E. LevkievskayaMyths and legends of the Eastern Slavs

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Introduction

Who are the Slavs?

This book tells about the myths and legends of the Eastern Slavs. But who are the Slavs and Eastern Slavs? Where did they come from and when did the first information about them appear? These questions are answered by the science of Slavic studies, which deals with the history of the Slavs, their languages and culture. The Slavs are a group of related peoples living in Europe and speaking Slavic languages. According to the degree of closeness to each other, according to language and culture, the Slavs are usually divided into three groups: eastern, southern and western Slavs. Eastern Slavs include Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. To the south - Bulgarians, Macedonians, Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. To the west - Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, as well as upper and lower Lusatians. The Lusatians are the only Slavic peoples who do not have their own state. They live on the territory of modern Germany, although they maintain their own cultural autonomy.

The group of Slavic languages is part of the large family of Indo-European languages. It is one of the largest language families in Europe and Asia. In addition to Slavic, it includes many other language groups: Indian, Iranian, Italic, Celtic, Germanic, Baltic. And all of them, to a greater or lesser extent, are relatives of the Slavic languages.

The history of the Indo-Europeans has been traced by scientists since the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. In those distant times, the Indo-Europeans were still a single community that did not split into separate peoples. They spoke the same language - Indo-European. Indo-European tribes constantly moved over long distances. During such movements, some of the tribes settled in a new place, and some continued on their way. Such movements of large tribes and ethnic groups are usually called migrations.

Scientists find it difficult to determine where the original area of settlement of the Indo-Europeans is located. Some believe that at first the Indo-Europeans lived in the Black Sea region and the Balkans. Others believe that the initial center of their habitat was in the Middle East. Be that as it may, the Indo-Europeans gradually settled throughout Asia Minor and Europe.

As the Indo-European tribes spread over such a large territory, independent ethnic groups began to emerge from the Indo-European community. And on the basis of the Indo-European language, independent languages gradually formed, which became the ancestors of modern language groups, including Slavic. We can say that the ancient Indo-European language is the great-grandfather of numerous modern languages spoken by many peoples of Europe and Asia, including the Slavs.

The Slavic tribes that separated from the Indo-European community were not yet Slavs in the modern sense of the word, either in culture or in language. This ethnic group still had a long way to go before becoming the Slavs themselves. The predecessors of the Slavs are usually called Proto-Slavs, and their language is called Proto-Slavic. It was the same for all Proto-Slavic tribes. Therefore, the period that lasted approximately from the 2nd millennium BC to the 4th–6th centuries AD is usually called the period of Proto-Slavic unity.

The history of the origin of the Slavs and their languages contains many secrets and mysteries. Scientists are still arguing about where the ancestral home of the Slavs was located. The ancestral home is the original territory on which a certain tribe, as a result of migration, first emerged from the Indo-European community into an independent ethnic group with its own language and culture. Some scientists believe that the region of the middle reaches of the Vistula can be considered the ancestral home of the Slavs, while others believe that the most ancient place of settlement of the Slavs is the territory between the Dnieper and Desna rivers. Still others are inclined to think that such an area could be the lands along the Danube. The most plausible point of view is that the main territory of settlement of the Slavs lies along the Pripyat River. This river flows through the south of Belarus and the north of Ukraine through the historical region called Polesie.

By the 1st–2nd centuries AD, the Slavic tribes already occupied a large territory - from the left bank of the Oder River in the west to the middle reaches of the Desna in the east and from the coast of the Baltic Sea in the north to the foothills of the Carpathians in the south. In the 2nd–3rd centuries AD, part of the Slavic tribes crossed the Carpathians and moved south, towards the Danube, where they inhabited the Middle Danube Lowland. And from the 6th century the mass migration of these tribes to the Balkans began. It was these settlers who would become the ancestors of the South Slavs.

Another part of the Slavic tribes settled along the Desna, Southern Bug, Dniester and Dnieper in the 2nd–4th centuries. These tribes would become the ancestors of the Eastern Slavs.

The third part of the tribes in the 3rd–5th centuries moved in a western and northwestern direction. These Slavs occupy the territory of modern Czech Republic and move along the Morava, Oder and Elbe rivers. From this group of tribes, the Western Slavs were formed in subsequent centuries.

Thus, by the 5th–6th centuries AD, the era of Proto-Slavic unity ends and the formation of three large Slavic groups begins: eastern, southern and western. The Proto-Slavic language gradually split into many local variants - dialects. From them emerged individual Slavic languages, which still retain many common features in phonetics, vocabulary, and grammar.

By the end of the 1st millennium AD, the Eastern Slavs settled a vast territory and were divided into a number of tribes. In the very north, in the area of the Volkhov River, lived the Slovenes. To the south of them, in the upper reaches of the Volga and Western Dvina, lived the Krivichi. To the southeast of the Krivichi, in the upper reaches of the Don and Oka, lived the Radimichi and Dregovichi. Even further south, in the Desna River basin, lived the northerners. The Drevlyans lived south of the Pripyat River. And to the west of them the Volynians, Buzhanians and Luchanians settled. In the area of the middle reaches of the Dnieper, glades lived. It was on their territory that the city of Kyiv was founded. Between the Bug and the Dniester lived the Ulichi, and between the Dniester and the Prut lived the Tivertsy. Despite the large area of settlement, the Eastern Slavs continued to maintain a single language until approximately the end of the 12th - beginning of the 13th century. It is usually called Old Russian after the name of the first East Slavic state - Ancient Rus'.

Until the second half of the 9th century, Slavic languages did not have a written language. In the 60s of the 9th century, two brothers, Cyril and Methodius, from the Bulgarian city of Thessaloniki created the first Slavic alphabet based on one of the South Slavic dialects. This alphabet was called Glagolitic. Somewhat later, they created a second alphabet, which was named after one of the brothers - Cyrillic. Then, for the first time, church liturgical texts were translated into Slavic. In Rus', writing appeared at the end of the 10th century, with the adoption of Christianity. The first monuments of ancient Russian writing date back to the turn of the 10th–11th centuries.

In the 13th–15th centuries, the separation of individual East Slavic lands took place. The territories of modern Ukraine and Belarus became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. And later they were included in the borders of the united Polish-Lithuanian state - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Thus, the western and southwestern parts of the Eastern Slavs were cut off from the northeastern lands, where a new strong center was formed - the Rostov-Suzdal Principality. On the territory of this principality was Moscow, which gradually strengthened its influence and united the northeastern territories around itself. This led to the formation of Muscovite Rus'. As a result, different parts of ancient Russian lands were divided by state borders and included in different principalities.

The weakening of ties between the East Slavic lands led to the collapse of the Old Russian language. On its basis, in the 14th–15th centuries, three closely related languages were formed: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. And on the basis of the Old Russian nationality, three East Slavic peoples are formed: Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians.

