Whose boss was Viy. The meaning of the word "viy"

To the east Slavic mythology a character whose deadly gaze is hidden under huge eyelids or eyelashes, one of the East Slavic names of which is associated with the same root: cf. Ukrainian Viya, Viyka, Belarusian. eyelash wire. In Russian and... ... Encyclopedia of Mythology

I; m. In Slavic mythology: supernatural creature, having a deadly look hidden under huge eyelids or eyelashes. ● According to popular beliefs, Viy is a formidable old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching to the very ground. By itself, he cannot be seen... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

In East Slavic mythology, the spirit deathly. Having huge eyes with heavy lids, Viy kills with his gaze... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

A person from Little Russian demonology; an old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching to the ground; but if you raise his eyelids and eyebrows, his gaze kills and destroys everything he sees. This legend was processed by Gogol in “Viye”. Dictionary foreign words, included in... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Noun, number of synonyms: 4 fictional creature (334) hero (80) niya (2) ... Synonym dictionary

Viy- Viy, Viya, sentence. p. about Vie (myth.) ... Russian spelling dictionary

Viy- I; m. In Slavic mythology: a supernatural creature with a deadly gaze hidden under huge eyelids or eyelashes. According to popular beliefs, Viy is a formidable old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching to the very ground. By itself, he cannot be seen... ... Dictionary of many expressions

VIY- (character of the story of the same name by N.V. Gogol; see also VIEV) Jealousy, / wives, / tears... / well, them! – / the eyelids will swell / just right for Viy. / I’m not myself, / but I’m / jealous / for Soviet Russia. M928 (355); The terrible legacy of the philistines, They are visited at night by the Non-Existent,... ...

-VIY- see Kyiv VIY... Given name in Russian poetry of the 20th century: a dictionary of personal names

In Little Russian demonology, a formidable old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching to the very ground; V. cannot see anything on his own, but if several strong men manage to raise his eyebrows and eyelids with iron pitchforks, then nothing can hide before his formidable... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

Books

Viy, Gogol Nikolai Vasilievich. A gift edition of the story "Viy", dedicated to the 200th anniversary of N.V. Gogol, will allow the reader to immerse himself in mystical world one of the most extraordinary works of world classics...
Viy, Gogol Nikolai Vasilievich. The peculiarities of the religious worldview of the great Russian writer N.V. Gogol and his “mystically gifted spirit” were reflected in the story “Viy”, which at one time was controversial...

Viy - in Little Russian demonology, a formidable old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching to the very ground; V. cannot see anything on his own, but if several strong men manage to raise his eyebrows and eyelids with iron pitchforks, then nothing can hide before his menacing gaze: with his gaze V. kills people, destroys and turns cities and villages to ashes
Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron

There are two versions about the origin of this name. If you believe the first of them, then Ukrainian word "vіi" can be translated as "eyelashes", which has a direct bearing on the hero’s eyes. Another option says that this name comes from the word “to curl” - Viy resembles a plant, is covered with dried earth, and its legs are like tree roots.

“Viy is a colossal creation of the common people’s imagination,” wrote Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in a note to his story of the same name. - This is the name given to the Little Russians for the chief of the gnomes, whose eyelids go all the way to the ground. This whole story is a folk legend. I didn’t want to change it in any way and I’m telling it in almost the same simplicity as I heard it.”

Indeed, tales with a similar plot are well known in mythology Slavic peoples. But none of them contains a character like Gogol’s Viy. Just as it does not exist in any other folklore works.

Slavic mythology, as the most ancient, quite accurately describes Viy’s “device”:

Viy himself never came and will never come himself It’s generally dangerous to wake him up and disturb him, and even dark entities don’t bother him again, and it’s not just his strength, his appearance, even the devils, ghouls, ghouls, cause horror and tremble with fear of him….

Viy is a soulless, emotional being he has no feelings at all: anger, hatred, anger. Unlike Pannochka, when she, in her rage, anger and hatred of Khoma, shouted: “Call me, Viya!” All the entities she summoned were horrified, how can you awaken an ancient God?! But the lady’s order was carried out - Viy came to remove the amulet, the protection where Khoma was hiding, to show the way.

