sources of information about Slavic mythology.

Such a situation with the sources of the study of Slavic paganism, that is, the absence of texts chronologically related to the period of real, living polytheistic faith, forces scientists to turn to the method of reconstruction, restoration of the original mythological system using indirect data. This reconstruction, determined by strict scientific rules, gives reliable and quite correct results, nevertheless remaining a scientific hypothesis subject to critical analysis, corrections, additions, etc. The controversy unfolding around the vision of a mythological plot, character or general mythological model of the world, leads to a deepening and clarification of ideas about the beliefs of the ancient Slavs. On the other hand, relying on individual words, objects of religious worship, archaeological finds, Slavic mythologists established the presence of cosmogonic, etiological and other myths in paganism, pointed to the existence of a twin cult among the Slavs in the distant past, etc. But nothing to do with scientific reconstructions and hypotheses do not have appeared "about the multitude in recent times fakes and fakes like the so-called Veles Book, in which Slavic mythology appears as voluminous and colorful as Greek or Iranian, but this splendor has nothing to do with what is accessible to scientific analysis.

One can understand the desire of the Slavs or Russophile-minded people to be no worse than others, to attribute to their ancestors the ability to create epic works, similar to Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey", but these aspirations, quite appropriate in fiction, in modern novels about the ancient Slavs, only harm the scientific and, moreover, the university study of Slavic mythology.

Interest in the primitive beliefs of the Slavs, the history of the struggle between Christianity and paganism, and the reflection of Slavic mythology in folk art culture and life arose relatively late. Only in the 19th century, after the appearance of recorded and published ancient epics, fairy tales, folk songs and other folklore texts containing mythological motifs (one of the first publications was the publication in late XVIII centuries of "Ancient Russian poems collected by Kirshe Danilov", which contain valuable information on Slavic mythology), scientists began to systematize the information received. Classical works on Slavic mythology are the works of A. N. Afanasyev “Poetic views of the Slavs on nature. The experience of a comparative study of Slavic legends and beliefs in connection with the mythical tales of other kindred peoples ”(M., 1865-1869. Vol. 1-3), A.A. Potebni "On the mythical meaning of certain rites and beliefs" (1865), I. On some symbols in Slavic folk poetry. II. On the connection of certain representations in the language. III: About Kupala fires and representations related to them. IV. About the share and creatures related to it "(Ed. 2nd. Kharkov, 1914)," Word and Myth "(M;, 1989), I. P. Sakharova "Tales of the Russian people" (Ed. 3rd. St. Petersburg ., 1841, 1849), I. E. Zabelina “The domestic life of the Russian people in the 16th and 17th centuries” (in 2 vols. M., 1862-1915).

At the beginning of the 20th century, a great contribution to the study of Slavic mythology was made by the works of L. Niederle “Slavic Antiquities” (Prague, 1916, 1921), E. V. Anichkov “Paganism and Ancient Russia” (St. Petersburg, 1914), N. M. Galkovsky “The Struggle of Christianity with the Remnants of Paganism in Ancient Russia” (M., Kharkov, 1913, 1916. Vol. 1,2), as well as the works of D.K. Zelenin “Essays on Russian Mythology. Issue. 1. Those who died an unnatural death and mermaids” (Prague, 1916), “Selected Works. Articles on spiritual culture” (M., 1994).

In the subsequent period, the study of Slavic paganism continued in the works of V.Ya. Propp "Morphology of a fairy tale" (L., 1928) and "Historical roots fairy tale"(L., 1946), Vyach. All in. Ivanov and V. N. Toporov “Research in the field of Slavic antiquities. Lexical and Phraseological Issues of Text Reconstruction (Moscow, 1974), Slavic Language Modeling Semiotic Systems. The Ancient Period” (M., 1965), B. A. Uspensky “Philological research in the field of Slavic antiquities. (Relicts of paganism in the East Slavic cult of Nicholas of Myra)" (M., 1982), etc.

Final for the XIX-XX centuries. monographs by B.A. Rybakov "Paganism of the Ancient Slavs" (M., 1981) and "The Paganism of Ancient Russia" (M., 1987), as well as the ethnolinguistic dictionary "Slavic Antiquities" (M., 1995. Vol. 1), created by a team under the scientific guidance of an academician N. I. Tolstoy (five volumes are expected).

Slavic mythology is studied not only in Russia, but also in other Slavic countries, as well as in the largest scientific centers of Western Europe and America, but here are those works that are quite accessible to students as additional sources for studying the subject.

Like any religion, Slavic paganism, rooted in deep antiquity, reflects the real life of the primitive Slavs, who went through in their development, like the entire primitive communal world, two stages of life support. At the stage of gathering and hunting, the community takes from nature everything that it can give, without cultivating or reproducing anything. At the stage of animal husbandry and agriculture, the so-called great Neolithic revolution takes place, which means the transition from appropriation to reproduction, and subsequently the emergence of cities and trade, the personification of gods, social development, the emergence of classes, customary law, writing, etc.

For the ancient Slavs, the transition to agriculture and animal husbandry took place in very difficult natural and climatic conditions: after leaving the Indo-European ancestral home, the ancient Slavs settled in Central and Eastern Europe (from the Oder and Vistula to the Dnieper without access to the sea and the Balkans), in a territory abounding forests, rivers and swamps. It was a zone of risky farming, when the results of the work of the tiller were completely dependent on the weather. And the ancient man, barely standing out from natural nature and realizing his sociality, immediately discovered that the nature surrounding him can be both benevolent and harmful. In his image and likeness, our ancestor represented the forces that govern nature, impose their will on it and direct it for the good or harm of those who threw seeds into the plowed land or graze tamed animals.

In the area inhabited by the ancient Slavs, the almost complete dependence of the quality and quantity of the harvested crop or the resulting offspring on the “mercies of nature” forced people to turn their thoughts to those who controlled the elements in heaven, earth and underground. These often formidable, but also merciful forces, either sending hail to the sown field, or bestowing blessed rain, or fettering all life with unbearable cold for half a year, or condescending to the living in mild winter and early warm spring, demanded worship, reverence and gratitude, that is in the end, they became gods and gods, endowed with their own names or nameless, but equally demanding and self-willed, constantly reminding of their presence and the tribute they demanded in exchange for a generous harvest. The established habit of believing that the well-being of the family and life itself depend on the gods who control the weather and other natural forces led the ancient Slavs to turn to their gods not only in connection with the future outcome of the agricultural year, but also on any other occasion. , including this conversion to maternity, baptismal, initial, wedding, funeral and other rites, which ultimately created the agricultural spiritual culture of the Slavs. The mythological representations that arose in each of the above two stages of production, passed down from generation to generation, were easily differentiated during the transition from paganism to Christianity, being reflected in such monuments of religious and philosophical content as the “Speech of the Philosopher” from The Tale of Bygone Years. They presented before Vladimir, who chose a monotheistic religion, the history of paganism, which at the first stage created a cult of nature, and at the second - expressed itself in the manufacture of idols and human sacrifices. This was followed by a story about a visit to Ladoga by Prince Mstislav Vladimirovich in the Ipatiev Chronicle for 1114, telling that at first people who lived in antiquity fought with clubs and stones, cultivated group marriage, did not know a single god, and then worshiped the god of sky and fire Svarog , master metal and move on to monogamy, for the violation of which sinners are subjected to burning, and only later, in the era of Dazhbog, they establish the power of princes and kings, to whom people pay tribute; "A word about idols", in which the noted stages of religious beliefs receive a more or less detailed description.

Based on these and other evidence, the following periodization of Slavic paganism is established:

1. the cult of ghouls and coastlines;
2. the cult of the Family and women in childbirth;
3. cult of Perun;
4. adoption of Christianity and overcoming paganism.

2.2 Celtic and Norse mythology

Celtic mythology hardly knows those brutal cruelties found in the legends of the Germans and Scandinavians. It is as charming and picturesque as the Greek, and at the same time quite unlike the mythology of the Hellenes, which is a kind of reflection of the mild climate of the Mediterranean, so far from our temperate climatic zone. This is understandable. The gods are inevitably a product of the country where they appeared. How strange a naked Apollo would look, walking among the icebergs, or Thor in an animal skin, sitting under the canopy of palm trees. And the Celtic gods and heroes are the original inhabitants of the British landscape, and they do not seem like strangers on the historical stage, where there are no vines or olive groves, but rustle their own, domestic oaks and ferns, hazel and heather.

The Saxon invasion mainly affected the east of Britain, while in Western England, in Wales, Scotland, and especially in legendary Ireland, the hills and valleys still keep the memory of the ancient gods of the most ancient inhabitants of these lands. In South Wales and West England, literally at every turn, there are mysterious and surprisingly romantic places that the British Celts considered the abode of the gods or outposts of the other world. It is difficult to find a place in Ireland that is not connected in one way or another with the legendary exploits of the heroes of the Red Branch or Finn and his heroes. Ancient deities survived in the people's memory, turning into fairies and retaining all their attributes, and often their names. Wordsworth, in one of his sonnets written in 1801, laments that, while Pelion and Ossa, Olympus and Parnassus are constantly mentioned in "immortal books", not a single English mountain, "although they stand in crowds along the edge of the sea," has not been honored "honours from the muses of heaven", and in his time it certainly was so. But in our time, thanks to the efforts of scientists who discovered ancient Gaelic mythology, things are completely different. On Ludgate Hill in London, as well as on many other less famous hills, temples once stood in honor of the British Zeus. And one of the mountains near Beths-y-Kud in Wales served as the British Olympus, where the palace of our ancient gods was located.

The ancient gods lived in legend, becoming the ancient British kings who ruled the country in a fairy tale past, long before Julius Caesar. Such are King Lud, the legendary founder of London, King Lear, whose legend gained immortality under the pen of Shakespeare, King Brennius, who captured Rome, and many others who also played a role in ancient plays and, in particular, in mystery performances. Some of them returned to the people, becoming long-dead saints of the early Christian church in Ireland and Britain. Their sacred titles, deeds and deeds are most often a kind of church retelling of the adventures of their "namesake", the ancient pagan gods. Nevertheless, the gods survived again, becoming even more powerful. The myths about Arthur and the gods of his circle, having fallen into the hands of the Normans - the writers of the chronicles, returned to the reader in the form of a cycle of novels about the exploits of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. When these stories spread throughout medieval Europe, their influence became truly all-encompassing, so that the poetic impulse emanating from them found a wide response in our literature, playing a particularly prominent role in the work of such poets of the nineteenth century as Tennyson and Swinburne.

The diverse influence of Celtic mythology on English poetry and fiction was traced in his book The Origins of English History by Charles Elton. “The religious ideas of the tribes of the Britons,” he writes, “had a very marked influence on literature. Medieval novels and legends, which in one way or another reflect the historical past, are full of all sorts of "valiant heroes" and other characters of a purely mythological plan. The primordial forces of earth and fire, as well as the spirits that inhabit the rapids of the rivers, appear as kings on the pages of Irish chronicles or in the lives of saints and hermits in Wales. The Knights of the Round Table, Sir Kai and Tristan, as well as the noble Sir Bedivere, renounced their powerful origins for the new attributes they acquired as heroes of novels. King Arthur in a quiet and peaceful valley... gave birth to a goddess. “There, under the canopy of the forests, on the banks of the streams, a ray of the sun rarely penetrated, and the nights were dark and gloomy, because neither the moon nor the stars were visible in the sky.” That was the land of Oberon and Sir Gaon of Bordeaux. Such is the dense forest of Arden. In ancient mythology, the possessions of the King of Shadows were known, the country of Gwyn-ap-Nudd, where Sir Gaon goes in The Fairy Queen.

In ancient times, all the Celts were united by a single organization of priests - the druids. They often enjoyed more influence than the chiefs. They were led by the archdruid, and they all met once a year for meetings. The main center and school of the Druids were in present-day England. They were probably founded by the predecessors of the Celts - the tribes of megalith builders. These megaliths, including Stonehenge, were centers of sacred rites held by the Druids. Sacred groves and springs were also revered. It is known that the Druids believed in the transmigration of souls: that after death the soul of a person can move into a newborn or into another creature - a bird, a fish, etc. But they also believed in afterworld- underground, under water or on islands in the ocean somewhere in the west. However, in general, the teachings of the Druids were secret, it was forbidden to write it down, and therefore its content has practically not come down to us.

Among animals, the Celts especially worshiped the horse and the bull. In Ireland, for a long time, the striking custom of the assumption of power by a new king persisted. Its main part was the ritual of the sacred marriage of the king with a white mare, as if personifying the kingdom. After this action, the mare was solemnly slaughtered, and the new king still had to bathe in the broth brewed from it. The rite of the sacred choice of the king is also known. In accordance with it, a specially appointed person ate raw meat and drank the blood of a sacred bull, and then went to bed. In a dream, he was supposed to see a new king. Quite unusual, but compared with other peoples, is the veneration of the domestic pig and wild boar by the Celts, associated with the other world. In some Celtic epics (sagas), the hero hunts a boar, and he leads him to the other world.

All the Celts believed in several major gods. Among them is the angry god Jesus. associated with the mistletoe cult, the god of thunder Garanis and the god of war and tribal unity Teutat. The Druids especially promoted human sacrifice. So, the victims of Jezus were hung on a tree. Taranis was burned, and Teutata was drowned. Horned Cernunnos was probably the god of fertility and wildlife. Lug was the god of light. In later Irish myths, this is an alien god who won a place among other gods by his skill in many crafts.

After the conquest of Britain and Gaul (France) by Rome, the Druid organization was destroyed.

Britain was inhabited by another branch of the Celtic tribes, the Britons - the ancestors of the inhabitants of modern Wales (Welsh) and Brittany in France (Breton). They also kept rich ancient epic performed to the accompaniment of a harp. It is close to Irish, but more reworked in a Christian spirit. For example, here Manavidan, the son of Lear, is in many ways similar to Manannan, but now he is no longer a god, but a mortal full of wisdom. In general, Welsh myths are more like fairy tales. They are collected in the book Mabinogion "- a kind of manual for young bards. The characteristic motifs of the Celtic epic are enchanted castles that rotate, can disappear, etc., as well as magic cauldrons, always full of food or reviving the dead placed there, or bestowing eternal youth. Another bright feature pagan mythology Celts - head worship. So, the ancient Celts cut off the heads of the enemies they killed and kept them as trophies. But also the heads of their own leaders could serve as a powerful talisman, an object of worship, Even continue to live in this form. Many Celtic images of sacred heads, sometimes three-faced, have survived. The most famous among them is the head of Bran, son of Lear and ruler of Britain. According to legend, it was buried in London and protected Britain from disasters.

At the beginning of the 5th century A.D. e. The Romans left Britain. A few years later, this island, torn apart by the internecine struggle of the Celtic princes (kings), began to move the Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes.

At the end of the 5th century, the aggression of the Anglo-Saxons was stopped for about 50 years. Legends attribute this to the victories won by King Arthur, who managed to unite all the Britons. A Celtic commander with that name really existed. The king was assisted by the magician and soothsayer Myrddin (Merlin), his relative, to whom rumor ascribes great miracles, for example, the transfer of stones from the ancient sanctuary of Stonehenge from Ireland to England. Arthur's father, King Uther Pendragon, was inflamed with passion for the wife of his vassal, Igraine. With the help of Merlin, he took on the form of her husband and so deceived her. From this connection, Arthur was born, who was given to Merlin to raise. But after the death of Uther, the king was to be the one who pulls out the wonderful sword from the stone lying on the altar. Only Arthur managed to do this. According to another legend, Arthur, with the help of Merlin, obtained his wonderful sword Excalibur from the fairy - the Lady of the Lake, where a mysterious hand held it above the water. Among the enemies of Arthur was his own sister, the sorceress (fairy) Morgana. Unaware of his relationship, Arthur fell in love with Morgana in his youth. They had a son, Mordred. who at one time raised a rebellion against his father, was killed by Arthur in battle, but managed to mortally wound him. Fairy Morgana transported Arthur to the magical island of Avallon, where he lies in a palace on top of a mountain. When the hour of black trouble comes, King Arthur will return to save Britain. They also tell about Merlin: he, too, was a victim of love and evil female magic. Imprisoned alive in a magical grotto, he will return in due time.

