Old Russian Slavic mythology. Myths of ancient Rus'

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Preface

Each historical event exists in a halo of myths. The more famous it is, the more myths there are around it. I will say more, most of the “facts known to everyone” about this or that historical event are myths.

Here we need to decide on the meaning that we attach to the word “myth”. Actually, any historical event exists in the memory of people, is clothed with some meanings, and is perceived from the angle of a certain view of society on itself and on the world. This perception in itself can be called a “myth”. But we will not touch myths in this sense in this book. Let us leave perhaps the most commonly used meaning of the word “myth” - that is, information about a particular historical fact that is widely disseminated, but does not correspond to the truth.

Myths, I apologize for the banality, are different. Historical myths are divided into three main categories.

1. Myths are subcultural, or, if you like, sectarian. “The authorities are hiding, but we know the truth” is the slogan of this type of myth. Followers of the Internet “philosopher” Dmitry Evgenievich Galkovsky believe, say, that Moscow Rus' was an English colony, and adherents of the “Old Russian Church of Old Believers-Yinglings” believe that the Byzantine chronology “from the creation of the world” is actually “Slavic-Aryan”, and came from “the creation of the world” with ancient China in a certain “star temple of Kolyada”

2. Philistine. “Well, everyone knows that” - no one, however, knows where exactly - at most they can name a film or a novel. Anna Yaroslavna, who married the king of France, allegedly complained to her father Yaroslav the Wise in letters about the savagery of the Parisians; German knights in horned helmets fell through the ice on Lake Peipsi, and Nevsky said about “who will come to us with a sword”; the Slavs have always been peace-loving, and Catherine II sold Alaska to America...

3. Academic – the latter is called the “historiographic tradition”. “Scientifically, this issue has long been resolved!” - unfortunately, sometimes it is “solved” without much regard even to the sources known at the time of the “decision,” but new sources may appear in the field of view of scientists. There are numerous examples of such myths - “The Path from the Varangians to the Greeks”, the religious reform of Vladimir, etc.

Of course, there are no solid barriers between the three types of myths. The second and third varieties communicate most actively with each other. Common myths are formed under the influence of historical knowledge - and academic myths. In turn, scientists are born into this world and do not grow up in ivory towers, and from childhood they are saturated with many philistine ideas. Sometimes, however, subcultural myths are also “lucky” - for example, Gumilyov’s invention about the adoption of the Russian prince Alexander Yaroslavich by Batu and his twinning with Batu’s son Sartak was destined to disperse from the narrow circle of Gumilyov-Eurasianists to the masses, to end up in scientific works (sinful , I believed it too - until it turned out that the only source from which Lev Nikolaevich could get this information was... the novel “Ratobortsy” by the Soviet writer Yugov).

Sometimes myths form a self-sustaining cycle. A historian is also a person. First, as a small child who cannot read, he will watch, say, the movie “Vikings”, or, in best case scenario, “And trees grow on stones.” Then he will read novels about the ubiquitous Vikings (thousands of them... I'm talking about novels). Then at the university he will get acquainted with a set of opinions, hallowed by centuries of repetition, from three hundred years ago about the victorious all-pervading Normans, about the “path from the Varangians to the Greeks,” etc. And with such a “background” in his brain, he will read the sources.

Do you think he will see in these sources a story about how Denmark and Sweden were regularly plundered from the 7th (at least) to the beginning of the 13th century by the Latvian Curonian tribe and Estonians? How did the Baltic Slavs impose tribute on the Scandinavian countries? How did the Swedes, with a national militia, led by the supreme king, besiege one fortress of one of the Latvian tribes, and when they managed to extort a ransom from the besieged, did they consider it a miracle of God? How did the Norwegians, sailing by sea past the shores of the Bjarmians, be afraid to turn into the river, “for its banks were densely populated”?

And then this historian will write works, with an eye on which they will begin to compose popular books and novels, make films and TV series...

The “Varangian” question is just one example. But in fact, this happens at every step.

