From Ancient Greek Mythology we know that the symbol of Hyperborea was the Swan.

The sea deity Phorcys, the son of Gaia-Earth and the prototype of the Russian Sea King, married the Titanide Keto. Their six daughters were born in the Hyperborean region and were originally revered as beautiful Swan Maidens. But much later, for ideological reasons, they were turned into ugly monsters - grays and gorgons.

Apparently, even before the start of the migration of proto-Hellenic tribes to the South, some of them experienced a reorientation to new ideals and values. This was especially evident in the example of the most famous of the three gorgons - Medusa (Medusa). Like many other well-known names of mythological characters, Medusa is a nickname meaning “mistress”, “mistress”.

The daughter of the Sea King Phorcys, the beloved of the ruler of the sea element Poseidon, the beautiful-faced Swan Maiden Medusa ruled over the peoples of the northern lands and seas (as Hesiod put it, “near the final limits of the night”).
But under the conditions of prevailing matriarchal relations, Power did not get along with Wisdom: Athena became Medusa’s rival. The meager fragments of ancient legends allow us to restore only the general outline of the tragedy that unfolded.

Two warrior maidens did not share power over Hyperborea. The fight was fierce - not for life, but for death. The first act of destroying her rival was the transformation of the beautiful Swan Princess Medusa into a disgusting monster with boar fangs, snake hair and a look that turns all living things to stone.

But female vindictiveness knows no bounds. It was not enough for Athena to morally destroy Medusa - she also needed the head of her rival. That is why, some time later, she sends her half-brother Perseus back to Hyperborea and, according to many, she herself accompanies him.

By deception, Perseus and Athena together dealt with the unfortunate Medusa: at the instigation of Pallas, the son of Zeus and Danae cut off the gorgon’s head, and Athena tore off the skin from her rival and put it on her shield, in the center of which she placed an image of the head of the unfortunate Sea Maiden. Since then, Athena's shield has been called "Gorgonion". The face of Medusa also adorned the aegis (armor or cape) worn by Zeus, Apollo and the same Athena.

The unbridled cruelty of the Olympian Gods was unusually sophisticated, although it must have reflected the most common norms of behavior of that distant era.

After the canonization of the Olympians, the elements of bloodthirstiness seemed to be erased in the memory of subsequent generations. Athena's nickname, Pallas, is considered mellifluous and poetic. And few people remember that it was received on the battlefield, where the merciless Warrior Virgin flayed alive the skin of the giant Pallas (Pallant), for which Athena was given the seemingly so poetic epicles (nickname) - Pallas. Other Olympians also resorted to flesh-eating exercises. The punishment that Apollo inflicted on the Phrygian Marsyas, who decided to compete with the Sun God in playing the flute, is well known: his opponent was also flayed alive.

The symbol of the defeated Medusa continued to play a magical role for the Hellenes in subsequent centuries. Her images were very often placed on pediments and carved stone slabs in temples.

From the point of view of the archeology of meaning, the root basis of the name Medus is also of interest.
The word "honey" in the sense of a sweet food produced by bees from nectar, sounds the same in many Indo-European languages. Moreover, sonically similar words meaning “honey” are found in the Finno-Ugric, Chinese and Japanese languages. Perhaps it is permissible to talk about the totemic meaning of “honey” or “bee” for some pre-Indo-European ethnic community. (Concerning the names “metal”, “copper”, the whole range of concepts associated with the words “medicine”, “medium”, “meditation”, “meteorology”, “method”, etc., the names Medea and Midas, the people the Medes and the country of the Medes, as well as Mitania, then they are all interconnected with a common ancient root base “honey”.)

Thus, in the phrase Gorgon Medusa four Russian roots appear: “gor”, “gon”, “honey”, “us” (“uz”). Two of them evoke memories of the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, and the mountain essence of the gorgon leads to a possible reading (or interpretation): Gorynya, Gorynishna, although the Indo-European semantics of the root basis of “mountains” (“gar”) is polysemantic, and in the Russian language a whole a bunch of meanings: “burn”, “grief”, “bitter”, “proud”, “throat”, “city”, “hump”, etc.

The memory of the Gorgon Medus among the peoples who have inhabited the territory of Russia at all times has never been interrupted. The snake-legged Virgin Goddess, who, together with Hercules, was considered by the Greeks to be the ancestor of the Scythian tribe, is nothing more than a transformed image of Medusa.
The best proof of this is not the free transcription of myths in Herodotus’s “History”, but authentic images found during excavations of burial mounds.

Until recently, similar faces of snake-footed maidens in the form of traditional Russian Sirins were also found on the pediments and platbands of northern peasant huts. One of these carved images adorns the folk art department of the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg). Another image of Medusa has been preserved in Russian culture: in popular prints of the 18th century she appears as Melusa (Melusina) - literally “small” (see V. Dahl’s Dictionary): the vocalization of the word with the replacement of consonant sounds is made according to the type of folk rethinking of a foreign word "microscope" and its transformation in Russian dialects into "melkoskop".

Unambiguously associated with the sea in the popular worldview, the Russian Medusa-Melusa turned into a fabulous fish, without, however, losing either human or monstrous features: in popular prints she was depicted as a royal maiden with a crown on her head, and instead of snake-like hair she had legs and tail turned into snakes. There is practically nothing fishy in the very image of the Russian Melusa-Medusa - fish simply surround her, testifying to the marine environment.

It seems that the Russian pictorial version is much closer to the original pre-Hellenic archetype of the beautiful Sea Princess, who was transformed into a miracle Judo during the Olympic religious revolution.

