Mythology is. The concept of mythology. "Odyssey" and "Iliad" as the pinnacle of ancient mythology

give the correct and correct definition of the concept of "mythology" and got the best answer

Answer from Virgil[expert]
Mythology is the legends or tales of various peoples of the world, depicting nature and everything surrounding ancient people as living beings with magical properties and great power. It also includes stories about heroes who take a place between people and gods, who performed deeds inaccessible to ordinary people.

Answer from Mister Frisk[newbie]
Mythology (Greek μυθολογία from μῦθος - legend, legend and λόγος - word, story, teaching) is a part of philological science that studies ancient folklore and folk tales: myths, epics, fairy tales.

Answer from Vidadi Yusifov[expert]
Mythology (Greek mythología, from mýthos - legend, legend and lógos - word, story, teaching), a fantastic idea of ​​the world, characteristic of a person of a primitive communal formation, as a rule, transmitted in the form of oral narratives - myths, and a science that studies myths. A person who lived in a primitive communal system based on the spontaneous collectivism of his closest relatives understood and was closest to only his communal-tribal relations. He transferred these relationships to everything around him. Earth, sky, flora and fauna were presented as a universal tribal community, in which all objects were thought not only as animated, and often even intelligent, but necessarily related beings. In M. these representations have received the form of generalizations. For example, the craft, taken as a whole, with all its characteristic features, in all its development and with all its historical destinies, was conceived as a kind of living and intelligent being that controlled all possible types and areas of the craft. Hence the mythological images of gods-craftsmen, gods-farmers, gods-cattle-breeders, gods-warriors, etc. arose: the Slavic Veles (Volos) or the Celtic Damon, representing one or another generalization of cattle breeding, the Greek Pallas Athena or the Abkhaz Erysh ( goddesses of spinning and weaving), as well as gods of fertility, vegetation, guardian gods and patron demons among the Aztecs, New Zealand, Nigeria and many other peoples of the world.

Answer from Doppler87[expert]
nete Mythology (μυθολογία, from μῦθος - legend, legend and word, story, teaching): # System of sacred knowledge
various peoples of the world, social groups, based on traditional
legends. Characterized by metaphor, faith in the miraculous.

Answer from 3 answers[guru]

Hey! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: give the correct and correct definition of the concept of "mythology"

The word "myth" means a legend, a legend.

Myth-making is the most important phenomenon in the cultural history of mankind. In primitive society, mythology was the main way of understanding the world, where abstract categories are presented in a personified "humanized" form. Mythology at a certain stage existed among all the peoples of the world. In the myths of various peoples of the world - with their extreme diversity - a number of motives are repeated.

The reasons for such a form of the picture of the world, universal for ancient mankind, must be sought in the common features of thinking for that level of cultural and historical development.

2. Features of mythological thinking and the nature of mythology.

Primitive thinking - "prelogical", but not illogical, and comes from social, but not from individual psychology.

Mythological thinking generalizes while remaining concrete and using signs, he has a peculiar logic. Mythology has an intellectual character. Mythology, along with language and art, as an autonomous symbolic form of culture, marked by a special way of symbolic objectification of sensory data, emotions.

The main prerequisites for a peculiar mythological logic:

1. primitive man has not yet distinguished himself from the environment - natural and social,

2. elements of logical diffuseness, indivisibility, syncretism of primitive thinking, which has not yet clearly separated from the emotional, affective-motor sphere.

The consequence of this was naive humanization of the natural environment and the resulting general personification in myths and a broad "metaphorical" comparison of natural and cultural (social) objects. Man transferred his own properties to natural objects, attributed to them life, human feelings. The expression of forces, properties and fragments of the cosmos as concretely sensual and animated images gave rise to bizarre mythological fantasy. The cosmos is often represented in myths as a living giant, from whose parts the world can be created, totemic ancestors are drawn as beings of a double nature - zoomorphic and anthropomorphic nature and easily change their appearances, diseases look like monsters devouring souls, strength can be expressed by multi-armedness, and good eyesight many-eyedness, etc. At the same time, all the gods, spirits, heroes are connected by purely human family and clan relations. Some mythological images turn out to be a complex multi-level bundle of distinctive features that are part of a well-known mythological system. Mythological images represent animate, personalized configurations of "metaphors", "metaphysical", more precisely, a symbolic image represents the otherness of what it models, because the form is identical to the content, and is not its allegory, illustration.

The “pre-logical” character of mythological thinking is manifested, in particular, in non-compliance with the logical law of the "excluded middle": objects can be both themselves and something else. In collective representations, associations are governed by the law of participation (participation) - there is a mystical participation between the totemic group and the country of the world, between the country of the world and flowers, winds, mythical animals, forests, rivers, etc.

Symbolism of the myth represents its most important feature. An indistinct division in thinking of the subject and the object, the object and the sign, the thing and the word, the being and its name, the thing and its attributes, the singular and the plural, spatial and temporal relations, the beginning and the principle, i.e. origin and essence. Mythological thinking operates, as a rule, concrete and personal, manipulates the external secondary sensory qualities of objects; Objects approach each other by secondary sensory qualities, by contiguity in space and time. What appears as similarity in scientific analysis appears as identity in mythological explanation. Specific objects, without losing their specificity, can become signs of other objects or phenomena, i.e. to replace them symbolically, making the objects described by the myth more intelligible.

Geneticism of the myth- for a myth, the replacement of causal relationships with a precedent is very characteristic - the origin of an object is presented as its essence. The scientific principle of explanation is opposed to the "beginning" in time. To explain the device of a thing means to tell how it was made, to describe the world around means to tell about its origin.

Space in mythology is heterogeneous, its directions are burdened with various qualities and properties, the idea of ​​time also has a qualitative character. A sharp distinction between the mythological period and modern, "sacred" and "profane" time characteristic of even the most primitive mythological systems. Mythological time is the time when everything was "not the same" as it is now. The mythical past is not just a previous time, but a special era of the first creation, a mythical time preceding the beginning of empirical time; the mythical era is the era of primary objects and primary actions: the first fire, the first spear, the first deeds, etc. Everything that happened in mythical time acquires the meaning of a paradigm (example, image), is considered as precedent, which serves as a model for reproduction by virtue of the fact that this precedent took place in the "original times". Therefore, the myth usually combines two aspects - a story about the past (diachronic aspect) and a means of explaining the present, and sometimes the future (synchronous aspect). For primitive consciousness, everything that exists now is the result of the unfolding of the original precedent. Etiologism(cause) myth, an attempt to explain some phenomenon in the environment is an essential feature of mythological thinking.