The myths and legends about the gods of the ancient Britons have come down to us in the same compact or, on the contrary, detailed presentation as the myths about the Gaelic deities preserved in ancient Irish and Scottish manuscripts. They, too, suffered greatly from the stubborn attempts of the euhemerists to proclaim them simple people, eventually turned into gods. Only in the famous “Four Branches of Mao and Legs” do the gods of the Britons appear in their true form - as supernatural beings with immense knowledge of magic and sorcery, beings for whom there are no restrictions and barriers that fetter mere mortals. Apart from these four fragments of the ancient mythological system, as well as very, very scant references in the earliest Welsh poems and verses, the gods of the ancient Britons can only be found under other people's masks and names. Some of them eventually became kings in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Britons, which is more than apocryphal. Others have even been honored with an undeserved canonization, and in order to see their true appearance, it is necessary to strip off the superficial veil of church veneration from them. Still others were particularly liked by Franco-Norman adventure-romance writers, becoming celebrated knights and heroes known today as the Knights of King Arthur and the Round Table. But no matter what masks they put on, the true essence of these characters still shines through under them. The fact is that the Gaels and the Britons are two branches of the same ancient people, the Celts. In many of the gods of the Britons, who retained very close names and attributes, we can easily recognize the well-known features of the Gaelic deities of the famous Tuat-ha De Danaan clan.

Sometimes in the myths the gods of the Britons appear divided into three families - "children of Don", "children of Nudd" and "children of Llyr". However, in fact, there are not three such families, but two, for Nudd, or Lludd, as he is still called, while he himself called himself the son of Beli, was none other than the spouse of the goddess Don. There is no doubt that Don herself is the same deity as Danu, the foremother of the gods of the Tuatha De Danaan clan, and Beli is the British analogue of the Gaelic Bile, the great father of Dis or Pluto, who expelled the first Gaels from Hades (Hades) and gave them possession of Ireland. As for the other family, the “children of Llyr,” we are also familiar with him, for Llyr of the Britons is none other than the well-known Gaelic god of the sea, Lir. These two families, or clans, are usually in opposition to each other, and the military clashes between them, apparently, symbolize in the myths of the Britons the same conflict between the forces of heaven, light and life, on the one hand, and the forces of the sea, darkness. and death - on the other, which is already familiar to us from Gaelic mythology, where it is described as the constant battles of the Tuatha De Danaan gods with the evil Fomorians.

As for the material monuments of the widespread cult of this god, there is no shortage of them. During the time of Roman rule, a temple of Nodens, or Nudens, was erected at Lidni, on the banks of the Severn. On a bronze plate preserved in it. Nudd is depicted as a young deity, shining like the sun and ruling, standing in a chariot, a team of four horses. He is accompanied by winged spirits personifying the winds; and his power over the inhabitants of the sea is symbolized by tritons following the god. Such were the attributes of the cult of Nudd in the west of Britain; as for the east, there is every reason to believe that here he had a whole sanctuary, located on the banks of the Thames. According to legend, St. Paul's Cathedral in London was erected on the site of an ancient pagan temple; the place on which he stood, according to the same Geoffrey of Monmouth, the Britons called "Part Lludd", and the Saxons - "Ludes Get".

However, Nudd, or Ludd, who was apparently considered the supreme god, occupies a much more modest place in the mythical history of the Welsh than his own son. Gwyn ap Nudd survived in myths and legends almost all of his celestial relatives. Researchers have repeatedly tried to find in him the features of the British counterpart of the famous Gaelic hero - Finn McCumall. Indeed, both characters' names mean "white"; both are sons sky god, both became famous as great hunters. However, Gwyn has a higher sacred status, for he invariably commands people. So, in one early Welsh poem, he appears as the god of war and death, and in this capacity plays the role of a kind of judge of souls, a god who escorts the slain to Hades (Hades) and reigns supreme there. In a later, already partially Christianized tradition, he is described as "Gwyn ap Nudd, whom God appointed to command the demonic tribe in Annvna, so that they would not destroy the human race." Even later, when the influence of pagan cults completely weakened. Gwyn began to act as king of the Tylwyth Teg, those Welsh fairies, and his name has not yet been erased from the name of the place of his last refuge, the romantic and picturesque Neath Valley. He was considered the king of the hunters of Wales and the West of England, and these of his companions can sometimes be heard at night when they hunt in deserted and remote places.

In his ancient incarnation - the incarnation of the god of war and death - he is presented in an old poem in dialogues, preserved in the Black Book of Carmarthen. This poem, vague and mysterious, like most monuments of early Welsh poetry, nevertheless is a work imbued with a kind of spirituality, and is rightfully considered a wonderful image of the poetry of the ancient Cymrs. This character reflects, perhaps, the most transparent image of the pantheon of the ancient Britons, the “great hunter”, hunting not for deer, but for human souls, rushing on his demonic horse along with the demon dog and pursuing prey that cannot be saved from him . So, he knew in advance where and when the great warriors were destined to die, and scoured the battlefield, taking their souls and commanding them in Hades or on the "foggy top of the mountain" (according to legend, the hilltops were Gwyn's favorite haven). The poem tells of the mythical prince Gwydney Garanyr, known in Welsh epic lore as the ruler of a lost land whose lands are now hidden under the waves of Cardigan Bay. This prince seeks the patronage of a god who agrees to help him Arthur's “appearance”, his sudden intrusion into the course of mythological history, is one of the many mysteries of Celtic mythology. He is not mentioned in any way in any of the "Four Branches of the Mabinogi", which tells of a clan of gods of the ancient Britons, comparable to the Gaelic gods of the Tuatha De Danaan. The earliest references to his name in Old Welsh literature portray him as one of the war chiefs, no better, if not worse, than others, such as "Geraint, Prince of Devon," whose name has been immortalized both by the ancient bards and by the inspirational pen of Tennyson. However, soon after this we see Arthur ascended to an unprecedented height, for he is called the king of the gods, who is obsequiously honored by the gods of the old clans of the celestials - the descendants of Don, Llyr and Pwill. The old poems say that Llud himself - that Zeus of the old pantheon - was really just one of Arthur's "Three Senior Knights of War", and Arawn, King Annwn, was one of his "Three Senior Knights of the Council". In the story called "The Dream of Ronabwy", which is part of the Red Hergest Book, he appears as an authoritative suzerain, whose vassals are considered to be many characters who had the status of gods in the old days - the sons of Nudd, Llyr, Bran, Gofanon and Aranrod. In another story from the same Red Book, entitled "Kullvh and Olwen", even higher deities are declared to be his vassals. So, Amaeton, the son of Don, plows the land for him, and Gofannon, the son of Don, forges iron; Beli's two sons, Ninniau and Peibow, "turned by him into bulls for the atonement of sins", are harnessed to one team and are busy leveling the mountain to the ground so that the crop can ripen in one day. It is Arthur who convenes the knights in search of the "treasures of Britain", and Manavidan, the son of Llir, Gwyn, the son of Nudd, and Pryderi, the son of Pwill, rush to his call.

The most likely explanation for this phenomenon, apparently, is that this image reflected an accidental contamination of the glorious deeds of two different Arthurs, which led to the appearance of a single semi-real, semi-mythical character, retaining, however, the features of both of his prototypes. One of them was clearly a god named Arthur, whose veneration was more or less widespread in the lands of the Celts - no doubt the same Arthur whom an ex voto inscription found in the ruins of south-eastern France calls Mercurius Artaius ( Mercurius Artaius). The other is the quite earthly Arthur, a leader who bore a special title, which in the era of Roman rule was called Komvs Britannae (Sotes Britannae). This "Earl of Britain" served as the supreme military leader. His main task was to ensure the protection of the country from possible invasions of foreigners. Two officers were subordinate to him, one of whom, Dux Britan-niarum, that is, “Duke of Britain”, supervised the order in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bHadrian’s Wall, and the other, Comes Littoris Saxonici, that is, “ Count of the Saxon Shore" provided the defense of the southeast coast of Britain. After the expulsion of the Romans, the Britons retained for a long time the structure of military administration created by their former conquerors, and it is quite reasonable to assume that this post of military leader in early Welsh literature corresponds to the title of "emperor", which, of all the famous heroes of Briton mythology, was the prerogative of Arthur alone. . The glory of Arthur the King united with the glory of Arthur the god, and the common syncretic image became widespread in the lands where traces of the ancient settlements of the Britons in Great Britain have already been discovered in our time. This set the stage for numerous disputes regarding the location of "Arthur's dominions", as well as cities such as the legendary Camelot, and the loci of Arthur's twelve famous battles. The legends and stories about Arthur and his knights, no doubt, have a genuine historical flavor, but they are also undeniably mythical in nature, like the stories about their Gaelic counterparts - the heroes of the Red Branch of Ulster and the notorious Fiani.

Of these two cycles, the last one is closest to the circle of Arthurian legends. Arthur's rank as Supreme War Chief of Britain is a very revealing parallel to Finn's role as leader of the "local Irish militia". And the knights of the Round Table, replaced by Arthur, are very, very reminiscent of the Fians from Finn's entourage, who are also looking for all kinds of adventures. Both of them with equal success enter into battle both with people and with supernatural beings. Both raid the lands of Europe, up to the very walls of Rome. The vicissitudes of the love affair of Arthur, his wife Guenhwyvar (Ginevra) and nephew Medravd (Mordred) in some respects resemble the story of Finn, his wife Graine and nephew Diarmuid. In the descriptions of the last battles of Arthur and the Fians one can feel the breath of deep archaism of primitive myths, although their real content is somewhat different. In the battle of Camluan, Arthur and Medravdes meet in the last duel, and in the last battle of the Fiani at Gabra, the original protagonists are unwittingly forced to give way to their descendants and vassals. The fact is that Finn himself and Cormac have already died, and Oscar, the grandson of Fian, and Caerbr, the son of Cormac, fight instead of them, who strike each other and also die. And, just as Arthur, in the opinion of many, many of his adherents, did not really die, but simply hid in the "island valley of Avillon", the Scottish legend tells how, many centuries after the earthly life of the Fians, a certain wanderer, accidentally found himself on a mysterious western island, meets Finn McCumall there and even talks to him. And another version of the legend, which makes Arthur and his knights stay underground, being immersed in a magical dream, waiting for the coming return to the earthly world in glory and power, directly echoes a similar legend about the fians.

However, although these parallels highlight the special role of Arthur, they nevertheless do not specify the place that he occupies among the gods. To find out what it was like, we must carefully study the dynastic genealogies of the Celtic celestials and determine if they lack any character whose sacred attributes could be inherited by the newcomer god. There, side by side with Arthur, we meet familiar names - Lluld and Gwynn. Aravn, Pryderi and Manavidan. Amaeton and Gofannon peacefully coexist with the Don children. And then there is a clear failure. There is no mention of Gwydion in later myths. This greatest of the sons of the goddess Don died heroically and completely disappeared from the field of view of the creators of myths.

It is significant that the same stories and legends that were once told about Gwydion later became associated with the name of Arthur. And if so, then we have the right to assume that Arthur, the supreme god of the new pantheon, simply took the place of Gwydion in the old bloodline. A comparison of the myths about Gwydion with the new myths about Arthur shows an almost complete identity between them in everything except names.

The harsh climate of the north, the edge of eternal ice and snow, created a special gloomy tone northern legends and myths. The myths of Scandinavia were based on stories about the Vikings, courageous sailors who conquered northern Europe in 780-1070. The Vikings are considered the descendants of the Germanic tribes that lived during the Roman Empire in the territory of modern Germany. After the fall of Rome, the Germans spread throughout Western Europe: first they appeared in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, then colonized most of the British Isles, part of Spain, France. Iceland and Greenland and even settled in North America.

In the German-Scandinavian myths, it was about the constant struggle between gods and monsters. Evil monsters and giants tried to destroy the existing world, and the gods opposed them. The gloomy theme of these stories was quite consistent with the turbulent life of the Scandinavians and the harsh climate. (Note that actually Germanic (German) mythology has been preserved in a few references, for example, by the Roman historian Tacitus.

But even the harsh climate did not prevent the development of poetic traditions. Skalds, poets who performed their hours-long sagas about heroes beloved by all, were respected members of society. On long winter evenings, their stories occupied and entertained people, completely replacing modern television. Scandinavian poems began to be written after the 10th century, so many different versions of these myths have come down to us.

Scandinavian mythology has several main literary sources, mainly Icelandic literary monuments. Very important in Scandinavian mythology is the "Younger Edda" - a textbook of the poetic art of skalds, written by the Icelander Snorri Sturluson (1179-1224). The source of inspiration for many Scandinavian myths was also the "Elder Edda", a collection of mythological and heroic poems of Iceland. An important place in the Scandinavian epic is occupied by the Norse sagas, for example, the Völsunga Saga.

Chapter 3. Analysis of mythological images

.1 Mythological images in the Russian mind

The very existence of the Family and women in labor in Slavic mythology is not recognized by all scientists: N.M. Galkovsky wrote that “the question of honoring the Family and women in childbirth belongs to the most obscure and confusing”, and V.V. Ivanov and V.N. Toporov does not mention them at all in his works.

Nevertheless, numerous facts, including linguistic ones (such words as nature, people, spring, other Russian rhodia (ball lightning) and their derivatives go back to the name of Rod), indicate that a god with such a name or such functions , accompanied by a paired female deity, occupied an important place in the system of mythological ideas of the ancient Slavs. There are objective grounds for such a statement, connected with the transition of the Proto-Slavs to agriculture and cattle breeding. To help the farmer in his hard work, not ephemeral coastlines were needed, hiding behind those or other natural phenomena, and therefore only indirectly and sporadically connected with man, but reliable and constant patrons, closely connected with the community, with the people. This patron with his assistants had to be next to the farmer during the entire growing season of plants - from sowing to harvesting. It is no coincidence that the cult of the Family and women in childbirth arises during the period of domination of non-irrigated agriculture. Those scientists who connect the Genus with agricultural production are right, in which the main thing for farmers was the process of obtaining a crop. In the religious sphere, these agricultural ideas were expressed in stable symbolism: the earth was a woman, a sown field was likened to a pregnant woman, the ripening of grains was likened to the birth of a child. Much attention was paid to the theme of rain needed by the fields. In symbolic terms, rain was represented as the milk of the goddess. A significant role was played by the cult of good snakes, snakes - "rulers", associated with rain and retaining this connection to the present. These facts, as well as numerous finds of female figurines with large breasts and a stomach during excavations of ancient Slavic settlements, indicate that in a matriarchal agricultural society, faith in women in childbirth first appeared, and Rod turns out to be a later deity. However, let's look at this character first.

Rod was the first Slavic god with his own name. The combination of various sources of information allows us to see in Rod the creator of the Universe, the god of sky and rain, he is associated with water, fire, underground hell, with ball lightning, he blows life into people. These incarnations of the Sort make it possible to bring him closer to Osiris, Sabaoth, Baal, Apollo. The functions of the Family in the West Slavic mythological tradition are endowed with Svyatovit, who is believed to be depicted on the lower tier of the famous Zbruch idol in the form of an atlas holding the whole world and all the gods on his shoulders (the four-sided Zbruch idol was found in 1848 in the territory where the borders of the Slavic tribes of Volhynians, White Croats, Tivertsy and Buzhans, images of Slavic gods and ordinary people are carved on each side).

Apparently, the many roles of the Family, some of which were inherited by other Slavic gods, led to a rather early (according to the written monuments - already in the XI-XII centuries) oblivion of this powerful patron of the Slavic farmers.

More archaic women in labor remained in the mythological consciousness of the Slavs even in the era of Christianity. The paired female deity among the Slavs personified nature dying in autumn and spring emerging in spring, which immediately evokes associations with the Greek goddesses Demeter and Persephone (Summer and Artemis in northern Greece). Associated with the vegetative forces of nature, accompanying the entire process of agricultural production, women in labor were especially popular with Russian women, who in the era of Orthodoxy put women in labor in first place in the later pagan pantheon: “This is the first idol of the woman in labor ... And this is the second - Vilam and Mokoshe. ..” It is curious that the cult of goddesses, which originated in matriarchy, survives until the 20th century, being preserved as a favorite motif in old Russian embroidery. On towels, scarves and skirts, women in labor appear as two symmetrically located female figures, deer, bears, which allows us to see some signs of ancient totemism in their cult. As expected, sacrifices were made to women in childbirth, but in a very peculiar way: at the feast dedicated to the end of the harvest, bright, open, solemn and cheerful, the main dish was dedicated to women in childbirth. Even in the 18th century, this rite was preserved: “Women cook porridge for a meeting of women in labor.” And even the fact that in Russia the end of the harvest coincided with the Nativity of the Virgin, celebrated on September 8 according to Art. Art., did not embarrass, did not stop the women in childbirth. The day after the feast in honor of the Mother of God, a “second meal” was held in honor of women in childbirth, at which they sang songs rejected by the church, ate dishes from the seeds of a new crop and drank intoxicated honey.