As you know, every nation has its own collection of myths. Everyone knows the ancient Greek myths about the Olympian gods, the mighty Hercules, the courageous Prometheus, and the cunning Hermes. Scandinavian myths tell about their gods - the Aesir. Indian mythology, set out in the Vedas, and the myths of many other peoples have reached us.

This book is dedicated to the myths and legends of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. Their mythology arose a very long time ago and already existed at the time when scattered East Slavic tribes began to form into an independent ancient Russian nation. By the time the Eastern Slavs were divided into independent nationalities: Ukrainians and Russians in the 11th–14th centuries, and Belarusians even later, all three peoples had developed a common cultural tradition and common mythological legends, which are described in this book.

What are myths? How are myths different from fairy tales?

How does a brownie differ from Baba Yaga? This question may seem funny and strange. It is known that the brownie looks like a gray old man with a thick beard and he lives in a house behind the stove, and Baba Yaga is a gray-haired, hunched and unkempt old woman who lives in the wilds of the forest, in a hut on chicken legs.

However, for scientists studying ancient East Slavic myths, the difference between the brownie and Baba Yaga is completely different. To understand this, you must first understand what myths are and how they were formed among different peoples, including the Slavs.

Myths appeared in ancient times, when there was no science yet and people wanted to understand and explain the structure of the world and man’s place in the world. Where did the Earth come from and how did animals, birds, plants, and people appear on it? Why does spring replace winter, and then summer? Why does the sun shine during the day, but at night the moon and stars are visible in the sky? Why does thunder thunder, rain, hurricanes and earthquakes? Currently, there are sciences that study these issues - geography, biology, astronomy, meteorology and many others. And in ancient times, all ideas about the world and human life were embodied in the form of mythological legends from generation to generation. They gave explanations to all these questions based on life experience and the level of knowledge that people had in ancient times.

The basis of all mythological beliefs is the idea that in addition to the earthly, visible and tangible world, there is another world - the other world, the afterlife, which is popularly called “that” light. The earthly world is a world in which people live, birds sing, plants bloom, the sun shines, while in the other world, the world of death, there is none of this. Here reside the souls of the dead and various mythological creatures that are dangerous to a living person. For the creatures inhabiting “that” world, in the Russian language there is a word “undead” - from the word “non-living”. They are also called “evil spirits” - not because these creatures are dirty, but because, by their negative qualities, they oppose the world of the gods, which is distinguished by a special, sacred purity.

From myths, people learned that the other world is invisible to people in everyday life, that it is not separated from the human world by an impenetrable wall. There are certain places and periods of time when the border between these two worlds disappears, and the souls of the dead, spirits, and evil spirits easily penetrate into the human world, and a person, under certain circumstances, can end up in the afterlife - in the “other” world.

Now mythological ideas seem to us naive, fantastic and, from a modern point of view, not much different from a fairy tale. However, there are important differences between myth and fairy tale. First of all, a fairy tale has always been perceived as fiction, as something that never happened and could not exist in reality. When we read about Baba Yaga, who lives in a hut on chicken legs, about Vasilisa the Wise, or about the three-headed Serpent Gorynych, we understand that this is just a folk fiction, that such characters do not really exist. This is exactly how people treated fairy tales and fairy-tale characters in ancient times. It was customary to tell fairy tales to children on long winter evenings. People entertained themselves by telling improbable stories, asking each other riddles, and having fun get-togethers with various games, songs and mischievous tricks.

Unlike fairy tales, the fictionality of which people have always, at all times, been well aware of, they perceived myths as absolute reliability, and they took mythological characters - the brownie, the goblin, the kikimore, the merman, the mermaid and the like - very seriously. They were considered real dangerous creatures, living invisibly next to humans. And if so, then it was necessary to somehow establish relations with them so that they did not harm people, you had to know what could anger the evil spirits and how to appease them.

Therefore, in ancient times, any myth not only explained the structure of the world, but was a kind of collection of rules of human behavior. It contained prohibitions and instructions that indicated how one should behave in different circumstances so as not to encounter evil spirits, and even if one came face to face with it, what should be done to safely get out of a dangerous situation.

For example, a peasant comes to the barn in the morning and sees that the horse is standing sweaty, exhausted, with a tangled mane, as if someone had been riding it all night. What happened to the horse and how to help it?.. Or what should you do so as not to get lost in the forest when going there to pick mushrooms and berries?.. Why does one fisherman return with a rich catch, while the other, no matter how long he sits with a fishing rod on the river or lake, can’t catch anything, and for some reason the fishing line suddenly gets caught on a stone and breaks?.. And what does a hunter need to know about the forest and its inhabitants in order to find prey, take aim and not miss?

A modern person will most likely answer these questions like this: it is clear that the horse is sick, which means that you need to call a veterinarian to make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment. In order not to get lost in the forest, you need to take a compass with you, use it to determine the cardinal directions and find your way home. If an angler cannot catch anything, it means he simply does not know how to fish. In order to find prey and not miss, a hunter needs to know well the habits of animals and birds and also have a reliable gun and a good eye.

But a person who lived according to the laws of myths thought in a completely different way. If a horse is exhausted in the morning, it means that the invisible owner of the house rode it all night - the brownie, who did not like it. And to stop this, you need to appease the brownie by placing a pot of porridge behind the stove or placing a slice of bread and salt on the stove. If a person gets lost in the forest, it means that he was led off the road by the goblin - the mythological owner of the forest. The goblin can also help the hunter find prey, or can take it away from under his nose. And if the fisherman did not manage to catch a single fish, the owner of the local river, the waterman, played a joke on him, to whom the fisherman forgot to throw an offering into the water - old bast shoes or a handful of tobacco.

From these examples, it becomes clear that the collection of myths explains how one must behave so that the invisible otherworldly creatures surrounding a person do not harm him. And in this sense, for ancient people, myth was approximately what the rules of hygiene or traffic are for us. Just as we take traffic rules seriously (after all, our lives and safety depend on them), so man in those distant times took the myth quite seriously and rationally: he understood that the life of himself and his loved ones depended on it.

An important conclusion follows from this: fairy tales and myths are not the same thing, because they were told for different purposes, in different circumstances, and the storytellers themselves and the listeners treated them differently. The fairy tale was about a magical, imaginary world. The fictionality of the tale was emphasized by the storyteller himself, ending it with various comic sentences: “And I was there, I drank honey and beer, it flowed down my mustache, but it didn’t get into my mouth.” The fairy tale amused, surprised, entertained, but also taught. “A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, a lesson for good fellows” - this popular proverb very accurately explains the essence of the fairy tale. The name “fairy tale” is related to the words “tell”, “tell”, “story”, because the most interesting thing in a fairy tale is the process of telling it. The storyteller told, and everyone around him listened for pleasure, just as children now listen to a fairy tale with bated breath.

