Birds

Signs denoting birds have a special meaning, for birds are mysterious, magical creatures for the ancients. Many light gods can turn into a bird. Perun - into an eagle or a raven, Magus - into Finist the Falcon. An interesting sign that is common to all birds is the “beaking bird.” It symbolizes the sky, the heritage of the light gods, to some extent the gods themselves.

There are also swastika-like "bird" symbols, such as the raven sign. Take a closer look at the Russian coat of arms, at the eagle with outstretched wings - you can see the outline of a swastika on it.

You can also look at Russian embroidery - birds also often appear on them. But these birds are no longer Javanese, but magical ones - known to everyone from fairy tales and songs - Sirin, Alkonost, Gamayun. These birds sit on the branches of the World Tree and sing their songs. They are not depicted as schematically as others, but their images are mainly of an aesthetic nature - they are not used for magic and worship. Perhaps this detachment from magic allowed these symbols to survive to this day in the form of embroidery, carvings and clay products.

There may be images of a bird standing on the ground or prostrate in flight. A bird on the ground corresponds to the rising or setting sun, and a bird flying means noon - the zenith of the sun. On the wings of an outstretched bird, at the ends of special rays, four-petaled flowers are depicted. The wings of a walking bird are very different from all those described above. The same plot is also found on ryasnas (women’s pendants), where the flying bird of midday is contrasted with birds walking widely on the ground, and where the motif of the dynamics of the sun is supplemented by the Tree of Life and the symbol of ubiquity.

Light bird, incarnation (embodiment) of Khors. Controls the winds and weather.

Alkonos, Alkonost (Alkyon, Akolnost, Alkanost, Alkonot, Alkunost, Alkonost, Antonost) - a bird of paradise, represented by a half-woman, half-bird with large multi-colored feathers and a girl’s head, overshadowed by a crown and a halo, in which a short inscription is sometimes placed. In addition to wings, Alkonost has hands in which she holds flowers of paradise or a package with an explanatory inscription.

Sister of other light birds - Raroga, Stratima.

She lives in the tree of paradise, on the island of Buyan (Makari), together with the bird Sirin, and has a sweet voice, like love itself. When she sings, she doesn’t feel herself. He who hears her wonderful singing will forget everything in the world. With her songs she consoles and elevates future joy. In winter, Alkonost flies “overseas” and lays eggs there, incubating them for seven days. During this time, the sea is completely calm.

A prophetic bird, a messenger of the Slavic gods, their herald, singing divine hymns to people and predicting the future for those who know how to hear the secret.

When Gamayun flies, a deadly storm comes from sunrise.

Gamayun knows everything in the world about the origin of earth and sky, gods and heroes, people and monsters, birds and animals.

A luminous, fiery spirit associated with the ancient worship of fire and the hearth. According to Czech beliefs, Rarog can be born from an egg that a person incubates on a stove for nine days and nights. Raroga was represented as a bird of prey with sparkling, flaming feathers, flames escaping from its beak, or simply in the form of a fiery whirlwind.

Stratem

In the “Pigeon Book,” an ancient collection of Russian spiritual poems, the following is said about the giant bird Stratim: “Stratim is the mother bird to all birds. Why is she the mother of all birds? Stratim the bird lives on the ocean-sea. And he produces children on the ocean-sea. Keeps all the white light under the right wing. She sinks saloon ships with precious goods. When Stratim wakes up, in the second hour after midnight, all the roosters on the whole earth will crow. Therefore, Stratim the bird is the mother of all birds.”

Apparently, another ancient manuscript tells about this same giant bird, which was sometimes called Straphilus: “There is a chicken with its head reaching to the sky, and the sea to its knee; when the sun is washed in the ocean, then the ocean will shake and the waves will begin to beat the chicken's feathers; He, feeling the waves, shouts “kok-riku,” which means: “Lord, show light to the world!”

Dark bird, dark force, messenger of the ruler of the underworld. From head to waist Sirin is a woman of incomparable beauty, and from the waist she is a bird. Whoever listens to her enchanting singing forgets about everything in the world and slowly dies, and there is no strength to force him not to listen to Sirin’s destructive voice, and death for him at this moment is true bliss!

Firebird

The personification of fire is the Firebird (Firebird) - the embodiment of the god of thunder. From her open beak, along with the sounds of thunder, pearls—lightning sparks—fall down. Fire and water were combined by the Slavs in the images of Kupala, Kolyada, and the River of Fire.

Justritsa Bird

This was the popular name for the terrible disease cholera. She looked like a huge black bird with snake heads and a tail. At night it flies over villages and villages, and where it touches the water with its iron wing, a general pestilence will break out. This is the riddle that circulated among the people about this disease that brings universal destruction:

On the sea, on the ocean,
On the island, on Buyan,
The bird Justritsa is sitting.
She boasts and boasts,
That I've seen everything
I ate a lot:
And the Tsar in Moscow,
And the king in Lithuania,
And the old man in his cell,
And the child in the cradle!

Raven and crow

In popular belief, birds are unclean and ominous. Like other birds of the raven family (jackdaw, rook). They are united by similar beliefs and names. Crow, gaivoron, gai, gal, galye, rabble are the collective names of all these birds as a whole. Raven is a prophetic bird. He lives for a hundred or three hundred years and knows secrets: he predicts death, the attack of enemies, in epics he gives advice to heroes, in fairy tales he points out buried treasure, in songs he brings news to his mother about the death of his son, etc.

Birds of this family are black in color and are contrasted with kind, meek and holy birds, especially the dove, as ominous, predatory and unclean, which is reflected in ideas about the avian appearance of human souls, in Christianized legends about the Flood, etc.

On the other hand, the comedy of a number of fairy tales about the raven is built on the opposition of white (or motley) and black (ugly) plumage.

Folk beliefs clearly reveal the devilish nature of birds of the raven family.

Thus, the raven is considered black because it was created by the devil. The crow is seen as an evil spirit. The devil can take the form of a black raven or a crow. In the form of a raven, the devil flies around the courtyards at night and sets fire to the roofs. They believe that devils in the form of crows fly and circle over the house of a dying sorcerer to help his soul leave his body. The souls of evil people are represented as black ravens and crows. It is believed that a witch can be identified by the black raven sitting on her house.

There is a legend of biblical origin about a raven, cursed or punished by God or Noah because, when released from the ark to find out whether the flood was over, he did not return. As punishment for this, the raven, who was once white as snow and meek as a dove, became black, bloodthirsty and doomed to feed on carrion. Associated with the idea of ​​crows and jackdaws as unclean birds is the prohibition of eating them.

Predation, bloodthirstiness and robbery are characteristic motifs in ideas about the raven and the raven.

Crows, like hawks, hunt chickens. To protect them from crows, they hang a killed magpie in the yard. It is believed that if the pot is turned upside down, the crows will not be able to see the chickens. For the same purpose, on Christmas Day, crows and hawks are called doves in some places. In Ukraine, when kicking chickens out of the house for the first time in the spring, they pronounce the spell: “Holy Kuzma-Demyan, / They feed my chickens, / So that the crow does not grab / And nothing happens.”

Predation is believed to connect the raven with the wolf. There is a sign: whoever sings in the forest and sees ravens will stumble upon a wolf. The croaking of ravens flying over the herd foreshadows an imminent wolf attack on the herd. According to Polish legend, crows and jackdaws came from wood chips when the devil created a wolf by hewing it out of wood. In different versions of the fairy tale “The Raven Brothers,” the brothers turn into ravens, crows, or wolves. Like other birds of prey, a killed raven or crow is hung in a barn or stable to scare away evil spirits (devil, witch, brownie, weasel) so that they do not torment horses or cows at night. Killed crows are also hung in fields to drive away sparrows.

In popular perception, the raven is associated with bloodshed, violence and war. His bloodthirstiness is evidenced by his cry, conveyed by the exclamation “Blood, blood!” In order for the gun to hit without missing, the hunters lubricated its barrel with the blood of a raven. Flocks of ravens and crows were perceived in the past as harbingers of a Tatar attack. The motif of blood is also present in the legend of the crow: the crow wanted to drink the blood dripping from the wounds of the crucified Christ, for which God cursed it, which is why its beak forever received a bloody color along the edges.

Beliefs about the raven are also characterized by the motive of theft. According to legend, a person will become a thief if he eats the heart or meat of a raven. The motive for the theft is presented in a legend in which a raven or crow incriminates St. Peter in stealing horses by shouting: “Stole!”, in contrast to the cuckoo, who shouted “Bought!” The dream of a raven is also associated with the theft of horses. According to another legend, a girl became a crow, accusing Christ of stealing with her cry. It is believed that a crow, with its croaking, denounces a thief or predicts theft. In response to her croaking, in order to divert suspicion from oneself, one should have said: “I didn’t steal, I bought it for pennies!” The same motive is presented in curses: “Nyahay nad tym varonne krakaets, khto ukrau!” In this regard, about a person suspected of theft, they say: “A crow is cawing over him.”

Folk beliefs reveal the connection of birds of the raven family with death and the world of the dead. In funeral lamentations, death flies into the window like a black raven. Raven predicts imminent death. There are widespread signs that if a raven croaks over a traveler's head, flies or croaks over a house, over a yard, over a village, over a forest or over a cemetery, sits on a roof, on a chimney, beats its wings on a window, croaks in a village, on a roof at home, in front of a house or on a church - it means that the traveler or someone in the house or in the village will soon die. A sign of death and various misfortunes is often the cry of crows, less often - of jackdaws and rooks. In a dream, a black raven and a croaking crow also promise death. For a hunter or fisherman going fishing, the cry of a raven means failure. Therefore, hunters avoid mentioning the raven and call it “mount” or “hen”.

Raven has treasures and wealth. He guards treasures hidden in the ground. One Belarusian fairy tale tells how the heirs, in search of money, dug up the grave of a stingy landowner and discovered a raven on the chest of the deceased, buried along with the pillow where she had hidden the money. The raven took money out of the pillow and put it in her mouth, but did not let people touch the money. They believe that invisible riches are stored in the raven's nest: gold, silver and precious stones. Having collected a lot of gold and silver, the raven gilds its head and tail. There is a well-known belief about an evil spirit in the form of a black bird - a crow or rook, which steals and carries wealth to its owner because he keeps it behind the stove, strokes it, feeds it scrambled eggs and does not throw away its droppings. In a Belarusian fairy tale, a white crow helps a witch take milk from other people's cows.

According to popular beliefs, the raven tries to hatch its chicks in March or February, while the ants have not yet emerged from the ground, otherwise they will eat its chicks. Associated with this idea is the tale of the competition between the Ant and the Raven (or crow) to see which of them is stronger and can carry a weight of the same size as himself. Everyone put their own children on the line, and therefore the losing Raven, in order not to give, according to the condition, his children to be eaten by the Ant, hatches the chicks in advance.

Quite different properties of the crow are revealed in fairy tales about animals and some small folklore genres - sayings, jokes. They highlight the crow's stupidity, making it a comic character. In fairy tales, the crow's stupidity is combined with boasting and vanity. She boasts to the eagle about the beauty of her children and asks them not to eat. Orel; When he sees the ugliest of birds, he eats the crows. The crow changes its feathers to white (cf. the expression “white crow”) and wants to mingle with the pigeons, but they drive it away, but the flock of crows also does not want to take it back. Likewise, a raven who puts on swan or peacock feathers is recognized, plucked and disgraced. The Crow is susceptible to flattery: the Cancer it has captured praises it, and the flattered Crow opens its mouth, dropping its prey. She is not able to distinguish her eggs from those thrown by the falcon (or cuckoo), and as a result, the falcon eats the crows, or the cuckoo hits and drives out the crow. The crow is lazy and slow (it is not by chance that a crow is called a crow) and therefore, in the elections organized by the birds, it missed (missed) all the positions of authority (tsar, governor, police officer, etc.) and was left out of work. The croaking of a crow that has found a cake of dung is played out comically in folk jokes. In the summer she shouts: “Shit!”, and in the winter, sitting on frozen manure: “Kalach, kalach! Don't worry!" To the magpie’s question: “Why kysle? Why kisle? - she croaks: “Yes-arma! Da-arma!”

This bird was forbidden to be eaten, and killing was considered a sin. The Poles called the lark the singer of the Mother of God. When Christ walked the earth, the lark daily brought Her news about Him, consoled Her in grief and predicted the resurrection of Christ, and then was taken by Her to heaven, where near the throne of the Blessed Virgin he tirelessly glorifies Her with his singing “Ave Maria.” In the ancient Russian “Tale of the Birds of the Sky,” the lark says about himself: “I fly high, I sing songs, I glorify Christ.” According to legend, larks, like swallows, removed thorns from the crown of thorns of the crucified Christ. Rising high into the sky, the lark spends time in prayer. Then, suddenly falling silent, he soars even higher and flies to confession to God himself.

The Poles of Galicia have a legend about the origin of the lark: God threw a lump of earth high into the air, which turned into a bird gray as the earth.

Two different types of lark - ordinary and crested - in popular belief are often perceived as one bird: the lark grows a forelock in the third year of life, or in winter the lark has a forelock on its head, and discards it in the summer. In some places, a lark with a pointed “bashlyk” on its head is called a “lark godfather.” It is believed that in the winter an ordinary lark turns into a crested lark or a mouse, and in the summer it takes on its previous appearance.

According to legends, the lark spends the winter in a mouse hole, in a field under a stone, under a lump of earth in a furrow or in a boundary. In the middle of winter it turns on its other side and sleeps until spring. According to other beliefs, in winter it is high, high in the sky. The angels hold him in their hands, tenderly and caress him until the first lightning flashes and the heavens open, where the lark is allowed to look at this time.

The arrival of the lark was associated with the arrival of spring. The Western Slavs believed that on February 2, the day of the Great Mother of God, or Presentation, the lark should certainly squeak, even if it risks freezing at this time, and later St. Agnieszka releases a lark from a bag or from under a pebble. Ukrainians associated the arrival of larks, these first messengers of spring, with the souls of their ancestors, who visit their native field once a year.

In Volyn, the arrival of the lark coincided with the day of Alexei “Golosey” (March 30). The Belarusians had a custom of giving a bun from the entire village to the first person to see or hear the lark, “so that this same person would announce for a whole year what could happen in the village.”

In Russia and Ukraine, on the day of the Forty Martyrs (March 22), and in the Russian North, also on St. Alexis Day (March 30) or on the Annunciation (April 7), they baked dough birds called “larks” (less commonly, “waders” and “ swallows"). “Larks” were left in the barn, given to sheep, children, and one was thrown into the oven. The children ran with them into the street to “cry summer”, walked into the field and shouted: “Lark, lark, it’s winter for you, but summer for us,” or “You have a sleigh, and we have a cart.” “Larks” were thrown up with the words: “Larks, larks, fly in, bring spring with you!” In numerous refrains, sentences and spring songs, the lark in the spring was asked to bring a warm summer, plow, harrow, new bread, health, etc. For example:

Bring on spring

On your tail

On the plow, harrow,

On a rye hay

On a sheaf of oats.

Sometimes a splinter was baked into one of the “larks,” and whoever got it had to start sitting down. In many places, with the arrival of the lark, plowing and sowing began. The spring lark with its singing calls for the beginning of field work: “Sow, sow, harrow!”, “Grandfather, this, this oats and barley!”, “Give birth, O God! Rody, God! Give birth, God!” The lark is also mentioned in a spell designed to ensure the growth of flax: “As the lark flies high, so may your flax be high!”

Kite

The kite, hawk (buzzard, harrier, osprey) and partly birds of the falcon order (falcon, hobbies) form a single image of a large bird of prey (cf. eagle), endowed with symbolism of uncleanness and death, demonic and disgusting properties.

The symbolism of the kite-hawk, its connections with other bird characters and parallels with other Slavic traditions is most fully reflected in the Ukrainian-Podolian rite of expulsion and burial of the kite on the first Monday of Peter's Lent. In the morning, housewives drove the chickens out of the hut using a knife or ax to protect them from the kite. During the day, the women went to the pasture, where they sang, waving their scarves towards the forest: “Oh, Shulyaku - black bird, don’t talk to us, /<…>Don’t grab our smokes.” Men brought here killed kites and ravens tied to sticks. The women went with them into the forest, there they broke green branches and, waving them, cursed the “rogue hawk”: “Black bird, our death, / Don’t bother us, / Hug us!” Then the ritual funeral of the kite was performed, and the women danced on his grave. In another version of the ritual, the women made a “shulyak” from scarves, placed it on a large scarf, in the corners of which they poured piles of grains and placed bread, onions, cheese and meat between them. Turning the “shulyak” towards the meat, the women said: “Don’t go to the chickens, but go to the bastard.” At the end, they tore the “shulyak” into pieces, had a feast and treated each other to vodka with the words: “Drink up, kumo, so that Shulyak doesn’t drink the chickens.”

The ritual parallel of the kite - the hawk and the cuckoo (cf. the Ukrainian ritual of expulsion and funeral of the kite and the Russian ritual of baptism and funeral of the cuckoo) is complemented by the belief that the cuckoo turns into a hawk or kite at the end of its cuckooing immediately after Peter's Day (June 29).

In the context of the mentioned rituals and beliefs, one should also consider the “hawkish” names for an uncurled head of cabbage: Ukrainian, Bel. “shulyak”, Russian "hawk" Alternative options for the cuckoo after Peter's Day are either turning it into a hawk, or hiding in cabbage (in Belarusian Polesie).

Other parallels to the Ukrainian rite of expelling the kite are the Kashubian rite of executing the kite on Midsummer Day (June 24) or on Sunday three weeks before this day. The ritual was attended by an “executioner”, a “soltys” (village elder) or a “priest” and a “judge” who read out the verdict. The bird was impaled. The servants of the “Soltys” addressed the kite with an accusatory speech, and the “executioner” cut off the kite’s head. More often, however, the head was cut off not from a kite, but from a crow, which the whole procession went to bury with the welcoming song of St. Jan. Among other Western Slavs, the parallels to the Ukrainian ritual of expelling the kite are more distant: in the Czech Republic and Lusatia, a ritual similar to the Kashubian one was performed at the end of the harvest and was associated not with the kite, but with a rooster or drake. In the Ukrainian ritual of expelling the kite, there is a functional commonality between the kite and the raven, the poetic embodiment of which in song lyrics is the image of a “black bird” that brings death. The same similarity is demonstrated by the children's game of kite or raven, in which these birds are endowed with a common symbolism of death. In Ukrainian versions of the game, the raven digs a hole to boil boiling water and pour it into the eyes of children. Digging a hole symbolizes a funeral, and flooding the eyes symbolizes death. Ukrainians and Russians call this game “kite game,” while Czechs and Bosnians call it “hawk game.” Among Belarusians, it is also associated with the kite (“At the kite”, “shulyak”) and with the raven (“At the kruk”, “at the raven”, etc.): the kite (raven) digs a hole to collect pebbles and knock out they give children teeth. A typical reason for the revenge of a kite (less often a raven) on children is: “They ate my cabbage!” (among Belarusians), “They plucked the white cabbage in my garden” (among Ukrainians) (see the cabbage motif above). In the Gomel district, the game is complemented by a comic version of the funeral of a kite: a kite in a bathhouse is covered with sand.