Above, we defined myth as a historical idea that is widespread in one environment or another, but does not correspond to the truth. Here it’s time for readers to puzzle me with Pilate’s question: “What is truth?” I won’t risk answering it here in a general philosophical sense, but in a historical sense, data from sources are accepted (or, more precisely, should be accepted) as such - that is, chronicles, chronicles, decrees and labels, and so on - right down to birch bark letters and even medieval graffiti (yes, yes, our ancestors were no less keen than ours to write on walls, including on the walls of churches - where their creations were preserved under layers of new and new frescoes before being revealed to the eyes of a restorer). That is, they still cannot be considered one hundred percent truth - they were all left by living people who were inclined to be honestly mistaken and deliberately lie. Others - this is especially true for chronicles, sagas and legends - have come to us in God knows which list or retelling, along the way acquiring errors on the principle of a “broken telephone”, or the speculations of a copyist/reteller. But you can only verify some sources with other sources - and not because their data for some reason does not suit you, or you suspect the author of insincerity. Here, the work of a historian strongly resembles the work of an investigator dealing with witness testimony and evidence (the latter being archaeological data). Therefore, the principle of the “presumption of innocence” as applied to sources, put forward by the famous historian Apollo Grigorievich Kuzmin, also seems appropriate. That is, it is not the correctness of the source that needs proof, but the distrust of the researcher.

Alas, the parallel with the investigator can be continued. There is a plan, and reporting, and pressure from management, who are extremely disapproving of “hangings” or raising cases already “closed” by others, there is the opinion of colleagues, there is corporate ethics and “uniform honor”... In a sense, it is even more difficult for a historian. A fired investigator can be hired by some private security company or corporate security department - but where should a fired historian go? On a teacher's pittance salary? On the other hand, the fate of the living depends on the investigator, and who, it would seem, would benefit if a historian gets to the bottom of the truth? In most cases, the participants in the events have been dead for a long time...

Modern Western mass culture traditionally “feeds” the public myths about Russia. Here are bears, and eternal winter, and Lenin, the KGB, AK-47 and vodka that have become an integral part of the image. To be fair, it is worth saying that foreigners created myths about the Rusyns during the formation of the Old Russian state. And often these myths were born not from evil intent, but from a misunderstanding of someone else’s world. So, the “hot ten” myths about our ancestors.

Russians live in an "underground hole paved with logs"

Arab merchants traveling through the lands of the Slavs trade routes" " and back, recorded in their diaries various subtleties life and culture of other peoples. True, such records often had a subjective coloring, which became the basis for the emergence of myths. One of the most famous errors in Arab chronicles that have survived to this day was the entry about the dwelling of the Slavs. The Arabs believed that the Slavs all year round live in an "underground burrow paved with logs." In this hole there is one room and lava, and in the center there is a pile of stones that are heated by fire. The Arabs claimed that people poured water on the stones, and in this hole it became so hot and stuffy that they had to sleep completely naked.

If a Slav, then definitely a pagan

For many centuries after 988, when Prince Vladimir baptized Rus' and ordered to “cut down churches city by city,” many Europeans believed that the lands of the Slavs were the land of pagans. However, it is possible that the Western European elite covered up their attempts to “Catholicize” their brothers in faith with this myth.

Beard is a sign of uncleanliness

In Rus' they really did wear beards. was considered a fundamental virtue of an Orthodox Russian person. But in the West, this gave rise to the myth that the Slavs are by nature unclean. In fact, in Russian baths they washed much more often than in the Louvre, where they used perfume to kill the “shameful smell”, and ladies chased fleas in their high hairstyles with special long wooden sticks.

Slavic warriors fight in the trees

This very ridiculous myth was born after the Slavs made several raids on Byzantium. “These wars wear neither armor nor an iron sword, but in case of danger they climb trees,” remains in the chronicles. In fact, they never “hid” in the trees; they knew how to fight perfectly in the forest. This myth appeared, perhaps, due to the difference in battle tactics. Russian soldiers retreated into the forest not out of fear, but because they could not cope with the heavy Byzantine cavalry in direct battle. In the forest, the Byzantine cataphracts lost their advantage.

Slavs go into battle naked

Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, the Byzantine emperor, wrote in his work “On the Administration of the Empire” that Slavic warriors go into battle naked. From this were born myths about the barbarity and fury of the Slavic army. In fact, the Rusyns did not go into battle in negligee, but only with a bare torso. True, as a rule, only detachment commanders removed chain mail from their bodies to show their intention to fight the enemy to the death. This also meant giving up the opportunity to negotiate, which the Byzantines loved so much. Going out to battle in this form did not mean at all that the Slavs did not have means of protection and archaeological finds confirmation of this.