In ancient times, myth was a popular analogue of science; it explained how the reality in which a person lives works - there is another, otherworldly world nearby. But people with mythological thinking also treated this other world as a reality, only structured in a special way. For people, myth was practical knowledge that guided them in everyday life. It is not for nothing that stories about brownies, goblins, kikimoras and other evil spirits are popularly called epics - from the word “byl”, that is, what actually happened.

So, the question posed at the beginning of the section must be answered this way: the brownie and Baba Yaga belong to completely different areas of folk tradition. Baba Yaga is a character from folk tales. Nobody believed in her existence, like in the existence of other fairy-tale characters. And the brownie is a character in East Slavic myths, the authenticity of which has not been questioned among the people for many centuries. They didn’t just believe in the brownie - they were afraid of him, they tried to make friends with him, they fed and cajoled him, believing that the well-being of the family, a good harvest, and the health of domestic animals depended on his location.

This book talks about creatures that our ancestors considered to really exist. These are the highest deities who were responsible for managing different parts of the universe - the sky, the underworld, as well as various spirits who personified the forces of nature and elements associated with the sun, earth, fire, water, trees, stones. Mythological characters were also creatures descended from the dead - ghouls, mermaids, kikimoras, shulikuns, exchanged and cursed children, as well as spirits of the clan and patrons of outbuildings: the brownie, the yard, the bannik, the barn, the bean man. A separate group of mythological creatures was represented by the owners of natural spaces: the goblin, the water goblin, the mire, the field, the midday, as well as the spirits of fate, illness, death and spirits guarding treasures. In addition, there were many myths and legends that explained the origin of the Earth, nature and man.

How do myths and fairy tales differ from works of fiction?

Thus, it is clear that myth and fairy tale are not at all the same thing. Although they describe the supernatural world, they treat it completely differently: a fairy tale as a fiction, a myth as a reliable reality. However, despite this significant difference, Baba Yaga and the brownie have one feature that unites both: their images developed in the oral traditional culture of the East Slavic peoples long before the appearance of writing in Ancient Rus' in the 10th century.

Several centuries have passed since Johannes Gutenberg invented printing in the mid-15th century. How many works of art have been created by writers all over the world! Who doesn’t know Pinocchio, Alice from Wonderland, Old Man Hottabych, the Wizard of the Emerald City, Harry Potter! Who are they? Maybe mythological or fairy tale characters? The world they live in also has supernatural features. It contains flying carpets and self-assembled tablecloths, which do not exist in our world, and is inhabited by strange animals, giants, good and evil wizards - they are also endowed with unusual abilities and can perform miracles, for example, becoming invisible or flying on a broom.

However, unlike the characters of myths and fairy tales, they are heroes of fiction. "What's the difference?" – many will ask. But there is a difference here, and a very important one. This is the difference between the spoken word and the written word.

Let's imagine how a writer creates a book. He comes up with a plot and characters who will act in his book, gives them characters, makes them do different things, worry, rejoice and cry. He works on the text for a long time, corrects it, inserts new characters. In a word, he is the sole creator of his book, and after the book is printed, no one can change anything in it. Its text will forever remain only as its author created it.

Who is the author of fairy tales about Baba Yaga or mythological legends about the brownie? Myths, like fairy tales, have no author. We do not know who came up with the tales of Baba Yaga, Koshchei the Immortal, and Vasilisa the Wise. Or rather, there is an author, but we cannot show his portrait or name his last name. The name of this author is people. Both fairy tales and myths began to be created a very long time ago, at a time when many peoples, including the Slavs, did not yet have writing. For a long time, the only means of transmitting any knowledge was the spoken word. Therefore, fairy tales, myths, and any important information were passed down from generation to generation orally. What happens to texts when they are not written down anywhere, but are distributed only orally?

Have you ever had to tell the same story to several different people? Then you know that it is impossible to tell it absolutely the same way every time: the story always turns out a little different - sometimes shorter, sometimes more detailed, then some new details appear in it that seem important at the moment, then more are remembered along the way. one similar story, and it also joins the story. The text changes when transmitted orally. And this is not surprising: oral narration differs from written records in that it never exists in a single and final version.

Now imagine how many times over the centuries people have retold myths, fairy tales and legends to each other! Introduced? It is not surprising that all works transmitted orally do not have a single and unchanging text - oral tradition always exists in the form of numerous versions of the same plot. And this is the difference between oral tradition and literature: here the author creates his own canonical text, and his characters always remain the same as the author depicted them.

So it turns out that, for example, fairy tales about Baba Yaga or stories about the goblin and the goblin are told in their own way in the Arkhangelsk region, and in the Pskov or Smolensk region - in their own way. Therefore, both the image and behavior of mythological characters in tales from different places are described differently. For example, in some places it was believed that the brownie wears white clothes, in others - that he is dressed in a red shirt, belted with a sash, in others - that he is shaggy and covered with hair. Such a variety of characteristics of characters in mythology is the result of numerous changes that have occurred in the ideas of peoples over many centuries.

Peoples' ideas about the world, expressed in religious beliefs, rituals and cults. It is closely connected with paganism and cannot be considered separately from it.

Slavic myths (summary and main characters) are the focus of this article. Let's consider the time of their origin, similarity with ancient legends and tales of other peoples, sources of study and the pantheon of deities.

The formation of Slavic mythology and its connection with the religious beliefs of other peoples

The myths of the peoples of the world (Slavic myths, ancient Greek and ancient Indian) have much in common. This suggests that they have a single origin. They are connected by a common origin from the Proto-Indo-European religion.

Slavic mythology was formed as a separate layer of Indo-European religion over a long period - from the 2nd millennium BC. e.

The main features of Slavic paganism, reflected in mythology, are the cult of ancestors, belief in supernatural forces and lower spirits, and the spiritualization of nature.

Ancient Slavic myths are strikingly similar to the tales of the Baltic peoples, Indian, Greek and Scandinavian mythology. In all the myths of these ancient tribes there was a god of thunder: the Slavic Perun, the Hittite Pirva and the Baltic Perkunas.

All of these peoples have a main myth - this is the confrontation between the supreme deity and his main opponent, the Serpent. Similarities can also be traced in the belief in the afterlife, which is separated from the world of the living by some barrier: an abyss or a river.

Slavic myths and legends, like the tales of other Indo-European peoples, also tell about heroes fighting a snake.

Sources of information on legends and myths of Slavic peoples

Unlike Greek or Scandinavian mythology, the Slavs did not have their own Homer, who would engage in literary processing of ancient tales about the gods. Therefore, now we know very little about the process of formation of the mythology of the Slavic tribes.