The memory of the ancient Hellenic-Slavic Medusa was also preserved in medieval legends about the Virgin Gorgonia. According to Slavic legends, she knew the language of all animals. Later, in apocryphal manuscripts, the female image of the Gorgon turned into the “beast Gorgonia”: its functions largely remained the same: it guards the entrance to paradise (that is, in other words, it is the guardian of the passage to the Isles of the Blessed).

Medusa appears in a slightly different guise and with different functions in the famous ancient Russian “serpentine” amulets. The magical nature of Medusa’s head, depicted with snakes diverging from it in all directions, does not raise any doubt; its protective and protective purpose is the same as on the shield of Pallas Athena or the aegis of Zeus. (The cultural idiom “under the auspices”, which has survived to this day, essentially means “under the protection of the Gorgon Medusa.”) It is also significant that the secret esoteric meaning of pre-Hellenic and Hyperborean beliefs has survived on Russian amulets almost to the present day: precise dating even later finds are extremely difficult. In the Christian era, the ineradicable belief in the magical power and effectiveness of the face of Medusa was compensated by the fact that on the reverse side of the medallion with her image there were reliefs of Christian saints - the Mother of God, Michael the Archangel, Kozma and Demyan, etc.

Until now, no satisfactory explanation has been given for the origin and purpose of Russian “serpentines”. The modern reader knows practically nothing about them: in the last half century - with a few exceptions - a reproduction of the same medallion has been published, although the most famous one - which once belonged to Grand Duke Vladimir Monomakh, which he lost while hunting and was found by chance only in the last century . In fact, many “serpentines” (including those of Byzantine origin) are known, described and published44. And from each of them the magical gaze of the Guardian Virgin Gorgon Medusa, who is a taboo totem, looks at us.

The image of the Swan Maiden Gorgon Medusa reveals the most typical features of totemic symbolism - a legacy of the almost unattainable depths of human prehistory, preserved to this day in accordance with the unwritten laws of the transmission of traditions and beliefs from generation to generation.

SWAN - the land of the ancient Russians.

Hyperborean times are irrevocably a thing of the past; however, the symbols they gave birth to are alive. Among them is the swan, one of the birds most revered by the Russian people.

Together with the falcon, he almost became the personification of Rus'. And not only by personification. According to the testimony of the 10th-century Byzantine historian Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the very territory where the ancient Russians lived was called Lebedia. Subsequently, this gave Velimir Khlebnikov the right to call the new Russia “Swan of the Future.”

In the same way, the Slavic-Scythians, described by Herodotus, were called “kolots”, that is, “s[o]kolata” - from the Russian word “falcon”. In the transmission of Arab geographers, who described our ancestors long before the introduction of Christianity, their self-name sounded almost like Herodotus: “sakaliba” (“falcons”). Hence the famous “Sakis” - one of the names of the Slavic-Scythians - “wanderers” - nomads.

Why exactly the swan and why the falcon - two such different birds, in constant struggle with each other? The falcon attacks, pursues; the swan is saved, defended. But is it always like this? Not at all! In Pushkin’s “The Tale of Tsar Saltan,” which is entirely based on images and plots of Russian folklore, the Swan bird finishes off and drowns the villainous kite. In folk symbolism, the kite is a hypostasis of the falcon, and all birds of prey are one in essence.

In “Zadonshchina” - the Word of Zephanius the Ryazan falcons, gyrfalcons, and hawks collectively personify the warriors of Dmitry Donskoy and are listed separated by commas: “Already those falcons and gyrfalcons, the Belozersk hawks of the greyhound flew over the Don and hit many herds of geese and swans” (and just before there were also eagles). Then Alexander Blok will repeat this: “Over the enemy’s camp, as it used to be, // And the splashing and trumpets of swans.” The swan is also in many ways a collective symbol. In Russian folklore, the undivided image of “geese and swans” is generally considered the norm. In "Zadonshchina" they were imposed on Mamaev's Horde. Historically, this is quite understandable: similar poultry and animal symbolism is common among different peoples.

Where did she come from? Like other “eternal images,” the Russian swan and the Russian falcon are a legacy of those ancient beliefs and customs of human prehistory, when humanity itself, its proto-language and proto-culture were undivided, and instead of the modern palette of peoples, the world of totems, totemic thinking and totemic attachments reigned.

In those distant times, people did not separate themselves from nature; they saw animals and plants as their own kind - protectors and allies.

Myths and Legends * Dragons * Miracle Yudo

Miracle Yudo

Miracle Yudo of Slavic folk tales - a terrible dragon,
many-headed, powerful. And huge

In a kingdom where everything is quiet and orderly,
Where there are no wars, no disasters, no storms,
A huge wild beast appeared -
Either a buffalo, or a bull, or a tour...

And the king immediately issued three decrees:
The beast must be finally overcome, he says...

If you win tomorrow miracle,
Then you will lead the princess down the aisle...

I would like to roll out a tub of porwine.
But I don’t even need a princess for nothing,
Miraculously, I will win...

He put Chudu-Yuda down and ran away...

Vladimir Vysotsky - "Miracle Yudo"

Wikipedia

Miracle Yudo- a character in Russian folk epics and fairy tales, Slavic heroic epic and, possibly, pre-Slavic mythology (according to a number of authors, it is a kind of nomadic plot from earlier, pre-Slavic beliefs). Initially, it did not have a clearly expressed negative role in the narratives. The character's gender also changed over time: from female to male, and to neuter, respectively. To date, there has been no consensus on the origin of the character in the works of ethnographers and cultural scientists. The nature of the character in the narratives that have survived to this day often resembles the sea monsters of ancient mythology.

