Home Palmistry Myths of the ancient Slavs about the creation of man. Slavic legend about the creation of the world. Classification of Slavic mythology

Palmistry

Myths of the ancient Slavs about the creation of man. Slavic legend about the creation of the world. Classification of Slavic mythology

The Slavs had several legends about where the world and its inhabitants came from. Many peoples (ancient Greeks, Iranians, Chinese) had myths that the world arose from an egg. Similar legends and tales can be found among the Slavs. In the tale of the three kingdoms, the hero goes in search of the three princesses to the underworld. First, he falls into the copper kingdom, then into silver and gold. Each princess gives the hero an egg, into which he turns in turn, enclosing each kingdom. Having got out into the world, he throws eggs on the ground and unfolds all three kingdoms.

One of the old legends says: “In the beginning, when there was nothing in the world but a boundless sea, a duck, flying over it, dropped an egg into the abyss of water. The egg split open, and from its lower part came out mother-cheese earth, and from the upper rose a high vault of heaven.

Another legend connects the appearance of the world with the duel of the hero with the serpent, which was guarding the golden egg. The hero killed the snake, split the egg - three kingdoms came out of it: heavenly, earthly and underground.

And here is how the Carpathian Slavs told about the birth of the world: When the world began, Then there was neither sky nor earth, only the blue sea, And in the middle of the sea - a tall oak, Two marvelous doves sat on the oak, They began to think how to found light? We will go down to the bottom of the sea, We will bring out fine sand, Fine sand, golden stone. We will sow the fine sand, We will blow the golden stone. From the fine sand - black earth, Studena water, green grass. From the golden stone - blue sky, Blue sky, bright sun, Clear moon and all the stars.

God creates the sky and the sea (tales of Russian peasants).

Pagan ideas about the beginning of the world after the adoption of Christianity were strongly influenced new religion. Christianity gave a more coherent picture of creation. Popular interpretation Christian myth is found in many legends. Here is one of them.

Before the creation of the world, the bright God sat in the air, and the light from his face was seventy times brighter than daylight, and his clothes were whiter than snow, brighter than the sun. There was then no sky, no earth, no sea, no clouds, no stars, no days, no nights. And God said: let there be a crystal sky, and a dawn, and stars. And the wind blew from his bowels, and sat in the east in the beauty of his glory, and the thunder confirmed in the iron chariot. Then God looked down on the earth from above and saw that everything below was formless and empty. He thought about how best to arrange the earth, and dark nights rose from those thoughts of God, and clouds and fogs rose from the thoughts of God. Rain clouds rolled up from the clouds and it began to rain. It poured until the blue sea spilled below.

God and Satan create the earth. But popular ideas were influenced not only by biblical stories, but also heretical books banned by the church, in which the world was created not only by God, but also by Satan. The idea that there is a constant struggle between good and evil (God and Satan) in the world was close and understandable to the people's worldview. This is how they told about the creation of the earth in the Russian North.

God descended into the sea through the air and swam in it like a white goldeneye until he met Satan, who swam like a black goldeneye. They decided to raise the earth from the bottom of the sea. God told Satan:

- Dive to the bottom of the sea and pull out a few grains of earth with the words "In the name of the Lord, follow me, earth," and carry me upstairs.

But the Evil One cheated and wanted to make land only for himself, and did not mention the name of God. He dived into the abyss, and when he surfaced, it turned out that he did not have a grain of sand in his hands. I dived another time - and again failure.

Then he prayed to God for help, and God helped him. Satan took out a handful of earth from the bottom. From that handful, God created flat places and fields, and the devil made impassable abysses, gorges and high mountains. Here's how it came out:

When Satan, at the command of God, took out the earth from the bottom of the sea, he did not give it all to God, he hid a little behind his cheek. When God commanded the earth, thrown by him on the surface of the sea, to grow, the earth began to grow behind the cheek of Satan. He began to spit it out, and from the spitting of Satan came mountains, swamps and other barren places.

What does the earth rest on? Having created the earth, God strengthened it on a fish that swims in the sea. Every seven years, the fish rises and falls, which is why some years are rainy and others dry. When a fish flips over on its other side, there are earthquakes.

And they also say that the earth rests on "high water", water - on stone, stone - on four golden whales swimming in a fiery river. And everything together rests on the iron oak, which stands on the power of God.

Here's how the Serbian legend says it: What holds the earth? - The water is high. What is holding water? - The stone is flat. What is holding the stone? — Four golden whales. What keeps whales? - A river of fire. What keeps fire? - The iron oak, He was the first planted, Its root stands on the power of God.

world tree. The Slavs imagined the whole world in the form of a huge oak - the World Tree, on which all living things were located. The branches of the tree went to the sky, the roots - underground. At the top stood the sun, moon and stars. Birds lived in the branches. Snakes and other inhabitants of the underworld lived under the roots of the tree. The tree, shedding its leaves and coming to life again, personified the eternal cycle of life and death.

Creation of man.

Almost all the legends of the Slavs about the origin of man go back to biblical story about how God created man from clay, from earth, from dust. True, here the biblical story is supplemented with a plot about the participation of Satan in this matter. Most often it was said that the Evil One created the human body, and God put the soul into it.

The ancient Russian chronicle tells how the pagan sorcerers told about the creation of people:

God washed in the bath and sweated, wiped himself with a rag (cloth) and threw it from heaven to earth. And Satan argued with God, which of her to create a man. And the devil created man, and God put his soul into him. Therefore, as soon as a person dies, his body goes to the earth, and his soul goes to God.

There is also an ancient legend among the Slavs about the creation of people from an egg. God, cutting the eggs into halves, threw them on the ground. Here, from one half a man was obtained, and from the other, a woman. Men and women, formed from the halves of one egg, find each other and marry. Some halves fell into the swamp and died there. Therefore, their soul mates cannot find a mate and spend their lives alone.

Creation of animals. Life and myths of the ancient Slavs /

According to Russian folk legends, God and Satan took part in the creation of most animals, as well as humans. Here is how, for example, it is said about the creation of a dog.