The sources of written knowledge are the texts of Byzantine, Arabic and Western European authors of the period VI - XIII centuries, Scandinavian sagas, ancient Russian chronicles, apocrypha, teachings. In a special place is “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” which contains a lot of information about Slavic mythology. Unfortunately, all these sources are only retellings of the authors, and they do not mention the entire tales.

Slavic myths and legends are also preserved in folklore sources: epics, fairy tales, legends, conspiracies, proverbs.

The most reliable sources on the mythology of the ancient Slavs are archaeological finds. These include idols of gods, places of worship and ritual, inscriptions, signs and decorations.

Classification of Slavic mythology

Gods should be distinguished:

1) Eastern Slavs.

2) Western Slavic tribes.

There are also common Slavic gods.

The idea of the world and the Universe of the ancient Slavs

Due to the lack of written sources, practically nothing is known about the beliefs and ideas about the world of the Slavic tribes. Sketchy information can be gleaned from archaeological sources. The most obvious of them is the Zbruch idol, found in the Ternopil region of Ukraine in the middle of the 19th century. It is a tetrahedral limestone pillar divided into three tiers. The lower one contains images of the underworld and the deities inhabiting it. The middle one is dedicated to the human world, and the upper tier depicts the supreme gods.

Information about how the ancient Slavic tribes imagined the world around them can be found in ancient Russian literature, in particular, in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” Here in some passages there is a clear connection with the World Tree, myths about which exist among many Indo-European peoples.

Based on the listed sources, the following picture emerges: the ancient Slavs believed that there was an island (possibly Buyan) in the center of the World Ocean. Here, in the very center of the world, either lies the sacred stone Alatyr, which has healing properties, or the World Tree grows (almost always in myths and legends this is an oak tree). The bird Gagana sits on its branches, and below it is the snake Garafena.

Myths of the peoples of the world: Slavic myths (creation of the Earth, appearance of man)

The creation of the world among the ancient Slavs was associated with such a god as Rod. He is the creator of everything in the world. He separated the visible world in which people live (Yav) from the invisible world (Nav). Rod is considered the supreme deity of the Slavs, the patron of fertility, and the creator of life.

Slavic myths (the creation of the Earth and the appearance of man) tell about the creation of all things: the creator god Rod, together with his sons Belbog and Chernobog, planned to create this world. First, Rod from the ocean of chaos created three hypostases of the world: Reality, Nav and Rule. Then the Sun appeared from the face of the supreme deity, a month appeared from the chest, and the eyes became stars. After the creation of the world, Rod remained in Prav - the habitat of the gods, where he leads his children and distributes responsibilities between them.

Pantheon of deities

Slavic gods (myths and tales about which have been preserved in very small quantities) are quite extensive. Unfortunately, due to extremely scarce information, it is difficult to restore the functions of many Slavic deities. The mythology of the ancient Slavs was not known until they reached the borders of the Byzantine Empire. Thanks to the records of the historian Procopius of Caesarea, it was possible to learn some details of the religious beliefs of the Slavic peoples. The Laurentian Chronicle mentions gods from the Vladimir pantheon. Having ascended the throne, Prince Vladimir ordered idols of the six most important gods to be placed near his residence.

Perun

The Thunder God is considered one of the main deities of the Slavic tribes. He was the patron of the prince and his squad. Among other peoples it is known as Zeus, Thor, Perkunas. First mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years. Even then, Perun headed the pantheon of Slavic gods. They made a sacrifice to him by slaughtering a bull, and in the name of God they sealed oaths and contracts.

The Thunder God was associated with high places, so his idols were installed on hills. Perun's holy tree was the oak.

After the adoption of Christianity in Rus', some of Perun’s functions were transferred to Gregory the Victorious and Elijah the Prophet.

Solar deities

The sun god in Slavic myths was in second place in importance after Perun. Horse - that's what they called him. The etymology of the name is still unclear. According to the most common theory, it comes from Iranian languages. But this version is very vulnerable, since it is difficult to explain how this word became the name of one of the main Slavic deities. The Tale of Bygone Years mentions Khors as one of the gods of the Vladimir pantheon. There is information about him in other ancient Russian texts.

Khors, the sun god in Slavic myths, is often mentioned along with other deities related to the heavenly body. This is Dazhbog - one of the main Slavic gods, the personification of sunlight, and Yarilo.

Dazhbog was also a fertility deity. The etymology of the name does not cause any difficulty - “the god who gives prosperity”, this is its approximate translation. It played a double function in the mythology of the ancient Slavs. As the personification of sunlight and warmth, he gave fertility to the soil and at the same time was a source of royal power. Dazhbog is considered the son of Svarog, the blacksmith god.

Yarilo - there are many ambiguities associated with this character of Slavic mythology. It has not yet been established precisely whether he should be considered a deity, or whether this is a personification of one of the holidays of the ancient Slavs. Some researchers consider Yarilo to be a deity of spring light, warmth and fertility, others - a ritual character. He was represented as a young man on a white horse and in a snow-white robe. On her hair is a wreath of spring flowers. The deity of spring light holds ears of cereals in his hands. Where it appears, there will definitely be a good harvest. Yarilo also generated love in the heart of whoever he looked at.

Researchers agree on one thing - this character from Slavic mythology cannot be called the sun god. Ostrovsky's play “The Snow Maiden” fundamentally incorrectly interprets the image of Yarilo as a solar deity. In this case, Russian classical literature plays the role of harmful propaganda.

Mokosh (Makosh)

There are very few female deities in Slavic mythology. Of the main ones, we can only name such as Mother - Cheese Earth and Mokosh. The latter is mentioned among other idols installed by order of Prince Vladimir in Kyiv, which indicates the significance of this female deity.

Mokosh was the goddess of weaving and spinning. She was also revered as the patroness of crafts. Her name is associated with two words “get wet” and “spinning”. Mokoshi's day of the week was Friday. On this day it was strictly forbidden to engage in weaving and spinning. Mokoshi was presented with yarn as a sacrifice, throwing it into a well. The goddess was represented as a long-armed woman spinning in houses at night.

Some researchers suggest that Mokosh was the wife of Perun, so she was given an honorable place among the main Slavic gods. The name of this female deity is mentioned in many ancient texts.

After the adoption of Christianity in Rus', some of Mokosh’s features and functions were transferred to Saint Paraskeva-Friday.

Stribog

Mentioned in the Vladimir pantheon as one of the main gods, but his function is not entirely clear. Perhaps he was the god of the winds. In ancient texts, his name is often mentioned together with Dazhbog. It is unknown whether there were holidays dedicated to Stribog, since there is very little information about this deity.

Volos (Veles)

Researchers are inclined to believe that these are still two different mythical characters. Volos is the patron of domestic animals and the god of prosperity. In addition, he is the god of wisdom, the patron of poets and storytellers. It is not for nothing that Boyan from “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is called Veles’s grandson in the poem. As a gift, several unharvested stalks of cereals were left on the field. After the Slavic peoples adopted Christianity, the functions of Volos were taken over by two saints: Nicholas the Wonderworker and Blasius.