Etymology and versions of the origin of the character

A number of unlikely etymologies have been proposed in 19th-century literature. Thus, the Complete Church Slavonic Dictionary, edited by G. M. Dyachenko, compares Yudo with Sanskrit (Sanskrit jadas), which means a sea animal in general, especially “wordless.” Also, miracle-yudo is used in the meaning of “marvel of the sea.” According to “Materials for comparison. words" edited by A. S. Khomyakov, miracle-yudo is the name of the mythical serpent (dragon), derived from the words miracle, which in the old days meant a giant, and it is known that in the ancient era of the development of religious and poetic views of nature, all its mighty forces (whirlwinds, storms and thunderstorms) were personified in the titanic images of giants.

Miracle Yudo of Slavic folk tales -
the dragon is terrible, many-headed, powerful

The legends about snakes and giants are in the closest and closest relationship, and, according to folk tales, the sea king takes on the form of a serpent; And Yudo from the name Judas, which even in the period of early Christianity began to be attributed to the unclean and other demonic creatures.
Historian and publicist, Doctor of Historical Sciences Yu. N. Afanasyev, notes that in one version of the folk tale about the Sea King and his daughter’s belongings, the Sea King is directly named Ocean-Sea; in other lists, his role is transferred to the snake, the devil and the lawless Miracle-Yud. This Slavic Neptune is mentioned in other fairy tales. As the bringer of dark clouds, which darken the heavenly light and often harm the ripening harvests, from ancient times he combined in his character, along with beneficial properties, the traits of a demonic being; the same dual character was adopted by the Sea King, who (as has already been proven) was originally a raining thunderer. That is why it is so common in folk tales to replace the Sea King with the devil. As an example, Afanasyev cites a German fairy tale, published in Galtrich’s collection, in which the pekel prince, identical with our Sea King, retains all the attributes of the ancient deity of thunderstorms: he has a wonderful scourge (= lightning), the blows of which make the whole kingdom shake and call forth an innumerable army; he rushes to the milk pond and, having drunk on the boiling milk (= rain), bursts with a terrible crash and dies - just as a cloud broken by thunder and poured by rain disappears. The name Miracle-Yudo, according to Afanasyev, confirms the same idea: it is mostly given to the mythical serpent (cloud dragon).
A. A. Abrashkin claims that Miracle Yudo is an echo of the Khazar influence on Slavic culture - it was in his image, according to Abrashkin, that Slavic ideas about Judaism were expressed. The word “miracle” was sometimes used in the meaning of “monster”, “giant”, and acquaintance with the Jewish Khazaria gave rise to the association Yudo - Judas. , when the Khazar Khaganate exacted tribute from the Slavic tribes. According to the list of the "Tale of Bygone Years" according to the Radziwill Chronicle - "by the white maiden from the smoke." It is for this reason that the Khazar Kaganate could remain in the people’s memory as a many-headed monster - the miracle Yud, demanding sacrifices of Slavic girls.
Demonologist L. N. Vinogradova, based on the study of Slavic songs, comes to the conclusion that the miracle-yudo is some kind of implicitly outlined mythological character, or the result of confusion with a mermaid (or with a more generalized image of a harmful force) - one way or another, song characteristics allow us to note the features of “otherworldliness”, the dangers of the character and the motives for his exile.
According to I. Zakharenko, in Russian folk epics and legends, the Yudo miracle goes back to the Poganous Idol, with whom Russian heroes fight.
Following the pseudoscientific theory proposed by V.N. Demin, the miracle-yudo is a Russified image of the ancient Greek Medusa Gorgon. There is practically nothing fishy in the very image of the Russian Medusa - fish simply surround her, testifying to the marine environment. This version of the origin seems to Demin to be much closer to that original pre-Hellenic archetype of the beautiful Sea Princess, who in a process called by Demin the “Olympic Religious Revolution” was turned into a miracle-judo. The memory of the ancient Hellenic-Slavic Medusa was also preserved in medieval legends about the Virgin Gorgonia. According to Slavic legends, she knew the language of all animals. Later, in apocryphal manuscripts, the female image of the Gorgon turned into the “beast Gorgonia”: its functions largely remained the same: it guards the entrance to paradise (that is, in other words, it is the guardian of the passage to the Isles of the Blessed).
M. Vasmer considers it most likely that yudo is “just a rhymed formation modeled on the word miracle,” and is unlikely to be related to the Bulgarian yuda. At the same time, the Bulgarian word yuda (an evil mythical female creature, lives in the mountains, near lakes, flies like a whirlwind through the air) source not specified 258 days and the Ukrainian yuda (a kind of evil spirit) are recognized, according to O. N. Trubachev, as related (proto-Slavic form * juda) with Sanskrit yodha and going back to Proto-Indo-European *?oudh-.
Academician B. A. Rybakov notes that the miracle of Yudo is the deepest archaism of ancient Slavic mythology.

Modern usage

According to Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language, in modern Russian, miracle-yudo is used in the meaning of a fairy-tale monster, as well as in the meaning of a miracle, as something amazing, inexplicable, surprising with its extraordinaryness (in an ironic form).
According to the linguistic and cultural dictionary of Irina Zakharenko and Irina Brileva, Russians can remember miracle-yudo and use this expression when talking about someone or something unusual, strange, some kind of miracle or an unusually huge fish.

In epics and legends

According to B. A. Rybakov, in Slavic legends the monster is always multi-headed. Fairy tales often mention trunks, and call the Snake himself “trunky.” “The serpent has twelve heads and twelve trunks; stomping his feet... grinding his teeth.” Miracle Yudo does not bite or claw his opponents, but “drives them into the ground” or hits them with his trunk (“burned with his trunk”). He himself is killed (in addition to the standard fairy tale sword) with arrows, spears and hot stones, which the hero’s assistants throw into his mouth; often the hero rips open the belly of the monster. After defeating the Serpent, his carcass is burned at the stake.

