Was the main pagan idol in Rus'. Paganism: history of origin

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Introduction

1. Paganism in Rus'

2. Rituals and ritual actions

3. Old Russian sanctuaries

4. Sacred trees

5. Hostile and evil deities

6. Priests and their role

Conclusion

Bibliography

INconducting

The Slavic people are considered relatively young in history. Under their own name, they were first mentioned in written sources only from the 6th century. We first encounter the name of the Slavs in the form oxhabnvos in Pseudo-Caesarius around 525. Currently, the region extending north of the Carpathians is recognized as the homeland of the Slavs. But when it comes to defining its boundaries, scientists differ quite significantly among themselves. For example, one of the founders of Slavic studies, the Czech scientist Shofarik, drew the border of the Slavic ancestral home at the plant from the mouth of the Vistula to the Neman, in the north - from Novgorod to the sources of the Volga and Dnieper, in the east - to the Don. Further, in his opinion, it went through the lower Dnieper and Dniester along the Carpathians to the Vistula and along the watershed of the Oder and Vistula to the Baltic Sea. The problems of the origin and settlement of the Slavs are still debatable, but numerous studies by historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnographers and linguists make it possible to draw a general picture of the early history of the Eastern Slavic peoples. In the middle of the 1st millennium AD. On the general territory of Eastern Europe, from Lake Ilmen to the Black Sea steppes and from the Eastern Carpathians to the Volga, East Slavic tribes formed. Historians count about 15 such tribes. Each tribe was a collection of clans and then occupied a relatively small isolated area. According to the Tale of Bygone Years, a map of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs in the 8th-9th centuries. looked like this: the Slovenes (Ilinsky Slavs) lived on the shores of Lake Ilmen and Volkhva; Krivichi with Polotsk residents - in the upper reaches of the Western Dvina, Volga and Dnieper; Dregovichi - between Pripyat and Berezina; Vyatichi - on the Oka and Moscow Rivers; Radimichi - on the Sozh and Desna; northerners - on the Desna, Seym, Sula and Northern Donets; Drevlyans - in Pripyat and in the Middle Dnieper region; glade - along the middle reaches of the Dnieper; Buzhans, Volynians, Dulebs - in Volyn, along the Bug; Tivertsi, streets - in the very south, near the Black Sea and the Danube. The group of Eastern Slavs includes: Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. The Slavs raised cattle and pigs, as well as horses, and were engaged in hunting and fishing. In everyday life, the Slavs widely used the so-called ritual calendar, associated with agricultural magic. It celebrated the days of the spring-summer agricultural season from seed germination to harvest and especially highlighted the days of pagan prayers for rain in four different dates. The indicated four periods of rain were considered optimal for the Kiev region in agronomic manuals of the late 19th century, which indicated that the Slavs had 4th century rainfall. reliable agrotechnical observations.

1. Paganism in Rus'

The pagans looked at human life from a purely material side: under the dominance of physical strength, a weak person was the most unfortunate creature, and again the life of such a person was considered a feat of compassion. The religion of the Eastern Slavs is strikingly similar to the original religion of the Aryan tribes: it consisted in the worship of physical deities, natural phenomena and the souls of the deceased, ancestral domestic geniuses. But we do not notice traces of the heroic element, which so strongly develops anthropomorphism, among the Slavs, and this may mean that conquering squads under the command of hero leaders were not formed among them and that their resettlement took place in a tribal, and not in a squad form. East Slavic paganism on the eve of the creation of Kievan Rus and its subsequent coexistence with Christianity is reflected in a large number of materials that are sources for its study. These are, first of all, authentic and accurately dated archaeological materials that reveal the very essence of the pagan cult: idols of gods, sanctuaries, cemeteries without external ground signs (“burial fields”, “fields of burial urns”), as well as with preserved mounds of ancient burial mounds. In addition, these are various products of applied art, found in mounds, in treasures and simply in the cultural layers of cities, saturated with archival pagan symbols. Of these, the most valuable are women's jewelry, which are often used as wedding sets in burial complexes and are therefore especially rich in magical spell plots and amulets - amulets. A peculiar, but very poorly studied remnant of the pagan side are the numerous names of tracts: “Holy Mountain”, “Bald Mountain” (the seat of witches), “Holy Lake”, “Holy Grove”, “Peryn”, “Volosovo”, etc. A very important source is the testimony of contemporaries, recorded in chronicles, or in specially recorded teachings against paganism. For about a century and a half, Kievan Rus was a state with a pagan system, often opposed to the penetration of Christianity. In Kievan Rus IX - X centuries. An influential class of priests (“magi”) emerged, leading rituals, preserving ancient mythology and developing elaborate agrarian and incantatory symbolism. In the era of Svyatoslav, in connection with the warriors with Byzantium, Christianity became a persecuted religion, and paganism was reformed and opposed to the penetration of Christianity into Rus': the so-called “Pantheon of Vladimir” was, on the one hand, a response to Christianity, and on the other, the assertion of princely power and domination of the warrior class - feudal lords. The implementation of general tribal ritual actions (“cathedrals”, “events”), the organization of ritual actions, sanctuaries and grandiose princely mounds, compliance with calendar dates of the annual ritual cycle, storage, execution and creative replenishment of the fund of mythological and ethical tales required a special priestly class (“magi” , “sorcerer”, “cloud scavengers”, “witches”, “tricksters”, etc.). A century after the baptism of Rus', the Magi could, in some cases, win over an entire city to their side to oppose the prince or bishop (Novgorod). In the 980s, Greek Christianity found in Rus' not simple village witchcraft, but a significantly developed pagan culture with its own mythology, pantheon of main deities, priests, in all likelihood, with its own pagan chronicle of 912 - 980. The strength of pagan ideas in the Russian feudal cities of the Middle Ages is evident, firstly, from numerous church teachings. Directed against pagan beliefs and pagan rituals and festivals held in cities, and secondly, from the pagan symbolism of applied art, which was generally desired not only by ordinary people of the urban settlement, but also by the highest, princely circles (treasures of the 1230s). In the second half of the 12th century, the pagan element was still fully felt.

2. Rituals and ritual actions

And so, we already know that the ancient Slavs were pagans who deified the forces of nature. Their main gods were: God Rot - the god of heaven and earth; Perun is the god of thunder and lightning, as well as war and weapons; Hair or

Veles - god of wealth and cattle breeding; Dazh God (or Yarilo) is the solar deity of light, warmth and blossoming nature. Deities associated with those forces of nature influencing agriculture were very important.

Also, the ancient Slavs greatly revered the souls of their ancestors, thinking that they are somewhere in the middle sky “aere” - “Irie” and obviously contribute to all heavenly operations (rain, fog, snow) for the benefit of the remaining descendants. When, on the days of commemoration of their ancestors, they were invited to a festive meal, the “grandfathers” were imagined flying through the air.

From time immemorial, prepared foods - porridge and bread - have been ritual food and an obligatory part of sacrifice to such fertility deities as women in labor. There were special types of porridge that had only a ritual purpose: “kutya”, “kolivo” (made from wheat grains). Kutya was cooked in a pot and served in a pot or in a bowl on the festive table or taken to the cemetery in the “domovina” when commemorating the dead. There were houses of the dead as a place of communication with benevolent ancestors. In many rituals, village residents left their family mansions and participated in a community-wide ritual action. Some of these ceremonies were carried out within the village, but most of them, in all likelihood, took place on the outskirts of the hills, at the “storehouses” of the honorable ones, or between several villages (“games between villages”). It is also impossible to exclude the long existence of ancient tribal sanctuaries on the sacred mountains, which arose back in the Scythian-Skolot time.

An example of a Zarubenets cult place within a village is a settlement (breast) near Pochep in the Middle Desna basin, where for the first time in the century AD Slavic colonization from the Middle Dnieper region headed in the middle of the excavated space, among a large number of rectangular dwellings with traces of powerful stove pillars, a building with a round plan was discovered . Interesting dishes with magical signs“Pots for illuminated brew”, a bowl with a sign of fertility and a pot with four signs were found there, which indicate a type of fertility sign, ideograms of a plowed or sown field. Along the neck of the vessel there is an ornament of drop-shaped round impressions, from the girdle of these drops triangles of three drops descend down. In general, the ornament on this pot is very eloquent: “heavenly moisture irrigates the fields,” i.e. contains the main idea of agrarian-magical spells. In this small house, in all likelihood, only sacred dishes were kept, and the ceremony of boiling the first fruits itself was carried out, judging by the excavations, in an adjacent round room, in the middle of which there was a large hearth - an altar. At the altar, closer to the entrance, there are traces of pillars and massive remains of charred wood, which can naturally be regarded as the remains of the main idol, which occupied the main position in the entire sanctuary. In the depths of the rotunda, to the left and right of the altar-hearth and the central idol, two large niches were built, near which there were pillars on the circumference of the building, obviously idols of lesser importance. It is natural to assume, given the circular construction of the temple and the central position of the hearth-altar, a wide smoke hole in the center of the conical roof. It released flames and smoke to the sky and at the same time illuminated the entire temple from above with natural daylight. In Slavic embroidery, the motif of a goddess in a temple is very common, but the temple is presented in three forms: firstly, in the form of a house with a gable roof (in this case, to the goddess in labor) and secondly. Like a barn-shaped building with a suspended middle part and a lavishly decorated closed roof. On such embroideries, in the middle, over the entire height of the building shown as if in cross-section, a huge idol of Mokosh was depicted with his arms lowered to the ground; calendar, this pose of the goddess can be timed to coincide with the Kupala ritual (June 23 - 29), at the time of the initial ripening of the ears of corn and the appearance of the first fruits of this year (peas, beans). Makosh indicates the land that has already grown the plant, whereas in embroideries associated with spring rituals , Makosh raises his hands to the sky, to the supreme deity with a prayer for sun and rain for the newly sown seeds.

The large central idol of Mokosh is accompanied by two idols of women in labor - Lada and Lelya, standing on the sides of the "Mother of the Harvest" - Mokosh. The coincidence with the Pochep temple is complete - one idol in the middle and two on the sides. Embroidery gives what archeology rarely can - all three idols are female. But in Russian embroideries there is still a third type of temple buildings, inside of which the idol of Mokosh is also placed, but the roof over the goddess’s head is not closed and leaves a significant opening. The idol of Mokosh is placed in the middle under the roof opening. On the sides of the huge Mokosh there are not idols of women in labor, but images of horsemen (or horsewomen?). Top part buildings on the embroidery are usually occupied by images of birds and star-shaped signs (it would not be much of a stretch to recognize these embroideries as images of the vault of heaven). However, another assumption is also possible: that the embroidered Makosh temple with a cut off roof represents a cross-section of a Pochep-type sanctuary. The heavenly signs do not contradict this, since the sky was clearly visible from the koliba. The presence of horsemen on the sides of the main idol contradicts this assumption, but taking into account the season (“top of summer”), it can be assumed that the sanctuary was not an enclosed space, but was a canopy with pillars going in a circle (traces of nine pillars have been preserved) inside which there were three idols and the altar. In this case, all the internal elements of the temple were visible to the entire village from the outside. It is possible that the horsemen should not be perceived too realistically - the spring goddesses Lada and Lelya on ritual towels intended for the festivities of welcoming spring were depicted on horseback, with plows behind the saddle; the presence of horsemen around Mokosh could be just an image of a familiar symbol, and not a confirmation of real horsewomen inside the temple. The perimeter of such a dugout could serve as a circular earthen bench, a kind of “sintron” around the main idol and the hearth, on which a sacred brew from the first fruits was brewed in a pot with signs of fertility. About 30 - 35 people could sit on the “sintron” with a circumference of 15 m. P. Bessonov recorded an interesting cycle of Kupala ritual songs. Songs for Kupala (the night of June 23-24, solstice) constitute a special, clearly distinguishing and very archaic cycle; they are accompanied by the chorus “this and that!” or “tu-tu-tu” (characteristic only of Kupala songs) and obligatory stamping and knocking at this time. Obviously, these are the remains of a ritual dance. The holiday of Kupala, writes Bessonov, “the highest summer point of the most ancient sacred rituals, legends and songs... As if exhausted in the revelry of Kupala, songwriting henceforth falls silent for a long time...”.

Kupala is called “Sobotka” i.e. “co-being”, joint gathering. The plots of Kupala songs are associated with traditional eroticism at games (No. 62 according to Bessonov), with obligatory bathing and with echoes of girls’ sacrifices to the deity of the river, “Danube” (No. 68, 72), with the collection of healing potions (No. 79), etc. One of songs (No. 94) tells about the preparation of a ritual potion (angelica) in a pot; somehow this is connected with the death of a woman (“an angel on the pot, an uncle on the paw”). The ritual food at the holiday is vegetable and dairy. The main thing in the Kupala ritual was, as you know, a fire, over which they jumped in pairs. An echo of the ritual is the game of burners (“burn, burn clearly so that it doesn’t go out...”). the construction of the fire was entrusted to a woman (“the young woman is getting younger, lay out her bathing suit”; No. 87). The basis of the future fire was a pillar or stake driven into the ground: “just as Kupala Soma was depicted as a pillar, and her head was in gold or she was all covered in greenery, so in her image a stake is made in the ritual, stuck into the ground, wrapped in straw, threshed ears of corn, hemp, and at the top a bunch of straw, which is called Kupala and which is lit on Kupala night. People come running to this sign and the famous Kupala bonfire flares up.” The oak tree plays an important role in the songs; oak branches go into the fire. The connection between Kupala rituals and the agrarian magic of the “top of summer” is undoubtedly. An analysis of Russian embroidery showed that ritual towels with the image of Mokosh-Kupala, where the goddess is surrounded by solar signs and is always shown with her hands lowered to the fruit-bearing earth, belong to this season; head

Baths are often entwined with ears of grain; ears of grain were also depicted at the feet of the goddess. If in the spring cycle, on the sides of the goddess, women were depicted - horsemen with plows behind their backs, then on the towels of the Kupala cycle, male horsemen were embroidered. Makosh, the goddess of earthly fertility, was a mediator between heaven and earth (in the spring cycle she was always depicted with her hands raised to the sky). With this duality one can compare an interesting detail of women’s Kupala clothing: “In the decoration of those celebrating, the main attention is paid to the woman’s head and shoes.” The girls, in addition to wreaths and greenery, put on their heads a “warrior” made of fabric of necessarily blue, heavenly color; stockings and garters were decorated on the legs. The attention to the symbolism of heaven (blue warrior) and earth (shoes, stockings) is evident; the ritual archaic song about the unclean Kupala - Mokosh very fully correlates with the excavation data. Both here and here the sanctuary is located “syered sala”; both here and there the cult place was a kind of small building with a canopy. Syaröd sala Vouchkovsky

That's it! (chorus with tapping and stomping) There stood an oak tree (canopy with canopy, open chapel) Too-there-too! And the kids (guys, great fellows) went to pray to God: That’s it! They hugged Stobe and kissed the stove Too-too-too! In front of Sopukha (Kupala) they lay like a roof That's it! The Jans thought - hidden, Tu-tu-tu! And the knife Sopukha (Kupala) is sloppy! That's it! According to folklore, the main object of the cult was a pillar, which the worshipers hugged, and a stove, which they kissed. Both the oven and the pillar in the center of the building were discovered during excavations. The embroideries convey to us the image of Mokosh as the center of a three-figure composition with three upcoming deities. Excavations also allow us to talk about three shaped compositions: in the center there is a pillar near the stove (Makosh - Kupalo), and on the sides there are those standing in the side niches. In combination with dishes marked with magical signs of fertility, found in the house next to the sanctuary, the entire ritual complex of the Zarubinets village “Grudka” (Pochepskoe village) can be interpreted as the temple of Makosh, called Kupala for the Kupala ritual on June 23 - 29, which is common in folklore personification of the holiday. So from winter carols the god of carols took shape by the 17th century, and from summer holiday Kupala the deity of Kupala originated.

A rural sanctuary was also found, intended for winter New Year's fortune-telling about fate in the coming year. Places for sacrifices and general village feasts were found in it - bratchins, again three stone idols. Of particular interest is the first four-sided idol; it is designed in the upper part in the form of a round head with four faces in each side, respectively. In this respect, he resembles Svyatovit-Rod of Zbruch. Faces looking “on all four sides” are apotropaic, protecting from evil. Located in front and behind, right and left. It is not for nothing that the expression “from all four sides” is so rooted in the Russian language. “Everything” is the four indicated directions, which could sometimes also indicate geographic coordinates: from the north and south, from the west and from the east. Since “evil winds” were considered the bearers of evil, the geographical concept is quite appropriate in the idea of ubiquity. The outcome of evil was assessed not only in relation to the individual (behind, on the left), but also in relation to nature as a whole according to the cardinal points or, in modern terms, according to geographical coordinates. Such idols, more than once found in excavations, were supposed to protect the village from all four sides. Of the diverse annual cycle of pagan rituals recorded by ethnographers, only a small part was carried out inside the village and in houses. These are winter holidays with their carols, New Year and Veles Day. But already Maslenitsa with its rolling of the wheel of fire. Riding with bells, burning an effigy of winter, mummers, spells of spring, fist fights, etc. went beyond the boundaries of the village and turned into “a playground between the villages.” The entire spring cycle and the summer, Kupala cycle, are associated with nature, with fields, with “red hills”, river banks, birch groves.

The calendar timing of rituals, preserved both by wooden carved calendars of the Russian village, and by agricultural signs, later dedicated to the holy calendar, arose long before the baptism of Rus', as evidenced by the most interesting calendars of our era.

The overwhelming majority of ancient Slavic pagan festivals and prayers were held publicly, were an “event”, a joint spell of nature and were held not in a house or in a village, but outside the everyday circle of life. The ancient farmer needed, first of all, to influence nature, to appeal to its vegetative power, to turn to various “groves”, sacred trees, to water sources - springs, storehouses, to fields in the process of plowing, sowing and during the ripening of the precious harvest. In addition to these very specific sections of nature where seven-mile magic is very easily visible, there was also the veneration of mountains and hills, associated with the generalization of nature, with those Rozhanitsars and the Family who controlled nature as a whole, controlled it from the sky in which they were located. It is universal for all mankind to venerate mountains and conduct special prayers on them, addressed to one or another supreme deity. Sacrifice to the forces of nature and the religious prayerful attitude to the forces of nature are recorded by many ancient Russian sources, which the churchmen greatly condemned in their teachings, explaining either by lack of knowledge of the true faith or by the machinations of the devil, who “is deceived in believing in the creature and in the sun and fire and in the springs.” and in the tree and in the other things are different...” And so, the most accurately recorded place for annual prayers were high hills, mountains that elevated those praying above the level ordinary life and as if bringing them closer to the heavenly rulers of the world, women in labor or Rod.

