What ideas do we have when we hear the word “snake”? A creature that carries danger and at the same time is not devoid of peculiar beauty and grace. A moving or lying still snake is capable of attracting attention. Apparently thanks to these natural features it has received so many reflections in mythology and world folklore. The mythological snake is no less interesting a phenomenon than its real “double”. This is a complex, dual character who simultaneously combines positive and negative principles. Perceived as a source of evil, the snake is at the same time capable of endowing a person with a miraculous gift. The creature is malicious, it serves as a personal amulet and patron of the house. Belonging to the non-human world, the snake has the ability to shapeshift and can appear in the form of a person. It is simultaneously associated with two opposite elements, fire and water, as well as with the element of earth. This snake connection is the most obvious.
The word “snake” itself etymologically goes back to the word “earth” - its main habitat. The snake as a mythological character is not just a creature living in the earth, but also an inhabitant and master of the underworld.
The snake is a popular character in the folklore tradition of the Slavs. It also took its place among the images of Russian folklore, where it is found in fairy tales and conspiracies, in mythological stories and legends, in beliefs and omens.
The image of a snake is most fully represented in fairy tales, although the number of fairy-tale plots in which this character acts is limited. In folklore they are combined into plot types under the names “Wonderful Object”, “Wonderful Ability”, “Wonderful Spouse”. There are other, more rare, stories.
The plot of “A Wonderful Object” is found more often than others in Russian fairy tales. He was also known on the territory of Karelia (collections “Fairy tales and legends of the Northern Territory in the records of I. V. Karnaukhova”, “Tales of the Karelian White Sea region” (fairy tales of M. M. Korguev), “Russian fairy tales in Karelia: old records”). At the beginning of the fairy tale “The Magic Ring” from the collection “Russian Folk Tales” by A. N. Afanasyev, the hero saves a dog and a cat from death by buying them from their tormentors, and then rescues a snake girl from the fire, who turns out to be the daughter of the “underground king”, the owner treasures In gratitude, the king gives the hero a “miraculous” ring that grants wishes, warning: “Don’t tell anyone about the ring, otherwise you’ll get yourself into big trouble!” By using magic ring the hero builds a palace, a cathedral and a bridge and marries the princess, who extorts the secret of his omnipotence, and then steals the ring. At her request, the hero is deprived of his wealth and goes to prison. A dog and a cat help him out of trouble: they get a ring from the princess and return it to its owner.
The main intrigue and “moral” of this plot is not connected with the snake, which appears only in the first part of the tale and then disappears. Nevertheless, the mythological basis of this image clearly emerges here - the werewolf nature of the snake - a beautiful girl and daughter of the lord of the underworld. This is its constant feature; it is also inherent in the snake in “The Tale of the Ring of Twelve Screws” from the same collection.
The fairy tale also traces the connection between the snake and fire. At the moment of meeting with the hero, the snake is burning in a fire, that is, apparently dying, although from the narrative it follows that fire is rather a comfortable element for it: “In the middle of the forest there is a clearing, in the clearing there is a fire burning, a girl is sitting in the fire, and such a beauty, no matter what you think of , not to guess...". In light of this, her meeting with the hero appears as if prepared: the situation of the snake’s imaginary death in the fire is needed in order to reward the good hero.
However, the hero of this plot is not always kind. In the fairy tale “The Snake Princess,” having received a wonderful barrel for saving a snake from the fire, the hero exchanges it for a self-cutting sword from a certain old man - and immediately kills him with this sword in order to take possession of the barrel again. And the snake gift itself turns out to be not only a blessing. Violation of the conditions of possession brings misfortune to the hero of the fairy tale.
The ambiguous nature of the snake’s gift is confirmed by another fairy-tale plot - “Wonderful Ability.” This plot is less typical for Russian fairy tales. The action here develops similarly to the previous type. The hero frees the snake from under the stone, and the snake gives him the ability to understand the language of animals and birds on the condition that he not tell anyone about it under threat of death. Thanks to this ability, the hero learns from the conversations of animals what he could not know before. The hero's wife questions the reasons for his omniscience, and he decides to tell her and die to put an end to it. Here the hero hears the mockery of a rooster, who reproaches his owner for not being able to cope with his one and only wife. The hero beats his wife, and since then she has not asked him anything else.
In this tale, the gift of the snake, the ability to understand the language of animals, goes back, as researchers note, to mythological image snakes are the mistress of the forest and all forest creatures. But even here, possession of it almost plunges the hero into trouble, although in this plot this motive is almost comic in nature.