Viy does not move on his own, cannot open his own eyelids, instead of arms and legs there are roots covered with earth. The ghouls dragged him and placed him near the circle and opened his “eyelids.” Viy's finger pointed at poor Khoma.

There is undoubtedly a kinship between the images of the Slavic Veles-Viy and the Baltic Veles, or Vielona, the God of the Other World and at the same time the Patron of Cattle (cf. the Slavic Veles - the Cattle God).

Vielona, Wels, Lithuanian Velnas - lit. vеlnias, velinas
According to a German author of the 17th century. Einhorn, the month of October was dedicated to Wels - Wälla-Mänes (cf. also Latvian Velu Mate - “Mother of the Dead”).
The name for the “window” in the swamp is also known: lit. Velnio akis, Latvian. Velna acis - literally: "eye of Velnyas".

East Slavic Veles (Volos) is extremely close to the Baltic Vels (Velnyas). He was popular and was considered the god of “all Rus'” in contrast to Perun, the patron saint of the princely squad. In Kyiv, the idol of Perun stood on the mountain, and the idol of Veles on Podol, in the lower part of the city.

In Etruria, in the sacred city of Volsinia, a god was worshiped, whose name is conveyed differently: Velthuna, Vertumna? Velthina, Veltha - “the main deity of Etruria”

The religious symbol of God Viy is the All-Seeing Eye - meaning “nothing can hide from the judge’s gaze.” Presumably, his idol was also depicted with such a symbol.

Many researchers of Gogol's story have noted the similarity of this mystical character, with a destructive gaze, with numerous folk beliefs O St. Kasyan. He is known as a talented spiritual writer and organizer of monasteries.

Kasyan

In Russian folk traditions, legends, beliefs, the image of “Saint Kasyan”, despite all the righteousness of life real person, is drawn as negative. In some villages he was not even recognized as a saint, and his very name was considered shameful.

According to some beliefs, Kasyan - fallen Angel who betrayed God. But after repentance, he was chained and imprisoned for his apostasy.
The angel assigned to him beats the traitor on the forehead with a heavy hammer for three years in a row, and on the fourth he sets him free, and then everything he looks at perishes.

In other stories, Kasyan appears as a mysterious and destructive creature, his eyelashes are so long that they reach his knees, and because of them he does not see God’s light, and only on February 29 in the morning, once every 4 years, he lifts them and looks around the world - what if his gaze falls, he dies.

In the Poltava region, Kasyan is represented as a black creature covered with wool, with skin like oak bark. He lives in a cave, covered with earth. On February 29, his huge eyelids are raised by various evil spirits, Kasyan looks around the world, and then people and animals get sick, pestilence and crop failure occur.

Almost all legends about Kasyan emphasize his demonic essence and the extraordinary destructiveness of his gaze as a result of his connection with the devil, which makes Kasyan similar to Gogol’s Viy.

In East Slavic folklore there are also other characters, possessing characteristics similar to Viy.

So, for example, in A fairy tale about Ivan Bykovich, recorded famous collector and researcher Slavic folklore Alexander Nikolaevich Afanasyev (1826 - 1871), tells that after the hero defeated three multi-headed monsters (snakes) on the Smorodina River, their witch mother was able to deceive Ivan and
“dragged him into the dungeon, brought him to her husband - an old old man.

On you, he says, our destroyer.
The old man lies on an iron bed, sees nothing: long eyelashes and thick eyebrows completely cover his eyes. Then he called twelve mighty heroes and began to order them:
- Take an iron pitchfork, raise my eyebrows and black eyelashes, I’ll see what kind of bird he is that killed my sons. The heroes raised his eyebrows and eyelashes with pitchforks: the old man looked..."

The motif of eyelids raised with a pitchfork (shovel, hooks) is widespread in East Slavic fairy tales. For example, in Volyn a sorcerer is often mentioned Mangy Bunyaka, or the Naughty Bonyak; his eyelids are so long that they can be lifted with a pitchfork.