“Red Hills”, “red hills”, where Maslenitsa burning of effigies of winter was held, the ritual of conjuring spring, the meeting of Lada and Lelya, the rolling of eggs on St. Thomas’ week (which was called the “red hill”) were probably near every village. In the plains, where there were no noticeable hills, peasants celebrated the first spring thawed patches in the meadows, where the snow began to melt first, and there they held a ceremony to welcome spring. Sacred mountains are often called “Bald” or “Maiden”. there is an assumption that the first name could be associated with one or another male deity, with a virgin goddess who was a distant predecessor of the Christian Mother of God, the Virgin Mary. Often idols of a naked male deity were discovered on bald mountains. There were often rumors about such mountains that witches lived on them.

In some cases, the Maiden Mountains confirm their name. On one of the Maiden Mountains, a unique altar-oven was found, which was a composition of nine hemispherical depressions. The number nine, in combination with the maiden name of this huge and very impressive mountain, suggests (as with the fortune-telling cup with nine marks of the months) that the creators of the altar with nine component parts primarily correlated this central structure of the Maiden Mountain with the nine months of pregnancy. The virgin goddess, as a stable idea of a female agrarian deity, was obviously thought of, like the Christian Mother of God, not just as a girl, but as one who had already “carried in her womb” and had nine months to prepare for the birth of a new life. The number nine is included in the category of common Slavic sacred numbers (“for three-nine lands”, “to the three-ninth kingdom, three-tenth state”, etc.). Also in the Pogan settlement, the nine-pit complex is located near the wall of a pagan temple that preceded the construction of the church. There were also Babin Mountains dedicated to a female deity, but obviously of a different type than the maiden goddess; it could be a mother goddess like Ma-koshi, the goddess of harvest and fate, the personification of all earthly nature (mother earth). Near some of the Babin Mountains, burial grounds with corpses were discovered with burnings and corpses. Their peculiarity was the storage of infant skulls without ritual equipment. Based on these finds, one can recall the words of medieval writers about ancient pagan sacrifices. Kiril Turovsky, in his sermon on St. Thomas’ week (“red hill”), wrote: “from the village (from now on) we will not accept the demands of hell, the slaughter of children by fathers, not the death of honor - the end of idolatry and destructive demonic violence.” Another author, a little earlier, wrote: “Tavera child-cutting with an idol from the first-born.” Ethnography knows many beliefs about werewolves - ghouls (vovkodlaks), confined mainly to the territory of Belarus and Ukraine, i.e. to those places where the Milograd culture is known. There were beliefs that once a year they became wolves for a few days and then returned to their previous state.

The swamp settlements and the pagan essence of this cult are still mysterious and unsolved for us. Of course, there is undoubtedly a connection with the cult of water and the underwater-underground “lower world”, best of all the enemy of the swamp itself with its unexplored and inaccessible depths, swamp lights, the treachery of swamp greenery and bogs, and the harmfulness of swamp fevers. The sanctuary in the swamp was given a perfectly round shape. It is possible that here, as in the creation of the mound, a model of the visible earth, a regular circle of horizon-outlook, was thought of as the antithesis of the semi-hostile element of water. There is an assumption that swamp settlements (sometimes filled up, artificially made by people) could be dedicated to the owner of this lower world, whose role is often played by a lizard. In the cosmological composition of mountain or Samgil shaman plaques, the lower world was always depicted in the form of a lizard with a wolf's ear and an open mouth - the lizard swallows the evening setting sun. The absence at the site of real traces of the consumption of victims by the ritual participants may indicate a special form of sacrifice, different from the usual placing of sacrificial meat on the fire and subsequent eating of it. One of the main teachings against paganism tells about two forms of sacrifice:

1. And they (the pagan gods) slaughter chickens and then, having committed the blunder, also eat them themselves...

2. Oh wretched smoke, I am cutting myself as a sacrifice to an idol, and the frost is drowning in the waters. And they pray to the wells and bring the mosque into the water, making a sacrifice to Belear.” This relatively late teaching deals with the sacrifice of chickens. And what was the situation like among the peoples - werewolves (Neurs) who lived in a “beastly manner” one and a half to two thousand years before this teaching, who were then “thrown into the water”? We see some hint of this in the children's game “Lizard”: children dance in a circle; in the center of the circle sits a boy pretending to be a lizard, the choir sings: Sit down the lizard under the feasting fire

On the walnut bush, Where is the nut lusna... (I want to marry) - Take yourself the girl that you want... In some versions, the beginning of the song contains the words: I will give you, lizard, a red girl. In other variants there is a funeral motif: digging a hole and commemorating the lizard. The game of lizard is widely known in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

Judging by the fact that the lizard picks nuts from the bush, the ritual took place in the second half of summer, when the nuts ripen. Many children's games are a transformation of ancient pagan rituals and a transformation, of course, softened. Let us compare with this the belief that mermen marry drowned women. The same cycle of rites of propitiation of water or underwater-underground forces should include numerous widespread rites (also turned into games) of the “funeral of Kostroma”, “funeral of Morena”, “funeral of Kupala”, when a doll dressed in girl’s clothes is drowned in water. All fragments and echoes of Slavic rituals are combined into a single complex: the ancient Slavs, like the ancient Greeks, had a ritual of propitiating the deities of the underworld, which influenced fertility by making sacrifices thrown into the water. Rituals associated with “throwing into the water” victims to the deity of the underwater underground world, which is directly related to the fertility of the soil, and, consequently, to the harvest, were carried out in the middle of summer on Kupala, when the grain began to ear and the final result of the season was not yet clear. In these rituals, the male, fertilizing principle and the female, bearing and giving birth, were intertwined. In the middle of summer, the ancient Greeks drowned two victims in the sea from a cliff - a man and a woman. In Slavic rituals, we know the funeral of Yarila (Ivan) as the personification of the masculine principle, which had already given new life and therefore became useless, and the funeral of Kostroma, Kupala, the images of which, dressed in women's clothing, were seen off with a funeral cry, and then drowned in water.

The duality of masculine and feminine principles was reflected in the fact that the Kostroma stuffed doll was sometimes dressed as a man. The drowning of Kostroma in water remains unknown. Etymologically, the word “kostroma” is associated with words meaning “shaggy top of grass”, “broom”, “beard of ears”. Based on this, perhaps the word Kostroma should be considered as a compound: Mother of ears? Then the drowning of Kostroma should topologically correspond to the departure of Persephone-Proserpina to the underworld, and the Slavic Lizard, who married the drowned girl, should correspond to Hades, the god of the underworld, the husband of Persephone.

The apparent illogicality of the sacrificed images of Yarila, the god of the fierce spring vegetative force, and Kostroma - the Mother of ears of grain, is eliminated by calendar dates: the personification of these natural forces was drowned or burned only when spring sprouts appeared instead of the old grain, when the ears of grain had already formed. In the temporary transformations of the ritual, the dolls of Kostroma or Kupala replaced not the deity Kostroma or Kupala (researchers are right in denying the existence of the idea of such goddesses), but a sacrifice, a human sacrifice made in thanksgiving to these forces of seasonal action, and to the constantly existing ruler of all underground and underwater forces , promoting fertility, i.e. Lizard, Hades, Poseidon. This ritual was carried out among the Greeks in the month of Thargelion in the middle of summer, and among the Slavs on Kupala (June 23) or on Peter's Day (June 29). Through the softened form of later theatricalization and play conventions one can discern the cruel primary form of the primitive ritual. A. A. Potebnya, in her study of the Kupala festival, cites a mother’s cry full of tragedy for a drowned (in ancient times, drowned) girl: people, don’t take water, don’t fish, don’t mow the grass on the bends of the river - this is the beauty of my daughter, this is hers body, her braid... This song was sung when the ritual of drowning Kupala was performed. The widest distribution of rituals of drowning dolls (mostly female ones) on the days of the “top of summer” (late June), coinciding with the summer solstice, is quite consistent with the abundance of swamp settlements in the forest zone that arose in Scythian times and existed until Kievan Rus. As a warning that requires archaeological and folkloristic verification, one can express the idea that the swamp settlements of the Milograd and Zarubinets culture zone (and for later times, more widely) are part of the ritual places of the ancient Slavs (along with revered mountains), dedicated to the archaic cult of the underground-underwater the Lizard deity, whose victims were drowned in the water of the swamp surrounding the sanctuary. In Russian folklore, as we see above, a gloomy2 image of the ritual of sacrificing a goat has been preserved.

This, as V. Ya. Propp established, is a song version of the fairy tale about brother Ivanushka and sister Alyonushka, drowned by an evil witch. Ivanushka wants to return her drowned sister. Alyonushka, my sister! Swim to the shore: The fires are burning flammable, The cauldrons are boiling, They want to kill me... The drowned girl answers: (I would be glad) to jump out - The flammable stone is pulling to the bottom, The yellow sands have sucked out my heart. The name of brother Ivanushka may indicate a ritual on the night of Ivan Kupala; then sister Alyonushka - Kupala herself, a victim doomed to become “drowned in water.” On Kupala night and “great fires are burning,” rituals are performed near the water, simulating the drowning of a victim: bathing a girl dressed up as Kupala, or immersing a stuffed doll depicting Kupala in the water.

3. Old Russian sanctuaries

Externally, the sanctuary looked like a real fortress on the high bank of the Desna: a deep ditch, a high horseshoe-shaped rampart and wooden walls (fence?) along the upper edge of the site. The diameter of the round (now triangular) site was approximately 60 m, i.e. equal to the diameter of medium-sized swamp settlements. Internal organization The courtyard of the sanctuary-fortress was as follows: along the entire shaft, close to it, in the western part of the site, a long structure, curved in the shape of the shaft, 6 m wide, was built. Its length (counting the collapsed part) should have been about 60 m. At a distance of 5 - 6 meters from the long house, vertical pillars were dug into the mainland to a depth of more than a meter, located, like the house, in a semicircle. These are idols. At the eastern end of the site, opposite the house and the idols, there was a certain structure, from which (or from which, if one was replaced by another) remained vertical pillars, coals, ash, and calcined earth. At the southern wall of the site there are ash, coals, animal bones and an abundance of so-called “horned bricks” - stands for spits. The middle of the yard, free of buildings, was approximately 20 - 25 meters in diameter. The entrance to the site was from the side of the plateau. The fortification looked impressive, but was purely symbolic, since the ditch was covered with an earthen “row”, and the rampart was cut in the middle. The only real defense here could only be the gate, from which only one massive pillar survived, giving us the mentioned line of symmetry. The structure on the eastern edge of the fort, located at the opposite end from the entrance, could have been an altar platform, on which fire burned often and in large quantities and the cutting of sacrificial carcasses took place. Abundant traces of fires along the southern wall indicate the roasting of meat on numerous spits. All this took place in front of a semicircle of idols that bordered the empty middle of the sanctuary courtyard. The idols were probably tall, as their bases were set very deeply in holes carefully dug into dense material. In the surviving part of the settlement there are nest-pits of only 5 idols; in total there could be 10 - 12 of them. Small clay vessels were found near the idols, at the very foot, and bronze torcs, cast but not cleaned, with casting burrs, were found at the idols located in the center at the entrance. A living woman would physically not be able to wear such a hryvnia. Obviously, they either decorated wooden idols or were offered to them ex voto. Near these female idols, near the entrance, the most remarkable discovery of the Annunciation Mountain was made - the neck of a huge thick-walled vessel in the form of a bear’s head with a wide open mouth. The middle position of the vessel on the site on the line entrance - altar, near one of the central idols of the goddess with a bronze mane around her neck, reveals to us the contents of the entire sanctuary. The goddess with the bear is well known to us from ancient mythology - this is Artemis, or Diana, the sister of the solar giver of blessings Apollo, the daughter of the goddess Leto, known since Crete-Mycenaean times. In honor of Artemis Bravronia, the priestesses of the goddess performed sacred dances, dressed in bearskins. And the creation of the constellation Ursa Major is associated with Artemis. The month of Artemision was dedicated to Artemis - March, the time when bears awakened from hibernation. According to the solar phases, this coincided with the spring equinox around March 25th. The Greeks called bear festivals comoedia, which served as the basis for later comedy. Bear holidays with exactly the same name, which preserved the ancient Indo-European form of “komoeditsa”, are known among the Slavs. In Belarus, Komoeditsa was held on March 24, on the eve of the Orthodox Annunciation. Housewives baked special “comas” from pea flour; Dances were held in clothes with the fur turned upside down in honor of the spring awakening of the bear. The ancient Maslenitsa turned out to be shifted from its calendar date by Christian Lent, which was incompatible with Maslenitsa revelry. And since fasting was subject to the moving Easter calendar, the pagan Maslenitsa, although it survived after the baptism of Rus' and has survived to this day (at least in the form of pancakes), its timing is changeable. The initial period of undisturbed Maslenitsa is the spring equinox. An indispensable mask at the Maslenitsa carnival was a “bear”, a man dressed in a bear fur coat or an inverted sheepskin coat. Inside, a longitudinal, flat-bottomed recess was dug the entire length of each half of the “house” and on both sides of it solid benches were made in the mainland, also the entire length. On the flat floor in three places (in the surviving half) there are fires without special hearths. In total, 200 - 250 people could sit on four earthen benches on both halves of the building. This built room was obviously intended for those feasts and fraternities that were an integral part of the pagan ritual. Having performed the sacrifice, slaughtered the victim on a distant platform, presented gifts and praise to the semicircle of idols, cooked the sacrificial meat on horned bricks, the ritual participants completed it with a “conversation”, “a table, an honorable feast” in a closed room, sitting on benches near small (obviously lighting) bonfires All material material from Blagoveshchenskaya Mountain differs sharply from the material from ordinary Yukhnovsky settlements. There are no ordinary dwellings, no hearths, no fishing weights, no whorls for spindles. Everything found here is intended specifically for feasts: large vessels (for beer?), small cups, knives, animal bones, stands for spits. The entrance to the sanctuary was designed in such a way that first the person entering walked onto the bridge across the moat (“rowing”), then entered the narrow space of the gate, located in the middle of the rampart and in the middle of the long house. Perhaps some kind of ceremony of “sacrificing” the contents of the bear vessel took place here. From this middle room, two gentle slopes led to the left, into the northern half of the building, and to the right, into the southern half. Directly from the entrance was the entire courtyard of the sanctuary. It is possible that the clear division of the room into two halves is associated with the phratrial division of the tribe. The presence of an enclosed space, which compares favorably with the open-air temples, confirms the assumption about Lada as the main mistress of this unique temple: songs in honor of Lada were sung on New Year's Eve and then in the spring, from March 9 to June 29 - half of the holidays associated with named after Lada (including the Annunciation) falls on the cold winter and early spring season, when it is preferable to celebrate outside the cold. However, it cannot be ruled out that the most massive actions could take place on the entire plateau of the high bank of the Desna and outside the sanctuary itself. Fibulae The ancient Slavs had magical figures, or amulets, let's look at one of them. A. Sky: ruler with swans. This is where the rain and sunshine come from. B. The earth receives rays and streams of rain. The living principle of the earth is represented only by waterfowl and snake snakes. All attention is paid to the theme of water. B. The lower world. Birds and snakes connect him with the upper worlds. The master of the lower world is the Lizard (or Lizard?). The lower world is not opposed to the middle one, but is merged with it. Six birds represent the daily cycle of the Sun. In Kievsky Historical Museum there are two paired complex-composition brooches, the general design of the base is very close to the brooch from Blazhkov disassembled above, but in its content identical to the pastoral brooch No. 176. The dominant figure here is also a female figure with horses, and there is no male figure at all. There is no lizard on such brooches (pastoral and Kyiv) - it is replaced by a woman, obviously Makosh. If we continue the thought about the ritual purpose of such brooches, then the composition with horses and a female figure in the center should be compared with a similar plot in embroidery and attributed to another category of celebrations - not to prayers for rain, but, for example, to the Kupala holiday, when rain was not asked for ; Goddess Makosh lowered her hands to the ground. Both varieties of complex compositional brooches reveal to us different forms of display of the macrocosm, attracted in one form or another to the magical plans of the ancient plowmen of the Dnieper region, and, in all likelihood, are associated with the specific ritual function of one or another category of brooches. Each of them contained a reflection of a complex picture of the world, but different elements of the macrocosm were put forward for different sacred purposes. To pray for rain, they turned to the heavenly Dazhdbog and filled the decorations with figures of waterfowl, snakes and lizards. For the celebrations of spring sowing or the “top of summer” - Kupala, a female deity - Makosh - was displayed and surrounded (as in later Russian embroidery) by horses, which were necessary as a real force in the outbreak, and in a symbolic sense were associated with the sun (Phoebus's chariot ) and with the water element - horses were sacrificed to the water element; Antique Poseidon is also strongly associated with horses.

Toponymic registration of tracts at its current level gives, unfortunately, an extremely fragmentary and incomplete picture, since there has been no systematic study and it is extremely difficult to carry out. Such prayers. As if “whoever prays under a barn or in the rye under a grove or by the water,” they did not even leave toponymic traces.

4. Sacred trees

A unique category of cult places were sacred trees and sacred groves, “trees” and “groves” in the terminology of medieval scribes, not sufficiently mentioned in historical sources.

One of the revered trees was the birch, with which a number of spring rituals and round dance songs are associated. It is possible that the birch tree was dedicated to the shores, the spirits of goodness and fertility. Ethnographers have collected a lot of information about the “curling” of young birch trees, about spring ritual processions under the bound branches of birch trees. A felled birch tree in seven ( ancient date- June 4) served as the personification of some female deity and was the center of all Semitic rituals. Trees involved in pagan ritual were lavishly decorated with ribbons and embroidered towels. The embroidery on the ubruses contained images of those goddesses with whom prayers were made and sacrifices were made during these periods: the figures of Mokosh and two women in labor (mother and daughter) Lada and Lelya, prayers in “growings”, in “trees” can be functionally likened to the later church deity, where the temple corresponded to a grove or clearing in the forest, the fresco images of deities corresponded to individual revered trees (or idol trees), and the icons corresponded to images of Mokosh and Lada on the ubrus.

Trees located near springs, springs, springs, enjoyed special reverence, since here it was possible to simultaneously turn to the vegetative power of “growing” and to the living water of the spring gushing from the ground. The meaning of addressing spring water and the emergence of the fairy-tale concept of “living water” is explained by the thought often carried out in anti-pagan literature: “Rekoste: let us do evil, so that good will come upon us - we will devour students and rivers, and so, let us satisfy our petitions.”

“I demand that you file a lawsuit against the student, waiting for lawsuits from him.” The cult of oak differs significantly from the cult of birch and trees growing among students. Oak - the tree of Zeus and Perun, the strongest and most durable tree of our latitudes - has firmly entered the system of Slavic pagan rituals. The Slavic ancestral home was located in the oak growing area, and the beliefs associated with it must go back to ancient times. Up to the XVII - XIX centuries. oak and oak groves retained a leading place in rituals. After the wedding, the village wedding train circled a lonely oak tree three times; Feofan Prokopovich in his “Spiritual Regulations” prohibits “singing prayers in front of an oak tree.” Live roosters were sacrificed to the oak tree, arrows were stuck all around, and others brought pieces of bread, meat, and whatever else everyone had, as their custom required.

5. Hostile and evil deities

Altars dedicated to some special, exceptional occasion were also found: natural disaster, drought, epidemic.