The dog was created by God from the remains of the clay that remained from the creation of man. At first, the dog was hairless, so when God left it to guard the freshly molded first people, it froze, curled up and fell asleep. Satan crept up to the people and spat on them. When God, seeing the spat on people, began to reproach the dog, she said: “So I froze. Give me wool, then I will be a faithful watchman. And God gave the dog wool. According to another legend, it was Satan who gave the dog wool in exchange for the opportunity to approach the first people.

The Slavs considered mice, hares, crows, kites, as well as night birds - owls, owls, owls, to be unclean animals created by the devil. "God's birds" were called dove, swallow, nightingale, lark, stork.

But the bear among the Eastern Slavs was considered a pure animal, descending from God, a kind of human double. It is possible that such a representation has been preserved from those times when the bear was one of the incarnations of the pagan Veles. Slavic mythology

Myths of the Slavs about the creation of the world

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Trifonova L.V. (Petrozavodsk) Traditional peasant clothes of the Pudozh region in the middle of the 19th - the first third of the 20th century. EVERYDAY PEASANT CLOTHES The everyday clothes of the Pudozhans during this period were mostly homespun. The quality of homemade canvas production depended on the variety and purpose of the clothes for which it was made. From gray or bleached homespun canvas of twill or rare linen weave, women's kaftans were sewn - a kind of seasonal women's clothing. Sometimes the canvas was dyed at home: “Home-woven jackets are woven, painted over ... in what kind of paint, even in black, even in blue ... alder bark is boiled, but in this alder bark (and painted. - L.T.) ". A resident of the village of Kubovo, M.Ya. Golodova, recalled how she put on a caftan, going with her father into the forest to catch hazel grouse, martens and foxes. A caftan was sewn from a homespun cloth folded over the weft with a slit in the front, straight sleeves, without a fastener. Wedges were inserted into the sides. Worn with a smell from right to left and girdled with a sash. Shirts and stanushki were sewn from white dense canvas of plain weave - the lower part of women's shirts (the local name is "stanovitsa"). The hemlines of the shirts of girls and women of childbearing age were decorated with embroidery (Fig. 1). The traditional colors of Pudozh embroidery are monochrome - red on white. Poly-chromic gamma existed in the Kolodozero volost area. Embroidery was carried out along the hem in the form of a wide strip. According to 1854, “Girls and maidens, when working in the summer, keep shirts alone, embroidered along the hem with red paper from 3 to 5 inches different colors(patterns) ”(Fig. 2) Everyday women's shirts in the second half of the 19th century. were canvas. From the end of the 19th century the sleeves of everyday shirts begin to be sewn from factory fabric - chintz or satin. Pudozh women's shirts of the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. had straight inserts - poliks and sleeves to the elbow. The ancient, faceless type of shirt was found in this period only in the area of Vodlozero and Kolodozero. The everyday costume of a pudozhanka consisted of a shirt, a sundress and an apron. According to V. Zhelaev, in the middle of the XIX century. Pudozh sarafans were sewn from home-made canvas. “Women's ordinary winter dress consists ... of canvas sundresses, dyed or printed; ... an ordinary women's summer dress consists of a simple dyed sundress and a white canvas shirt ”(Fig. 3 a, b). At the end of XIX - beginning of XX century. sundresses were sewn from chintz, with frills sewn just above the edge of the hem (“with a riding frill,” as one of the informants put it). “Sundresses and skirts were worn from cleaning. Sheathed, such sheathing, lace, some are white, some are orange, all sorts. It took at least five meters of fabric to sew a sundress. An apron was worn on top of the sundress. A shirt under a sundress was girded with a woolen or canvas belt, the ends of which were tied on the left side. “And a belt down the shirt, here’s the shirt. It was already dosyulno, they didn’t go without a belt ... Previously, homespun sashes were worn, some had a homespun sash, and some had a belt. Already all my life I have to (it was. - L.T.) around myself to encircle the sky. Pudozh sarafans have a small slit and a fastener in the middle of the sternum. This is typical for sundresses from the villages of Pyalma, Avdeevo, Kolodozero. The Karelian ethnographer K.K.Loginov noted the same feature in relation to the Vodlozero sarafans. The color of everyday sundresses for older women was dark, for young women it was lighter. "Old lady" sundresses were sewn on narrow straps, without frills, the Old Believers - "long-shouldered", with side wedges, dark colors. They relied on a shirt with long sleeves and a dark scarf tied in front with the ends. A favorite type of home-made fabric in peasant life was motley, from which skirts and aprons were most often sewn. Everyday everyday shoes of Pudozhan women were leather boots with sewn tops (local name "sewn"). These boots were sewn by shoemakers who moved from village to village. A wandering shoemaker, according to M.N. Sukhova from the village of Karshevo, "sits in the back of the house for a week and sews." Leather for sewing boots was purchased at fairs. According to M.F. Sokolova (b. 1898) from the village of Kubovo: “There was a fair on Pokrov in Korbozero. They change leather for furs. After all, there was no sewn, shoes, black leather. There, for the boots, the blanks were still tailored ... there were craftsmen, they sewed themselves. Boots were sewn from white cowhide. Such boots have been known since the middle of the 19th century. Bast shoes were the working shoes of Pudozhan women. Pudozh bast shoes had a specific shape (deep nose, low back, open sides) and were very convenient for working on the sack or in the forest. “Nakes” were put on the shin, around which long ties were wrapped - frills. In the photo library of the Kizhi Museum there is a photograph of 1916, which depicts the wife of the Pudozh priest Z.V. Glazachev with her brother's children and a servant girl. In the photograph, everyone except the barefoot servants are shod in bast shoes with long frills and white onuchs (see Fig. 4). Bast shoes for themselves and their families Pudozhans wove themselves. We find confirmation of this from the researcher of the Vodlozero culture K.K. Loginov: “In the old days, every Vodlozero family could weave bast shoes for haymaking.” A resident of the village of Klimovo, Avdeevskaya volost, I.T. Fofanov (b. 1871) recalled how, while working as a shepherd, he tore birch bark for weaving bast shoes. The birch bark was torn "from the moment the leaves bloom on the birch (at the end of May) until the middle of June". There were also professional handicraftsmen who were engaged in birch bark trade. In winter, Pudozhans, men and women, unlike Zaonezhans, wore felt boots. According to M.N. Sukhova (b. 1911) from the village of Velikodvorskaya, Karshevo volost: “The wedding was worn in new felt boots for Mass. That's how they took care of the shoes. ” The master of making felt boots was called katal. Rolled felted shoes went to work after the Intercession or a little later, with the establishment of a sledge track. They lived in peasant families, doing their work from the material of the customer. In the expedition report of 1982, the researcher of the Kizhi Museum, B.A. Gushchin, mentions a professional katal from the village of Kuganavolok A.V. It is interesting that back in 1941 in Pudozh there was a promartel for the production of felt boots. In connection with the war, teenagers worked in the artel, who were taught professional skills by a resident of the village of Ryapusovo, S.P. Fofanov (b. 1893). Valenki were called in Pudozhye "kangs" (from the Finnish "cap" - soft shoes). They were really soft and warm, but they quickly wore out and required more frequent repairs than similar Central Russian products. Sheepskin short fur coats were the outerwear of Pudozhan women in winter. They are mentioned by V. Zhelaev back in 1854: “Women's ordinary winter dress consists of sheepskin coats or short fur coats”. Similar short fur coats of the beginning of the 20th century. are presented in the collection of Pudozh clothes of the Kizhi Museum. At the end and middle of the XIX century. everyday outerwear for men was a caftan, working clothes - a hoodie (Fig. 8). A resident of the village of Ranina Gora F.M. Efimov (b. 1865) testified: “He was born in the harvest, his father carried in a hoodie and lost it, but ran back, brought it later.” The hoodie was sewn from homespun canvas of twill or rare linen weave. Hence the second name of the hoodie in Pudozhye is “ryadnitsa”, i.e. a product made of rare canvas fabric. This is confirmed by the words of a resident of the village of Poga, E. M. Levina: “... and I’m wearing a hoodie, such a rower.” The hoodie had a tunic cut, wrapped from right to left. They wore it over basic clothing, girdling it with a rawhide strap. It was sewn from gray or bleached, less often dyed canvas. In a photograph of 1928, an elderly peasant is depicted in such a white hoodie, setting off with his family to harvest hay. This photograph from the village of Krivtsy allows us to get an idea of the Pudozhan's summer working suit: a hoodie worn over a shirt, ports tucked into boots, a belt, a cap and work gloves (Fig. 9). According to V. Zhelaev, in the 1850s. Pudozh peasants in the summer wore white canvas shirts, belted with a sash or scarf, and canvas ports. During work, especially collective work, wealthier peasants dressed in red cotton or mottled shirts, belted with silk belts. The belts were tied in such a way that the ends remained long. The less affluent wore white linen shirts trimmed at the collar with chintz or red motley. The collar of the shirts was tied with cotton braid. According to V. Zhelaev - "ribbons of paper different kind and flowers". Pudozhans did not wear neck scarves on weekdays. Felt hats and caps were summer headdresses. Sometimes during work, the head was tied with a scarf like a cap. Everyday shoes of the Pudozhans were boots made of white leather with round toes, winter shoes - felt boots, summer work shoes - bast shoes. Men's winter casual dress consisted of sheep's short fur coats and sheepskin coats. Younger people wore short fur coats to the knees, detachable, with gathers at the back at the waist, with pockets and hook-and-loop fasteners, covered with nanke or paper fabric, called "undercoats". Winter clothes were girded with woolen or cotton sashes. Gloves made of white leather, smeared with tar for strength, were put on hands. On the head they wore square hats with an edge, as well as cloth caps. homework blue or black with visors. Povehr ports put on trousers made of homemade cloth. By the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, some changes took place in the Pudozhan costume. The undershirt goes out of fashion, the ports are replaced by trousers, over the shirt, men of all ages begin to wear jackets - a kind of clothing that came from the city. In general, the image of a Pudozhan remains the same until the middle of the 20th century. In the description of the Pudozh narrator N.A. Remizov of the late 1930s. we read: “Remizov is an old man of small stature, very youthful with pitch black [text from the site of the Kizhi Museum-Reserve: http://kizhi.karelia.ru] hair, always wears a felt hat with a turned-up brim, a jacket and trousers tucked into high boots. Thus, as E. Dmitrovskaya rightly noted back in 1902, the men's everyday costume of Pudozhye did not differ much from the clothes of the peasants of central Russia. The only difference was the hat: in winter it was made of deer fur with earmuffs, in summer it was replaced by a linen headdress that tightly clasped the head and left only a small part of the face free. This headdress was called a “kukel” and was worn during forest and field work to protect against the bites of mosquitoes, gadflies, and small midges.