The hawk and kite, as unclean and sinister birds, are endowed with demonic properties. According to Polish ideas, the devil can take the form of a hawk; an evil spirit hides in the hawk; according to Ukrainian - a hawk attacks animals like the devil attacks people (cf. also the Russian expression “kor-shunovaty devil”).

To prevent the hawk from strangling the chickens, you need to give the first egg laid by the chicken to a beggar (among the Poles). At Christmas they call hawks doves in order to appease and neutralize them (among Belarusians). At the same time, like any predator, the hawk has disgusting properties. Therefore, the Poles nailed the killed hawk to the barn gate, the Poles and Ukrainians hung it in the stable for protection from witches and devils, and the Ukrainians displayed sparrows to intimidate.

The cry of a kite is considered a sign of rain. According to legends, the kite (sometimes the buzzard) was punished by God for not digging or cleaning the sea, lake, pond, etc. with other birds (among the Eastern Slavs, Poles), and muddying the water of the Mother of God, who was washing shirts to the infant Christ (among the Poles). Since then, he has the right to drink only rainwater and, languishing with thirst, plaintively asks: “Drink, drink!” The Russians say about the cry of a kite during a drought: “Kanya is crying and asking God for a drink.”

Duck

Both Kyiv and Bulgarian jewelry reflect the same cosmogonic legend, in which the world was created by a Duck that swam across the World Ocean.

According to the Mordovian version of the legend, which is closest territorially to Volga Bulgaria, the world happened like this: a Duck (gogol, dive) swam across the primordial ocean, which dived to the bottom, took out a lump of earth, and from this lump the Earth and all life on it arose. Bulgarian temple rings with their characteristic egg-shaped beads bring to mind the Karelian-Finnish Kalevala, where the Divine Duck participates in the creation of the world. Before the creation of the world, the Almighty God Ukko and Ilmat, the “mother of water,” already existed, but the world was created not by them, but by the Duck, who laid one iron and six golden eggs, from which the earth was formed in the middle of the water space: “From the egg, from the lower part, the Mother came damp earth; from the egg from the upper part the high vault of heaven became.”

The Bulgarian temple ring with a duck holding a lump of earth in its beak is equipped not only with this cosmogonic symbol, but also with six golden eggs mentioned in the Kalevala: three egg-shaped beads are put on the ring, and three are suspended on separate chains. On the golden eggs, female figures are depicted in fine grain. And N. Afanasyev, in his general review, cites a number of different cosmogonic legends in which the world is born from an egg.

In the Mari myth, the structure of the world is carried out by the Drake, who dived into the sea and pulled out a clod of earth from the bottom, from which the world was created. A legend recorded in Zaonezhye says: “Two Gogols sailed along the pre-Syul (old, primary) Okiyan Sea; the first is Bel-Gogol (God), and the other is Cheren Gogol (Satan). The black bird pulled out from the bottom a lump of earth from which God created the earthly world.”

Egg

Symbolism of the ideal. One of the most complex and little studied groups of symbols is the symbolism of the ideal. There are certainly many reasons for this. However, they in no way reduce this gap in the study of the symbolism of paganism.

What is the ideal in paganism? In paganism, the struggle of opposites and, at the same time, their unity play a huge, if not key, role. For example, pairs Prav - Nav, man - woman, chaos - order. One of the key principles in paganism is the unity and struggle of opposites. An ideal is always a combination of inseparable things. For a pagan, the golden mean is the ideal. Since the ideal is the harmony of all things, it was depicted as an egg. Everyone remembers, for example, the fairy tale about the Ryaba Hen, but few people know what deep sacred meaning lies in it. These are the remains of an ancient myth. The talking Ryaba Hen laid a golden egg for Grandfather and Grandmother, that is, she brought harmony to the world. However, what do people do?

Instead of taking care of the golden egg, they are trying to break the poor egg. And who, exactly, are these grandfather and woman? By the way, pagans call their distant ancestors, respectively, grandfathers and women. Baba is also the female ancestor. And this company of first-people is trying to destroy harmony. But nothing works out for them - people don’t have enough strength to destroy what was created by the gods of Rule (that is, the Pockmarked Hen). And then a mouse appears, and not just any mouse, but a gray one. The gray mouse lives in a hole, that is, under the floor, which means it belongs to Navi. Or more precisely, she is her personification (after all, she destroys harmony). And she comes not alone, but also with her tail at the ready - the mouse’s tail looks like a small snake - this is also no coincidence: the mouse’s tail is the Serpent Yusha, aka the World Serpent (aka the wolf Fenrir in the Scandinavian sagas, from - for which Ragnarok occurred - the end of the world). And so the forces of Navi, together with Yusha, attack the harmony and break it - the egg falls and breaks (oh, how easy it is to break harmony!). And what, the grandfather and woman are rejoicing - after all, the egg was broken? No, on the contrary, they cry - they don’t like living in disharmony (also a familiar picture - they do things and then cry). And what? The Ryaba Hen tells them, in essence, his children, don’t worry, I’ll restore harmony (I’ll lay a new egg) - that’s the essence of Rule. Let us also note that in the fairy tale there is a conflict between Ryaba and the mouse. And unlucky people - well, they are what they are.

There is also a fairy tale about a kolobok with an interesting plot. Kolobok also looks like an egg. All the same unlucky grandfather and woman miss their harmony, their ideal, carelessly leaving it on the window. But if they had not left it on the window, they would still have destroyed it through their materialistic needs: for example, they would have eaten it. Through long searches, labors and efforts, the woman, following the impulse of her grandfather, creates an ideal - a round kolobok. But as a result, they lose it. Will they have the opportunity to create more? It’s unlikely: they swept the barns, scraped the bottom of the barrel.

In paganism there is a myth according to which instead of the Universe there was only an egg. The parent of the gods and all things - Rod - languished in the egg. With the forces of love, he destroyed his prison and created the World, the Universe, the Earth (round, by the way).

This myth is quite consistent with the Big Bang theory, which is very popular among astronomers. According to it, the Universe arose from the smallest particle of enormous density - some process occurred in this particle, and it exploded, so much so that all its contents scattered for an indefinite (but huge) number of parsecs around, violent chemical reactions began. As a result of this explosion, today we have what we have: the Earth, the Sun and the vast expanses of the Universe around us.

Stork

The stork (bochan, busel, Siberian Crane) is a particularly revered bird, endowed with human properties in folk beliefs. In legends and spring rituals, the stork acts as a guardian and purifier of the earth from reptiles and other evil spirits - snakes, toads, insects and evil spirits.

The legend connects the origin of the stork with man. God gave the man a bag of reptiles and ordered him to throw it into the sea, into the fire, bury it in a hole, or leave it on the top of a mountain. Out of curiosity, the man untied the bag, and all the evil spirits crawled across the ground; As a punishment, God turned a man into a stork so that he would cleanse the earth of reptiles. The stork's nose and legs turned red out of shame.

In other legends, the stork became a mower who did not respond to Christ’s greeting; the mower, whose pants fell off before Christ (cf. the idea that, upon arriving, the stork takes off his pants and walks around in a vest); a killer who scattered parts of the body of the murdered man, which became frogs, etc. The stork is often called by a human name: Ivan, Vasil, Yasha, Gritsko, Adam, etc. The black-and-white color of the stork is also associated in legends and beliefs with its human origin: with the attire of a priest, a nobleman in a black vest, etc. According to Polish evidence, in order to stop the rains caused by the killing of a stork, it was advised to bury him as a person in a coffin in a cemetery. Storks are credited with a number of human characteristics: they have human fingers, a soul, and understand human language; cry tears; they pray to God (this is how their scream is perceived); celebrate weddings together; Every married couple is inseparable, and if one of the spouses dies, the other voluntarily goes to death after him. The stork may commit suicide out of jealousy; a female suspected of adultery is publicly tried and killed.

There are known signs associated with the first stork seen in the spring. A flying stork portends health, agility, harvest, marriage; immobile - pain in the legs, death, drought, celibacy; standing - tall flax: a pair of storks - marriage or childbirth. Money in your pocket when meeting the first stork promises wealth, keys - abundance, and empty pockets - losses. The cry of the first stork, heard on an empty stomach, brings misfortune or foreshadows the breaking of pots throughout the year. When they see the first stork, they run after it, squat, somersault so that their legs don’t hurt; they tumble on the ground, lean against a tree, an oak, or a fence so that their backs don’t hurt; tie a knot on the cord from the neck cross so as not to see snakes in the summer; they take the earth from under their feet and throw it into the water, with which they sprinkle themselves and the house so that there are no fleas. On Annunciation, special bread with the image of a stork's foot is baked before the arrival of storks. Children throw them up, turning to the stork asking for a harvest. Among the Southern Slavs, children greet the stork in the hope that it will bring a wallet with money.

There is a belief about the mythical land of storks. Bulgarians call the stork a pilgrim, believing that it visits the holy land every year. They also believe that storks fly away for the winter to a distant land at the end of the world, where, after swimming in a wonderful lake, they become people, and in the spring, after swimming in another lake, they become birds again and return, since the Lord forbade them to breed chicks in his land. In Poland, there is also a popular belief that storks fly far over the sea, where they turn into people. In the spring, they again turn into storks and fly back, and a person, having found himself on the shore of that sea, can also turn into a stork in the same way and fly to their land. They also believe that, having flown to warm regions, the stork wets its beak in blood and becomes a human, and when it soaks itself in water, it will become a stork again. According to popular beliefs, when migrating, storks carry swallows or wagtails.

The belief that the stork brings children is especially widespread among the Western Slavs. The stork pulls them out of the swamp, out of the sea, brings them in a basket, in a tub, in a trough, throws them into the house through the chimney. Or he throws frogs into the chimney, which, entering the house through the chimney, take on a human form. The children were told that they needed to place a plate of cheese on the window so that the stork would bring a child. The children asked the stork to bring them a brother or sister, for example: “Buska, buska, bring mesh to Maruska!” In Belarus, during the celebration of the homeland, a man dressed as a stork came to the house and congratulated the parents on their newborn. According to signs, a child should be expected where the stork circles, or to whom the stork often flies to the field. If he stands on the trumpet during the wedding, the newlyweds will have a child. A woman dreams of a stork to indicate pregnancy or the birth of a son. Ideas about the stork's relationship to childbirth are associated with the phallic symbolism of its beak, which is manifested, in particular, in the behavior of the stork disguised in the Christmas ritual, when he pecks girls with his beak.

Martin

A pure, holy bird endowed with feminine symbolism. In the song, the swallow is likened to the Mother of God: “Oh, to Dunaechka, to the shore, / There the swallow was swimming, / That’s not the swallow, then the Mother of God...”. Swallow and dove are favorites

God of the birds. The swallow glorifies God with its singing. Her chirping is perceived as a prayer: “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.” In the folk legend about the crucifixion of Christ, swallows, unlike sparrows, tried to save him from torment: they shouted “he’s dead, he’s dead!”, stole nails, took out thorns from Christ’s crown of thorns and brought him water. That is why a swallow’s nest under the roof provides happiness and grace to the house, and it is a great sin to destroy its nest, kill it or eat it. If a swallow abandons its nest, the entire family in the house will die. The one who kills a swallow will not have the happiness of raising livestock, and the one who destroys a swallow’s nest will lose his home or go blind, freckles or scabs will appear on his face, the mother or one of the household will die, the cow will die, the cow will lose milk, or she will be milked blood.

In some places they believe that the swallow’s nest protects the house from fire and that the swallow will burn down the house of the offender who destroyed its nest: it is not for nothing that it has a red spot, as if from a burn. There is also a sign that a girl will soon get married if a swallow makes a nest on her house, hovering near the windows or flies into her house. If swallows and doves fly near the house when a wedding is being celebrated there, the newlyweds will be happy in their marriage. Anyone who carries the heart of a swallow will be loved by everyone, especially by women. Swallow and swallow's nest are used in love magic.

Swallow is the messenger of spring. They say: “The swallow begins spring, but the nightingale ends.” In songs she is called the housekeeper, since she brings golden keys from overseas with which she opens summer and closes winter. Most often, the arrival of swallows is timed to coincide with the Annunciation (April 7). In some regions of Southern Russia, on the Forty Martyrs (March 22), “swallows” with open wings were baked for the arrival of birds. In the northwestern provinces, the arrival of swallows is timed to coincide with St. Yegoria (May 6). At this time, they prepare for plowing, fry eggs and go to the field. The swallows chirp: “The men are in the field, the men are in the field, and the women are frying!” Or: “They flew away - they threshed, they flew away - they thrashed, they flew in - blah-blah-blah!” Sometimes in the twitter of a swallow one can hear a complaint that the bins have become empty during the winter: the sparrows have eaten all the grain and have left nothing for it.

In the spring, when they see the first swallow, they throw dirt onto its nest, try to wash it and wipe its face so that there are no freckles, pimples or sunburns, and whoever washes himself with milk at this moment will be white-faced. While washing, they said: “Lastivko, lastivko! Toby has stoneflies, give me stoneflies!”, “Killer whale, killer whale! Take your rowan - give me my whiteberry! It is also believed that if you wash yourself at the sight of the first swallow, you will become playful and cheerful, and get rid of drowsiness and illness.

Ukrainians, Belarusians and Poles have widespread beliefs about swallows wintering in the water. On St. Simeon the Stylite (September 14), the swallows gather together and complain to this saint that the sparrows occupied their nests and the children ruined them. Immediately after this, or on Exaltation (September 27), they hide in wells in order to quickly get to the “vyrey” this way. In autumn, people try not to bail out water from wells, so as not to prevent swallows from flying into the “ditch.” According to other beliefs, swallows hide in rivers, lakes and ponds, link their paws or wings into chains and sleep under water until spring. They say that fishermen more than once caught whole garlands of swallows from under the ice and brought them home, where they came to life in the warmth of the stove. In the spring, only young swallows that were born last year fly out of the water, while the old ones lose their feathers and turn into frogs. Wed. the motif of a swallow shedding feathers in the work of John of Damascus, a Greek theologian of the 8th century: “When winter comes, a swallow throws off its feathers and climbs under the bark of a tree, and then in the spring it again becomes covered with feathers, flies out into the light, chirps and seems to say to a person: “Be convinced of me of the resurrection of the dead.”

In folk tradition, the swallow shows similarities with the weasel. Their names are related in origin. When they see the first swallow, they take the ground from under their feet and look for a hair in it. Whatever color it turns out to be, this is the color you should buy a horse so that the brownie likes it.

A swallow flying under a cow is considered the cause of blood in the milk, just as in other places a weasel flying under a cow is considered the cause. In the riddles, the swallow’s chirping is presented as a foreign language: German, Tatar, Turkish, Latin (“it spoke in German,” “it babbled in Tatar,” “it started in Turkish”), etc.

In folk symbolism, weasel and swallow are brought together by the motifs of spinning and weaving. According to the Belarusian legend, a swallow stole a ball of thread and scissors from the Mother of God. In her cry one hears the words “Twist the threads!”, and in the riddles the forked tail of the swallow is likened to a reel, with the help of which skeins of yarn are unwound into balls: “The awl of the reel went to heaven.”

Animals

Is the embodiment of strength; sacrificial animal. In South Slavic cosmology, a bull (sometimes a buffalo or an ox) is the support of the earth. In Serbia, it was believed that the earth rests on four bulls - black (in the west), gray, nightingale (in the south), white (in the north) and red (in the east). Bulls, standing in thick yellow water, drink it and are satisfied with it, but they grow old and weak, and one day their legs will give way, then the earth will crack, the yellow water will penetrate into them, and there will be

Similar beliefs are known in the Altai, Muslim, and ancient Indian traditions.

The bull as a sacrificial animal is known in the Russian North, in the Nizhny Novgorod, Penza and Oryol provinces. When gathering on a holiday (Ilya’s Day or others) a male cattle breeding community (feast), they slaughtered a bull, which was fed by the entire community, ate it or distributed its meat and kept the bones, which supposedly brought good luck. Olonets hunters and fishermen believed that the bone of an “Ilyinsky” (i.e., slaughtered for a sacred meal on Ilyin’s day) bull tripled the prey. The same Olonets men tried to grab a piece of bull meat with a bone at the feast, “to capture happiness,” for with the one who has the “Ilya bone” the prophet Elijah is always with him. The sacrificial bull of “red color” ensures (through the prophet Elijah) clear weather during the harvest and haymaking. In the Oryol region, the bones of the “wasted” (“promised”) bull were buried in the barn after the brotherhood, “so that the cattle in the house would not be transferred.”

In the villages around the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, they also sacrificed the “promised” bull: on the temple holiday (Nativity of the Virgin Mary - September 8), they slaughtered the bull at the porch, boiled its meat and gave this meat to the poor, and the rest of the “promised” cattle were sold to butchers, the proceeds the money went to the church. On the same day, according to legend, deer first came to the church and ducks flew in, and a special breed of bulls came out of Veshchozero.

In the Kostroma region, in case of illness and death of livestock, they organized “Mikolytsina” (“Great Mikole” was called). To do this, they “promised” to raise the newborn bull until he was three years old, and then slaughter it before the winter holiday of Mykola and serve a dinner for the whole village. In the Nizhny Novgorod region, the lunch feast - "Nikolshchina" - with the consumption of a three-year-old bull occurs in the meat-eater, late autumn or early spring. In Eastern Serbia, on Ilya’s day, they slaughtered a bull, boiled it in a large cauldron and ate it with the whole village together at the site of “Petikladenci”, where there were five sacred springs-wells. People washed their faces near them on Fridays and Sundays and left money there, with which they bought the bull. On the same day, in Veles (Macedonia), residents of several villages gathered at the “ quitrent ” place and, after a common prayer, cooked bull meat. Bulgarians on the Monday preceding St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa (October 14), in the middle of the village they slaughtered a bull, boiled the meat and ate it at a common meal.

In Poland, the bull is the central character of Trinity rites. In Mazovia they covered him with an old net and dressed him with flowers and branches, hung a wreath of birch branches on his horns and drove him in front of the herd; or a stuffed “knight” made of alder bark was placed on a bull and then thrown to the ground, calling this ritual an ox wedding. In Kuyavia, a blanketed bull with flowers on its horns took part in a solemn procession, accompanied by a dozen shepherds, a dozen girls with flowers and musicians, who were greeted by the entire village.

