in East Slavic mythology, the spirit that brings death. Having huge eyes with heavy lids, Viy kills with his gaze.
Dictionary of mythology by M. Ladygin.
Viy- in Slavic mythology, a demonic creature that gives people nightmares; he is capable of killing a person and destroying an entire city with a glance, but his eyes are covered with iron eyelids, which must be lifted by his evil servants with iron pitchforks.
Sources:
● M.B. Ladygin, O.M. Ladygina Brief mythological dictionary - M.: Publishing house NOU "Polar Star", 2003.
Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron
In Little Russian demonology, a formidable old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching to the very ground; V. cannot see anything on his own, but if several strong men manage to raise his eyebrows and eyelids with iron pitchforks, then nothing can hide before his menacing gaze: with his gaze V. kills people, destroys and turns cities and villages to ashes. Afanasyev sees in V. a reflection of the ancient and powerful deity of the Slavs, namely the thunder god. The processing of the legend about Vie by N.V. Gogol is known.
Dictionary of pagan concepts and gods
(Niya, Niam) - a mythical creature whose eyelids descend to the very ground, but if you lift them with a pitchfork, then nothing will be hidden from his gaze; word viii means eyelashes. Viy - with one glance he kills people and turns cities and villages to ashes; fortunately, his murderous gaze is hidden by thick eyebrows and eyelids close to his eyes, and only when it is necessary to destroy enemy armies or set fire to an enemy city, do they lift his eyelids with a pitchfork. Viy was considered one of the main servants of Chernobog. He was considered a judge over the dead. The Slavs could never come to terms with the fact that those who lived lawlessly, not according to their conscience, were not punished. The Slavs believed that the place of execution of lawless people was inside the earth. Viy is also associated with the seasonal death of nature during winter. He was revered as the sender of nightmares, visions and ghosts, especially for those who do not have a clear conscience. ...He saw that they were leading some squat, hefty, club-footed man. He was all covered in black earth. His legs and arms covered with earth stood out like stringy, strong roots. He walked heavily, constantly stumbling. Long eyelids were lowered to the ground. Khoma noticed with horror that his face was iron(N.V. Gogol. “Viy”). ... Today Viy is at rest,” the two-headed horse yawned with one head, and licked his lips with the other head, “Viy is resting: he destroyed a lot of people with his eye, and from the country-cities only ashes lie. Viy will accumulate strength and get down to business again(A.M. Remizov. “To the Sea-Ocean”).
One of the strangest and most mysteriously contradictory characters of the Slavic epic could have remained on the margins of Russian folklore, if not for the attention to him of the great writer N.V. Gogol and his story “Viy”, first published in the collection “Mirgorod” in 1835.
In his comments to the story V.A. Voropaev and I.A. Vinogradov note: “According to the research of D. Moldavsky, the name of the underground spirit Viy arose in Gogol as a result of the contamination of the name of the mythological ruler of the underworld “iron” Niya and the Ukrainian words: “Virlooky, goggle-eyed” (Gogol’s “Little Russian Lexicon”), “viya” - eyelash and “poviko” - eyelid (see: Moldavsky D. “Viy” and the mythology of the 18th century // Bibliophile’s Almanac. Issue 27. M., 1990. P. 152-154).
Still from the film “Viy”
Obviously, another word from Gogol’s “Little Russian Lexicon” is connected with the name Viya: “Viko, a lid on a dizhe or on a skryne.” Let’s remember the “dija” in “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” - a huge tub of dough walking “squatting” around the hut - and the “skrynya” in “The Night Before Christmas” - a chest bound in iron and painted with bright flowers, made by Vakula to order for the beautiful Oksana...
And in Gogol’s extract from a letter to his mother dated June 4, 1829, “On the weddings of Little Russians,” where we are talking about preparing a wedding loaf, it is said: “They make the cow more carefully, but in their way, on the wiki (...) they put it in the oven without a lid, and they put the viko on the dizha.”
The architecture of the temple depicted here - wooden, “with three cone-shaped domes” - “baths” - is also essential for understanding the story. This is a traditional southern Russian type of three-part ancient church, widespread in Ukraine and at one time dominant for it. In the literature, however, there are references to the fact that tripartite wooden churches in Ukraine were predominantly Uniate churches.
This directly echoes one observation made by researchers long ago - that the Viya gnomes stuck in the windows and doors of the church definitely correlate with the chimeras (see below) of Gothic temples, in particular, the gargoyles of Notre Dame Cathedral. By the way, the main character of the story, Khoma Brut, who bears a “Roman” name, is a graduate of the Bratsky Monastery, which was at one time a Uniate monastery.