In Russian folk tales

“Here they enter a clearing straight to the ocean-sea; across it lies the Miracle-Yudo Fish-Whale.” Illustration by Nikolai Kochergin for the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” by Pyotr Ershov.

Ershov - Miracle Yudo fish-whale

In the Russian folk tale “Ivan the Peasant Son and Miracle-Yudo”, Miracle-Yudo is a group of multi-headed (6, 9, 12) dragons, negative characters. They live across the Smorodina River, across which they cross along the Kalinov Bridge. In the fairy tale, Miracle Yudo is depicted riding a horse. The harm from it lies in the fact that it burns towns and villages with fire. The 12-headed Miracle Yudo has a fiery finger that allows him to regenerate chopped off heads. Miracle Yudo lives in stone chambers, where Miracle Yudo has witch wives and a snake mother. The main opponent of the miracle-yuda, as the title of the tale suggests, is Ivan, a peasant son.

In modern fairy tales

In the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” by Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov from 1834, the miracle Yudo Whale Fish, which lies “across the sea,” is present as an independent character.
In the film “Barbara the Beauty, Long Braid”, based on the fairy tale by Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky “The Tale of Tsar Berendey, the good Tsar Eremey and the evil Miracle-Yuda, about the love of Varvara the Beauty for the fisherman’s son Andrey”, Miracle-Yudo is the Tsar the underwater world, which kidnapped the king of the earth - Eremey. Andrei, the fisherman's son, helps out Tsar Eremey, based on a folk tale.

Miracle Yudo Slavic folk tales - a terrible, multi-headed, powerful dragon. And huge. “In general, the word “miracle,” writes researcher and expert on Russian folklore A.N. Afanasyev in the book “Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature,” in the old days meant a giant,” and refers us to the dictionary of the Church Slavonic language.
The name “Yudo”, as many scientists believe, goes back to the ancient Indian word “yadas” - a water animal. Indeed, Miracle Yudo is associated with the water element. Miracle Yudo always appears from the water. This is how it is described in one fairy tale: “The duck quacked, the shores clinked, the sea shook - Miracle Yudo, a six-headed snake, climbs.” He owns two magical springs: if you drink from one, you will become a mighty hero, and from the other, you will have golden hair.

Another folk tale describes a meeting on the Kalinov Bridge, which spans the Smorodina River, between Miracle Yuda and the Russian hero Ivan Bykovich, the son of a cow.
“Suddenly the waters on the river became agitated, the eagles screamed in the oak trees - the six-headed Miracle Yudo was leaving. They came together, drew level, and hit each other so fiercely that the earth around them groaned. Miracle Yud was not lucky: Ivan Bykovich knocked off three of his heads with one swing. They came together again, they hit each other again; Ivan Bykovich cut off Miracle Yuda and the last heads, took the body, cut it into small pieces and threw it into the Smorodina River, and put six heads under the Kalinovy ​​Bridge.”
The next day, the ten-headed Miracle Yudo came out to fight Ivan Bykovich. Here the hero had a more difficult time.
“As the hero swung his sharp sword twice, he cut off six heads from the evil spirits; and Miracle Yudo hit him - he drove the earth up to his knees into the cheese. Ivan Bykovich grabbed a handful of earth and threw it right into his opponent’s eyes. While Miracle Yudo was wiping his eyes, the hero cut off the rest of his heads too.”... So Ivan Bykovich defeated the ten-headed monster. But this is not the end of the battle. The next morning...
“The twelve-headed Miracle Yudo is leaving; his horse has twelve wings, the horse’s fur is silver, its tail and mane are golden.
- Oh, are you here? Why did you come?
- Look at you, evil spirit, try your strength!
- Why should you try my fortress? You are a fly in front of me! Ivan Bykovich answers:
“I didn’t come with you to tell fairy tales, but to fight to the death!”
He swung his sharp sword and cut off three heads of Miracle Yuda. Miracle Yudo picked up these heads, traced them with his fiery finger - and immediately all the heads grew back as if they had never fallen from their shoulders.”
And no matter how much Ivan Bykovich chopped off heads, they all magically grew back. The hero had a very bad time. But here...

I will fight you to the death, from you, damned one,
deliver good people!

“Ivan Bykovich got the hang of it and cut off Miracle Yuda’s fiery finger. After that, let’s chop off his heads, knocked off every single one of them, tore his body into small pieces and threw everything into the Smorodina River.”
This is the end of the many-headed Miracles.
There are other creatures with a similar name in Slavic fairy tales. Everyone, of course, knows the sea monster Miracle Yudo the fish-whale. It was created on the basis of traditions and legends about underwater giants by Pyotr Ershov and settled in his “Humpbacked Horse”.

General information:

Apparently, even before the start of the migration of proto-Hellenic tribes to the South, some of them experienced a reorientation to new ideals and values. This was especially evident in the example of the most famous of the three gorgons - Medusa (Medusa). Like many other well-known names of mythological characters, Medusa is a nickname meaning “mistress”, “mistress”. The daughter of the Sea King Phorcys, the beloved of the ruler of the sea element Poseidon, the beautiful-faced Swan Maiden Medusa ruled over the peoples of the northern lands and seas (as Hesiod put it, “near the final limits of the night”). But Power did not get along with Wisdom: Athena became Medusa’s rival. The meager fragments of ancient legends allow us to restore only the general outline of the tragedy that unfolded. Two warrior maidens did not share power over Hyperborea. The fight was fierce - not for life, but for death. The first act of destroying her rival was the transformation of the beautiful Swan Princess Medusa into a disgusting monster with boar fangs, snake hair and a look that turns all living things into stone. But female vengeance knows no bounds. It was not enough for Athena to morally destroy Medusa - she also needed the head of her rival. That is why, some time later, she sends her half-brother Perseus back to Hyperborea and, according to many, she herself accompanies him. By deception, Perseus and Athena together dealt with the unfortunate Medusa: at the instigation of Pallas, the son of Zeus and Danae cut off the gorgon’s head, and Athena tore off the skin from her rival and put it on her shield, in the center of which she placed an image of the head of the unfortunate Sea Maiden. Since then, Athena's shield has been called "Gorgonion".