In Slavic local legends, guardian spirits of springs, springs, wells and lakes are known, appearing in the form of a bull. Serbs in Metohija said that in the village. Crna Vrana on Podrima, a large bull came out of a deep spring and attacked the village oxen. Then one of the peasants forged iron tips, fastened them on the horns of his ox, and the ox gored the bull, after which the source dried up for ten years. The Serbs believed that the bull guarded treasures, and “in order to dig up treasure, you must sacrifice your bull and slaughter it in the place of the buried treasure.” In Western Ukraine, a story was written about a field worker who guarded a spring, in the form of a flying bull, either wandering around the spring, then disappearing.

The bull is a favorite character in Christmas and Maslenitsa mummers. In the Kostroma region, the Christmas game of bull was known. The guy, holding the pot on the handle (horns), came to the hut, mooed near the girls and waved his head like a bull. They “sold” him, and when they agreed on a price, someone from the crowd “killed the bull” - he hit the pot, breaking it, and the guy portraying the bull ran out of the hut, and other guys beat the girls with pre-prepared straw ropes, asking : “Who did you eat the bull with?”

According to Bulgarian beliefs, a bull is inaccessible to evil spirits, along with a wolf and a bear. On the other hand, the “unclean” himself could appear in the guise of a bull, according to the beliefs of the Lusatian Serbs (herds of black bulls, bull calves), Ukrainians (two fighting bulls, a bull - “cattle of the forest god”, a field bull, etc. .). The first cloud of pearlescent tide, foreshadowing thunderstorms and hail, is called a bull in the Vologda region.

In the interpretation of dreams: a black bull is imminent danger, a white bull is illness, exhaustion (Russian). The oldest news about a sacrificial bull belongs to Procopius of Caesarea (VI century). He said that the Slavs believed in the supreme god of thunder; they sacrificed a bull and other sacred animals to him.

The bull in Slavic riddles is the month, the sun, day and night, sky and earth (Russian: “Two bulls are butting but will not come together”), the ceiling and floor, fire and pot (Belarus: “Red bull dy chornaga lazhe”) and etc.

Turya horns-rhytons as sacred vessels are well known from images on Slavic idols and from finds in mounds of pagan times. The ornamentation of real horns from burial mounds is of the same two types as on kolta (women's jewelry attached to a headdress): on some horns the silver frame is decorated with towns (Gnezdovo, Shestovitsy, Priladozhye), and on others - with a floral pattern and a four-part composition (Chernigov ).

Obviously, the ancient Russian goldsmiths believed that the mermaid pitchforks, revered in their time, watered the fields with dew (a cloud-fog that they lowered to the ground) from the same turkish horns, which were in use as feast utensils (“Russian Truth” about a blow with a horn or cup), then like ritual rhytons at weddings or funerals. With all the changes in subject matter, two horns almost always remain on the front side of gold colts on the reverse side, decorating even the latest colts.

Another embodiment of the idea of ​​fertility, reproduction, and prosperity among the Slavs was cattle. For many peoples of the earth, cattle were a symbol of wealth. As for the Slavs, the “cattle god” Volos (Veles) was by no means just a god of cattle: he was in charge of wealth in general.

A place where a young cow could calmly lie down, chewing the cud, was considered happy and safe. A serenely chewing cow exudes peace, unshakable peasant comfort, warm bread and fresh milk. Apparently, it is no coincidence that modern psychic researchers unanimously assert that a cow, unlike, for example, a cat, will never lie down in a place whose energetic properties are unfavorable for humans!

The cow is the most revered of domestic animals, requiring special protection from evil spirits that can take away milk.

In ancient times, the Slavs apparently did not slaughter cows for meat. Cows are not slaughtered, but are sold even in case of illness or old age. Both the actual and conditional sale of a sick cow was perceived as a magical means of promoting its recovery. Among the Western and Southern Slavs, in the event of an urgent (due to illness) slaughter of a cow, the owners did not consume its meat, but sold it to neighbors or all residents of the village. The slaughter of heifer cows (yawls) was allowed for weddings, funerals and, in rare cases, for public holidays.

The cow plays an important role in the funeral rites of the Eastern and Western Slavs. The Eastern Slavs had a custom of giving a cow to a priest or poor person immediately after the funeral. In Ukraine and the Western Slavs they believe that cattle mourn the death of their owner. In some places, pets accompany the coffin with the body of the owner to the church. It was believed that the behavior of a cow could predict death in the house. A red or black cow dreams of death. Cows and calves, which are given to the poor, end up in the “other world”, where there are special pens for them.

In the wedding ritual complex and accompanying folklore, a cow is associated with a woman, a bride.

A cow is an obligatory part of the bride's dowry among the Eastern and Western Slavs. Among the southern Slavs, guys who came to caroling at Christmas in the houses of their favorite girls went to clean the barn. Among the Cossacks on the Terek, on Christmas nights, guys tore down the gates from the houses of girls of easy virtue, made a “fence” out of them in the square, where they drove the cows of these girls.

According to the beliefs of the Slavs, horns had enormous protective power. Mainly bull, turkish horns. The bull-tour, dedicated to the god of warriors - Perun, was, first of all, a male symbol and denoted the masculine principle - the ability to protect, protect from dangers, both real and magical. For a woman, especially a young mother, this was vital. The fabric horns of her kiki (a married woman's headdress) on a birch bark or quilted canvas base also served this purpose. Another meaning of wearing such “horns” was the idea of ​​fertility, procreation. In Christian times, priests did not allow women wearing horned kicks to take communion or enter church in general, quite rightly seeing in this echoes of the pagan faith.

In the Russian North and among the southern Slavs, legends about mythical cows living in lakes are known. Sometimes they go out into coastal meadows, and then a person can pick one cow off from the herd by running around it. Such a cow gives a lot of milk and is always strong and healthy.

The cow and the bull are also associated in folk culture with celestial water, clouds, and precipitation. By their behavior (when they raise their heads to the sky, beat their horns, jump) one could predict rainy weather. Black and dark-colored cows leading the herd when returning from pasture also foreshadowed rain. In Serbia they believed that there was a bull or a cow inside the rain cloud and you could hear the moo coming from there. The same ideas are reflected in the Belarusian riddle: “The white cow broke the reed” (snow). Therefore, during drought, rain is produced by burning cow dung.

The connection between cloudiness, precipitation, and water and milk is more clearly expressed in Slavic folk culture. The Russians believed that if milk foams a lot during milking, then this is due to inclement weather, and “dark Christmastide”, cloudy nights on Christmas Eve, promise large milk yields in the coming year. Among the southern Slavs, on the morning of St. George's Day, the housewife whipped butter from milk, and the daughter climbed onto the roof of the house. "What's the weather like?" - asked the mother. “There is sun all over the earth, there is a cloud above our house,” answered the girl. This ritual was supposed to help increase the cow's milk. For the same purpose, the cow was driven out to graze on St. George’s Day, as well as on Trinity Sunday, on the day of Ivan Kupala and other holidays very early, “for the dew.” Ukrainians say “God’s dew” about milk. Witches, collecting dew from the meadows on these days, thus take milk from cows.

Slavic meteorological terminology, denoting cloudy, rainy weather, clouds, comes into contact with the sphere of concepts associated with milk and products made from it: Rus. - “youthful (cloudy) weather”, Polish. - “kvaschne milk” (clouds), etc. In Ukraine and Bulgaria, there is a widespread belief that witches can remove the month from the sky and milk the milk from it. When the month is “milked” (milked out), there will be no rain.

Water is the main magical remedy used to increase the milk production of cows.

When a cow was first driven into the herd on St. George's Day, Christmas and other holidays, she was doused with water, sprinkled with holy water, and driven between full buckets. Shepherds were also doused for the same purpose. Every time a Ukrainian housewife took water from a well, she addressed the water with a spell in which she asked for more milk for the cow.

In the Russian North, the shepherd had to bury the “leave” (the written text of the conspiracy) in a damp place near the water for the entire summer grazing, otherwise the cow would have little milk. In the Carpathians, there was a custom to pour the first milk milked after calving into a fast river. All Slavs boiled colostrum for children. After they ate it, the hostess poured water over them or washed them. In some places, someone who drinks milk from a cow for the first time has water poured down the collar. Water was widely used in magic to return milk taken by the witch.

Cow's milk was contrasted with heavenly fire, i.e. the element of fire. All Slavs believed that a fire lit by lightning could be extinguished only with the milk of a black cow, or, in extreme cases, with just unleavened milk. If the first thunder of spring thunders when the cows are not yet in the barn, they will not produce much milk. In some places in Bulgaria they believe that lightning and thunder “drink” cows’ milk. In the animal husbandry practice of all Slavs, there is a ban on approaching the fire immediately after milking a cow; first you need to wash your hands. When boiling milk, they strictly ensure that the milk does not run away, since in this case the cow’s udder will swell.

All Slavs have a known custom of treating snake bites with milk.

A cow is an object of constant care or, conversely, persecution of the house elf (or other guardians of the farm: weasels, snakes, roosters). The weasel and snake cannot be killed, since the cow will immediately die along with them. There are beliefs that it sucks milk from a cow. You can’t kill someone like that: the cow will yearn for him and die. You cannot hit a cow with a stick that was used to kill a grass snake; the cow will “dry.”

The cow may be a demonic creature. Ukrainians and Belarusians imagined cholera in the images of a woman with cow legs, a black cow, a woman sitting on a black cow. A witch can turn into a cow. A treasure may appear in the form of a cow. The Hutsuls believe that there may be a demonic cow on the farm - a “half-barok” with a short rib. If she dies, then nine more cows on this farm will die in a row.

Horses and horses

In illustrations to Russian fairy tales, towers are often decorated with sculptural images of horse heads, and this is no coincidence - the ancient Slavs believed that it was horses that carried the sun across the sky during the day, and at night it sailed through the underground ocean on ducks or geese.

The facades of typical Russian huts were usually decorated along the facade with solar symbols along the contour of the end of the roof. Each sun sign is accompanied by a sculpture of a horse's head. The roof gable is crowned with a massive ridge, from which a board “towel” with a sun sign hangs down. The piers going down along the edge of the roof also end at the bottom with a sun sign, and the ends of the poles holding the gutter for draining rainwater are shaped like a horse's head. These horses are adjacent to the solar signs of the piers and are visually combined into a single image of solar horses.

Ideas about the daytime journey of the sun across the sky on horses (or on swans) and about the night journey through the underground ocean on waterfowl most likely arose in the Bronze Age, when on the bottom of vessels intended for the dead who went into the underground, night world, the night, underground sun was depicted.

Let us emphasize once again that before us is not just a multitude of solar signs, not a sum of individual symbols, but a well-thought-out system created on the basis of a geocentric worldview: evil ghouls can be everywhere, they are ubiquitous; The system of evil includes all of nature and all living things, blown by “evil winds.” This dark system is contrasted with a system of light, which expels not only darkness, but also the creatures of darkness. The ancient Slavs turned to the sun, fixing it on their home in its continuous movement across the sky. They contrasted the ubiquity of ghouls with the ubiquity of sunlight; At the same time, the pattern of the inevitable arrival of the sun on a new day along with the morning dawn was emphasized.

According to archaeological data, the horse (along with the dog) was the main sacrificial animal at funerals, a guide to the “other world” (cf. fairy-tale motifs of the horse - a wonderful assistant to the hero, helping to penetrate into the distant kingdom, to the top of the glass mountain, etc.) , (cf. the Lusatian idea that a horse (and a dog) can see death, as evidenced by its restless behavior, etc.). The common Slavic folklore motif of a prophetic horse predicting the death of its owner is characteristic (Marko Kralevich in the Serbian epic, St. Gleb, whose horse broke his leg when the prince went to the place of death, etc. up to the medieval legends about the horse of Ivan the Terrible, which fell in Pskov, and the tsar, in fear of his own death, refused to reprisal the Pskovites). In the most mythologized context, this motif is known in the “Tale of Bygone Years” (912), where the sorcerer predicts the death of the Prophet Oleg from a horse.

The horse (horse skull) and the snake are characteristic embodiments of chthonic forces and death in the pan-Slavic tradition. The mythical snake - the leader of the snakes in Croatia is called the “snake horse”, “Vilina horse” (cf. Vila); hair from a horse's tail turns into snakes (Macedonian). At the same time, the horse, and especially the rider - a hero or saint (a substitute for a pagan deity) act as opponents of the serpent, evil forces, diseases in folklore and pictorial texts (including on the icons “The Miracle of George on the Serpent”, etc.), (cf. Russian conspiracy: “Namore Kiane, on the island of Buyan, on the white-flammable stone Alatyr, Egor the Victorious, Michael the Archangel, Elijah the Prophet, Nicholas the Wonderworker are sitting on a brave horse, defeating a fierce fiery serpent,” etc.). According to the oldest news in the “Acts of the Danes” by Saxo Grammar (XII century), the white horse of the god Sventovit fought with enemies at night and returned dark from dirt. The color of the horse was of particular importance: the white (golden) horse was an attribute of the Lord God, Yuri-Egory in the Polish and East Slavic traditions (in Belarusian conspiracies); in a Russian fairy tale, the white horseman is a clear day, the red horseman is the red sun, the black horseman is the embodiment of the night; in the Serbian song of St. Nikolai rides on a blue, red and white horse. In accordance with the dual nature of the horse-mediator, the horse's skull is endowed with ambivalent properties: cf. Polesie ritual of burning a horse skull at the Kupala bonfire as the embodiment of a “witch”, death, etc. and the use of a horse skull as a talisman for livestock, bees, and a vegetable garden (in some cases it is used to cause damage - Pol.). Everywhere the horse skull was used as a construction sacrifice.

The connection of the horse with the “other world” and knowledge of fate determined its role in fortune-telling: the horse Sventovit was taken out of the temple to three rows of spears stuck into the ground and they watched which foot he would begin to step on: if on the right, the enterprise would be successful and you could go on a campaign . In Russian Christmas fortune-telling, the horse was blindfolded, sat on it backwards and watched where it would go: there the fortuneteller would get married. When doing fortune telling, in order to see the betrothed, they go to the stable at midnight - the one who hears the neighing will get married (Lusatian); by the behavior of the horse they guessed about death (if the horse hits the ground with its hoof - it means death), love (if the horse eats hay, drinks water - a guy loves a girl). Accordingly, the horse, which in fortune-telling embodies the connection with another world and the future, turned out to be a demonic creature: cf. a Vologda story about girls who, during fortune-telling, called on the “devil” to appear “right in the face” - the fortune-tellers were almost trampled by horses that appeared out of nowhere.

The horse could also appear at the place where the treasure was buried (the black horse in the Serbian bylichka). In the Ukrainian story, the “black mare” appeared to a mother and son who stopped in search of a share at a grave on the road: in a human voice, she promised her son to take him to the well, where they give a happy share; the son bathed in the well, and with one leap the mare returned him to his mother, and then disappeared.

In the rituals of the family cycle, the horse was involved primarily in the rituals of “passage”: other - Russian. the princely rite of tonsure - the first cutting of the prince's hair was accompanied by a ritual mounting on a horse (this initiation rite was preserved among the Russians and among the Cossacks). In wedding rituals, horses harnessed to a cart with the newlyweds were of particular importance. In the Russian medieval wedding ceremony, a horse was given as ransom for the bride (cf. later game options for exchanging a wife for horses, etc. in Russian and Ukrainian folklore); Stallions and mares, according to Domostroi (16th century), were tied near the hay barn (underground), where the young couple spent their first wedding night. The productive power of a horse and a person was considered interconnected: before mating, the mare had to be fed from the hem of a pregnant woman (Russian). During funerals, it was believed that it was very difficult for a horse to carry the deceased; in the Vitebsk province, the eldest in the house cried and kissed the horse’s hooves; For Russians, in a cemetery, a horse is unharnessed, led around the sleigh in the direction of the sun, and harnessed again.

In the rituals of the calendar cycle, horse holidays and the characters associated with them (saints, mummers) marked the change of calendar cycles (cf., in particular, the riding of young people on horses on Maslenitsa (Russian: “on horse riding” is exposed in the message of Tikhon of Zadonsk, c. 1765), races of guys herding horses on the first day of the “green Christmastide” (Polish), Serbian equestrian competitions at Christmas (news of 1435), the Belarusian custom of jumping stallions over the Kupala bonfire - right up to competitions of mummered “horses” "from neighboring villages (on St. George's Day, Russian). Accordingly, folklore images of horsemen embodying calendar holidays are associated with the semantics of changing seasonal cycles - Kolyada (Russian, Polish), Avsenya (Russian), Bozhich (Serbian; cf. Serbian Christmas custom of riding around on horses shouting “Bozhich!”), “green Yuri” riding a green horse (Croatian, see Georgiy), etc. “Horse”, “mare” - common Slavic images of dressing up at Christmas time (driving “ demonic filly" mentioned in the royal charter of 1648), associated not only with agrarian magic, but also with the symbolism of marriage and intercourse.

The patron saints of horses were considered to be the holy horsemen - George-Yuri (commonly known patron of livestock; cf. naming horses “Egory the brave” in the Angara region), the “horse gods” Flor and Laurus among the Russians, Theodore (Todor) Tiron among the southern Slavs (the day of his memory is Todor's Saturday - called Konski Velikden, "horse Easter"). Less often, St. appears as a specialized patron of horses. Blasius (who is also sometimes depicted on icons as a horseman) and Nikola (Nikolai): in Belarus, the holiday of Blasius was called “horse holy” - on this day young horses are ridden, they do not work on horses, they have a special meal for them; Nikola could be represented as a horseman in the Serbian tradition, along with St. Savva and others. The white horse (Eastern - Slavic, Bulgarian), fiery (Eastern - Slavic) is an attribute of Elijah, riding across the sky on horseback or in a chariot; thunder - the roar of horse hooves (cf. Russian riddles, where thunder is the stomping or neighing of horses).

Also characteristic is the connection of the horse with characters of lower mythology - pitchforks among the southern Slavs (the pitchforks themselves are sometimes attributed to horse legs), mermaids among the eastern ones (the mermaid was portrayed by a mummered “horse”), a brownie, etc. Evil spirits, including a brownie, can be seen by wearing a collar around the neck. A brownie—a horse owner—can love horses of a special color or, conversely, dislike a horse that does not belong in the court. A horse of an indeterminate - pinto - color is dangerous on the farm; a horseman can ride into the barn on it (white).

In magic, a special role was played not only by the horse’s skull, but also by hooves, pieces of harness (including a collar), a horseshoe, hair, by finding which one could guess the favorite color of the brownie, etc. When buying a horse, they tried to get a bridle so that the horse came to the yard, did not miss its old home, hand over the bridle “from half to half”, take the mark from under the right hoof, etc. (Eastern - Glorious).