Sometimes he appears in the form of “a terrible fighter, with his gaze killing people and turning entire cities into ashes, the only happiness is that this murderous gaze is covered by clinging eyelids and thick eyebrows.” In the beliefs of Podolia, he is known as Solodivius Bunio, who destroyed with his gaze the whole city; his eyelids also lift like pitchforks.

But, probably, the most important prototype of Viy for Gogol was Judas Iscariot, whose appearance is guessed behind the figure of Gogol’s demon when referring to some apocryphal texts. In these non-canonical writings about the appearance of Judas, shortly before his death, it is reported that his eyelids became huge, grew to incredible sizes, preventing him from seeing, and his body became monstrously swollen and heavy.

This apocryphal appearance of Judas (giant eyelids and a heavy, clumsy body) also determined the main features of Viy. Gogol, forcing him to look at Viy Khoma Brutus, who is in spiritual laziness and does not trust in God, shows the careless student his evangelical double.

Who is Viy?

In traditional mythology Eastern Slavs Viy is a creature from the underworld that kills with a look. Viy's eyelids and eyelashes are so heavy that he cannot lift them without outside help (which, apparently, should indicate the character's age). The etymology of the word itself supposedly comes from “viya”, “veyka” - in East Slavic languages it means “eyelash”.

Folk image

So who is Viy, what is his origin as a character in folklore? According to some scientists, some features of another were transferred to the image of Viy pagan god Veles, his darker sides. Veles was perceived by the Eastern Slavs as a contrast to Perun (the pagan deity of thunder, heaven, war). Perun lived in heaven. Veles, on the other hand, connected with the underworld and deceased ancestors (it was not without reason that after the harvest, people left a bunch of spikelets “for Veles’s beard” in order to appease and gain the favor of their ancestors).

But Veles is also wealth in the house, the well-being of the family, he is the patron of livestock. Viy is the embodiment of only negative qualities. By the way, the names both “Viy” and “Veles” have the same root and come from the words “hair”, “eyelashes”. And plants in ancient times were popularly called “hair of the Earth.” These are the analogies.

In fairy tales

In Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian folk legends, Viy was depicted as a hairy, wiry old man (some mentioned not hair, but branches), whose eyelids (eyebrows or eyelashes) usually had to be lifted with outside help. The fairy tale “Ivan Bykovich,” for example, mentions a witch’s husband who lives underground and whose heroic assistants lift his eyelashes with iron pitchforks. The images of an iron fork, an iron finger, an iron face obviously go back to more ancient times, when this metal was difficult to obtain and highly valued.

If the monster managed to lift his eyelids and look at a person, he would immediately die. In this regard, scientists admit that Viy is related to folk beliefs about the evil eye or evil eye(with a bad look, everything deteriorates and begins to die). It is also possible that there is some correspondence between the creature’s features and another character in fairy tales—Koshchei the Immortal.

Gogolevsky Viy

In his story of the same name, Gogol reveals this image, as the writer says, “a creation of the common people’s imagination.” In the work the creature is squat, clubfooted. His arms and legs are like intertwined roots. Viy has an iron face and an iron finger, centuries to the ground. Rather, he does not kill with a glance, but removes all effects of amulets against evil spirits. In this regard, we can talk about the literary continuity of this folk image.

(or as he is also called - Niam) is the God of the Slavs, who is perceived as the Guardian of Souls who went to Nav. In the later representation this divine Person appears as a certain mythical creature with eyelids lowered to the ground. If you lift his eyelids with a pitchfork, then nothing will be hidden from Viev’s Eye. By the name of the Slavic God Viy, in the ancient Slavic language people’s eyelashes are called Vii. This sound is still preserved in the language of the Ukrainian people. In legends, Viy is presented ambiguously, with a contradictory character.

The Slavic God Viy is considered the oldest God, the son of Rod. He was born together with his twin brother, to whom the Progenitor Rod gave the name - Dy. Although Slavic God Viy is a dark God, nevertheless, He often looks at the bright Rule, striving to live according to its laws.