Essentially, ecclesiastical pagan holidays merged together, which was reflected in folk speech: in Russian dialects, the Nativity of the Virgin is called mistress, in which there is a hint of both the mother of Jesus Christ and the harvest festival. Note that the Slavs honored women in childbirth and on Christmas, after December 25, that is, when the second most important childbirth for all Christian mythology takes place. The parallelism - Anna and Mary and two women in labor - is obvious, as is the fact that one of the women in labor was associated with the turning of the sun towards spring, and the second - with the end of the active influence of the sun on the crop and with its collection. Apparently, therefore, the Church was quite condescending to the birth feasts, especially since the pagan goddesses did not have their own names and their honoring could well pass for the continuation of holy holidays.

Nevertheless, we note that the namelessness of women in labor was overcome, if not at the level of mythological consciousness, then in Slavic folklore, in calendar ("spring") and lyrical songs, where Lada and Lel, mother and daughter, goddesses of spring resurgent nature, goddesses of marriage and reproduction, quite corresponding to two women in labor.

Perun is associated with that period in the development of the mythological consciousness of the ancient Slavs, when they endowed their gods with personal names, but the cult of this deity was established much later. To understand the essence of what happened, it is necessary to make a few general remarks.

1. Belief in the thunder god is characteristic of many Indo-European peoples, and its location in the sky almost automatically predetermines the supremacy on the local Olympus. Slavic Perun, however, was not only the lord of lightning and thunder, but also a zealous master who cared about the well-being of his "subjects" - farmers and cattle breeders. The time of the appearance of this god among the Indo-Europeans, of which the Proto-Slavs were a part, can be judged on the basis of the attributes of the thunder god, which include a horse, a chariot, stone arrows and bronze weapons, which indicates the era of the settlement of the Indo-Europeans, which apparently began from the end III millennium BC e. Undoubtedly, Perun coexisted not only with the Rod and women in labor that preceded him, but also with a number of other gods, who also received their own names and functions. Together with them, Perun formed the Slavic Olympus, on which, due to the small number, his associates and opponents freely settled down.
2. The cult of Perun itself dates back to the time when the primitive community stratified, separating from its midst a leading core supported by an assertive and enterprising squad, whose role can hardly be overestimated both in the development of new territories and in repelling external threats. While retaining his agricultural functions, Perun gradually became the patron of the princely squads, strengthening his power and influence as "primitive communism" was replaced by early feudal state formations. It was statehood that demanded the replacement of polytheism with faith in one god. In an effort to strengthen the power of the head of state with the help of faith, the Kyiv Grand Duke Vladimir in 980 (according to other sources, in 982) undertook a reform of paganism, establishing a hierarchy of gods, headed by Perun. The pantheon of Vladimir, in addition to Perun, also included Stribog, Dazhbog, Khors, Simargl and Mokosh. The absence of Veles / Volos, Svarog, Rod, women in labor and other characters in the list indicates the political nature of Vladimir's reform, which had far-reaching consequences, which will be discussed below.
3. It has long been noticed that the pantheon of Vladimir by the names of the gods differs significantly from similar pantheons of other Slavic territories. So, the Baltic Slavs, who lived in the west of the Slavic territories, revered Sventovit, Svarozhich-Radgost and Triglav (they act as gods with the highest status in different parts of the specified region), as well as Ruevit, Perevit, Porekut, Yarovit, Zhiva and other less significant gods. The Polish historian Jan DlugOsz gives a small list of ancient Polish gods with correspondences from Roman mythology: Jesza=Juppiter (Jupiter), Zyada=Mars (Mars), Dzydzilya=Venus (Venus), Nya=Pluto (Pluto), Dzewana=Diana (Diana) ), Marzyana=Ceres (Ceres), Pogoda=Temperis (Proportionality), Zywie=Vita (Life). Czech sources report a deity named Zelu (corresponding to Russian pity), as well as characters with the names Krosina, Krasatina, Klimba, the goddess of death Mogap. No ancient information has been preserved about the gods of the southern Slavs, but the data of toponymy of both the western and southern Slavs indicate the presence of the cults of Perun, Veles / Volos, Mokosh in ancient times.

A number of names of the East Slavic gods contain the root god of Iranian origin, and Khore and Simargl reproduce not only theonyms, but also all the external and internal signs of the Iranian gods. This indicates a significant influence of Iranian mythology on Slavic, which apparently took place in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e., when the Proto-Slavs who came to the border of the southern Russian steppe entered into various and long-term contacts with the Scythians who came to the Northern Black Sea and Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov from Asia Minor. It is curious that, having borrowed some gods from the Iranians, the Proto-Slavs quickly adapted them to their needs, endowing them with the functions of assistants in achieving a good harvest. Over time, the Slavs even changed the borrowed theonyms to the original ones.

PERUN. The sanctuary of Perun in Kyiv was located on the princely hill, on the highest place in the city, and the god himself was represented by a wooden sculpture in the form of an elderly husband: the head of the idol was silver, and the mustache was golden, the beard had a special meaning. The idol of Perun, like other gods, was the center of the temple (sanctuary), a description of which we find in A.N. Afanasiev: “At the idols, altars were erected, on which a flame was kindled and pagan services were performed. These sacred places could be surrounded by a fence, sheds could be built over them, and in this way they became temples, which, although they did not impress with either art or luxury, were quite consistent with the simplicity of life itself. The main weapon of Perun was stones, arrows and battle axes, and he himself was perceived as a rider on a horse or chariot, throwing lightning-arrows. Oak, eagle, wolf became the symbols of Perun. Apparently, Thursday was dedicated to Perun (the Russian proverb “after rain on Thursday” can be understood as thanksgiving to Perun the day after he sent blessed rain to the earth; the so-called “Thursday salt” had Magical properties and was widely used in folk medicine , in the Polab language Thursday was called "Perun's day"). A bull bought by the entire community was sacrificed to Perun (the word trizna as a military commemoration originally meant a three-year-old bull).

After the adoption of Christianity, Perun was replaced by Ilya the prophet, riding a fiery chariot across the sky (the parallel between Perun and Ilya was established long before 988: judging by the chronicle, when concluding an agreement between Ancient Russia and Byzantium, the pagan Slavs swore to observe it by Perun, and those who had already converted to Christianity took an oath-oath in the church of St. Elijah.The connection between pagan and Christian characters was also manifested in the fact that Elijah's churches, as a rule, were erected on the site of Perun's sanctuaries in oak groves). In a certain way (in connection with the content of the main myth of the Slavs), Perun is also associated with George the Victorious.

According to some information, a reconstruction of the female correspondence to Perun is possible - Peryn, whose name coincides with the name of the sanctuary of Perun in Novgorod: “This reconstructed image should be understood as the wife of the Thunderer ... a more distant female correspondence to Perun can be seen in the designation of participants in the ritual rain-making in the Balkans, cf. . Bulgarian peperuna, peperuda, peperuga. Since the peperuds were chosen only from the maidens, they could be understood as priestess daughters ”(V.N. Toporov).

VELES / HAIR. The idol of Veles/Volos in Kyiv stood on Podil, and in Novgorod the main sanctuary was precisely the temple of Perun. In addition to the epithet "cattle god" Veles / Volos had the title of the god of "all Russia", which generally puts him on the same level with Perun, the god of the princely squad. His cult originated in the Bronze Age, when the main wealth of the tribe was cattle, "beef", as the Slavs called these animals. The functions of Veles/Volos are numerous: he was the patron of domestic animals and the god of wealth, he was responsible for the connection with fertility and gold - it is no coincidence that he patronized merchants who swore on the name of Veles/Volos when concluding transactions. He participated in the cultivation of grain, which reflects the so-called "Veles beard" - a handful of uncompressed ears of corn, left by women on the edge of a harvested field (the custom of leaving ears of corn to the ancient god survived until the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century). But the connection of Veles / Volos with the cult of ancestors, “dzyads”, the souls of the dead was especially significant: “The archaic connection of Beles with the killed, dead beast, which arose during the hunting season, was now comprehended more broadly - as the world of the dead in general. The dead ancestors interred; in the minds of the ancient plowmen, the ancestors contributed to fertility and harvest. Treats "dzyadov" SC cemetery or at the home table is agrarian-magical in nature. It is quite possible that it is for this reason, in connection with the cult of ancestors.

Whiter and in an agricultural society retained a connection with the world of the dead ”(B.A. Rybakov). The culturological function of Veles/Volos, recorded by the author of The Tale of Igor's Campaign, is also curious: the definition of Boyan as "Veles's grandson" indicates the connection of God with ritual songs poetry.

The attributes of Veles/Volos are numerous: moisture (sea, lake, river, spring, grotto), sheep's wool (fleece), snake (already, viper). The days dedicated to the "cattle god" are just as numerous: the first week of January with dressing up in animal skins, putting on a goat mask, the ritual of conjuring cattle; carnival with bear dances (Veles/Volos was revered through a bear - the owner of animals); St. George's Day (April 23), on which for the first time cattle were driven out onto young grass; the day of the end of the harvest with the leaving of the "Veles beard".

In Christianity, Veles/Volos is associated with St. Blaise, also a “cattle god” (the icon of Blaise is placed on the western wall of the church, where hell is depicted), a parallel of the pagan god with St. Nicholas and Yuri (George); in folklore, Veles / Volos is the fabulous Serpent-Gorynych, and in folk demonology ascending to paganism, it corresponds to a “fierce beast”, “devil”, “goblin”, “unclean spirit” (nevertheless, the popular name for the Pleiades constellation - other - Russian Volosyni, Bulgarian Vlascite, which goes back to the dialectal hairy, hairy - "unclean spirit", "hell", associated with the name of the Slavic god).

The main myth of Slavic paganism. It was reconstructed by V.V. Ivanov and VN Toporov, and by no means all scientists are recognized as corresponding to reality. The basis of this myth is the duel between Perun and Veles/Volos. B.A. Rybakov considers Beles not an opponent, but an antipode of Perun, but the reality of such a myth is confirmed by many typological facts (the duel of the thunder god with the god of the underworld is represented in the mythology of many peoples) and ethno-linguistic nature (Yuri’s day, for example, coincides not only with the first cattle pasture, but and with the first thunderstorms).

Let's give the floor to the authors of the reconstruction: "The myth of Perun depicts him as a rider on a horse or chariot (the later Ilya the prophet), striking his opponent - a serpentine enemy (Veles / Volos, fabulous Zmiulan), successively hiding from him in a tree, stone, in man, animals, water. After Perun's victory over the enemy, waters are released (in later versions, cattle, a woman) and rain is shed. Therefore, the most obvious interpretation of the myth is its interpretation as an etiological myth about the origin of thunder, thunderstorms, fertile rain (rituals of peperuna, dodol, etc.). These rain-making rituals involve dousing a woman, possibly originally associated with sacrifices to Perun.”

HORSE. The idol of the deity stood in Kyiv on a hill, and in the list of Vladimir - in second place. Unknown outside of Kievan Rus, Chore was considered the deity of the solar disk. This name is often found in old written monuments, including the Tale of Igor's Campaign, where it is said about Prince Vseslav that “he himself is a vlkom prowl; from Kiev doryskash to the chickens of Tmutorokan, to the great Khrasov, the path is broken. According to some reports, Hora duplicates another Slavic deity with an Iranian root in Vladimir's list - Dazh-god, also associated with the sun. In the Ipatiev Chronicle for 1144, Dazhbog is called the son of Svarog, that is, he is Svarozhich. which indicates the connection of god with fire.

In the Tale of Igor's Campaign, the ancient Russians are twice referred to as "Dazhbozhe's grandchildren", which allows us to see in him the ancestor or patron of the ancient Russian ethnos. In a Ukrainian song, Dazhbog sends a nightingale to close the winter and open the summer, and in another, he meets the groom on his way to the wedding at sunrise. Finally, the very name Dazhbog (god-giver) indicates the attitude of God to the supply of wealth and its distribution. Thus, Dazhbog is much more complicated than the unambiguous Khors, therefore, much older. According to mythologists, Dazhbog in the Proto-Slavic tradition is defined as a mythologized figure of the giver (distributor) of goods, who is addressed with a corresponding request in ritual, prayer.

STRIBOG, whose idol was installed in Kyiv in 980, is in the list of gods next to Dazhbog, with whom both the root morpheme (-god) and the functions of the distributor of wealth are associated. “This assumption is not contradicted by the fact that the winds are called “Stribog's grandchildren” (“The Tale of Igor's Campaign”); apparently, this deity also had atmospheric functions (the god of the wind is often nothing more than a specialized hypostasis of a thunderer) ”(V.N. Toporov).

SEMARGL. This exotic character - a winged dog - is an analogue of the Iranian mythological character Senmurva artificially transferred to Russian soil. The ancient Russians entrusted him with taking care of the roots of cereals, saving them from rodents and melt water, and since the name of the deity was not phonetically pronounced by the Slavs and was devoid of any internal form, Simargl was renamed Pereplut, engaged in the same business.

MOKOSH. The only goddess of the pantheon of Vladimir causes different assessments among scientists, and among ordinary people, especially women, unchanging worship, under whatever name she acts. Ethnographic material presents Mokosh as a woman with a large head and long arms, busy spinning at night.

Her image is characterized by motives of lowness and humidity. This is a very demanding goddess, on the day dedicated to her, on Friday, forbidding leaving a tow, washing, performing marital duties, etc.

B.A. Rybakov, using primarily linguistic data, offered his own, original interpretation of the image and function of Mokosh. After analyzing 3 groups of words semantically related to the concepts of luck - rock - lot, he came to the conclusion that Mokosh among the ancient Slavs was the goddess of the harvest, the results of the agricultural year, the "mother of the kosh" as a container for that part ("dacha") of the crop that the farmer received after harvesting it by the decision of the community (“rock” in its connection with the word “speech”) or by lot (it also means the manifestation of the blind forces of nature, which, at its discretion, gives a good harvest - “a lucky lot fell” or a crop failure - “bad lot”: the goddess just happened to be involved in the quality of this lot, as a result of which the kosh (the word of the same root as the purse, purse, koshara) could be full or half empty). The scientist sees extralinguistic confirmation of the etymology carried out in the fact that one of the faces of the Zbruch idol depicts a goddess (presumably Mokosh) holding a cornucopia in her hands.

In the Christian era, Mokosh was replaced by Paraskeva Friday, and this circumstance could not but lead to a decrease in the image of the Slavic goddess: in some regions she appears either as a petty domestic pest, or as a woman of bad behavior, or simply as an evil spirit.

In addition to Veles/Volos and Svarog, the list of the pantheon of Vladimir did not include numerous mythological characters from later sources: Yarila, Kupala, Morena, Lada/Lado, Dido, Lel, Polel, Pozvizd/Pogvizd/Pokhvist, etc. According to V.N. Toporov, they "cannot be considered gods in the strict sense of the word: in some cases there are no reliable tools for this, in other cases such an assumption is based on errors or fantasies." Agreeing with this point of view, we note, however, that the named characters were somehow reflected in the mythological consciousness of the Slavs (Yarila / Yarilo, for example, as a dying and resurrecting god of fertility, the spring "ardent" fruit-bearing force), but were very quickly ousted from the folk memory of Orthodoxy gaining strength and authority (honoring John the Baptist, for example, in many places completely supplanted the holiday in honor of Kupala, the mythological character of the summer solstice), which tragically affected both the functions of these “gods” and their appearance. It is no coincidence that most of the characters in the above list have been preserved in one form or another only in folklore texts.

3.2 Mythological images in the English mind

According to the Scandinavians, in the beginning there was a void Ginungagap. To the north of the pse was the frozen world of darkness Niflheim, and to the south lay the fiery hot land of Muspsllheim. From such a neighborhood, gradually the global void of Ginungagap was filled with poisonous hoarfrost, which began to melt and turned into the evil frost giant Ymir. Ymir was the ancestor of all frost giants (jotuns).