Dog

She is of the same breed as the wolf, but from ancient times she became his fierce enemy, protecting and preserving her master’s property.

It is not for nothing that a proverb has always been justified in life: “A dog is a man’s faithful friend.”

The wolf hears a dog barking and tries to walk around: the gray one knows that these guards have sharp teeth and an amazing sense of smell. The eloquent plowman said a lot of catchphrases about his faithful watchman friend, and they all unanimously speak about a dog’s affection, a dog’s sense of smell, and a dog’s unpretentiousness. By the barking of a dog, a traveler who has lost his way recognizes where human habitation is nearby. Red girls also make wishes for Christmastide according to it: “Bark, bark, little dog, where is my betrothed!”

Many signs are associated with the dog’s character, which is well known to the village man. If the dog sways from side to side - towards the owner’s path; a dog howls with his muzzle down, or digs a hole under the window - there is a dead person in the house; howls, raising his head - they are waiting for a fire; a dog eats grass - predicts rain; huddles close to the owner, looking into his eyes - to impending misfortune; eats little, sleeps a lot - to inclement weather; does not eat anything after being sick - his days are numbered in heaven.

Wolf

The wolf, hort, is one of the most mythologized animals. It is close in its mythological functions to other predators (crow, lynx and especially bear) and is closely related to the dog.

According to legends, the devil blinded a wolf from clay or carved it out of wood, but was unable to revive it. The wolf, revived by God, rushed at the devil and grabbed his leg.

The chthonic properties of the wolf (origin associated with the earth, clay, the belief about treasures “emerging” from the earth in the form of a wolf) bring it closer to reptiles, especially snakes. The reptiles were born from shavings from a wolf whittled by the devil.

The wolf associates with unclean animals that are not eaten, the characteristic feature of which is blindness or being born blind. According to some Ukrainian beliefs, a she-wolf gives birth to wolf cubs only once in her life, and the one who brings offspring turns into a lynx five times. The wolf cubs are hatched where the wolf howls during the Easter Vigil, and there are as many of them as there were days of meat-eating this year from Christmas to Lent.

The defining sign in the symbolism of the wolf is the “alien” sign. The wolf correlates with “strangers,” primarily with the dead, ancestors, “walking” dead, etc. Some conspiracies from the wolf say that it visits the dead in the “other world,” and when meeting a wolf, they call on the dead for help. “Strangers” also include carolers and participants in other roundabout rituals; Therefore, in order to protect themselves from wolves, they are called carolers. Wolf masks are found in Yuletide or Maslenitsa processions of mummers.

The wolf also confronts man as an evil spirit: he is driven away with a cross, he is afraid of the ringing of bells, and he cannot be given anything sacred. It can also be conceptualized as a foreigner: for example, a pack of wolves is called a “horde.”

Various foreign bodies are associated with the wolf: wolf - the name of a growth on a tree or a black core in it; growths and tumors on the body are treated with wolf bone or with the help of a person who has eaten wolf meat. Wolf symbolism can be assigned to each of the parties participating in the wedding as a stranger in relation to the opposite: both the groom’s squad and all the bride’s relatives at the groom’s wedding are called a wolf; in lamentations, the bride calls the groom’s brothers “gray wolves,” and in songs, the groom’s relatives call the bride “she-wolf.” The groom himself, who is looking for a bride, can symbolically correlate with a wolf looking for prey.

The wolf has the functions of a mediator between “this” and “that” light, between people and evil spirits, between people and the forces of another world. By bullying the cattle, he acts not according to his own, but according to God's will. There was a belief: “What the wolf has in its teeth, Yegoriy (Perun) gave.” The abduction of livestock by a wolf was often perceived as a sacrifice and promised good luck to the owner.

The wolf's attitude towards evil spirits is ambivalent. On the one hand, evil spirits devour wolves: drive them to human habitation in order to later profit from wolf carrion; The devil carries one wolf for himself every year. The wolf is “acquainted” with evil spirits. Sorcerers can turn into wolves and send wolves to attack people and livestock. On the other hand, at the command of God, wolves destroy and eat devils so that they reproduce less. The wolf himself can be a mythological character - a werewolf, or a werewolf. According to beliefs, wolves are subordinate to the goblin (the goblin feeds them with bread, like his dogs), who is sometimes himself represented as a white wolf. To appease the devil, the shepherd left one sheep in the forest for the wolves to eat.

Usually St. is considered the patron saint of wolves and at the same time the guardian of herds. George (Yuri, Yegor), among Western Ukrainians - St. Mikhail, Lupp, Nikolai, Peter and Pavel. There are widespread stories about a man who overheard the owner of the wolves (St. Yuri, the king of wolves) distributing their future prey among the wolves.

To protect livestock from wolves, certain prohibitions are observed on actions and work related primarily to livestock products (sheep wool and yarn, livestock meat, manure), weaving work and sharp objects. They do not perform any work on Saint's Day. George and others, do not lend anything during the first grazing of livestock and removal of manure to the field; they don’t spin at Christmas time; weaving tools are not given outside the village boundaries, fences are not erected between Holy Days. Yuri and St. Nicholas; don't eat meat on Saint's Day Nicholas; They do not allow sexual intercourse on the last night before Maslenitsa. It is also considered dangerous to mention a wolf, so as not to provoke him (“We are talking about the wolf, but he is coming”), and therefore they use other names for the wolf: Russian. - “beast”, “gray”, “kuzma”, “biryuk”, “lykus”, Ukrainian. - “skamennik”, “maliy”, etc.

To prevent the wolf from eating the grazing cattle, iron is placed in the oven on St. Valentine's Day. Nicholas, they stick a knife into the table, into the threshold, or cover the stone with a pot with the words: “My little cow, my outhouse nurse, sit under the pot from the wolf, and you, wolf, gnaw your sides.” When the cattle are first driven out, the locks are locked for the same purpose and the stable threshold is sprinkled with stove heat.

To protect against wolves, conspiracies are used, addressed to the devil, to the saints - the lords of the wolves, so that they calm down “their dogs”. Typical motives of conspiracies: a request to close the wolf's mouth or teeth with a lock, silver, heavenly keys, sending the wolf to the sea for a white flammable stone, fencing it off with a stone wall, threatening to put a hot stone in the wolf's teeth, etc. Reading conspiracies is accompanied by clenching of fists, closing of teeth , sticking an ax into a wall, etc. In order not to meet a wolf, when entering the forest, they read the plot “from an evil beast” or say “Lord have mercy” forty times. When meeting a wolf, they are silent, do not breathe and pretend to be dead, or, on the contrary, they show him the cookie, scare him off with threats, knocking, screaming, and whistling. Sometimes they bow, kneel in front of the wolf, greet or ask: “Hello, well done,” “Wow, mother, remember me.” They cross themselves and say the spells: “The Cross is on me, fork in front of me”, “Atvarni me, Lord, at the stage of the beast”, “Vouk, vok, where are the buu, how did Susa scatter the Christ?”

The eye, heart, teeth, claws, and fur of a wolf often serve as amulets and healing agents. A wolf tooth is given to a teething child to chew on. A wolf's tail is worn to protect against illness. Often the very mention of the wolf’s name serves as a talisman. So, about a newborn calf (foal, piglet) they say: “This is not a calf, but a wolf cub.” Everywhere a wolf crossing the path of a traveler, running past a village, or encountered along the way, portends good luck, happiness and prosperity. A wolf running into a village is a sign of a bad harvest. Many wolves promise war. The howl of a wolf foreshadows hunger, their howl under housing - war or frost, in the fall - rain, and in winter - a blizzard.

Fox

The people call her a gossip and call her Patrikeevna. “Pass like a fox” in his mouth is equivalent to the word “cunning” (“to trick”); there is even a special word - “fox”. The fox is weaker than the wolf, but thanks to its cunning habit, it lives much more well-fed.

She will “lead seven wolves.”

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

Bear

The bear is one of the main characters in folk ideas about animals. The bear is closest to the wolf, with which it shares similar demonological and other beliefs.

The origin of the bear is associated in legends with humans. A man was turned by God into a bear as punishment for killing his parents; for refusing a wanderer or a monk to spend the night, for the ambitious desire that all people should be afraid of him; because, as a miller, he weighed people using a false measure, or because he threw himself at Christ’s feet with his fur coat turned inside out; covering himself with an inverted casing, he scared him from under the bridge; out of greed, he hid from him under sheep's clothing; came out to him with his hands smeared in dough; for kneading bread with his feet, etc.

The children of Adam and Eve, hidden from God in the forest, became bears. The groom-miller offended a guest at the wedding and was sworn to be a bear. Serbian gypsies explain the birth of a bear by his birth from a girl as a result of an immaculate conception. It is believed that if you remove the skin from a bear, it looks like a person: the male is like a man, and the female bear has breasts like a woman. He has human feet and fingers, he washes himself, loves his children, rejoices and grieves like a man, understands human speech and sometimes speaks himself, and also fasts throughout the Nativity Fast, that is, he sucks his paw. Like people, he is partial to honey and vodka. He is a “thinker” and endowed with reason, but, as they say, “there is a lot of thought in a bear, but it doesn’t go away.” Hunters see proof of the human origin of the bear in the fact that a dog barks at a bear and at a person in the same way, not like at other animals. Because of this origin, bears cannot eat humans, and humans cannot eat bear meat.

Like a wolf, a bear can kill a cow only with God’s permission, and it attacks a person only on God’s orders, as punishment for a sin he has committed. He attacks women not to eat them, but to take them to his place and cohabit with them. They believe that from such cohabitation between a man and a bear, people with heroic strength are born. This motif is presented not only in beliefs, but also in fairy tales.

It is believed that the bear is closely acquainted with evil spirits, that he is the devil’s brother or is subject to him as his master. He is sometimes called the goblin or forest devil. Some forest spirits have the appearance of a bear. At the same time, the devil is afraid and runs away from the bear, the bear can overcome and drive out the merman; remove the spell if it is carried through a house that has been damaged. He smells a witch in the house.

He also has the functions of guardian of livestock. For example, a bear helps to discover a horse's head buried in a barn - the cause of damage to livestock. To prevent the “dashing brownie” from getting to the cattle, a bear’s head was hung in the stable, and when the brownie was naughty, the bear was brought into the barn. The brownie himself can also take the form of a bear. Similar to the beliefs about werewolves, there are stories about sorcerers turning wedding participants into bears. There are stories that under the skin of a killed bear, hunters discovered a woman in a sundress, that the killed bear turned out to be a bride or matchmaker. Like the wolf, the bear is associated with underground treasures; the spirits guarding them may appear in the form of bears.

The image of a bear is inherent in marriage symbolism, symbolism of fertility and fecundity, represented, in particular, in wedding rites, love magic, infertility treatment, etc. If a tame bear introduced into a house roars in the middle of the hut, it means that soon there will be singing in this house wedding songs, i.e. there will be a wedding. For the amusement of the audience, the guides force the bear to show how the bride sleeps with the groom. A girl’s dream about a bear promises her a groom. At a wedding, to force the newlyweds to kiss, they say: “The bear is in the corner!” “I love Peter Ivanovich,” the bride should answer and kiss the groom. If a girl is forced to look into the eyes of a bear, then by its roar you can determine whether she is a virgin. If the bride turned out to be not a virgin, they sang that she was torn to pieces by a bear. The mother of the bride comes out to greet the arriving bride and groom wearing a casing with the fur turned outward, depicting a bear. In order for a husband to stop cheating on his wife, she must anoint her vagina with bear lard. It was believed that a woman would be cured of infertility if a tame bear walked over her. The idea of ​​fertility is associated with the custom of dressing up as a bear in wedding, Christmastide and Maslenitsa rituals.

Calendar signs are associated with the bear. On the Exaltation of the Life-Giving Cross (September 27), the bear lies down in its den. In the middle of winter, on Xenia the Half-Winter (February 6) or on Spiridon the Solstice (December 23), he turns in the den on the other side, and gets up on the Annunciation (April 7) or on Vasily’s Day (April 25). According to the ideas of the Serbs, Bulgarians, Hutsuls and Poles, the bear comes out of its den on Candlemas (February 15, among the Poles this is the day of the Mother of God of the Great Mother of God, also called “Bear Mother”) to look at what is “born.” If on this day (or on Evdokia, March 14) he sees his shadow, then he returns to the den and sleeps for another six weeks (until the “warm” Alexei, March 30), since there will still be forty days of cold weather.

A bear attacks a person if the person notices it first. When meeting a bear, so as not to touch him, they pretend to be dead; the woman shows him her breasts. To protect against a bear, they use various amulets, observe certain prohibitions, and try to appease it. Like the wolf, the bear is sometimes invited to Christmas or New Year's dinner so that it does not harm the livestock. They do not drive out livestock for the first time in the spring on the day of the week on which the Annunciation fell this year. On Memorial Saturday before Trinity, they bring products from the first spring milk to the church to the priest so that the bear does not cause any damage.

The southern Slavs know special “bear days”, which are celebrated to protect against bears: on St. Andrew (December 13), Savva (January 27) and Procopius (July 21). These saints protect people from the bear. St. Andrew, according to legend, rode a bear. On these days they boil corn and leave it overnight in the yard for the bear, bake bread and throw it down the chimney for the bear, and also do not work, do not harness cattle, do not go into the forest, do not mention the bear, do not repair old shoes and do not making a new one. They are often afraid to mention the bear out loud (in particular, fishermen, who believe that otherwise a storm will arise and there will be no luck in the catch) and call it differently: “he”, “himself”, “master”, “grandfather”, “miller” , “black beast”, “goblin”, “shaggy devil”, “short-tailed”, “old”, “oatmeal”, “beekeeper”, “chiropper”, “burmilo”, “Sergach gentleman”, etc. The bear is called and personal names: among the Russians - Misha, Mikhaila Ivanovich, Potapych, Toptygin, Matryona, Aksinya, among the Serbs - Martin, among the Poles - Bartosh, etc. Hunters going after a bear take a bat with them, believing that in In this case, the bear will certainly come to the hunter. Meeting a bear on the way is a good omen.

The fur of the bear is used to fumigate the sick: from fear, from fever and from a demonic disease that attacks women in labor, since, according to legend, the bear scares away these diseases. A sick child is dragged through a bear's jaw. Anyone who eats a bear's heart will be healed of all diseases at once. A decoction of bear meat is drunk for chest diseases. They rub lard against frostbite, rheumatism and other diseases, and smear their foreheads to have a good memory.

The bear's right eye is hung around the child's neck for courage. Bear claws and fur are used as an amulet to protect against the evil eye and damage.

Mole

The mole is between animals and reptiles, closer to the weasel and the mouse. The chthonic symbolism of the mole is manifested in the motifs of blindness and rejection of sunlight, in signs foreshadowing death, in the symbolic correlation of a molehill (a pile of dug up earth) with a grave, etc.

A mole is sometimes described as a mouse in the ground (among Ukrainians), and some names also combine it with a mouse (in white - pooh). A number of mole names are associated with a dog: among Ukrainians - “puppy”, among Serbs - “earth dog”, among Bulgarians and Macedonians - “blind dog”. The mole's blindness is also reflected in its Russian names: blind man, blind woman, etc. According to Russian belief, God blinded the mole because he was digging the ground on the Annunciation. According to legends, God promised to give the mole eyes when he digs as many mounds as there are stars in the sky (Russians); God sent the mole into a hole as punishment for the fact that he was the first of all creatures to spoil the plantings of paradise, and determined that his eyes would shrink, so that by the time of the end of the world, moles would be completely without eyes (among Belarusians). The mole avoids sunlight and, according to the Bulgarians, crawls out of its hole only once a week: on Saturday before sunrise.

In the Bulgarian legend, the father cursed his sons for a quarrel over land, which the father allocated equally to each of them. The sons turned into moles, and now each of the moles has 40 molehills, and everything is cramped for them (cf. the Bulgarian belief that each mole digs up 40 molehills). According to a Serbo-Croatian legend, a peasant, wanting to cunningly appropriate someone else's field for himself, buried his son in it and, in the presence of a judge, turned to the earth so that it would tell itself whose it was. “Yours, yours,” the son’s voice was heard from the ground. When the father began to dig out his son, it turned out that he had gone deep into the ground, turning into a mole. The motif of turning into a mole is present in the Macedonian, Bulgarian, and Western Ukrainian versions of this legend. Evidence of the human origin of the mole is seen in the resemblance of the mole's front paws to a human hand.

Like other chthonic animals, mainly reptiles, the mole appears in rain-making rituals. In Belarus they believe that if you hang a live mole on a stake with its head down, it will rain.

The function of a domestic patron, characteristic of chthonic animals, in the mole manifests itself primarily in relation to livestock. A live or killed mole is hanged in the stable so that the horses have better hair (among Belarusians), so that they are strong, fat and breed better (among the Poles). The Poles believe that cows also become fat if moles nest under the barn. In Poland, on the eve of St. Wojciech (April 23) they let a mole into the barn so that the cattle reproduce well throughout the year. Slovenians, driving cows out to pasture on St. George’s Day, throw dirt from molehills after them with the words: “Be as fat as moles!”

Magical methods of expelling and exterminating moles and amulets against them put the mole on a par with mice and other pests of fields and vegetable gardens. Bulgarians stick a spindle and wool into a mole's hole so that it can start spinning and not dig in the garden. To combat moles, the Serbs sow beans in the garden, the Bulgarians frighten them with shooting, the Lusatians and Bulgarians bury a mole in the garden with their fingers up, the Russians place a horse skull on the molehill. On Maundy Thursday, the owner rides a poker around the garden, saying: “Mole, mole, don’t go into my garden, on Maundy Thursday you’ll have a poker in your ass.” They often use consecrated objects (among the Bulgarians, Moravans, Ukrainians), throw the skull of a Christmas pig into the garden, or stick pork bones into molehills (among the Bulgarians, Serbs). As a talisman against the mole, they observe prohibitions: they do not spin from Christmas to Epiphany (for Ukrainians) and on the day of the Conversion of St. Paul (Poles), don’t eat bread in the garden (Bulgars), don’t touch clothes in chests (Ukrainians), don’t put a hat on the table (Czechs, Poles), don’t sleep with your wife on Sunday (Poles).

The mole and the earth dug by it have pacifying, neutralizing properties. A molehill is thrown over a swarm of bees so that it lands on the ground; through a burning house to put out the fire; Before the first pasture of livestock, the animals' horns are sprinkled with molehill soil so that the cattle are not sick; a girl gives a guy a boiled mole heart to eat so that he falls in love with her (among the Poles). The pacifying properties of the mole are used in folk medicine: with the help of the mole, wounds and tumors are healed, abscesses are treated, and stomach pain is relieved.