Mythology appears as a closed symbolic system, united both by the nature of its functioning, and by the way of modeling the surrounding world. The symbolism of the myth goes back to the fact that the concrete-sensual can generalize only by becoming a sign, a symbol - specific objects, without losing their concreteness, can become a sign of other objects or phenomena, i.e. symbolically replace them. The mythical consciousness therefore resembles a code for which a key is needed. The intuitive emotional principle in myth takes the form of creative ordering and even cognition of reality.

The specifics of mythological thinking - in the indistinguishability of the real and the ideal, the thing and the image, the body and the property, the “beginning” and the principle, due to which the similarity and contiguity are transformed into a causal sequence, and the causal process has the character of a material metaphor. Relations are not synthesized, but identified, instead of "laws" there are specific unified images, where part is functionally identical to the whole. The entire cosmos is built according to a single model and articulated through the opposition of the "sacred" (sacred) and the "profane" (empirical, current). Mythological logic achieves its goals, as it were, inadvertently, in a roundabout way, with the help of materials that are not specially intended for that, by the method of “bricolage” (from the French “to play with a rebound, rebound”. First of all, numerous binary oppositions, such as: high - low, warm - cold, left - right, etc.

Myth is a logical tool for resolving fundamental contradictions through mediation - progressive mediation, the mechanism of which is that the fundamental opposition (for example, life and death) is replaced by a less sharp opposition (for example, the plant and animal kingdom), and this, in turn, is a narrower opposition. Thus, more and more new mythological systems and subsystems are piled up as the fruits of a kind of “generating semantics”, as a result of endless transformations that create complex hierarchical relationships between myths. At the same time, during the transition from myth to myth, their common “reinforcement” is preserved and thus exposed, but the “messages” or “code” change. This change during the transformation of myths is mostly figurative-metaphorical in nature, so that one myth turns out to be wholly or partly a "metaphor" of another.

Collective representations are a matter of faith, not reflection, and are imperative. If the modern European differentiates the natural and the supernatural, then the "savage" in his collective ideas perceives the world as one.

The content of the myth is conceived by primitive consciousness as quite real.(moreover, - due to the "pragmatic" nature of the myth - as the "highest reality"), the distinction between the real and the supernatural is not made. Collective representations are a matter of faith, not reflection, and are imperative. If the modern European differentiates the natural and the supernatural, then the "savage" in his collective ideas perceives the world as one.

Collective practical experience, whatever it was, accumulated over many generations, so only it was considered as reliable enough. For any primitive society, this experience is concentrated in the wisdom of the ancestors, in tradition; therefore, understanding the facts of the external world turned out to be a matter of faith, while faith was not subject to verification and did not need it.

So, the inability to distinguish between the natural and the supernatural, the indifference to contradiction, the weak development of abstract concepts, the sensual-concrete nature, the metaphorical nature, the emotionality - these and other features of primitive thinking turn mythology into a very peculiar symbolic (sign) system, in terms of which described the world.

In ancient legends, people reflected their ideas about the world around them, they believed in the existence of Olympus, the heavenly and underworld kingdoms. The mythology of Ancient Greece tells about the origin of gods and people most vividly. The Hellenes have preserved hundreds of legends about how cultural heroes were born, how did they become famous? and how their fate unfolded.

What is mythology? The concept of gods and heroes

In translation from ancient Greek the word "myth" means "narrative". Legends about gods, exploits of heroes and natural phenomena can be attributed to this category. The myth was perceived as reality and passed on from generation to generation. It can be argued that it is one of the oldest forms of oral folk art.

The myth was the result of myth-making: all nature and the world consisted of intelligent beings forming a community. fetishized physical objects and forces, animated them. Supernatural forces were attributed to everything inexplicable that a person encountered. The ancient Greek gods were anthropomorphic. They possessed human appearance and magical knowledge, could change their appearance and were immortal. Like people, the gods performed feats, suffered defeat and were dependent on less powerful, at first glance, creatures - the three goddesses of fate. Moirae decided the fate of every heavenly and earthly inhabitant, so even Zeus did not dare to argue with them.

How is myth different from religion?

All ancient peoples, including the Greek and Roman, passed the stage from fetishism to idolatry. Initially, the object of veneration could be wood and metal products, which soon began to take on divine outlines, but the statues still remained bare stone without soul and magical power.

Mythology and religion are similar concepts, and sometimes it is difficult to identify differences in them, since the second is an integral part of the first. In many national religions, anthropomorphic creatures endowed with supernatural power are the object of worship - these are the gods, the diversity of which can be traced in Roman and Greek cultures. The existence of any religion is unthinkable without mythology. Heroes fight, marry, reproduce offspring - all this happens with the participation of miraculous forces and magic. The moment a myth attempts to explain supernatural events, it begins to take on a religious connotation.

Ancient mythology as an arsenal of the entire world culture

Friedrich Engels argued that without Greek and Roman influences, there would be no modern Europe. The revival of the ancient Greek heritage began during the Renaissance, when writers, architects and artists again began to draw inspiration from the plots of Hellenic and Roman legends. Today, in museums around the world, majestic statues of gods and other creatures are presented to visitors, and paintings can tell about a certain moment of a significant event. The theme "mythology" was also of interest to the writers of the "Golden Age". They turned to antiquity only to display their thoughts; they used not a brush with paint, but a word.

It is curious that the myths of the Greek and Roman peoples formed the basis of world culture even after many centuries. Modern man has a different point of view regarding the origin of the Universe, but he does not cease to turn to ancient ideas and studies the cultural heritage of bygone times with pleasure. The myth was the first attempt to explain the universe, and over the centuries it acquired not a religious, but an aesthetic character. The strengths of the heroes depicted in the Odyssey and the Iliad also attract today's men, and the girls try to be like Venus, Aphrodite, Diana in character and beauty. Unfortunately, many do not attach importance to how firmly myth and mythology have entered the life of modern man. But they play a huge role in world culture.