Then Ymir fell asleep. As he slept, the sweat dripping from under his armpits turned into both a man and a woman, and the sweat dripping from his feet into another man. When a lot of ice melted, the cow Audulya emerged from the resulting water. Ymir began to drink Audumla's milk, and she liked to lick salty ice. Having licked off the ice, she found a man under it, his name was Buri.

Buri had a son, Bor. Bor married the ebullient giantess Bestla and they had three sons: Odin, Vili and Be. The sons of the Storm hated Ymir and killed him. So much blood flowed from the body of the murdered Ymir that it drowned all the frost giants, except for Bsrgelmir, Ymir's grandson, and his wife. They managed to escape the flood in a boat made from a tree trunk.

Zdin and his brothers brought Ymir's body to the center of Ginungagapa and created a world out of it. From the flesh of Ymir they made earth, from whole bones they erected mountains, and the rest were scattered like stones. An ocean was created from his blood. From the skull of Ymir, a sky was obtained, in each of the four corners of which a dwarf-zwerg was placed. Their names were Austria, Vestri, Nordri and Sudri. Sparks and embers were placed on the sky; this is how the sun, moon, stars and planets were formed. And Ymir's brain was thrown into the sky, clouds turned out.

The gods ignored only the part in which the giants lived. It was called Yoshunheim. They fenced off the best part of this world with the eyelashes of Ymir and settled people there, calling it Midgard.

Finally, the gods created humans. From two tree knots, a man and a woman, Ask and Embla, turned out. All other people are descended from them.

The gods arrange the firmament and determine the roles of the Sun (Sol) and the Moon (Mani) - brother and sister.

However, the gods noticed that larvae arose from Ymir's dead flesh. They turned these larvae into dwarfs, who began to live in caves.

The last to be built was the impregnable fortress Asgard, which rose high above Midgard. These two parts were connected by the rainbow bridge Bierest. Among the gods, the patrons of people, there were 12 gods and 14 goddesses (they were called Ases), as well as a whole company of other deities, smaller ones (vans). All this host of gods crossed the rainbow bridge and settled in Asgard.

Above this layered world grew the ash tree Yggdrasil. Its roots sprouted to Asgard, Jotunheim and Niflheim. An eagle and a hawk sat on the branches of Yggdrasil, a squirrel rushed up and down the trunk, deer lived at the roots, and below all sat the serpent Nidhogg, who wanted to eat everyone. Yggdrasil is what has always been, is and will be.

Scandinavian deities were divided into vans and ases. The elder gods of abundance belonged to the Vans: Njord and his children Frenr and Freya. Ases - new warlike gods, among them were Odin and Thor. It is known that the Vans and Ases initially fought among themselves, but subsequently concluded a truce, and then the Ases conquered the Vans. Scientists believe that this is the story of the struggle of two ancient tribes, eventually united into one.

The Germanic tribes of the Franks, Saxons, Angles, Vandals, Goths, and others dominated most of the continent. The Germans had their own mythical characters, many of which passed into Scandinavian myths. Therefore, the names of the German and Scandinavian gods are similar, and their characteristics and stories often resemble each other. For example, Odin in German mythology is Wodan, and his wife Frigga is Freya. The Scandinavian gods were not immortal. In addition, they were not very interested in the affairs and destinies of people and treated them differently: they could help, or they could offend, depending on their own whim. The gods had to fight monsters and other dark forces, take care of their own destiny.

It is worth mentioning that they spent most of their time looking for something to do. The fact is that these deities did not have specific duties, and therefore, if they suddenly disappeared for some time, this, in fact, did not affect anything.

One was the supreme god. He was the father of most of them, and, according to some theories, was the creator of the whole world: heaven, earth and people. Perhaps this explains his nickname "Allfather". Odin had a special throne, Hlidskjalf. From it one could observe what was happening in other worlds. One was wise, but wisdom, as you know, is not given just like that. Once Odin gave his eye for a drink that gives wisdom. But after drinking the magic potion, Odin wanted to become even wiser. To do this, he had to pass a new test, pierce himself with a spear and hang on the Yggdrasil tree for nine days. One died and then resurrected. But, despite the acquired wisdom, Odin was embarrassed until the end of his days by his physical imperfection, so he always wore a wide-brimmed hat or a crown pulled down deeply over his eyes. You can always find out by these signs.

The peoples worshiping Odin made human sacrifices. Usually they hung their victims on a tree, piercing them with spears. The same method was used by Odin when he wanted to gain wisdom. Despite the fact that his story resembles the biblical story of the crucifixion of Christ, scholars believe that the influence of the Christian religion on early Scandinavian poetry is insignificant. Odin was the god of war, he inherited this role from the more ancient Germanic gods - Bodan and Tivas. He liked to cause controversy. Warriors killed in battle came to him at a feast in Valhalla (Valhalla), where the most courageous of them were honored by the Valkyries. russian english people mythology

Scandinavian legends speak of yerserks - warriors who, going to battle, dressed in clothes from the skin of a bear. In the rapture of battle, they lost all fear and became insensible to pain.

In addition, Odin was the god of poetry. Perhaps that is why his image appears so often in poems. According to legend, Odin was supposed to bring back the magic honey of poetry to Asgard. Once this honey was stolen by the giant Suttung and hid from his daughter Gunnlöd in a cave. Taking the form of a snake, Odin entered the girl's cave and spent three days and three nights with her. During this time, he sucked out all the honey, but did not swallow it, but kept it in his mouth. After that, Odin turned into an eagle and returned to Asgard. So magical honey was returned to the deities.

Loki was an odd character. On the one hand, he was a smart rogue, cheerful and resourceful. On the other hand, Loki did evil: it was because of him that squabbles among the gods and giants most often began.

Loki was the son of giants and the foster brother of Odin. In the stories about Loki, it's hard to tell if he was more of a god or a giant. Loki is dynamic and unpredictable, his bizarrely malevolent nature enlivens the boring existence of the gods.

Loki easily changed his appearance and often turned into animals. For example, in order to steal Freya's necklace, he turned into a flea, and when hiding from the wrath of the gods for causing the death of Baldr, he turned into a salmon. There is a story about how the giant Khrungnir proposed to enclose Asgard with a powerful wall. For this, the giant asked to give him Freya as his wife. But Loki intervened. He turned into a mare and, having seduced the giant's stallion, took him away from Asgard. Therefore, the giant could not complete the work in time. A few months later, Loki returned to Asgard and brought with him the eight-legged colt Sleipnir, which he presented to Odin. This foal was not Loki's only child. Loki had an official wife, periodically he visited the giantess Angrboda. From her, Loki had three children, who brought a lot of trouble to the gods. Loki's first son Fenrir was a wolf. He was so big and scary that the gods decided to keep him chained. The second son Jörmungandr was a giant serpent. Odin threw him into the ocean surrounding Midgard. Jörmungandr has grown so huge that it encircles the whole world and swims there in the ocean. The people called him the Midgard Serpent. Loki's daughter Hel was also a strange creature. Above the waist - alive, and below - dead. Odin sent her to the underworld of Niflheim. She became the goddess of the dead. All these monstrous creatures were waiting for the end of the world Ragnarok in order to be free and be able to harm people.

Thor was the son of Odin and Jord, the goddess of the Earth. But Odin loved violence and war, and Thor represented order - he was the god people turned to when they wanted stability. He had a huge hammer Mjollnir, with his help he could control the giants. The hammer had one feature: no matter how far it was thrown, it always came back; it could also shrink in size. Thor had a thick red beard, a huge appetite and a quick temper, although he did not get angry for long. Thor protected the peasants. He is often compared to the ancient German god Donor, who was also the god of thunder and lightning. Thunder rolled from under the wheels of his chariot, and lightning flashed from his head.

Once the giant Thrym stole Thor's hammer and promised to return it if the gods give him Freya as his wife. The gods pretended to agree, but they themselves conceived a deception. To do this, Thor and Loki, dressed up as a bride and her girlfriend, went on a holiday to the giants. When the giants invited them to the table, Thor began to absorb food and drink in terrible quantities. Loki explained this behavior of "Freya" by the fact that she was very worried and did not eat for several days. The giant Hold was so fascinated by "Freya" that he immediately offered to pronounce the marriage vow; for this he commanded to bring a hammer. As soon as Thor got to his hammer, he immediately grabbed it and began to destroy the giants.

Freyr was the ancient god of harvest and abundance. It depended on him whether the land would be fertile. His wife Gerd is the goddess of the earth and the world, and his sister is Freya. People turned to Freyr when they wanted to get well-being or have happy offspring. In the city of Uppsala in Sweden there is a statue of the god Freyr with a huge phallus. Presumably the Vikings knew what they wanted from their god. Freyr's favorite toys, personifying the ancient symbols of abundance, were a magic sword, a wonderful ship and the boar Gullinbursti - "Golden Bristle".

Odin's son Tyr was the bravest of all the Æsir gods; he was the god of war. The progenitor of Tyr is the German god of war Tivas, who was the predecessor of Odin, but gradually lost his significance.

Tyr did not have his right hand, he lost it when he chained the son of Loki, the wolf Fenrir. When Fenrir grew up, the gods began to fear that he might kill Odin. They decided to put Fenrir on a chain, but he gnawed it twice. Then the gods ordered the chain to the dwarfs; they made a very strong chain, resembling a silk ribbon. They named her Gleipnir.

Fenrir felt that this chain could be the most dangerous for him. Then he put forward a condition, saying that he would allow himself to be chained only if one of the gods put his hand in his mouth. Tyr decided on this. Fenrir tried to free himself, but could not do anything with the magical Gleipnir. And he bit off Tyru's right hand in anger.

There were other gods in the Scandinavian pantheon.

Njord ruled the sea and ocean winds, was the patron saint of sailors. Father of Freyr and Freya. After the death of Odin, Njord began to reign in Sweden.

Heimdall, the son of nine maidens (or nine waves), was the guardian of the gods. No one knows for sure what he actually did, but he was associated with the Bifrost rainbow bridge, connecting heaven to earth. Heimdall had a large Gjallirhorn horn, the sound of which could be heard in all nine worlds. So Heimdall called all the gods to the last battle.

Handsome Balder was the wisest, most kind and merciful of the gods. Everyone listened to his words. His death hastened the end of the world.

Women in Scandinavia traditionally had the same rights as men, so they were quite independent and tough in nature. Therefore, the goddesses appear equal to the male gods. Unfortunately, there are not so many poems in which the goddesses are given a significant role.

Freya was the goddess of love and passion. Any man who saw her at least once dreamed of being with her, and, I must say, many succeeded. Freya was incredibly beautiful; she cried with golden tears, and if the crying was long, then everything around was strewn with gold. She had more than enough reason to cry, because they always wanted to marry her off to some freak.

Freya had an Erisingamen necklace, which she received from four zvergs. For him, the tsvergs demanded that the beauty spend the night with each of them. Freya, like a real woman, could not refuse the desire to receive a necklace, so she agreed. When Lezhi found out how Freya paid for her necklace, he told Odin about it. Odin ordered Loki to steal the necklace. Loki turned into a flea and, climbing onto the cheek of the sleeping Freya, bit her. She turned her head and Loki was able to unfasten the necklace. Odin refused to give up the necklace until Freya agreed to cause war among the people.

Therefore, surprisingly, Freya was also the goddess of war. Cats were harnessed to the chariot on which she went to war, on the battlefield she helps Odin divide the dead. Half is sent to Valhalla, and the rest she takes for herself.

Frigga was Odin's wife. Goddess of love, marriage and family hearth. Like Odin, Frigga could predict fate. During childbirth, women turned to her for help. Scientists have found many similarities between the myths of different cultures. It is believed that the Scandinavian goddesses Frigg and Freya, like Hera and Aphrodite among the Greeks, personify the two sides of femininity. Frigga - as a wife and mother, Freya - as a lover and seductress.

The daughter of Loki and the giantess Angrboda, Hel was the goddess of the dead. Hel looked very unusual: above the waist - pink and warm, and below her flesh was green and rotten. Her stronghold (called "Wet Drizzle") was located in Niflheim ("down and north"), everyone went there after death. The fortress of the dead Hel was somewhat different from the Christian hell. Sure, it wasn't the best place, but it wasn't the worst either. Despite the fact that it caused a depressing impression, there were no circles of hell.

For example, the goddess Idunn was the owner of rejuvenating apples. These apples were eaten by all the gods and remained young.

The goddess of skiing and the daughter of the giant Thyatsu, Skadi was married to the sea god Njord. However, their marriage can hardly be called successful due to the fact that Skadi wanted to live among the snowy mountains, and Njord - on the fertile coast.

The goddess Siv was the wife of Thor. Somehow, for fun, Loki cut off her golden hair (a symbol of fertility) and gave it to the miniatures to forge exactly the same ones (then they stuck to the head of the goddess, like real ones). Tsverg made many other magical items for the gods, for example, Thor's hammer - also the work of their hands.

The fates of people were ruled by the goddesses of fate, the Norns. There were three of them - Urd ("Fate"), Verdandi ("Becoming") and Skuld ("Debt").

Gods and goddesses are not the only creatures in Norse mythology to have magical powers; there were other fantastic inhabitants there.

The giants were vicious creatures and constantly opposed the gods. At the same time, their relationship was often almost normal. Thor and Loki even visited the giants in their village of Jotunheim. Of course, the word "giant" means large sizes. But it can be assumed that the gods were not small. At the very least, they entered into intimate relationships with the giants. The giants wanted to marry the beautiful goddess Freya, and Odin and Loki had giantess wives. And Loki himself was a giant.

Tsvergs are small humanoid creatures that live underground. They hid from the sun because it could turn them into stones. The dwarfs perfectly processed metal and knew how to create magical items - the famous ship of Freyr (after the campaign it could be folded like a handkerchief and put in your pocket) and a spear for Odin, Freya's necklace and Thor's hammer (it always returned to the one who threw it). Tsvergi Fyalar and Galar from the blood of the deity Kvasir killed by them and bee honey made the sacred honey of poetry. And four of them propped up the ground in the corners. Therefore, the gods maintained friendly relations with them.

Norse mythology is also populated with other magical creatures. For example, light and dark elves. Dark elves are somewhat reminiscent of evil tsvergs, while light elves are considered good. Elves are occasionally found in myths, their role there is insignificant. Trolls are also found in myths, Thor sometimes fought with them. And all sorts of dragons lived...

The core of all nine worlds was an eternal tree, a huge ash tree Yggdrasil. It had neither beginning nor end - it survived even the end of the world Ragnarok. The three roots of Yggdrasil penetrate Asgard, Jotunheim and Niflheim. The lowest root is gnawed by the dragon Nidhsgg and snakes. There are many animals on and around Yggdrasil. The fruit of Yggdrasil was believed to ensure safe childbirth.

Scandinavian myths contain a very detailed picture of the end of the world. Fortunately, the last battle of Ragnarok and the destruction of the world that followed it, although they happened, did not mean the death of all things. This story is akin to stories about the end of the world of other peoples, when only two people remain on earth after a cataclysm and destruction.

The end of the world began with the death of the kindest god and everyone's favorite Balder. To protect her son, his mother Frigg went all over the world and asked everyone to swear that they would not harm Baldr. Truth. Frigga did not take into account magical power mistletoe, considering it too small and fragile, and therefore harmless.

Her heightened worries gave the gods another reason to rejoice. Jokingly, they began to throw various objects at Baldr and laughed loudly when they fell, without causing any harm to Baldr. Everyone was happy about this, except for Loki. Being a malevolent god, Loki was very fond of plotting and inflicting suffering, so he was simply driven crazy by the fact that Balder was inaccessible to evil. By cunning, Loki found out from Frigga that the mistletoe did not take an oath.

Then Loki took a branch of mistletoe and made an arrow out of it, which he gave to the blind god Hod. He felt himself superfluous in the game of the gods and therefore innocently listened to Loki. The magic arrow hit Baldur and he fell down dead. The brave god Khsrmod went to the goddess of the dead, Hel, to ask for Balder's return back, but the evil goddess refused him.

For the death of Baldr, the gods decided to punish Loki. They caught him, brought him to a cave and tied him up. The goddess Skadi brought a live poisonous snake and hung it over Loki's head - let the poison drip right on his face. Loki's faithful wife, Sipon, held a bowl over her husband's head so that the poison would not fall on him. Sometimes, in order to pour out the contents, she had to remove the bowl. Then the poison hit Loki and he writhed in pain. Loki's movements caused earthquakes. Since then, Loki has been lying there, periodically writhing in pain and waiting for his end.