Wise people who see into the depths calmly accept Viy’s sometimes strange behavior. They remember something secret meaning the appearance of Viy for the Worlds, this is the plan of the Family, known to the end only to Him.

Legends And myths O Slavic God Vie

A lot of different legends affects Viy. Here are some examples of them.

About how the Slavic God God Viy taught the young God Veles:

The Dark God Viy took the child to himself, as own son, erased part of his memory and taught him black magic. So Veles became a scientist who knows about all the secrets of light and good, as well as dark and destructive magic.

About His important purpose in the universe:

Nav fell in love with Viy when Rod entrusted Him with an important task - to cleanse the souls that came to Nav, no matter what. The main task is to cleanse all the souls that come in the heat, then release them clean.

They cleanse souls with flames in a special place - Pekle. Everything painful, unnecessary, difficult memories, attachments, dependence on the burning fire leave the soul forever! Then the soul remains for some time in a purified state in Navi, but in a different place, where the afterlife Judge determines the period of its stay and departure from Navi. And the soul came out, completely cleansed of Falsehood and Lies; this is the only way it can further move along the path to Truth!

God Viy was created with a large admixture of the magic of Other Worlds, therefore He is always interested in distant Worlds - what is happening in them, what is happening.

How Viy got excellent informer assistants, how He was nicknamed All-Seeing and All-Knowing:

No matter what happened, but something appeared that could harm us,” Viy thought about the mysterious other Worlds. Therefore, they decided to create a gang of birds, rats and other nimble living creatures that could learn all the news everywhere and retell it to Viya. His informers were snooping everywhere, they even visited Rod’s upper room, collecting news day and night, and then reporting everything to Viy. The God of Sleep and his girlfriend Dryoma also came into the dreams of the Gods, and then retold them to Viya. So Viy knew about everything that was happening in Yavi, Navi or Prav. This is how Viy gained fame as the All-Knowing and All-Seeing God.

Amulet – symbolGod Viya

The sign or amulet of God Viy is called by the Slavs - “All-Seeing Eye”. He immediately tells us that this is God, from whose eyes, ears and memory nothing can be hidden. Appearance sign - circles repeating each other, one inside the other. Small protruding stripes along the edges of the circles indicate immunity. This denotes the hidden and obvious power of Viy, his authority, as well as his regalia - to be the Shepherd of souls, when no one can hide under the watchful, watchful eye of God.

Amulet "All-Seeing Eye" will protect from:

bad, unclean thoughts;
despondency;
depression;
pessimism;
the arbitrariness of dark forces and other forces;
deception or lawlessness in your direction.

Amulet "All-Seeing Eye" will attract you to:

development of intuition;
insightful mind;
ingenuity;
supernatural sense;
restoration of lost connections;
good relationships with people, friends;
the trust of your family in you.

You can get a lot from the All-Seeing Eye of Viy - determination, understanding of the true sense of justice, and even wit, an analytical mind, its development.

See more about the All-Seeing Eye amulet.

Manifestation God Viya For Slavs

The ancient ancestors of the Slavs knew about the terrible power of Viy - with just one glance he was capable of destroying not only a person, but also entire cities or villages. One thing pleases me: this heavy look is carefully hidden by thick eyebrows and low-hanging eyelids.

The ancient North still retains in its memory the understanding that Viy, the God of the Slavs, does useful work in Pekla - he helps souls purify there. After purification, the soul can continue on its way. The soul needs to return to its Family, from where it came. Therefore, the Slavs treated Viy with respect, honoring Him for helping souls in their revival.

Attributes God Viya

Animal– shaggy black Dog with drooping eyelids.

Heraldry, objects- scourge

Treba (offering)– a fire and a bag of wool for burning.

God ViyV northern traditions fortune telling And of magic

Cut number – 9

Divination. Questioning God.

The appearance of Reza God Viy draws the Questioner’s attention to the fact that he is standing on the edge of a cliff, and connections with the Rule have been lost. This is a warning that a person is doing something wrong, somewhere his path turned off the right road and rushed somewhere to Nav, and, of course, to Prav.

Gives advice: you should cleanse your soul. To find the right path, you will need to put in a lot of effort, which you should not give up.