The memory of the Gorgon Medus among the peoples who have inhabited the territory of Russia at all times has never been interrupted. The snake-legged Virgin Goddess, who, together with Hercules, was considered by the Greeks to be the ancestor of the Scythian tribe, is nothing more than a transformed image of Medusa. The best proof of this is not the free transcription of myths in Herodotus’s “History”, but authentic images found during excavations of burial mounds.

Until recently, similar faces of snake-footed maidens in the form of traditional Russian Sirins were also found on the pediments and platbands of northern peasant huts. One of these carved images adorns the folk art department of the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg).

Another image of Medusa has been preserved in Russian culture: in popular prints of the 18th century she appears as Melusa (Melusina) - literally “small” (see V. Dahl’s Dictionary): the vocalization of the word with the replacement of consonant sounds is made according to the type of folk rethinking of the foreign word “microscope” " and turning it in Russian dialects into a "melkoskop". Unambiguously associated with the sea in the popular worldview, the Russian Medusa-Melusa turned into a fabulous fish, without, however, losing either human or monstrous features: in popular prints she was depicted as a royal maiden with a crown on her head, and instead of snake-like hair she had legs and tail turned into snakes. There is practically nothing fishy in the very image of the Russian Melusa-Medusa - fish simply surround her, testifying to the marine environment. It seems that the Russian pictorial version is much closer to the original pre-Hellenic archetype of the beautiful Sea Princess, who was transformed into a miracle Judo during the Olympic religious revolution. The memory of the ancient Hellenic-Slavic Medusa was also preserved in medieval legends about the Virgin Gorgonia. According to Slavic legends, she knew the language of all animals. Later, in apocryphal manuscripts, the female image of the Gorgon turned into the “beast Gorgonia”: its functions largely remained the same: it guards the entrance to paradise (that is, in other words, it is the guardian of the passage to the Isles of the Blessed).

Medusa appears in a slightly different guise and with different functions in the famous ancient Russian “serpentine” amulets. The magical nature of Medusa’s head, depicted with snakes diverging from it in all directions, does not raise any doubt; its protective and protective purpose is the same as on the shield of Pallas Athena or the aegis of Zeus. (The cultural idiom “under the auspices”, which has survived to this day, essentially means “under the protection of the Gorgon Medusa.”) It is also significant that the secret esoteric meaning of pre-Hellenic and Hyperborean beliefs has survived on Russian amulets almost to the present day: precise dating even later finds are extremely difficult. In the Christian era, the ineradicable belief in the magical power and effectiveness of the face of Medusa was compensated by the fact that on the reverse side of the medallion with her image there were reliefs of Christian saints - the Mother of God, Michael the Archangel, Kozma and Demyan, etc.

Until now, no satisfactory explanation has been given for the origin and purpose of Russian “serpentines”. The modern reader knows practically nothing about them: in the last half century - with a few exceptions - a reproduction of the same medallion has been published, although the most famous one - which once belonged to Grand Duke Vladimir Monomakh, which he lost while hunting and was found by chance only in the last century . In fact, many “serpentines” (including those of Byzantine origin) are known, described and published. And from each of them the magical gaze of the Guardian Virgin Gorgon Medusa, who is a taboo totem, looks at us.

“Instead of hair, the gorgon has moving snakes, the whole body is covered with shiny scales. The gorgon has copper hands with sharp steel claws, wings with sparkling golden plumage. From the gaze of the gorgon, all living things turn into stone,” this is how the ancient Greek poet Hesiod (c. 700 BC) describes the gorgon in the poem “Theogony” (“The Origin of the Gods”). Indeed, her appearance was terrible, and the word “gorgos” translated means “terrible, formidable.”

The Gorgon Medusa was the daughter of the sea deities Phorcys and Keto, and the granddaughter of Gaia, identified with the earth, and Pontus, identified with the sea. But she was not born as a terrible monster, but as a beautiful sea maiden. So attractive that the earth shaker Poseidon decided to lie down with her. But he chose a not entirely successful place for this - the temple of Athena. The virgin warrior was beside herself, and not only did she turn the beauty into a winged monster, she also endowed her with the terrifying power of turning all living things into stone with her gaze.

Poor Medusa, whose name translates as “patron, guardian,” was forced to hide her ugly appearance from everyone, and moved “to the ends of the earth,” to a lost, remote island. Years passed, but Athena still could not calm down, until finally the hero Perseus, the son of Zeus and Danae, appeared, accidentally dropping a promise to bring the head of Medusa. Athena accompanied him to this feat, warning him not to look at Medusa, but only at her reflection, and gave him a shield polished to a shine for this purpose. Hermes also helped Perseus, giving him a sickle that could be used to cut off Medusa’s head. Then Perseus obtained winged sandals, a black invisibility cap and a magic bag to store the victim's severed head. Thus equipped, Perseus flew to the country of the Hyperboreans, where among the petrified sculptures of people and animals he saw a sleeping gorgon. Looking into the mirror shield at the reflection of Medusa, Perseus with one wave of his hand, guided by Athena, cut off the head of the unfortunate maiden with a sickle.

Blood flowed and

The horse Pegasus emerged from it and Chrysaor the Great.

The name Pegasus is because he was born at the ocean springs,

The name Chrysaor is because he was born with a golden sword.