The origin of the earth

The ancient mythology of the Greeks and Romans is striking in its originality. Many people are still surprised how people could represent the creation of the world so skillfully - or maybe all this was real? In the beginning there was Chaos, from which came Gaia - the earth. Eros (love), Erebus (darkness) and Nyukta (night) occurred simultaneously. Tartarus was born under the earth - a hellish place where sinners went after death. From night and darkness came Ether (light) and Hemera (day). The earth gave birth to Uranus (sky), who took her as his wife and gave birth to six titans who gave the world rivers, sea goddesses, the sun, the moon, and the wind. Now all the elements existed on the planet, and the inhabitants did not know misfortunes until evil creatures appeared. The earth gave birth to three Cyclopes, whom the jealous Uranus imprisoned in darkness, but the youngest, named Kronos, got out and took power from his father. The rebellious son could not go unpunished, and mythology also tells about the further development of events. The goddesses and gods, whose names were Death, Discord, Deceit, Destruction, Sleep and Vengeance, were born by Nyukta for the crime. And so the ancient world appeared, according to the ideas of the ancient Greeks. The offspring of Chaos lived in the underworld and on land, and each had its own purpose.

Gods of Greek mythology

The ancient religion was significantly different from the current one, and if today representatives of the four main religious denominations believe that there is only one Creator, but several millennia ago people had a different opinion. The Greeks believed that the gods lived on the sacred Mount Olympus. Each had its own appearance and purpose. The mythology of Ancient Greece is represented by twelve main gods.

roman gods

Greek mythology has always been considered exemplary. The goddesses of the Romans had their original names and purpose, and this was the end of their story. The people did not invent new legends and took the plots from the Greeks as a basis, since their art was more vivid and colorful. Roman culture was less rich, so many things were borrowed from the Hellenic heritage.

Among the Romans, Jupiter was the supreme god, and Juno was his wife. They had the same duties as in Greek mythology. The sea lord is Neptune, and the patroness of the hearth is Vesta. The god of the underworld was Pluto, and the main commander was Mars. Minerva was the Roman counterpart of Athena, Phoebus was an excellent soothsayer, and his sister Diana was a forest mistress. Venus is the goddess of love born from foam. Mercury patronized travelers and helped people in trade. The blacksmith Vulcan was the Roman equivalent of Hephaestus. Thus, although Roman mythology was said to be poorer, the number of gods was the same as that of the Greeks.

Sisyphean labor, panic fear and others

A person's speech becomes colorful through the use of proverbs, phraseological units, and ancient mythology is felt not only in a high literary style, but also in everyday life.

Speaking about back-breaking and useless work, a person often uses a phraseological unit without even delving into its etymology, while the phrase has ancient roots. For disobedience to the gods, the son of Eol and Enarete was severely punished. For thousands of years, Sisyphus has been forced to roll a huge stone uphill, the height of which has no limit, but as soon as the unfortunate hand is let go, a block will crush him.

Surely each of us has experienced at least once in a lifetime, and we owe this expression to the god Pan with the bizarre appearance of a man with goat legs. With its sudden appearance, the creature instilled fear in the travelers, and from its sinister laughter, the blood ran cold in the veins. So the expression "panic fear" appeared, meaning the fear of something inexplicable.

People who do not know what mythology is, themselves allow themselves to show off their minds, using interesting phraseological units in their speech. In his epic, Homer devoted several stanzas to describing the unbridled laughter of the gods. The great ones often allowed themselves to sneer at something stupid and awkward, while laughing at the top of their lungs. And so the expression "Homeric laughter" was born.

Mythological plots in the literature of recent centuries

It is fair to say about the influence on Russian poetry. Alexander Pushkin often turned to the ancient Greek heritage, and in his novel in verse "Eugene Onegin" one can read many stanzas where the names of Zeus, Juvenal, Circe, Terpsichore, Flora and other deities appear. Sometimes you can find individual words or whole expressions written in ancient Greek. This technique is relevant even in modern times, and often journalists, politicians and other influential figures prefer to speak in aphorisms. C`est la vie sounds much more solemn than the simple "such is life", and a letter ending with the phrase Vale et me ama acquires greater value and depth of thought. By the way, the Pushkin hero of the novel himself preferred to end the message with this phrase in ancient Greek.

The Russian poet Osip Mandelstam knew perfectly well what mythology was, and his craving for antiquity began with the first collection "Stone". In the poems, images of Erebus, Homer, Odysseus are noticeable, and there is also a golden fleece. The poem Silentium!, which means "silence" in Latin, arouses the reader's interest by its name alone. The heroine in the lyrical text is the goddess Aphrodite, whom Mandelstam calls on to remain sea foam.

The founder of Russian symbolism, Valery Bryusov, admits that "Rome is closest to him", therefore Roman mythology often appears in his poetic lines. In his works, he recalls Agamemnon, Orpheus, Amphitrion, Orion, sings of the beauty of Aphrodite and asks her to accept this verse; refers to the god of love Eros.

Gavrila Derzhavin openly translated the ode of the Roman poet Horace "To Melpomene". The main idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe poem "Monument" is the eternity of the poetic heritage and the recognition of his work. A few decades later, Alexander Pushkin wrote a work of the same name and mentioned Rome in the epigraph. Exegi monumentum in Latin means "I erected a monument to myself." Thus, the theme of immortality is revealed by three great poets: Horace, Derzhavin and Pushkin. Geniuses prove that literature and mythology can coexist, and through their union, magnificent works are born.

Painting and architecture based on the subjects of mythology

The painting by Pyotr Sokolov "Daedalus Binding the Wings of Icarus" is considered the pinnacle of fine art, therefore it was often copied. The work was written in 1777 and is today exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery. The artist was struck by the legend of the great Athenian sculptor Daedalus, who, together with his son Icarus, was imprisoned in a high tower. The cunning man made wings from feathers and wax, and freedom seemed already close ... Icarus flew high to the sun - the luminary scorched his aircraft, and the young man fell and crashed.

The Hermitage has a unique panel that remained intact after a madman threw acid on it and stabbed it. We are talking about "Danae" - a painting by Rembrandt. A third of the canvas was damaged, and the restoration took more than twelve years. From mythology, you can learn that Danae was imprisoned in the tower by her own father, when he was predicted to die at the hands of Perseus, the son of his daughter.

Ancient mythology was also of interest to Russian sculptors, who chose metal as a material for work. The bronze sculpture "Marsyas" by Theodosius Shchedrin introduces another hero of the ancient myth. The forest satyr showed courage and decided to compete with Apollo in the art of music. The unfortunate flutist was tied to a tree for his insolence, where he was flayed.