A sure sign of finding the right way- this is the sudden arrival of a streak of luck and good fortune.

Magic. When invite Boga Viy.

IN magical rites They avoid specifically calling God Viy or performing rituals towards him. This God is stern and does not like to be disturbed. He is the keeper of Magic, but does not give it away in vain. But behind the amulet of God Viy they know the power to protect in reality from unrighteous acts. Those in the know who walk between the Worlds certainly take the sign of God Viy with them, as an assistant and protector. After all, Viy - ancient god magic, who taught Veles himself!

They also wove sciences, turning to Father Viy in those cases when it was very necessary to block the path to bad intentions, to stop attacks and other people’s intentions. Therefore, a knot was tied, and a conspiracy was slandered against the person from whom they wanted to protect themselves. Nauz Viya is called “Dead Knot” - it serves as a powerful barrier from evil people.

E. DMITRIEVA, historian

N.V. Gogol dedicated only a dozen lines in his story to Viya. But anyone who has read them at least once in their life will never forget such a bright, unusual, impressive image. Perhaps one of the reasons here lies in the special mystery and incomprehensibility of Viy. How did this image arise, where did it come from? Who is Viy and what do we know about him?

The Slavs recognized this underground god, whose place was occupied by the ancients by Pluto, the king of hell.
M. D. Chulkov. "Abevega of Russian superstitions"

The inhabitants of the world of the dead, spirits hostile to all living things, the dead were called in Ancient Rus' naviam.

The so-called Zbruch idol. It reflects the structure of the Universe according to the ideas of the ancient Slavs.

Image of Veles in the 12th century Dmitrov Cathedral (column console) in Vladimir.

Round dance is not just folk dance, and a pagan rite is a spell. Folk festival. Lithograph from the workshop of Ivan Golyshev. Mstera. 1871

Saint Blaise with herds of cattle and Saint Spiridonius. Novgorod icon of the 16th century.

Footprints pagan beliefs, in particular the cult of Veles, could be traced in folk culture and folklore until the beginning of the 20th century. For example, grass, bushes, trees and other vegetation were popularly called “hairs of the earth.”

To begin with, let’s quote Gogol: “Bring Viy! Follow Viy!” came the words of the dead man.

And suddenly there was silence in the church; a wolf howl was heard in the distance, and soon heavy footsteps were heard echoing through the church; Looking sideways, he saw that they were leading some squat, hefty, club-footed man. He was all covered in black earth. His legs and arms covered with earth stood out like stringy, strong roots. He walked heavily, constantly stumbling, his long eyelids were lowered to the very ground. Khoma noticed with horror that his face was iron. They brought him by the arms and stood him directly in front of the place where Khoma stood.

Lift my eyelids: I can’t see! - Viy said in an underground voice, - and the whole host rushed to lift his eyelids.

"Don't look!" - some inner voice whispered to the philosopher. He couldn’t bear it and looked.

Here he is! - Viy shouted and pointed an iron finger at him. And everyone, no matter how many there were, rushed at the philosopher. Lifeless, he hit the ground, and the spirit immediately flew out of him out of fear.”

It is difficult to find a more impressive and mysterious character in the works of Russian classics than Gogol's Viy. Clearly belonging to the heroes of folklore and fairy tales, he stands out among them for his special effectiveness and inexplicable, hidden power. “Viy is a colossal creation of the common people’s imagination,” wrote Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in a note to his story. “That was the name given to the Little Russians for the chief of the gnomes, whose eyelids go down to the very ground. This whole story is a folk legend. I didn’t want to how to change it and tell it in almost the same simplicity as I heard.” Considering that in 1835, when the story was written, Slavic folkloristics as a science was still in its infancy and we knew no more about our own mythology than, for example, Chinese, then it is not surprising that Gogol did not give a more meaningful explanation regarding "chief" of the Little Russian "gnomes".

Today we can look into Viy’s eyes without fear and tell about him everything that even his literary father did not know.