An epidemic, a pestilence, fully explains the combination of an effigy-altar with a cemetery and theft near it. Such altars had a feminine outline. The female deity absorbing her offerings could be Makosh (in case of a threat to the harvest), and in the case of pestilence and a threat to people’s lives, this could be the personification of that hostile and evil deity like Mara, Morena, (from “pestilence”, “to starve”), which later took on the well-known appearance of the fabulous Baba Yaga. Fairy tales often emphasize the enormity of this creature: Baba Yaga lies in the hut from corner to corner: “her legs in one corner, her head in the other, her lips on the ceiling, her nose buried in the ceiling”; “Baba Yaga, a bone leg with a clay face, plugs the stove with her chest” (sometimes - “her tits hang in the garden bed”). Baba Yaga’s double is Dashing One-Eyed: “Lakho is personified in our legends as a giant woman who greedily devours people.” Ukrainian fairy tales. In which the main opponent of the hero is Likho, Likho is compared to Baba Yaga: this giantess lives in the forest, barely fits in her hut, and roasts the people she slaughtered in the oven. The blacksmith, who has fallen into the power of Likh, only gets rid of the monster giantess by cunning. The blacksmith, opposing the personification of evil, is a character from an ancient epic from the beginning of the Iron Age. One-Eyed Dashing "is taller than the tallest oak tree." As for the one-eyed nature of the Drevlyan ritual figure that interests us, it should be said that in the entire semicircle of its head (“northern ledge”) only one point is marked at the site of the first eye - four large stones are placed there. Such altars were public sacrifices to the evil deity of death and evil in some special frightening circumstances.

Likha was brought, seeing from excavations, animals and people, judging by the abundant folklore material, the heads of those sacrificed were separated and displayed around the abode of Baba Yaga or Likha on stakes - “stamens”. In many fairy tales, Baba Yaga's hut is furnished with such poles with skulls on them; at Likha the One-Eyed, guests are treated to severed heads; Palace of Baba Yaga, leader of the cavalry army. “enclosed by a tychin, on each tychin there is a head and only on one there is no head” (it is intended for the head of the hero of a fairy tale). The motif of making a “cup” from a skull, known from the chronicles, is also present in fairy tales.

6. Priests and their role

In order to recreate the overall picture of Slavic primitive paganism, village wise men alone are not enough for us. After all, we know that back in the 1st millennium BC. e. there were “events”, “cathedrals”, “crowds” - crowded tribal gatherings with a complex scenario of pagan ritual, with a developed set of rituals accompanying pre-made props. The tribal nobility should have included people who developed a system of rituals, who knew (or created again) the texts of prayers and chants, melodies of chants, and formulas for addressing the gods. The centuries-old tradition inevitably had to intertwine with creativity and expansion of the repertoire. Priests were an integral part of any primitive society and the more complicated it became social structure, the closer it was to the upper limit of pre-class primitiveness, the clearer and more diverse the role of general tribal priests, priestesses and princes, who performed part of the priestly functions, appeared.

To reproduce the composition of the priestly class of the ancient Slavs, in addition to the universal magicians - “cloud-takers”, leaders of pagan rituals and sacrifices, we must definitely include in the general list of wizards also blacksmiths, who made not only tools and weapons (which already gave them significant weight), but also “a woman’s forge”, “a valuable forge”, showing “cunning” and “blacksmith’s artistry”. From the ancient verb “to forge”, to make something from metal, comes the word “cunning”, which we use only in a figurative sense, but at one time meant: wisdom, skill, intricacy. “The root of wisdom is revealed to him, and deceit (of wisdom) is revealed to him who understands.” These “cunning” goldsmiths knew pagan symbols perfectly and widely used their knowledge both for making village amulets and jewelry with amulets, and for the “mane utensils” of the most noble women of the country, right up to the grand duchesses. From information from the 11th - 14th centuries. we have data on the following category of people involved in the pagan cult: Men, Women

Magi Haranilnik Magi (magician) Wizards Connivers Witches Cloud chasers Blasphemers Enchantresses Priests Bayans Enchantress Sorcerers Magicians Obavnitsy Enchanters Kobniki Nauznitsa Enchanters Patvors, Patvors Direct information about the Magi and their role in the public life of the young state of Rus' in the 9th - 10th centuries. We don't have enough. Records of the actions of the Magi in the bearish corners of the northeastern outskirts - in Suzdal and Poshekhonye - date back only to the 11th century. Perhaps that is why it is so historically interesting topic, as a priestly class, and was not raised in our literature even as a problem to be considered. It is not uncommon to look at the Magi only as village sorcerers, small-scale healers. Such were the distant descendants of the ancient Magi in the 16th - 17th centuries, who, according to tradition, were still called Magi. But even fragmentary information about the Magi of the 11th century, operating on the very edge of the land subject to Rus', portrays them to us as powerful figures who raised their hands both against the local nobility (“the old child”) and against the noble Kyiv boyar who arrived with his whole retinue. At the time of the introduction of Christianity, the Magi led the people and fought openly with government troops.

A century later, in the same Novgorod, “the sorcerer stood under Gleb (Svyatoslav, the grandson of Yaroslav the Wise)... To say to people that something like God is happening and many deceits is not enough for the whole city... And there was a rebellion in the city and everyone gave him faith and I wanted to beat the bishop... And it was divided in two: Prince Gleb and his squad stayed with the bishop, and all the people went into hiding...”

This well-known episode testifies to the power of influence of pagan priests not only in the wilderness of the countryside, but also in the city, where an episcopal see was established long ago and the majestic St. Sophia Cathedral was built. Among the Slavs, writes Hilferding, “priests had the significance of a special class, strictly distant from the people... they performed public prayers in the sanctuaries and those fortune-telling by which the will of the gods was recognized. They prophesied and spoke to the people on behalf of the gods... They enjoyed special honor and wealth, and controlled the income from estates that belonged to temples and abundant offerings from fans.

The most famous among the Baltic Slavs was the famous temple of Svyatovit (corresponding to the Russian Family) in Arkona on the shores of the Baltic Sea. Managing religious life was not an easy matter even at the level of a single village; it was complex at the tribal level with common tribal sanctuaries, and it became very complex and diverse at the state level, united by about fifty tribes. A simple rural sorcerer had to know and remember all the rituals, spells, ritual songs, be able to calculate the calendar dates of all magical actions, and know the healing properties of herbs. In terms of the amount of knowledge he had to approach a modern professor of ethnography, the only difference is that the ethnographer must spend a long time looking for half-forgotten relics. And an ancient sorcerer, probably. I received a lot from my predecessor teachers. Without continuous continuity of generations, it is impossible to imagine the thousand-year-old tradition of all varieties of East Slavic folklore.

...

The concept of paganism

The term “paganism” itself is not entirely accurate, since it includes several concepts, and not just one. Today, paganism is understood not only and not so much as a religion, but as a set of religious and cultural beliefs, and instead of paganism, belief in several gods is designated as “totemism,” “polytheism,” or “ethnic religion.”

The paganism of the ancient Slavs is a term that is used to designate a complex of religious and cultural views on the life of the ancient Slavic tribes before they adopted Christianity and converted to a new faith. There is an opinion that the term itself in relation to the ancient religious and ritual culture of the Slavs did not come from the concept of polytheism (many deities), but from the fact that the ancient tribes, although they lived separately, had one language. So Nestor the Chronicler in his notes speaks of these tribes as pagans, that is, having the same language and common roots. Later, this term gradually began to be attributed to Slavic religious views and generally used to designate religion.

The emergence and development of paganism in Rus'

Slavic paganism began to take shape around the 2nd-1st millennium BC under the influence of Indo-European culture, when the Slavs began to separate from it into independent tribes. Moving and occupying new territories, the Slavs became acquainted with the culture of their neighbors and adopted certain traits from them. Thus, it was the Indo-European culture that brought into Slavic mythology the images of the thunder god, the god of cattle and the image of mother earth. The Celts also had a significant influence on the Slavic tribes, who also enriched the Slavic pantheon and, in addition, brought the very concept of “god” to the Slavs, which had not previously been used. Slavic paganism has much in common with German-Scandinavian culture; from there the Slavs took the image of the world tree, dragons and many other deities, which were later transformed depending on living conditions and the characteristics of Slavic culture.

After the Slavic tribes formed and began to actively populate new territories, leave each other and separate, paganism also transformed, each tribe had its own special rituals, its own names for the gods and the deities themselves. Thus, by the 6th-7th century, the religion of the Eastern Slavs was quite noticeably different from the religion of the Western Slavs.

It should also be noted that very often the beliefs of the top of society were quite different from the beliefs of the lower strata, and what was believed in large cities and settlements did not always coincide with the view of paganism in small villages.

From the moment the Slavic tribes began to unite, they began to form single centralized state, external relations between the Slavs and Byzantium began to develop, gradually paganism began to be persecuted, old beliefs were increasingly questioned, and even teachings against paganism appeared. In the end, after Baptism of Rus' in 988, when Christianity became the official religion, the Slavs began to gradually move away from the old traditions, although the relationship between paganism and Christianity was not easy. According to some information, paganism still persists in many territories, and in Rus' it existed for quite a long time, until the 12th century.

The essence of Slavic paganism

Despite the fact that there are a sufficient number of sources by which one can judge the beliefs of the Slavs, it is difficult to form a unified picture of the world of the East Slavic pagans. It is generally accepted that the essence of Slavic paganism was faith in the forces of nature, which determined human life, controlled it and decided destinies - hence the gods-lords of the elements and natural phenomena, Mother Earth. In addition to the highest pantheon of gods, the Slavs also had smaller deities - brownies, mermaids and others. Minor deities and demons did not have a serious influence on human life, but actively participated in it. The Slavs believed in the existence of a human soul, in the heavenly and underground kingdoms, in life after death.

Slavic paganism has many rituals that are associated with the interaction of gods and people. They worshiped the gods, they asked for protection, they asked for protection, they made sacrifices to them - most often it was cattle. There is no exact information about the presence of human sacrifices among the pagan Slavs.

List of Slavic gods

Common Slavic gods:

Mother Cheese Earth is the main female image, the goddess of fertility, she was worshiped and asked for a good harvest, a good offspring;

Perun is the thunder god, the main god of the pantheon.

Other gods of the Eastern Slavs (also called Vladimir's pantheon):

Veles is the patron of storytellers and poetry;

Volos is the patron saint of livestock;

Dazhbog is a solar deity, considered the ancestor of all Russian people;

Mokosh is the patroness of spinning and weaving;

The clan and women in labor are deities personifying fate;

Svarog - god-blacksmith;

Svarozhich is the personification of fire;

Simargl is a messenger between heaven and earth;

Stribog is a deity associated with the winds;

Horse is the personification of the sun.

Also, the Slavic pagans had various images that personified certain natural phenomena, but were not deities. These include Maslenitsa, Kolyada, Kupala and others. Effigies of these images were burned during holidays and rituals.

Persecution of pagans and the end of paganism

The more Rus' united, the more it increased its political power and expanded contacts with other, more developed states, the more the pagans were persecuted by adherents of Christianity. After the Baptism of Rus' took place, Christianity became not just a new religion. But a new way of thinking began to have a huge political and social role. Pagans who did not want to accept the new religion (and there were many of them) entered into open confrontation with Christians, but the latter did everything to bring the “barbarians” to reason. Paganism survived until the 12th century, but then began to gradually fade away.