Decorated with a marble sculpture "Menelaus with the body of Patroclus", created on the basis of the plot of the Iliad. The original statue was carved two thousand years ago. Patroclus, who went into battle with Hector instead of Achilles, immediately dies, and Menelaus holds his lifeless body and thinks about revenge. Ancient mythology is often of interest to sculptors, since the subject of inspiration is a person. The creators did not hesitate to depict the curves of a beautiful body that were not covered by clothing.

"Odyssey" and "Iliad" as the pinnacle of ancient mythology

Ancient Greek epic works are studied in schools and higher educational institutions, and the characters of the heroes depicted in them are still borrowed by writers to create stories and novels. Ancient mythology is represented by the epic poems "Odyssey" and "Iliad", the creator of which is considered to be Homer. He wrote his works in the 8th century BC, and only two centuries later they were written down by the Athenian tyrant Peisistratus, and until then they were passed on by the Greeks by word of mouth. The dispute about authorship arose due to the fact that parts of the epic were written in different periods of time, it was also alarming that the name of Homer in translation means "blind".

The Odyssey tells of the adventures of the king of Ithaca, who was held captive by the Nymph Calypso for ten years, after which he decided to return home. Difficulties await the hero: he ends up on the island of cannibals and cyclops, swims between descends into the underworld, but soon returns to his beloved Penelope, who faithfully waited for him all the years and rejected all suitors.

The Iliad is a heroic epic that tells of the Trojan War that arose because of the theft of Princess Helen. Odysseus also participates in the actions, who appears before readers in the form of a cunning and diplomatic ruler, skillfully owning oratory. The protagonist of the epic is Achilles. The main battles are fought by Hector, who at the end dies a terrible death.

Mythology of other peoples

The Greco-Roman heritage is the richest and most colorful, therefore it occupies a leading position in the history of world culture. Ancient mythology also existed among other peoples, and many stories are intertwined with each other. All objects of worship of the ancient Slavs, who until 988 were pagans, were destroyed by the princes, who wanted to leave Christianity as a single religion. It is known that they had wooden statues of Perun, Dazhdbog, Khors. Less significant deities were analogues of the Greek nymphs and satyrs.

In Egypt, mythology still occupies a place of honor. The gods Amon, Anubis, Imhotep, Ra, Osiris and others are depicted on the walls of the pyramids and in other ancient temples. Today in this country, most people profess Islam and Christianity, but do not try to eradicate the traces of the ancient religion and are sensitive to cultural heritage.

Myth is the basis of religion, and the current religious beliefs of small or large peoples are connected with mythological subjects. Each Scandinavian country has its own rich culture, as do Indians, Hispanics, Japanese, Caucasians, Eskimos, and French. This heritage is passed down from generation to generation either orally or in writing.

Where is mythology studied?

Acquaintance with the cultural heritage of the people begins in the elementary grades of the school. In Russia, children are introduced to Russian folk tales - from "Kolobok" to "Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf." A few years later, the teacher tells them the fairy tales of Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, and after graduating from elementary school, boys and girls learn for the first time about the existence of ancient states - Greece and Rome. Myths and legends are studied in literature and fine arts. The children learn about the creation of the world from the point of view of the ancient Greeks, get acquainted with the main deities and heroes. After studying the textbook "Mythology. Grade 6", students begin to understand and realize that many world religions are based on the legends of ancient peoples.

In the senior classes at the lessons, the children make their first attempts to create sketches of antique statues, study ancient plots on the canvases of prominent artists. In higher educational institutions, philology students study ancient literature and reread myths, realize their role in the formation of world culture. They confidently define what mythology is and how it differs from religion. The main idea of ​​such disciplines is that the younger generation should not forget the ancient traditions and possess full knowledge that could be used in life and future profession.

Mythology (from the Greek. mythos - legend, legend and logos - word, story) - ideas about the world and man, contained in stories about the deeds of fantastic creatures - myths. Mythology arose in a primitive (tribal) society (see Primitive Society), where the main social ties were blood relations. Therefore, they were transferred to the entire world around man, primarily to animals, which, as was believed in myths, had common ancestors with one or another human race. These first ancestors in the science of myths are usually called totems (totemism is a belief in the relationship of a person and a certain animal). In the most archaic myths (among Australians, African Bushmen-hunters, who until recently lived in the conditions of the Stone Age), ancestral totems most often look like an animal, but are able to think and act like people. They lived in a distant era of first creation, when the world was created; in some Australian tribes this era is called "the time of dreams." The activity of the first ancestors was considered a model for people: in myths they wander along the same roads, stop near the same springs and thickets as groups of primitive hunters. During their wanderings, the first ancestors hunted, made fire, created reservoirs, heavenly bodies, and even people themselves. So, in the Australian myth of the Aranda tribe, the first ancestors find fused lumps at the bottom of the dried-up sea, resembling the outlines of people; breaking lumps with a stone knife, they create people and divide them into tribal groups. Ancestors were considered the creators of tools, marriage norms, customs, rituals and other cultural phenomena, therefore they are also called cultural heroes. Large mythological cycles were formed about the activities of such heroes, such as, for example, the myths about the creator of the world among the Bushmen, the grasshopper-mantis Tsagna, or the myths about the Raven among the peoples of Chukotka, Kamchatka, etc.

Cultural heroes in primitive myths could also be the first people, for example, the mother-grandmother Kunapipi among the Australians; most often the cultural heroes were twin brothers. According to the Soviet ethnographer A. M. Zolotarev, the so-called twin myths, common among many peoples of the world, are associated with the practice of dividing ancient tribes into two halves (phratries - “brotherhoods”), between whose members marriages were concluded. The twin heroes, the founders of the phratries, create the whole world, but their creations are opposite in their meaning for people. So, in the myths of the Melanesians (primitive farmers and hunters on the islands of Melanesia) about the brothers To Kabinana and To Korvuvu, the first creates everything useful for people - fertile land, good housing, edible fish, while the second creates stony soil, tools unsuitable for work , predatory fish, etc. d.

Myths about the creation of the world - cosmogonic myths (from kosmos - the world, the universe and gone - birth) are among all peoples, they reflect the emergence of religious dualism, the struggle between good and evil, god and devil. However, for primitive myths, the ethical (moral) meaning was secondary: their content was reduced mainly to the opposition of phenomena useful and harmful to humans, such as life and death, light and darkness, house and forest (wild, undeveloped place). Only with the emergence of civilization, initially in ancient Iranian dualistic mythology, the actions of the two creators of the world began to be guided by good intentions and bad intent: the evil spirit Angro-Mainyu (Ahriman) deliberately spoiled all the good undertakings of the god Ahuramazda (Ormuzd), brought illness and death to the world. His accomplices are demons (devas), embodying lies (Druj) and robbery (Aishma, the biblical Asmodeus).