As for Veles, this is one of the demons, an evil spirit with whom Perun fought.

Slavic mythical creatures - forest dwellers

The ancient Slavs had several characters associated with the forest. The main ones were the merman and the goblin. With the advent of Christianity in Rus', exclusively negative traits began to be attributed to them, making them demonic creatures.

The goblin is the owner of the forest. He was also called the forester and the forest spirit. He carefully protects the forest and its inhabitants. The relationship with a good person is neutral - the goblin does not touch him, and may even come to his aid - lead him out of the forest if he gets lost. The attitude towards bad people is negative. The forest owner punishes them: he makes them wander and can tickle them to death.

The goblin appears before people in different guises: human, plant, animal. The ancient Slavs had an ambivalent attitude towards him - they revered the devil and at the same time feared him. It was believed that shepherds and hunters needed to make a deal with him, otherwise the goblin could kidnap cattle or even a person.

A merman is a spirit that lives in bodies of water. He was represented as an old man with a fish tail, beard and mustache. Can take the form of a fish, bird, pretend to be a log or a drowned man. It is especially dangerous during major holidays. The merman loves to settle in pools, under mills and sluices, and in ice holes. He has herds of fish. It is hostile towards humans and always tries to drag under the water someone who came to swim at inopportune times (noon, midnight and after sunset). The aquatic's favorite fish is catfish, which he rides like a horse.

There were other, lower creatures, for example, the forest spirit. In Slavic myths it was called Auka. He never sleeps. Lives in a hut in the thicket of the forest, where there is always a supply of melt water. A special freedom for Auki comes in winter, when the goblins fall asleep. The forest spirit is hostile towards humans - it will try to lead a random traveler into a windfall or force him to circle until he gets tired.

Bereginya - this mythical female character has an unclear function. According to the most common version, this is a forest deity who protects trees and plants. But the ancient Slavs also considered beregins to be mermaids. Their sacred tree is the birch, which was highly revered by the people.

Borovik is another forest spirit in Slavic mythology. Outwardly it looks like a huge bear. You can distinguish it from a real beast by the absence of a tail. Subordinate to him are boletus mushrooms - the owners of mushrooms, similar to little old men.

Swamp kikimora is another colorful character in Slavic mythology. He does not like people, but will not touch him as long as the travelers are quiet in the forest. If they make noise and harm plants or animals, the kikimora can cause them to wander through the swamp. Very secretive, rarely visible.

Swamp - it would be a mistake to confuse it with a merman. The ancient Slavs always considered the swamp a place where evil spirits lived. The swampman was considered a terrible creature. This is either a motionless eyeless fat man, covered with a layer of algae, silt, snails, or a tall man with long arms, overgrown with dirty gray fur. He does not know how to change his appearance. It poses a great danger to a person or animal caught in a swamp. He grabs the victim stuck in the quagmire by the legs and drags him to the bottom. There is only one way to destroy a swamp - by draining its swamp.

Slavic myths for children - briefly about the most interesting things

Acquaintance with examples of ancient Russian literature, oral tales and myths is of great importance for the comprehensive development of children. Both adults and children need to know about their past. Slavic myths (5th grade) will introduce schoolchildren to the pantheon of the main gods and the most famous legends. The literature anthology includes an interesting retelling of A.N. Tolstoy about Kikimora, there is information about the main characters of the mythology of the ancient Slavs, and an idea of such a concept as “temple” is given.

If desired, parents can introduce their child to the pantheon of Slavic gods and other mythological creatures at an earlier age. It is advisable to choose positive characters and not tell young children about such frightening creatures as navys, evil spirits, and werewolves.

To get acquainted with the characters of Slavic mythology, we can recommend the book by Alexander Asov “Myths of the Slavs for children and their parents.” It will be interesting to both the younger and older generations. Svetlana Lavrova is another good author who wrote the book “Slavic Tales”.

Alexander Afanasyev

Myths of the ancient Slavs

The origin of myths, the method and means of studying them

The rich and, one might say, the only source of various mythical ideas is the living human word, with its metaphorical and consonant expressions. To show how necessary and naturally myths (fables) are created, we must turn to the history of language. In the life of a language, in relation to its organism, science distinguishes two different periods: the period of its formation, gradual addition (development of forms) and the period of decline and dismemberment (transformations).

Every language begins with the formation of roots or those basic sounds in which primitive man designated his impressions made on him by objects and natural phenomena. The emerging concept was plastically outlined by the word as a true and apt epithet. Even to this day, in our regional dialects and in the monuments of oral folk literature, one can hear that figurative expression that shows that for the common people a word is not always just a sign indicating a known concept, but that at the same time it depicts the most characteristic shades of the subject and bright, picturesque features of the phenomenon. Let's give examples: zybun - fragile soil of the earth in a swamp, run - running water, lei (from the verb to pour) - torrential rains, senognoy - light but persistent rain, listoder - autumn wind, creeping - snowblood that spreads low on the ground, torn - a skinny horse, a licker - a cow's tongue, a chicken - a hawk, a carkun - a raven, a chilly - a frog, a snake - a snake, a scab - an evil person, etc.; folk riddles are especially rich in such sayings: blink - an eye, blow your nose, sniff and sniff - a nose, babble - a tongue, yawn and yadalo - a mouth, robbers and waves - hands, dejected - a pig, babble - a dog, tenacious - a child and many others, in which we find a direct, obvious indication to everyone of the source of the representation. Since various objects and phenomena can easily be similar in some of their characteristics and in this respect produce the same impression on the senses, it is natural that man began to bring them together in his ideas and give them the same name, or at least names, derivatives from the same root. The subject was outlined from different sides and received its full definition only in a variety of synonymous expressions. But it should be noted that each of these synonyms, denoting a certain quality of one object, at the same time could serve to designate the same quality of many other objects and thus connect them with each other. Here lies precisely that rich spring of metaphorical expressions, sensitive to the most subtle shades of physical phenomena, which amazes us with its strength and abundance in the languages of the most ancient education and which subsequently, under the influence of the further development of tribes, gradually dries up. In ordinary Sanskrit dictionaries there are five names for hand, 11 for light, 15 for cloud, 20 for month, 26 for snake, 35 for fire, 37 for sun, etc.