The death of Odin's son Baldr was the beginning of the end. Now the gods saw that Loki is their enemy, and they themselves are not omnipotent. Loki was punished, but his three children remained (Fenrir, Hel and the serpent Jörmungandr), who always hated the aesir gods.

Here is the Scandinavian myth about the end of the world.

First, wars will fall on Midgard, which will continue for three years. Families will be destroyed: fathers will kill their sons, brothers will kill brothers, mothers will seduce sons, and brothers - sisters. Then three years of the most severe winter will come, and there will be no summer at all.

Two wolves will devour the sun and the moon, and the stars will disappear from the sky. Trees and mountains will fall, and the wolf Fenrir will become free. The ocean will flood the land, as the Jörmungandr serpent will no longer protect it with its rings. A ship made from the nails of the dead will sail from the realm of the dead. And Loki will be at the wheel of this ship of ghosts, which he will lead out of the kingdom of his daughter, the goddess Hel. Sons of Loki, Fenrir. and the serpent Jörmungandr will act together. While the lower jaw of Fenrir will devastate the earth from all life, and his upper teeth will destroy everything in the sky, the serpent Jörmungandr will spew poison everywhere, poisoning the earth. The forces of darkness, giants, the dead and other evil spirits will unite.

But the gods will arm themselves and gather the warriors of Valhalla. This army, led by Odin and Thor, will meet the enemy. A terrible battle will begin. Only two representatives of the human race will have time to escape and find refuge inside the tree of life, Yggdrasil.

Odin will attack the wolf Fenrir and after a long struggle, Fenrir will swallow Odin. The serpent Jörmungandr will fight Thor, Tyr will fight the demonic dog, and Loki will fight Hsimdall. They all kill each other. The fire giant Surtr will kill Freyr. Odin's son Vidar, grabbing Fenrir by the jaws, will tear his mouth open and avenge his father. The fiery giant Surtr will spread fire across the earth, and all nine worlds will perish. Everyone and everything will perish, and the water will hide the land. But the two people hiding in the Yggdrasil tree (and several gods, including the revived Baldur) will still remain. It will be a woman and a man, Liv and Livtrasir. The earth will again come out of the water, it will be covered with lush vegetation, birds and fish will return. Liv and Livtrasir will have children who will have children of their own, and life will be reborn again.

Conclusion

Without claiming to be of global cultural significance, Slavic mythology plays an exceptionally huge role in the spiritual culture of the Slavic peoples. The motifs and mythologems of ancient beliefs are included in many rituals and customs of the inhabitants of Central and of Eastern Europe who call themselves Slavs (in Bulgaria, for example, the groom is shaved before the wedding up to seven times, and this hair motif is directly related to Veles / Volos as the god of ancestors). The agricultural orientation of the myths of the Slavs determined many ethical standards, in particular peacefulness: the Slavs did not have gods of war such as Ares. Undoubtedly, Slavic paganism had an impact on Christianity, especially Orthodoxy: perhaps the exceptional stability of Orthodoxy, which largely follows the original canons of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Apostolic Church, is associated with the contamination of paganism and religion in the first centuries of the existence of Orthodoxy among the Slavs. Finally, Slavic mythology was reflected in the work of A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol, A.N. Ostrovsky and M.I. Tsvetaeva, P.I. Tchaikovsky and A.S. Dargomyzhsky, V.M. Vasnetsov and I.Ya. Bilibin and many others who conveyed the spirit and spirituality of their ancestors in their creations.

The lower "mythology of the peoples of medieval Western Europe is similar to the Slavic one. They also believed in "evil spirits" - various demons. evil spirits, werewolves, vampires, witchcraft, etc. Ideas about the unknown "power" have also been preserved. First of all, these are fairies - full of creatures, sorceresses living in forests, springs or in their magical Fairy Land, where you can sometimes get into.

In Western Europe, some pagan calendar holidays and fertility rites have survived to this day. Usually they are rethought in a Christian spirit, but some have retained a pagan look. So, in the British Isles, Halloween is still very popular - All Saints Day, celebrated on November 1 as the beginning of winter. It directly goes back to the Celtic holiday of Samhain (Samhain). It is believed that at this time the souls of all the dead return to earth, and in general direct contact with the other world is possible. On this day, bonfires were lit, and also to scare away the "evil spirits", they organized processions of mummers and made special scarecrows from a pumpkin (there is no doubt that human heads were once used instead of pumpkin heads). On this day, they also guessed in various ways for the next year, especially for the one who would be dear to the heart. In Wales, for example, they believed that if on All Saints Day you go to a crossroads and listen to the voice of the wind, you will hear a story about all important events over the next 12 months. In England, fertility rites were often performed on this day, for example, all cattle were led through a hoop made of rowan wood - to protect them from fairies and witches. In Ireland, this night was considered the time of evil and the devil. So, they believed that if you call the devil from under the shoot of a blackcurrant bush, you will be lucky all year in playing cards. The opposite of Samhain, the bright holiday of the beginning of summer, Beltane, was celebrated by the Celts on May 1. Then they also burned bonfires - probably, once it was meant that by doing this they magically help the sun. In Germany though. on the contrary, it was the night of May 1 - Walpurgis Night - that was the time of witches and witchcraft. It was believed that this night all the witches flock on brooms and pitchforks to Mount Brocken for their main sabbat, which was held by Satan himself, along with other evil spirits. There they tried to interfere with a prosperous harvest and generally harmed in every possible way. Therefore, in all villages on the eve of this night, witch exorcism ceremonies were held: they burned bonfires with stuffed witches, they once burned living people on them - in paganism as sacrifices to the gods, and in Christianity as apostates from the faith), they rang bells, etc. But at the same time, they believed that on this night, healing herbs acquire miraculous power.

List of used literature

1. Anichkov E.V. Paganism and Ancient Russia. - St. Petersburg, 1914.
2. Afanasiev A.N. Poetic views of the Slavs on nature. The experience of a comparative study of Slavic legends and beliefs in connection with the mythical tales of other kindred peoples: In 3 volumes - M, 1865-1869.
3. Galkovsky N.M. The struggle of Christianity with the remnants of paganism in Ancient Russia: In 2 vols. - M; Kharkov, 1913, 1916.
4. Zabelin I. E. Home life of the Russian people in the 16th and 17th centuries: In 2 volumes - M., 1862-1915.
5. Zelenin D.K. Selected works. Articles on spiritual culture. - M, 1994.
6. Ivanov V.V., Toporov V.N. Research in the field of Slavic antiquities. Lexical and phraseological issues of text reconstruction. - M., 1974.
7. Meletinsky E.M. "Edda" and early forms of the epic. M., 1968.
8. Meletinsky E.M. Poetics of myth. Moscow: Nauka, 1976.
9. Meletinsky E.M. Origin of the heroic epic: Early forms and archaic monuments. M., 1963.
10. Myths of the peoples of the world. Encyclopedia. Edited by S.A. Tokarev. M., 1982. In 2 volumes.
11. Pennick N., Jones P. History pagan Europe. SPb., 2002.
12. Potebnya A.A. I. On some symbols in Slavic folk poetry. II. On the connection of certain representations in the language. III. About Kupala fires and representations related to them. IV. About the share and creatures related to it. Ed. 2nd. - Kharkov, 1914.
13. Propp V.Ya., Historical roots of a fairy tale - L., 1946.
14. Propp V.Ya. Morphology of a fairy tale. - L., 1928.
15. Rybakov B.A. Paganism of Ancient Russia. - M, 1987.
16. Rybakov B.A. The paganism of the ancient Slavs. - M., 1981.
17. Sakharov I.L. Tales of the Russian people. Ed. 3rd. - St. Petersburg, 1841.1849.
18. Slavic antiquities. Ethnolinguistic Dictionary. In 5 vols. T. 1.-M., 1995.
19. Smirnitskaya O.A. Roots of Yggdrasil. - The Roots of Yggdrasil: Ancient Scandinavian Literature. M., 1997.
20. Steblin-Kamensky MM. "Circle of the Earth" as a literary monument. - Sturluson S. Circle of the Earth. M., 1980.
21. Steblin-Kamensky M.M. Icelandic sagas. - Icelandic sagas. Irish epic. M., 1973.
22. Steblin-Kamensky M.M. saga world. The formation of literature. L., 1971.
23. Steblin-Kamensky M.M. Myth. L., 1976.
24. Steblin-Kamensky M.M. Snorri Sturluson and his Edda. - Sturluson S. Younger Edda. M., 1970.
25. Strindholm A. Campaigns of the Vikings. M., 2002.
26. Trevelyan J. M. History of England from Chaucer to Queen Victoria / Per. from English. A. A. Krushinskaya and K. N. Tatarinova. - Smolensk: Rusich, 2007. - 624 p.
27. Uspensky B.A. Philological research in the field of Slavic antiquities: Relics of paganism in the East Slavic cult of Nicholas of Myra. - M., 1982
28. Huntington S. Clash of Civilizations. M., St. Petersburg, 2003.

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Mythology is part of the culture of any society, created in every historical era. As a rule, the farther events lag behind us in time, the less truth remains in the legends. Folk tales, parables and fairy tales differ from the writings of chroniclers in that, in addition to people, mythological creatures act as characters in them, often symbolizing the spiritual principle - both positive and negative. At the same time, each of them has some features of their appearance, albeit an imaginary one, that distinguish them from other legendary characters.

Very, very long time ago

myths Ancient Greece, Egypt, Rome, India, China and many other ancient civilizations were most often part of the religious-state doctrine officially adopted at that time. Zeus, Apollo, Atlantes, Sirens and organically participated in the legendary events on a par with people-heroes who acquired god-likeness for their exploits. Ancient mythological creatures, created by the imagination of priests and commoners, as a result of cultural and historical exchange, became the prototypes of the mysterious inhabitants of the gloomy world of European and Russian land in the Middle Ages.

Good fellows lesson

A fairy tale is a special one, which is characterized by the penetration into the plot of characters that have developed over the centuries. They operate among people using their superhuman abilities. These stories are intended for children, and in addition to the people, many outstanding writers had a hand in writing them. What is a fairy tale without magic and who can make them better than mythological creatures? The main thing in them, of course, is not the methods and means, but the goals of actions. For evil characters, they are unkind and insidious, and for positive ones, on the contrary, as in life.

Babki-Ezhki, Kashchei and Kikimora

The USSR had its own official mythology, which assumed a materialistic approach when considering all social phenomena, even those that did not actually exist. But in art, mythological creatures were quite allowed, especially in works intended for children. Cartoons and films based on Russian fairy tales are full of, in addition to Alyonushki, Ivanushki, princes and other "human" heroes, such characters as the Serpent Gorynych, Baba Yaga, Koschey the Immortal, Kikimora, Vodyanoy, and many others. As a rule, Russian mythological creatures borrowed from folklore look completely fearless, sometimes playfully cute, they even carry a certain negative charm in their images, and the artists who play their roles play with inimitable humor. Children, of course, do not need to be scared, but how does this interpretation correspond to the original source?

Yaga

Baba Yaga was an evil old woman, but not a simple one, of which there are many, but special. This is almost the main mythological creature in Russian folklore. Yaga had a certain connection with demonic forces and the ability to move in other words - to fly. Unlike European counterparts, who flew, as a rule, on a broomstick, the domestic Baba Yaga had a more comfortable means of transportation - a stupa, and used a pomelo only as a control device. She dressed simply, even too much - in rags. Initially, it was impossible to see anything funny in this image. Yaga personified evil will and possessed considerable technical capabilities for its implementation.

Gorynych

Some Russian mythological creatures are very similar to their foreign counterparts. The Serpent Gorynych in the past centuries, not without success, frightened children. This is an almost identical analogue of the eastern or European dragon, which has all the features of a modern attack aircraft, namely: the ability to fly, strike at ground targets, as well as high survivability. Killing him was troublesome and almost useless due to his unique regenerative ability, expressed in the growth of heads to replace the lost ones. In some mysterious way, the information contained in the brain was immediately restored and updated. In between aggressive raids, Gorynych hid in an underground slag heap, disguised as a mountain with a cave. There is nothing funny about feuding with such an opponent.

Koschey

Koshchei is usually depicted as a very thin, even skeletal, old man, who nonetheless possesses remarkable strength - both physical and moral. The name of the character comes from the word "kosht", that is, a bone. There is also a common root with the word “blasphemy” (blasphemy, they are also blasphemy), meaning witchcraft actions performed in ancient times on the remains of people. The title "Immortal" is most often added to the main name, expressing the ability to revive many times, even being crushed by someone's heroic power. Other demonic mythological creatures, the meeting with which also cannot please, are inferior to Koshchei in this sense. To neutralize it completely, you should know some secrets (needle, egg, bird, etc.).

Are there good monsters?

Not so well known are many other mythological creatures, the list of which is very extensive. Faced with the unknown, horrified by it and feeling their own helplessness, people from time immemorial attributed their troubles to hostile influences and the machinations of supernatural monsters. Sometimes some of them took the side of good, but in any case they had to be handled with extreme care so that they did not change mercy for anger. The names of mythological creatures are different for different peoples, but many common features indicate a similarity in perception and the ability to conjecture external signs.

Demons are represented as tailed, goat-legged and horned in almost all ethnic and religious traditions. Prophetic reptiles Basilisks and Asps, Snowman (traditionally fashioned from snow), Werewolf (in the German version Werewolf), Ghoul (in Europe he is called a vampire), even Viy himself, the leader who became the hero of the famous story N.V. Gogol and the Soviet thriller of the same name, far from always become They personify the forces of evil, led by the Prince of the Air.

Origins of chimeric images

Be that as it may, the material embodiment of evil will is impossible without a visible or imaginary physical image. If the good beginning in most traditions is almost identical to human likeness (Buddha, Cherubim, Seraphim, Bogatyr, Giant, Fairy, etc.), then mythological creatures representing the dark side of the immaterial world are more animal-like. Particularly terrible are the images in which there is a combination of animal traits. In some cases, they are so colossal that one can assume the absence of bad intentions. So, Miracle-Yudo (“copied”, obviously, from the most ordinary whale) causes harm simply by negligence, due to its huge size. Chimeras, the statues of which adorn some medieval Gothic cathedrals, are intended, according to the authors, to frighten the demons themselves, they must scare them away with their very appearance.

The horror of the appearance of mythological creatures is symbolic. It emphasizes the strength, dexterity, courage and intelligence of good heroes who always win in the end.