Introduction The Slavic people are considered relatively young in history. Under their own name, they were first mentioned in written sources only from the 6th century. We first encounter the name of the Slavs in the form oxhabnvos in Pseudo-Caesarius around 525. Currently, the region extending north of the Carpathians is recognized as the homeland of the Slavs. But when it comes to defining its boundaries, scientists differ quite significantly among themselves. For example, one of the founders of Slavic studies, the Czech scientist Shofarik, drew the border of the Slavic ancestral home at the plant from the mouth of the Vistula to the Neman, in the north - from Novgorod to the sources of the Volga and Dnieper, in the east - to the Don. Further, in his opinion, it went through the lower Dnieper and Dniester along the Carpathians to the Vistula and along the watershed of the Oder and Vistula to the Baltic Sea. The problems of the origin and settlement of the Slavs are still debatable, but numerous studies by historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnographers and linguists make it possible to draw a general picture of the early history of the Eastern Slavic peoples. In the middle of the 1st millennium AD. On the general territory of Eastern Europe, from Lake Ilmen to the Black Sea steppes and from the Eastern Carpathians to the Volga, East Slavic tribes formed. Historians count about 15 such tribes. Each tribe was a collection of clans and then occupied a relatively small isolated area. According to the Tale of Bygone Years, a map of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs in the 8th-9th centuries. looked like this: the Slovenes (Ilinsky Slavs) lived on the shores of Lake Ilmen and Volkhva; Krivichi with Polotsk residents - in the upper reaches of the Western Dvina, Volga and Dnieper; Dregovichi - between Pripyat and Berezina; Vyatichi - on the Oka and Moscow Rivers; Radimichi - on the Sozh and Desna; northerners - on the Desna, Seym, Sula and Northern Donets; Drevlyans - in Pripyat and in the Middle Dnieper region; glade - along the middle reaches of the Dnieper; Buzhans, Volynians, Dulebs - in Volyn, along the Bug; Tivertsi, streets - in the very south, near the Black Sea and the Danube. The group of Eastern Slavs includes: Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. The Slavs raised cattle and pigs, as well as horses, and were engaged in hunting and fishing. In everyday life, the Slavs widely used the so-called ritual calendar, associated with agricultural magic. It marked the days of the spring-summer agricultural season from seed germination to harvest and especially highlighted the days of pagan prayers for rain in four different periods. The indicated four periods of rain were considered optimal for the Kiev region in agronomic manuals of the late 19th century. , which testified to the presence of the Slavs in the 4th century. reliable agrotechnical observations. Paganism in Rus' Pagans looked at human life from a purely material side: under the dominance of physical strength, a weak person was the most unfortunate creature, and again the life of such a person was considered a feat of compassion. The religion of the Eastern Slavs is strikingly similar to the original religion of the Aryan tribes: it consisted of the worship of physical deities, natural phenomena and the souls of the deceased, ancestral domestic geniuses. But we do not notice traces of the heroic element, which so strongly develops anthropomorphism, among the Slavs, and this may mean that conquering squads under the command of hero leaders were not formed among them and that their resettlement took place in a tribal, and not in a squad form. East Slavic paganism on the eve of the creation of Kievan Rus and its subsequent coexistence with Christianity is reflected in a large number of materials that are sources for its study. These are, first of all, authentic and accurately dated archaeological materials that reveal the very essence of the pagan cult: idols of gods, sanctuaries, cemeteries without external ground signs (“burial fields”, “fields of burial urns”), as well as with preserved mounds of ancient burial mounds. In addition, these are various products of applied art, found in mounds, in treasures and simply in the cultural layers of cities, saturated with archival pagan symbols. Of these, the most valuable are women's jewelry, which are often used as wedding sets in burial complexes and are therefore especially rich in magical spell plots and amulets - amulets. A peculiar, but very poorly studied remnant of the pagan side are the numerous names of tracts: “Holy Mountain”, “Bald Mountain” (the seat of witches), “Holy Lake”, “Holy Grove”, “Peryn”, “Volosovo”, etc. A very important source is the testimony of contemporaries, recorded in chronicles, or in specially recorded teachings against paganism. For about a century and a half, Kievan Rus was a state with a pagan system, often opposed to the penetration of Christianity. In Kievan Rus IX - X centuries. An influential class of priests (“magi”) emerged, leading rituals, preserving ancient mythology and developing elaborate agrarian and incantatory symbolism. In the era of Svyatoslav, in connection with the warriors with Byzantium, Christianity became a persecuted religion, and paganism was reformed and opposed to the penetration of Christianity into Rus': the so-called “Pantheon of Vladimir” was, on the one hand, a response to Christianity, and on the other, the assertion of princely power and domination of the warrior class - feudal lords. The implementation of general tribal ritual actions (“cathedrals”, “events”), the organization of ritual actions, sanctuaries and grandiose princely mounds, compliance with calendar dates of the annual ritual cycle, storage, execution and creative replenishment of the fund of mythological and ethical tales required a special priestly class (“magi” , “sorcerer”, “cloud scavengers”, “witches”, “tricksters”, etc.). A century after the baptism of Rus', the Magi could, in some cases, win over an entire city to their side to oppose the prince or bishop (Novgorod). In the 980s, Greek Christianity found in Rus' not simple village witchcraft, but a significantly developed pagan culture with its own mythology, pantheon of main deities, priests, in all likelihood, with its own pagan chronicle of 912 - 980. The strength of pagan ideas in the Russian feudal cities of the Middle Ages is evident, firstly, from numerous church teachings. Directed against pagan beliefs and pagan rituals and festivals held in cities, and secondly, from the pagan symbolism of applied art, which was generally desired not only by ordinary people of the urban settlement, but also by the highest, princely circles (treasures of the 1230s). In the second half of the 12th century, the pagan element was still fully felt. Rituals and ritual actions And so, we already know that the ancient Slavs were pagans who deified the forces of nature. Their main gods were: God Rot - the god of heaven and earth; Perun is the god of thunder and lightning, as well as war and weapons; Volos or Veles - god of wealth and cattle breeding; Dazh God (or Yarilo) is the solar deity of light, warmth and blossoming nature. Deities associated with those forces of nature influencing agriculture were very important. Also, the ancient Slavs greatly revered the souls of their ancestors, thinking that they are somewhere in the middle sky “aere” - “Irie” and obviously contribute to all heavenly operations (rain, fog, snow) for the benefit of the remaining descendants. When, on the days of commemoration of their ancestors, they were invited to a festive meal, the “grandfathers” were imagined flying through the air. From time immemorial, prepared foods - porridge and bread - have been ritual food and an obligatory part of sacrifice to such fertility deities as women in labor. There were special types of porridge that had only a ritual purpose: “kutya”, “kolivo” (made from wheat grains). Kutya was cooked in a pot and served in a pot or in a bowl on the festive table or taken to the cemetery in the “domovina” when commemorating the dead. There were houses of the dead as a place of communication with benevolent ancestors. In many rituals, village residents left their family mansions and participated in a community-wide ritual action. Some of these rituals were carried out inside the village, but most of them, in all likelihood, took place outside the outskirts on the hills, near the “storehouses” of the honorable ones, or between several villages (“games between villages”). It is also impossible to exclude the long existence of ancient tribal sanctuaries on the sacred mountains, which arose back in the Scythian-Skolot time. An example of a Zarubenets cult place within a village is a settlement (breast) near Pochep in the Middle Desna basin, where for the first time in the century AD Slavic colonization from the Middle Dnieper region headed in the middle of the excavated space, among a large number of rectangular dwellings with traces of powerful stove pillars, a building with a round plan was discovered . Interesting dishes with magical signs “Pots for illuminated brew” were found there; a bowl with a sign of fertility and a pot with four signs were found there, which denote a variety of signs of fertility, ideograms of a plowed or sown field. Along the neck of the vessel there is an ornament of drop-shaped round impressions, from the girdle of these drops triangles of three drops descend down. In general, the ornament on this pot is very eloquent: “heavenly moisture irrigates the fields,” i.e. contains the main idea of agrarian-magical spells. In this small house, in all likelihood, only sacred dishes were kept, and the ceremony of boiling the first fruits itself was carried out, judging by the excavations, in an adjacent round room, in the middle of which there was a large hearth - an altar. At the altar, closer to the entrance, there are traces of pillars and massive remains of charred wood, which can naturally be regarded as the remains of the main idol, which occupied the main position in the entire sanctuary. In the depths of the rotunda, to the left and right of the altar-hearth and the central idol, two large niches were built, near which there were pillars on the circumference of the building, obviously idols of lesser importance. It is natural to assume, given the circular construction of the temple and the central position of the hearth-altar, a wide smoke hole in the center of the conical roof. It released flames and smoke to the sky and at the same time illuminated the entire temple from above with natural daylight. In Slavic embroidery, the motif of a goddess in a temple is very common, but the temple is presented in three forms: firstly, in the form of a house with a gable roof (in this case, to the goddess in labor) and secondly. Like a barn-shaped building with a suspended middle part and a lavishly decorated closed roof. On such embroideries, in the middle, over the entire height of the building shown as if in cross-section, a huge idol of Mokosh was depicted with his arms lowered to the ground; calendar, this pose of the goddess can be timed to coincide with the Kupala ritual (June 23 - 29), at the time of the initial ripening of the ears of corn and the appearance of the first fruits of this year (peas, beans). Makosh indicates the land that has already grown the plant, whereas in embroideries associated with spring rituals , Makosh raises his hands to the sky, to the supreme deity with a prayer for sun and rain for the newly sown seeds. The large central idol of Mokosh is accompanied by two idols of women in labor - Lada and Lelya, standing on the sides of the "Mother of the Harvest" - Mokosh. The coincidence with the Pochep temple is complete - one idol in the middle and two on the sides. Embroidery gives what archeology rarely can - all three idols are female. But in Russian embroideries there is still a third type of temple buildings, inside of which the idol of Mokosh is also placed, but the roof over the goddess’s head is not closed and leaves a significant opening. The idol of Mokosh is placed in the middle under the roof opening. On the sides of the huge Mokosh there are not idols of women in labor, but images of horsemen (or horsewomen?). The upper part of the building on the embroidery is usually occupied by images of birds and star-shaped signs (it would not be much of a stretch to recognize these embroideries as images of the vault of heaven). However, another assumption is also possible: that the embroidered Makosh temple with a cut off roof represents a cross-section of a Pochep-type sanctuary. The heavenly signs do not contradict this, since the sky was clearly visible from the koliba. The presence of horsemen on the sides of the main idol contradicts this assumption, but, taking into account the season (“top of summer”), it can be assumed that the sanctuary was not an enclosed space, but was a canopy with pillars going in a circle (traces of nine pillars have been preserved) inside which there were three idol and altar. In this case, all the internal elements of the temple were visible to the entire village from the outside. It is possible that the horsemen should not be perceived too realistically - the spring goddesses Lada and Lelya on ritual towels intended for the festivities of welcoming spring were depicted on horseback, with plows behind the saddle; the presence of horsemen around Mokosh could be just an image of a familiar symbol, and not a confirmation of real horsewomen inside the temple. The perimeter of such a dugout could serve as a circular earthen bench, a kind of “sintron” around the main idol and the hearth, on which a sacred brew from the first fruits was brewed in a pot with signs of fertility. About 30 - 35 people could sit on the “sintron” with a circumference of 15 m. P. Bessonov recorded an interesting cycle of Kupala ritual songs. Songs for Kupala (the night of June 23-24, solstice) constitute a special, clearly distinguishing and very archaic cycle; they are accompanied by the chorus “this and that!” or “tu-tu-tu” (characteristic only of Kupala songs) and obligatory stamping and knocking at this time. Obviously, these are the remains of a ritual dance. The holiday of Kupala, writes Bessonov, is “the highest summer point of the most ancient sacred rituals, legends and songs... As if exhausted in the revelry of Kupala, songwriting henceforth falls silent for a long time...” Kupala is called “Sobotka” i.e. “co-being”, joint gathering. The plots of Kupala songs are associated with traditional eroticism at games (No. 62 according to Bessonov), with obligatory bathing and with echoes of girls’ sacrifices to the deity of the river, “Danube” (No. 68, 72), with the collection of healing potions (No. 79), etc. One of songs (No. 94) tells about the preparation of a ritual potion (angelica) in a pot; somehow this is connected with the death of a woman (“an angel on the pot, an uncle on the paw”). The ritual food at the holiday is vegetable and dairy. The main thing in the Kupala ritual was, as you know, a fire, over which they jumped in pairs. An echo of the ritual is the game of burners (“burn, burn clearly so that it doesn’t go out...”). the construction of the fire was entrusted to a woman (“the young woman is getting younger, lay out her bathing suit”; No. 87). The basis of the future fire was a pillar or stake driven into the ground: “just as Kupala Soma was depicted as a pillar, and her head was in gold or she was all covered in greenery, so in her image a stake is made in the ritual, stuck into the ground, wrapped in straw, threshed ears of corn, hemp, and at the top a bunch of straw, which is called Kupala and which is lit on Kupala night. People come running to this sign and the famous Kupala bonfire flares up.” The oak tree plays an important role in the songs; oak branches go into the fire. The connection between Kupala rituals and the agrarian magic of the “top of summer” is undoubtedly. An analysis of Russian embroidery showed that ritual towels with the image of Mokosh-Kupala, where the goddess is surrounded by solar signs and is always shown with her hands lowered to the fruit-bearing earth, belong to this season; Kupala’s head is often entwined with ears of corn; ears of corn were also depicted at the feet of the goddess. If in the spring cycle, on the sides of the goddess, women were depicted - horsemen with plows behind their backs, then on the towels of the Kupala cycle, male horsemen were embroidered. Makosh, the goddess of earthly fertility, was a mediator between heaven and earth (in the spring cycle she was always depicted with her hands raised to the sky). With this duality one can compare an interesting detail of women’s Kupala clothing: “In the decoration of those celebrating, the main attention is paid to the woman’s head and shoes.” The girls, in addition to wreaths and greenery, put on their heads a “warrior” made of fabric of necessarily blue, heavenly color; stockings and garters were decorated on the legs. The attention to the symbolism of heaven (blue warrior) and earth (shoes, stockings) is evident; the ritual archaic song about the unclean Kupala - Mokosh very fully correlates with the excavation data. Both here and here the sanctuary is located “syered sala”; both here and there the cult place was a kind of small building with a canopy. Syaryod sala Vouchkovsky That's it! (chorus with tapping and stomping) There stood an oak tree (canopy with canopy, open chapel) Too-there-too! And the kids (guys, great fellows) went to pray to God: That’s it! They hugged Stobe and kissed the stove Too-too-too! In front of Sopukha (Kupala) they lay like a roof That's it! The Jans thought - hidden, Tu-tu-tu! And the knife Sopukha (Kupala) is sloppy! That's it! According to folklore, the main object of the cult was a pillar, which the worshipers hugged, and a stove, which they kissed. Both the oven and the pillar in the center of the building were discovered during excavations. The embroideries convey to us the image of Mokosh as the center of a three-figure composition with three upcoming deities. Excavations also allow us to talk about three shaped compositions: in the center there is a pillar near the stove (Makosh - Kupalo), and on the sides there are those standing in the side niches. In combination with dishes marked with magical signs of fertility, found in the house next to the sanctuary, the entire ritual complex of the Zarubinets village “Grudka” (Pochepskoe village) can be interpreted as the temple of Makosh, called Kupala for the Kupala ritual on June 23 - 29, which is common in folklore personification of the holiday. Thus, the god of carols took shape from winter carols by the 17th century, and the deity of Kupala emerged from the summer holiday of Kupala. A rural sanctuary was also found, intended for winter New Year's fortune-telling about fate in the coming year. Places for sacrifices and general village feasts were found in it - bratchins, again three stone idols. Of particular interest is the first four-sided idol; it is designed in the upper part in the form of a round head with four faces in each side, respectively. In this respect, he resembles Svyatovit-Rod of Zbruch. Faces looking “on all four sides” are apotropaic, protecting from evil. Located in front and behind, right and left. It is not for nothing that the expression “from all four sides” is so rooted in the Russian language. “Everything” is the four indicated directions, which could sometimes also indicate geographic coordinates: from the north and south, from the west and from the east. Since “evil winds” were considered the bearers of evil, the geographical concept is quite appropriate in the idea of ubiquity. The outcome of evil was assessed not only in relation to the individual (behind, on the left), but also in relation to nature as a whole - according to the cardinal points or, in modern terms, according to geographical coordinates. Such idols, more than once found in excavations, were supposed to protect the village from all four sides. Of the diverse annual cycle of pagan rituals recorded by ethnographers, only a small part was carried out inside the village and in houses. These are winter holidays with their carols, New Year and Veles Day. But already Maslenitsa with its rolling of the wheel of fire. Riding with bells, burning an effigy of winter, mummers, spells of spring, fist fights, etc. went beyond the boundaries of the village and turned into “a playground between the villages.” The entire spring cycle and the summer, Kupala cycle, are associated with nature, with fields, with “red hills”, river banks, birch groves. The calendar timing of rituals, preserved both by wooden carved calendars of the Russian village, and by agricultural signs, later dedicated to the holy calendar, arose long before the baptism of Rus', as evidenced by the most interesting calendars of our era. The overwhelming majority of ancient Slavic pagan festivals and prayers were held publicly, were an “event”, a joint spell of nature and were held not in a house or in a village, but outside the everyday circle of life. The ancient farmer needed, first of all, to influence nature, to appeal to its vegetative power, to turn to various “groves”, sacred trees, to water sources - springs, storehouses, to fields in the process of plowing, sowing and during the ripening of the precious harvest. In addition to these very specific sections of nature where seven-mile magic is very easily visible, there was also the veneration of mountains and hills, associated with the generalization of nature, with those Rozhanitsars and the Family who controlled nature as a whole, controlled it from the sky in which they were located. It is universal for all mankind to venerate mountains and conduct special prayers on them, addressed to one or another supreme deity. Sacrifice to the forces of nature and the religious prayerful attitude to the forces of nature are recorded by many ancient Russian sources, which the churchmen greatly condemned in their teachings, explaining either by lack of knowledge of the true faith or by the machinations of the devil, who “is deceived in believing in the creature and in the sun and fire and in the springs.” both in the tree and in the other things are different. .." And so, the most accurately recorded place for annual prayers were high hills, mountains, which elevated those praying above the level of ordinary life and, as it were, brought them closer to the heavenly rulers of the world, women in labor or the Family. “Red Hills”, “red hills”, where Maslenitsa burning of effigies of winter was held, the ritual of conjuring spring, the meeting of Lada and Lelya, the rolling of eggs on St. Thomas’ week (which was called the “red hill”) were probably near every village. In the plains, where there were no noticeable hills, peasants celebrated the first spring thawed patches in the meadows, where the snow began to melt first, and there they held a ceremony to welcome spring. Sacred mountains are often called “Bald” or “Maiden”. there is an assumption that the first name could be associated with one or another male deity, with a virgin goddess who was a distant predecessor of the Christian Mother of God, the Virgin Mary. Often idols of a naked male deity were discovered on bald mountains. There were often rumors about such mountains that witches lived on them. In some cases, the Maiden Mountains confirm their name. On one of the Maiden Mountains, a unique altar-oven was found, which was a composition of nine hemispherical depressions. The number nine, in combination with the maiden name of this huge and very impressive mountain, suggests (as with the fortune-telling cup with nine marks of the months) that the creators of the altar with nine component parts primarily correlated this central structure of the Maiden Mountain with the nine months of pregnancy. The virgin goddess, as a stable idea of a female agrarian deity, was obviously thought of, like the Christian Mother of God, not just as a girl, but as one who had already “carried in her womb” and had nine months to prepare for the birth of a new life. The number nine is included in the category of common Slavic sacred numbers (“for three-nine lands”, “to the three-ninth kingdom, three-tenth state”, etc.). Also in the Pogan settlement, the nine-pit complex is located near the wall of a pagan temple that preceded the construction of the church. There were also Babin Mountains dedicated to a female deity, but obviously of a different type than the maiden goddess; it could be a mother goddess like Ma-koshi, the goddess of harvest and fate, the personification of all earthly nature (mother earth). Near some of the Babin Mountains, burial grounds with corpses were discovered with burnings and corpses. Their peculiarity was the storage of infant skulls without ritual equipment. Based on these finds, one can recall the words of medieval writers about ancient pagan sacrifices. Kiril Turovsky, in his sermon on St. Thomas’ week (“red hill”), wrote: “from the village (from now on) we will not accept the demands of hell, the slaughter of children by fathers, not the death of honor - the end of idolatry and destructive demonic violence.” Another author, a little earlier, wrote: “Tavera child-cutting with an idol from the first-born.” * * * Ethnography knows many beliefs about werewolves - ghouls (wovodlaks), confined mainly to the territory of Belarus and Ukraine, i.e. to those places where the Milograd culture is known. There were beliefs that once a year they became wolves for a few days and then returned to their previous state. The swamp settlements and the pagan essence of this cult are still mysterious and unsolved for us. Of course, there is undoubtedly a connection with the cult of water and the underwater-underground “lower world,” best expressed by the swamp itself with its unexplored and inaccessible depths, swamp lights, the treachery of swamp greenery and bogs, and the harmfulness of swamp fevers. The sanctuary in the swamp was given a perfectly round shape. It is possible that here, as in the creation of the mound, a model of the visible earth, a regular circle of horizon-outlook, was thought of as the antithesis of the semi-hostile element of water. There is an assumption that swamp settlements (sometimes filled up, artificially made by people) could be dedicated to the owner of this lower world, whose role is often played by a lizard. In the cosmological composition of mountain or Samgil shaman plaques, the lower world was always depicted in the form of a lizard with a wolf's ear and an open mouth - the lizard swallows the evening setting sun. The absence at the site of real traces of the consumption of victims by the ritual participants may indicate a special form of sacrifice, different from the usual placing of sacrificial meat on the fire and subsequent eating of it. One of the main teachings against paganism informs about two forms of offering sacrifices: 1. And they (the pagan gods) slaughter chickens, and then they themselves also eat the gluttons... 2. Oh, wretched chickens, I am slaughtered as a sacrifice to an idol, and the others are drowned in the waters essence. And they pray to the wells and bring the mosque into the water, making a sacrifice to Belear.” This relatively late teaching deals with the sacrifice of chickens. And what was the situation like among the peoples - werewolves (Neurs) who lived in a “beastly manner” one and a half to two thousand years before this teaching, who were then “thrown into the water”? We see some hint of this in the children's game “Lizard”: children dance in a circle; in the center of the circle sits a boy portraying a lizard, the choir sings: The lizard sits under the feasting on the walnut bush, Where is the nut lusna. .. (I want to marry) - Take yourself the girl that you want... In some versions, the beginning of the song contains the words: I will give you, lizard, a red girl. In other variants there is a funeral motif: digging a hole and commemorating the lizard. The game of lizard is widely known in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Judging by the fact that the lizard picks nuts from the bush, the ritual took place in the second half of summer, when the nuts ripen. Many children's games are a transformation of ancient pagan rituals and a transformation, of course, softened. Let us compare with this the belief that mermen marry drowned women. The same cycle of rites of propitiation of water or underwater-underground forces should include numerous widespread rites (also turned into games) of the “funeral of Kostroma”, “funeral of Morena”, “funeral of Kupala”, when a doll dressed in girl’s clothes is drowned in water. All fragments and echoes of Slavic rituals are combined into a single complex: the ancient Slavs, like the ancient Greeks, had a ritual of propitiating the deities of the underworld, which influenced fertility by making sacrifices thrown into the water. Rituals associated with “throwing into the water” victims to the deity of the underwater underground world, which is directly related to the fertility of the soil, and, consequently, to the harvest, were carried out in the middle of summer on Kupala, when the grain began to ear and the final result of the season was not yet clear. In these rituals, the male, fertilizing principle and the female, bearing and giving birth, were intertwined. In the middle of summer, the ancient Greeks drowned two victims in the sea from a cliff - a man and a woman. In Slavic rituals, we know the funeral of Yarila (Ivan) as the personification of the masculine principle, which had already given new life and therefore became useless, and the funeral of Kostroma, Kupala, the images of which, dressed in women's clothing, were seen off with a funeral cry, and then drowned in water. The duality of masculine and feminine principles was reflected in the fact that the Kostroma stuffed doll was sometimes dressed as a man. The drowning of Kostroma in water remains unknown. Etymologically, the word “kostroma” is associated with words meaning “shaggy top of grass”, “broom”, “beard of ears”. Based on this, perhaps the word Kostroma should be considered as a compound: Mother of ears? Then the drowning of Kostroma should topologically correspond to the departure of Persephone-Proserpina to the underworld, and the Slavic Lizard, who married the drowned girl, should correspond to Hades, the god of the underworld, the husband of Persephone. The apparent illogicality of the sacrificed images of Yarila, the god of the fierce spring vegetative force, and Kostroma - the Mother of ears of grain, is eliminated by calendar dates: the personification of these natural forces was drowned or burned only when spring sprouts appeared instead of the old grain, when the ears of grain had already formed. In the temporary transformations of the ritual, the dolls of Kostroma or Kupala replaced not the deity Kostroma or Kupala (researchers are right in denying the existence of the idea of such goddesses), but a sacrifice, a human sacrifice made in thanksgiving to these forces of seasonal action, and to the constantly existing ruler of all underground and underwater forces , promoting fertility, i.e. Lizard, Hades, Poseidon. This ritual was carried out among the Greeks in the month of Thargelion in the middle of summer, and among the Slavs on Kupala (June 23) or on Peter's Day (June 29). Through the softened form of later theatricalization and play conventions one can discern the cruel primary form of the primitive ritual. A. A. Potebnya, in her study of the Kupala festival, cites a mother’s cry full of tragedy for a drowned (in ancient times, drowned) girl: people, don’t take water, don’t fish, don’t mow the grass on the bends of the river - this is the beauty of my daughter, this is hers body, her braid... This song was sung when the ritual of drowning Kupala was performed. The widest distribution of rituals of drowning dolls (mostly female ones) on the days of the “top of summer” (late June), coinciding with the summer solstice, is quite consistent with the abundance of swamp settlements in the forest zone that arose in Scythian times and existed until Kievan Rus. As a warning that requires archaeological and folkloristic verification, one can express the idea that the swamp settlements of the Milograd and Zarubinets culture zone (and for later times, more widely) are part of the ritual places of the ancient Slavs (along with revered mountains), dedicated to the archaic cult of the underground-underwater the Lizard deity, whose victims were drowned in the water of the swamp surrounding the sanctuary. In Russian folklore, as we see above, a gloomy2 image of the ritual of sacrificing a goat has been preserved. This, as V. Ya. Propp established, is a song version of the fairy tale about brother Ivanushka and sister Alyonushka, drowned by an evil witch. Ivanushka wants to return her drowned sister Alyonushka, my sister! Swim to the shore: The fires are burning flammable, The cauldrons are boiling, They want to kill me... The drowned girl answers: (I would be glad) to jump out - The flammable stone is pulling to the bottom, The yellow sands have sucked out my heart. The name of brother Ivanushka may indicate a ritual on the night of Ivan Kupala; then sister Alyonushka - Kupala herself, a victim doomed to become “drowned in water.” On Kupala night and “great fires are burning,” rituals are performed near the water, simulating the drowning of a victim: bathing a girl dressed up as Kupala, or immersing a stuffed doll depicting Kupala in the water. Old Russian sanctuaries Externally, the sanctuary looked like a real fortress on the high bank of the Desna: a deep ditch, a high horseshoe-shaped rampart and wooden walls (fence?) along the upper edge of the site. The diameter of the round (now triangular) site was approximately 60 m, i.e. equal to the diameter of medium-sized swamp settlements. The internal structure of the courtyard of the sanctuary-fortress was as follows: along the entire shaft, close to it, in the western part of the site, a long structure, curved in the shape of the shaft, 6 m wide, was built. Its length (including the collapsed part) should have been about 60 m. At a distance 5 - 6 meters from the long house, vertical pillars were dug into the mainland to a depth of more than a meter, located, like the house, in a semicircle. These are idols. At the eastern end of the site, opposite the house and the idols, there was a certain structure, from which (or from which, if one was replaced by another) what remained were vertical pillars, coals, ash, and calcined earth. At the southern wall of the site there are ash, coals, animal bones and an abundance of so-called “horned bricks” - stands for spits. The middle of the yard, free of buildings, was approximately 20 - 25 meters in diameter. The entrance to the site was from the side of the plateau. The fortification looked impressive, but was purely symbolic, since the ditch was covered with an earthen “row”, and the rampart was cut in the middle. The only real defense here could only be the gate, from which only one massive pillar survived, giving us the mentioned line of symmetry. The structure on the eastern edge of the fort, located at the opposite end from the entrance, could have been an altar platform, on which fire burned often and in large quantities and the cutting of sacrificial carcasses took place. Abundant traces of fires along the southern wall indicate the roasting of