Now let us imagine what confusion of concepts, what confusion of ideas should have occurred when the root meaning of words was forgotten; and such oblivion, sooner or later, certainly befalls the people. Moving more and more away from initial impressions and trying to satisfy newly emerging mental needs, the people discover the desire to turn the language they created into a firmly established and obedient instrument for transmitting their own thoughts. And this becomes possible only when the ear itself loses its excessive sensitivity to the spoken sounds, when, through the force of long-term use, the force of habit, the word finally loses its original pictorial character and from the height of poetic, pictorial representation descends to the level of an abstract name - it becomes nothing more than a phonetic sign to indicate a known object or phenomenon, in its entirety, without an exclusive relationship to one or another attribute. Most of the names given by the people under the inspiration of artistic creativity were based on very bold metaphors. But as soon as the original threads to which they were originally attached were torn, these metaphors lost their poetic meaning and began to be taken for simple, untransferable expressions and in this form were passed from one generation to another. Understandable to fathers and repeated out of habit by their children, they were completely incomprehensible to their grandchildren. Moreover, having survived centuries, fragmented into localities, exposed to various geographical and historical influences, the people were not able to preserve their language in all the integrity and fullness of its original wealth: previously used expressions grew old and died out, became obsolete as grammatical forms, only sounds were replaced other related, old words were given new meaning. As a result of such centuries-old losses of language, the transformation of sounds and the renewal of concepts contained in words, the original meaning of ancient sayings became darker and more mysterious, and the inevitable process of mythical seductions began, which entangled the mind of a person all the more tightly because they acted on him with the irresistible convictions of his native word. The celestial bodies are no longer only in a figurative, poetic sense called “the eyes of the sky,” but in fact appear to the people’s mind under this living image, and from here arise the myths about the thousand-eyed, vigilant night guard Argus and the one-eyed sun deity; winding lightning is a fiery serpent, fast-flying winds are endowed with wings, the lord of summer thunderstorms is endowed with fiery arrows. Looking at the thundercloud, the people no longer saw Perun’s chariot in it, although they continued to talk about the air trains of the thunder god and believed that he really had a wonderful chariot. Where there were two, three or more names for one natural phenomenon, each of these names usually gave rise to the creation of a special, separate mythical person, and completely identical stories were repeated about all these persons - for example, among the Greeks next to Phoebus we find Helios.

Nothing interferes more with the correct explanation of myths than the desire to systematize, the desire to bring heterogeneous legends and beliefs under an abstract philosophical standard, which predominantly plagued the previous, now outdated methods of myth interpretation. Without strong supports, guided only by their own, unrestrained guess, scientists, under the influence of the inherent human need to grasp the hidden meaning and order in incoherent and mysterious facts, each explained myths according to their own personal understanding; one system replaced another, each new philosophical teaching gave birth to a new interpretation of ancient legends, and all these systems, all these interpretations fell as quickly as they arose. Myth is the most ancient poetry, and just as the people’s poetic views on the world can be free and varied, so are the creations of their fantasies free and varied.

While following the origin of myths, their original, original meaning, the researcher must constantly keep in mind their future fate. In their historical development, myths undergo significant processing. Each natural phenomenon, with the wealth of ancient metaphorical designations, could be depicted in extremely diverse forms; These forms were not equally retained in the people's memory everywhere: different branches of the population showed preferential sympathy for one or another legend, which was kept as a shrine, while other legends were forgotten and died out. What was forgotten by one branch of the tribe could survive in another, and vice versa, what continued to live there could be lost here. Those poetic images in which folk imagination depicted the mighty elements and their influence on nature were almost exclusively borrowed from what surrounded man, which was therefore closer and more accessible to him; He took his visual analogies from his own everyday situation and forced divine beings to do the same thing in heaven that he himself did on earth. But as soon as the real meaning of the metaphorical language was lost, the ancient myths began to be understood literally, and the gods little by little humbled themselves to human needs, concerns and hobbies, and from the heights of the air spaces began to be brought down to earth, to this wide field of folk exploits and activities. Their noisy battles during thunderstorms gave way to participation in human wars; the forging of lightning-fast arrows, the spring driving of rain clouds likened to milk cows, the furrows made in the clouds by thunder and whirlwinds, and the scattering of fruitful seed = rain made us see them as blacksmiths, shepherds and plowmen; cloud gardens and mountains and rain streams, near which the heavenly gods lived and performed their glorious deeds, were mistaken for ordinary earthly forests, rocks and springs, and the people attached their ancient mythical tales to these latter.

The most ancient myths of the Eastern Slavs

From the editor

(preface for adults)

This book is the first attempt to retell the ancient myths of the Eastern Slavs in full in a form accessible to children.

We will talk about mythology, which was formed during the early history of the Slavs (before the end of the 1st millennium AD) and was a set of myths and mythological ideas, which were based, according to most scientists, on the most ancient Indo-Iranian religious beliefs.

As the Slavs settled from the territory between the Vistula and the Dnieper, from the region of the Carpathian Mountains west to the Elbe, north to the southern shores of the Baltic Sea, east to the Dnieper and south to the northern part of the Balkan Peninsula, differentiation of myths and separation of variants of Slavic mythology occurred.

As a result, three main local variants of mythological ideas were formed: the mythology of the Baltic Slavs; the mythology of the southern Slavs, due to the early adoption of Christianity, is the poorest in sources; and the mythology of the Eastern Slavs, whose tribal centers were Novgorod and, later, Kyiv. This third option longer than the others - until the X-XI centuries - retained its significance as the foundation of the religious and cultural life of the people, and in the sources that have reached our time it is presented much more fully, and therefore it was taken as the basis for our book.

But there is one and main “but”, which to this day remains a stumbling block for everyone who is in one way or another involved in the culture and beliefs of the Eastern Slavs of the pre-Christian period. The fact is that during the period of formation and dominance in the cultural life of the Slavic peoples, this mythology was not systematized or fully recorded in written sources. While we find traces of ancient Indo-European ideas in Vedic literature, and familiarity with Greek mythology is facilitated by the works of Hesiod and other ancient authors, the researcher has nothing similar when it comes to the worldview of the ancient Slavs.

We must not forget that the texts that most fully reflect the mythological ideas of the Slavs were created by authors who fought for the eradication of pagan beliefs among the Slavic peoples. It would be a mistake to equate pagan cult with mythology. However, their active mutual influence is an obvious fact both for contemporaries of that distant era and for historians of subsequent centuries. And of course, during a period of fierce polemics between supporters and opponents of Christianity, which was just beginning to establish itself on the territory of the Slavic peoples, this could not but have a negative impact on both the completeness and objectivity of the picture created by the authors.

Of course, the basis of the cultural life of modern Slavic peoples is Christianity, its sacred history and system of ethical norms. But even the most observant of us often do not suspect how many elements of ancient mythological images are preserved in our ideas, customs, and traditions. Here, however, we will use the example of the well-known holiday of Maslenitsa, which has long lost its significance as a pagan ritual, but is not included in the system of Orthodox holidays. Nevertheless, many still celebrate Maslenitsa as the week preceding Lent.