Plan: I. Ancient mythology in the life of modern man. II. Myth. Its definition, origin. III. Main topics. IV. Images and characters of myths. V. Holidays dedicated to mythical heroes. VI. Heroes of Greek and Roman mythology in comparison. Ancient mythology in the life of modern man. European culture, in the form in which modern people are familiar with it, owes its origin to Greco-Roman roots. We, at times, do not even suspect how deeply the heroes and images of ancient myths have penetrated into our lives. Already since the Renaissance, writers, artists and sculptors began to draw inspiration for their creations from the plots of the ancient Greeks and Romans. An inexperienced visitor to an art museum finds himself captivated by the beautiful, but often incomprehensible in content, works of the great masters of fine art: paintings by P. Sokolov (“Daedalus tying the wings of Icarus”), K. Bryullov (“Meeting of Apollo and Diana”), I. Aivazovsky (“Poseidon rushing across the sea”), “Perseus and Andromeda” by Rubens, “Landscape with Polyphemus” by Poussin, “Danaë” and “Flora” by Rembrandt. Antiquity was and remains the eternal school of artists. When a novice artist comes to class, he is given to draw the torso of Hercules, the head of Antinous. The period of apprenticeship remains far behind, and the mature master again and again turns to the images of antiquity, unraveling the secret of their harmony and unfading life. Reading poems by A.S. Pushkin (especially the early ones) and not knowing the mythological images, the lyrical or satirical meaning embedded in the work will not always be clear. The same can be said about the poems of G.R. Derzhavin, V.A. Zhukovsky, M.Yu. Lermontov, fables by I.A. Krylov and other geniuses. Today it has become very fashionable to get involved in astrology. Not a single self-respecting printed publication is published without a horoscope for the day, week, month, year. Yes, and many of us (we will not hide) before any important life event, we are certainly interested in: “What do the stars predict?”. But, I think, not everyone thought about where this science takes its terminology from. In Astrology, the names of most planets are borrowed from Roman mythology (most often). They are also assigned the characters and images of mythological deities. The god Hermes known to us (among the Romans Mercury) according to ancient mythology is the messenger of the gods. With the speed of thought, he is transferred from Olympus to the farthest end of the world in his winged sandals. He gives income in trade and sends wealth to people. Hermes invented measures, numbers, the alphabet and taught people all this. He is the god of eloquence, and at the same time of resourcefulness and deceit. No one can surpass him in dexterity, cunning, and even in theft. Astrological Mercury expresses readiness and desire for contacts and understanding, intermediary abilities, clear speech, logical mind, entrepreneurial abilities are inherent in it. Possesses speed of reaction and the ability to formulate thoughts. Weak Mercury is characterized by a propensity for hasty judgment, deceit, criticism, or at best justified but sharp criticism. From the foregoing, it can be seen that the characteristics of the planet Mercury in astrology clearly coincide with the features of Mercury the god. In everyday speech, we often use such well-known expressions as " Augean stables”,“ Oedipus Complex ”,“ Achilles Heel ”,“ Sunken into oblivion ”,“ Sodom and Gomorrah ”,“ Everything in Tartarara ”,“ View of the Gorgon ”,“ Herostratus Glory ”and others. Their origin is connected with the plots of ancient mythology. Here are examples of some of them: "Achilles' heel" - the heel was the only weak point of Achilles, since it was not touched by the water of the underground river Styx, into which the goddess Thetis dipped, holding the baby by the heel, to make him immortal. Hence the "Achilles heel" - a vulnerable, weak spot; “Has sunk into oblivion” - in the underground kingdom of Hades, the rivers of Lethe, giving oblivion to all earthly water, flow. This expression means - to forget forever; "Everything in Tartarara" - gloomy Tartarus - a terrible abyss, full of eternal darkness. All that is done is all in vain; "Herostrat's glory" - the glory of Herostratus, who, wanting to become famous, burned the temple of Artemis in Ephesus means the memory of the atrocity; "Tantalus' torment" - Zeus was angry with his son Tantalus because he considered himself godlike and cast him into the gloomy kingdom of his brother Hades. There he receives a terrible punishment. Tormented by thirst and hunger, he stands in clear water. It comes up to his chin. He only has to bend down to quench his agonizing thirst. But as soon as Tantalus bends down, the water disappears, and under his feet there is only dry black earth. Juicy figs, ruddy apples, pomegranates, pears and olives bend over the head of Tantalus; heavy, ripe bunches of grapes almost touch his hair. Exhausted by hunger, Tantalus stretches out his hands for beautiful fruits, but a gust of stormy wind blows up and carries away the fruitful branches ... Thus, King Sipyla, the son of Zeus Tantalus, is tormented in the kingdom of terrible Hades by eternal fear, hunger and thirst. Hence the expression "Tantal's torment" means unbearable torment from the consciousness of the proximity of the desired goal and the impossibility of achieving it. "To reach the Pillars of Hercules" - pillars (pillars) of Hercules or Pillars of Hercules (pillars) - ancient name two rocks on opposite banks of the Strait of Gibraltar (modern Gibraltar and Vanity). Hercules marked with them the limit of his wanderings to the Ocean, and in a figurative sense, “to reach the Pillars of Hercules” means “to reach the limit”; "Ariadne's Thread" - Before the upcoming battle with the Minotaur in the labyrinth, Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of thread. Theseus tied the end of the ball in front of the entrance to the cave and the only way he was able to get out of the labyrinth. Hence the expression "Ariadne's thread", "guiding thread"; "Sisyphean labor" - for deceiving the god of death Tanat, Sisyphus is severely punished in the afterlife. “He is forced to roll a huge stone up a high, steep mountain. Straining all his strength, Sisyphus is working. Sweat pours from him from hard work. The summit is getting closer, more effort - and the work of Sisyphus will be completed, but a stone breaks out of his hands and rolls down with noise, raising clouds of dust. Sisyphus is again taken to work. So Sisyphus rolls the stone forever and can never reach the goal - the top of the mountain. This expression has become winged to denote endless and meaningless work. Without realizing it, we sometimes talk about titanic efforts and gigantic sizes (and after all, titans and giants are the offspring of the goddess of the Earth, who fought with Greek gods ), about panic fear (and these are the tricks of the god Pan, who loved to bring unaccountable horror to people), about Olympian calm (which the ancient gods possessed - the inhabitants of the sacred Mount Olympus) or about Homeric laughter (this is the unbridled thunderous laughter of the gods, described by the poet Homer). Common comparisons include likening a mighty and strong man to Hercules, and a brave and determined woman to an Amazon. Since so often in our lives we meet in mythology, it would be interesting to know - what are myths in general? This essay will be devoted to this. Myth. Its definition, origin. The word myth comes from the Greek Mythos - legend, tradition. A legend that conveys the ideas of ancient peoples about the origin of the world, about natural phenomena, about gods and legendary heroes. Another meaning of the word myth is fiction. The very creation of myths was the first step of a person towards creativity and self-knowledge. Gradually, from separate legends that originated in various areas of the Greek land, separate cycles about the fate of heroes and the gods who patronized them developed. All these legends, hymns and songs, sung by wandering aed singers, over time were combined into large epic poems, such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Hesiola's Theogony and Works and Days, and many others, not come down to our time. The great ancient Greek poets-dramatists of the 5th century BC - Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides - built their tragedies on the material of ancient legends about gods and heroes. The ancient Greeks were an active, energetic people, not afraid to explore the world, although it was inhabited by creatures hostile to man, instilling fear in him. But the boundless thirst for knowledge of this world overcame the fear of an unknown danger. The adventures of Odysseus, the campaign of the Argonauts for the Golden Fleece - these are all the same aspirations captured in poetic form to learn as much as possible about the land on which man lives. The great Russian philosopher Losev A.F. argued about the unscientific origin of myths: “The scientific functions of the spirit are too abstract to lie at the basis of mythology. There is absolutely no scientific experience for the mythical consciousness. He can't be convinced of anything. On the Nicobar Islands there is a disease from the winds, against which the natives perform the rite of "tanangla". Every year there is this disease, and every time this rite is performed. Despite all its apparent uselessness, nothing can convince these natives not to commit it. If even a minimal “scientific” consciousness and “scientific” experience were at work here, they would soon realize the futility of this rite. But it is clear that their mythology has no "scientific" meaning and is in no way "science" for them. Therefore, it is "scientifically" irrefutable... So, the myth is unscientific and is not based on any "scientific" "experience". It is said that the constancy of the phenomena of nature must from the earliest times compel one to interpret and explain these phenomena, and that myths, therefore, are these attempts to explain the laws of nature. But this is a purely a priori representation, which can be replaced with equal success by the opposite. Indeed, why, strictly speaking, does constancy play a role here, and precisely such a role? Since the phenomena proceed constantly and invariably (like the change of day and night or the seasons), then why be surprised here and what exactly here will make you come up with a scientific explanatory myth? The mythical consciousness would rather think about some rare, unprecedented, spectacular and single phenomena, and rather give not their causal explanation, but some expressive and picturesque image. The constancy of the laws of nature, therefore, and the observation of them says absolutely nothing about the essence or origin of the myth. In their search for protection from terrible elemental forces, the Greeks, like all ancient peoples, went through fetishism - a belief in the spirituality of inanimate nature (stones, wood, metal), which was then preserved in the worship of beautiful statues depicting their many gods. In their beliefs and myths, one can notice traces of animism and the most crude superstitions of the primitive era. But the Greeks came to anthropomorphism quite early, creating their gods in the image and likeness of people, while endowing them with indispensable and enduring qualities - beauty, the ability to take on any image and, most importantly, immortality. Main topics. The main source that inspired ancient people to create myths, as mentioned above, was their environment. What they could not explain from a scientific point of view, fanned myth. Where and where does the sun go across the sky, why does thunder and lightning happen, why are there so many varieties of different creatures on earth, and why some of them are pleasing to humans, while others inspire fear ... The following topics can be distinguished: The world around us, its origin; natural phenomena; Animals; The life of people, the reasons for their happy and miserable existence; The underworld and the end of the world; Here is how the ancient Greek poet Hesiod describes the beginning of all beginnings: “In the beginning there was only eternal, boundless Chaos. It contained the source of life. Everything arose from the boundless Chaos - the whole world and the immortal gods. From Chaos came the goddess Earth - Gaia. It spread wide, mighty and giving life to everything that lives and grows on it. Far under the earth, as far as the vast bright sky is from us, in the immeasurable depth, the gloomy Tartarus was born - a terrible abyss, full of eternal darkness. From Chaos, a mighty force was born, all revitalizing Love - Eros. Boundless Chaos gave birth to eternal Darkness - Erebus and dark Night - Nyukta. And from Night and darkness came eternal light - Ether and joyful bright Day - Hemera. Light spread all over the world, and night and day began to replace each other. The mighty fertile Earth gave birth to the boundless blue Sky - Uranus, and the Sky spread over the Earth. The high Mountains, born of the Earth, proudly rose to him, and the eternally noisy Sea spread wide. Uranus - Sky - reigned in the world. He took the blessed Earth as his wife. Six sons and six daughters - mighty, formidable titans - were Uranus and Gaia. Their son, the titan, the ocean flowing around the whole earth and the goddess Thetis gave birth to all the rivers that roll their waves to the sea, and the sea goddesses - oceanides. The titan Gipperion and Theia gave the world children: the sun - Helios, the moon - Selena and the ruddy Dawn - pink-fingered Eos (Aurora). From Astrea and Eos came the stars that burn in the dark night sky, and the winds: the stormy north wind Boreas, the eastern Eurus, the humid southern Noth and the gentle western wind Zephyr, carrying clouds abundant with rain. The ancient Greeks had a myth about the Great Flood, which later became the primary source for the biblical story. “People became more wicked, and Zeus planned to destroy the entire human race. He decided to send such a heavy downpour to the earth that everything would be flooded. Zeus forbade all winds to blow, only the humid south wind Noth drove dark rain clouds across the sky. The rain poured onto the ground. The water in the seas and rivers rose higher and higher. Cities with their walls, houses, temples disappeared under water. Gradually, the water covered everything - both the forested hills and high mountains. All Greece disappeared under the raging waves. The top of the two-headed Parnassus rose lonely among the waves. Where the peasant used to cultivate his field and where vineyards rich in ripe clusters were green, fish swam, and herds of dolphins frolicked in the forests covered with water. So the race of people of the copper age perished. Only two escaped - Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, and his wife Pyrrha. On the advice of Prometheus, Deucalion built a huge box, put food in it, and entered it with his wife. For nine days and nights, the box of Deucalion was carried along the waves of the sea, which covered the whole land. Finally, the waves drove him to the two-headed peak of Parnassus. The downpour sent by Zeus stopped. Deucalion and Pyrrha stepped out of the box and made a sacrifice of thanksgiving to Zeus. The water subsided, and again the land appeared from under the waves, devastated, like a desert. Further, the spouses, on the advice of Zeus, began to throw stones over their heads, which, hitting the ground, turned into men and women. Thus, a new kind of people was created, which originated from stone. The most mysterious phenomenon in nature, sunrise and sunset, the ancient Greeks imagined as a parade of various deities crossing the sky in their chariots. First, night covers the earth: “Darkness enveloped everything around. Around the chariot of the goddess of the Night, the stars crowd and pour an unfaithful flickering light on the ground - these are the young sons of the goddess of the Dawn - Eos and Astrea. Many of them, they dotted the entire dark night sky. Then the moon leaves in her chariot for a shift: “It’s like a light glow seemed to appear in the east. It gets hotter and hotter. It is the moon goddess Selene who ascends to heaven. Big-horned bulls slowly drive her chariot across the sky. Calmly, majestically, the goddess Moon rides in her long white clothes, with a crescent of the moon on her headdress ... Having traveled around the vault of heaven, the goddess Moon will descend into the deep grotto of Mount Latma in Kariya. There lies the beautiful Endymion, immersed in eternal slumber. Selena loves him. She bends over him, caresses him and whispers words of love to him. But Endymion, immersed in a slumber, does not hear her, because Selena is so sad and the light that she pours on the earth is sad. The rise of the sun god was presented to the ancients as three successive actions: “The east brightened a little. Brightly lit up in the east the harbinger of dawn Eosphros, the morning star. A light breeze blew, the east flared up brighter and brighter. Here the pink-fingered goddess Dawn - Eos opened the gates, from which the radiant god of the sun - Helios will soon leave. In bright saffron clothes, on pink wings, the goddess Dawn flies up to the brightened sky, flooded with pink light. The goddess pours dew on the ground from a golden vessel, and the dew showers the grass and flowers with sparkling drops like diamonds. Everything on earth is fragrant, aromas are smoking everywhere. The awakened earth joyfully welcomes the god the Sun - Helios. The radiant god rides to heaven from the shores of the Ocean in a golden chariot, which was forged by the god Hephaestus, drawn by a four winged horses ... In a radiant crown and in long sparkling clothes, he rides through the sky and pours life-giving rays on the earth, gives her light, warmth and life. Having completed his daily journey, the sun god descends to the sacred waters of the Ocean. There awaits his golden boat, in which he sails back to the east, to the land of the sun, where his wonderful palace is located. The sun god rests there at night, to rise in his former splendor the next day. The goddess Demeter is the sister of Zeus, the goddess of fertility and agriculture. The Greeks began to honor her as the greatest goddess at a time when agriculture became their main occupation. It was the goddess Demeter who was responsible for the fact that the seasons succeeded each other. Demeter had a beautiful daughter - the young Persephone. One day, her brother Zeus, the god Hades, saw her frolic in the meadow and fell in love. Hades conceived an insidious plan - to steal Persephone and marry her secretly from his mother. Zeus helped him in this. When Demeter found out about what she had done, she became angry with Zeus and: “... she left the gods, left Olympus, took the form of a mere mortal and, dressed in dark clothes, wandered between mortals for a long time, shedding bitter tears. Everything on earth stopped growing. The leaves on the trees withered and flew around. The forests were bare. The grass has faded, the flowers have lowered their colorful corollas. There were no fruits in the orchards, the green vineyards dried up, heavy bunches did not ripen in them. Frozen life on earth. Hunger reigned everywhere, weeping and groans were heard. Death threatened the entire human race. But Demeter did not see or hear anything, immersed in sadness. Zeus took pity on the people and asked Demeter to return to Olympus, but the goddess did not want to return until Hades returned Persephone to her. Hades agreed, and again everything blossomed and turned green on the ground. “Forests are covered with delicate spring foliage, flowers are full of flowers on the emerald grass of the meadows. Soon the grain-growing fields began to grow... All living things rejoiced and glorified the great goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. But every year Persephone leaves her mother, and each time Demeter plunges into sadness and again puts on dark clothes. And all nature mourns for the departed. The leaves on the trees turn yellow, the autumn wind rips them off; flowers fade, fields empty, winter comes. Nature sleeps to wake up in the joyful splendor of spring, when Persephone returns to her mother from the joyless kingdom of Hades. When her daughter returns to Demeter, then the goddess of fertility pours her gifts to people with a generous hand and rewards the work of the farmer with a rich harvest. With the help of myths, the ancient Greeks also explained the special arrangement of stars in the sky. The origin of constellations in the form of clearly distinguishable figures of people, animals could happen (according to their idea) only with the participation of deities. As a rule, the gods perpetuated the memory of folk heroes and even ordinary mortal people who somehow deserved this gift. For example, with his noble death, as was the case with Icarius: “... The god Dionysus rewarded Icarius in Attica, when he hospitably received him. Dionysus gave him a vine, and Icarius was the first to grow grapes in Attica. But the fate of Ikaria was sad. Once he gave wine to the shepherds, and they, not knowing what intoxication is, decided that Icarius had poisoned them. The shepherds killed Icarius and buried his body in the mountains. The daughter of Icarius, Erigona, was looking for her father for a long time. Finally, with the help of her dog Maira, she found the grave of Ikaria. In desperation, the unfortunate Erigone hanged herself on the very tree under which her father's body lay. Dionysus took Icarius, Erigone, and her dog Myra to heaven. Since then, they have been burning in the sky on a clear night - these are the constellations of Bootes, Virgo and Canis Major. The Greeks came up with an interesting solution to such an inexplicable phenomenon as an echo. The nymph Echo was punished by the goddess Hera for distracting the goddess with a conversation at the moment when Zeus was visiting the nymphs. The nymph Echo was supposed to be silent, and she could only answer questions by repeating their last words. The transformation of people into plants and animals is a frequent motif in the mythology of antiquity. People, favorites of the gods, turned into beautiful flowers after their death. In punishment for the inflicted atrocities, the gods turned people into vile creatures. Hyacinth was the son of the king of Sparta and he was equal to the Olympian gods in his beauty. The archer-god Apollo was a friend of Hyacinth. Often they competed, measured their strength. Once, during such a contest, a disk thrown by Apollo bounced off the ground and hit Hyacinth's head with terrible force. “A stream of scarlet blood gushed from the wound and stained the dark curls of a beautiful young man ... Apollo holds his dying friend in his arms, and his tears fall on the bloody curls of Hyacinth. Hyacinth died, his soul flew off to the kingdom of Hades. Apollo stands over the body of the deceased and quietly whispers: - You will always live in my heart, beautiful Hyacinth. May your memory live forever among people. And now, according to the word of Apollo, a scarlet fragrant flower, hyacinth, grew out of the blood of Hyacinth, and on its petals the groan of sorrow of the god Apollo was imprinted. The memory of Hyacinth is also alive among people, they honor him with festivities on the days of hyacinths. The young son of King Keops Cypress, a beloved friend of the archer Apollo, had a favorite deer. This deer was wonderful. Cypress leads the deer to clearings with lush grass and to ringing streams, he decorated his mighty antlers with wreaths of fragrant flowers; often playing with a deer, the young Cypress jumped on his back and rode on it through the flowering Carthian valley. Once, while hunting, Cypress did not recognize his pet and threw a sharp spear at him, striking him to death. Cypress was horrified when he saw whom he had killed. “In grief, he wants to die with him. Apollo consoled him in vain. The grief of Cypress was inconsolable, he prays to the silver-armed god to let him be sad forever. Apollo heeded his prayer and turned the young man into a tree. His curls became green needles, his body was dressed in bark. He stood like a slender cypress tree in front of Apollo. Apollo sighed sadly and said: - I will always mourn for you, beautiful young man, you will also mourn for someone else's grief. Be always with those who mourn!” Since then, at the door of the house where the deceased is, the Greeks hung a cypress branch, decorated with its needles funeral pyres, on which the bodies of the dead were burned, and planted cypress trees near the graves. Narcissus, the son of the river god Cephis and the nymph Lavrion, did not love anyone but himself, he considered himself worthy of love. “He made many nymphs unhappy. And once one of the nymphs he had rejected exclaimed: - Love you too, Narcissus! And do not reciprocate the person you love! The nymph's wish came true. The goddess of love Aphrodite was angry that Narcissus was rejecting her gifts and punished him. One spring while hunting, Narcissus came to the stream and wanted to drink the cold water. Narcissus bent down to the stream, leaning his hands on a stone protruding from the water, and was reflected in the stream all in all its beauty. It was then that the punishment of Aphrodite befell him. In amazement, he looks at his reflection in the water and strong love takes possession of him. With eyes full of love, he looks at his image in the water, he beckons him, calls, stretches out his hands to him. Narcissus leans over to the mirror of water to kiss his reflection, but kisses only the icy clear water of the stream. Narcissus forgot everything: he does not leave the stream, admiring himself without stopping. He doesn't eat, doesn't drink, doesn't sleep. The forces of Narcissus are leaving, Narcissus bowed his head on the green coastal grass, and the darkness of death covered his eyes. Narcissus died, and in the place where his head leaned on the grass, a white fragrant flower grew - the flower of death; I call him daffodil." God Dionysus - the patron of vegetation, wine and winemaking, often punished people not only because they did not recognize him as a god, but also for what they wanted to do to him as a mere mortal. So the daughters of Minius, the king of Orchomenes, were turned into bats. “The priest of Dionysus-Bacchus appeared in Orchomenus and called all the girls and women in the forests of the mountain to a merry festival in honor of the god of wine. But the three daughters of King Minius did not go to the festival, they did not want to recognize Dionysus as a god. They sat at home and calmly spun, weaved and did not want to hear anything about the holiday. Evening came, the sun set, and the king's daughters still did not give up work, in a hurry to finish it at all costs. Suddenly a miracle appeared before their eyes. The sounds of tympanums and flutes were heard in the palace, the threads of yarn turned into vines and heavy clusters hung on them. The looms were green with ivy. The king's daughters looked with surprise at this miracle. Suddenly, throughout the palace, already shrouded in evening twilight, the ominous light of torches flashed. The roar of wild animals was heard. Lions, panthers, lynxes and bears appeared in all the chambers of the palace. With a menacing howl they ran around the palace and their eyes flashed furiously. In horror, the daughters of the king began to hide in the farthest, darkest rooms of the palace, so as not to see the brilliance of the torches and not to hear the roar of the animals. But all in vain, they can't hide anywhere. The bodies of the princesses began to shrink, covered with gray mouse hair, wings with a thin membrane grew instead of hands - they turned into bats. Since then, they have been hiding from daylight in dark, damp ruins and caves. The same thing happened with the Tyrrhenian sea robbers. They were captivated by the beauty of the young man and forcibly took him to their ship, hoping to