Bears walk through Russian settlements

The myth about bears, still popular today, has very ancient roots. He was born before the baptism of Rus'. Byzantine historians back in the 9th century mentioned that “in the barbaric, foreign land of the Slavs, people worship bears as gods, and bears live among people and walk through their settlements.” The myth was born because of the Slavic god Veles, one of whose incarnations was a bear. This is how the myth about the Russian bear came from Ancient Rus' to modern Red Square. To be fair, it should be noted that bears did sometimes walk through Russian villages, although this happened in .

Slavs are intolerant of other religions

In the Western world there was a myth that the Slavs do not recognize any faith other than Orthodoxy. Although the Baptism of Rus' was a very painful process for local residents, with the advent of Christianity in the lands of the Slavs, religious tolerance was established. Already in Kievan Rus there were synagogues and Catholic churches founded by German merchants who came to Rus' to trade. And although a taboo was imposed on paganism, the temples of the ancient gods still remained.

Russian tolerance continues today. In Moscow alone (as of 2011), in addition to 670 temples and 26 chapels of the Russian Orthodox Church, there are 9 Old Believer temples, 6 mosques and an unknown number of Muslim prayer houses, 7 synagogues and 38 cultural Jewish centers, 2 temples of the Armenian Apostolic Church, 5 Buddhist churches, 3 Lutheran and 37 houses of worship of Protestant denominations.

Slavs are inhospitable recluses

For a long time Europeans did not dare to travel through the Slavic lands. Many believed that the Slavs were a closed and aggressive people. The first religious mission to the lands of the Slavs during the reign of Princess Olga ended in failure for the missionaries, which only fueled the belief about the inhospitality of the local residents. In fact, the Slavs even had a pagan god of hospitality. And the myths about the bloodthirstiness of the local population were born on that soil; the Slavs knew no mercy towards those who encroached on their lands, wealth or faith.

It is worth noting that Russians are distinguished by their hospitality even today. If in America the hero of the occasion traditionally expects gifts from his colleagues, then in Russia it’s the other way around: as soon as a person has the slightest reason to celebrate something, he immediately sets the table. Well-known and popular in Russia today.

Slavs “live among the trees”

Today it is generally accepted that the ancient Slavs were predominantly farmers. However, it is not. Even at the time of the formation and flourishing of Kievan Rus, most of the land was covered with forests. The well-known slash-and-burn method of farming looks doubtful for widespread use, since it required significant effort and time. Agriculture developed very slowly and was local in nature. The Slavs were mainly engaged in hunting, fishing and gathering. Many neighbors believed that the Slavs, like barbarians, “live among the trees.” Our ancestors indeed often settled in forests, however, they built huts and even fortifications there. Gradually the forest around was destroyed, and a settlement arose on the site.

Slavs don't exist

Perhaps the most “offensive” myth about the ancient Slavs is that their neighbors identified them with the Scythians who once lived in these lands. Some believed that the Slavic tribes were very small in number. True, some time passed, and the world was able to see that this was not at all the case.

Once upon a time, people inhabited the earth together with other peoples, who were also the grandchildren of good and evil deities.

From Alina Svyatogorovna and Ilm Svarozhich the gmurs and alvas descend. Gmurs and Alvs are relatives; the first Gmurs and Alvs were brothers. Only the Gmurs took after their father, the great blacksmith god Ilm Svarozhich, and the Alvas took after their beautiful mother Alina.

In the mountains, in caves, gmurs live, they are also called homozuli and gnomes. These are great master blacksmiths who know the secrets of the mountains. They were the first to learn how to mine ore and smelt metals.

In general, they are kind and hard-working people, but they have suffered greatly from human greed, and therefore they do not like people. They hide in deep mountain caves, where they built underground cities and palaces. Sometimes they come to the surface, and if they meet a person in the mountains, they scare him with a loud cry.

Gmurs fight in dungeons with mountain monsters and dragons. Gmurs are similar to people, only smaller in stature, so it is more convenient for them to walk through caves. Some of the gmurs mixed with people, and from them people received knowledge about blacksmithing and jewelry. Many; ancient families of blacksmiths have gmurs as their ancestors.

Alvas (alvins) are relatives of gmurs, but they cannot stand dungeons, so it was difficult for them to hide from people. They did not like to fight, so they did not resist, but only fled from the human tribe. Alvas are sages and wizards, but they possess only good magic and cannot cause harm.