Another “Catholic” sign in “Vie” appears in the contrast here of the dilapidated iconostasis (with the darkened, “gloomily” looking faces of the saints) to the “terrible, sparkling beauty” of the witch, whose coffin was placed “opposite the altar itself.”
It can be assumed that the very image of the dead beauty was inspired by Gogol from a “Catholic” source - namely, K. Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” with a beautiful dead woman in the foreground, to the image of which Gogol, who adores Italy, repeatedly returns in his dedicated painting Bryullov's article of the same name.
To understand Gogol’s plan, it is necessary to note that Gogol uses the word “gnome” in “The Book of Sundries” to mean “sign”: “The following gnomes represent apothecary weight...”
Remember how Gogol did? “Suddenly... in the silence... he again hears disgusting scratching, whistling, noise and ringing in the windows. He closed his eyes timidly and stopped reading for a while. Without opening his eyes, he heard how suddenly a whole multitude crashed onto the floor, accompanied by various knocks, dull, ringing, soft, shrill. He raised his eye a little and hastily closed it again: horror!.., these were all yesterday’s gnomes; the difference was that he saw many new ones among them.
Almost opposite him stood a tall man, whose black skeleton moved to the surface and through his dark ribs a yellow body flashed. Standing to the side was something thin and long, like a stick, consisting of only eyes with eyelashes. Next, a huge monster occupied almost the entire wall and stood in tangled hair, as if in a forest. Through the network of these hairs two terrible eyes looked.
With fear, he looked up: above him there was something in the air in the form of a huge bubble with a thousand pincers and scorpion stings stretching out from the middle. The black earth hung on them in clumps. With horror, he lowered his eyes to the book. The dwarves made a noise with the scales of their disgusting tails, clawed feet and screeching wings, and he only heard how they searched for him in all corners. This drove out the last remnant of hops that was still fermenting in the philosopher’s head. He began to read his prayers zealously.
He heard their fury at the sight of their impossibility of finding him. “What if,” he thought, shuddering, “this whole gang will fall on me?..”
“For Viem! Let’s go get Viy!” many strange voices shouted, and it seemed to him as if some of the dwarves had left. However, he stood with his eyes closed and did not dare to look at anything. “Viy! Viy!” - everyone made noise; a wolf howl was heard in the distance and was barely, barely separated by the barking of dogs. The doors opened with a squeal, and Khoma only heard how whole crowds poured out. And suddenly there was silence, as in the grave. He wanted to open his eyes; but some threatening secret voice told him: “Hey, don’t look!” He showed an effort... Through something incomprehensible, perhaps stemming from fear itself, curiosity, his eyes accidentally opened.
Before him stood some kind of human image of gigantic stature. His eyelids were lowered to the very ground. The philosopher noticed with horror that his face was iron, and fixed his burning eyes again on the book.
“Lift my eyelids!” Viy said in an underground voice, and the whole host rushed to lift his eyelids. “Don’t look!” some inner feeling whispered to the philosopher. He could not resist and looked: two black bullets were looking straight at him. The iron hand rose and pointed its finger at him: “Here he is!” - said Viy - and whatever happened, all the disgusting monsters rushed at him at once... lifeless, he fell to the ground... The rooster crowed for the second time. The dwarves heard his first song. The whole crowd started to fly away, but that was not the case: they all stopped and got stuck in the windows, in the doors, in the dome, in the corners and remained motionless ... "
So who is Viy? This is the god of the earthly kingdom. In Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian mythology, he was considered a creature whose one glance could bring death. His eyes were always hidden under eyelids, eyebrows or eyelashes. He was the son of Chernobog and Marena, the goddess of death. He served as a governor in the army of Chernobog, and in peacetime he was a jailer in the underworld. He always had a fiery scourge in his hands, with which he punished sinners.
Ukrainian legends mention that Viy lived in a cave where there was no light; he was often depicted covered with fur (a clear hint at Bigfoot?). He looked like the Ukrainian Kasyan, the Byzantine Basilisk, the Volyn sorcerer “mangy Bunyaka”, the Ossetian giant warrior and others.
The fame of this generally little-known creature, as we have already said, was brought by the story of N.V. Gogol. The fact is that in the epics of Belarusian Polesie, death was represented in the image of a woman with large eyelids. In the chronicle legend of the 16th century, which described the last days of Judas, it was specified that his overgrown eyelids completely deprived him of his vision.
Maciej Stryjkowski in the “Chronicle of Polish, Lithuanian and All Rus'” in 1582 writes: “Pluto, the God of Pekel, whose name was Nyya, was revered in the evening, they asked him after death for better pacification of bad weather.”