Already at an early stage of civilization - with the emergence of agriculture, ideas about the fertile power of the earth - cosmogonic myths about the marriage of Earth and Heaven, which gave rise to all life, spread. Two widely separated peoples, the ancient Greeks and the Polynesians in Oceania, developed similar myths about the time when mother earth (the Greek Gaia and the Polynesian Pope) rested in the arms of the heavenly father (the Greek Uranus and the Polynesian Rangi). To free up space for living beings - the first generation of gods, it was necessary to separate the progenitors: the Greek god Kronos performs this act with the help of a sickle, the Polynesian Tane, the god of the forest, tears the Sky from the Earth with the tops of the trees subject to him.

A huge tree or mountain, connecting the Earth and Sky, was represented in myths as the axis of the universe. In Scandinavian mythology, the world tree - the ash Yggdrasil - descended into the underworld with its roots, and reached the heavenly dwelling of the aesir gods - Asgard. The world of people - Midgard (literally: the middle fenced space, the estate) was surrounded by an outer space - Utgard (literally: the space outside the fence), where giants and monsters lived. The Earth was washed by the World Ocean, at the bottom of which - around the Earth - a giant snake curled up in a ring.

The monsters and demons that inhabited the mythological space of regions of the world not mastered by man constantly threatened the universe. The forces of chaos (original emptiness, abyss, darkness) opposed the forces of space, man and his gods. No wonder the Egyptian sun god Ra fought every night with the underground serpent Apep: a new sunrise meant the victory of the cosmos over chaos. The Babylonian god Marduk created the world from the body of a monster dismembered by him - the progenitor of all living things Tiamat after he defeated her in a duel.

The myths of agricultural civilizations are characterized by images of dying and resurrecting gods of nature, embodying fertility. The Egyptian myth about Osiris, who fell at the hands of the brother of the desert demon Seth and was brought back to life by his wife, the goddess of love and fertility, Isis, resembles primitive myths about brothers - cultural heroes, but is already associated with the cosmic (calendar) cycles of the annual revival of nature during the floods of the Nile. At the same time, the deities no longer merge entirely with the images of animals or natural phenomena, like totemic first ancestors, but dominate the elements, become the patrons of animals. So, the Greek goddess-huntress Diana is considered the patroness of animals; the thunder gods - the Greek Zeus, the Indian Indra, the Scandinavian Thor - do not embody thunder and lightning, but produce them with their wonderful weapons, forged for them by divine blacksmiths. Human handicraft activity is reflected in the widespread myths about the creation of man from clay (in the Bible - "from the dust of the earth"). Such myths could develop with the advent of pottery. It was believed that the Egyptian god Khnum sculpted the first man on a potter's wheel.

The role of man in the universal confrontation between the forces of chaos and the cosmos was reduced in primitive and ancient mythology and religion mainly to performing rituals, offering sacrifices and other actions designed to support the powers of the gods and protect people from demons. One of the main rituals, especially in the Ancient East, was the New Year's holiday, when cosmogonic myths were performed; he was thus equated with the new creation of the world. The ritual recreated the era of the first creation. At the same time, mythology was aware of the difference between the ideal mythological era of creation and the present time, which is always worse than the first example. A myth was created about the "golden age", the time of universal equality and abundance, the kingdom of Kronos in Greek, Osiris and Isis in Egyptian mythologies. The most striking contrast between the "golden age" and the contemporary myth-makers of the era of decline is described by the Greek poet Hesiod (7th century BC) in the poem "Works and Days". The “golden age” of universal harmony is followed by “silver”, when people do not serve the gods so zealously, then “copper” - the time of wars, followed by “heroic”, when the best men died in the battles of Thebes and Troy, finally, “iron ”, when life passes in hard labor and strife between relatives. Ultimately, the misfortunes of the “Iron Age” are associated with the decline of tribal norms, as, for example, in Scandinavian mythology, the “age of swords and axes”, when a brother stands against his brother, is the time of the approaching end of the world. The end of the world - "the fate of the gods" - will come true, according to the prediction of the mythical prophetess, when the monsters of chaos and death itself (Scandinavian Hel) will enter into battle with the aesir gods, and the whole world will perish in a cosmic fire. However, this prophecy refers to the coming time - this is how ideas about the future are formed in mythology.

Scandinavian myths, formed in the era of the collapse of the primitive system and the birth of the first states, whose rulers rejected ancient mythology and turned to Christianity, reflect the death of the traditional norms of tribal society. Similar myths about the end of the world among the Iranians developed in the conditions of an emerging civilization and have a different perspective: the gods will defeat the demons in the last battle, and the sacred fire will not destroy, but cleanse the whole world. Unlike the widespread myths about the flood or about cosmic cycles (ancient Indian yugas), where life resumes in its previous form, in Iranian mythology, especially in the prophecies of Zarathushtra (Zoroaster), only the righteous who followed good thoughts, words and deeds will enter the future life. Ahura Mazda. These ideas influenced the doctrine of the Last Judgment in biblical mythology, which awaits the Savior - the Messiah - to judge the righteous and sinners and establish the Kingdom of God on earth.

Almost no information about ancient Russian (East Slavonic) mythology has been preserved. After the baptism of Russia (see Kievan Rus), pagan idols and temples were destroyed, the authorities persecuted the Magi, pagan priests - keepers of ancient myths. Only in the "Tale of Bygone Years" are references to the pagan customs of Russia and its gods preserved. After a campaign against Constantinople in 907, Oleg concluded an agreement with the defeated Greeks and sealed it with an oath: his men swore with weapons and "Perun, their god, and Volos, the cattle god." Perun is a god of thunder (in the Belarusian language the word "perun" means "thunder"), his name is related to the names of thundermen in other Indo-European myths (Lithuanian Perkunas, Hittite Pirv, etc.). The Thunderer, chasing evil spirits with thunder and lightning, was considered the patron saint of warriors, it was not without reason that Oleg's fighting squad swore to him. The oath of the cattle god Volos (or Veles) is not accidental either: cattle in many Indo-European traditions are the embodiment of wealth in general, and Oleg returned to Kiev after a campaign with rich gifts.