Cats

In Slavic ideas, the cat has dual symbolism and various demonic functions and is often paired with a dog.

The cat is assessed ambiguously: both as a clean animal and as an unclean one. They say: “The cat’s fur is dirty, but its snout is clean; The dog’s snout is dirty, but its fur is clean”; “You can kiss a dog on the face, not the fur, and vice versa for a cat.” According to Bulgarian beliefs, a cat rejoices at the death of its owner, and a dog cries; the cat adds to the owner's torment in hell by fanning the flames under his cauldron, and the dog carries water and pours on the fire. Beliefs explain the origin of the cat both from the devil and from the mitten of the Mother of God. In the legend of the Flood, a cat saves Noah's Ark by plugging its tail into a hole that had been gnawed by a mouse created by the devil.

Killing a cat is prohibited, otherwise there will be no luck in anything. It is believed that if a person sleeps with a cat, his mind will become clouded. It is dangerous to carry a cat with horses, because it makes the horse dry out. Cats are not allowed into the church. Cats and dogs should not be allowed to eat food consecrated in church. However, the Poles sometimes gave them specially blessed bread and butter at Easter. This custom is explained by the popular idea that people have bread thanks to cats and dogs: according to the widespread legend about the ear of bread, because of their disrespectful attitude towards bread, people now use bread, which God left only for the share of cats and dogs. It is a bad omen if a cat (any cat, not just black) crosses the road or meets you on the way. For a hunter and fisherman, a meeting with a cat promised failure in fishing. In this regard, they tried not to mention the cat during the hunt or called it something else (for example, casserole).

In the guise of a black cat, evil spirits are often represented. At the same time, the cat is believed to be able to see evil spirits invisible to humans. A devil may appear in the form of a cat. In cat form they represent the souls of the dead, especially those who atone for their sins after death or did not die a natural death. Death is shown to young children in the form of a cat. The black cat was also seen as the embodiment of diseases: cholera and “cow death”.

Russians believe that black cats and dogs protect the house from lightning, but they also consider it dangerous to have them in the house during a thunderstorm. This is explained by the belief that during a thunderstorm, God tries to strike the devil with lightning, and the devil hides from God, turning into a cat, dog or other animal. Ukrainians know a story about how a forester, during a thunderstorm, saw a black cat that was not taken by the thunder, and shot it with a blessed tin button. After this, St. appeared to him in a dream. George said that he killed Satan, who had been teasing the saint for seven years.

The cat has the characteristics of a domestic patron. Its presence in the house has a beneficial effect on the household and livestock.

They believe that a stolen cat brings happiness to the house. And there are no cats in an unhappy house. When moving to a new house, owners often let a cat into it first, and only then move in themselves. Entering after her, the owner goes to the corner that the brownie should choose for himself. A cat brought into a new house is placed on the stove next to the chimney, that is, where, according to popular beliefs, the brownie lives. There are often stories about a brownie who turns into a cat.

The cat is used in folk magic and medicine. They believe, for example, that a black cat has a miraculous bone. If obtained, it can make a person invisible or give him the ability to know everything. Anyone who at midnight at a crossroads pricks his finger with such a bone and signs his name in blood will receive into his service a devil-brownie, who will bring stolen money, grain, milk from other people’s cows, etc. into the house. In some Russian provinces, to prevent When the death of livestock began, it was considered necessary to bury the dead cattle in the barn along with the living cat. To protect themselves from cholera, they made a furrow around the village with a small plow, into which they harnessed a cat, a dog and a rooster, all of them black. A cow's swollen udder was treated by scratching it with the claws of a domestic cat. A child with consumption was bathed in a font with a black cat so that the disease would pass on to the cat. For a runny nose, you should sniff the smoke of a scorched cat's tail. White cat fur was used as a remedy for burns.

According to popular belief, a cat can have a beneficial effect on sleep. Therefore, the image of a cat, like a hare, is often found in lullabies. Before placing the baby in the cradle for the first time, a cat is placed there so that the baby sleeps soundly. The idea of ​​the kinship of a cat and a hare is noted among the Serbs, who believe that the hare descended from a cat.

In folk culture, a cat is a symbolic analogue of a bear, and a dog is a symbolic analogue of a wolf. In East Slavic fairy tales, in Russian and Lusatian tales, an evil spirit, frightened by a bear (devil, kikimora, water bear, etc.), calls it “cat”. Russian peasants know how to use a cat to summon a forest spirit - a “boletus”, which has a bearish appearance.

Goat

The goat is considered an animal of a demonic nature; acts as a hypostasis of evil spirits and at the same time as a talisman against it.

In calendar rituals associated with agricultural magic, there is a mummered goat or a goat mask. Yuletide and Maslenitsa rounds with a mummered goat are most common among Ukrainians and Belarusians, and to a lesser extent among Russians. Attributes of a mummered goat: a casing turned outward with its hair, a wooden head with horns and a beard made of straw or wicker and a moving lower jaw.

The core of the East Slavic Christmas and New Year ritual of “driving a goat” is a song with the refrain “Oh-ho-ho, goat,” where a picture of the future harvest is painted in exaggerated images (“where a goat walks, it will give birth,” “where a goat horns - there is life in a haystack”, “where there is a goat’s tail, there is life in a bush”, etc.). The song was accompanied by a pantomime dance, the central point of which was the “dying” and “resurrection” of the goat, symbolizing the cycle of time and the rebirth of nature. In Poland, a wooden horned goat figure took part in the procession of mummers on the last Tuesday of the carnival. In Ukraine, the goat mask also appeared in wedding and funeral rites (in “games for the dead”).

Its erotic symbolism is associated with the fertility of the goat: in Belarusian and Polish songs there are motifs of the loving courtship of the Wolf with the Goat and the marriage of the Goat with the Wolf in songs, and the Goat eaten by the Wolf symbolizes the bride given to the groom.

The goat, as a sacrificial animal, appears in a peculiar action that took place in different regions of the Czech Republic on St. Yakub (July 25), when a goat with gilded horns, decorated with ribbons and flowers, was thrown from a bell tower or other elevated place. His blood was collected and stored as a remedy for fright. Thracian Bulgarians slaughtered a goat at a wedding, after the wedding night. The prohibitions against using a goat as a sacrifice (Bulgarians do not slaughter a goat for a funeral meal; Macedonians do not use a goat as a sacrificial animal) are motivated by the fact that the goat is an unclean, demonic animal.

In etiological legends, the goat is the creation of the devil (Ukrainian - “devil’s seed”, Polish - “devil’s creature”, Czech - “devil’s breed”) and therefore looks like him. Ukrainians believe that the domestic goat was created by the devil and if you sprinkle it with blessed water, it will immediately die. The goat has a short tail, because the devil, driving the goats to pasture, tore off their tails (Polish, Ukrainian - Carpathian). According to Polish belief, a goat has all its strength in its tail; To prevent goats from eating trees, you need to stick a needle in their tail. In Transcarpathia they say that goats always try to climb trees because they have “damn” legs; goats once had claws on their feet and climbed trees; the devil bet God his goats, and God deprived them of their claws; The goats have yellow wool on their knees, because the devil, driving them out of the Lord’s courtyard, hit them on the legs, causing blood to flow and coloring the wool. In legends, the goat as an unclean animal is contrasted with the cow and sheep - pure and “God’s” creatures.

According to common Slavic belief, the devil appears in the form of a goat. Goat legs (horns, ears, beard) are present in the appearance of the devil, goblin, brownie, and merman. The Poles believe that you can see the reflection of a goat in a witch's eyes. In the Kostroma region there is a belief that in the “other world” strangled people turn into goats. In the Kyiv province they believed that on the eve of Easter, a treasure might appear in the form of a goat. A witch cannot take milk from a goat, as a devilish creature. The devil rides on a goat.

A goat (the animal itself, parts of its body, meat, milk) is used as a talisman. According to Macedonian belief, a goat cannot be jinxed. Russians and Ukrainians kept a goat in a barn, which the brownie (or devil) supposedly loved and therefore did not harm the horses. Shepherds kept a goat in a sheep pasture, believing that the goat prevented sorcerers from approaching the flock (Polish Beskids). In the Kostroma province, a goat's head was nailed in the yard to prevent the death of livestock. In Poland, if a cow was jinxed, you had to mix cow's milk with goat's milk - this would ward off the evil eye; a fire caused by lightning was poured out with goat's milk; when driving out a demon from a possessed person, they put a piece of goat meat in his mouth.

Lizard

In ancient Slavic beliefs, it belongs to the category of reptiles. Lizards are sometimes differentiated by gender: the green lizard is considered female, and the gray lizard is considered male. According to some beliefs, a lizard is born from the eggs of a devil and can cast the evil eye and bewitch a person. There is a lizard that does not burn in fire - the salamander. The lizard is closest to the snake. Like a snake, a lizard is called a reptile and is considered poisonous. It is believed that its bite is so poisonous that it can be fatal.

A lizard can gnaw through a person's skin and get to the very heart.

As in the case of a snake bite, a person bitten by a lizard must run to water as quickly as possible and drink to save his life. If he does it faster than the lizard, then it will die, otherwise the person will die. The Southern Slavs have a belief that a person will not be cured of a lizard bite until he hears the roar of a donkey, until he counts a whole measure of millet grain by grain, until he finds nine white mares and nine sisters or drinks milk from nine sisters.

There are stories about how a peasant killed lizard cubs in a field. The lizard took revenge on him by introducing poison into his food or drink, which is why he died. Then she knocked over the jug of water so that no one else would be poisoned. Similar stories also exist about the weasel. At the same time, the lizard saves a person from a snake bite: if there is a snake near a sleeping person, the lizard gets into his bosom and tickles him until he wakes up.

The lizard is beaten so that it drops its viper tail, since, according to legend, the lizard takes its tail from the viper. Or its severed tail turns into a snake or viper. According to another belief, the lizard itself will turn into a snake if its tail is not torn off. In addition, like the mythical hydra, pieces of a lizard cut into pieces grow back together - either on their own or under the influence of toad urine. A similar idea is associated with a snake. If you beat a lizard with a whip or cut it into pieces with it, and then whip the cattle with it, the cattle will lose weight and dry out.

The lizard is used for magical purposes, often to cause damage. So, if you mix pieces of lizard into food, then small lizards will hatch from them, which will strangle a person when they come out in balls through the throat. The witches dry the lizards, grind them into powder, mix it into someone's vodka, and the person dies. Girls give a decoction of dried and crushed lizards to drink to the guy they want to bewitch. But if the broth sits for at least a day, it will turn into poison, from which a person goes crazy and then dies.

The prohibition against killing lizards is associated with ideas about the soul. Like many other animals, the souls of the dead are seen in lizards, so when they see a lizard, they wish the soul eternal rest. Killing lizards is considered a sin. They believe that if you kill a male lizard, the father of the one who killed will die, and if it is a female, the mother will die, or that as punishment in the next world you will have a lizard in your mouth. They say that the sun cries when it sees a dead lizard. Therefore, the killed lizard should be buried in the ground. The ritual killing of a lizard, as well as other animals associated with the earth (snake, toad, mole cricket, weasel, etc.), is performed in some places during drought in order to bring about rain. There is a belief that if you use a stick to disperse two fighting lizards, then with such a stick you can subsequently disperse the clouds.

To expel bedbugs and cockroaches from the hut, a live lizard is placed in a bag and suspended from the mat. Lizards do not live near human habitation. They believe that a lizard will die if it looks into the window of a house. A lizard lying belly up near a house portends a fire in it. Having seen the first lizard in the spring, you need to spread out a belt and drive the lizard through it, and then gird yourself with it - then your lower back will not hurt. Among the Macedonians, girls catch the first lizard and pass it through their sleeve three times to prevent their hands from sweating.

To get rid of headaches, put the lizard in the bosom or in a hat, which is then put on the head together with the lizard. A patient with fever is fumigated with the skin of lizards or a dead lizard is hung on his neck, which the patient then picks and throws away, and when the lizard dries, then the disease will pass. Sick and rickety children are given water with ash from a burnt lizard to drink. Live lizards and snakes are fried in a pot over low heat and the resulting fat is used to lubricate hives to attract foreign or wild bees.

Snake

The snake in the popular imagination is a living personification of everything unclean, arousing disgust mixed with horror, everything evil, crafty, harmful.

“The snake dies, but all the potion is gone!” - our people speak about evil people, greedy for unjust gain; “No matter how much you hold a snake, you can expect trouble from it!” - about the evil ones; “I fed the snake in my neck!”, “I warmed the snake in my bosom!” - about black ingratitude.

An observant Russian eloquent sees a flatterer-pretender next to him - and he has a lively speech about him: “A flatterer under words is a snake under flowers!”; “It looks like there’s a snake out of my bosom!” - they said in Rus' about a person looking from under his brows, an overly suspicious person.

For the deep heart of the people, open to each other, there is nothing worse than dashing slander in this world: “Slander is a snake that will bite from under the bush!”, “Slander has a snake’s sting!” etc. But, according to the popular saying, slanderous slander is more painful than the sting of a snake: “If you envy a snake, you will go around, if you hear slander, you will not get away!” Similar to this expression of wisdom are such apt sayings: “It is better to live with a snake than with an evil wife!”, “A crafty matchmaker is a seven-headed snake!”, “An unkind matchmaker is the snake’s brother!”

In ancient times, the legend says, there were a lot of creeping things all over the area, swarming with viper snakes: there was no way to pass or drive along the roads because of their snake-like daring. It was a long time ago - even the grandfathers of our great-grandfathers will not remember. The serpentine race was fierce, instilling fears in both Rus' and Non-Russia - white-eyed Chud; God sent a good man who knew: he cursed them with one word forever and ever.

“Snake Medyanitsa! - says one such conspiracy. - Why do you, the oldest and biggest of all snakes, make such flaws, bite good people? Gather your aunts and uncles, sisters and brothers, all relatives and strangers, take your sting out of the sinful body of the servant of God (name). And if you do not take out your sting, then I will send a menacing cloud on you, beat you with a stone, and burn you with lightning. You won’t be able to hide anywhere from a menacing cloud: neither underground, nor under a boundary, nor in a field, nor under a log, nor in the grass, nor in damp forests, nor in dark forests, nor in ravines, nor in pits, nor in oaks, not in burrows. I will take off twelve skins with different skins from you, burn you, and scatter you across an open field. My word is strong and molded, it will not pass forever or ever!..”

Superstitious people attributed the power of enchantment to snakes in various cases of life, but most of all they believed in a love spell with the help of these enchantments.

So, on the advice of the healers, they went into the forest and looked for the viper there. Having found it, they had to press the snake to the ground with a previously charmed stick-flier and thread a needle and thread through the snake’s eyes.

At the same time, it was necessary to pronounce the words: “Snake, snake! How you feel sorry for your eyes, so that (name) would love me and feel sorry for me.” Upon returning home, I had to quickly thread the dress of the red girl I liked with this needle, but secretly from everyone, and especially from her. If you manage to do all this, love will be enchanted forever.

Other healers gave advice: kill the snake, melt the lard out of it, make a candle from the lard and light it whenever you notice a cold feeling in your loved one. “The snake candle will burn, and love will go out - look for another!” - the sorcerers said.

In South Slavic mythology, serpents and serpents are harmful spirits that take on flesh only for those people with whom they fall in love. They live in remote caves and gorges, beware of water. Their chambers sparkle with gold and silver and priceless stones. Like people, they eat, drink, marry, fight with each other and die.

Snakes are the lords of the winds, who, being locked in caves, break free only at the will of their masters. If a hurricane wind blows, expect the arrival of the Serpent or Snake, serpentine monsters with four legs and wings like a bat.

By old age, some Snakes become so huge and strong that the earth itself can no longer support them. Such alys (halas) fly to heaven, wandering between the stars. If you see a falling star or comet, you know it’s an ala.

Both the Snake and the Snake are not averse to falling in love with a person, and they choose the most beautiful girls and boys in the area. Young beauties especially suffer: if the Snake takes a fancy to her, she will forget about everything in the world, begin to shun people, and bury herself alive. The snake forbids its victim to wash his face, comb his hair, change his clothes, or go to gatherings. He visits his mistress at night. He is invisible to everyone in the household, but to her he seems like a handsome young man, so handsome that you can’t take your eyes off him. It happened many times that this young man dragged his victim far into the mountains, where in luxurious chambers he lived with her in an adulterous relationship until a very old age, and only then did she return to her native village, already an old woman. According to the stories of such unfortunate people, Snakes are also born from a love affair with a Snake.

According to the beliefs of the Bulgarians, the hedgehog gave advice to God on how to cover the earth with heaven. In South Slavic legends, a wise hedgehog saved the world from being incinerated by the sun.

Standing on the road, he stopped the donkey, on which the Sun was riding to look for a bride. The sun did not marry and did not give birth to many other suns (among the Macedonians). The Sun went to look for the Hedgehog, who did not show up for his wedding with the Moon, and found him gnawing on a stone. The hedgehog explained that from his marriage many suns would be born, everything would burn and he would have to eat stones. Hearing this, the Sun changed his mind about getting married, and the Moon hid from the Sun out of shame (among the Bulgarians). According to Bulgarian beliefs, the hedgehog is the wisest animal, as it lives the longest in the world. He knows everything that happened before and that people have long forgotten about. He also knows a special rejuvenating herb and never ages.

According to South Slavic and Polesie ideas, the omniscient hedgehog knows how to get “break-grass”, which can open any locks and constipations without a key. To do this, you need to block the nest with the baby hedgehogs with stones. The hedgehog will bring magic grass and destroy the barrier. Then you can pick up the grass and use it for theft. Macedonians believe that the hedgehog keeps this herb under its tongue. The belief about “tear-grass” is also associated with other animals: turtle, snake, yellowtail, hoopoe, etc.

In a Bosnian legend, the origin of the hedgehog is associated with the devil: the devil threw his combed hair under a wood chopping block - the hair immediately turned into a hedgehog.

In Slavic dialects, the names of hedgehog and badger are sometimes similar. According to Ukrainian and Polish beliefs, there are two types of hedgehogs: one with a pig's face, the other with a dog's. The former can be eaten, while the latter are inedible. The same belief is known about the badger. It is sometimes believed that both a hedgehog and a badger can have a pig's and a dog's muzzle.

Ukrainians sometimes distinguish between two types of hedgehogs: “dog” and “pig”. The Polish belief that a hedgehog can turn into a pig is also associated with ideas about different types of hedgehogs. The connection between a hedgehog and a badger with a pig is also reflected in the vocabulary (cf. Russian “to piglet” - to give birth to cubs (about a hedgehog and a badger), “badger” - a hog, a male pig).