So, who is Viy? If, according to Gogol, he is a hero of folk legends, then his image should be found in works of folklore. However fairy tale hero does not exist with that name. Where did the name itself come from - Viy? Let's turn to the dictionary. In the Ukrainian language, the name of the character of Little Russian legends Viy, apparently, comes from the words “viya”, “viyka” - eyelash (and “poviko” - eyelid). After all, the most memorable and characteristic Viya - huge eyelids, so it is quite natural that his name came from them.

And although there is no Viy as such in either Ukrainian, Belarusian, or Russian fairy tales, quite often there are images that almost completely coincide with Gogol’s description of Viy: squat, hefty, and therefore strong, covered with earth, as if the devils had taken him out of dungeons. The tale about Ivan Bykovich, recorded by the famous collector and researcher of Slavic folklore A. N. Afanasyev, tells that after Ivan first defeated three multi-headed monsters on the Smorodina River, and then destroyed their wives, a certain witch, having now lost her daughters and sons-in-law, dragged Ivan to the owner underground kingdom, to my husband:

“On you,” he says, “our destroyer!” - And in the fairy tale the same Viy appears before us, but in the underground kingdom, at home:

“The old man lies on an iron bed, sees nothing: long eyelashes and thick eyebrows completely cover his eyes. He called twelve mighty heroes and began to order them:

Take an iron pitchfork, raise my eyebrows and black eyelashes, I’ll see what kind of bird he is that killed my sons.”

Both in Gogol and in the fairy tale recorded by Afanasyev, the presence of iron attributes is not surprising. In Gogol's Viy - iron face, an iron finger, the fairytale has an iron bed, an iron pitchfork. Iron ore is mined from the earth, which means that the ruler of the underground kingdom, Viy, was a kind of master and patron of the earth’s bowels and their riches. Apparently, this is why N.V. Gogol classifies him among the European gnomes, guardians of underground treasures. For ancient man at the time of the formation of Slavic mythology, iron, a durable metal, difficult to extract and difficult to process, irreplaceable in the economy, seemed to be of the greatest value.

The fairy-tale hero Afanasyev with his long eyebrows and eyelashes fully matches the appearance of Viy. However, in Slavic mythology, it was apparently not necessary for the owner of the underworld to have long eyebrows or eyelashes. His distinguishing feature- Just long hair, but what it is, eyelashes, eyebrows or a beard, is not important. It can be assumed that exorbitant eyelids are a later distortion folk legend. The main thing is not the eyelids, but just long eyelashes and hair. In one of Belarusian fairy tales it describes “Tsar Kokot, a beard as long as an elbow, a seventy arshin iron whip, a bag made of seventy ox skins” - an image similar to the owner of the underworld. Also known is the fairy-tale old man “As big as a fingernail, with a beard as big as an elbow,” the owner of exorbitant strength and a huge herd of bulls. He had a three-headed serpent in his service, and he himself was hiding from the heroes pursuing him underground. But among the Belarusian fairy tales there is also one where Koschey, like Viya, was raised by a maid who raised her eyelids, “five pounds each.” This Koschey “no matter how he looks at someone, he will not leave him, even if he lets him go, everyone will still come back to him.”

This means that you can’t look Viy in the eyes because he will take you and drag you into the dungeon, into the world of the dead, which, in fact, is what happened to poor Khoma in Gogol’s “Viy”. This is probably why in Christian apocryphal legends Saint Kasyan was identified with Viy, who was popularly considered the incarnation leap year and the personification of all misfortunes. They thought that Kasyan, like the owner of the underground kingdom, lived deep underground, in a cave where daylight did not penetrate. Kasyan's gaze is destructive for all living things and entails troubles, illnesses, and even death. Some of Viy’s traits were also shared with the apocryphal Judas Iscariot, who, as punishment for betraying Jesus Christ, allegedly lost his sight due to overgrown eyelids.