Lesson 2 Myths and mythology. Slavic myths. The myth of the creation of the earth.

Lesson Objectives- to form a personal attitude of students to the ancient beliefs of the Slavs; Objectives: to introduce the features Slavic mythology; with objects of worship, phenomena of the immediate environment, types of beliefs; develop logical and creative thinking, learner's coherent speech, attention, skills and abilities to work with a scientific article; cultivate tolerance, respect for the past.

During the classes

1. Org. mom.

2. Announcement of the topic and purpose of the lesson.

3. Conversation on questions. (myth, heroes of ancient myths) slide 2

4. Myths - oral traditions about ancient times - were born in the primitive era, at the dawn of mankind. Ancient man lived in constant communion with nature. Danger lay in wait for him from everywhere: in the forest - wild animals, from heaven - lightning, threatening a fire. Prolonged drought or heavy rains destroyed crops, threatening famine... Man tried to tame the elements, and for this it was necessary to explain them. He wanted to know how the earth and everything that inhabits it appeared, why day replaces night, and cold replaces heat, where fire came from and why people are mortal. Explaining the world around him, he relied on his own everyday experience. He believed that nature is a living being, which means that it has a time of youth - spring, maturity - summer, withering - autumn. In winter, nature freezes, dies. The world is dressed in a white shroud. This is how a myth was born. Thus, a myth is an explanation of the picture of the world on the basis of a person's knowledge and experience. The myth usually takes the form of a fantasy story. The scientific value of the myth was lost as a person comprehended and mastered the world, but its poetic side has not lost its charm even today. So, for example, remember healing properties"dead" and "living" water? "Dead" - connects the dissected parts of the body, the hero, "live" - returns his life. And at the heart of this fabulous plot is a myth associated with observing the life of nature. The first spring rains wash away the remnants of snow - they connect the dissected body of the earth. The second - irrigate the earth - and life is reborn on it.