In Ukraine there is a character, Solodivy Bunio, or simply Naughty Bonyak (Bodnyak), sometimes he appears in the form of “a terrible fighter, with a look that kills a person and turns entire cities into ashes, the only happiness is that this murderous look is covered by clinging eyelids and thick eyebrows.”
"Long eyebrows to the nose" in Serbia, Croatia and the Czech Republic and Poland were a sign of Mora or Zmora, a creature considered the embodiment of a nightmare.
Having come to stay with the blind (dark) father Svyatogor, Ilya Muromets, when asked to shake hands, gives the blind giant a piece of red-hot iron, for which he receives praise: “Your hand is strong, you are a good hero.”
The Bulgarian Bogomil sect describes the Devil as turning to ashes all who dare to look him in the eye.
The fairy tale about Vasilisa the Beautiful, who lived in the service of Baba Yaga, says that she received a pot (stove-pot) as a gift for her work in some cases, and a skull in others. When she returned home, the skull-pot burned her stepmother and her stepmother's daughters to ashes with its magical gaze.
These are not all references to the ancient deity called “Viy”.
Relentless and merciless Viy was considered the judge of the dead, a hellish fiery judge, whose throne is located inside the earth. In his hands is a fiery scourge, his eyes are closed with eyelids lowered to the ground, but he still sees and knows. If his eyelids are lifted, and his servants lift them with pitchforks, then he sees everything that is completely hidden from others. A man dies from Viy’s gaze.
“- Bring Viy! Follow Viy! - the words of the dead man were heard. And suddenly there was silence in the church: a wolf's howl was heard in the distance, and soon heavy footsteps were heard running through the church; Looking sideways, he saw that they were leading some squat, hefty, club-footed man. He was all covered in black earth. His legs and arms covered with earth stood out like stringy, strong roots. He walked heavily, constantly stumbling. Long eyelids were lowered to the ground. Khoma noticed with horror that his face was iron. They brought him by the arms and stood him directly in front of the place where Khoma stood.
- Lift my eyelids: I can’t see! - Viy said in an underground voice - and the whole host rushed to lift his eyelids. "Don't look!" - some inner voice whispered to the philosopher. He couldn’t bear it and looked.
- Here he is! - Viy shouted and pointed an iron finger at him. And everyone, no matter how many there were, rushed at the philosopher. He fell lifeless to the ground, and the spirit immediately flew out of him out of fear.”
N.V. Gogol
The image of Viy expresses the hope that in the other world he will inevitably be rewarded, take revenge on all those who lived on earth dishonestly, unjustly, not according to conscience and trampled on others with impunity. Nothing can be hidden from Viy, nor can one beg his forgiveness. In addition, it was believed that this judge of the dead sent terrible night apparitions and nightmares to people, especially as a warning.
Viy- commander over the evil spirits created by Chernobog. All of it is at his disposal. He himself is always underground, because he is afraid of sunlight.
Viy is a character in Ukrainian demonology, a formidable old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching down to the ground. Having huge eyes with heavy lids, Viy kills with his gaze.
Viy cannot see anything on his own, but if several strong men manage to raise his eyebrows and eyelids with iron pitchforks, then nothing can hide before his menacing gaze: with his gaze Viy kills people, destroys and turns cities and villages to ashes.
In one of the fairy tales there is a mention that Kashchei the Immortal raises his eyelids with seven pitchforks.
“And suddenly there was silence in the church; a wolf howl was heard in the distance, and soon heavy footsteps were heard echoing through the church; Looking sideways, he saw that they were leading some squat, hefty, club-footed man. He was all covered in black earth. His legs and arms covered with earth stood out like stringy, strong roots. He walked heavily, constantly stumbling. Long eyelids were lowered to the ground. Khoma noticed with horror that his face was iron.”
(N.V. Gogol “Viy”)
Viy (Vyy, Niy, Niya, Niyan) is the son of Chernobog and the goat Seduni. Lord of the Pekel kingdom, king of the underworld (Navi, the Underworld), lord of torment. The personification of those terrible punishments that await after the death of all villains, thieves, traitors, murderers and scoundrels, in other words, all those who lived unrighteously and violated the laws of Reveal and Rule (in Christianity, “sinners”). The fair and incorruptible Judge Viy is looking forward to all of them.
In East Slavic mythology, Viy is the spirit who brings death. Having huge eyes with heavy lids, Viy kills with his gaze. In Ukrainian demonology - a formidable old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching down to the ground.