Some alvins came to people and did a lot of good. They taught the Magi magic, secret sciences, and sought to improve morals. And they achieved something. But now there are almost no elves left, for the wrath of the rulers serving the forces of darkness was the first to be directed at them.

One of the last refuges of the elves was Eulisia - the Blessed Swan Country near Alatyr Mountain, but then they left from here too.

They say that somewhere in the ocean there is a magical island where they moved, but there is no road for people there. On this island, among the ever-blooming gardens, their castles stand. Here no one bothers the alvods, they eat fruits, sing songs and never grow old.

In addition to the Gmurs and Alvs, other magical peoples once lived on the lands of Rus' - forest druds, asil giants, or volotomanes, also white-eyed chud, cave dwellers pans, psygols, one-eyed oriks, female-controlled yagyns and others. All of them are of the human tribe, some of them mixed with the Slavs, some with other peoples. And their spirits still roam throughout Rus', guarding ancient mounds.

The Droods are descended from Anta Velesic and Priya Bogumirovna. They mixed with the acts to which some Cossack and Circassian families attribute their ancestors. From Veles Asila, the giant Asils and Volotomans descended, who mixed with the ancestors of the Belarusians, Poles and Celts.

There was another kind of giants, who are also called trolls. They appear to be the degenerate descendants of titans who were once exiled or driven from the shores Mediterranean Sea on North. Until recently, they inhabited northern forests and mountains (they were last seen near the Panov Mountains on the Volga). They owned black magic and could turn into rocks and snakes. And in the end they completely degenerated, turned into evil cannibals and were completely exterminated.

In ancient times, the White-Eyed Chud and Divya people lived in the Urals and the Russian North. Initially, they were of the same family, and had the same ancestors, apparently Churila Dyevich and Tarusa. Then they gave rise to many Aryan and Finnish families. In particular, they include the Lunar Dynasty of Indian and Venedian kings. They divided on religious grounds. The Dyev people began to serve Dy and went to the underground cities immediately after the battle between Svarog and Dy. They were sheltered by the underground inhabitants of the Pans, who descend from Pan Vievich. And the Chud went into those caves shortly before the inclusion of the Urals into the Moscow kingdom.

A report on the unknown miracle of the ancient manuscript collection of the Solovetsky Library was published in “Antiquities”, Proceedings of Moscow. Archaeol. society, vol. 14, M., 1890.

“Above that great river Ob, people walk underground, another river day and night with lights and go out to the (underground) lake, and on that lake there is a wonderful light and a great city.”

If fairy tales, parables and legends are more common about Chuds, Alvahs and Gmurs, then purely historical information has been preserved about the last giants who lived in Rus' back in the 10th century. Thus, the Arab diplomat and respected land writer Ibn Fadlan, who visited the upper reaches of the Volga, saw the remains of a just killed cannibal giant at the court of the Bulgarian Khan.

“And I saw that his head was like a large tub, and his ribs were like the largest dry fruit branches of palm trees, and in the same way the bones of his legs and both of his ulna bones. I was amazed at this and left."

This giant was caught in the forests of the Vesi tribe (that is, in the Murom forests). He had a violent temper, so he was kept on a chain and with boa constrictors because his screams caused women to have miscarriages.

L Yeshiy is the owner of the forest in the mythological ideas of the Slavic peoples. A frequent character in Russian fairy tales. Other names: forester, forester, leshak, forest uncle, lisun (polisun), wild peasant and even forest. The spirit's place of residence is a remote forest thicket, but sometimes also a wasteland.

He treats good people well, helps them get out of the forest, but he treats not-so-good people badly: he confuses them, makes them walk in circles. He sings in a voice without words, claps his hands, whistles, hoots, laughs, cries.

A folk legend talks about the goblin as a spawn of the devil: “There was only God and the devil on earth. God created man, and the devil tried to create, but he did not create a man, but a devil, and no matter how hard he tried and worked, he still could not create a man, all the devils came out of him. God saw that the devil had already created several devils, became angry with him and ordered Archangel Gabriel to overthrow Satan and all evil spirits from heaven. Gabriel overthrew. Whoever fell into the forest became a goblin, whoever fell into the water became a merman, whoever fell into a house became a brownie. That's why they have different names. And they are all the same demons.”