Another fairy-tale plot with a snake, “The Wonderful Husband,” differs significantly from the previous two. It also existed in Karelia (the fairy tale “The Bad Guy”, the collection of I. V. Karnaukhova “Fairy tales and legends of the Northern Territory”). However, the two plots considered are united by the same motif of the gift of the snake, which helps to clarify the functions of this character.
The snake in fairy tales about the gift of the snake, although it plays a key role in the fate of the hero, is still a character in one episode. Her episodic role is indicated by the fact that sometimes she completely disappears from a fairy tale, which retains all other plot links (the fairy tale “The Ring” from the collection “Great Russian Fairy Tales. Great Russian Mysteries” by I. A. Khudyakov; “Three Palaces and the Underground Kingdom” from the collection “Great Russian Tales of the Vyatka Province” by D.K. Zelenin; “About the Ring” in the collection “Fairy Tales and Legends of the Northern Territory in the Records of I.V. Karnaukhova”; “The Dog and the Cat” in the collection “Tales of the Karelian White Sea Region”). The snake acts as an intermediary between the human world, where the hero of the fairy tale operates, and the underground world, part of the properties of which she transfers to the hero in the form of a miraculous gift.
In addition to fairy tales, the snake appears in the conspiracy genre. This genre has both oral and written forms of existence and is therefore located at the intersection of folklore and manuscript book traditions. Its purpose - influencing the natural world and humans with the help of magical verbal formulas - is also reflected in the image of the snake, which appears here completely differently than in the fairy tale.
Conspiracies that mention a snake are even rarer than fairy tales with a snake. This concerns not only the Russian charm tradition - despite the fact that in the North and in the former Olonets province, modern Karelia, it was rich and well developed - but also the charm tradition of the people neighboring the Russians, the Vepsians. In the collections “Russian conspiracies from handwritten sources of the 17th - first half of the 19th century centuries “and “Russian conspiracies of Karelia,” which together contain about a thousand conspiracy texts from the 17th to the 20th centuries, and less than two dozen conspiracies with a snake.
Snake spells are divided into two types: medicinal (“for pecking a snake”), preventive (for protection against a bite) and love (“drying”). Unlike prisushki, spells of a therapeutic and preventive nature deal with real snakes - with the consequences of an unsuccessful meeting with them or with the danger they pose. The accompanying instructions for treating a wound also serve as a link to the reality of healing spells. Let us give an example of one of the healing spells (in the spelling of the source): “On Mori, on Kiyan, on the island on Buyani, there is a thick willow bush. In that thick willow bush lies a skin snake. “Oh, skinning snakes, gather all your serpentine snakes, border, underwater, underwater, moss and forest, skinning snakes and overlying snakes, flying and creeping. If you don’t gather all the serpentine snakes... I will go to Gabriel himself and St. Nicholas and ask them to release a terrible thunder, a terrible cloud, so that it will be beaten by thunder and burned by lightning." - “O servant of Christ, man, do not go to Christ himself, do not Let the menacing thunder and the menacing cloud fall on me, do not hit me with either thunder or lightning...”
There are even fewer love spells where a snake is invoked than healing ones. There are no such conspiracies in the collection “Russian conspiracies from handwritten sources...”, and in “Russian conspiracies of Karelia” there is only one such conspiracy. It starts like this:
“- Fierce snake, where are you swimming? - I’m sailing to sort out the blue sea, to sort out the Raskamorye. - Don’t fly, snake-flame, to kindle the blue sea, to dismantle the Raskamorye. Fly, snake, to such and such a slave...” This is followed by a detailed instruction to the snake: “Disassemble and kindle... a quick heart, three hundred and seventy veins...”, etc.
Both in medical and love plot the snake acts as a participant in a ritual, enacted dialogue. In the first plot, as in the fairy tale, she appears as the mistress of the forest kingdom. In a kind of hierarchy of snakes, she rules over other snakes - forest creatures. The Archangel Gabriel and Saint Nicholas, especially revered by the people, are mentioned as powerful forces opposing the snake. In the second plot cited, very little is said about the snake itself. It is present in the conspiracy and at the same time, as it were, remains outside the verbal text. The single epithet “snake-flame” is not so much a metaphor as a reference to its mythological connection with fire. Another reminder of her other mythological characteristic - belonging to the other world - is contained in the commentary with which the performer precedes the plot: it must be read at Rosstani - a crossroads, which is considered in popular belief to be the seat of evil spirits.