Thanks to its spines, the hedgehog has a disgusting power and is used as a talisman. So, among the Poles, to protect themselves from goddesses, they place a hedgehog skin on their chest; Among the Serbs, a person whose children are dying must smear a stick with the blood of a killed hedgehog, attach the hedgehog skin to it and place it at the entrance to the house. A stick with a hedgehog skin attached to the end, which is carried by “kurents” in Slovenia - costumed participants in the Maslenitsa procession, also has the function of a talisman. Serbs carry a hedgehog's heart with them as a talisman against illness, and Macedonians sew a hedgehog's face to a hat or clothing to protect against the evil eye. Among Russians, a special “hedgehog” roll studded with painted and gilded twigs serves as a talisman for newlyweds during their first wedding night; In Poland, bread in the shape of a hedgehog is baked by the bride on the eve of her wedding.

The hedgehog and its attributes are also used for medicinal purposes. Hedgehog lard is used to smear cattle against fly bites, to lubricate bruised areas on the necks of bulls, to rub a patient with fever or rheumatism, and to lubricate abscesses; Hedgehog urine is mixed into drunkards' food, drink, or vodka to stop them from drinking.

Hare

C is associated with erotic symbolism and endowed with demonic properties. The male symbolism of the hare for love and marriage is manifested in wedding rituals and songs. At a wedding, Belarusians depict a galloping hare, and Ukrainians dance the “hare” dance with straw stalks in their teeth like a hare’s mustache. How the groom is addressed to a hare in Russian wedding hymns. In Russian round dances, the hare is the groom choosing his bride. The motif of a hare marrying a marten or an owl is found in Belarusian and Ukrainian comic songs and fairy tales; The image of a hare appears in Belarusian and Polish songs with love and marriage themes.

The erotic and phallic symbolism of the hare is presented in Serbian jokes. In Russian song folklore there is a motif of a hare copulating with a girl. The Eastern Slavs have fairy tales about a hare who dishonored a fox or she-wolf. Wed. also a riddle about snow on winter bread: “Little little little little bastard!” Lie on me; Even though it’s difficult for you, it’s good for me.” In Ukraine, after their wedding night, they come to the newlyweds with a stuffed hare and “milk” it like a cow, which is accompanied by erotic jokes. The symbolism of coitus is conveyed by folklore motifs of a hare breaking cabbage (among the Eastern Slavs), a hare biting and hare hunting (among the Poles), the comic Moravian expression “to drive hares out of a hole,” etc.

The hare personifies the fruitful principle: children are told that the hare brings them (among Ukrainians, Kashubians); The blood of a hare is used for infertility, and the fat of a hare is used to lubricate the female organs of a woman in labor during difficult childbirth (Serbs), and chickens are fed with hare droppings so that they lay eggs better (Belarusians, Bulgarians). In a Belarusian fairy tale, a gentleman, in order to sow a field, buys a “sevchik” from a peasant, which turns out to be a hare. In Belarus and Macedonia, a dream about a caught hare foreshadows pregnancy and the birth of a son.

The phallic symbolism of the hare is represented in the plot about the hare shepherd, in the Ukrainian name of the pestle for squeezing vegetable oil “hare”.

Among the southern Slavs, the same symbolism is realized in the method of treating syphilis with hare droppings (in Bosnia and Herzegovina).

The hare is associated with evil spirits. According to Russian beliefs, a goblin can overtake or drive away hares and lose them at cards to a neighboring goblin. The East Slavic ban on mentioning a hare on the water during fishing is explained by the fact that the hare is subordinate to the goblin and is not subject to the water one. Ukrainians believe that the hare was created by the devil and serves him. In a Bulgarian fairy tale, the devil rides on a hare. The devil takes the form of a hare: he runs across the road, lures him into a thicket (in the tales of the Eastern Slavs), pursues the hunter, offers to kiss his ass, bullets do not take him (among the Western Slavs), etc. Among the Serbs, the hunter is used as a talisman against the werewolf hare must have a black dog without a single light spot. With a hare's tail, the Poles imagine a devil, the Russians - a witch. In Ukraine and Belarus they believe that witches and sorcerers appear in the guise of a hare. The brownie turns into a hare (among Belarusians) and the spirit that brings money to the owner (among Croats). Meeting a hare is considered an unlucky omen everywhere.

The connection with fire is due to the agility of the hare (cf. in the riddle: “He runs like fire”). Russians use the words “zaenka”, “zay”, “zayko” to describe fire when talking to children. The appearance of a hare near a home is a harbinger of a fire.

Some signs of the hare are used in folk meteorology. The signs “white” and “fluffy” are updated in Russian. “hares” - snow flakes, frost, hoarfrost in the hut; “hare” is a cloud of white steam coming out of a warm room in winter. Rus. “zainka”, “bunny”, “bunny”, “hares” mean white foam on the crest of the waves. The Southern Slavs have similar names for waves raised by the wind.

The hare is mentioned in connection with the moon in East Slavic children's play songs, spells and counting rhymes. Usually these images are related to each other metaphorically: “Little hare, where are you?” - In the fox" (among Ukrainians); “The moon hare / Plucked the grass, / Placed it under the bench” (among the Russians), etc. The connection between the images of the hare and the month is confirmed by some South Slavic parallels. Common to the hare and the month (especially the young one) is their masculine and marital-erotic symbolism. Wed. an example of a combination of both symbols on a Polesie wedding loaf: its top is decorated with figures of a hare, a moon and dough cones.

According to popular belief, the hare sleeps with its eyes open. The expressions “sleep like a hare” and “rabbit sleep” are used by all Slavs to denote sensitive sleep. Therefore, a pregnant woman should not eat or see a hare, so that the unborn child does not sleep with her eyes open. The hare can cause both sleep and insomnia. Serbs use the skin of a hare against drowsiness; Ukrainians, if they have insomnia, avoid eating hare meat and do not mention the hare at all, so as not to lose sleep and to avoid drowsiness. The image of a hare in lullabies is also associated with the influence of a hare on sleep.

Mouse

Folk tradition classifies mice and rats as reptiles: a mouse is called a “reptile,” “reptile,” “trash,” etc.

They say that God gives bread for every creature, only for something as unclean as a mouse. According to legend, during the Great Flood, a mouse gnawed a hole in the ark, which the cat plugged with its tail. If a mouse ended up in a dug grave, this means that the deceased was a sorcerer and an evil spirit in the form of a mouse came out to meet the deceased sorcerer to take his soul. The souls of the dead are represented in the form of mice. According to legend, if you leave uneaten bread overnight, the souls of the dead will come at night in the form of mice to eat it. If a cat catches such a mouse, it threatens incalculable disasters for all households for the death of an ancestor. Serbs believe that if you play a musical instrument at night, you will attract mice into the house. In a fairy tale from Polish Pomerania, the hero receives from a mouse a magic pipe that fulfills all his wishes.

There are various signs associated with the mouse. If mice leave the house, there will be a fire. A mouse caught in your bosom is a harbinger of great trouble. Anyone whose clothes or shoes are chewed by mice will soon die. If a mouse gnaws through the top crust of a loaf, the price of bread will be high, if the bottom crust, the bread will be cheap. Mice overpower - to hunger. Mouse nests in the field close to the ears of corn foreshadow a damp autumn. It is believed that there are more mice in a wet year, and hares in a dry year. If the goods purchased by the merchant are damaged by mice, then it will be possible to sell it faster and more profitably. Women should not pick up a mouse or kill it, otherwise the bread will not come out. A pregnant woman should not be refused what she asks, otherwise the one who refuses will have his clothes chewed off by mice. The bride should go to the wedding on an empty stomach so that mice do not gnaw anything in her house.

Various methods of expelling and exterminating mice and amulets against them are known. To get rid of mice, they walked around the house with blessed Easter food and scattered Easter egg shells in the corners of the house. To prevent mice from causing damage in the household, it was forbidden to remove clothes from chests at Christmas. Throughout the Yuletide period, mice were called nothing more than “pannochki”, and in some places they were never mentioned at all during meals.

To prevent mice from eating the grain, sheaves from the field began to be brought to the barn on the day of the week on which the Feast of the Annunciation fell that year. They believed that the sheaves should be transported late in the evening or at night, when everyone is sleeping, and so as not to meet a woman along the way. Along the way, stones were thrown through the spokes of the cart wheels. The sheaves from the first cart were placed in the barn by a man who had stripped naked. For the mice, the first sheaf unloaded from the cart was tipped on its side or grains were left for them at the bottom of the cart. To remove the mice, they placed a stick in the barn, with the help of which they had previously managed to separate the grass snake and the viper. In some places, alder branches were laid under the sheaves, and elderberry branches were placed at the bottom of the bottoms. Among the southern Slavs, special “mouse days” are dedicated to amulets against mice.

Judging by beliefs and folk signs, there is a certain connection between mice and human teeth. It is believed, for example, that if mice eat the leftovers of dinner, the owner’s teeth will hurt. For toothache they eat bread or cheese eaten by mice. The first baby tooth that fell out of a child was thrown behind the stove with the words: “Mouse, mouse, you have a turnip tooth, but give me a bone one,” “Mouse, mouse, play with it and give it back.” Common methods of treating a hernia using a mouse are: they let the mouse “attack the hernia” so that it bites, or they pierce the mouse, thread a thread or lace through it and gird it around the patient.

Weasel

Weasel in ancient Slavic mythology is associated with erotic symbolism and chthonic principles. In Slavic dialects there are common names for weasel, marten, ermine, squirrel, badger. Weasel, marten, fox and squirrel are presented as the same character in various versions of the fairy-tale plot about the animated skin of an animal. All these animals share a number of common mythological characteristics. Chthonic nature is found to one degree or another in most of these animals. For example, the ermine in folklore texts: “He walked like water and a pike fish, / He flew through the sky and a clear falcon, / He walked through the underground like a white ermine.” Treasures “emerge” from the ground in the form of white hares, ermines, cats, etc. A weasel can indicate the location of a treasure if you address it kindly. In Belarusian and Ukrainian songs, the archaic motif of the World Tree is known: ermine, beavers or sables live at the roots of the tree of paradise; in Russian songs this corresponds to a tree (cypress) standing on a mountain, which “has become overgrown with coons and blossomed with sables.”

Popular beliefs reveal a deep relationship between weasels and reptiles, which is manifested, in particular, in the common names for weasels and snakes, worms, and mice. Like a snake, the weasel is considered poisonous. In different versions of the bylichki, a weasel, a lizard, or a snake plays the same role: they poison the drink of the people who carried away their young, but when they find them in the same place, they overturn the vessel with the drink. Well, a frog (and a witch), a weasel is capable of taking milk from cows, and running under the cow, spoiling it, causing blood to appear in it. Weasels and related animals show a kinship with birds, which is determined by the deep mythological kinship of chthonic animals and birds. Thus, a weasel can be called a “swallow,” identified with it, or presented as an animal with wings. The names weasel and swallow are related in origin. Both of them are characterized by female symbolism, and both of them patronize livestock, but can cause the appearance of milk with blood, etc. Similar song lyrics are known about an ermine or a beaver flying and dropping its feathers.

The weasel also has brownie functions (less commonly found in cats, squirrels, frogs, and worms). Among the Southern Slavs, it is believed that killing a weasel (like a house snake) will entail the death of one of the household or favorite livestock. According to Slovak belief, the soul of the mistress of the house is embodied in the affection, just as the soul of the owner of the house appears in the form of a snake. There is a widespread idea of ​​the weasel as a guardian of the home (and livestock). In some places she is called a “house spirit”; they believe that she lives in every house, in the ground under the house, in the underground, under the threshold of the stable, in the barn (that is, in the habitat of house spirits). Like the brownie, you can see the weasel by entering the barn with a candle on Holy Thursday, and by the color of its fur you can determine what color the animal should be kept. The presence of weasels in the barn promotes the reproduction of livestock of the same color as the weasel. Each cow has its own patron weasel of the same color. It is believed that after a weasel is killed, a cow of the same color will also die. The similarities between weasels and brownies are also manifested in the fact that they torment cattle at night, run over horses (so that in the morning the horses find themselves covered in foam), and braid their manes. At night, a brownie can also braid the hair of women and the beards of old men, and the weasel can gnaw women's hair and men's mustaches at night.

Among the southern Slavs, the image of weasel is associated with spinning and weaving: in legends, a daughter-in-law, cursed by her mother-in-law for being too lazy to spin or, conversely, did not want to do anything other than spinning, is turned into a weasel; as a talisman against weasels, they take it out into the yard and place a spinning wheel with a spindle near its hole. In a Belarusian children's song, a weasel says that she was engaged in weaving with God. Among the Hutsuls, St. Day is dedicated to her. Catherine (December 7), patroness of spinners and marriages. Among Russians, the role of spinner and weaver is especially clearly represented in the “ermine” - a character in tales about Ivanovo weavers. An ermine sews a silver stitch in the snow with its paws. The weaver boy helps her unravel the silver snow yarn, tangled in the blizzard, for which he receives from her magic yarn, thanks to which the loom works by itself. Peeling off the silver fluff, she spins a fraying thread from it and, running back and forth like a shuttle, spins silver yarn. The skeins and shocks of yarn that an ermine winds from her silver hair in the forest during a snowstorm later turn out to be drifts of snow. In various traditions, marten, otter, squirrel, etc. are also associated with weaving motifs. Thus, wedding songs are known about a marten jumping on a weaving mill or playing with sables on a woven fabric. In riddles, the shuttle is thought of as a flying badger with a gut trailing behind it, or like an otter jumping in the water with a lake curling up behind it.

This group of animals clearly shows love, marriage and erotic symbolism. Some of them act as female characters, others as male characters. Among the Southern Slavs, affectionate names are common, associated with the names of the bride or young woman. To appease the weasel, she is addressed as a girl with the promise of marriage. Western Ukrainians also sometimes call the bride “lasitsa” in wedding songs.

Among the southern Slavs, weasel is used in love magic: to make a husband love his wife, she cuts the caught weasel in half and forces the husband to walk between parts of her carcass. The love-erotic symbolism of the ermine and the marten is clearly visible in various versions of the fairy-tale plot “Night Visions”: “the harnastay will run over the sleeping husband and wife, and the caresser between them”, “the garnastay will run and shoot Iago and the little woman”; Kunka “jumps from husband to wife, from wife to husband.” The dialect names of female genitalia are also indicative in this regard: “kuna”, “marten”, “soboletka”, “ermine”, “lasitsa”. In folklore texts, the otter is also identified with them. A squirrel seen in a dream foreshadows a man’s acquaintance with a coquette or marriage; the pursuit of a squirrel means ruin due to a woman’s infatuation with dubious behavior, and to see squirrels in a dream gnawing nuts on trees means “to fall into a lady’s society, perfectly colored with the camellia characteristic.”

The common element connecting two autonomous sets of ideas - female nuptial-erotic symbolism and the role of the patron of the house and livestock - is the function of weaving, which, as a female occupation (spinning and weaving), unites the weasel - the bride with a number of female spinning creatures, including household spirits and a mermaid, and like the weaving of horse manes, it makes the house weasel related both to the image of a brownie and to female spirits (mermaids, etc.). In its latter function, the image of the Polesie weasel-domovik can be considered as a link between Western and South Slavic female demonological characters (zmora, goddesses and pitchforks) and the East Slavic male image of the domoviy. In addition, in both sets of ideas there are love and marriage motifs, which, on the one hand, are characteristic of the South Slavic image of the Weasel-Bride and similar images of other fur-bearing animals (especially martens) in East Slavic folklore, and on the other hand, they also characterize the attitude of weasel to livestock ( “love” for cattle of the same color) in the East Slavic tradition. Erotic symbolism is also manifested in some weaving representations associated with fur-bearing animals.

Insects

Insects are chthonic creatures, perceived as evil spirits (except for the bee and ladybug) and therefore subject to ritual banishment. Insects are characterized by a symbolic relationship with livestock. In the symbolism of ants, fleas, lice, bedbugs, flies, and bees, the sign of plurality plays a significant role.

Insects are related to reptiles by their diabolical nature (the devil created flies, wasps, hornets, bumblebees), poisonousness (butterflies, spiders, mole crickets, etc.), and use in rain-making rituals (lice, fleas, spiders, mole crickets, ants). According to Ukrainian belief, midges, mosquitoes, and flies came from the ashes; According to South Slavic legends, fleas, flies and mosquitoes came from sparks from a snake hitting coals with its tail, fleas - from a handful of earth, from the ashes or ashes of a snake, lice - from dust, ashes, from the blood of a snake.

All Slavs have a common idea of ​​insects as an image of the soul: in the form of a fly, butterfly, ant, bug, the soul leaves the human body during sleep; especially the witch, in the form of a fly or butterfly she flies out of the dying person and visits her home after death; fireflies are perceived as the souls of people, and flies hibernating in the house are identified with the souls of living family members.

The Eastern Slavs have a variety of ritual and magical methods of exterminating insects. Often a caught cockroach was buried, believing that the rest would follow it. They put him in a bast shoe or put him in a “coffin” made of turnips or walnut shells and carried him on a string to the cemetery, where they buried him and put a cross there. Sometimes they tied a cockroach by the leg with a thread and dragged it to the cemetery when the deceased was taken there. Along the way they shouted: “Take, my dear, all your brothers and sisters and clean out my house for me.” The cockroach was thrown into the grave when the deceased was lowered into it. The bedbugs were escorted to the “other world” by placing them in the coffin of the deceased and saying: “Where the coffin goes, there is a bedbug.” They acted out the funeral of a flea and a fly planted in a cucumber: they dressed up as priests, burned resin, chanted, knocked on their braids, imitating the ringing of bells, and the whole village saw off the “dead” to the cemetery. While burying the flea, they wailed: “Jumping flea, bend your legs, stop jumping, it’s time to go to bed to die.”

In some places, the whole family dragged a cockroach out of the house on a thread over the shoulder and chased it with a twig: “It won’t go, it will go... Let’s go!” They pulled the thread across the road while singing a wedding song about how they were taking the bride with a rich dowry to a new home. On St. Timothy of Prussia (June 10) was dragged out into the yard in bast shoes by a couple of Prussians and whipped the bast shoes with the threat: “Get out, Prussians, or the men will beat you!” They carried two cockroaches to the river on a yoke, saying: “Let's go, let's go, living dead,” and then threw them into the water. Sometimes cockroaches were thrown after the herd being driven out, believing that all the cockroaches would follow the herd into the field.

Insects were also disposed of by handing them over or tossing them to someone. They quietly brought cockroaches to the neighbors, in the hallway they read a conspiracy: “Forty cockroaches, the forty-first cockroach - the whole flock of them, go to such and such a neighbor, and in our hut, no matter what you hear, no one sees, there was no spirit. Amen, amen, amen." Bedbugs were thrown into the priest’s back with the words: “Wherever there is a priest, there is a bedbug,” they secretly put it in his hat or under the saddle of a horse, saying: “Priests, priests, take our bedbugs.”