TO Orgorushi, or Koloverti, are small mythical creatures that serve on errands for brownies. As an independent character, he almost never appears, unlike the South Slavic evildoers. Mortals see them primarily in the form of cats, mostly black.

According to another version, korgorush are the servant's assistants and bring supplies or money to their owner, stealing them from under the nose of the neighbor's servant. Neighboring korgorushki, in turn, can act in a similar way, causing “accidental” breaking of dishes or losses that cannot be foreseen or prevented.

TO Olyada is a Slavic-Russian mythological character associated with the fertility cycle. In the guise of a mummer (goat, etc.) - a participant in folk Christmas rituals with games and songs (caroling, carols). However, in most carols, Kolyada is spoken of as a feminine creature.

Kolyada is the baby sun, the embodiment of the New Year's cycle, as well as a character of the holidays, similar to Avsen.

Once upon a time, Kolyada was not perceived as a mummer. Kolyada was a deity, and one of the most influential. They called carols and called. The days before the New Year were dedicated to Kolyada, and games were organized in her honor, which were subsequently held at Christmas time. The last patriarchal ban on the worship of Kolyada was issued on December 24, 1684.

IN The Eastern Slavs believed that in addition to ordinary people, in ancient times the earth was inhabited by various fantastic people and peoples: giants, cannibals, sea people, people with dog heads. All these legends were borrowed from books of the 13th–17th centuries, brought to Rus' from Byzantium and Europe, and came into the culture of the Eastern Slavs along with many apocryphal legends. These books contained retellings of the works of ancient writers about the structure of the earth and the peoples living on it. The most famous of them are “Alexandria” - legendary tales about the life of Alexander the Great, as well as “Cosmography” - a book that tells in a legendary form about the geography of the earth and the peoples inhabiting it.

Most of the legends were known about giants - the first people on earth who raised high mounds and built huge defensive ramparts. These people were so tall that the forest was like grass to them. modern people. Giants could transfer various objects to each other through the mountains. Even for fun, they could throw axes and their battle clubs to each other from one mountain to another. But the giants angered God with their unrighteous lives. And God destroyed them by causing a flood. And after the flood modern people arose. Until now, some ancient mounds are popularly considered to be the graves of giants and legends are told about the huge bones found there.

AHow did the first people appear on earth? East Slavic legends answer this question like this. God sculpted man from clay, just as a potter sculpts a pot. And God, like a real baker, first tried to make a man from dough, but He quickly had to abandon this idea. True, others say that God tried to sew a person from different scraps of skin, like a tailor sews a suit or dress. Where did these legends come from?

The Bible tells how man was molded from the earth, from dust: “And the Lord formed man from the dust of the ground.” But these stories did not enter the folk tradition as church canons, from the Bible, and from apocryphal books. In Rus', the book “How God Created Adam” was known, from the point of view of which not only God, but also Satan participated in the creation of man.

IN The Eastern Slavs believed that the earth was round, like a plate, and at the edges it converged with the sky. The earth is surrounded by an endless ocean. A common person cannot reach these places - only the souls of the dead reach them. And the sky is a huge vaulted dome covering the entire earth. The palate is very hard. God created him on the third day of the creation of the Universe to live there along with the angels and souls of holy people.

Our ancestors did not have a very good idea of what was happening at the edge of the earth - where it connects with the sky. Some legends said that in these places live tribes of wild one-eyed people, very strong and ferocious. In others - that the most ordinary people. Only when the women there wash their clothes do they hang them out to dry on their horns new month. And the sky is used as a large shelf, on which it is convenient to place various household utensils.

M Ifs that explain the origin of the earth and tell about the original existence of the earth, nature and man are called cosmogonic (this word is derived from two Greek words with the meanings “cosmos” and “to give birth”). One of the most ancient cosmogonic myths is the myth of the creation of the world from a wonderful golden egg. The image of the world egg from which the cosmos emerged was known to many peoples: the ancient Greeks, Indians, Iranians, and Chinese. Their myths say that in the beginning there was neither earth nor sky, the world was folded into a chicken (or duck) egg. In Finnish mythology, this egg is laid by a duck on a single hill overlooking the ocean. Then the egg falls, breaks, and the earth is formed from the lower half, and the sky from the upper part. In the mythology of the Eastern Slavs, scientists restore this plot on the basis of fairy tales, in which only its echoes can be seen.