meat on numerous spits. All this took place in front of a semicircle of idols that bordered the empty middle of the sanctuary courtyard. The idols were probably tall, as their bases were set very deeply in holes carefully dug into dense material. In the surviving part of the settlement there are nest-pits of only 5 idols; in total there could be 10 - 12 of them. Small clay vessels were found near the idols, at the very foot, and bronze torcs, cast but not cleaned, with casting burrs, were found at the idols located in the center at the entrance. A living woman would physically not be able to wear such a hryvnia. Obviously, they either decorated wooden idols or were offered to them ex voto. Near these female idols, near the entrance, the most remarkable discovery of the Annunciation Mountain was made - the neck of a huge thick-walled vessel in the form of a bear’s head with a wide open mouth. The middle position of the vessel on the site on the line entrance - altar, near one of the central idols of the goddess with a bronze mane around her neck, reveals to us the contents of the entire sanctuary. The goddess with the bear is well known to us from ancient mythology - this is Artemis, or Diana, the sister of the solar giver of blessings Apollo, the daughter of the goddess Leto, known since Crete-Mycenaean times. In honor of Artemis Bravronia, the priestesses of the goddess performed sacred dances, dressed in bearskins. And the creation of the constellation Ursa Major is associated with Artemis. The month of Artemision was dedicated to Artemis - March, the time when bears awakened from hibernation. According to the solar phases, this coincided with the spring equinox around March 25th. The Greeks called bear festivals comoedia, which served as the basis for later comedy. Bear holidays with exactly the same name, which preserved the ancient Indo-European form of “komoeditsa”, are known among the Slavs. In Belarus, Komoeditsa was held on March 24, on the eve of the Orthodox Annunciation. Housewives baked special “comas” from pea flour; Dances were held in clothes with the fur turned upside down in honor of the spring awakening of the bear. The ancient Maslenitsa turned out to be shifted from its calendar date by Christian Lent, which was incompatible with Maslenitsa revelry. And since fasting was subject to the moving Easter calendar, the pagan Maslenitsa, although it survived after the baptism of Rus' and has survived to this day (at least in the form of pancakes), its timing is changeable. The initial period of undisturbed Maslenitsa is the spring equinox. An indispensable mask at the Maslenitsa carnival was a “bear”, a man dressed in a bear fur coat or an inverted sheepskin coat. Inside, a longitudinal, flat-bottomed recess was dug the entire length of each half of the “house” and on both sides of it solid benches were made in the mainland, also the entire length. On the flat floor in three places (in the surviving half) there are fires without special hearths. In total, 200 - 250 people could sit on four earthen benches on both halves of the building. This built room was obviously intended for those feasts and fraternities that were an integral part of the pagan ritual. Having performed the sacrifice, slaughtered the victim on a distant platform, presented and praised the semicircle of idols, prepared sacrificial meat on horned bricks, the ritual participants completed it with a “conversation”, “a table set, an honorable feast” in a closed room, sitting on benches near small (obviously lighting ) fires. All material material from Blagoveshchenskaya Mountain differs sharply from the material from ordinary Yukhnovsky settlements. There are no ordinary dwellings, no hearths, no fishing weights, no whorls for spindles. Everything found here is intended specifically for feasts: large vessels (for beer?), small cups, knives, animal bones, stands for spits. The entrance to the sanctuary was designed in such a way that first the person entering walked onto the bridge across the moat (“rowing”), then entered the narrow space of the gate, located in the middle of the rampart and in the middle of the long house. Perhaps some kind of ceremony of “sacrificing” the contents of the bear vessel took place here. From this middle room, two gentle slopes led to the left, into the northern half of the building, and to the right, into the southern half. Directly from the entrance was the entire courtyard of the sanctuary. It is possible that the clear division of the room into two halves is associated with the phratrial division of the tribe. The presence of an enclosed space, which compares favorably with the open-air temples, confirms the assumption about Lada as the main mistress of this unique temple: songs in honor of Lada were sung on New Year's Eve and then in the spring, from March 9 to June 29 - half of the holidays associated with named after Lada (including the Annunciation) falls on the cold winter and early spring season, when it is preferable to celebrate outside the cold. However, it cannot be ruled out that the most massive actions could take place on the entire plateau of the high bank of the Desna and outside the sanctuary itself. Fibulae The ancient Slavs had magical figures, or amulets, let's look at one of them. A. Sky: ruler with swans. This is where the rain and sunshine come from. B. The earth receives rays and streams of rain. The living principle of the earth is represented only by waterfowl and snake snakes. All attention is paid to the theme of water. B. The lower world. Birds and snakes connect him with the upper worlds. The master of the lower world is the Lizard (or Lizard?). The lower world is not opposed to the middle one, but is merged with it. Six birds represent the daily cycle of the Sun. The Kiev Historical Museum contains two paired complex compositional brooches, the general design of the base is very close to the brooch from Blazhkov disassembled above, but in its content identical to the pastoral brooch No. 176. The dominant figure here is also a female figure with horses, and there is no male figure at all. There is no lizard on such brooches (pastoral and Kyiv) - it is replaced by a woman, obviously Makosh. If we continue the thought about the ritual purpose of such brooches, then the composition with horses and a female figure in the center should be compared with a similar plot in embroidery and attributed to another category of celebrations - not to prayers for rain, but, for example, to the Kupala holiday, when rain was not asked for ; Goddess Makosh lowered her hands to the ground. Both varieties of complex compositional brooches reveal to us different forms of display of the macrocosm, attracted in one form or another to the magical plans of the ancient plowmen of the Dnieper region, and, in all likelihood, are associated with the specific ritual function of one or another category of brooches. Each of them contained a reflection of a complex picture of the world, but different elements of the macrocosm were put forward for different sacred purposes. To pray for rain, they turned to the heavenly Dazhdbog and filled the decorations with figures of waterfowl, snakes and lizards. For the celebrations of spring sowing or the “top of summer” - Kupala, a female deity - Makosh - was displayed and surrounded (as in later Russian embroidery) by horses, which were necessary as a real force in the outbreak, and in a symbolic sense were associated with the sun (Phoebus's chariot ) and with the water element - horses were sacrificed to the water element; Antique Poseidon is also strongly associated with horses. Toponymic registration of tracts at its current level, unfortunately, gives an extremely fragmentary and incomplete picture, since there has been no systematic study and it is extremely difficult to carry out. Such prayers. As if “whoever prays under a barn or in the rye under a grove or by the water,” they did not even leave toponymic traces. Sacred trees A unique category of cult places were sacred trees and sacred groves, “trees” and “groves” in the terminology of medieval scribes, not sufficiently mentioned in historical sources. One of the revered trees was the birch, with which a number of spring rituals and round dance songs are associated. It is possible that the birch tree was dedicated to the shores, the spirits of goodness and fertility. Ethnographers have collected a lot of information about the “curling” of young birch trees, about spring ritual processions under the bound branches of birch trees. A felled birch tree on Semik (the ancient date is June 4) served as the personification of some female deity and was the center of all Semitic rituals. Trees involved in pagan ritual were lavishly decorated with ribbons and embroidered towels. The embroidery on the ubruses contained images of those goddesses with whom prayers were made and sacrifices were made during these periods: the figures of Mokosh and two women in labor (mother and daughter) Lada and Lelya, prayers in “growings”, in “trees” can be functionally likened to the later church deity, where the temple corresponded to a grove or clearing in the forest, the fresco images of deities corresponded to individual revered trees (or idol trees), and the icons corresponded to images of Mokosh and Lada on the ubrus. Trees located near springs, springs, springs, enjoyed special reverence, since here it was possible to simultaneously turn to the vegetative power of “growing” and to the living water of the spring gushing from the ground. The meaning of turning to spring water and the emergence of the fairy-tale concept of “living water” is explained by the idea often held in anti-pagan literature: “Rekoste: let us do evil, so that good will come upon us - we will devour students and rivers, and so, let us satisfy our petitions.” “I demand that you file a lawsuit against the student, waiting for lawsuits from him.” The cult of oak differs significantly from the cult of birch and trees growing among students. Oak - the tree of Zeus and Perun, the strongest and most durable tree of our latitudes - has firmly entered the system of Slavic pagan rituals. The Slavic ancestral home was located in the oak growing area, and the beliefs associated with it must go back to ancient times. Up to the XVII - XIX centuries. oak and oak groves retained a leading place in rituals. After the wedding, the village wedding train circled a lonely oak tree three times; Feofan Prokopovich in his “Spiritual Regulations” prohibits “singing prayers in front of an oak tree.” Live roosters were sacrificed to the oak tree, arrows were stuck all around, and others brought pieces of bread, meat, and whatever else everyone had, as their custom required. Hostile and evil deities Altars were also found dedicated to some special, exceptional occasion: natural disaster, drought, epidemic. An epidemic, a pestilence, fully explains the combination of an effigy-altar with a cemetery and theft near it. Such altars had a feminine outline. The female deity absorbing her offerings could be Makosh (in case of a threat to the harvest), and in the case of pestilence and a threat to people’s lives, this could be the personification of that hostile and evil deity like Mara, Morena, (from “pestilence”, “to starve”), which later took on the well-known appearance of the fabulous Baba Yaga. Fairy tales often emphasize the enormity of this creature: Baba Yaga lies in the hut from corner to corner: “her legs in one corner, her head in the other, her lips on the ceiling, her nose buried in the ceiling”; “Baba Yaga, a bone leg with a clay face, plugs the stove with her chest” (sometimes - “her tits hang in the garden bed”). Baba Yaga’s double is Dashing One-Eyed: “Lakho is personified in our legends as a giant woman who greedily devours people.” Ukrainian fairy tales. In which the main opponent of the hero is Likho, Likho is compared to Baba Yaga: this giantess lives in the forest, barely fits in her hut, and roasts the people she slaughtered in the oven. The blacksmith, who has fallen into the power of Likh, only gets rid of the monster giantess by cunning. The blacksmith, who opposes the personification of evil, is a character from an ancient epic of the early Iron Age. One-Eyed Dashing "is taller than the tallest oak tree." As for the one-eyed nature of the Drevlyan ritual figure that interests us, it should be said that in the entire semicircle of its head (“northern ledge”) only one point is marked at the site of the first eye - four large stones are placed there. Such altars were public sacrifices to the evil deity of death and evil in some special frightening circumstances. Likha was brought, seeing from excavations, animals and people, judging by the abundant folklore material, the heads of those sacrificed were separated and displayed around the abode of Baba Yaga or Likha on stakes - “stamens”. In many fairy tales, Baba Yaga's hut is furnished with such poles with skulls on them; at Likha the One-Eyed, guests are treated to severed heads; Palace of Baba Yaga, leader of the cavalry army. “enclosed by a tychin, on each tychin there is a head and only on one there is no head” (it is intended for the head of the hero of a fairy tale). The motif of making a “cup” from a skull, known from the chronicles, is also present in fairy tales. Priests and their role In order to recreate the overall picture of Slavic primitive paganism, village wise men alone are not enough for us. After all, we know that back in the 1st millennium BC. e. there were “events”, “cathedrals”, “crowds” - crowded tribal gatherings with a complex scenario of pagan ritual, with a developed set of rituals accompanying pre-made props. The tribal nobility should have included people who developed a system of rituals, who knew (or created again) the texts of prayers and chants, melodies of chants, and formulas for addressing the gods. The centuries-old tradition inevitably had to intertwine with creativity and expansion of the repertoire. Priests were an integral part of any primitive society, and the more complex its social structure became, the closer it was to the upper limit of pre-class primitiveness, the clearer and more diverse was the role of tribal priests, priestesses and princes, who performed some of the priestly functions. To reproduce the composition of the priestly class of the ancient Slavs, in addition to the universal magicians - “cloud-takers”, leaders of pagan rituals and sacrifices, we must definitely include in the general list of wizards also blacksmiths, who made not only tools and weapons (which already gave them significant weight) , but also “a woman’s forge”, “a valuable forge”, showing “cunning” and “blacksmith’s artistry”. From the ancient verb “to forge”, to make something from metal, comes the word “cunning”, which we use only in a figurative sense, but at one time meant: wisdom, skill, intricacy. “The root of wisdom is revealed to him, and deceit (of wisdom) is revealed to him who understands.” These “cunning” goldsmiths knew pagan symbols perfectly and widely used their knowledge both for making village amulets and jewelry with amulets, and for the “mane utensils” of the most noble women of the country, right up to the grand duchesses. From information from the 11th - 14th centuries. we have data on the following category of people involved in the pagan cult: Men Women Magi Charanilniks Magi (Magi) Wizards Perpetrators Witches Cloud chasers Blasphemers Sorceresses Priests Bayans Enchantresses Sorcerers Wizards Obavnitsy Sorcerers Kobniki Nauznitsy Enchanters Patvors, patvornitsy Direct information about the Magi and their role in public life the young state of Rus' in the 9th - 10th centuries. We don't have enough. Records of the actions of the Magi in the bearish corners of the northeastern outskirts - in Suzdal and Poshekhonye - date back only to the 11th century. Perhaps that is why such a historically interesting topic as the priestly class was not raised in our literature even as a problem to be considered. It is not uncommon to look at the Magi only as village sorcerers, small-scale healers. Such were the distant descendants of the ancient Magi in the 16th - 17th centuries, who, according to tradition, were still called Magi. But even fragmentary information about the Magi of the 11th century, operating on the very edge of the land subject to Rus', portrays them to us as powerful figures who raised their hands both against the local nobility (“the old child”) and against the noble Kyiv boyar who arrived with his whole retinue. At the time of the introduction of Christianity, the Magi led the people and fought openly with government troops. A century later, in the same Novgorod, “the sorcerer stood under Gleb (Svyatoslav, the grandson of Yaroslav the Wise)... To say to people that something like God is happening and many deceits is not enough for the whole city... And there was a rebellion in the city and everyone gave him faith and I wanted to beat the bishop... And it was divided in two: Prince Gleb and his squad stayed with the bishop, and the people all went for the sorcerer...” This well-known episode testifies to the power of influence of pagan priests not only in the wilderness of the countryside, but also in the city, where an episcopal see was established long ago and the majestic St. Sophia Cathedral was built. Among the Slavs, writes Hilferding, “priests had the significance of a special class, strictly distant from the people... they performed public prayers in the sanctuaries and those fortune-telling by which the will of the gods was recognized. They prophesied and spoke to the people on behalf of the gods... They enjoyed special honor and wealth, and controlled the income from estates that belonged to temples and abundant offerings from fans. The most famous among the Baltic Slavs was the famous temple of Svyatovit (corresponding to the Russian Family) in Arkona on the shores of the Baltic Sea. Managing religious life was not an easy matter even at the level of a single village; it was complex at the tribal level with common tribal sanctuaries, and it became very complex and diverse at the state level, united by about fifty tribes. A simple rural sorcerer had to know and remember all the rituals, spells, ritual songs, be able to calculate the calendar dates of all magical actions, and know the healing properties of herbs. In terms of the amount of knowledge he had to approach a modern professor of ethnography, the only difference is that the ethnographer must spend a long time looking for half-forgotten relics. And an ancient sorcerer, probably. I received a lot from my predecessor teachers. Without continuous continuity of generations, it is impossible to imagine the thousand-year-old tradition of all varieties of East Slavic folklore. Blasphemy An important part of the activity of the sorcerers was the creation and inheritance of diverse ritual folklore. Its origins came from the distant depths of primitiveness and, thanks to the careful preservation of traditions, the echoes of verbal creativity reached the remote corners of Russia until the 19th century, before the meeting with ethnographic researchers. Translations from Greek allow us to determine how some words were translated into Russian, for example “koschyuny”, “fables”. Blasphemy and fables are close concepts, but not identical: “Ini hum (play on bowed instruments), ini beat him and blaspheme.” To swear, fables tell, obviously refers to different types of oral literature, and this action is subject to much less attacks by clergy than blasphemy, from which our modern word blaspheme, to desecrate a shrine, is derived. In the fables, obviously, there is a lot of secularism, perhaps everyday (but not epic), and in the blasphemies there is more paganism, mythological, what seemed especially blasphemous to the church fathers of the 4th - 7th centuries. and the Russian clergy of the XI - XIV centuries. The blasphemers were semantically associated with the wise men and the wizard: “Listen to neither the devils nor the blasphemous sorcerers.” Blasphemous myths are clearly contrasted with true epic-historical narratives. Church writers of that time believed that it was necessary to “tell stories in the place of glorious deeds,” i.e. preferred epic to myth. There were special “accordions” and storytellers of myths - “blasphemers”, to whom people flocked, despite the prohibitions: “If you begin to stop the relics of a blasphemer, you see many flocking to the blasphemers.” To some extent, blasphemy is connected with the funeral rite: “For the sake of vanity, many people cry (for the deceased), but when they leave, they blaspheme and get drunk.” From this phrase it is clear that blasphemy was performed during the wake of the deceased. Moreover, they were performed “for the sake of vanity,” i.e. A particularly solemn memorial pie was considered to be one on which some mythological legends were sung. When determining the original etymology of the word “blasphemy,” one should obviously accept the assumption of its dual basis; the first half (kosh-) is directly related to the concept of fate, lot, and the second half - to a more diverse set of meanings. Russian translators of the 11th - 12th centuries. consistently translated the Greek word “koschyuny”, combining in it the concepts of fate and good beginnings. The blasphemous myths were performed by the elders: “old man’s bassi”, “old man’s blasphemy”. “Koschyunoslovie” is sometimes combined in one phrase with “kobanie”; obviously, the execution of legends could be accompanied by certain ritual gestures and body movements. In Sreznevsky’s “Materials” (which also includes translated works, from which we can more accurately imagine the meaning of Russian words), the following terms are associated with folklore: Bayan, charmer (incantator) - “producing or singing spells.” Tale, legend. Koschiuna is a myth. Blasphemy - telling myths. To scold - to conjure, to tell. Koschyunnik is a wizard, a blasphemous storyteller. Blasphemy (later) - desecration of a Christian shrine. To this material should be added: Koschnoye - “that is, pitch darkness”, “underworld” Koschey, Koshchuy the Immortal, Korchun - a fairy-tale character. The key to penetrating the half-forgotten world of ancient Slavic mythology can be the widespread and stable image of Koshchei the Immortal, whose very name contains an indication of the mythological archaic “koschun” and the connection with the infernal essence of the “koshchnoe”, otherworldly kingdom. The East Slavic magical-fantastic tale has long been called mythological by researchers, until the famous Ukrainian ethnographer N.F. Sumtsov expressed serious doubts about the possibility of scientific knowledge of Slavic mythology: “The boundaries of mythology hang in the air; there has never been anything strong and stable here, and now, with the current state of folklore, mythology has no definite content.” However, with further study of folklore, it turns out that the crushed descendants of ancient myths are indeed fairy tales, and specifically magical (mythological) tales: “The origin of the fairy tale from myth is beyond doubt.” And later, due to the growth of tribal squads and military clashes, heroic epics are increasingly woven into mythological narratives. Thus, the East Slavic magical heroic tale is the keeper of intermingled echoes of archaic myths and fragments of the heroic epic, which was born back in the 1st millennium BC. “The magical beginning contains the so-called survival moments and, above all, the religious and mythological views of primitive man... The fairy tale is full of motives containing faith in the existence of the “other world” and the possibility of returning from there....” “The space hostile to man is the “other” kingdom, the sea kingdom, the kingdom of the Serpent, Koshchei, Yaga... Penetrating into this world, destroying it, the hero affirms a single world of human justice and humanism.” The struggle of Christianity with paganism The adaptation of paganism to the needs of the emerging state took place in conditions of competition with such world religions as Christianity and Islam, which was reflected in the legend “about the choice of faith.” The Byzantine Empire was directly interested in the Christianization of the young but powerful power of Rus', which believed that every people who accepted the Christian faith from the hands of the emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople thereby became a vassal of the Orthodox empire. Naturally, with such stable contact with Christian lands, Christianity could penetrate into the Russian environment, which we see from a number of documents of the 9th century, especially from the 860s. The missionary activity of the Greek Orthodox Church arose: Metropolitan Michael (Bulgarian) was sent to Rus', baptizing the Kyiv prince Oskold. One of the ways for Christians to penetrate into Kyiv, the famous historian of the Russian church E. E. Golubinsky rightly considers the arrival of the Varangians from the Constantinople Norman community, baptized Scandinavians, into the service of the Kyiv prince. The Scandinavian Varangians had their own, well-used by these sailors, sea route to Constantinople, which for some reason has been confused with the route through Eastern Europe for two centuries in our scientific and popular literature. Nestor in his text leads the reader from the Black Sea up the Dnieper and further into the Baltic Sea, pointing out that from the Varangian Baltic it is possible to sail by sea, without any drags, to Rome and Constantinople. Historians are still confused by the general heading of this paragraph; since the question of the Varangians is directly related to our topic, I will quote Nestor’s text: “Be the road from the Varangians to Grki and from Grki along the Dnepr and the Dnepr river to Lovot and along Lovot to bring the great lake into Ilmer, from which the lake will flow Volkhov and flow into the great lake Nevo (Ladoga) and that lake into the mouth of the Varangian sea (Baltic and Northern).” The path from the Varangians to the Greeks is designated as the well-known path of the Scandinavian flotillas along a single expanse of water (along the same sea) from the Baltic and the North Sea through the English Channel, past Normandy, through Gibraltar in the Mediterranean to the Norman possessions in Italy and to Constantinople, where the Normans served in the imperial palace guard. These Varangians of the Byzantine service naturally accepted Christianity and knew the Greek language to some extent. One can completely agree with E.E. Golubinsky that it was from these Constantinople Varangians that the mercenary squads of the Kyiv princes were recruited: “The Varangians are very large number moved from Constantinople to Kyiv." The first pagan action described in the chronicle was the sacrifice of a Christian Varangian youth to Perun. “The Varangian (the youth’s father) sent from Gr’k and kept the Christian faith in secret.” The Varangian, as we see, was one of those Constantinople Normans about whom Golubinsky wrote. The religious issue was raised to the level of international politics. This became especially clear after Igor’s campaign against Byzantium in 943 and the conclusion of the treaty in 944, already during the reign of Igor’s widow Olga (from 945). The chronicle texts do not say a word about the priestly class, about the pagan magicians in Rus' and about their actions at this time, but without taking into account this social element, so well described among the Western Slavs, it will be difficult for us to comprehend many events. The conflict between Svyatoslav and his pagan squad with Olga began at the moment when the princess’s regency ended. Obviously, Svyatoslav prohibited the public holding of Christian worship (prayer services, crusades, blessing of water, etc.), giving the main place to “pogansky tempers.” Olga apparently became half a Christian by confessing. But without demonstrating their Orthodoxy. With this understanding of events, we should not reproach Jacob Mnich for using the inaccurate date of Olga’s baptism (955) - he conscientiously said that the princess pleased God with good deeds for 15 years after her baptism. Naturally, the 11th century orator kept silent about the renunciation of Christianity or the prohibition of rituals. Concluding our consideration of the last period of the heyday of paganism in Kievan Rus, when the ancient religion had to improve not only in the interests of the state, but also in the confrontation with the penetration of Christianity into Rus', we should dwell on the most interesting work that reflected this confrontation in a unique epic form - the epic about Michael Stream. The epic about Mikhail Potok is a widespread and most significant work of Russian heroic epic in its volume: it has over 1100 lines, it consists of two parts, and each part is equal in size to the average size of the songs of the Iliad. The literature devoted to this epic is very extensive; it was carried out by V. I. Stasov, A. N. Veselovsky, O. Miller, V. F. Miller, G. N. Potanin, B. I. Yarkho, B. M. Sokolov, V. Ya. Propp and others. And yet, in the historical interpretation of the epic, much remains unfinished and must be studied in conjunction with Russian and Byzantine historical evidence and archaeological data, which provide convincing dating to the main plot of the epic. Chroniclers and church writers over time began to call the Prince of Kyiv Vladimir Svyatoslavovich (980 - 1015) Saint and Equal to the Apostles, giving him credit for the baptism of Rus', but in the folk epic he remained an archaic mythological epithet, like “Volodimer the Sun”. This solar sign related him to the distant mythical Sokolot (Orthodox) king Kola-kai, the “Sun King”. Vladimir was the last pagan prince of Rus' and only he retained this poetic nickname, coming from great chronological depths. For almost two centuries, Kievan Rus was a pagan power that required religious and ideological reinforcement of the statehood and power of the Kyiv princes. Christianity, which has become state religion in Byzantium already six centuries ago and in related Bulgaria for more than a century, by this time it was no longer the hope of the persecuted plebs, but a well-developed religion of class society with the main thesis: “let slaves obey their masters.” The adoption of Christianity was supposed to help strengthen statehood, but in such an act there was a great danger: the Byzantines believed that every people who received a new faith from the hands of the Greek clergy thereby became a vassal of the Byzantine emperor, who headed both the secular and the highest spiritual power. At the end of the 980s, Rus' adopted Christianity as a public state religion. After the siege and capture of the capital of the Byzantine possessions - Chersonese-Korsun - the Kiev boyars and Prince Vladimir could no longer fear that the empire would regard the adoption of the faith from the hands of the Caesar and the Patriarch as a sign of recognition of Rus'’s vassal dependence on the Greeks. The terms were dictated by the winner, who wanted to secure peace by marrying a Byzantine princess; “It’s already come true.” The adoption of Christianity immediately put Rus' on the same level as the advanced states of that time, facilitated diplomatic ties, since the people of the Middle Ages attached great importance to religion, and Christianity by that time had covered approximately three-quarters of Europe, Transcaucasia and a significant part of the Middle East. One of the political results of the baptism was that the son of Vladimir, by agreement with the Caesar of the Byzantine Empire, received the highest title of “Caesar” in Europe, i.e. Emperor. And Vladimir’s son, grandsons and granddaughters became related to the largest royal houses of the continent. It was, of course, not a matter of one religion, but also of the objective political power of Rus', but Christianity gave shape to this new power, and in Europe there were three monarchs of the highest rank: the Caesar of Byzantium, the Emperor of the “Holy Roman Empire” (Germany) and the Caesar ( king) of Rus', Grand Duke Kyiv. In Rus', Christianity did not appear in the original form in which it was in the first centuries of its existence; it has long ceased to be the religion of the disenfranchised and oppressed, who expected compensation only in the other world. Since the time of Constantine the Great (306 - 337), who baptized Byzantium, Christianity became the state religion and moved further and further away from the principles of the “new testament”, relying more and more on the “old testament” (the Bible) full of treachery, cruelty and autocracy. The strength of such state Christianity was the combination of the principle of inviolability and limitlessness of power, taken from the Bible, with the principle of obedience and humility, taken from the Gospel teaching. All subsequent Christian literature followed this path; Christian clergy took an active part in the development of state legislation. For a millennium, paganism very slowly retreated under the persistent onslaught of the Orthodox clergy. The village essentially became Christian hardly earlier than the 13th century, and remnants of pagan corpse burnings in the form of huge bonfires over the grave (“smoke” according to the life of Konstantin of Murom) survived in some places until the end of the 19th century. Churches were built in the cities of Kievan Rus; they were supplied with liturgical books, utensils, and served by the clergy; around the cities, immediately outside the fortress walls, monasteries arose, which were the “knots of strength” of the church organization; the clergy organized solemn prayer services, crusades, and preached sermons in the cities; but paganism continued to be strong not only “in Ukraine,” but also in big cities. To characterize the relationship between Christian and pagan principles in Russian cities, it is enough to cite the famous “Tale of the Creature...”, compiled by a Russian scribe of the 12th century. The author strengthens the previous generations of Russian people in the fact that they created a pagan religion: “our fathers created lies, worshiped idols in the image of man and served creatures.” The author of “The Lay...” also castigates his contemporaries for worshiping images of pagan gods (“having written the world as a fool, they bow to him”); these images of light (Svyatovich?) are “creatures”, i.e. by the creation of human hands “written in the image of man for the deception of those of little understanding.” Paganism persisted in the early days of the existence of the Old Russian state and Christianity, coexisting with Christianity, and remnants of paganism persist to this day: Maslenitsa, Ivan Kupala, saying goodbye to winter and much more. Literature 1. S. M. Solovyov Works book 1, volume 1 (c) 1988 “Thought” 2. Rybakov B. A. Paganism of the ancient Slavs. 3. Bessonov Petor. Belarusian songs with detailed descriptions of their creativity and language with sketches of folk rites, customs and the entire life of M., 1871. 4. Propp V.Ya. Russian agricultural holidays. M., 1963. 5. Levchenko M. V. Essays on the history of Russian-Byzantine relations. M., 1956. 6. Sakharov A. N. Diplomacy of ancient Rus'. M., 1980. 7. Golubinsky E. E. History of the Russian Church. M., 1901, vol. 1, first half of the volume. 8. Rybakov B. A. Prerequisites for the formation of the Old Russian state (Essays on the history of the USSR III - IX centuries. M., 1958. 9. Rybakov B. A. Ancient Rus'...
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I. Introduction