During the Nativity fast, one woman ran around the house riding a poker and knocking on the door, and another came out to her riding a broom. The first one asked: “What are you up to?” - “Bread and salt.” - “What are the bugs up to?” - “The bug ate the bug.” On New Year's Day, they opened the door wide and drove the cockroaches out of the hut with an old broom: they asked them to go caroling to the neighbors. Crickets were sent “to the wedding month”, riding around the hut on a stick with their hair flowing. The flies were driven out at the end of the harvest, sent to heaven for snow: “Black flies from the hut, white flies to the hut.”

Cockroaches were gotten rid of only in a “bloodless” way. Beating and crushing them, especially black ones, was considered a sin, since black cockroaches in the house portend wealth and happiness. They were even brought with them when moving to a new home and fed on major holidays, because they believed that thanks to black cockroaches, livestock would be better managed. When cockroaches left the house on their own, it was considered a harbinger of a fire or the death of someone in the household. The role of home patron was also attributed to other insects. In Polesie they believe that the spider brings wealth and prosperity to the house; they call it the “master”. The Poles were forbidden to kill spiders in the barn, otherwise the cattle would dry out. According to the beliefs of the Czechs, Poles, and Ukrainians, the presence of a chirping cricket in the house promises happiness and money. The appearance of ants in the house was also considered a good omen.

Butterfly

The embodiment of the soul. In different regions of Russia, when they see a butterfly or moth, they say: “Someone’s darling is flying.” Sometimes they are called souls or darlings. According to Poles, the soul of a dying person leaves the body in the form of a butterfly. Rhodope Bulgarians believe that the soul of the deceased, in the form of a butterfly or fly, visits his home on the fortieth day after death. The idea of ​​a butterfly as the soul of the deceased gives rise to the belief that it is a harbinger of death, and sometimes an image of death. Belarusians tell how one day an old woman was sitting by the open window in the evening and a moth that flew into the window landed on her sleeve. “You are a mortal of May,” the woman said affectionately. She died that same night.

According to the belief of Bulgarians, Serbs and Croats, the soul of a witch leaves her body in the form of a butterfly during sleep. Such a butterfly can strangle sleeping people at night and suck their blood, like a vampire.

In a number of cases, the belief about the soul of a witch in the form of a butterfly is transformed into a belief about the witch herself taking the form of a butterfly, or into a belief about the butterfly as a servant or assistant of the witch, carrying out her will. Among the southern Slavs, the moth is often called a “witch.” Serbs sometimes deliberately torture and mutilate a moth, in whom they see a converted witch, in order to identify someone as a witch in the morning by burns and wounds on the body. A moth that flies into a house is set on fire and released with the words: “Come tomorrow, I’ll give you salt.” And if the next day someone comes to ask for salt, then he is identified with that evil soul who flew into the house in the form of a butterfly. Bulgarians believe that a witch releases large colorful butterflies on cattle, which land on cows or sheep, crawl on them and take away their milk. On St. George’s Day, the large butterfly of the witch-mages, flying across the fields, is capable of taking away the harvest of life (the witch herself can do the same), so early in the morning on this day a cross is harvested from the field. According to legend, a large black butterfly, sent by a witch to steal milk from sheep, is magically hatched by the witch from a large egg. Wed. images of zoomorphic house spirits, bringing wealth to their master-sorcerer, who are born from a rooster or other unusual egg.

Among the Western Slavs, the moth is associated with another demon - “mora” or “zmora”, which torments people at night. According to Poles, the appearance of a night butterfly takes on the form of a “zmora” - a neighbor in the form of a butterfly or mosquito enters the house through the window cracks at midnight and, sitting on the sleeping people, leans on the chest, crushes, and suffocates them. The ability to strangle sleeping people is often attributed to some other animals and demons, especially the frog and the brownie.

Some signs are associated with the first spring butterflies. In Polesie they believe that if a lot of red or yellow butterflies appear in the spring, then there will be a dry summer and a lot of honey, and if there are white ones, there will be a wet summer and an abundance of milk. In Moravia, the symbolism of the color of butterflies is different: if you see the first white butterfly in the spring, you will die in the coming year, and if it is red, you will live (according to other beliefs, your eyes will hurt). In Bulgaria they believe that a person will have a white or red face depending on whether the first butterfly he sees in the spring is white or red. The Belarusians of the Vitebsk province used to guess by the flight of the first spring butterflies: the higher they fly, the higher the flax will grow.

Ants

Ants were revered by the Slavs as a symbol of homeliness. If they climb under a wooden circle left on the ground at night, it means the place is happy and they can build a house on it.

BIRDS IN SLAVIC MYTHOLOGY Birds have always occupied a special place among the Slavs. Let's remember one of the myths about the origin of the Earth. "...And then, between the sky and the water, two trees grew by themselves - sacred oaks, supported by the power of God. Two birds hatched from the acorns of the sacred heavenly oaks, these were goldeneye ducks. The ducks began to dive to the bottom of the sea and get mud from the bottom and sand. With silt they glued twigs and leaves that had fallen from the heavenly oaks - they built a nest-earth." The duck is also mentioned in the tales of Koshchei the Immortal. It is she who is hidden in the hare, and the egg is already hidden in her. World duck. Marina Polyakova. Canvas World duck. Top. 4-6 centuries AD Why was the duck given such a role in the creation of the world? The world duck was born from the foam of the newborn Ocean. According to legend, it was she who retrieved Alatyr from the bottom of the Ocean of Milk. It was small, and the duck wanted to hide the stone in its beak. But Svarog uttered the magic Word, and the stone began to grow. The duck couldn't hold it and dropped it. The duck is an ancient Slavic symbol of the cleansing power of Water. A pommel with an image of the World Duck was found in the basin of the upper reaches of the Kama River. The find dates back to the 4th-6th centuries AD. It is assumed that it was either the pommel of a priestly staff, or part of a headdress, for example, a kichka. The latter assumption is supported by the fact that “ducks” are most often found in pairs. In any case, this is an ornament with ritual meaning. Makosh is associated with a duck. The cult of the duck-Makoshi has existed to this day, as evidenced by various ritual objects of the Slavs, which can be seen today. True, the fact that they are ritual is now mostly forgotten. Now it is not surprising that birds played a big role in the mythology of the Slavs, and the images of birds that have come down from the depths of centuries are varied. This is also explained by the large territories that were inhabited by Slavic peoples. Stratim In the "Pigeon Book" there are the following lines: ...Which bird is the mother of all birds? And Stratim the bird is the mother of all birds. And she lives on the ocean-sea, and builds a nest on a white stone. How the ship's guests will come running, And the Stratim-birds will come to that nest And to its little children. The stratim-bird will perk up, the ocean-sea will sway, as if fast rivers were overflowing. He sinks living ships, sinks many scarlet ships with precious goods! In different translations, this bird is called differently: Nogai-bird, Fear-Rakh, Straphil. Mention of it is also found in the Vedas and in the Songs of the Gamayun Bird, created much earlier. Stratim An ancient manuscript tells about a giant bird: “There is a chicken whose head reaches to the sky, and the sea reaches its knee; when the sun is washed in the ocean, then the ocean will shake, and the waves will begin to beat the chicken’s feathers; He, feeling the waves, shouts “koko-riku,” which means: “Lord, show light to the world!” They depicted a giant bird with a small head on a thin neck, a hooked beak, a long narrow body and one raised wing. “...she lives on the sea-ocean, and when she screams, a terrible storm arises. And even if she just moves her wing, the sea worries and sways. But if the Stratim bird takes off, then such waves rise that the sea sinks ships, opens up the deepest abysses and washes away cities and forests from the shores.” In this sense, Stratim is similar to the Sea King. In some tales, because the hero saves and has mercy on her chicks, she helps him get out into freedom. A strange and mysterious prophecy has been preserved: “When Stratim trembles in the second hour after midnight, then all the roosters throughout the whole earth will crow, and at that time the whole earth will be illuminated.” The ruler of the Stratim bird is Stribog - the Supreme God of the Wind. He can cause and tame a storm, and can turn into his assistant. The prophetic bird Gamayun On the surface of endless waters, Clothed in purple at sunset, She broadcasts and sings, Unable to lift the troubled wings... Broadcasts the yoke of the evil Tatars, Broadcasts a series of bloody executions, And coward, and hunger, and fire, The strength of the villains, the death of the right... Embraced by eternal horror, The beautiful face burns with love, But the truth of things rings out From the mouth, clotted with blood!.. Alexander Blok dedicated these poetic lines to the bird Gamayun. Prophetic bird, messenger of the gods and their herald. She sings divine hymns to people and foretells the future for those who know how to hear the secret. All the songs of the bird Gamayun, which she sang to people, are collected in one book, which tells about the creation of the world and the birth of the gods. “The Treasured Songs of the Gamayun Bird” is the name of this book. Each part of the book is called a "tangle". According to ancient belief, the cry of the bird Gamayun foretells happiness. The word "gamayun" comes from "gamayun" - to lull (obviously, because these legends also served as bedtime stories for children). But here are two birds of the Slavic paradise - Alkonost and Sirin. The name of the bird Sirin is even consonant with the name of paradise - Iriy. Bird of Paradise Alkonost The caption under the popular print, which depicts the bird Alkonost, reads: “Alkonost resides near paradise, sometimes on the Euphrates River. When he gives up his voice in singing, then he doesn’t even feel himself. And whoever is close then will forget everything in the world: then the mind leaves him, and the soul leaves the body.” According to legend, Alkonost lays eggs into the depths of the sea in the middle of winter (or during the winter solstice). The eggs lie in the depths for 7 days and then float to the surface. And at this time the sea is calm. Alkonost does not take his eyes off the surface of the water and waits for the eggs to surface, which is why it is very difficult to steal Alkonost’s egg. If this is successful, then people hang such an egg under the ceiling in the church, as a symbol of the integrity and unity of all the people who come here. Alkonost then takes the eggs and hatches them on the shore. It's amazing how Slavic and ancient Greek mythologies intertwine. Alkonost also had another name - Alkion. In ancient Greek mythology there is a myth about Alcyone, the daughter of the wind god Aeolus, the wife of the Thessalian king Keik, the son of the god of the morning star Eosphorus. As Ovid tells in Metamorphoses, Keik died tragically in a stormy sea. Alcyone was waiting for Keik at the top of the cliff. When the body of her dead husband was washed to the cliff by a wave, Alcyone threw herself from the top of the cliff into the waves of the raging sea. And a miracle happened: the gods turned Alcyone into a kingfisher seabird. Then Alcyone the kingfisher revived her dead husband. The gods and Keika were turned into a bird, and they became inseparable again. The Greeks believed that when Alcyone hatches her eggs, there is a lull in the Ionian and partly Aegean seas for two weeks (the week before and the week after the winter solstice), since Alcyone’s father Aeolus, the god of the winds, holds back the winds under his control at this time. Ovid writes about this in “Metamorphoses”: In winter, for seven serene days, Alcyone sits quietly on eggs in a nest, above the waves of the sea. The path by sea is then safe: Aeolus guards his winds, without letting them go, leaving the sea to his grandchildren. The days of calm at sea, when Alcyone the kingfisher hatched her chicks, were called by the Greeks “alkyonines, or kingfisher days.” In the Old Russian language they were called Alkyonite or Alkonost. Bird of paradise Sirin No less interesting is the history of the bird Sirin - Alkonost’s constant companion. She is said to have origins from the Greek Sirens. Or maybe the sirens are from her? Or are these two branches of the same fact? In ancient Greek mythology, sirens are birds with female heads. The “sweet voice” of the sirens is confirmed by the names of some of them: Aglaiophon (Sounding-voiced), Telxepea (Enchanting), Peisinoe (Flattering), Molpe (Singing). According to one legend, the sirens were originally nymphs from the entourage of the young goddess Persephone. When she was kidnapped by the ruler of the underworld Hades, Persephone's angry mother, the goddess of fertility Demeter, gave the sirens their semi-bird appearance. In another version of this myth, they themselves wanted to turn into birds in order to find Persephone. When people refused to help them, the sirens settled on a deserted island to take revenge on the human race. Since then, they began to lure sailors with their sweet-voiced singing and killed them on the shore. The rocks of the island of the Sirens were littered with the bones and dried skin of their victims. Homer in the Odyssey says that Odysseus, wanting to hear the singing of the sirens and stay alive, plugged the ears of his companions with wax, and ordered himself to be tied to the mast. The Sirens, seducing him, promised him omniscience: Here not a single sailor passes with his ship, Without listening to the heart of the sweet song in our meadow; Whoever heard us returns to the house, having learned a lot. We know everything that happened in the Trojan land and what fate befell the Trojans and Achaeans by the will of the immortals; We know everything that is happening in the bosom of the fertile land. Bird of Paradise Sirin The mythical bird, which has a human face and captivates people with its sweet singing, was well known in Rus' and was called “sirin”. Here is what one of the ancient Russian ABCs writes about this: “Sirin is a bird from head to waist, the composition and image of a man, from the waist he is a bird; Nice people lie about this, saying that it will be a very sweet song, as if anyone who listens to her voice will forget all this life and go into the desert along it and die in the mountains astray.” In the XVII–XVIII centuries. Sirin, together with Alkonost, were counted among the birds of paradise. The singing of the Sirin bird served to designate the divine word entering the human soul, and on popular prints she was depicted very similar to Alkonost, only Sirin did not have arms, and around his head you can often see a halo instead of a crown. According to the description of ancient Russian beliefs, the sweet-voiced Sirin bird, like the destructive seabirds-maidens Sirens, also befuddled travelers with its sad song and carried them away into the kingdom of death. In a later period, these features were supplanted, and the Russian Sirin was endowed with magical functions of a protective nature, personifying beauty, happiness and the joy of being. Sirin's story is different from Alkonost's. The bird lives in paradise itself. Her voice in singing is very red, for it proclaims unearthly joys. At times she descends to the ground. However, if a living person hears that singing, “that person may be excommunicated from life.” The last property of Sirin, as well as Alkonost, greatly puzzled the Russian people, who valued strength, courage, nobility above all else and sang them in songs, epics, and fairy tales. The image of Sirin turned out to be somewhat closer to the people's artist, so he began to correct it to his liking. Judging by one of the legends, it turned out to be easy to do: it was only necessary, as soon as the bird descended to the ground and began to sing, to make a noise and even shoot from a cannon. Sirin will fall silent and fly away to his home. This is exactly the plot that is depicted in the picture (it can be enlarged using the magic mouse in your hands and examined in more detail). In modern culture, Sirin and Alkonost are indissoluble; they are established symbols of Sorrowful and Joyful singing. Birds of joy and sadness The birds of paradise Sirin and Alkonost became characters in the famous painting by V.M. Vasnetsov’s “Songs of Joy and Sorrow,” which inspired young Alexander Blok’s early poem “Sirin and Alkonost. Birds of Joy and Sorrow”, dated February 23-25, 1899. In both Vasnetsov and Blok, Sirin becomes a symbol of joy, otherworldly happiness. This is how the young poet describes this bird of paradise: Throwing back the waves of thick curls, Throwing his head back, Sirin casts a look full of happiness, A look full of unearthly bliss. Alkonost, on the contrary, appears as a symbol of inescapable sadness, the focus of the power of dark forces: The other is all with powerful sadness Exhausted, exhausted... With daily and all-night melancholy The whole high chest is full... The melody sounds like a deep groan, A sob lies in her chest, And above her A black wing hangs like a branched throne. It must be said that neither the joyful, happy Sirin, nor the more so exhausted by sadness Alkonost, find any correspondence in the history of the legends associated with these birds. On popular prints of the 17th–18th centuries. the birds Sirin and Alkonost were both depicted as cheerful, close to God in his heavenly abode and could hardly be considered as symbols of joy and sadness. The dualism of both Vasnetsov and Blok are, of course, already phenomena of the New Age, signs of the thunderstorm lightnings of history that illuminated the horizon of the coming terrible 20th century. At the turn of the century, the artist and poet created their own new myth, reflecting a new understanding of the essence of the world by man of the outgoing golden age of Russian culture. ENTER -> THE ROAD HOME - Slavs|tradition|paganism After talking about all this confusion that befell Alkonost and Sirin, let's once again turn to their popular prints. You see, there the birds are depicted with crowns or a halo - a sign of holiness in Christianity. That is, these are paintings from the Christian period of Rus'. As we know, the Christian Church, having shown treachery and violence, met resistance from the pagan Russians in response and was forced to make many concessions. The church calendar was compiled in such a way that the most important Christian holidays coincided in time with pagan ones. The most revered were those saints who took on the features of pagan deities. For example, the image of the great goddess Mother Earth was embodied in the image of the Mother of God or the Mother of God, St. George the Victorious became the personification of the solar god Khors and Dazhbog, Elijah the Prophet corresponded to the god of thunder and lightning Perun, the patron of cattle Vlasiy became the successor of the pagan Veles. The situation was exactly the same with magical signs in the form of birds on clothing, household items and jewelry. The image of a bird, starting from ancient times, was such a familiar talisman and widespread character of the Slavs that, by destroying this protective symbolism, the Christian Church was forced to give people new patrons in their familiar appearance. Sirin and Alkonost replaced pagan birds, one of which was definitely the World Duck, but the second is called the Sun Bird, about which practically no information has been preserved. Gradually, the image of the Sirin bird, under the influence of Christian and pagan beliefs, began to be considered by the people as heavenly, i.e. divine, and endow with extraordinary qualities: brightness, radiance, unearthly beauty, wonderful singing and kindness. The image of Sirin in Russian art has become widespread; it is quite often found on the surface of various products of the 14th-17th centuries. Alkonost comes across much less frequently. Perhaps over time, the differences between them were forgotten, and they merged into one image of the Fairytale Bird, in which, as a symbol of beauty, the Russian man saw his own dream of kindness, beauty and happiness. Let us now consider another group of birds in Slavic mythology. It includes birds-fairy-tale characters, namely the Firebird, Finist the Clear Falcon, and the Swan Princess. Of the fairy-tale birds, the Firebird most likely has a direct prototype from mythological birds, namely the Phoenix. The feathers of the firebird have the ability to shine and their brilliance amazes human vision. The Firebird most likely personified fire, light, and the sun. The firebird feeds on golden apples, which give youth, beauty and immortality; When she sings, pearls fall from her beak. The singing of the firebird heals the sick and restores sight to the blind. Well, another group of birds in Slavic mythology. They do not have anything unusual in their appearance, but are endowed with fabulous properties to talk, help or harm people and are, as a rule, companions of such characters as Baba Yaga or Kashchei the Immortal. These are crows, owls, blackbirds.