In Russian fairy tales there is also an image of an egg dropped by a duck into the water. For example, the tale of the three kingdoms tells about the origin of the world. The hero goes to the underworld in search of three princesses and ends up first in the copper, then in the silver, and then in the golden kingdom, where he finds the princesses. Each princess gives the hero an egg, into which he turns all three kingdoms in turn. When the hero returns home, he throws the eggs on the ground and unfolds all three kingdoms. In addition, everyone knows the tale of the Ryaba Hen, which contains a very ancient motif of a breaking golden egg.

Unlike Greek mythology, which already from the 7th century BC became the object of literary processing and creative enrichment by priests, poets, writers and special mythographers, Slavic mythology, as “the life of the gods,” remained undescribed.

The Slavs, like other Indo-European peoples, rose from the lowest level of demonology associated with magic to the highest forms of religion. However, we know very little about this process. What we know is mainly the rich world of lower spirits and magic that surrounded the Slav. This world of spirits and magic formed the basis of the religious worldview of the Slavs from ancient times until the end of the pagan period. Russian medieval writers - chroniclers and church preachers - followed the traditions of the ancient Christian church fathers, who castigated and ridiculed ancient paganism, but did not describe it as it was around and in reality. Old Russian authors did the same. They addressed an audience that was full of pagan thoughts, actions, and constant witchcraft spells, which avoided church services and willingly participated in colorful and intoxicating riotous and popular pagan games. Therefore, they did not so much describe as blame. In XV – XVII centuries Slavic historians had already overcome their predecessors’ disdain for the mythological ideas of their ancestors and began to collect written and ethnographic data about the ancient pagan gods and details of the cult of the Slavic peoples.

Unfortunately, in these Renaissance works by various authors, be it the Pole Jan Dlugosz or the Russian author of the Gustyn Chronicle, the main idea was comparison with such an international standard as Greco-Roman mythology. Essentially, from the total sum of Slavic and foreign sources we can reliably draw only a list of names Slavic gods and goddesses. Russian chronicles name the gods whose cult was established by Prince Vladimir in 980 - these are Perun, Stribog, Dazhbog, Khors, Semargl and the goddess Makosh. In addition, Veles, Svarog, Rod and women in labor are mentioned. Ethnography already in the 17th century added several mythological characters such as Lada and Lelya.

Catholic missionaries in Western Slavic lands call the gods Svyatovit, Svarozhich, Yarovit, Virgo, Zhiva, Radogost and other gods. Since the actual Slavic texts and images of gods and spirits have not been preserved due to the fact that Christianization interrupted the pagan tradition, the main source of information is medieval chronicles, teachings against paganism, chronicles, archaeological excavations, folklore and ethnographic collections. Information about the gods of the Western Slavs is very scarce, for example, the “History of Poland” by Jan Dlugosz (1415 - 1480), which gives a list of deities and their correspondence from Greek and Roman mythology: Perun - Zeus, Nyya - Pluto, Dziewana - Venus, Marzhana - Ceres, Share - Fortune, etc.

Czech and Slovak data on the gods, as many scientists believe, need a critical attitude. Little is known about the mythology of the southern Slavs. Having early fallen into the sphere of influence of Byzantium and other powerful civilizations of the Mediterranean, having adopted Christianity before other Slavs, they largely lost information about the former composition of their pantheon.

The mythology of the Eastern Slavs has been most fully preserved. We find early information about it in the “Tale of Bygone Years” (XII century), which reports that Prince Vladimir the Holy (? – 1015) sought to create a nationwide pagan pantheon. However, his adoption of Christianity in 988 entailed the destruction of the idols of the so-called Vladimirov pantheon (they were solemnly thrown into the Dnieper), as well as the ban on paganism and its rituals.

The old gods began to be identified with Christian saints: Perun turned into Saint Elijah, Veles into Saint Blaise, Yarila into Saint George. However, the mythological ideas of our ancestors continue to live in folk traditions, holidays, beliefs and rituals, as well as in songs, fairy tales, conspiracies and signs. Ancient mythological characters such as goblin, mermaids, merman, brownies and devils are vividly imprinted in speech, proverbs and sayings. Developing, Slavic mythology went through three stages - spirits, nature deities and idol gods (idols). The Slavs revered the gods of life and death (Zhiva and Moran), fertility and the plant kingdom, heavenly bodies and fire, sky and war; Not only the sun or water were personified, but also numerous house spirits, etc. - worship and admiration were expressed in the offering of blood and bloodless sacrifices.