Viy cannot see anything on his own, he also acts as a seer of evil spirits (which can be seen in the work of N.V. Gogol); but if several strong men manage to lift his eyebrows and eyelids with iron pitchforks, then nothing will be able to hide before his menacing gaze: with his gaze Viy kills people, sends pestilence to enemy troops, destroys and turns towns and villages to ashes. Viy was also considered the sender of nightmares, visions and ghosts.
In ethnography, the assumption is made that it is with the image of Viy that the belief about the evil eye and damage is associated - that everything perishes and deteriorates from a bad look. Viy is also associated with the seasonal death of nature during winter.
There are two assumptions about the origin of the name Viya: the first is the Ukrainian word “vii” (pronounced “viyi”), which translated from modern Ukrainian means “eyelids”; and the second - with the word “to curl”, since the image of Viy resembles some kind of plant: his legs are entwined with roots and he is all covered with dried pieces of earth.
According to the “Book of Kolyada”: “Viy, the brother of the sky god Dy, serves as a commander in the army of Chernobog. In peacetime, Viy is a jailer in Pekla. He holds in his hand a fiery scourge with which he treats sinners. His eyelids are heavy; Viy’s henchmen are holding them with pitchforks. If Viy opens his eyes and looks at a person, he dies. Viy cannot stand sunlight, so he always prefers to stay underground.”
According to Slavic beliefs, Nav (it is also sometimes called Dark Nav as opposed to Light Nav - Slavi) is divided into three kingdoms. For the time being, the ruler of Upper was Goryn. After the death of Goryn, this layer of Navi was empty for a long time until it was occupied by Veles. From time immemorial, the Lower Kingdom was ruled by Koschey. But Chernobog gave the middle Kingdom to Viya. Although, in fact, there are other versions of the administrative-territorial division of Navi. According to some, Viy owned the Upper Kingdom, according to others, the Lower Kingdom. However, this information has nothing to do with the essence of the interpretation of Viy’s image.
Viy seemed to our ancestors as a powerful, almost invincible monster (less often, a scary, stooped old man). He was strong and clumsy, controlled the dark incarnations of all the elements. At the same time, Viy was served by all kinds of evil spirits, without which this terrible god, at a minimum, could not look at the world. The fact is that Viy had some kind of congenital defect - his eyelids were too heavy for him to keep them open without outside help. Obviously, the curse of Svarog, sent to the head of the defeated Chernobog during the Primordial Battle, is to blame. One way or another, Viy could not hold his eyelids on his own, so his servants constantly supported them with black, red-hot pitchforks (this episode is well known to all of us thanks to the immortal work of Nikolai Gogol).
Anyone whom Viy looked at immediately died (if he was mortal) or turned to stone (if he was a being of a higher order). Not many gods had the courage to face Viy in a fair fight. However, this monster did not win a single victory over the Irian gods, despite all its terrifying power. But Viy spoiled a lot of blood for the human race. Being a strong magician, he constantly sent epidemics and natural disasters to people.
At the same time, it is worth noting that there are also positive features in Viy’s appearance. For example, Viy with particular enthusiasm harasses people who are evil or spiritually weak. But Viy can easily let go of a person who is strong both in body and will. Thus, this god has a certain amount of justice, albeit a very peculiar one.
It is difficult to say what exactly our ancestors hid in Viy’s appearance. Obviously, this is one of the embodiments of the dark component of human nature, deep animal evil, which seeks to destroy everything in its path and moves forward without clearing out the road. However, if a person’s will is strong and his spirit is strong, then he is quite capable of changing the vector of direction of this destructive energy, perhaps even using it for the benefit of himself and others.
In Ukraine there is a character, Solodivy Bunio, or simply Naughty Bonyak (Bodnyak), sometimes he appears in the form of “a terrible fighter, with a look that kills a person and turns entire cities into ashes, the only happiness is that this murderous look is covered by clinging eyelids and thick eyebrows.” “Long eyebrows to the nose” in Serbia,
Croatia and the Czech Republic, as well as in Poland, were a sign of Mora or Zmora. this creature was considered the embodiment of a nightmare.
Came to see his blind (dark) father Svyatogor
visiting Ilya Muromets, in response to the offer to “shake hands,” gives the blind giant a piece of red-hot iron, for which he receives praise: “Your hand is strong, you are a good hero.”
The Bulgarian Bogomil sect describes the Devil as turning to ashes all who dare to look him in the eye.
In the tale of Vasilisa the Beautiful
, who lived in the service of Baba Yagas, it is said that she received a gift for her work - in some cases - a pot (stove-pot), in other cases - a skull. When she returned home, the skull-pot burned her stepmother and her stepmother's daughters to ashes with its magical gaze.