In addition to fairy tales and conspiracies, the image of a snake is also found in other folklore genres. Some of them, tales and beliefs, according to which a person who has tasted snake meat or snake fish soup begins to understand the language of animals and plants or speak different human languages, take us back to the fairy tale. Others, on the contrary, gravitate towards a realistic image. These are stories about violating the ban on going into the forest on the day of the Exaltation (Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, September 27) - otherwise you will see a lot of snakes, since this is a “snake holiday”, when snakes gather together, curl into balls and go underground for the winter .
When we talk about the image of a snake in the genres of Russian folklore, another character comes to mind, the snake. Having the same name and similar appearance, how do the serpent and the serpent relate to each other? In this regard, we can recall another folklore text - the Pudozh legend about the birth of snakes, which goes back to spiritual verses, according to which snakes originated from the ashes of the burnt remains of the Serpent-Dragon, pacified by Saint Yegor.
If possible common origin in the depths of myth, snakes and snakes in folklore have more differences than similarities. Their first difference is the genres, where each of these images is manifested more fully. For a snake this is a narrative genre, a fairy tale, for a snake it is classical epic genres epics and spiritual poems. Another difference is in the functions that the serpent and the serpent perform in folklore stories. The snake does not have as many of them as the serpent. In its main genre, it acts as a wonderful assistant to the hero, while the snake is most often his opponent. True, in one of the functions the snake and serpents come close - in the role of an underground creature that stores certain treasures or miraculous gifts. But overall their images are too different. A typical snake is a demonic, alien and frightening character, a typical fairy-tale snake is favorable to the hero and much more attractive.
The Year of the Dragon Serpent is coming to an end, and the year dedicated to the Snake begins. While waiting for this, one can traditionally wish: may he be kinder and better than the year leaving as much as the fairytale snake is kinder and better than the epic dragon snake.
Daria ABROSIMOVA, Art. n. employee of the scientific and exhibition sector of the department of history and ethnography
Bogdanov Yaroslav
Antonova Daria
Dragon
Summary of the myth
The postcard features the work of Ivan Bilibin
Zmey-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 view modern man The serpent is identical to the 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 girls from common people, or from a princely family, in order to eat them, but more often the abduction 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 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 so 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
Artist Moskvitin Stanislav
Nikitich
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 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 ancient- Slavic name or as the name of an animal, which later began to be 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
V. M. Vasnetsov
“Dobrynya Nikitich’s fight with
the seven-headed Serpent Gorynych"
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 is 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. Film-fairy tale by Alexander Rowe 1968, There, on unknown paths.... Film-fairy tale by Mikhail Yuzovsky 1982
"Ilya Muromets"
Film - fairy tale by Alexander Ptushko
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.
We are all with early childhood 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. Based on the cartoon it was created computer game. 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.
Cartoon fragment
"Dobrynya Nikitich and Zmey Gorynych"
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). A wolf in a dream falls into magical land where are the heroes different 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. Got 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. From that evil killer and kidnapper we saw in Slavic mythology there was practically nothing left. 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 others evil characters folklore becomes the antipode of its 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.
Serpent - Gorynych, Gorynishche, Zmiulan, Fire Serpent - in Slavic mythology a fantastic creature, a monster that combines the features of a reptile, a bird, an animal and even a human.
The snake is one of the most popular heroes of fairy tales, epics, legends, and beliefs. Its appearances are extremely diverse: from a huge snake to a fantastic creature, a monster: “Where did the Gorynishche serpent come from, with twelve heads, with twelve trunks” (Smol.); “The Usynya Bird is a serpent with twelve heads” [Khudyakov, 1964]; In a conspiracy from the Simbirsk province, the snake Poloz “has three heads.”
The number of heads of a serpent varies, but three, six, nine, twelve heads predominate.
King Zmiulan is a creature “level with the forest”: “Whatever the oak stands, Zmiulan sits, whatever the wind makes noise, Zmiulan speaks” [from the conspiracy] (Yu. Sib.). According to the beliefs of the Saratov province, the snake is black, as thick as a bucket, two fathoms long, with a huge human head. He sits on a curled tail, speaks in human language, but incomprehensibly. On popular prints The snake has clawed paws and a long tail. Sometimes (especially in fairy tales and epics) the snake has the appearance of a monster rider: “I saw a wonderful miracle today, / A wonderful miracle today, a wondrous wonder: / The whole snake of Tugarishche is still riding across the open field” [from the epic] (Belomor. ), The serpent has possessions (a kingdom), a home, and sometimes even a wife and children.