The word “culture” comes from the word “cult” - the faith, customs and traditions of ancestors. Anyone who forgets this has no right to be considered a cultured person.

Before Christianity and other monotheistic religions, all peoples were pagans. The culture of earthlings dates back thousands of years.

Nowadays they don’t say a word about paganism in schools. Not only students, but also teachers have no idea about paganism. Meanwhile, the school curriculum should begin with fairy tales, songs, and myths of our ancestors. Myths are the primary layer of the cultural life of mankind; religion, science, and art derive their origin from them.

Slavic paganism developed along different channels: some tribes believed in the forces of the cosmos and nature; others - into Rod and Rozhanits, others - into the souls of deceased ancestors and spirits (spiritualized forces); fourth - in totem animals - ancestors, etc. Some buried (kept) their dead ancestors in the ground, believing that they later helped the living from the Other World and left them something to eat. Others burned the dead in boats (boats), sending their souls on a heavenly voyage, believing that if the body was burned, the soul would quickly rise to heaven and repose there, each in its own star (hence - repose).

According to the ideas of the ancient Slavs, the highest gods lived in the sky, the spirits of nature lived on the earth, and evil demons lived underground. Probably, such a structure did not arise immediately. In the beginning there was a cult of the spirits of nature, the spirits of human patrons, the spirits of ancestors. Then images of gods were formed, the list of which gradually expanded. Man improved, and spirits and gods became more and more humanized.

II. Slavic pagan world

Today we can only give a general idea of the Slavic pagan world. Moreover, if individual gods can be characterized in more or less detail, then only names have been preserved from others.

The most ancient non-personified gods of the Slavs are Rod and Rozhanitsy. The genus is sometimes identified with the phallus, sometimes with grain (including solar and rain grain that fertilizes the earth). Women in labor are the female generative principle that gives life to all living things: humans, flora and fauna. Later, Rod and Rozhanitsy began to perform more functions, unified into the supreme gods and were personified in different tribes of the Slavs - they received proper names: Yarovit, Svetovid, Rigevit, Makosh, Golden Baba, Didilia, Zizya, etc.

The ancient Slavic ones include the worship of ghouls and beregins.

1. Beregini and perfume

Beregini(like the Greek penates) preserved the well-being of different places and types of nature, as well as the house. There were many house spirits: brownie, Kutny god, grandfather, ergot and speka (spirits that contributed to human affairs), dormancy (domestic peaceful deity of sleep), bayunok (storyteller, night storyteller, lullaby songwriter), laziness, father (extreme laziness) , okoyoms, prokurat, prokudy (rogues, unhearing, pranksters), bannik (spirit of the bathhouse), evil spirits, demons, devils, shishigi (devils with hair sticking out like a shisha), kikimora or shishimora (devil with hair sticking out like a shisha, deity of restless dreams and night phenomena). The Orthodox “chert” means damned, who has crossed the line, the border.

There were many beregins; they protected people everywhere: at home, in the forest, in the field, on the water, they protected crops, barnyards, children, sang lullabies to them, told them fairy tales (tales), and brought them dreams. Later they received their own names, some - their own group names, for example, their own Did, Baba - ancestors; group - mermaids, goblins, etc.

Here are some of them:

Grandfather (did)- ancestor, ancestor. For those who believed that they descended from Perun (Olgovichi and others), this is also a synonym for Perun. The grandfather is the guardian of the family, and, above all, of the children, of course. The eldest man, a representative of the clan eldership, who pacifies passions within the clan, preserves the basic principles of the morality of the clan, strictly monitoring their implementation. The forest deity, the keeper of Perun's treasure (gold, silver, i.e. Lightning, thunderstorms, silver rain), was also called grandfather. They prayed to the grandfather for instructions, for the discovery of the treasure. According to legend, where the light flashes, there is this treasure (rain with thunderstorms), which is vital and important for people.

Woman. The most ancient of them is Baba Yaga.

What does Yaga mean? Why is she so scary? And even more so, no one believes that the terrible Baba Yaga is initially a caring beregin.

The word “Yaga” is coarsened from “Yashka”. Yasha in Slavic songs was called foot-and-mouth disease - who once lived on earth and disappeared, the progenitor of all living things; hence our more understandable one - ancestor. Baba Yaga was originally an ancestress, a very ancient positive deity of the Slavic pantheon, the keeper of the family and traditions, children and the surrounding (often forest) space. During the period of the introduction of Christianity, all pagan gods and deities, spirits, including those who protected people (beregins), were given evil, demonic features, ugliness in appearance and character, and evil intentions. So the pagan strict ancestor was turned into an evil demon with which they scare our little children. In various Slavic tribes there were later other ancestors who received proper names: Golden Baba, Golden Mother, Makosh, etc.

There are especially many beregins (they were also later given evil traits) among the goblins: forester, woodsman, leshak, wild man, Mikola (Nikola) Duplyansky, companion, boletus, crafty (bent and twisted like a bow, and the same internally, which is the main thing) , grandfather, grandfather; as well as demons (the Slavic “demon” literally means “without”, and then any positive concept could follow, for example, a person without conscience, God, concept (knowledge), goodness, justice, honor, mind, etc.) devils ; shishigi; forest mavkas; ghouls; anchutki (a cross between a devil and a duck); werewolves; wolfhounds (dlaka - skin); bats; miracle-yudo; forest king; sudichki and hartsuki (small spirits, assistants of Perun); dashingly one-eyed; the fear-Rakh bird is an incomplete list of forest inhabitants who were the embodiment of the forest as a space hostile to humans.

Sometimes the goblin was no different from people, but more often the owner of the forest appeared dressed in animal skin(dlaku); sometimes he had animal attributes: horns, hooves, etc.

In winter, the usual goblin in the forest were replaced by Perun’s assistants, who were even stricter towards people - the Kalinniki (from the word “to cast”): Morozko, Treskunets, Karachun. Thus, a person, leaving home for the forest or field, prepared himself for a constant struggle with unforeseen circumstances and merciless elements; and on the other hand, he could always count on the unexpected help of the forest deity, the forest owner, so I tried to please him; do not harm in the forest, do not beat animals unnecessarily, do not break trees and bushes in vain, do not litter the forest, do not even shout loudly, do not disturb the peace and quiet of nature.

The fact that they tried to make an evil spirit out of the Slavic kikimora (shishimora) - the deities of sleep and night ghosts - is evidenced by the second part of the word - “mora”. Mora (Mor), Mara is the goddess of death. But still, kikimora is not death. If she gets angry and plays pranks, for example, disturbs the kids at night, confuses the yarn left out at night, etc. - does not mean that someone will die as a result of her evil tricks. Kikimora is a weak, like a crooked mirror reflection of only the fear of death, or even just fear.