These are not all the sources about the ancient Navya deity Viy, who has analogues among the ancient Irish - Yssbaddaden and Balor.
In the future, he probably merges with the image of Koshchei (the son of Mother Earth, initially an agricultural god, then the king of the dead, the god of death). Close in function and mythology to the Greek Triptolemus. The duck, as the keeper of the egg after Koshchei’s death, was revered as his bird. In Orthodoxy it was replaced by the evil saint Kasyan, whose day was celebrated on February 29.
Kasyan looks at everything and everything withers. Kasyan looks at the cattle, the cattle fall; on the tree - the tree dries.
Kasyan on the people - it’s hard for the people; Kasyan on the grass - the grass dries; Kasyan for livestock - the livestock dies.
Kasyan squints everything with a sideways...
It is curious that Kasyan is subordinate to the winds, which he keeps behind all sorts of locks.
Noteworthy is the relationship between the words KOCHERGA, KOSHEVAYA, KOSHCHEY and KOSH-MAR. Koshch - “chance, lot” (cf. Makosh). It was assumed that Chernobog stirred the coals in the inferno with pokers, so that new life would be born from this dead matter. There is the Orthodox saint Procopius of Ustyug, depicted with pokers in his hands, as, for example, on the bas-relief of the Church of the Ascension on B. Nikitskaya Street in Moscow in the 16th century. This Saint, introduced in the 13th century, is responsible for the harvest, he has three pokers, if he carries them with the ends down - there is no harvest, upwards - there will be a harvest. In this way, the weather and crop yields could be predicted.
Koschey in a later era emerged as an independent cosmogonic character who causes living matter to be deader and is associated with chthonic characters such as the hare, duck and fish. Undoubtedly, he is associated with seasonal necrosis, he is the enemy of Makoshi Yaga, who guides the hero into his world - the kingdom of death. The name of the heroine abducted by Koshchei is also interesting - Marya Morevna (mortal death), i.e. Koschey is an even greater death - stagnation, death without rebirth.
The annual veneration of Viya-Kasyan took place on January 14-15, as well as on February 29 - Kasyan Day.
The image of Viy, brought into the world by Gogol’s pen for the first and last time, is so vivid that it continues to haunt entire generations in nightmares – to this day. Surely many people asked questions: how did it appear? Where? Who is Viy? What he really is?
The author's preface says that Viy is the king of the gnomes, and, accordingly, the king of the entire dungeon. However, according to the plot of the story, we see that all evil spirits fear and respect him. This means that Viy is not only the ruler of the gnomes, but is also directly connected with Hell and its creatures. It is not for nothing that East Slavic mythology calls him the spirit-harbinger of death. Of course, it is unlikely that he rules the legions (otherwise an ordinary witch would not have ordered him to be brought in so easily), but the following is obvious: there is at least mutual assistance between the kingdom of Viy.
Due to his heaviness, clumsiness and helplessness (after all, he cannot even lift his eyelids on his own), he does not look like a spirit. As well as the thin, bony Koshchei, with whom he is compared, according to one of the fairy tales, where the latter’s eyelids are also raised with a pitchfork. Rather, Viy resembles an ancient, half-forgotten evil deity. Perhaps this is Veles of a later era, having lost its original meaning as a “cattle god”. The enemy of Perun and all that is good and bright - the earthly world and its inhabitants, including. The Serpent-Veles brings with it cold, darkness and hatred. All this is typical for Viy, in whose image, in addition, one can feel fatigue and despair.
His name comes from the Ukrainian word for “eyelashes.” Here a hint of his vision is easily discerned - there is nothing in the world that Viy would not be able to see. Moreover, with the power of his gaze, he, if desired, can destroy all living things (however, this is unlikely, since evil spirits would undoubtedly have used such a powerful weapon long ago). It is likely that Viy’s appearance intersects with the well-known image of Likha the One-Eyed in our folklore, whose appearance also brings sheer troubles, i.e. threatens with a black evil eye.
However, for a person there is a loophole here: for Viy to see you, you need to look at him yourself. Consequently, God, although he granted Viy enormous power over the world of night and death, still limited this creature to specific limits.
According to another version, its name is related to the word “curl”, since from below it is completely entwined with roots. And this, in turn, confirms not only Viy’s dwelling underground, but also his divine origin.
We believe that all of the above versions are correct, with the exception of Koshchei the Immortal - the intricacies of myths and legends in folklore are interconnected. And Viy, whoever he is, is definitely an important part of it.