Hesiod "Works and Days"

These were the children of Poseidon and Medusa, conceived in the temple of Athena. Perseus put Medusa's head in a bag, put on a hat that made him invisible and flew south. Ancient myths say that when Perseus flew over the sea, red corals called gorgonians grew in the place where drops of the Gorgon’s blood fell into the water. According to the legends of ancient Greece, red corals were used as an amulet that protected against the “evil eye,” poisoning, and even gout. The earth gave birth to snakes from the blood of Medusa:

In sultry Libya, the winner soared just above the desert,

Drops of blood fell from the gorgon’s head at that moment,

The Earth received them and the serpents conceived heterogeneous

Ovid "Metamorphoses"

The blood of the Gorgon Medusa, which has destructive and life-giving properties, was collected by Athena in two vessels and presented to the famous healer Asclepius, who was worshiped as the founder of medicine. Asclepius, using the blood of Medusa taken from the left side of the body, could revive people, and with blood taken from the right side of the body, he could instantly kill. It is interesting that Asclepius is always depicted with a staff entwined with a snake - a product of the blood of the Gorgon Medusa. The ancient Greek traveler and writer Pausanias (2nd century AD) mentions that several tamed snakes lived in the temple of Asclepius in Epidaurus. And the image of a snake entwining a bowl appeared in the 16th century thanks to the famous physician Paracelsus (1493-1541), and today has become a symbol of medicine.

The head of Medusa retained even after death the ability to turn all living things into stone. And when the conqueror of Medusa landed next to the palace of the titan Atlas, who did not show the hero hospitality, Perseus turned it into a mountain, showing the head of the Gorgon. Soon, the severed head of Medusa was given to Athena, and she attached it to her legendary shield - the aegis - which received the epithet “Gorgoneon”, and Athena herself began to be called Gorgopa - a goddess with a terrible look, Perseus married Andromeda, who he saved, who bore him a daughter. The baby was given the name Gorgophon - killer of the Gorgon. It must be said that the names Gorgias, Gorgonius and Gorgodian were common not only in Ancient Greece, but also survived until Christian times. There is an echo of the ancient legend in the name of the lake in Megarid - Gorgopida, and in the ancient name of the city of Anapa - Gorgippia. In the Middle Ages, stone images of strange fantastic creatures called “gargoyles” appeared on the walls of castles, temples and cathedrals.

It was believed that in case of danger, the statues came to life and dealt with the enemy. And the fantasy genre has turned gargoyles into winged creatures that can turn to stone, and in this state they heal all wounds extremely quickly.

Z MEI GORYNYCH is the son of a thundercloud, a heavenly mountain. A flying multi-headed monster with a long tail and membranous wings (if the hero cuts off one head, another grows). Gorynych can have 3, 6, 9, or 12 heads. His body is snake-like, on four legs and covered with a strong shell. It spews smoke from its nostrils and ears, and flames from its mouth (clouds swirl and lightning flashes). Serves under Kashchei the Immortal. Kidnaps young beautiful girls or takes tribute from the population from the girls. He takes them to his hole-cave in the mountain, where he keeps his wealth. He has the ability of a werewolf - he can, for example, take on the appearance of a young handsome youth, a horse or some attractive thing. To do this, he hits the ground.

“...Suddenly the sky darkened, but there were no clouds in the sky, and there was no rain, but thunder rumbled, and there was no thunderstorm, but the fire was shining...

Dobrynya raised his head and saw that the Serpent Gorynych was flying towards him, a terrible serpent with three heads and seven tails, flames blazing from his nostrils, smoke pouring out of his ears, copper claws on his paws shining.”

From the epic

The images of the Serpent existing in legends - the Serpent Tugarin, living in the hollow of Zmiulan, are similar to the image of the Serpent Gorynych.

Serpent Gorynych is a multi-headed fire-breathing dragon, a representative of the evil principle in Russian folk tales and epics. In foreign language legends it is found as zmok, smok or tsmok.
The many-headed nature of a snake is its indispensable feature. Most often the snake appears as three-headed.
In most cases, the kite has the ability to fly, but, as a rule, nothing is said about its wings. Thus, in the entire Afanasyev collection of Russian folk tales, “fiery wings” are reported only once (the fairy tale “Frolka-seat”).

The body of a snake is not described in fairy tales, however, in popular prints depicting a snake, the favorite details are a long arrow tail and clawed paws.
Another important feature of the snake is its fiery nature, however, how exactly the fire erupts is not described in fairy tales. The snake carries fire within itself and spews it out when attacked.
In addition to the fire element, the serpent is also associated with the water element, and these two elements are not mutually exclusive. In some tales he lives in the water, sleeping on a stone in the sea. At the same time, the serpent is also the Serpent Gorynych. The word "Gorynych" probably comes from the word "mountains", since the Serpent Gorynych often lives in the mountains and caves. However, such a location does not prevent him from being a sea monster. In some fairy tales he lives in the mountains, but when the hero approaches him, he comes out of the water.

The serpent Gorynych kidnapped Zabava Putyatishna, the niece of the Kyiv prince, and Dobrynya Nikitich freed her.

Dragon

Summary of the myth

Serpent-Gorynych - personifies evil in folk tales and epics of the Slavs. In different legends, the description of the Serpent differs, which is why it is very difficult to create an accurate portrait of this character. But it is generally accepted that the Serpent-Gorynych is a talking dragon-like creature, with three heads, a tail and copper claws, with the ability to breathe fire, while releasing smoke from its ears. The Serpent can have from 3 to 12 heads, and from 1 to 7 tails, depending on the source. The Serpent moves through the air, but fairy tales are silent about the presence of wings. In the minds of modern man, the Serpent is identical to a winged dragon with three heads.