5. Slavic version of the Creation of the world
The ancient Slavs had many legends about where the world and all its inhabitants came from.
The creation of the world began with filling it with Love.
The Carpathian Slavs have a legend according to which the world was created by two doves that sat on an oak tree in the middle of the sea and thought “how to found the light”. They decided to go down to the bottom of the sea, take fine sand, sow it, and from it “black earth, cold water, green grass” would go. And from a golden stone, which was also mined at the bottom of the sea, “the blue sky, the bright sun, the moon and all the stars would go.”
According to one of the myths, initially the world was shrouded in darkness. There was only the progenitor of all things - Rod. He was imprisoned in an egg, but managed to give birth to Lada (Love), and by her power destroyed the shell. The creation of the world began with filling it with Love. The clan created the kingdom of heaven, and under it - the heavenly, separated the Ocean from the waters of heaven with a firmament. Then Rod separated Light and Darkness and gave birth to the Earth, which plunged into the dark abyss of the Ocean. The Sun came out of the face of Rod, the Moon came out of the chest, the stars came out of the eyes. Winds appeared from Rod's breath, rain, snow and hail appeared from tears. His voice became thunder and lightning. Then Rod gave birth to Svarog and breathed into him a mighty spirit. It was Svarog who arranged the change of day and night, and also created the earth - he crushed a handful of earth in his hands, which then fell into the sea. The sun warmed the Earth, and the crust was baked on it, and the Moon cooled the surface.
According to another legend, the world appeared as a result of the hero's battle with the serpent, which guarded the golden egg. The hero killed the snake, split the egg, and three kingdoms came out of it: heavenly, earthly and underground.
9. Conclusion of the lesson - a conversation on the questions:

10. Homework. Make up your own myth and retell

Creation myths

Traditions about the creation of the world are numerous and varied. But the main myth that underlies them belongs to the deepest antiquity. The Slavs imagined the world as being born from water. Such a belief is based on the actual, gradual emergence of land from under the waters that covered it.

According to the pagan traditions of our people, pure and devilry. The first did everything perfectly, and the second spoiled everything. Both deities participate in the creative activity of nature: the dark one - as a representative of the cloudy demons that darken the sky and close the rains, and the light one - as a thunderer of clouds, bringing down rain streams to the earth and enlightening the sun.

At the heart of the myth lies the idea of the spring renewal of nature, of the creation of world life from that deadness and apparent non-existence into which winter plunges it. The same thought lies in the Slavic traditions. At the beginning of spring, the awakened Perun rides on a fiery chariot, in all his formidable grandeur, to the great work of creativity - he strikes crowds of demons with thunderous arrows and, scattering the fruitful seed of rain, sows the earth with various cereals.

At the same time, he brings heavenly bodies out of thick clouds and fogs and, as it were, creates them from those semi-precious stones that until now have been hidden by the demons of winter and darkness at the bottom of the airy, cloudy ocean.

Bringing out the bright, spring sun, he creates white light, i.e., according to the basic meaning of this expression, he gives the world clear days, and according to a broader meaning, he creates the universe.

The sun's rays melt ice and snow, transforming their dead masses into noisy, abundant streams, and only then does the earthly life with all its luxury and variety, when the earth finally emerges from under the waters of the spring flood and is fanned by south winds.

It was from here that the myth arose that the earth is born from water and floats out of its abyss by the power of a divine breath. According to ancient belief, the earth, by the will of God, emerged from the abyss of the sea, in which, before the beginning of the world, it was immersed along with the sun, moon, stars, lightning and winds.

Life itself on earth originated from the moment when a fire flared up inside it, that is, when the rays of the spring sun warmed the frozen earth and awakened the power of fertility in it.

There was a belief that the universe was created by the king-fire and the queen-water, that is, lightning and rain, the heavenly fire of the sun and the living water of spring floods. It is remarkable that the word "create" points to water as an essential element of creativity. A "mortar" is a mixture of water and something dry.

In all mythologies, the deity of spring thunderstorms, as the fertilizer of the earth and the bearer of crops, is endowed with creative power. From his breath came winds, from his words - thunders, from tears - rains, from thick hair - clouds and clouds.

All these legends are rooted in one of the oldest myths. Two elemental forces act for the great feat of creating the world: light and dark. Despite the obvious desire of folk fantasy to build an ancient myth to the latest Christian views, the whole setting of the legend indicates that we are talking about the thunder god (Perun) and the demon of gloomy clouds:

“At the beginning of the world, God was pleased to push the earth forward. He called the devil, told him to dive into the abyss of water in order to get a handful of earth from there and bring it to him. “All right, Satan thinks, I will make the same earth myself!” He dived, took out the earth in his hand and stuffed his mouth with it. He brought it to God and gives it back, but he himself does not utter a word ...

Wherever the Lord throws the earth - it suddenly appears so even, even, that you stand at one end - then at the other you can see everything that is happening on the earth. Satan is watching... he wanted to say something and choked. God asked: what does he want? The devil coughed and ran out of fright. Then thunder and lightning struck the fleeing Satan, and wherever he lies down, hillocks and hills will move forward; where he coughs, a mountain will grow; And so, running all over the earth, he dug it up: he made hillocks, hills, mountains and lofty mountains.

The creation of the world in Slavic mythology is also associated with the name of Svarog, the god of heaven and heavenly fire, the spiritual ruler of our universe. He is the husband of Lada, the father of Dazhdbog - the progenitor of the Russians, the ancestor of most of the Slavic gods.

According to some legends, Svarog found the magic stone Alatyr, cast a spell, and the stone became a huge white-combustible stone. God foamed the ocean for them. The thickened moisture became the first land. Mother Earth Cheese appeared. In Slavic mythology, Alatyr-stone is the father of all stones, a sacred rock in the center of the world, in the middle of the sea-ocean, on the island of Buyan. And on it stands the world tree - the tree of life, the axis of the world. The lower part of the tree (roots) is connected with the underworld, the middle (trunk) - with the earth, and the upper (branches) - with the heavenly, higher. It serves as the throne of all the supreme gods.