In the 19th century, Russian scientists began to explore Russian myths, tales and legends, understanding their scientific value and the importance of preserving them for subsequent generations. Key to the new understanding of Slavic mythology were the works of F. I. Buslaev, A. A. Potebnya, I. P. Sakharov, such works as the three-volume study of A. N. Afanasyev “Poetic views of the Slavs on nature”, “Myths of Slavic paganism” and “A Brief Essay on Russian Mythology” by D. O. Shepping, “The Deities of the Ancient Slavs” by A. S. Famintsyn and others.

The first to arise was the mythological school, which is based on the comparative historical method of study, the establishment organic connection language, folk poetry and folk mythology, the principle of the collective nature of creativity. Fyodor Ivanovich Buslaev (1818-1897) is rightfully considered the creator of this school.

In the most ancient period of language, says Buslaev, a word as an expression of legends and rituals, events and objects was understood in the closest connection with what it expresses: “the name imprinted a belief or event, and from the name a legend or myth arose again.” A special “epic ritual” in the repetition of ordinary expressions led to the fact that what was once said about any subject seemed so successful that it no longer needed further modification. Language thus became a “faithful instrument of tradition.” The method, originally associated with the comparison of languages, the establishment of common forms of words and their elevation to the language of the Indo-European peoples, was for the first time in Russian science transferred by Buslaev to folklore and applied to the study of the mythological legends of the Slavs.

“Poetic inspiration belonged to everyone, like a proverb, like a legal saying. The whole people were poets. Individuals were not poets, but singers or storytellers, they only knew how to tell or sing more accurately and skillfully what was known to everyone. The power of tradition reigned supreme over the epic singer, not allowing him to stand out from the group. Not knowing the laws of nature, neither physical nor moral, epic poetry represented both in an inseparable totality, expressed in numerous similes and metaphors. The heroic epic is only a further development of the primitive mythological legend . The theogonic epic is replaced by the heroic at that stage of the development of epic poetry when legends about the affairs of people began to join pure myth. At this time, the epic epic grows from the myth, from which the fairy tale subsequently emerged. The people preserve their epic legends not only in epics and fairy tales , but also in individual sayings, short spells, proverbs, sayings, oaths, riddles, signs and superstitions."

These are the main provisions of Buslaev’s mythological theory, which in the 60-70s of the 19th century gradually developed into a school of comparative mythology and the theory of borrowing.
The theory of comparative mythology was developed by Alexander Nikolaevich Afanasyev (1826-1871), Orest Fedorovich Miller (1833-1889) and Alexander Alexandrovich Kotlyarevsky (1837-1881). Their focus was on the problem of the origin of myth in the very process of its creation. Most of the myths, according to this theory, go back to the oldest tribe Aryans Standing out from this common ancestral tribe, the peoples spread its legends throughout the world, therefore the legends of the “Dove Book” almost completely coincide with the songs of the Old Scandinavian “Elder Edda” and ancient myths Hindus.

The comparative method, according to Afanasyev, “provides a means of restoring the original form of legends.” Epic songs are of particular importance for understanding Slavic mythology (this term was introduced into use by I.P. Sakharov; before that, epic songs were called antiquities). Russian heroic epics can be ranked alongside heroic myths in other mythological systems with the difference that the epics are largely historical, telling about the events of the 11th-16th centuries. The heroes of the epics - Ilya Muromets, Volga, Mikula Selyaninovich, Vasily Buslaev and others are perceived not only as individuals related to a certain historical era, but above all - as defenders, ancestors, namely epic heroes. Hence their unity with nature and Magic power, their invincibility (there are practically no epics about the death of heroes or about the battles they fought). Initially existing in an oral version, as the work of singer-storytellers, epics, of course, have undergone considerable changes. There is reason to believe that they once existed in a more mythologized form.

Slavic mythology is characterized by the fact that it is comprehensive and does not represent a separate area of the people's idea of the world and the universe (like fantasy or religion), but is embodied even in everyday life - be it rites, rituals, cults or the agricultural calendar, preserved demonology (from brownies, witches and goblin to banniks and mermaids) or a forgotten identification (for example, pagan Perun with the Christian Saint Elijah). Therefore, practically destroyed at the level of texts until the 11th century, it continues to live in images, symbolism, rituals and in the language itself.