Prophetic birds of the Slavs

Stratim bird

The progenitor of all birds and bird-people was the Stratim-bird (or Strephil-bird). No one knows where she flew from to the sea-ocean, to the White Stone, but her name came from the Greek word strufokamilus (ostrich). The Stratim bird flapped its wing - the sea began to worry, screamed - a storm arose, and when it flew, it blocked out the white light. Huge swells rose up on the sea, ships sank, and the water washed away all living things from the shores. The bird embodied the most destructive forces of nature.
Ancient legends claim that the Stratim bird - the ancestor of all birds - lives on the sea-ocean, like Alkonost. When the Stratim bird screams, a terrible storm arises. And even if she just moves her wing, the sea worries and sways.
But if the Stratim bird takes off, then such waves rise that the sea sinks ships, opens up the deepest abysses and washes away cities and forests from the shores. In this sense, she is similar to the Sea King. In some tales, she helps the hero get out of a deserted island and fly to land - because he saves and has mercy on her chicks. A strange and mysterious prophecy has been preserved: “When Stratim trembles in the second hour after midnight, then all the roosters throughout the whole earth will crow, and at that time the whole earth will be illuminated.”

"...Which bird is the mother of all birds?
And Stratim the bird is the mother of all birds.
And she lives on the Ocean-Sea,
And he builds a nest on a white stone;
How the ship's guests will come running
And that's the nest of the Stratim Bird
And on her, on the children, on the little ones,
The stratim bird will perk up,
The ocean-sea will sway,
As if fast rivers overflowed,
He sinks living room ships,
Sinks many scarlet ships
With precious goods!"

("Pigeon Book")

Bird Alkonost

Alkonost (alkonst, alkonos) - in Russian and Byzantine medieval legends, the bird of paradise-maiden of the sun god Khors, who brings happiness. According to the legend of the 17th century, the alkonost is near heaven and when he sings, he does not feel himself. Alkonost consoles the saints with his singing, announcing to them the future life. Alkonost lays eggs on the seashore and, plunging them into the depths of the sea, makes it calm for 7 days. Alkonost’s singing is so beautiful that those who hear it forget about everything in the world.

The image of Alkonost goes back to the Greek myth of Alcyone, who was transformed by the gods into a kingfisher. This fabulous bird of paradise became known from ancient Russian literature and popular prints.

Alkonost is depicted as a half-woman, half-bird with large multi-colored feathers (wings), human hands and a body. A maiden head, overshadowed by a crown and a halo, in which a short inscription is sometimes placed. In his hands he holds flowers of paradise or an unfolded scroll with an explanatory inscription. The legend about the Alkonost bird echoes the legend about the Sirin bird and even partially repeats it. The origins of these images should be sought in the myth of the sirens. There is a caption under one of the popular prints with her image: “Alkonost resides near paradise, sometimes on the Euphrates River. When he gives up his voice in singing, then he doesn’t even feel himself. And whoever is close then will forget everything in the world: then the mind leaves him, and the soul leaves the body.” Only the bird Sirin can compare with Alkonost in sweet sound.

Bird Sirin

Sirin [from Greek. seirēn, Wed siren] - bird-maiden. In Russian spiritual poems, she, descending from heaven to earth, enchants people with her singing; in Western European legends, she is the embodiment of an unfortunate soul. Derived from the Greek Sirens. In Slavic mythology, a wonderful bird, whose singing disperses sadness and melancholy; appears only to happy people. Sirin is one of the birds of paradise, even its very name is consonant with the name of paradise: Iriy. However, these are by no means the bright Alkonost and Gamayun. Sirin is a dark bird, a dark force, a messenger of the ruler of the underworld.

Sometimes the beautiful bird Sirin is found in the form of a real bird, without any human components. Her feathers are covered with an invisible mass, symbolizing the Elements. “Her wings were white with blue and red stripes, like caramel, her beak was soft purple, pointed, blade-like, and her eyes were bright, green, the color of young leaves, and wise, benevolent.”

Bird Gamayun

Gamayun is, according to Slavic mythology, a prophetic bird, a messenger of the god Veles, his herald, singing divine hymns to people and foreshadowing the future for those who know how to hear the secret. Gamayun knows everything in the world about the origin of earth and sky, gods and heroes, people and monsters, birds and animals. When Gamayun flies from sunrise, a deadly storm arrives.

Originally from Eastern (Persian) mythology. Depicted with a woman's head and breasts. The collection of myths “Songs of the Gamayun Bird” tells about the initial events in Slavic mythology - the creation of the world and the birth of pagan gods. The word "gamayun" comes from "gamayun" - to lull (obviously because these legends also served as bedtime stories for children). In the mythology of ancient Iranians there is an analogue - the bird of joy Humayun. “Songs” are divided into chapters - “Tangles”.

The Firebird is a fairy-tale bird, a character in Russian fairy tales, usually the goal of the hero's search. The feathers of the firebird have the ability to shine and their brilliance amazes human vision.

Catching the firebird is fraught with great difficulties and is one of the main tasks that the king (father) sets to his sons in the fairy tale. Only the kind youngest son manages to get the firebird. Mythologists (Afanasyev) explained the firebird as the personification of fire, light, and sun. The firebird feeds on golden apples, which give youth, beauty and immortality; When she sings, pearls fall from her beak. The singing of the firebird heals the sick and restores sight to the blind. Leaving aside arbitrary mythological explanations, we can compare the firebird with medieval stories about the Phoenix bird, reborn from the ashes, very popular in both Russian and Western European literature. The firebird is also the prototype of peacocks. Rejuvenating apples, in turn, can be compared with the fruits of the pomegranate tree, a favorite delicacy of Phoenixes.

Crow

RAVEN is the prophetic bird, the faithful companion of the God-Manager Varuna. He accompanies the Souls of the dead to the Vyria Gate in the Great Most Pure Svarga and informs the Navya Souls about what high goals they have achieved in their Spiritual and Soul development and in the fulfillment of their Life Purpose.

If God Varuna decides that a person needs to be given the opportunity to complete the work he has begun, which he did not have time to complete due to sudden death, then he sends his assistant, Raven, to the Soul of the deceased person.

Raven, the guardian of Living and Dead Water, gives the opportunity to the Soul of the deceased to return to his own body, so that a person, returning to the World of Revealing, can complete his unfinished work. In the world of Yavi they say about such a person: “He experienced clinical death” or “He returned from the other world.” Strangely enough, after the God-Manager Varuna returns a person to his former life, the person changes his behavior, does not waste his life in vain and completes the work that he did not have time to finish.

In fairy tales, he sometimes helps the hero and even saves him, warning him of danger. In the form of Voron, Voronovich kidnaps the hero's sister or mother and either enters into mortal combat with him, or becomes a faithful friend and observes the laws of kinship.

Bird Simurgh

Simurgh is a prophetic bird, initially found only in Iranian myths, but later the Turkic tradition also became its habitat (Simurgh flew there, leading a flock of peris and devas).

In the new place, Simurgh completely settled down, as evidenced, for example, by the fact of his presence in Uzbek dastans. In fairy-tale dastans, Simurgh is a positive image: a giant bird, as a rule, helps the hero by providing him with transport services, for example, taking him to his relatives. In classical Turkic lyrics, the image of Simurgh already carries a different meaning - the mysterious bird lives on Mount Kaf - a mountain range that encircles the earth along the edge and supports the heavens - that is, it lives at the very edge of the world.

The Simurgh is a phantom, no one can see him. In the language of poetry, the expression “to see the Simurgh” means to make an impossible dream come true. This image received further development and a slightly different interpretation in Sufi literature. In “The Conversation of the Birds,” the famous poem by the Persian poet Fariduddin Attar, the Simurgh is an allegorical expression of true knowledge, a symbol of the identity of the creator and the creation. Alisher Navoi presented his version of this poem in the Turkic language, calling it “The Language of Birds.”

In Navoi's poem, the birds go in search of the wise Shah Simurgh, so that he can save them from the suffering of life. Having passed seven valleys (seven steps on the path of improvement), having passed many tests, the birds at the end of their journey reach the lush gardens of unity - the abode of the Simurgh - where in each rose, as if in a mirror, they see their own reflection.

It is revealed to the birds that Shah Simurgh is them, thirty birds (out of a huge flock, only thirty reached the goal). The word “si” in Persian means thirty, “murg” means bird.

The Simurgh and his subjects are united:

He who was raised to unity at once,
The secrets of the one god reached his mind.
The brilliance of the rays of unity will give light to his gaze,
The barrier between “you” and “me” will be destroyed.
(Navoi, “Language of Birds”)

Embodying such abstract ideas, the Simurgh, nevertheless, is not devoid of completely material plumage: the poem “The Language of Birds” tells how, flying over China, he dropped a feather of extraordinary color - sparkling so brightly that all of China (in the poem - the city) dressed in radiance. From that day on, the entire Chinese population acquired a passion for painting. The most virtuoso painter was Mani, the legendary founder of Manichaeism (a religion combining features of Zoroastrianism and Christianity) - in classical eastern poetry Mani is the image of a brilliant artist.

Thus, the Simurgh, in addition to the three above-mentioned hypostases, can also serve as a symbol of art.

Bird Bennu (Ben-Ben)

Bennu (Ben-Ben) - in Egyptian mythology, a bird - an analogue of the phoenix. According to legend, it is the soul of the sun god Ra. The name is related to the word "weben", meaning "to shine".

According to legend, Bennu emerged from a fire that burned on a sacred tree in the courtyard of the Temple of Ra. According to another version, Bennu escaped from the heart of Osiris. She was depicted as a gray, blue or white heron with a long beak and a tuft of two feathers, as well as a yellow wagtail or an eagle with red and gold feathers. There are also depictions of Bennu as a man with the head of a heron.

Bennu personified the resurrection from the dead and the annual flooding of the Nile. Symbolized the solar beginning.

(alkonst, alkonos) - in Russian and Byzantine medieval legends, a bird of paradise-maiden who brings happiness. The image of Alkonost goes back to the Greek myth of Alcyone, who was transformed by the gods into a kingfisher. This fabulous bird of paradise became known from the monuments of ancient Russian literature (Palea of ​​the 14th century, alphabet books of the 16th-17th centuries) and popular prints. Its name and image, which first appeared in translated monuments, are the result of a misunderstanding. The Greek source refers to the kingfisher (Greek: αλκιων). When rewriting, the initial words of the Slavic text “alkyon is (bird)” turned into “alkonost”.
According to the legend of the 17th century, Alkonost is near heaven and when he sings, he does not feel himself. Alkonost consoles the saints with his singing, announcing to them the future life. Alkonost lays eggs on the seashore and, plunging them into the depths of the sea, makes it calm for 6 days. Alkonost’s singing is so beautiful that those who hear it forget about everything in the world.

Alkonost is depicted in Russian popular prints as a half-woman, half-bird with large multi-colored feathers (wings), human hands and a body. A maiden head, overshadowed by a crown and a halo, which sometimes contains a short inscription. In his hands he holds flowers of paradise or an unfolded scroll with an explanatory inscription.

ALKONOST and SIRIN - in Russian medieval legends, mythical bird sisters, residents of Vyria (paradise).
Both Alkonost and Sirinus were usually represented as birds with a woman's head and a beautiful face.

Legends about the miraculous voice of the Sirin and Alkonost were widespread. For example, in some places it was believed that the singing of these birds was so beautiful that it could bewitch a person and make him forget about everything in the world. At the same time, some beliefs called the alkonost the bird of joy, and the sirina the bird of sadness; The singing of the alkonost was considered beautiful, but harmless, and the singing of the Sirin was considered destructively enchanting: a person, having heard it, seemed to forget about everything in the world and soon die, and death was desired for him at that moment. Perhaps this belief reflected echoes of the Greek myth about sirens - creatures with amazing voices, whose singing made sailors forget about the purpose of the journey and rush into the sea - to their death.
The legends about the Sirin and the Alkonost were, apparently, not originally Russian and were most likely of Byzantine origin, although in Rus' they very soon merged with local legends and beliefs.
http://sueverija.narod.ru/Muzei/Sirin.ht

The bird of paradise Sirin sings so sweetly that a person forgets about everything and dies.
Sirin is afraid of loud noises and, to scare her away, people shoot from cannons.
It is this plot that is presented in the following pictures.

In Russian spiritual poems, she, descending from heaven to earth, enchants people with her singing; in Western European legends, she is the embodiment of an unfortunate soul. Derived from the Greek Sirens. In Slavic mythology, a wonderful bird, whose singing disperses sadness and melancholy; appears only to happy people. Sirin is one of the birds of paradise, even its very name is consonant with the name of paradise: Iriy. Sirin is a dark bird, a dark force, a messenger of the ruler of the underworld.

Gamayun- according to Slavic mythology, a prophetic bird, a messenger of the god Veles, his herald, singing divine hymns to people and foreshadowing the future for those who know how to hear the secret. Gamayun knows everything in the world about the origin of earth and sky, gods and heroes, people and monsters, birds and animals. When Gamayun flies from sunrise, a deadly storm arrives.

Originally from Eastern (Persian) mythology. It was depicted with a woman's head and breasts. In the mythology of the ancient Iranians there is an analogue - the bird of joy Humayun.

The collection of myths “Songs of the Gamayun Bird” tells about the initial events in Slavic mythology - the creation of the world and the birth of pagan gods. The songs are divided into chapters - “Tangles”. http://www.dazzle.ru/spec/ppg/ppg.shtml
The word "gamayun" comes from "gamayun" - to lull (obviously because these legends also served as bedtime stories for children)

In general, the mythical birds are: Alkonost, Raven, Gamayun, Geese-Swans, Firebird, Sirin,
Stratim, Fear Bird, Duck, Phoenix.

... “Why don’t people fly like birds?” * Probably everyone knows the feeling of flying - everyone flew in their dreams in childhood. And then all our lives we miss this feeling, and that’s why we envy birds so much. And we readily accept them as mysterious creatures endowed with mystical abilities, capable of predicting the future, bringing happiness or just good luck.

The bird occupies a special and very significant place in Slavic mythology. The supreme deity Rod, the beginning of all beginnings, in his earthly incarnation took the image of a gray duck, which was his symbol and the bearer of his power. It was this duck that laid two eggs - Yav and Nav - the embodiment of good and evil, life and death...

The images of birds that have come down from the depths of time are very diverse, which is explained by the vast territories inhabited by the Slavic peoples. In general, for ease of perception, I would divide the birds endowed with mystical qualities by the popular consciousness into three groups.
The first includes mythical creatures - half-birds, half-people, with the gift of prophecy and the ability to bring people misfortune or happiness, grief or good luck. These include Gamayun, Alkonost, Sirin, Stratim and Phoenix.

Messenger of the Slavic gods, their herald. She sings divine hymns to people and proclaims the future to those who agree to listen to the secret.

In the ancient “Book, verb Kosmography,” the map depicts a round plain of earth, washed on all sides by a river-ocean. On the eastern side is marked “the island of Macarius, the first under the very east of the sun, near the blessed paradise; That’s why it’s so popular that the birds of paradise Gamayun and Phoenix fly into this island and smell wonderful.” When Gamayun flies, a deadly storm emanates from the solar east.

Gamayun knows everything in the world about the origin of earth and sky, gods and heroes, people and monsters, animals and birds. According to ancient belief, the cry of the bird Gamayun foretells happiness.

This is a wonderful bird, a resident of Iria - the Slavic paradise.

Her face is feminine, her body is birdlike, and her voice is sweet, like love itself. Hearing Alkonost's singing with delight can forget everything in the world, but there is no harm from her to people, unlike her friend the bird Sirin. Alkonost lays eggs “at the edge of the sea”, but does not hatch them, but immerses them in the depths of the sea. At this time, there is no wind for seven days until the chicks hatch.

The Slavic myth about Alkonost is similar to the ancient Greek legend about the girl Alcyone, who was turned by the gods into a kingfisher.

This is one of the birds of paradise, even its very name is consonant with the name of paradise: Iriy.

However, these are by no means the bright Alkonost and Gamayun.

Sirin is a dark bird, a dark force, a messenger of the ruler of the underworld. From head to waist Sirin is a woman of incomparable beauty, and from the waist she is a bird. Whoever listens to her voice forgets about everything in the world, but is soon doomed to troubles and misfortunes, or even dies, and there is no strength to force him not to listen to Sirin’s voice. And this voice is true bliss!

Ancient legends claim that the Stratim bird - the ancestor of all birds - lives on the sea-ocean, like Alkonost. When the Stratim bird screams, a terrible storm arises. And even if she just moves her wing, the sea worries and sways.

But if the Stratim bird takes off, then such waves rise that the sea sinks ships, opens up the deepest abysses and washes away cities and forests from the shores. In this sense, she is similar to the Sea King. In some tales, she helps the hero get out of a deserted island and fly to land - because he saves and has mercy on her chicks. A strange and mysterious prophecy has been preserved: “When Stratim trembles in the second hour after midnight, then all the roosters throughout the whole earth will crow, and at that time the whole earth will be illuminated.”

(possibly from the Greek “purple, crimson”) - a mythological bird with the ability to burn itself. Known in the mythologies of different cultures. The phoenix was believed to have the appearance of an eagle with bright red plumage. Anticipating death, he burns himself in his own nest, and a chick emerges from the ashes. According to other versions of the myth, he is reborn from the ashes.

Of the birds-fairy-tale characters, the Firebird most likely has a direct prototype from mythological birds, namely the Phoenix. This fabulous bird, a character in Russian fairy tales, is usually the target of the hero's search. The feathers of the firebird have the ability to shine and their brilliance amazes human vision. Catching the firebird is fraught with great difficulties and is one of the main tasks that the king (father) sets to his sons in the fairy tale. Only the kind youngest son manages to get the firebird. Mythologists (Afanasyev) explained the firebird as the personification of fire, light, and sun. The firebird feeds on golden apples, which give youth, beauty and immortality; When she sings, pearls fall from her beak. The singing of the firebird heals the sick and restores sight to the blind. Leaving aside arbitrary mythological explanations, we can compare the firebird with medieval stories about the Phoenix bird, reborn from the ashes, very popular in both Russian and Western European literature. The firebird is also the prototype of peacocks. Rejuvenating apples, in turn, can be compared with the fruits of the pomegranate tree, a favorite delicacy of Phoenixes.

The third group includes all birds that do not carry something unprecedented in their appearance, but are simply endowed with fabulous properties to talk, help or harm fairy-tale human characters and are, as a rule, companions of such characters as Baba Yaga or Kashchei the Immortal. These are crows, owls, blackbirds.

Birds are found quite often in Russian literature and painting. In poetry, such poets as Blok and Klyuev turned to the images of mythological birds, in painting - Vasnetsov, Vrubel, Bakst.

*A. Ostrovsky “Thunderstorm”