According to other legends, before the birth of light, the world was shrouded in darkness. Only Rod was in the darkness. Rod is the spring of the universe, the father of the gods. Rod gave birth to Love - Mother Lada. Rod suffered for a long time, he pushed for a long time. And he gave birth to the kingdom of heaven, and under it he created the heavenly. He cut the umbilical cord with a rainbow, separated the Ocean - the blue sea from the heavenly waters with a firmament of stone. He erected three vaults in heaven, divided Light and Darkness, Truth from Falsehood. Rod then gave birth to Mother Earth, and the Earth went into the dark abyss, she was buried in the Ocean. The sun then came out of his face - the very Kind of heaven, the progenitor and father of the gods! A bright moon - from his chest; frequent stars - from his eyes; clear dawns - from his eyebrows; dark nights - yes from his thoughts; violent winds from his breath; rain and snow and hail from his tears; his voice became thunder and lightning - the very Kind of heaven, the progenitor and father of the gods!

Pavel Bryullov. Landscape with a river

Rod gave birth to Svarog heavenly. Svarog began to pave the way for the Sun across the firmament, so that the horse-days raced across the sky, after the morning, so that the day would begin, and the night would come to replace the day. Svarog began to look around his possessions. He sees - the Sun rolls across the sky, the bright moon sees the stars, and under it the Ocean spreads and worries, foams with foam. He looked around his possessions, did not notice only Mother Earth.

Where is Mother Earth? he was sad. Then I noticed: something in the Ocean-Sea is turning black. This is a gray duck swimming, generated by sulfur foam.

Do you know where the Earth lies? - Svarog asked the gray duck.

“Under the water, the Earth,” the duck answered, “is buried deep in the Ocean ...

The duck said nothing, dived into the Ocean-Sea, hid in the abyss for a whole year. As the year ended, it rose from the bottom.

- I didn’t have enough spirit a little bit, I didn’t swim to the Earth a bit. I didn’t swim all the hair ...

Help us, Rod! - Svarog called here. Then violent winds rose, the blue sea roared ... Rod blew strength into the duck with the wind. And Svarog said to the gray duck:

- At the behest of the Heavenly Family, at the desire-desire of the welder, you get the Earth from the depths of the sea!

The duck did not say anything, dived into the Ocean-Sea and hid in the abyss for two years. As the term was over, it rose from the bottom.

- I didn’t have enough spirit a little bit, I didn’t swim to the Earth a bit. I did not swim half a hair ...

Help, father! Svarog screamed here. Then violent winds rose, and menacing clouds went across the sky, a great storm broke out, Rod's voice - thunder - shook the heavens, and lightning struck the duck. Rod breathed that great strength into a formidable storm into the gray duck. And again Svarog cursed the gray duck:

- At the behest of the Heavenly Family, at the desire-desire of the welder, you get the Earth from the depths of the sea!

The duck said nothing, dived into the Ocean-Sea and hid in the abyss for three years. As the term was over, it rose from the bottom. She brought a handful of earth in her beak.

Svarog took a handful of earth, began to crush in his palms.

- Warm up, Red Sun, light up, Bright moon, help, violent winds! We will sculpt from the damp earth the Earth-mother mother-nurse. Help us, Rod! Lada, help!

Svarog crushes the earth - the Sun warms, the Moon shines and the winds blow. The winds blew the earth from the palm, and it fell into the blue sea. The Red Sun warmed her - the Cheese-Earth baked on top with a crust, then cooled her Light Moon. So Svarog created Mother Earth Three underground vaults he established in it - three underground, infernal kingdoms. And so that the Earth would not go into the sea again, Rod gave birth to powerful Yusha under it - a wondrous, powerful snake. It is hard for him to keep Mother Earth for many thousands of years. Thus, Mother Earth Cheese was born. So on the Serpent she rested. If Yusha-Snake moves, Mother Earth-Cheese will turn.

But the legend recorded in Northern Rus' already in christian times: “Two goldeneyes floated across the ocean-sea: the first was a white goldeneye, and the other was a choren goldeneye. And those two gogols swam the Lord Almighty himself and Satan. By God's command, by the blessing of the Mother of God, Satan pulled out a handful of earth from the bottom of the blue sea. From that handful, the Lord created flat places and pathy fields, and Satan made impenetrable abysses, awls (gorges) and high mountains.

And the Lord struck with a hammer and created his army, and went between them Great War. At first, the army of Satan prevailed, but in the end, the power of heaven took over. And Michael the Archangel overthrew the satanic army from heaven, and it fell to the ground in different places, which is why water, goblin and brownies appeared.

A similar tradition is found in the apocryphal literature. “Before the creation of the world, the Lord of hosts sat in three chambers in the air, and the light from his face was seventy-seven times brighter than this light, his garments were whiter than snow, brighter than the sun. There was then no sky, no earth, no sea, no clouds, no stars, no dawn, no days, no nights.

And the Lord said: wake up the crystal sky and wake up the dawn, and clouds, and stars! And he blew the winds from his bowels, and planted paradise in the east, and the Lord himself sat in the east in the beauty of his glory, and the thunder - the voice of the Lord, is confirmed in the chariot of fire, and the lightning - the word of the Lord, comes from the mouth of God.

Then the Lord created the sea of Tiberias, boundless, and down to the sea through the air ... and the sight of a goldeneye floating on the sea, and that is the recommended Satan - entangled in the mud of the sea. And the Lord said to Satanail, as if not knowing him: Who are you for a man? And Satan said to him: I am a god. - And what do you call me? And Satan answered, You are God of God and Lord of the Lord. If Satan had not spoken like this to the Lord, the Lord would have immediately crushed him on the Sea of Tiberias. And the Lord said to Satanail: dive into the sea and bring out sand and stone for me. And the Lord took sand and stone, and scattered (sand) over the sea, and said: wake the earth thick and spacious!

Then the Lord took a stone, broke it in two, and pure spirits flew out of one half from the blows of the rod of God, while from the other half Satan filled the countless power of demons. But Michael the Archangel cast him down with all the demons from high heaven.

The earth created by God was established on thirty-three whales.