Gorynych can be either a product of the water element or the fire element, therefore, in the first case, he prefers mountains as his habitat, namely the “Sorochinsky Mountains”, in the second he can live at the bottom of the sea, river or lake. In most cases, Gorynych lives in a cave, but dens are also possible. His habitat is necessarily lifeless, where grass does not grow, birds do not sing, or, on the contrary, these are chambers sparkling with gold and silver.

In some epics, the Serpent-Gorynych acts as a guard of the Kalinov Bridge, which is thrown over the Smorodina River, dividing reality and nav (the world of the living and the world of the dead). But Gorynych found his main calling in burning Russian crops and villages. From time to time he kidnaps beautiful maidens from the common people, or from a princely family, in order to eat them, but more often the kidnapping is an end in itself. In fairy tales, the Serpent holds a great many captives, among them kings, courtiers, warriors and ordinary people. Accordingly, the Serpent is the sworn enemy of the Russian heroes, who strive to defeat him, in one case in order to restore justice, in another, to free captives. Sometimes fairy tales tell about Gorynych’s friendship with other folklore characters - Baba Yaga, Koshchei the Immortal and other evil spirits.

Lack of wind, cloudy weather, thunder and lightning - these are the first signs of the appearance of the Serpent somewhere nearby. When it comes to fighting with heroes, his main weapon is fire, which he spews from his mouth, but he still dies at the hand of the hero. To kill the Serpent, the hero has to hit him in the heart, or cut off all his heads. Zmey-Gorynych is such a negative character that even “Mother Cheese Earth” does not immediately want to absorb the black blood flowing from his wounds.

Images and symbols of myth

The image of the Serpent-Gorynych can be viewed from at least two sides. On the one hand, this is an image that absorbed all the troubles that happened in Rus', including the nomads, and was embodied in the form of some kind of mythical creature. On the other hand, this is a fairy-tale character, a kind of evil opposed to good.

Considering the fact that the Serpent-Gorynych begins his story under paganism and is a character in oral folklore, it is necessary to take into account the difference in the perception of symbols among the pagan Slavs and the Christian Slavs.

Serpent (analogue of dragon) - in this case can be considered as an ancient Slavic name or as the name of an animal, which later became used as a name; such conclusions allow us to draw the patronymic of this creature “Gorynych”.

With a pagan perception of the world in ancient times, the northern Slavs worshiped the snake as a god, and even made sacrifices to it (including human ones), while the southern Slavs considered the snake an atmospheric demon.

In Christianity, the serpent is a symbol of the fall of man, evil, and cunning. Do not forget that a snake, like a dragon, is one of the forms of the Devil incarnate. And in this case, Gorynych becomes a symbol of absolute evil. The dragon also symbolizes the apocalypse.

Patronymic - Gorynya (Slavic name) - mountain-like, huge, indestructible. This symbol shows us the power of the creature, its large size. “Gorynych” can also mean that he lives in the mountains.

The snake always harmed people, burned pastures and even entire villages. On the land subject to the Serpent-Gorynych, kings pay tribute. Here Gorynych acts as a symbol of the enemy invader.

Many heads - symbolizes the many faces of evil, its abundance.

Kidnapping symbolizes the capture of Russian people into slavery.

Gorynych’s lair - the serpent’s lair is located in the “Sorochinsky Mountains”, these mythical mountains are located outside the territory of Rus'. The lair acts as a symbol of another state, from which the troubles of the Russians originate, and where the captives are taken.

The battle of the hero with the Serpent is a struggle between good and evil, symbolizing the opposition provided to the enemy army.

The death of the Snake is the inevitable victory of good over evil, of the Russians over the invaders.

Communicative means of creating images and symbols

Tales about the Serpent-Gorynych have been passed down from mouth to mouth for centuries, from grandfathers to grandchildren, and this is how we got to know this character. We heard about him in fairy tales, and a little later we watched him on TV, as a hero in cartoons and fairy tales. And now it would be simply impossible to imagine Russian folklore without this character.

In painting you can see the image of the Serpent-Gorynych in the following paintings: Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov: “Fight of Dobrynya Nikitich with the seven-headed Serpent-Gorynych” (1913-1918), Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin: “Fight of Dobrynya with the Serpent”, Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin: “Dobrynya Nikitich frees Zabava Putyatichna from the Serpent-Gorynych" (1941), Artist Moskvitin Stanislav: "Dobrynya Nikitich" (2002)

In cinema, the image of a snake is also quite common. In these famous films you can see the snake: Vasilisa the Beautiful. Fairy tale film by Alexander Rowe 1939, Ilya Muromets. The film is a fairy tale by Alexander Ptushko, 1956, Fire, water and... copper pipes. Fairy tale film by Alexander Rowe 1968, There, on unknown paths... Fairy tale film by Mikhail Yuzovsky 1982

The character of the Serpent-Gorynych is mentioned in literature in many works: in the folk epic “About Dobrynya Nikitich and the Serpent-Gorynych”, in the fairy tale by V.M. Shukshin “Until the third roosters”, in the story of the Strugatsky brothers “Monday begins on Saturday”, in the poetic fairy tale “The Serpent-Gorynych” by Dmitry Polovnev.