get a jackpot for him. Dionysus was angry that in the form of a mortal youth they wanted to do this to him. “Suddenly, a miracle happened: fragrant wine flowed through the ship, and the whole air was filled with fragrance. The robbers were dumbfounded. But here on the sails vines with heavy clusters turned green, dark green ivy wrapped around the mast. The young man turned into a lion and stood on the deck with a formidable roar, his eyes flashing furiously. A shaggy bear appeared on the deck of the ship, she bared her mouth terribly ... Having lost hope of salvation, the robbers rushed into the sea waves one by one, and Dionysus turned them into dolphins. Where Dionysus is located, the appearance of various animals and climbing vineyards is characteristic. After all, the god Dionysus is the patron saint of winemaking, his retinue consists of strange creatures: satyrs, centaurs, maenads. They walk through the forests forever half-drunk and eccentric, lead round dances, burn bonfires. And the story that happened to Midas is designed to reveal the secret of the gold-bearing river Paktol, which is located in Asia Minor. Dionysus wanted to thank Midas for the hospitable reception and was ready to fulfill any of his wishes. Greed seized Midas and he asked Dionysus: “O great god Dionysus, make everything I touch turn into pure gold! Dionysus granted Midas' wish; he only regretted that Midas had not chosen a better gift for himself. Rejoicing, Midas departed. Rejoicing at the gift he received, he plucks a green branch from the oak - it turns into gold in his hands. He plucks ears of corn in the field - they become golden, and golden grains in them. He picks an apple - the apple turns into gold, as if it were from the gardens of the Hesperides ... Here he came to his palace. The servants prepared a rich feast for the happy Midas. But then he realized what a terrible gift he asked from Dionysus. One touch from Midas turned everything to gold. Bread, and all dishes, and wine became golden in his mouth. He stretched out his hands to the sky and exclaimed: - Have mercy, have mercy, O Dionysus! Sorry! Take back this gift!” Dionysus sent Midas to the sources of Pactol and ordered him to wash away his gift and his guilt in its waters. The waters of Pactol flowed like gold. Since then, Pactol has become gold-bearing. In ancient Greek mythology, the afterlife is not divided, as in later religions, into heaven and hell. All life after life in the gloomy kingdom of Hades is quiet and sad. “The rays of the bright sun never penetrate there. Cocytus and Acheron roll their waves there; the souls of the dead cry out on their dark shores. In the underworld, the rivers of Lethe also flow, giving oblivion to all earthly water. Through the gloomy fields of the kingdom of Hades, overgrown with pale flowers of asphodel, the incorporeal light shadows of the dead rush. They complain about their joyless life without light and without desires. There is no return to anyone from this realm of sorrow. The three-headed dog Kerber, on whose neck snakes move with a menacing hiss, guards the exit. The stern old Charon, the carrier of the souls of the dead, will not be lucky through the gloomy waters of Acheron not a single soul back to where the sun of life shines brightly. The god of death Tanat, with a sword in his hands, in a black cloak, with huge black wings, flies to the bed of the dying. Chill emanates from his wings when he cuts a lock of hair from a man's head with his sword and rips out his soul. Only once did a mortal manage to deceive the god Tanat and return from the gloomy kingdom of Hades. No one in Greece could compare with Sisyphus in deceit, cunning and resourcefulness of mind. When the god of death came for him, Sisyphus treacherously deceived Tanat and put him in chains. People stopped dying on earth, they didn’t make big magnificent funerals anywhere, they didn’t make sacrifices to the gods of the underworld. The order established by Zeus was violated on earth. The Thunderer sent the mighty god of war Ares to Sisyphus. He freed Tanat from the shackles, and Tanat tore out the soul of Sisyphus and took him to the kingdom of the shadows of the dead. “But again Sisyphus deceived the gods. He told his wife not to bury his body and not to make sacrifices to the underground gods. Hades and Persephone waited a long time for funeral victims. All are not there! Finally, Sisyphus approached the throne of Hades and said: - O ruler of the souls of the dead, let me go to the bright land! I command my wife to make rich sacrifices to you and return back to the realm of shadows. Hades believed Sisyphus and let him go to earth. But Sisyphus did not return, he remained in his magnificent palace and feasted merrily, rejoicing that he alone of all mortals managed to return from the gloomy realm of shadows. Hades got angry and sent Tanat again. The god of death, hated by the gods and people, torn away the soul of Sisyphus, the soul of Sisyphus flew forever into the kingdom of shadows. Sisyphus bears a heavy punishment in the afterlife. In the same place, in the kingdom of Hades, the beautiful young god of sleep, Hypnos, also lives. It gives people rest and sleep. “Hypnos inaudibly flies on its wings above the ground with poppy heads in its hands and pours sleeping pills from its horn. Hypnos gently touches the eyes of people with his wonderful wand, quietly closes his eyelids and plunges mortals into a sweet dream. The god Hypnos is mighty, neither mortals, nor gods, nor the Thunderer Zeus himself can resist him: even Hypnos closes his menacing eyes with deep sleep. People have various dreams - both good and bad. For each of them are responsible and different gods. There are gods among them who give joyful and prophetic dreams, but there are gods and terrible, oppressive dreams that frighten and torment people. There are gods of false dreams: they mislead a person and often lead to his death. Images and characters of myths. The structure of ancient Greek mythology is made up of cycles about * Gods; * Titans; * Heroes; * Ancient Greek epic describing the exploits of heroes; The Greeks quite early switched to anthropomorphism, creating their gods in the image and likeness of people, while endowing them with indispensable and enduring qualities - beauty, the ability to take on any image and, most importantly, immortality. The ancient Greek gods were like people in everything: kind, generous and merciful, but at the same time often cruel, vengeful and insidious. Human life inevitably ended in death, while the gods were immortal and knew no boundaries in fulfilling their desires, but all the same, fate was higher than the gods - Moira - a predestination that none of them could change. Thus, the Greeks, even in the fate of the immortal gods, saw their similarity with the fate of mortal people. So, Zeus in Homer's "Iliad" himself has no right to decide the outcome of the duel between the heroes of Hector and Achilles. He asks fate, casting the lots of both heroes on the golden scales. The cup with the lot of Hector's death falls down, and all the divine power of Zeus is powerless to help his favorite. The valiant Hector dies from the spear of Achilles, contrary to the wishes of Zeus, in accordance with the decision of fate. We can see this in the Roman poet Virgil as well. Describing in the "Aeneid" the decisive duel between the Trojan hero Aeneas and the Italian leader Turnn, the poet forces the supreme god of the Romans Jupiter, "having equalized the arrow of the scales", cast both lots of the fighting on the bowls. The bowl with the lot of Turn goes down, and Aeneas strikes his opponent with a terrible blow of the sword. Heroes for the Greeks were originally the spirits of the dead, influencing the lives of the living; therefore, the cult of heroes was associated with their graves, and sacrifices were made to them in the evening or at night, making libations in the grave pit and slaughtering black animals. Heroes were considered defenders of people, founders of cities and states, averting disasters, helpers in battles, saviors from adversity. Hesiod for the first time calls heroes demigods. Heroes were considered intermediaries between people and gods; many noble families of Greece and Rome derived their family from them. Zeus created different people in different centuries: The Golden Age - people lived a carefree life, their legs and arms were strong and strong. Painless and happy life theirs was an eternal feast. Death, which came after a long life, was like a calm, quiet sleep; silver age - the second human race was not so happy. People were not equal either in strength or intellect silver age golden people. Their life was short, they saw a lot of misfortune and grief in life. Zeus settled them in the underground gloomy kingdom. There they live, knowing neither joys nor sorrows; age of copper - people of the third kind, Zeus created them from the shaft of a spear - terrible and powerful. The people of the copper age loved pride and war, plentiful with groans. They did not know any agriculture and did not eat the fruits of the earth, which give gardens and arable land. Zeus gave them enormous growth and indestructible strength. Indomitable, courageous were their hearts and irresistible hands. They quickly descended into the dark kingdom of Hades. Strong as they were, yet the black death snatched them away, and they left the clear light of the sun; the fourth century created Zeus and a new human race, more noble, more just, equal to the gods, the race of demigods - heroes. And they all died in terrible bloody battles. Some died at the seven gates of Thebes, in the country of Cadmus, fighting for the legacy of Oedipus. Others fell near Troy, where they came for the golden-haired Helen. When all of them were kidnapped by death, Zeus settled them on the edge of the earth, far from living people. Heroes live on the islands of the blessed; by the stormy waters of the Ocean a happy, carefree life. There, the fertile land gives them fruits as sweet as honey three times a year. The gods and heroes of Greek myth-making were living and full-blooded beings who communicated directly with ordinary mortals, entered into love alliances with them, and helped their favorites and chosen ones. And the ancient Greeks saw in the gods creatures in whom everything characteristic of man manifested itself in a more grandiose and sublime form. Of course, this helped the Greeks through the gods to better understand themselves, to comprehend their own intentions and actions, to adequately assess their strengths. Thus, the hero of the Odyssey, pursued by the fury of the mighty god of the seas Poseidon, clings with his last strength to the saving rocks, showing courage and will, which he is able to oppose to the elements raging at the will of the gods in order to emerge victorious. The ancient Greeks directly perceived all the vicissitudes of life, and therefore the heroes of their legends show the same immediacy in disappointments and joys. They are simple-minded, noble and at the same time cruel to enemies. It is a reflection of real life and real human characters of ancient times. The life of gods and heroes is full of deeds, victories and suffering. Aphrodite is grieving, having lost her beloved beautiful Adonis; Demeter is tormented, from whom the gloomy Hades stole her beloved daughter Persephone. Endless is the suffering of the titan Prometheus, chained to the top of a rock and tormented by an eagle Zeus because he stole the divine fire from Olympus for people. Niobe is petrified by grief, in which all her children died, slain by the arrows of Apollo and Artemis. The hero of the Trojan War Agamemnon dies, treacherously killed by his wife immediately after returning from a campaign. The greatest hero of Greece - Hercules, who saved people from many monsters that attacked them and devastated the lands, ended his life at the stake in terrible suffering. The long-suffering King Oedipus, in despair from the crimes he committed out of ignorance, gouged out his own eyes, wanders with his daughter Antigone throughout the Greek land, finding no peace anywhere. Very often, these unfortunates are punished for the atrocities once committed by their ancestors. And although all this is predetermined, they punish themselves for what they have done, not waiting for the punishment of the gods. A sense of responsibility to oneself for one's actions, a sense of duty towards relatives and to the homeland, characteristic of Greek myths, were further developed in ancient Roman legends. But if the mythology of the Greeks is striking in its brilliance, diversity, richness of fiction, then the Roman religion is poor in legends. The religious ideas of the Romans, which, in essence, were a mixture of various Italic tribes that had developed through conquest and allied treaties, contained basically the same initial data as that of the Greeks - fear of incomprehensible natural phenomena, natural disasters and admiration for producing the forces of the earth. The Romans did not even bother to compose any interesting stories about their gods - each of them had only a certain sphere of activity, but, in essence, all these deities were faceless. The praying one made sacrifices to them, the gods had to give him the mercy that he counted on. For a mere mortal, there could be no question of communicating with a deity. The only exceptions were the daughter of King Numitor, Rhea Silvia, the founder of Rome, Romulus, and King Numa Pompilius. Usually the Italic gods manifested their will by the flight of birds, lightning strikes, mysterious voices coming from the depths. sacred grove, from the darkness of the temple or cave. And the praying Roman, unlike the Greek, who freely contemplated the statue of the deity, stood with part of his cloak covering his head. He did this not only in order to concentrate on prayer, but also in order not to inadvertently see the god he invoked. Begging God according to all the rules for mercy, asking him for indulgence and wishing that God would heed his prayers, the Roman would be horrified if he suddenly met this deity with his eyes. No wonder the Roman poet Ovid said in his poems: "Save us from seeing the Dryads or the bathing Diana, or the Faun, when he walks through the fields in the middle of the day." Roman farmers, returning home from work in the evening, were terribly afraid to meet any of the forest or field deities. The worship of the numerous gods, who guided almost every step of the Roman, consisted mainly in sacrifices, prayers, and severe cleansing rites, strictly prescribed by customs. In the Roman religion, the gods of all the tribes that became part of the Roman state were united, but until closer contact with the Greek peoples, the Romans had no idea about the mythology saturated with bright and full-blooded images that the Greeks had. There was no question of any free communication with the gods for a Roman. They could only be read, observed exactly all the rites and asked for something. If one god did not respond to a request, then the Roman turned to another, since there were a great many of them, associated with various moments of his life and work. Sometimes these were just "disposable" deities who were called upon once in a lifetime. So, for example, the goddess Nundina was addressed only on the ninth birthday of a baby. She reminded that the child, having been cleansed, receives a name and an amulet from the evil eye. The deities associated with obtaining food were also extremely numerous: gods and goddesses who nourish the grain sown in the ground, who take care of the first shoots; goddesses who promote maturation, destroy weeds; gods of harvest, threshing and grinding of grain. In order for the Roman landowner to understand all this, the so-called Indigiamenta were compiled in the Roman state - lists of officially approved prayer formulas containing the names of all those gods who should have been invoked at all events. human life. These lists were compiled by Roman priests before the penetration of Greek mythology into the strict abstract religion of the Romans and are therefore interesting. They give a picture of purely Italic beliefs. According to the Roman writer Mark Portia Varro (1st century BC), Rome for 170 years did without statues of the gods, and the ancient goddess Vesta, even after the erection of statues in the temples of the gods, “did not allow” to put a statue in her sanctuary, but was personified only by sacred fire. As the importance and power of the Roman state increased, many foreign deities "moved" to Rome, who quite easily took root in this huge city. The Romans believed that by resettling the gods of the peoples they had conquered and giving them due honors, Rome would escape their wrath. But even having attracted the Greek pantheon, identifying their gods with the main deities of the Greeks, or simply borrowing the patron god of the arts of Apollo, the Romans could not abandon their religious abstractions. Among their sanctuaries were the temples of Fidelity, Paleness, Fear, Youth. Rome, having adopted Greek mythology and turned it into Greco-Roman, has rendered mankind a great service. The fact is that most of the brilliant works of Greek sculptors have come down to our time only in Roman copies, with a few exceptions. And if now our contemporaries can judge the wonderful fine arts Greeks, then for this they should be grateful to the Romans. As well as the fact that the Roman poet Publius Ovid Nason in his poem "Metamorphoses" ("Transformations") has preserved for us all the whimsical and bizarre, and at the same time so touching in their immediacy, the creations of the bright Greek genius - the people, in whose art " found expression in all its charm and artless truth the beauty of human childhood. Holidays dedicated to mythical heroes. Ancient people did not limit the worship of the gods to sacrifice and prayers. Great importance was attached to holidays dedicated to mythical heroes. The second most important after the Olympic Games was the festival held every two years in honor of Poseidon on the Isthma. The Isthmian games consisted of gymnastic, equestrian and musical competitions. The winners were rewarded with a wreath of celery or pine and a palm branch. The peace proclaimed at these games was not observed as strictly as at the Olympics. The Attic feast in honor of Athena Poliada (the patroness of the city) was originally an exclusively Athenian holiday, later Theseus made it a general Athenian. The holiday was celebrated every year in August, and once every four years the so-called Great Panathenaic celebrated with special pomp. The celebration began at night with a solemn run with torches. Equestrian (chariot) and gymnastic competitions took place at the festival; Peisistratus introduced the competition of rhapsodes, and since the time of Pericles, singers and musicians also competed in the Odeon. The winners were awarded olive wreaths and amphorae with olive oil from the sacred olive (hence our custom of awarding winners with goblets). On the birthday of Athena, a festive procession was also arranged from the suburbs of Athens Ceramics to the Acropolis to the Erechtheion - the temple of Athena. Participants in the procession brought the goddess peplos (outerwear), re-woven by Athenian women; it was pulled in the form of a sail on the mast of the sacred Panathenaic ship, which was rolled on wheels to the temple, where the peplos was put on the statue of the goddess. Not only Athenian citizens took part in the procession, but also embassies from other states with gifts to Athena. The holiday ended with a sacrifice and a general feast. In honor of the god Apollo, every four years in the late summer on the island of Delos, festivities took place - the so-called delii. The games consisted almost entirely of stage performances. Throughout the ancient world, his sanctuary at Delphi was also famous, where the Pythian priestess gave predictions compiled by the priests. Dionysus, the most popular god of Greece, was dedicated to several fun holidays, celebrated from late autumn until spring. Often these festivities had the character of mysteries (secret religious rites), and often turned into orgies (bacchanalia). Festivities in honor of Dionysus served as the beginning of theatrical performances. During the so-called Great Dionysius, choirs of singers dressed in goat skins performed in Athens and performed special hymns-dithyrambs: they began to sing, the choir answered him, singing was accompanied by dancing; thus a tragedy (the word itself in translation means "goat song"). It is assumed that from the winter dithyrambs, in which the sufferings of Dionysus were lamented, tragedy developed, and from the spring, joyful ones, accompanied by laughter and jokes, comedy. Major religious holidays were also holidays associated with the cult of agricultural gods - Cerealia in honor of Ceres, Vinalia - the grape harvest festival, Consualin - the harvest festival, Saturnalia - the festival of crops, Terminalia - the festival of boundary stones, Lupercalia - the festival of shepherds. Being festivities of the most ancient inhabitants of Rome, farmers and shepherds, these holidays were especially revered among the rural population in the future. At the end of III - beginning of II century. to p. e. games were also established in honor of the Great Mother of the Gods - Megalen games and florals in honor of the goddess Flora. These games were annual and regular, but in addition to them, extraordinary games could also be arranged, depending on a successful war, deliverance from an invasion, a vow or simply the desire of a magistrate. A large number of stage days in the system of public performances speaks of the significant role of the theater in the public life of Rome in the 2nd-1st centuries. to II. e. Apparently, this is due to the influence of the beautiful Greek theater and Greek literature, the general cultural growth of the Roman public, the increase in the urban population, which usually attended theatrical performances. Heroes of Greek and Roman mythology in comparison. | Name of the deity | Name of the deity | Meaning of the deity in | Meaning of the deity in | | in Greek | in Roman | Greek mythology | Roman mythology | | | Mythology | (Italian) | | | | | | mythology | | | | Zeus | Jupiter | Son of Rhea and Krona, the most | Mighty ruler | | | | powerful and | heaven, personification | | | | | the highest of the gods | sunlight, thunderstorms, | | | | | Greek people, father and | storms, in anger tossing | | | | | lord of men and gods; | lightning, striking them | | | | | | recalcitrant him | | | | | | divine will; | | Poseidon | Neptune | Shaker of the earth, | King of the seas and oceans, god | | | | ruler of the seas; | sea kingdom; | | | Hera | Juno | Wife of Zeus, | Wife of Jupiter, queen | | | | patroness of marriages, | heaven, guardian | | | | | conjugal love and | marriage unions, assistant | | | | childbirth; | during childbirth. | She was honored and how | | | | | great goddess of fertility; | | | Hades | Identified | Brother of Zeus, the great | Orc-god of death; Dit is god| | | I'm with the gods | lord of the afterlife | hell; | | | Ork and Ditom | kingdoms; | | | Dionysus | Bacchus | God of vegetation, wine | God of wine, winemaking, | | | | | and winemaking; | fun; | | Pan | Faun | God of forests and groves, god | Cheerful, active god | | | | shepherds, guardian | forests, groves, fields; | | | | herd, patron | | | | | | hunters, beekeepers, | | | | | | fishermen; | | | Demeter | Ceres | Goddess of fertility and | Goddess of the harvest, | | | | | agriculture; | patroness | | | | | fertility; | | Tyukhe | Fortune | Goddess of a happy fate; | Goddess of a happy fate, | | | | | like the Greeks; | | | Artemis | Diana | Virgin | Patroness of animals, | | | | Goddess-hunter, | blooming fields, green | | | | | patroness of animals, | groves and forests; | | | | Goddess of fertility, | | | | | | assistant during childbirth; | | | | Aphrodite | Venus | Originally goddess | | | | fertility, then the goddess | gardens, the goddess of spring, | | | | | love. Aphrodite | fertility, growth | | | | treated as well as | and the heyday of all | | | | | goddess - the patroness | fruitful forces of nature; | | | | navigation; | | | Eros | Cupid or | Son of Aphrodite - cheerful, | Like Eros lets his | | | Cupidon | playful, treacherous; his | love arrows in sacrifice, | | | | arrows carry with them | bringing them joy and anguish | | | | | joy and happiness, but | love; | | | | Often they are | | | | | | suffering, the anguish of love and | | | | | | even death; | | | Hymen | Hymen | God of marriage; | God of marriage; | | Hephaestus | Volcano | God of fire and blacksmith | God of fire and hearth, | | | | crafts, patron | skillful blacksmith, | | | | | metallurgy; | patron of artisans | | | | | | and jewelers; | | Athena | Minerva | Goddess of wisdom, | Patroness of cities and | | | | patroness of cities and | peaceful occupations of their inhabitants; | | | | | States as in the days of peace | | | | | | and during the war; | | | | Ares | Mars | God of War, personification | Furious, indomitable god | | | | ferocious militancy, | war; | | | | source of death, | | | | | | Destruction and | | | | | | bloodshed; | | | Hermes | Mercury | Patron of trade, | Performs the function of a messenger | | | | dexterity, deceit, | gods, endowed with ingenuity, | | | | | theft; | observation and | | | | | | cunning; | Used literature: I. Legends and tales of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Ed. A.A. Neikhardt, M.: Pravda Publishing House, 1987; II. Astrology. Teaching aid. Comp. A. Moskovsky, Yekaterinburg: Ural University Press, 1992; III. Losev A.F. Philosophy, mythology, culture. M., 1993. ----------------------- Legends and tales of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Ed. A.A.Neikhardt, M.: Pravda Publishing House, 1987, p.365 Legends and tales of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Ed. A.A. Neikhardt, M.: Pravda Publishing House, 1987, p.130 Ibid., p.123 Losev A.F. Philosophy, mythology, culture. Moscow: 1993 Legends and tales of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Ed. A.A.Neikhardt, M.: Pravda Publishing House, 1987, p.15-16 Ibid., p.92 Ibid., p.71 Endymion was sometimes considered the son of King Efilia of Caria, sometimes the son of Zeus. It is possible that Endymion is the ancient Carian god of sleep. Legends and tales of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Ed. A.A.Neikhardt, M.: Pravda Publishing House, 1987, p.71 Ibid., p.71-72 Legends and tales of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Ed. A.A.Neikhardt, M.: Pravda Publishing House, 1987, p.65 Ibid., p.68 Legends and tales of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Ed. A.A.Neikhardt, M.: Pravda Publishing House, 1987, p.84 Ibid., p.236 Legends and tales of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Ed. A.A.Neikhardt, M.: Pravda Publishing House, 1987, p.225-226 Ibid., p.57-59 Legends and tales of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Ed. A.A. Neikhardt, M.: Pravda Publishing House, 1987, pp. 81-82 Ibid., p. 83 Satyrs are forest deities, half-human half-goats with goat horns, a goat or horse tail, an upturned blunt nose and disheveled hair . They are lazy, lustful, often half drunk. Centaurs are mythical creatures, half-human, half-horse. Maenads are companions of Dionysus. Their name means "raging", "raging". The Romans called them Bacchae. Legends and tales of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Ed. A.A. Neikhardt, M .: Pravda Publishing House, 1987, p. 85 Asphodel is a wild tulip. Legends and tales of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Ed. A.A.Neikhardt, M.: Pravda Publishing House, 1987, p.25-27 See p.4 of this abstract. Legends and tales of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Ed. A.A.Neikhardt, M.: Pravda Publishing House, 1987, p.27 Dryads are nymphs who patronized trees. Diana is the Roman goddess of the moon and the hunt. Faun - god, patron of fields and meadows. Marx K., Engels F. Soch., v.12 p.137