Christianity managed to turn into its opposite and mermaid- the oldest species of bereginya that lived in the waters. She was always depicted with a woman's face and breasts, a fish body and a tail. The word “bereginya” itself comes from the concept of protecting, helping a wandering, sailing, or distressed person to get to the shore. The Slavs did this with mermaids. However, during the period of criticism and denial of paganism, the idea was gradually introduced that mermaids were drowned women and dead unbaptized children. They began to be afraid. It was believed that they were most dangerous for people during Rusal Week (June 19 - 24), before Ivan Kupala, especially on Thursday (Perunov's Day). During the mermaid week, they sang mermaid songs, hung yarn, threads, and towels on trees and bushes - symbolic clothing for mermaids; either to appease them, or to pity them...

The ancient Semargl, a sacred winged dog that guarded seeds and crops, also ascended to the shores. Semargl is, as it were, the personification of armed (militant) good. Later, Semargl began to be called Pereplut, perhaps because he was more associated with the protection of plant roots (Pluto is the Greek god of the underworld). The cult of Pereplut celebrated its mermaid week. And seeds and crops began to be protected by Yadrei and Obilukha. Mermaids brought news of rain.

Beregins were also birds with a woman's face: sweet-sounding Sirin, the Phoenix bird reborn from the ashes, Stratim - the mother of all birds, the oldest in the big one, the Firebird, swan girls (swans), Nail-bird, etc.

Mythical half-animal-half-human also called chimerical or chimeras. The purpose of many beregins has now been lost. For example, the dog's name is Polkan; many people think that in ancient times there was such a winged dog (confusing it with Semargl), while polkan (polkon) is literally a half-horse. The half-horse guarded the solar horses of Svetovid, the horses of the sun gods or thunder gods.

Among the Russian half-horses are the Little Humpbacked Horse, Sivka-Burka, etc. In appearance, they are half or much smaller than the heroic horses of God, they are inconspicuous, sometimes even ugly (hump, long ears, etc.). In a metaphorical sense, it is half-horses, half-people: they understand the affairs of people (gods and demons), speak human language, distinguish between good and evil, and are active in affirming good.

There is another extraordinary deity: Chur- the deity of borders, one of the most ancient deities-beregins. Derived from "shchur". Ancestors (ancestors) of some kind. Chur is connected with the world. He sanctifies and protects the right of property (cf. “Chur-moe”), divides everything fairly: “Chur – in half!”, “Chur – together!”.

The word “chur” is associated with “devil”, “outline”, “delineate”. Proto-Slavic “chert” - cursed, possibly violating borders, boundary, geographical, and then - inevitably, moral; replacing good with evil.

2. Pagan gods

Many references to solar cosmic pagan gods have reached us.

Svarog- the god of the sky (Svarga - sky), hence our expression “svara”, “boil” - to swear, scold, to be like heaven in bad weather. Son of Svarog - Dazhdbog

Connected with Svarog, Stribog is the god of air currents and elements. It was to him that the winds obeyed. The proper names of some of them have been lost; perhaps one of them was called Wind, another Hurricane, etc. But the names of the two winds have reached us. This is Pogoda (Dogoda) - a light, pleasant westerly breeze. It is no coincidence that all other states of the atmosphere, except for the one named, are called bad weather. Posvist (Pozvist or Pokhvist) is the elder (or ruler) wind living in the north. He was depicted wearing a huge flowing cloak.

Some believe that the sun god of the ancient Slavs was Yarilo, others - Dazhdbog, and others call Svetovid. However, the Slavs had their own sun god. His name is . It is known most of all among the southeastern Slavs, where there is, of course, a lot of sun.

From the ancient roots “horo” and “kolo”, meaning circle, the solar sign of the sun, the words “round dance”, “mansions” (circular building of a yard), and “wheel” are formed.

Two very large Slavic pagan holidays of the year are dedicated to Khors - the days of the summer and winter solstice in June (when a cart wheel was necessarily rolled down from the mountain to the river - a solar sign of the sun, symbolizing the sun's retreat for the winter) and December (when Kolyada, Yarila, etc. were honored. ).

Kolyada- a diminutive of “colo”, the sun-baby (represented as a boy or a girl, because for a small child, gender does not yet play any role; the sun itself is neuter). This deity arose from the holiday of the winter solstice, from the poetic idea of the birth of a young sun, that is, the sun of the next year (This ancient idea of the annual baby has not died to this day. It has been transferred to the concept of “new year”. On cards and in the New Year’s decoration of festivities It is no coincidence that artists depict the New Year in the form of a boy flying in space).

Kolyada was celebrated on winter holidays from December 25 (Nomad, Christmas Eve) to January 6 (Veles Day). This time coincides with severe frosts (cf. Mora - death), blizzards (cf. Viy) and the most violent dens of unclean (in the Christian view) spirits and evil witches who steal the month and stars. Everything is covered in a frosty veil and seems dead. However, winter Christmastide is the most joyful revelry of Slavic festivities. The mummers walked around the courtyards, singing carols - songs glorifying Kolyada, who gives blessings to everyone. The well-being of home and family was also glorified.

On the nights of winter Christmastide, fortune-telling took place for the future harvest, for the offspring, and most of all for marriages. There are countless ways of fortune telling. This custom comes from the desire to communicate with the ancient Slavic goddess, who was represented as a beautiful spinning girl spinning the thread of fate, the thread of life - Srecha (Meeting) - in order to find out her destiny. For different tribes, the synonyms “court”, “fate”, “share”, “fate”, “lot”, “kosh”, “sentence”, “decision”, “choice” have the same meaning.

Srecha- night goddess. No one saw her spinning, so fortune telling took place at night. Most often they guessed at the betrothed (cf. The word “bride” literally means “unknown”). It is assumed that the duties of the goddess of fate among other East Slavic tribes were performed by Makosh, who patronized household work.

If during the winter holidays fortune-telling took place at night, then during the day - ladins - brides' consorts, and then weddings.

The Slavic holiday Kupalo is associated with the summer solstice. The summer solstice is the most important holiday of the Slavs, the time of the highest development of the creative forces of nature.

On the night of June 24, there was a custom not to sleep: to watch the meeting of the month with the sun, so as to see how “the sun shines.” The Slavs went to ritual hills or to clearings near rivers, burned bonfires, sang, and danced in circles and streams. Jumping over fires was both a test of dexterity and fate: a high jump symbolized luck in plans. With jokes, feigned cries and obscene songs, straw dolls of Yarila, Kupala, Kostrubonka or Kostroma (bonfire - woody parts of flax, hemp) were burned.

At dawn, everyone participating in the holiday bathed in order to relieve themselves of evil infirmities and illnesses.

On Kupala night, according to legend, all sorts of miracles happened: rare mysterious herbs bloomed - gap-grass, fern, etc.; unprecedented treasures were discovered. Evil spirits - witches and sorcerers - also indulged in all sorts of revelry, stealing the stars, the month, etc.

From the merger of the name of the pagan Slavic holiday Kupala and the Christian Midsummer Day (meaning John the Baptist), a new name for the holiday emerged - Ivan Kupala.

If Khors was the god of the sun, then Svetovid, Dazhdbog, Rugevit, Porevit, Yarovit, Belbog carried within themselves both the masculine generic principle and the solar, cosmic principle. These gods of late Slavic paganism are the supreme (tribal) gods of different tribes, so their functions have a lot in common. Dazhdbog- one of the most famous gods of the East Slavic tribes. This is a giving god, a giver of earthly goods, and also a god who protects his family. He gave man everything important (by cosmic standards): the sun, warmth, light, movement (natural or calendar - the change of day and night, seasons, years, etc.). Dazhdbog was probably more than the sun god, although he was very close to this; he meant what we call “the whole white light.”

Belbog- guardian (conservator) and giver of goodness, good luck, justice, happiness, all blessings. An ancient sculptor made a statue of Belbog with a piece of iron in his right hand (hence - justice). Since ancient times, the Slavs knew a similar (test with iron) method of restoring justice. A person suspected of any offense was given a red-hot piece of iron in his right hand, and ordered to walk ten steps with it; the one whose hand remained unharmed was recognized as right. Since ancient times, the concept of “branded with iron” was equivalent to “branded with shame.” From here we learn that the supreme Slavic gods had another function - the Supreme Judge, Conscience, Zealot of Justice, as well as a punishing god, protecting the race from moral decline.

Svetovid(Svyatovid) - the god of war, sun, victory among the Western Slavs, was depicted with four heads. Holidays in his honor began at the end of the harvest, in August. The Slavs brought fruits collected from fields, gardens and vegetable gardens as gifts to God. The priest filled Svetovid's horn with new wine, symbolizing the fullness of the next year's harvest. Many young animals were sacrificed to Svetovid, which were eaten right there during the feast.

Rugevit- the supreme god of one of the Slavic tribes. Rugevit had seven faces, seven swords with scabbards hung on his belt, and he held one sword in his right hand. Rugevit stood guard over the life of his tribe.

Revit- one of the tribal supreme gods, more ancient. Poro (spore) is nothing more than a seed, and vita is life. That is, this is the god of male seed, the giver of life and its joy, love, just like the East Slavic Yarovit and the already named Svetovid, Belbog, Dazhdbog, Rugevit.

Something close to all these gods Perun, thunderer, god of the Western Slavs. Perun had a huge retinue of relatives and assistants: Thunder, Lightning, Hail, Rain, mermaids and mermaids, winds, of which there are four, like the four cardinal directions. Hence Perun’s day is Thursday (cf. “after the rain on Thursday”, “clean Thursday”), sometimes there are seven, ten, twelve or just a lot of winds.

Perun and other gods, personifying the forces of nature, are served by heroes and volots. If they go wild, stones are pulled out of the mountains, trees are felled, and rivers are dammed with rubble. There are many such heroes of varying strength in Slavic mythology: Gorynya, Verni-gora, Valigora, Vertigor, Dubynya, Duboder, Vertodub, Vyrvidub, Elinya (spruce), Lesinya (forest), Duginya (arc oppression), Bor, Verni-voda, Zapri -water, Stream-hero, Usynya, Medvedko, Nightingale the Robber (hurricane wind), Strength the Tsarevich, Ivan Popyalov (Popel), Svyatogor, Water, etc.

Forests and rivers that were considered sacred, for example, the Bug and Volkhov, were dedicated to Perun.

Snakes are also associated with Perun. Snakes (as symbols) had several meanings and purposes.

In the Slavic calendar there are two holidays during which snakes are remembered (most often they are harmless snakes), March 25 is the time when livestock is driven out “to St. George’s dew” and snakes crawl out of the ground, the ground becomes warm, and agricultural work can begin. September 14 – snakes leave, the agricultural cycle basically ends. Thus, these animals symbolized the cyclical nature of rural field work and were a kind of natural climatic clock. It was believed that they also helped to beg for rain.

Images of snakes - snakes - decorated ancient vessels with water. The snakes from Perunova's retinue symbolized heavenly clouds, thunderstorms, and a powerful rampant of the elements. These snakes are multi-headed. If you cut off one head, the other grows and shoots out tongues of fire (lightning). Serpent-Gorynych is the son of the mountain - heavenly (cloud). These snakes kidnap beauties (the moon, stars and even the sun). The snake can quickly turn into a boy or girl. This is due to the rejuvenation of nature after rain, after every winter.

Snakes are the guardians of countless treasures, medicinal herbs, living and dead water. Hence the snake doctors and symbols of healing.

Snakes from the retinue of the gods of the underworld - Viy, Death, Mary, Chernobog, Kashchei, etc. Guard the underworld. A variant of the serpent - the ruler of the underground kingdom - is the Lizard, less often - the Fish. The lizard is often found in folk songs of archaic times; sometimes, having lost the ancient meaning of symbolism, it is called Yasha.

Many tribes, especially in hunting and forest regions, believed that their ancestor was a mighty gigantic beast. For example, bear, deer, foot and mouth disease, etc. The cult of Veles is associated with such ideas. The ancients believed that the family descended from God, who appears only in the form of a beast, and then again goes to the heavenly palaces (the constellation Ursa Major, etc.).

Veles- one of the oldest East Slavic gods. At first he patronized hunters. Due to the taboo on the deified beast it was called “hairy”, “hair”, “veles”. It also denoted the spirit of a killed animal, hunting prey. "Vel" is the root of words meaning "dead". To die, to repose, means to attach one’s spirit, one’s soul to one’s heavenly ancestors, whose soul flies to heaven, but whose body remains on earth. There was a custom of leaving a harvested field to “reap the ears of hair on a beard,” that is, the Slavs believed that the ancestors resting in the soil also helped its fertility. Thus, the cult of the cattle god Veles was somehow connected with the ancestors, with the harvest, with the well-being of the clan. Herbs, flowers, bushes, trees were called “hair of the earth.”

Since ancient times, livestock was considered the main wealth of a tribe or family. Therefore, the bestial god Veles was also the god of wealth. The roots “volo” and “vlo” became an integral part of the word “volode” (to own).

The cult of Veles goes back to the cult of Rod and Rozhanits. Therefore, together with Yarila, the Slavs paid tribute to the voluptuous bestial gods Tur and Veles on the Semik holiday, on Shrovetide week and on winter holidays, sacrificing to them round dances, singing, kisses through a wreath of fresh flowers and greenery, and all sorts of loving actions.

The concept of Magi, since the root of this word also comes from “hairy”, “hairy”. When performing ritual dances, spells, and rituals in ancient times, the Magi dressed in the skin (dlaka) of a bear or other animal. Magi are a kind of scientists, sages of ancient times who know their culture, at least better than many.

Women goddesses, dating back to the ancient cult of Rozhanitsa, were highly revered among the Slavs. The most ancient is the goddess of the Western Slavs Triglava(Trigla). She was depicted with three faces; her idols always stood in the open air - on mountains, hillocks, and near roads. She was identified with the goddess of the Earth.

Makosh- one of the main goddesses of the Eastern Slavs. Her name is made up of two parts: “ma” - mother, and “kosh” - purse, basket, shed. Makosh is the mother of filled koshes, the mother of a good harvest. This is not the goddess of fertility, but the goddess of the results of the agricultural year, the goddess of the harvest, the giver of blessings.

Yield volume at equal labor costs every year is determined by lot, fate, destiny, lucky chance. Therefore, Makosh was also revered as the goddess of fate. In Russian Orthodoxy, Makosh was reincarnated as Praskeva Friday.

Makosh patronized marriage and family happiness.

The Slavs especially loved Lada- goddess of love, beauty, charm. With the onset of spring, when nature itself enters into an alliance with Yarila, Ladina’s holidays also come. These days they played burners. To burn is to love. Love has often been compared to the color red, fire, heat, fire.

Many words of marriage, union and peace are associated with the root “lad”. Lad – marital consent based on love; to get along - to live lovingly; to get along - to woo; frets - engagement; got along - matchmaker; Ladniki - dowry agreement; ladkanya – wedding song; okay - good, beautiful. And the most common one is Lada, that’s what they called their loved ones.

Her child is associated with Lada, whose name appears in both female and male forms: Lel(Lelya, Lelio) or Lyalya (Lelia). Lel is the child of Lada, he encourages nature to fertilize, and people to marriage.

Polelya- second son of Lada, god of marriage. He was depicted in a simple white everyday shirt and a crown of thorns; he gave the same wreath to his wife. He blessed people for everyday life, a family path full of thorns.

Also associated with Lada Znich- fire, heat, ardor, love flame, sacred ardor of love (cf. supine).

3. Gods of death and the underworld

The gods of the sun, life and love, the earthly kingdom were opposed by the gods of death and the underworld... Among them - Chernobog , ruler of the underworld, representative of darkness. Associated with it are the negative concepts of “black soul” (a person who died for nobility), “black day” (a day of disaster).

One of the main servants of Chernobog was Viy(Nii). He was considered a judge over the dead. The Slavs could never come to terms with the fact that those who lived lawlessly, not according to their conscience, deceiving others, and unfairly used benefits that did not belong to them, were not punished. They sincerely believed that they would take revenge and pour out someone else’s grief, if not in this world, but in the next world. Like many peoples, the Slavs believed that the place of execution for lawless people was inside the earth. Viy is also associated with the seasonal death of nature during winter. This god was considered the sender of nightmares, visions and ghosts, especially for those who do not have a clear conscience.

Associated with the seasonal death of nature during winter Kashchei- deity of the underworld. It symbolizes ossification, numbness from frost in the winter of all nature. Kashchei - no real god death, his power is short-lived.

The real goddess of death was Mara(More). Hence, probably, the words “die”, “death”, “die”, “die out”, “dead”. The Slavs also had touching images of female deities of mortal sorrow Karnas(cf. okarnat, suffered punishment) and Jelly ; KruchinyAndZhurby(in other tribes) - embodying boundless compassion. It was believed that just the mention of their names (to regret, pity) relieves souls and can save them from many disasters in the future. It is no coincidence that there is so much crying and lamentation in Slavic folklore. The root “three” is associated with the negation of an unfavorable sign – “odd”, as a symbol of misfortune, which is why it is often found in spells.

III. Conclusion

Merger of paganism and Christianity

Christianity has ruled our land for a thousand years. If it had come to bare ground, it would not have taken root so firmly. It fell on prepared spiritual soil, its name is faith in God. Paganism and Christianity, despite the fact that one can find in them the most opposite positions in relation to certain phenomena (for example, to sacrifices, to the concept of sin, enemies), the main thing is similar: both of them are faith in God - the creator and preserver the entire world we see.

The ancient Slavs did not separate the gods from the forces of nature. They worshiped all the forces of nature: large, medium, small. Every force was for them a manifestation of God, God was everywhere for them. Light, heat, lightning, rain, spring, river, wind, oak, which gave them food, fertile lands, etc. All this big and small, which gave and moved life, was a manifestation of God and at the same time God himself.

A person changed, his thinking changed, his faith became more complex and changed. Christianity, which came to Rus' with the sword of Prince Vladimir and trampled pagan temples and shrines, could not resist the ethics of the people, their aesthetic preferences, and could not ignore the established rules of life.

So Easter- an optimistic holiday of Christian salvation and resurrection - merged with pagan Radunitsa- Day of remembrance of ancestors and all the dead. In Christianity, it was not customary to remember the dead with food - this is a purely pagan tradition, but it is this that has now taken over. Even seventy years of atheism did not erase from the routine of the life of an Orthodox Slav the day when he was accustomed to commemorating deceased relatives. During the height of the most terrible bacchanalia of the union of militant atheists, during the years of war and famine, the flow of people to the cemetery on Easter days was not interrupted, for this tradition is not a thousand, but several thousand years old.

Thus, not only Christianity influenced paganism, but also vice versa. Passed safely through a thousand years of Christianity pagan holiday – Shrovetide. This is farewell to winter and welcome to spring. The pagans baked a pancake - a symbol of the hot spring sun - and ate it hot, thus filling themselves with the solar energy of life, solar strength and health, which should have been enough for the entire agricultural annual cycle. Part of the pechev was given to animals, not forgetting to remember the souls of the dead.

Winter and summer Christmastide– games in honor of the god Svetovid during the turning of the sun for summer or winter are also not completely forgotten. Summer Christmastide has partially merged with Christian Trinity, and winter ones - Merry Christmas holidays .