So where did such a strange image of Viy come from in Slavic mythology and folklore? The main characteristics of our character help us find the answer: hairiness, possession of herds of bulls and involvement in the underworld. These signs make us recall one of the most ancient and, moreover, the main East Slavic gods of pagan times - Veles (Volos). Before people learned to cultivate the land, he patronized hunters and helped hunt animals, which, according to many researchers, determined the name of the deity. It comes from the word "hair", that is, fur, the skin of hunting prey. Veles also personified the spirits of killed animals. Hence the idea that this deity is associated with death, the world of the dead. “Initially, in the distant hunting past, Veles could mean the spirit of a killed animal, the spirit of hunting prey, that is, the god of that only wealth of the primitive hunter, which was personified by the carcass of a defeated animal.” This is what Academician B. A. Rybakov wrote about Veles-Volos.

But time passed, and agriculture and cattle breeding became an integral part of the economy of ancient people. Hunting lost its former importance, and Veles became the patron saint of livestock. That’s why the old man “He’s as tall as a fingernail, with a beard as long as his elbows” has a herd of bulls, and anyone who encroaches on them runs the risk of experiencing the hefty strength of the owner of the herd. The number of livestock in ancient times was the main indicator of a family’s wealth. Livestock provided people with almost everything they needed: draft power, fur, leather, wool for clothing and other household needs, milk, dairy products and meat for food. It is no coincidence that the custom of measuring wealth in the “heads” of cattle survived into the Middle Ages. The word “cattle” meant not only the livestock itself, but also all the property and wealth of the family. The word "bestiality" was used in the meaning of "greed", "greed". The post of the financial official, standing between the mayor and the headman, was called “cowman”, since “cowwoman” is the treasury (hence another meaning of Veles as a deity: in charge of income and wealth).

It is no coincidence that Veles was opposed to Perun - the god of heaven, thunderstorms and war. After all, wealth, prosperity and war, leading to ruin, are incompatible. The giver of thunderstorms, Perun, lived in the sky, in the transcendental kingdom of the gods. Veles connected with the underworld of the dead, “that light.” Until the beginning of the 20th century, the custom persisted after the harvest of leaving a bunch of unharvested ears of grain in the field - “For Veles on his beard.” The peasants hoped to earn the favor of the ancestors buried in the earth, on whom the harvest depended next year. Trees, bushes, and grasses were popularly called “hairs of the earth.” Thus, it is not surprising that the owner of the underground kingdom Veles, whose name was forgotten centuries later, was depicted as a hairy old man and subsequently received the name Viy because of this. (However, the name Viy is similar in origin to the name Veles: both came from the words “hair”, “eyelashes”.)

With the advent of Christianity, the role of the patron of cattle Veles passed to Saint Blaise (most likely due to the consonance of names), whose day fell on February 11 (24th in the new style). In many places in Russia, Vlasiev Day was celebrated as a big holiday. For example, in the Vologda province, residents of neighboring volosts came to the festival, a solemn, crowded prayer service was held, during which loaves of bread were blessed. Housewives at home fed hunks of consecrated bread to their cattle, thereby hoping to protect them from disease for the whole year. From this day on, livestock trading began in the bazaars. They turned to Saint Blaise with a prayer for the safety and health of the livestock: “Saint Blaise, give happiness to the smooth heifers, to the fat bulls, so that they can walk and play from the yard, and walk and gallop from the field.” Icons of the saint were hung in cowsheds and stables to protect livestock from all kinds of misfortunes.

But the function of Veles, who dominates the underworld, apparently was taken over by the image of Viy - a purely negative character, an “evil spirit.” In other words, with the adoption of Christianity, the image of pagan Veles gradually divided into two hypostases: the positive - Saint Blaise, the patron of livestock, and the negative - Viy, an evil, formidable spirit ruling the underworld, the personification of death and grave darkness, the leader of evil spirits.

“A rooster crow was heard. This was already the second cry; the first was heard by the gnomes. The frightened spirits rushed randomly into the windows and doors in order to fly out as quickly as possible, but that was not the case: they remained there, stuck in the doors and windows The priest who entered stopped at the sight of such a disgrace of God's shrine and did not dare to serve the requiem in such a place. So the church remained forever with monsters stuck in the doors and windows, overgrown with forest, roots, weeds, wild thorns, and now no one will find the way to it; ". This is how Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol ends his story “Viy”.