The fact that the most ancient ideas often turned out to be extremely resistant to any social and cultural changes, and many ancient mythological characters, heroes and plots of myths were adapted and reworked by the Christian Church, speaks of their great significance for the spiritual life of the Slavic peoples.

It seems that the reason is not only in the mysterious charm that history and tradition have for most people, but also in the moral wealth of our ancient culture, in its artistic value. This ancient culture penetrates into us from childhood through fairy tales, epics, songs, ditties, and through grandmother's stories. We feel its significance, but we do not always know the mythological subjects that were cultivated by our ancestors; we cannot assess the original scale of the figures, which later became the basis for fairy-tale motifs. The well-known fairy-tale Koschey the Immortal, Baba Yaga and many other heroes are only fragments of a huge mythological ancient Slavic “mirror”, only “parodies” of the ancient Slavic gods.

How can we restore destroyed ancient Slavic mythological stories if the primary sources have not survived? Only through the analysis of scientific data, written and material sources, through reconstruction and subsequent artistic processing of factual material.

Having such sources as chronicles, medieval chronicles, annals, later folklore and ethnographic collections, having data obtained as a result of studying the history and current state of the languages of the Slavic peoples, their folklore, ancient monuments of art, having archaeological finds, a modern researcher can at least hope approximately restore the content of ancient mythological ideas. Using the data available in these sources, the compilers of the presented book sought to summarize the cultural, artistic and moral aspects of Slavic mythology, plots and images that left a mark on the thousand-year history of the people, “putting out of brackets” issues of faith, the religious component of Slavic myths - propaganda of paganism as a faith was in no way part of the purpose of our publication.

This path also has its undercurrents and rocks, on which the boat of any literary narrative can easily break. This is, first of all, the disunity and unconnectedness of individual mythological plots. As always in folklore, there are a large number of often contradictory plot options and simply factual gaps that can only be filled with the help of artistic interpretation of information from various sources that are not always amenable to unambiguous interpretation.

Here artistic adaptation and generalization, the collection of images come to the rescue. For the sake of the general logic of the narrative, it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice some facts, to reconstruct connections between individual mythological plots and images, relying on the hypotheses of researchers and one’s own intuition. Therefore, the book that we offer to our readers cannot be considered a strictly scientific publication - also because there is no single view of ancient Slavic mythology even in the scientific community.

Our main task was: using the compilation method, relying on scientific research and artistic processing of mythological material, to present Slavic myths in the form of a coherent narrative that is accessible to any age group.

Perhaps there will be other attempts that have equal rights to exist as ours. And the more of them there are, the better our children will learn about the ancient culture of their people - as we know, there can never be too much knowledge. We are just trying to pave the way in this direction and give children something that will be useful and interesting to them.

The editors express gratitude to our scientific consultants - Honorary Professor of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences Andrei Lvovich Tsekhanovich and Candidate of Historical Sciences Evgeniy Vladimirovich Mironov - for their fruitful and interested cooperation, for their knowledge and talent as researchers, which they generously shared with the editors in the process of preparing the book for publication.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the release of this book!

Svarog.

Svarog became the father of many gods and people, he is the creator of the earth's firmament. Svarog is also the opposite of Veles, the god of evil. According to the beliefs of the Slavs, the world in ancient times existed in conditions of eternal confrontation between Svarog and Veles, between whom a truce sometimes occurred. From Svarog and Lada, Perun was born - the Thunderer, the god of war and warriors.
From Perun came the god of sunlight, Dazhbog, who was believed to bring many gifts to people. Dazhbog was born unusually. Perun fell in love with the beautiful mermaid Ros, but could not meet her, since they were separated by a stormy river. Perun then took the bow from his shoulder, pulled the tight bowstring and shot a golden arrow. The arrow flashed like lightning, and deafening thunder rang out high in the sky. The arrow hit a flammable stone, behind which Ros hid, and in this stone a fiery image, similar to a human one, appeared. Perun exclaimed, turning to Rosi:
- Only the god Svarog can hew your son out of a stone,
call the heavenly Svarog!
Ros called Svarog. For three days he hewed the stone, hitting it with a fiery hammer. This is how Dazhbog was born. His legs were silver, his hands were in gold, the sun shone on his forehead, and the moon was on the back of his head. Countless stars were scattered through his hair.
Then Svarog said to Dazhbog:
- You need a heroic horse so that you can ride it for a whole year without rest! Therefore, go to the high mountains, to the deep cave. Behind twelve iron doors, behind twelve
with copper locks in that cave you will find a heroic
a horse chained to a post with a heavy chain. Break it
these doors, and when the horse hears you, he will break free from his chains. And you gather your strength
and hold him!
Usually Dazhbog rides across the sky in a wonderful chariot drawn by four white, fire-maned horses with golden wings. Twice - in the morning and in the evening - Dazhbog crosses the Ocean-Sea on a boat pulled by geese, ducks and swans. So it’s not for nothing that people attribute special powers to talismanic amulets in the form of a duck with a horse’s head.
Dazhbog has a majestic gait and a direct gaze that knows no lies. And also wonderful hair, sunny-gold, easily flying in the wind. His eyes are blue, like the clear sky on a sunny afternoon, like the unbearably blue core of a fire. The Son of Heaven looks around at the wondrous wonders of the Earth: fields and hills, tall oak groves and resinous pine forests, wide lakes, free rivers, sonorous streams and cheerful student springs.

Dazhdbog.

One day Dazhbog went to the high mountains, where he found a deep cave that he had been told about. He immediately began to break down the iron door, and as soon as the heroic horse heard him, he neighed and broke free of his chains. He smashed all the iron doors and wanted to break free. However, Dazhbog jumped on his horse, reined it in and saddled it. Then Dazhbog exclaimed to the high heavens and wind:
- Is there anyone braver than me? Maybe who is stronger than me? Who is more cunning
me? Is there a horse that is faster than mine?
And Mother Ros answered Dazhbog:
“I would like to give birth to you as brave as the formidable Perun, as strong as the mighty Svyatogor, and as cunning as Volkh Zmeevich, but Mokosh did not foresee that. However, young Dazhbog, you are also daring, and you shouldn’t be offended by fate!
Dazhbog was married three times. For the first time he married the daughter of the great knight Svyatogor, Maya-Zlatogorka. However, Marena liked him, and with the help of a love potion she married him to herself. From Dazhbog and Marena, a son was born Bogumir, who later married Slava, from whom they had three daughters - Dreva (foremother of the Drevlyans), Skreva (foremother of the Krivichi) and Poleva (foremother of the Polyans).
The insidious Marena did not stop there and, having drunk the hero again, abandoned him for Koshchei. The evil Koschey, jealous, crucified Dazhbog on the Caucasus Mountain, but the goddess Zhiva came to the hero’s aid, who resurrected Perun’s son with the help of living water. She then became his third wife. They claim that they had children Arius and Kisek (the forefather of the Germans), and from Arius were born Kiy (the forefather of the Kievites), Shchek (the forefather of the Czechs), Khoriv (the forefather of the Croats) and their sister Lybid.