Here is another version of an ancient legend: “There was neither sky nor earth, but only darkness and water mixed with earth like batter. God and Satan walked on the water for a long time, finally got tired and decided to rest. And there is nowhere to rest. Then God ordered Satan:

- Dive to the bottom of the sea and pull out a few grains of earth with the words: "In the name of the Lord, follow me, earth," and carry me upstairs.

Satan dived to the bottom of the sea, grabbed a handful of earth and thought to himself: “Why should I say:“ In the name of the Lord, ”how am I worse than God?” He clamped the earth in his fist and said:

In my name, earth, follow me.

But when he surfaced, it turned out that he did not have a grain of sand in his hands. Satan again dived to the bottom, picked up a handful of earth and again said:

- In my name, go, earth, follow me.

And again, nothing came out. God told him:

- You again did not listen to me and wanted to do it your own way. However, your idea is in vain, nothing will come of you. Dive in and tell me how I taught you.

Satan dived a third time, scooped up earth, and when he mentioned the name of God, he managed to pull up a handful of earth.

God took this land, sprinkled it over the water, and a small hillock with grass and trees formed on it. God, tired of work, lay down and fell asleep, and Satan was annoyed that he was not so omnipotent, so he decided to drown God. Satan took God in his arms to throw into the water, and sees that the earth in front of him has grown ten steps. He ran to the water to drown God, but as he ran, the earth grew and grew, and Satan could not reach the water. Satan put God on the ground and thinks: “The earth is as thin as a shell. I will dig a hole down to the water and throw God into it.” But no matter how much he dug, he could not get to the water.

That is why there is so much earth in the world - Satan "ran" it when he wanted to destroy God.

Meanwhile, God woke up and said:

- Now you understand that you are powerless compared to me - the earth and water obey me, not you. And the hole that you dug will be needed by you yourself - under the heat.

As you can see, the legend about the joint creation of the world by God and his companion, who gradually becomes the enemy of the Lord, has become most widespread. This comrade-enemy in different versions of the legend can be called Satan, the Idol, the Evil One, the fallen angel, etc.

Having created the earth, God strengthened it on the fish that swim in the sea. Every seven years, the fish rises and falls, resulting in some years being rainy and others being dry. When the fish moves, turning over on the other side, earthquakes happen.

In some areas, it is believed that the fish, holding the earth, lies curled up in a ring and squeezes its tail with its teeth, and earthquakes occur when it releases the tail from its mouth.

It is sometimes believed that two fish, a male and a female, alternately hold the earth: when the male holds it, the earth rises higher above the surface of the sea and the year is dry. When the female holds the land, the land is closer to the water, as a result, the rivers and seas overflow their banks and the summer is wet.

And they also say that the earth rests on “high water”, water on stone, stone on four golden whales swimming in a fiery river. And everything together rests on the iron oak, which stands on the power of God.

Rivers, lakes and springs were dug up by birds. At the command of God, they all gathered together and first dug the channels of the rivers and the bed for the reservoirs, and then brought water into them. According to other beliefs, the whole earth in the middle is cut with veins, through which water comes to the surface. And they also say that in the middle of the earth there is its “navel” - a hole from which water flows, then spreading along rivers, lakes and other bodies of water.

The people believed that mountains, gorges, swamps, bogs and other barren and inconvenient parts of the earth for human habitation were the work of Satan. When Satan, at the command of God, took out the earth from the bottom of the sea, he did not give it all to God, he hid a little behind his cheek. When God commanded the earth, thrown by him on the surface of the sea, to grow, the earth began to grow behind Satan's cheek. He began to spit it out, and from the spitting of Satan turned out mountains, swamps and other barren places.

According to other legends, God, when creating the earth, boiled it, and the bubbles that formed while the earth was boiling, cooled down, turned into mountains. And they also say that at the beginning of the world the earth was liquid, God and Satan squeezed it from both sides in order to squeeze out excess moisture, mountains came out of the soil that came out from strong compression.

Ivan Bilibin. Illustration for the fairy tale "White Duck"

However, there are many different legends about the origin of mountains and stones. Most often it is believed that stones used to be living beings - they felt, multiplied, grew like grass, and were soft. Especially large blocks of stone, boulders and rocks are often considered to be petrified people, animals or fabulous giants, punished in this way for working on a holiday, fornication, insolence, murder, laziness or some other sin. In the villages near Tula, they said that a group of stones located around is a petrified round dance of girls punished for dancing on Trinity.

In some later legends about the origin of stones, the influence of biblical story about God's struggle with fallen angels:

“At the beginning of time, the earth was level and gave birth to bread ten times more than now, because there was not a single stone. But the devils rebelled against God and wanted to be just like him. Then God threw them from heaven to earth, turned them into stones and cursed them so that they would not grow again. And that's where the big stone is now - that means there was a great devil, and where there is a small stone, there was a little devil. And if God had not cursed them and they would have grown, then it would be impossible for a person not only to plow and sow rye, but also to walk on the ground.

About the creation of the first people

The myth puts the creation of the first man in close connection with the legends about the origin of fire. Just as on earth fire was produced by rubbing one log inserted into the hole of another, so in heaven the thunder god drills a giant tree-cloud with his sharp club, and from this drilling it gives birth to a baby lightning.

The ancient man, who in the thunder club recognized the child-bearing member of the fertilizing god of earthly nature, naturally brought this idea of the origin of fire and lightning closer to the act of intercourse and the birth of a baby, especially since the very life that animates a person (his soul) was understood as kindled flame.

The sacred songs of the Vedas, in the fire produced by friction, see the fruit of the matrimonial union of two stumps of a tree, of which one represents the receptive wife, and the other the influencing husband, the oil with which they were anointed is called carnal seed.

Alphonse Mucha. Slavs in their original homeland

From this arose mythical legends: firstly, that the soul of a newborn descends to earth in lightning, and secondly, that the first couple of people were created by the gods from wood.

Our ancestors explained the secret of the creation and birth of man by the same creative power of the thunderbolt, which called the whole visible world into existence. He sent lightning to set up the first hearth on the earth, kindle a flame on it and establish a household and a sacrificial rite. At the same time, the first man was created, the first householder and priest, in the image of which the representations of the fire burning on the hearth and the ancestor of the tribe were combined. Subsequently, when a family union was established, the thunder god, every time a baby was born, brought down lightning from the sky and kindled the flame of life in it.