In 980, Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich established the "Kiev pantheon": "he set idols on the hill ... Wooden Perun, and his head is silver, and his mustache is golden, and Khors, Dazhbog and Stribog, and Simargl, and Mokosh." They were worshiped as gods, writes a Christian chronicler, and defiled the land with sacrifices. Perun was the head of the pantheon. The functions of other gods can only be guessed, based primarily on names. Mokosh, judging by her name (associated with the word "wet"), the goddess of moisture, fertility. Dazhbog is called the god of the Sun in one of the later Russian chronicles (his other name, mentioned there, is Svarog): this is a "giving god", a giver of good. Stribog can also be associated with the spread of good (in the "Word of Igor's Campaign" the winds are called "Stribog's grandchildren"): the Slavic word "god", borrowed from the Iranian language, means "wealth, good, share." Two more characters included in the Kievan pantheon, Hora and Simargl, are also considered Iranian borrowings. Hore, like Dazhbog, was a solar deity, Simargl is compared with the mythical bird Senmurv. Veles did not enter the pantheon, perhaps because he was more popular with the Slovenes of Novgorod, in the Russian North. Soon, Vladimir was forced to turn again to the "choice of faith": the pantheon, composed of different gods, not united by a single cult and mythology, could not be an object of veneration throughout Russia. Vladimir chose Christianity, idols were overthrown, pagan gods were declared demons, and only secretly stubborn pagans made more sacrifices to the Svarozhich fire, worshiped the Family and women in childbirth, who determined fate, believed in numerous brownies, water, goblin and other spirits.

In the so-called world religions - Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, which spread among many peoples of the world in the era of the collapse of ancient civilizations, traditional mythological plots recede into the background compared to the problems of morality (good and evil) and the salvation of the soul from the hardships of earthly existence and the torments of the afterlife. retribution.

Already in ancient times, with the advent of scientific knowledge, including philosophy and history, mythological subjects become the subject of literature (see Antiquity). At the same time, in historical accounts, elements of cosmogonic myths could precede history itself, and ancient cultural heroes and even gods sometimes turned into the founders of real cities, states, royal dynasties. So, the brothers Romulus and Remus, fed, according to legend, by a she-wolf totem, were considered the founders of Rome, and the supreme gods of the Scandinavian pantheon Odin, Thor, Freyr laid the foundation for the ruling dynasty of the Ynglings in Sweden (according to the medieval historical work "Circle of the Earth").

With the spread of world religions, especially Christianity and Islam, the Bible, the Old Testament, became the main source for searching for the historical roots of peoples who joined civilization. The book "Genesis" speaks of the origin of all peoples from the three sons of Noah - the righteous man who survived the Flood in the ark. The descendants of his sons - Shem, Ham and Japhet - settled the earth: from Shem came the Semites - Jews, ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia and Syria, etc.; Ham was considered the ancestor of the African peoples (Hamats), Japheth - Indo-European (Japhetids). This mythological classification survived until the Middle Ages and modern times: the Russian chronicler Nestor in the annals of The Tale of Bygone Years placed the new state of Rus in the Japhet part, next to the ancient countries and peoples, and linguists until recently used ancient names to designate large families of peoples - the Semitic , Hamitic and Japhetic.

According to further biblical tradition, from the forefather Abraham - a descendant of Shem - came the Jews, whose forefathers were Isaac and Jacob, and the Arabs, whose ancestor was Ishmael, the son of Abraham from the Egyptian Hagar; in the Koran and the subsequent Muslim tradition, Ismail is the main son of Ibrahim (Abraham), who keeps the Muslim shrine Kaaba (the main center of Muslim pilgrimage in Mecca). In the Old Testament and later Christian tradition, the Arabs, and often all the followers of Islam, are called Ishmaelites, Hagarians.

Another popular myth about three brothers who divided the world is the Iranian myth of Traetaon and his three sons. The ancient myth about the dragon slayer Traetaon was reworked by the great Persian poet Ferdowsi (c. 940-1020) in the poem "Shahname" ("Book of Kings"): Traetaon-Feridun appears there as an ancient king, his opponent (dragon) Zahhak - as a tyrant, unjust seized power. The sons of Feridun - the winner of Zahhak - get the whole world: Salm rules Rum (Byzantium, the Roman Empire) and the western countries, Tur - Chin (Chinese Turkestan), Eraj - Iran and Arabia. The strife between the brothers leads to the eternal struggle between the nomadic Turanians (Turkic peoples) and the settled (leading, according to ancient Iranian tradition, a righteous way of life) Iranians.

According to the model of the Old Testament and Iranian mytho-epic traditions, numerous book legends about three brothers - the founders of different peoples - were created. Such is the legend about the Czech, Lech and Rus - the progenitors of the Czechs, Poles and Russians in the Polish medieval chronicle. In The Tale of Bygone Years, a parallel to the Old Testament tradition is the legend of the ancestors of the meadows Kiya, Shchek and Khoriv (Khoriv is the name of the mountain in the Old Testament, where the prophet Moses saw the “burning bush”), the founders of Kiev, and the legend of the calling of the Varangians - brothers-princes Rurik, Sineus and Truvor. After the death of the Russian prince Yaroslav the Wise (1054), the real power in Russia belonged to the three brothers Yaroslavich, and the chronicler taught them to follow the biblical example and not start strife - "do not cross the limit of brothers."

The real rulers of real and medieval states either directly identified themselves with mythological characters - deities, like the pharaoh in Egypt, who was considered the son of the sun god Ra, or raised their family to deities, like the Japanese emperors, who were considered descendants of the solar goddess Amaterasu.

In various traditions, the image of Alexander the Great has undergone the greatest mythologization: already in the ancient “Roman about Alexander” by Pseudo-Callisthenes, he appears as the son of an Egyptian priest who appeared to the queen mother in the form of the god Amun. As a result of the combination of ancient and biblical traditions, Alexander - the conqueror of the world - was portrayed as the winner of the Old Testament mythical peoples of Gog and Magog: he locks them behind an iron gate (wall), but they must break out of prison before the end of the world. In the Iranian tradition, Alexander - Iskander - is the last ruler of the righteous Iranian dynasty of the Keyanids; in the Qur'an he is Zu-l-Karnayn, literally - "Two-horned", an image that goes back to the idea of ​​​​Alexander as the incarnation of Amon (the symbol of this god was a ram).