Mythology has provided an inexhaustible storehouse of ideas and images for the centuries-old development of art. This applies not only to Greek mythology, but also to Jewish, Christian, ancient Indian, Buddhist, ancient Chinese (see: 150). It is impossible to exhaust this topic in a short lecture, to consider all the variety of mythological plots expressed in art, we can limit ourselves to only a few remarks in connection with the reflection of this topic mainly in literature.

If at first art pursued the goal of creating illustrations for mythological subjects, then very soon these subjects turned into an occasion for posing essential socio-historical and aesthetic problems.

Mythological plots, mythologemes in art in new historical eras are filled with new meaning, while retaining traces of the old ones. So Thus, the semantic content of the myth grows on the primary grain layer by layer, laying on top of the old, forming a precious "pearl" in the wings of culture.

The myth of the mankurt used by Ch. Aitmatov for the image contemporary torn off from the spiritual soil, people. So in Nietzsche, in his time, he recreated the image of Zarathustra, the poet-philosopher, who despised the philistine-poor practicality of the mob, worshiping the mundane immediate benefit, the golden calf. Perhaps today Zarathustra will find new admirers who are fascinated by the ideas of a humane society.

F. M. Dostoevsky in "The Brothers Karamazov" you can find several mythological ideas. It seems to us that two groups of problems are of particular importance. The first is connected with the formulation in the most acute form of philosophical questions about the meaning of the life of an individual and the meaning of history within the framework of the Orthodox bipolar cosmos, in which there is an "up" (paradise) and a "down" (hell), and which requires an unambiguous choice of "or-

or ". If even a tear of a child lies in the foundation of universal happiness, then Dostoevsky's hero will not accept such happiness.

The second group of problems is related to the historical fate of the Christian doctrine, which, according to Dostoevsky, the Roman Catholic Church perverted by seizing the freedom of man, enslaving him. He reflects on the three temptations of Christ after a forty-day fast in the wilderness in three ways to master the world: bread, miracles and authority (Matt. 1V, 1-10). Christ then did not succumb to temptations, but if we recall the gospel story, he sinned in all three respects, although his fundamental orientation was towards love (“love your neighbor as yourself”) (see for more details: 168, 107-109).

The novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, M. A. Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, John Updike's Centaur, and D. Joyce's Ulysses are permeated with mythology. As V. L. Rabinovich noted, V. Hugo's novel "Notre Dame Cathedral" is a kind of interpretation of the alchemical myth. The myth becomes an artistic, figurative and semantic structure of the novel, manifesting itself in the cathedral itself, its sculptures, in the plot of the novel, the heroes of which are mythological symbols (see: 185, 110-113).

The English writer Daphne du Maurier actively relies on the mythological experience of man, and Daniil Andreev created the metahistorical theodicy "Rose of the World". worlds of retribution. Every nation has its own leader, the demiurge. Yarosvet is the name of the leader of the Russian people, and Navna is the name of the bright Cathedral Soul. The daughter of Yarosvet and Navna, Sventana, should contribute to the establishment of the World Brotherhood - the Rose of the World.

The forces of light are counteracted by the forces of darkness, which also have mythological names: Gagtungr - an anti-humanistic demon and Velga - a feminine principle associated with wars and destruction. All people are involved in this struggle between the forces of light and darkness, but the most prominent artists, writers, and musicians play the special roles of Messengers, reporting the news of other worlds,