Since ancient times, the reproduction of a family, a clan, has been compared with sprouts that a tree shoots out of itself, as a result of which the trunk (stump, root) serves in epic poetry as a symbol of a father or ancestor, and branches as a symbol of their children and descendants.

In folk songs, there is a comparison of children with branches and the top of a tree. The parallel drawn in the language and folk beliefs between a branchy tree and a whole family, with particular clarity, it declared itself in the custom of designating the origin of noble people and the degree of their relationship through the so-called genealogical tree. Old German sagas tell of a mother who dreamed that a large, shady tree with beautiful fruits grew from her heart or womb. This dream was an omen that she would soon give birth to a son - the ancestor of a vast and glorious tribe. Thus, the son seemed to be like a process emanating from the bowels of the mother, and in order to adopt someone else's child, it was necessary to perform a symbolic ceremony - to put him on his knees.

Konstantin Makovsky. Reaper

On the kinship of the soul with elemental beings

Mythical ideas about the kinship of the human soul with elemental beings, about forest spirits and virgins, whose life is inextricably linked with well-known plants, led to the creation of various legends telling about the transformation of a person and the transition of his soul into a tree or flower.

Faith in the possibility of such metamorphoses, inherited from the deepest antiquity, was sealed by the view that he had ancient man on himself. He compared the birth of a child and its slow, gradual growth to the growth of a tree. Separate parts of the body seemed to him like those shoots and branches that a tree trunk gives out.

This view is attested by the history of language. The seed serves as a common name for the grain, from which every cereal and every tree grows, and for the fertilizing principle in animals and man. Pregnancy is likened to the sprout of a sown seed. So, in the folk bylina, the wife of the hero Danube says:

You and I have a child sown in the womb,

I will bring you my beloved son.

Give me a baby to bear,

At least put your seeds into the light.

In other songs, the bogatyrs order their retinue to beat the enemy kingdom, cut down both the old and the small, and not leave a single person for seeds.

"Semyachko" is used in regional dialects as an affectionate name for a child. The birth of a baby is likened to a fruit brought by a tree: to bear fruit is to become pregnant, a barren wife is one who does not give birth.

A meeting with a pregnant woman promises a plowman a harvest.

According to ancient laws, such a woman could enter someone else's garden with impunity and eat fruits. They believed that the young tree, from which the first fruits are plucked by a pregnant woman, will certainly be fruitful.

The names of the foot, hand, fingers and nails in Sanskrit are explained by likening a person to a plant. With his feet, a person touches the ground and thus resembles a tree attached by its roots to the mother earth. If the legs were compared with the roots, then the body itself was represented as a trunk, and the arms seemed to be branches, processes.

Comparing the birth of a child with the sprout of a sown seed, poetic fantasy introduced this idea into folk tales. So, the Russian hero Potigoroshek was born from grains eaten by his mother. An orphaned mother, whose daughter was taken away by a snake and two sons killed, goes to the river and sees: a pea rolls along the road and falls into the water. "God's gift!" she thinks, she took out a pea and ate it. From this grain she bore fruit and gave birth to a son, the future winner of terrible snakes.

Another tale tells of the Flower-prince. One king imprisoned his beautiful daughter in a strong castle, wanting to protect her from all sorts of seductions. The princess was sixteen years old, and her beauty was so omnipotent that when she walked in the garden, the flowers bowed their motley heads before her, the birds fell silent in the bushes and the fish looked out of the waters. Once, when the princess was in the garden, an unfamiliar gypsy came up to her and gave her a bunch of beautiful, fragrant flowers. The beauty brought the flowers to her chamber and put them in the water, the water turned purple, and gold and silver stars appeared on it - just like the fragrant dust that covers the petals of flowers. The princess drank this water - and immediately became pregnant and gave birth to a mighty son, who strikes snakes just like our Pokatigoroshka.

Such a supernatural origin of the hero belongs to ancient myths about the thunder god.

There is a story about the origin of buckwheat: the king had a daughter of indescribable beauty, named Krupenichka. The evil Tatars raided the Russian land, captivated Krupenichka, took her away from her homeland and betrayed her to hard work. A prophetic old woman freed her from captivity. She turned the girl into a buckwheat seed, brought it to Rus' and threw it on native land. The grain turned into royal grain, and buckwheat grew out of its husk.

According to another story, an old woman, having brought buckwheat grain to Rus', buried it in the ground, the seed sprouted and gave birth to a blade of grass with seventy-seven grains. Violent winds blew and carried these grains to seventy-seven fields. Since then, buckwheat has bred in Holy Rus'.

In this legend (originally it could refer to any spring bread in general) is the myth of the beautiful goddess of spring fertility, who is captured by demonic hordes and kept in severe captivity during the winter. With the return of spring, she is freed from their power, arrives from distant lands in a thundercloud and, crumbling to the ground with the fertile seed of rain, is reborn in the dense greenery of spring bread.

One of the most common Russian fairy tales tells how a sister killed her brother out of envy and buried him in the ground. A reed (or viburnum) grew in that place. They drove past the chumaks, cut a reed and made a pipe, which - as soon as they brought it to their lips - began to play by itself:

My sister ruined me

Knife in the heart, yes, I fixed it.

Thus the crime was exposed.

This storyline is very varied. Sometimes a brother kills a brother, and an elder grows on the grave of the murdered one. Sometimes a stepmother is a stepdaughter, and viburnum grows. Sometimes two sisters, the third, bury it in the grave and cover it with a Christmas tree on top, and a flower grows on the Christmas tree that sings about the perfect crime. In a folk song, a similar legend is associated with a willow bush.

Konstantin Makovsky. Russian beauty

In Slavic tales, it is more often not the bones of an innocently killed person who speak of a committed crime, but a tree, a cane, a reed or a flower growing from his buried corpse, as if from a seed thrown into the ground.