The descendants of Aeneas, the Trojan hero, the son of the goddess of love Aphrodite (Venus), considered themselves representatives of the Roman patrician family of Julius, to which Julius Caesar and Augustus belonged. These mythological genealogies served as a model for the legendary genealogies of medieval sovereigns, including Russian grand dukes. In the Old Russian “Tale of the Princes of Vladimir” (15th century), the family of Moscow princes through Rurik and his legendary ancestor Prus, allegedly planted by his relative Augustus to rule the Prussian land, is traced back to Augustus himself.

Mythology, in the plots of which there were ideas about the past and the future, about the place of man in the universe, was the forerunner of history as a science.

On the one hand, this concept hides the first historically established form of culture. On the other hand, the myth traces the changes that took place in the spiritual life of a person. Moreover, we see them even today, when these ancient legends have long lost their dominance.

Speaking in scientific language, the essence of a myth is nothing more than the semantic unconscious twinning of people with the forces of being of nature or society. But if we consider the ordinary understanding of this concept, then it is understood as biblical, ancient, as well as other old "tales" that tell about the creation of man and the world, as well as stories about the adventures of ancient heroes and gods - Odysseus and Zeus, Dionysus and Apollo, etc. .d.

And there is nothing surprising in the fact that the word "myth" has its roots in ancient Greece. Translated from the language of this people, it means "tale", "tradition". What does the word "mythology" mean?

Concept definition

The meaning of the words "myth" and "mythology" are close in meaning. And if we are already familiar with the first of them, then what does the second concept indicate? The meaning of the word "mythology" is "the presentation of legends." This is his literal translation from the Greek. At the same time, the origin of the word "mythology" becomes clear. It is closely connected with ancient tales and legends and means their retelling from one person to another. This is the opinion of the majority of the inhabitants. Based on the fact that legends are represented by ancient tales and entertaining stories about heroes and gods who lived in ancient times, mythology is considered a collection of such narratives that have nothing to do with reality.

However, scientists have a slightly different opinion on this matter. Their definition of the word "mythology" is an expression of a special kind of social consciousness, a peculiar way of understanding the surrounding reality, which was inherent in people in the early stages of development. Ancient man considered himself one with nature. Such unity led to the fact that the world was understood as something living. For a man who lived in ancient times, space and stone, the luminary and the river, wood and stone were just as alive as all people. At the same time, the main rule at that time was that the world treats a person in the same way as he treats every thing in it. That is why people began to animate nature, to personify things and phenomena, to compare everything that surrounds them with society. They transferred either their properties to the objects of the surrounding world, which is called anthropomorphism, or animals (that is, zoomorphism). Thanks to this, bizarre mythological fiction was born. An example of this is the ancient Greek centaur, as well as the East Slavic winged dog Simargl. Tribal relations were also transferred to nature by people. We can also see this in myths, where there are family and tribal ties between heroes, spirits and gods, similar to human ones.

Syncretism as a characteristic feature of ancient legends

What is mythology? This is a concept, the main features of which are syncretism and symbolism, geneticism and etiologism. Let's consider them in more detail.

The word "syncretism" in translation means "connection". This is a concept that characterizes mythology as knowledge, which is undivided due to its underdevelopment. If we consider modern ideas about the world, then it can be divided into a number of branches, each of which comprehends certain facts of reality in its own way. In ancient times, people tried to explain everything with myths alone. For example, why it rains, how the world appeared, where people came from, and also why they get sick from time to time and die at the end of their lives.

In myths, we can see the beginnings of various forms of arts, religion, as well as rational knowledge transmitted to future generations. Already in the early stages of the development of human society, the legends created by people were closely connected with religious rituals and beliefs. In myths, the system of norms of behavior and values ​​adopted in human society was affirmed and transmitted. Our ancestors considered the content of such legends to be real, since they contained the collective experience of a number of generations, which was the subject of faith and was not subjected to critical rethinking.

Ancient man possessed indivisibility of thinking. And this was clearly manifested in the mythological consciousness, which did not divide the phenomenon and the essence, the word and the thing, the name and the named. In the narration of an ancient legend, all objects are brought together in their external sensory characteristics. An example of this is lightning with an arrow.

Symbolism

What is mythology? This is an attempt to explain natural phenomena, when a person did not even try to delve into the search for essence. That is why in the ancient legends the superficially similar was presented only as identical. This is the second important property of mythology, that is, symbolism. What happens with this? Certain objects, as well as phenomena, turn into signs of other objects and phenomena. In other words, they begin to symbolically replace them.

geneticism

Very often in ancient legends, people passed off the origin of an object as its essence. This property is called genetics. Translated from Greek, this word means "origin", "birth".

In mythology, the explanation of a thing or phenomenon means a story about their occurrence.

Etiologism

This property, inherent in mythology, has a direct connection with geneticism. Translated from Greek, this concept means cause. From myths, people learned why all natural phenomena, surrounding objects, as well as living beings are exactly the way they are. In all ancient legends, the narrative about the structure of the world looked like a story about the origin of certain of its elements. At the same time, we can also get acquainted with a number of etiological legends proper. These are myths that are short narratives and give an explanation of the features of a phenomenon or object.

Considering the geneticism and etiologism of ancient legends, one essential detail becomes obvious. It includes the moment of the appearance of a thing or mythological time. It has sharp differences from the period of the narrative. At the same time, such mythological time has a sacred (sacred) character and serves as a model for the repetition of an event at the present moment.

From the foregoing, we can conclude that myths are far from legends, fairy tales or funny stories. This is a heritage that reflects the most ancient knowledge. What is mythology, then? It is nothing more than the oldest way by which people comprehended the world around them, while explaining not only natural phenomena and other existing order of things. With the help of mythology, man learned how he should act in this world.

Grouping of ancient tales

The myths of the various peoples inhabiting our planet are very diverse. However, if you study them, you can notice in these legends some similar motives, themes and features. Similar properties made it possible to classify myths, combining them into certain groups.

Most ancient legends were composed about animals. Such myths often told about those representatives of the world of fauna, whom man considered his ancestors. These are the so-called totem animals. However, this group includes myths and a slightly different direction. They talk about how sometimes a person turned into an animal. An example of this is one of the ancient Greek myths about the weaver Arachne. This skilled craftswoman was turned into a spider by Athena. This group also includes the East Slavic myth, which speaks of Volkh Vseslavovich, the werewolf prince.