Genus.

One of the legends of Slavic mythology tells that at the very beginning there was nothing, no material world. There was only Darkness and the god Rod, who was in the Egg, and when he was freed, with the power of his Love he was able to destroy the prison and give life to the Universe. He created many star worlds, including the earthly world. God gave birth to the Kingdom of Heaven, separating the Ocean with a rocky firmament from the heavens. He also Separated Light and Darkness, Truth and Falsehood. From now on, everything that was born by Rod received his name: nature, homeland, parents.
God Rod divided the earthly world into three parts: upper, middle and lower. The upper world is located in the heavens. This world is inhabited by gods who rule over people. They always act righteously, and therefore the inhabited heavens are called Rule. The world of people is located below. This world was revealed to man by the gods, therefore its name is Reveal. The lower one is the world where our ancestors went, this is the world of the past. The lower world is called Navy. Nav is the world of the dead, the land of the night. It was believed that you could get there if you crossed the Ocean-Sea that surrounds the Earth.
There are nine heavens around the Earth, each of which has its own purpose. One sky is for the Sun and stars, another for the Moon, and a separate sky for clouds and winds. The seventh heaven was considered the “firmament” and was the transparent bottom of the Heavenly Ocean. It stores supplies of living water, as well as a source of rain that never runs dry.
You can get to any of these heavens by moving along the World Tree, which connects the Lower World, Earth and nine heavens. The World Tree is like a huge spreading oak on which the seeds of all trees, plants and herbs ripen. With its branches, the oak tree connects all levels of the world, spreading to the four cardinal directions and influencing the mood of gods and people. It was believed that a green tree meant prosperity and a good share, and a dried one meant despondency and silence.
Where the top of the World Tree rises above the seventh heaven, in the “heavenly abyss,” there is an island called Iriy or Paradise. Iriy was sometimes called “Buyan Island”. The ancestors of all birds and animals live on this island. They are called “elder wolf”, “elder deer”, etc. In Slavic mythology, it was believed that migratory birds fly to the island in the fall. The souls of animals hunted by hunters, according to the beliefs of the ancient Slavs, ended up there and were held accountable to the “elders.” They tell them how people treated them in the earthly world. The hunter had to thank the animal for allowing him to take his skin and meat, and in no case mock him. In this case, the “elders” quickly released the soul of the beast back to the earthly world, so that this beast could be born again, and the fish and game would not run out. If a person was guilty, there would be trouble. God Rod became the Heavenly Spring and gave birth to the waters of the Great Ocean. From the foam of the Ocean waters a wonderful bird was born, called the World Duck, from which many gods originated. From Rod came the cow Zemun and the goat Sedun, and from their milk came the Milky Way. Next, the earthly knight Svyatogor came into the world, who was supposed to guard the twelve pillars on which the earthly firmament of Svarga was based.
God Rod gave birth to the masculine principle named Svarog, as well as the feminine principle - the goddess Lada, who became the eldest of the women in labor. The youngest was her daughter Lelya. From Lada came all the words associated with family order: “get along”, “establish”, “okay”. In addition, Lada became the mother of twelve months, into which a year is divided. Lelya was the guardian of the future harvest. Rod, Lada and Lelya were revered in Slavic mythology as deities of the continuation of the human race, as well as protectors of pregnant women and small children.

Mokosh.

The mythology of the ancient Slavs is not only pre-Christian deities, but also ideas about space and earth, about nature and its laws, about human destiny, about the hearth, etc. We will consider the Slavic pantheon of gods in more detail.
Mokosh is the only female deity among those placed by Prince Vladimir at his court in Kyiv. Mentions of this goddess are found in many sources, but all of them are unclear. It is difficult to determine the origin of the word "Mokosh". Some researchers associated it with the Finnish tribal name “Moksha”, others considered Mokosh to be a deity close to the eastern goddess Astarte or the Greek Aphrodite, and others equated it with a mermaid.
B. A. Rybakov believes that this name contains the word “cat”, “kosch” (“lot”, “fate”) and is the root of words denoting containers for grain (for example, “basket”). Hence, in his opinion, Mokosh is the goddess of fate and good luck.
Interestingly, Mokosh in the same sources is usually mentioned together with the Rozhanitsy - goddesses who can be seen embroidered on towels and shirts. Mokosh was often depicted with her hands raised to the sky, as if praying to the Supreme God to irrigate the sown fields with rain. By the days of the summer solstice, when the ears of corn had already grown, Mokosh was depicted surrounded by solar circles, with her arms down. Hence the connection with the folklore image of “Mother-damp-earth”.
The cult of Mokoshi was accompanied by the installation of idols in temples and in the open air. As an ancient agricultural deity, she was the "mother of the harvest", the goddess of life's blessings and abundance.
The Mother Goddesses were subordinated or subordinated to Mokoshi. In the visual arts they have always been in dual number. The cult of Rozhanits differed from other pagan rites primarily in its openness and solemn feasts in honor of the goddesses. These feasts were contrasted to a certain extent with the “laying of treasures” to other pagan gods. The sacrifice of animals and birds could be carried out in their own yards without much publicity. Meals dedicated to the Family and the Mothers of Birth were held publicly.
The Russian people who adopted Christianity in the 11th-12th centuries, according to the author of the medieval work “The Lay of Idols,” still prayed “across the Ukrainians” to their “cursed god Perun, Khors and Mokosha and the pitchforks, but they did it like otai” (secretly). Clearly despising pagan rituals, this author continued: “This cannot be deprived of this, even in filthiness, even to the village of that cursed setting of the second meal for the Family and the Rozhanitsa for the delight of faithful Christians.”
The birth feast was called the “second meal” and was held after the church celebration, in addition to the feasting permitted by the church in honor of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. The main holiday of Rod and two Rozhanitsa was a public autumn holiday, like the Harvest holiday in honor of the Western Slavic four-headed Svyatovid. For the second time, Rod and Rozhanits were honored at Christmas (after December 25). On that day they brought bread, pies, etc. to the temple. The fusion of pagan with Christian, Rozhanitsa with the Mother of God was especially clearly expressed in Russian embroidery and Russian applied art.
Gradually, the cult of Mokosha was pushed aside, on the one hand, by the cult of the Christian Mother of God, and on the other, by the cult of the Christian saint Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa and remained in this form until the beginning of the 20th century. Our ancestors prayed to St. Paraskeva about all prosperity and happiness at home, about success in trade. At a later time, Mokosh began to be revered as the patroness of women's work, especially spinning and weaving.