More examples of the merging of holidays and individual gods can be given. Thus, both faiths have undergone many changes from their original nature and now exist unitedly and monolithically, having received, not by chance, the name Russian Orthodoxy .

All the current debates are about which is better - paganism or Christianity? - are groundless. Well, let's say paganism is better. And what? After all, it does not exist in its pure form, in popular belief, in widespread knowledge. Ask people, who knows the name of the Slavic sun god? – no one will say. Also Christianity - it was split into many movements: Catholicism, Lutheranism, Gregorianism, etc.

The only acceptable thing for modern Russian people is to return to Russian Orthodoxy. But this does not mean that we should consider everything pre-Christian worthless and worthless. Paganism needs to be studied as the most ancient period of our culture, the infant and youthful period of the life of our ancestors, which will strengthen our spirit and give each of us the strength of the spiritual-national soil, which will help us withstand the most difficult moments of existence.

Literature

1. A.A.Kononenko, S.A. Kononenko. "Characters of Slavic mythology." Kyiv, “Corsair”, 1993.

A.I. Bazhenova, V.I. Verdugin “Myths of the ancient Slavs.” Saratov, “Nadezhda”, 1993.
G. Glinka. "Ancient religion of the Slavs." Saratov, “Nadezhda”, 1993.
A. Kaisarov “Slavic and Russian mythology.” Saratov, “Nadezhda”, 1993.
B. Kresen. "Veles's book". Saratov, “Nadezhda”, 1993.

Applications

Characteristics and drawings of some characters in the mythology of the ancient Slavs

(drawings by E.I. Obertynskaya)

Perun is the supreme god of Kievan Rus; a formidable god who commands celestial phenomena; god of War. Tall, broad-shouldered, black-haired, big-headed, golden-bearded (honey flows down his beard). In the right hand is a bow, and in the left is a quiver of arrows. The strongest in nature, fights evil forces. August 2 – Perunov’s day. On this day all devilry, fleeing from Perun's fiery arrows, turns into various animals. In ancient times, on August 2, dogs and cats were not allowed into the house so as not to cause a thunderstorm - the wrath of Perun. Perun's bird is the rooster, Perun's day is Thursday. The statue of Perun the Thunderer stood in the pantheon of gods of Prince Vladimir.

Veles (Volos) is the god of cattle breeding and wealth, the patron of the animal world. He made man and animal related, taught people not to kill animals, but to use them in their farming. Veles is the guardian of the Magi, creators, shepherds, and merchants; endows a person with talent and physical characteristics: tall height, good voice, hearing. He is the father of giants; ox – mighty, big. Volos is one of the gods of Prince Vladimir’s pantheon, his day is Monday. The ancient Slavs had a harvest custom - “curling the beard.” The last ears of corn were not reaped, but woven into the beard as a gift to the god Veles. Grass and forest are the hairs of the earth.

Yarilo (Yar) – deity of awakening nature, patron flora. This is a young handsome man on a white horse and in a white robe with a wreath of spring flowers on his head. In his left hand he holds ears of corn. In the spring, “Yarilki” were celebrated, which ended with the funeral of Yarila. Wherever Yarilo goes, there will be a big harvest, and whoever he looks at, love will flare up in his heart. Yarilo was identified with the Sun. In many songs and sayings, people turn to this deity with requests for a warm summer and a good harvest. June 4 - Yarilin's day.

Dazhbog (Dazhdbog) – god of the sun, harvest, son of Svarog, husband of the goddess of love. In myths - one of the first kings and legislators, laid the foundation for chronology according to the solar calendar. A handsome, strong youth, a young prince, guardian of plowmen and sowers. Gives a person physical strength, health, wisdom, and skill. In the chronicles he is called the ancestor of the Russians. Dazhbog is also the keeper of the earthly keys. The sun god closes the earth for the winter and gives the keys to the birds, who take them to the open air - the summer kingdom, the land of departed souls. In the spring, the birds return the keys and Dazhbog opens the earth. One of the gods of Prince Vladimir’s pantheon, his day is Wednesday.

Belbog is a god who lives in the heavens and rules them. He appears in the form of an old man with a long gray beard, wearing white robes and holding a staff in his hand. There is a personification of a bright day. All the time in conflict with the dark forces of the night, the personification of which is Chernobog. Belbog with his staff collects white clouds, if they are dispersed by the winds, pierces them so that it rains.

Zibog is the god of the earth, endowed with enormous power. He is the creator, the creator. He raised the earth in one place and mountain ranges, ridges, and hills arose; lowered it in another - water poured out, seas and oceans were formed; I drew a furrow with my huge fingers and rivers flowed. And where he touched with his little finger, the small lakes splashed. Zibog protects the earth, but people make him angry - the earth shakes, volcanoes erupt, and raises huge waves. Zeebog is powerful, his eyebrows are shaggy, his beard is developing, it’s better not to anger him.

Rod is the god of the universe, living in the sky, who gave life to all living things that exist in the world. The clan is attributed creative and masculine power (phallic deity). Clay, wooden and stone images, security talismans of this god are found during excavations. Rod is the embodiment of the ancient goddess of fertility, the masculine principle. The cult of this god, like most pagan gods, was lost after the introduction of Christianity.

Svarog is the god of heavenly fire, the father of Dazhbog. He threw blacksmith's tongs to the ground from the sky and since then people have learned to forge iron. Svarog broke the heavenly cover with rays and arrows, opened the sky and the sun, sent heavenly fire to people, without which one could not make either weapons or jewelry: with sparks he ignited inspiration in the hearts and souls of masters. Svarog is a capricious god; he rarely revealed his secrets to anyone. He introduced himself in the form of a young, broad-shouldered blacksmith, silent and stern; patronizes blacksmiths, whom his grandchildren call Svarozhich.

Khors is the god of the solar disk, the eye of the sky. An affectionate and kind god who gives his warmth to everyone. No one can defeat him, because it is impossible to approach him: he rises higher than everyone else in the sky. He appears to be a handsome young man. The idols of the god Khorsa were depicted with solar signs. Horse is the god of the pantheon of the Kyiv prince Vladimir, his day is Tuesday.

Stribog is the god of the air elements, the ancient supreme deity of the sky and the universe. Breathes evenly and noisily, walks through the sea. And if he gets angry, he will hum, spin, howl, gather clouds, raise waves, scatter ships, and even sink them. He appears in the form of a psaltery player plucking the strings, with a bow behind his back, and a sagaidak with arrows on his belt. Stribog is the one who overcomes obstacles, the winds are his grandchildren, his day is Sunday. One of the gods of the pantheon of Kyiv Prince Vladimir.

Beregini are air maidens who protect people from ghouls. The Slavs believed that bereginii lived near the house and protected the house and its inhabitants from evil spirits. Cheerful, playful and attractive creatures, singing enchanting songs in delightful voices. In early summer, under the moon, they dance in circles on the banks of reservoirs. Where the beregins ran and frolicked, there the grass grows thicker and greener, and in the field the bread is born more abundantly.

Chislobog is the goddess of the moon. She holds in her hand the moon, by which time was calculated in ancient times; she is characterized by calm, measuredness, and dispassion. Her period is from early twilight to dawn, but despite this, she is indifferent to the dark forces of evil. Contemplating reality, he calmly counts down both seconds and centuries. He loves to walk through the snowy expanses on long winter nights, and swim in warm water on short summer nights.

Nemiza is the god of air, lord of the winds. His head is crowned with rays and wings, and on his torso a flying bird is depicted. Light as a feather, and sometimes he himself turns into a feather and swings in the heights, taking a break from worries. When, in the heat of the moment, a slight coolness suddenly touches the brow, it is Nemiza who favors it, lazily flapping her wing. Nemiza is not grumpy and allows the winds to frolic without interfering in their affairs. But if they quarrel too much and start a mad carousel, he will intervene and restore order.

Alive (Zhivana, Siva) - “life-giver”, goddess of life, she embodies life force and opposes the mythological embodiments of death. He holds an apple in his right hand and grapes in his left. Zhiva appears in the form of a cuckoo. At the beginning of May, sacrifices are made to her. Girls honor the cuckoo - the spring messenger: they baptize in the forest, worship each other and curl wreaths on the birch tree.

Morozka (Frost) – the god of winter, cold weather. Dressed in a warm fur coat, he walks through the forests and covers the trees with snow. In winter, he is the complete master, snowfalls, blizzards and blizzards are under his control. Always at war with spring, resisting its arrival, attacking at night, but always retreating in the end. Not all travelers are happy in their possessions. Depending on a person’s behavior, and sometimes on his own mood, he can reward or punish a person. If he gets angry, he’ll cover him with snow, he’ll snowball him, he’ll knock him off the road, he’ll get under his clothes. Your ears or hands may freeze, or even freeze completely.

Lada is the goddess of love, the patroness of marriages, the hearth, the goddess of youth, beauty, and fertility. Femininity itself, tender, melodious, fair-haired; in white clothes - she will lead the guy to her sweetheart in a round dance on Kupala night, and will hide her stepdaughter from her evil stepmother under the branches when she gets ready to meet her boyfriend. In young families, the hearth supports: it happens that the hearth is about to go out, and Lada throws a twig, waves her clothes - the hearth will flare up, touch the hearts of the foolish with warmth, and again there will be harmony in the family.

Makosha (Mokosh, Makesha) is a Slavic deity, the patroness of women's work, spinning and weaving. Also an agricultural deity, mother of the harvest, goddess of abundance. The flower is a poppy, as intoxicating as love. From the name of this bright flower, which girls embroidered on wedding towels, comes the name of the goddess. Makosha is the deity of female vitality. The only female deity whose idol stood on the top of the hill in the pantheon of Prince Vladimir. Among some northern tribes, Mokosh is a cold, unkind goddess.

Lel is the young god of love. Due to his youth, Lel sometimes simply amuses himself with love, although he does it out of good intentions - for him it is a fun game. A handsome young man with curly hair makes girls fall in love with him by playing them on the pipe and singing. When he can’t get away with his next chosen one, Lel finds her a boyfriend and convinces both that they were looking for each other. Lel appears in the spring and lives with her brother Polel in the forest. Together they go out in the morning to meet Yarilo. Lelya's pipe can be heard on Kupala night.

Weather is the god of clear days, the harbinger of spring, the husband of the goddess Zimtserla. Fair-faced, clear-eyed, beardless, cheerful in disposition. And sometimes he quarrels with his wife and walks around gloomy. That’s why the days are cloudy and even rainy: Zimtserla sheds tears. And when there is bad weather, there is a serious quarrel. The anger and anger pass, the weather comes to terms with the wife, the days are clear and beautiful again. We ask: “What will the weather be like?”, but we should ask: “What will the weather be like?”

Karna (Karina) is the goddess of sadness, the mourning goddess of the ancient Slavs, sister of Zheli. If a warrior dies far from home, Karna is the first to mourn him. According to legend, crying and sobbing can be heard over the dead battlefield at night. It is the goddess Karna in long black robes who performs difficult female duties for all wives and mothers.

Magi (magician, wizards) are the chosen ones of the gods, mediators between heaven and people, executors of the will of the gods. Every popular faith presupposes rituals, the performance of which is entrusted to selected people, respected for virtue and wisdom, real or imaginary. The Magi were guardians of the faith, lived as hermits, ate gifts and sacrifices that were intended for the deities. They had the exclusive right to grow a long white beard, sit during sacrifices, and enter sanctuaries. After the introduction of Christianity, they were persecuted because they worshiped pagan deities and defended the old faith and rituals.

Bes is one of the names of Chernobog. Later - a generalized name for evil spirits. Ugly, with pig snouts, long ears and tails, horned and shaggy. They are able to move quickly in space. They are especially zealous in bad weather in autumn and winter. They grunt, slurp, howl, squeal, spit, twirling in a frenzied dance. They lead a lonely traveler astray, lead him into an impassable thicket or a quagmire, push him into an ice hole; they frighten the horses and, grabbing the mane, drive them to death. Can turn into inanimate objects.

The brownie is the patron of the house. They also call him “master” for his obvious and proven merits and “grandfather” for the antiquity of his life. Appears in the form of an old man, a shaggy man, a cat or another small animal, but it is not possible to see him. He is the guardian not only of the entire house, but, mainly, of everyone living in it. Plays naughty: makes noise, rocks the bed, throws off the blanket, spills flour. But he also helps: he washes dishes, chops wood. Rocks the child. On February 7, Efim Sirin is fed porridge so that he does not mock. On April 12, on John the Ladder, the brownie goes crazy until the first rooster crows.

Bannik (baennik, laznik bainik) - the spirit living in the bathhouse, evil, appears in the form of a small naked man with rainbow eyes. He always lives in an unheated bathhouse; the steam drives him out for a short time. It can kill a person who washes at odd hours (after midnight). First it lulls you to sleep, then it covers your mouth with long, thick lips and forces hot air into your chest. He especially doesn't like drunks. Skillful people drive him out with a bath broom. The bannik washes himself along with the devils, goblin, and barnacles; in the fourth place, whoever they come across at this time will be steamed. If it does happen, you need to run away backwards.

Vodyanoy (vodyannik, vodilnik) is the spirit of rivers and lakes, like all spirits from evil spirits - not only “grandfather”, as he is usually called, but also a true “ancestor”. Always naked, covered in black scales, wrapped and belted with mud, with long green hair and beard, wearing a kugi hat. Instead of hands there are webbed paws, a fish tail, eyes burning with hot coals. He sits on a snag and loudly slaps the water. When he gets angry, he breaks dams, washes away mills, drags animals and people into the water. Fishermen, millers, and beekeepers sacrifice to him.

Chur (Tsur) is the ancient god of the hearth, protecting the boundaries of land holdings. A hearth and a warm hut are Chur’s habitat. People call upon him during fortune telling, games, etc. (“Forget me!”). Chur sanctifies the right of ownership (“Chur is mine!”). It also determines quantity and quality necessary work("Too much!"). Churka is a wooden image of Chur.

A witch is, according to ancient legends, a woman who sold her soul to the devil. In the south, this is a more attractive woman, often a young widow; in the north - an old woman, fat as a tub, with gray hair, bony hands and a huge blue nose. She differs from other women in that she has a small tail and has the ability to fly through the air on a broom, poker, and mortar. He goes on his dark deeds without fail through a chimney, and can turn into different animals, most often a magpie, a pig, a dog and a yellow cat. Along with the month, he grows older and younger. On the 12th of August, witches die after drinking milk. A famous gathering place for witches for the Sabbath on Kupala Night is in Kyiv on Bald Mountain.

Baba Yaga is an old forest sorceress, witch, sorceress. A character in fairy tales of Eastern and Western Slavs. She lives in the forest, in a “hut on chicken legs”, one of her legs is bone, she has poor vision, she flies around the world on a mortar. You can trace parallels with other characters: with the witch - a way of moving, the ability to transform (turn into animals); with the goddess of animals and forests - life in the forest, complete subordination of animals to her; with the mistress of the world of the dead - a fence made of human bones around the hut, skulls on stakes, a bolt - a human leg, a lock - a hand, a lock - teeth. In most fairy tales, she is the hero’s opponent, but sometimes he is his helper and giver.

Bible Book of the Prophet Isaiah “The Word of Isaiah the Prophet” 8. Thus says the Lord: when in Thus says the Lord: if there is juice in the grape cluster, I will find the grape bunch, at least then they say “do not damage it, the berry, then I will leave it safe for there is a blessing in it.” " Same with this bunch. A bunch - I will make this faithful for the sake of my servants, so that a person, and a good berry - this will not destroy everyone. good deeds prescribed by divine scripture. If there are no berries on the bunch, then it should be cut off and thrown into the fire. Such cutting off is death, and throwing into the fire is consignment to the flames of hell. 9. I will bring forth from Jacob the seed of those who hear me, and I will not destroy them, but also from Judah, the heir of the mountains, I will destroy good seed from Jacob and them the chosen ones of Judah will inherit. This is good growth, mine and my slaves will live there. people faithful to the divine law. They will own my holy mountain - the church and church teaching. Holy Mountain - Zion; on it I showed my goodness, and this mountain, Zion, is the mother of all temples; it contains the teaching of divine scripture. The Lord said: the heirs of my holy mountain will be chosen people, i.e. those who serve Rod and (two) women in labor, useless idols. Faithful servants of God are people who make a pure sacrifice to the living God with a meek heart, enlightened by real church teaching. 10. And Sharon will be a pasture. They will be like sheep in the pasture of the sheep, and the valley of Achor - the land. The meadow is paradise, and the resting place for the oxen of the Moda people is a heavenly place, and the sheep are his, who sought me. true believers who submit to God, and not to (two) women in labor. And the Okhor thickets in which the oxen rest are the pastures of the heavenly church, and the meek oxen are the bishops and priests, who themselves live Christianly and diligently teach others. 11. And you, who forsook you, who abandoned me, forgetting - lords, forgot the holy mountain of my holy mountain, preparing mine, preparing a meal for a feast in honor of Rod and the (two) birth of Gad and dissolving the full cup of the prostrates filling the ladles theirs for Manufi. I will demand the demons, - 12. I will condemn you to the sword, and I will give you all over to the sword, and you will all fall, you will bow down to the slaughter, pierced! because I called - and you are not This is death, but a weapon - answered, said - and you are not eternal music. They listened, but did what was evil in their own eyes. I called you, and you did not respond; mine and chose what I told you, and you did not listen. I don't like it. Before my eyes, you do evil, and you choose those who are hostile to me. 13. Therefore, thus says the Lord Therefore, says the Lord, when God: Behold, my servants will eat, the people faithful to me will begin to feast, and you will starve; my servants, you will be tormented by hunger. But they will drink, and you will languish; you will be full only because you are thirsty. prepared for (both) women in labor. Now those who obey me will begin to drink, and you will become thirsty - quench it from your ladles intended for demons. 14. My servants will rejoice, those faithful to me will rejoice, but you will be ashamed; my servants will be covered with shame. They will sing with heartfelt joy - They (the faithful) will rejoice in joy, and you will shout from your heart, but you, who have submitted to heartless sorrow and weep from yourself, praying to idols and causing contrition of the spirit. those who celebrate feasts in honor of the Family and women in labor - you will scream in heartache, you will sob in the convulsions of your hearts! All this will happen to you not in this life, but in the future. You renounce the joys of the next century, since the eternal peace of the other world will be available only to my chosen slaves. 15. And leave your chosen name - the Lord will kill you. And to my humble ones for damnation. And those who kill me will rejoice, praising you, Lord God, and your servants, the true God. they will be called by a different name. You glorify the idols of the Family and women in labor with demonic chants and destroy the prophecies of the books. It is a great misfortune to not understand what you read; great evil is not to obey those wiser than yourself, or, having understood everything, not to fulfill the will of God declared to you in the written law. Brothers! Having heard everything that has been said to you, give up meaningless actions, from serving Satan, from arranging these idolatry feasts for the Family and women in labor! Fulfill, brothers, the will of God, as the books of the prophets, apostles and church fathers teach us, in order to receive eternal life under the Savior Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever! Amen.