Another type of ancient legends is astral. These are myths that tell us about heavenly bodies. Sometimes they are subdivided into additional subgroups. So, legends about planets and stars are distinguished separately. There are also solar myths about the Sun and lunar myths about the Moon. The central group includes legends telling about the origin of the cosmos. They are called cosmogonic. Stories about the appearance of gods (theogony) are often woven into such legends, which leads to the emergence of complex mythological complexes - theocosmogonies.

In a separate group are myths that explain the origin of man. They are called anthropogony. Very often they are included in the composition of cosmogony, although independent narratives can also be found.

Eschatological myths that tell about the end of the world have a close connection with comogonies. These tales sometimes pointed to the time when the world would cease to exist.

The ancient peoples assigned an important place to myths, which spoke about the origin of the existing cultural goods. These are the skills and objects that the heroes of legends and tales passed on to people. In some cases, this happened personally from myself. An example of this is the Karelian-Finnish Väinämeyanen. Sometimes the heroes of mythology stole cultural goods from the gods. For example, like the ancient Greek Prometheus.

The gods of Slavic mythology did not stand aside either. For example, there is a legend about how people learned blacksmithing. According to him, the god Svarog dropped ticks directly from the sky to the Slavs.

Calendar myths tell us about the culture of the ancient peoples engaged in agriculture. They reflect the cyclicality that is inherent in natural processes. The unchanging sequence of times and their repetition was reflected in the tales of dying and resurrecting gods. In Egyptian mythology, it was Osiris. In Phenicia, Adonis. In Thrace - Dionysus. The Slavs have Yarilo.

The groups of myths listed above are the largest. However, there are many other stories as well. They tell about fate and death, the afterlife.

As in many other areas, classification in mythology is rather arbitrary. But already this above distinction allows us to orient ourselves as best as possible in the endless and intricate labyrinths of this direction.

Legends and religion

What is mythology? These are narratives that have a close connection with the religious ideas of man. After all, both in those and in others there are ritual actions and appeals to the gods, to spirits and to miraculous phenomena. But unlike religious beliefs, in myths, supernatural forces play a secondary role. Appeal to them is necessary only to explain natural phenomena.

As for religious ideas, the supernatural was given the main role in them. At the same time, all ongoing processes are placed in complete dependence on the desire of the gods.

At a certain stage in the development of human society, religious consciousness occupied a dominant position. Myths, however, have become part of the belief system. In doing so, they receded into the background.

Thus, we can say that mythological consciousness is a certain stage in the development of human consciousness. And the path through it was passed by every nation.

ancient mythology

It includes those legends that told people about the gods and goddesses, heroes and demons of Rome and Hellas. The very word "antique" in translation from Latin means "ancient". And here you can include not only any Greek myth, but also Roman. Together they create a single community. That is why in some sources there is such a thing as "Greco-Roman mythology."

Already the most ancient monuments of Greek creativity indicate the predominance of concrete ideas over abstract ones among this people. At the same time, the quantitative ratio of humanoid gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines clearly outweighs the number of deities with abstract meaning.

About whom, as a rule, ancient myths were composed? These are heroes born from the marriages of gods with mortals. In the legends, such people were described as having great strength, as well as superhuman abilities, without endowing them with immortality. The heroes of mythology carried out the will of the deities on earth and brought justice and order into ordinary life. They performed various feats, for which they were revered by people. The most famous heroes of ancient Roman-Greek mythology are:

1. Heracles. Being the son of Zeus and Alimena, he possessed remarkable strength. During his life, he performed twelve feats, about which myths were composed.
2. Achilles. This son of the goddess of the seas, Thetis, and King Pepeus was brought up by the centaur Chiron. From the myths, we know about Achilles as a powerful young man who perfectly owns weapons, and is also familiar with singing and musical instruments. The legends, passed down from generation to generation, tell of his exploits during the Trojan War.
3. Perseus. This is the son of Zeus and Danae - the daughter of the king of Argos. Many myths tell of his miraculous deeds. Some of them are the destruction of the Gorgon Medusa, the salvation of the daughter of King Kefey - the beautiful Andromeda, whom he later married, and many others.
4. Odysseus. Myths tell us about this king of the island of Ithaca as a clever and cunning person. During their participation in the Trojan War, they were asked to build a wooden horse, in which the best warriors hid, and leave it near the walls of the besieged city. The trick worked. The Greeks took over Troy. And this is only one of the many exploits of Odysseus, about which ancient legends were composed.

Myths of China

The legends and tales of the people of this country had a special feature. The heroes of Chinese mythology were presented as real figures of ancient times. The main characters of the legends often turned into emperors and rulers, and minor characters - into officials, dignitaries, etc.

Totemic representations were of great importance in Chinese mythology. For example, among the Yin Ci tribes, the totem was a swallow, and among the Xia, a snake. Somewhat later, the bird gradually transformed into a fenghuang and became a symbol of the empress. The snake became a dragon (moon), which commanded water and rain, a thunderstorm, and was associated with underground forces. This totem became a symbol of the sovereign.

The most famous characters of Chinese myths:

Yeaxian is a group of eight immortal characters who bring good luck;

Rong-Cheng, who was a teacher and magician capable of achieving immortality, and who was credited with the invention of the calendar;

Hou Yi - the son of the supreme god, a wonderful shooter who received the elixir of immortality, and also subjugated the winds that devastated the country to his will;

Huangdi - this hero of huge growth with the face of a dragon, a solar horn, four eyes and four faces in Chinese mythology is the personification of the magical powers of the earth itself.

Tales of the Slavs

Many mythological texts created by this people in pagan times have not reached us. The reason for this was the lack of writing, as well as the decisive struggle that the Christian church waged against this belief. However, those mythological ideas that were characteristic of the Eastern Slavs were reflected in the work of some writers. The motives of folk tales are seen in the works of N.V. Gogol, A.S. Pushkin and others. Slavic mythology is also reflected in the poetry of S. Yesenin in a peculiar way. His poems describe the customs and traditions of folk beliefs, which are far from Orthodox canons.

In the unique work of ancient Russia, The Tale of Igor's Campaign, which has survived to this day, pagan symbols were combined with Christian ones. This legend mentions many gods: Veles and Stribog, Hars and Div, Karona and Zhelya, Troyan and Dazhbog. Considering the mythology in the Tale of Igor's Campaign, one can point to the presence of many other images. Among them are Christian (icon) and poetic (falcon, cuckoo, raven, swan), as well as unsolved (Virgin-resentment, Boyan, etc.).