From early childhood, we all knew who the Serpent-Gorynych was, thanks to the huge number of cartoons about him. For example, “Dobrynya Nikitich and Zmey-Gorynych.” According to the plot of this cartoon, Zmey-Gorynych is an old friend of Dobrynya Nikitich and does not know how to fly (he will learn to fly only at the end of the cartoon). It is not known exactly how they met: Dobrynya says that he bought him from a merchant, and Gorynych says that he saved Dobrynya from captivity. But, most likely, Gorynych’s story is a fiction, because... in it he has large wings, while in the main story he has small ones. A computer game was created based on the cartoon. Or even Soviet cartoons, such as “Ivashka from the Palace of Pioneers.” According to the plot of this cartoon, the Serpent-Gorynych is Baba Yaga’s guest and must rescue her from the captivity of the pioneer Ivan, but Ivan defeats him with the help of a fire extinguisher. Another favorite children's cartoon is “Baba Yaga Vs!”. According to the plot, the young Serpent-Gorynych is Baba Yaga’s pet and assistant. The list goes on and on.

Here are the most famous cartoon stories about the Serpent-Gorynych.

• "Between" The oppressors of the village residents are the Serpent-Gorynych and the greedy king. Both villains are defeated by the cunning of the soldier Kuzma (who for some reason calls the Snake “Gavrilych”).
• "Wait for it!" (issue 16). In a dream, a wolf finds himself in a magical land, where heroes of various fairy tales live outside of time and plot. The Serpent-Gorynych guards the fairy-tale castle. (In this film, director Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin and artist Svetozar Rusakov reused the image stated in the film “Mezha”.)
• "Key". Four (instead of the traditional three) different heads of the Serpent-Gorynych are a parody of formalist bureaucrats.
• "Epic about Dobrynya Nikitich." The puppet cartoon is based on a Russian folk epic. The hero Dobrynya goes to the mountains, where he kills the Snake-Gorynych.
• "Dreamers from the village of Ugory." The Serpent-Gorynych appears in the fantasies of the main characters as an ally of the enemies: Baba Yaga and Koshchei the Immortal.
• "Alyonushka and the Soldier." The three heads of the Snake are multi-colored (green, blue, yellow) and have different characters. First, the soldier turns them against each other, and then by cunning he forces Gorynych to turn into a birch block and throws him into the oven, from where the small and harmless Gorynych appears.
• "Three heroes and the Shamakhan queen." -Here he is also a friend of Dobrynya Nikitich. Here he already flies well. Came to China. There it was considered a Chinese dragon. When Dobrynya came to China, he met Gorynych and offered to fly on him to Kyiv to defeat the queen.

Social significance of the myth

Until recently, they always tried to show the Snake-Gorynych as a collective image of evil, which must be fought and, accordingly, defeated, because in fairy tales good always defeats evil. For the dragon, as an exclusively negative character, death, and for the hero laurels. But modernity offers us an alternative option.

Currently, the Serpent-Gorynych is, first of all, a character created for children. There is practically nothing left of that evil killer and kidnapper whom we saw in Slavic mythology. The serpent does evil things only because he does not know how to act correctly. He is like a baby who knows nothing about the categories of good and evil. Gorynych, like many other evil characters of folklore, becomes the antipode of his original self. For example, in the 2006 cartoon “Dobrynya Nikitich and the Serpent-Gorynych,” Gorynych plays the role of a good-natured klutz, an old friend of Dobrynya Nikitich. An image is created of a faithful comrade in arms, a friend of the hero, and therefore a friend of the child. The victory of good over evil can be considered double, when the monster is transformed into an exclusively benevolent creature.

The Slavic pantheon is very rich, and only recently has modern Russian cinema begun to comprehend the huge layer of that culture. From fairy tales, most of us remember the main representatives of the mythological heritage of our ancestors - but who knows who Baba Yaga, familiar from childhood, really was and who Tugarin the Serpent personified?

Everyone probably remembers well the fairy tale about Ilya-Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber. This character of East Slavic philosophy has a very specific ancestor: in one of the popular prints, a typical Polish nobleman is depicted in the form of a robber. This is how the Russian people interpreted the period of clashes with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Unlike many other magical creatures, the Nightingale the Robber has both a strong courtyard and a tower where his family lives.

Dashingly one-eyed

Failure was personified among many Slavic peoples. In Rus', the character Dashing One-Eyed became the embodiment of evil fate: he appeared (“pursued”) next to a person who then began to be overcome by failure. In the chronicles, Likho was depicted as a one-eyed cannibal giantess.

Dragon

This is almost the main embodiment of evil in Russian mythology. The Serpent Gorynych was depicted with several (most often three) heads, could fly and usually lived near a certain “Kalinov Bridge”, along which the souls of the deceased crossed into the kingdom of the dead, that is, he can be compared with the Greek Cerberus, who also protected the other world from invasion from outside.

Miracle Yudo

The miracle of Yudo was left to the Slavs from even more ancient, pre-Slavic mythology. Modern researchers associate Miracle Yudo with sea animals from the ancient epic. The famous historian Vladimir Demin even proposes to correlate our native Miracle Judo with the ancient Greek Medusa Gorgon. All together, the archetypal image of Leviathan from the Old Testament may be common to many peoples.

Idolishche Poganoe

Most likely, in the form of the Pogany Idol, the Russian people depicted a hostile Tatar force - it is characterized as “unbaptized”, “ungodly”, “a hasty idol”. In one of the epics, Ilya Muromets saved Kyiv by building a new bell tower - for the clearly Muslim Idol, the church ringing turned out to be disastrous.

Baba Yaga

This is one of the most complex and unusual characters in Slavic mythology. In our folklore, Baba Yaga has several specific and unchanging attributes: she flies on a mortar, lives on the border of the forest in a hut on chicken legs, and has a bone leg. According to Vladimir Propp, the monster’s home is a portal to the world of the dead, and Baba Yaga herself is its guardian.

Tugarin Zmey

An evil hero who goes to battle against the Russians Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich. In the very name of Tugarin, researchers see echoes of the struggle of the Slavs with nomadic tribes and even find a historical prototype of the character - the Polovtsian khan Tugorkan.