A Little Russian song recalls the transformation of a drowned girl into a weeping birch. Drowning, the girl says to her brother:

Do not chop, brother, beaten birch,

Do not mow, brother, shovkovy grass,

Do not see, brother, blackthorn,

A birch birch - then I'm young,

Shovkovaya grass is my Rusa braid,

The blackthorn is my black eyes.

South Russian poetry is especially rich in legends about transformations into flowers and trees and reveals to the researcher a wonderful fantasy world filled with artistic images and genuine feeling.

The above song has several variants offering no less interesting convergences. Maiden's braids spread across the meadows with silk grass, brown or black eyes turn into thorn berries, blood spills with water, and tears glitter on grass and leaves with dew - all based on ancient metaphors that likened hair to grass, blood to water, tears to dew, eyes - thorn berries.

The content of the song, known in Belarus, is touching, about how a mother disliked her young daughter-in-law, regaled her son with green wine, and her daughter-in-law with poison. Drank good fellow- he brought it to his wife, the young woman drank - she brought it to her husband, everyone divided it in half, and both died in one hour. She buried her son's mother in front of the church, and her daughter-in-law behind the church. A green sycamore grew on the grave of the good fellow, and a white birch (or viburnum) grew on the grave of his wife.

About the flower Ivan da Marya, known in Ukraine under the name “brother and sister”, a folk song tells the following legend: a good fellow went to a foreign side, got married and began to ask his young wife about the clan and tribe, and recognized her as his own sister . Then the sister says to her brother:

We go, brother, to the forest,

Let's become a weed-grass:

Oh, you will become a yellow flower,

And I will be blue.

Who is the flower uvirve,

Remember your sister and brother!

There is a story about the cornflower that once it was a young and handsome young man who was lured by a mermaid on Trinity Day in a field, tickled and turned into a flower. The young man's name was Vasil, and this name (according to the people) was transferred to the flower itself.

In Rus', they say about nettles that an evil sister turned into her. This is a fragment of that poetic legend that the ancient song tells us: Pavel had a beloved sister Olenushka, Pavlov's young wife slaughtered first a black horse, then a gray falcon, finally her own child, and everything was slandering Olenushka. Pavel took his sister by her white hands, led her out into the field, tied her to horse tails and drove the horses across a wide expanse: where blood watered the earth, fragrant flowers grew there, where she herself fell, a church was created there. After a short time, the young woman Pavlova fell ill, she lay for nine years, grass sprouted through the bones, fierce snakes swarm in that grass and drink her eyes. She asks to be taken to her sister-in-law's church, but in vain - she did not find forgiveness here and began to pray to her husband to tie her to horse tails. Pavel fulfilled her request and drove the horses across the field: where blood was shed, nettles and thorns grew there, where she herself fell, there was a lake. the author Sitchin Zechariah

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The World Egg and the Birth of the World.

The ancient Slavs had several legends about where the world and its inhabitants came from. Many peoples (ancient Greeks, Iranians, Chinese) had myths that the world arose from an egg. Similar legends and tales can be found among the Slavs. In the tale of the three kingdoms, the hero goes in search of the three princesses to the underworld. First, he falls into the copper kingdom, then into silver and gold. Each princess gives the hero an egg, into which he turns in turn, enclosing each kingdom. Having got out into the world, he throws eggs on the ground and unfolds all three kingdoms.

And here is how the Carpathian Slavs told about the birth of the world:

When was the beginning of the world, Then there was no sky, no earth, only the blue sea, And in the middle of the sea - a tall oak, Two marvelous doves sat on the oak, They began to think how to found the light? We will go down to the bottom of the sea, We will bring out fine sand, Fine sand, golden stone. We will sow the fine sand, We will blow the golden stone. From the fine sand - black earth, Studena water, green grass. From the golden stone - blue sky, Blue sky, bright sun, Clear moon and all the stars.

God creates the sky and the sea (tales of Russian peasants).

Pagan ideas about the beginning of the world after the adoption of Christianity were strongly influenced by the new religion. Christianity gave a more coherent picture of creation. Popular interpretation of the Christian myth is found in many legends. Here is one of them.

- Dive to the bottom of the sea and pull out a few grains of earth with the words "In the name of the Lord, follow me, earth," and carry me upstairs.

What does the earth rest on? Having created the earth, God strengthened it on a fish that swims in the sea. Every seven years, the fish rises and falls, which is why some years are rainy and others dry. When a fish flips over on its other side, there are earthquakes.

Here is how the Serbian legend says about it:

What is holding up the earth? - The water is high. What is holding water? - The stone is flat. What is holding the stone? — Four golden whales. What keeps whales? - A river of fire. What keeps fire? - The iron oak, He was the first planted, Its root stands on the power of God.

world tree.The Slavs imagined the whole world in the form of a huge oak - the World Tree, on which all living things were located. The branches of the tree went to the sky, the roots - underground. At the top stood the sun, moon and stars. Birds lived in the branches. Snakes and other inhabitants of the underworld lived under the roots of the tree. The tree, shedding its leaves and coming to life again, personified the eternal cycle of life and death.

Creation of man.

Almost all the legends of the Slavs about the origin of man go back to the biblical story about how God created man from clay, from earth, from dust. True, here the biblical story is supplemented with a plot about the participation of Satan in this matter. Most often it was said that the Evil One created the human body, and God put the soul into it.

The ancient Russian chronicle tells how the pagan sorcerers told about the creation of people:

There is also an ancient legend among the Slavs about the creation of people from an egg. God, cutting the eggs into halves, threw them on the ground. Here, from one half a man was obtained, and from the other, a woman. Men and women, formed from the halves of one egg, find each other and marry. Some halves fell into the swamp and died there. Therefore, their soul mates cannot find a mate and spend their lives alone.

Creation of animals.

According to Russian folk legends, God and Satan took part in the creation of most animals, as well as humans. Here is how, for example, it is said about the creation of a dog.

The dog was created by God from the remains of the clay that remained from the creation of man. At first, the dog was hairless, so when God left it to guard the freshly molded first people, it froze, curled up and fell asleep. Satan crept up to the people and spat on them. When God, seeing the spat on people, began to reproach the dog, she said: “So I froze. Give me wool, then I will be a faithful watchman. And God gave the dog wool. According to another legend, it was Satan who gave the dog wool in exchange for the opportunity to approach the first people.