According to a number of researchers, a snake (in fairy tales) is one of the possible appearances of Baba Yaga, Leshy, Whirlwind and even Volos-Veles. Baba Yaga and her daughters are often snake-like: “The flight of a snake sometimes resembles the flight of a yaga. “A strong storm arose, thunder rumbles, the earth trembles, the dense forest bows down: a three-headed serpent flies” [Propp, 1986]; in some fairy tales, a snake man acts - “he is as big as a fingernail, his head is as big as an elbow, his mustache drags along the ground, his wings lie a mile away” [Uspensky, 1982].
In the apocrypha and hagiographies, demons, devils, and the Devil usually turn into snakes; in beliefs - demons, dead people, devils. The influences that shaped the image of the serpent are diverse, but this is a folk, folklore character (although it has absorbed the features of “book” serpents, especially the biblical one).
Ideas about the snake, which have existed since very distant times, were apparently formed in different ways. Serpent, serpent -: a symbol found in almost all mythologies, “associated with fertility, earth, female productive power, water, rain, on the one hand, and the hearth, fire (especially heavenly), as well as the male fertilizing principle, on the other” [Ivanov, 1980]. V.Ya. Propp saw in the image of a serpent the embodiment of ideas about an ancestor, an ancestor; Taking on a snake, bird or “mixed” (bird-snake) appearance after death, the ancestor-ancestor becomes the ruler of another kingdom, visits, abducts and tests living people [Propp, 1986].
The serpent is both an underground (mountainous), aquatic (underwater) and fiery, airy (flying) creature. Connected with all the elements of the world, the serpent is endowed with universal power and strength. In a conspiracy from the Smolensk province, the Serpent-Garaday “forges (fetters, calms) the depths of the sea, the heights of heaven, the extreme tooth, the spinal bone.” However, most often, elemental, destructive forces appear in the guise of a serpent.
In fairy tales, epics and legends, snakes are the enemy of the hero, the guardian of borders, kidnapping princesses, and devastating the earth. In the legends of many Russian provinces, the founding of certain cities and villages is preceded by a fight with a snake, sometimes changing the landscape: according to stories from the Saratov province, a snake snake, which devoured cows, sheep, horses and was killed by a centurion, lived in the vicinity of the city of Volsk before its foundation. When founding the city of Zmeev (Tomsk province), many snakes had to be killed (as the name of the city reminds). The snake snake, who lived in the area where Zmeev arose, left behind him a strip scorched by fire and moved to Zmeeva Gora; he now lives in a cave on the banks of the Irtysh.
The “activity” of snakes is attributed to the formation of gorges, mountains (Snake Mountains, Snake Tracts), as well as mounds. According to the beliefs of the Smolensk province, in the place of the killed snake (which could only be buried by carrying the earth on a rooster), the Serpent Mound arose.
In the prevailing beliefs of Russian peasants of the 19th-20th centuries. The images of the serpent predominate - a huge snake (snake) and a fiery serpent.
The huge snake (snake, king Zmiulan) is the eldest over snakes, and according to some beliefs, snakes originated from him. Thus, in the Olonets region it was believed that the snakes appeared from the remains of a multi-headed snake, which almost ate Princess Olisafya Ogapitevna: Olisafya lit the snake and scattered the ashes “over an open field.” From the ashes snakes were born.
In conspiracies, huge snakes most often live by the sea, in the thicket of the forest: these are, in essence, forest and water “masters”, kings. Popular in the 19th-20th centuries. a story about a peasant who accidentally fell into an underground cave and spent the winter there with snakes, their ruler is a huge snake. Stories about the “forest snake”, the eldest over snakes, were recorded in the Saratov and Olonets provinces. The snake in such stories most often takes the form of a very large snake.
The serpent is the inhabitant and “master” of the underworld, the keeper of treasures and treasures. “A snake, doomed to spend the winter in a dark hole, at the same time cannot live without light, and if he remains in the hole, it is only because he has a lot of gold and precious stones"(Olon.). In the Saratov province they said that a snake snake (with a head “either human or horse”) can be found near the road, where it “in a human voice asks you to kiss it, and if it’s disgusting, then cover it, and they explain that it is unclean or cursed.” and if his desire is fulfilled, he will give the treasure.”
Stories about Poloz, the snake king, whose trace indicates the location of treasures, were popular among treasure hunters and miners. “The creeping snake Snake” is mentioned in conspiracies “when finding treasures.”
An ancestor, an ancestor, a prophetic being endowed with power not only over treasures, but also over the fate of a person, often appears in the guise of a snake. In a story from the Olonets province, in order to change his fate, a peasant must “bite” the elder forest serpent, summoned from the thicket by a wanderer-sorcerer.
In the beliefs of Russian peasants of the 19th-20th centuries. the snake is closer to people and more often favors them; the huge serpent-man is only sometimes friendly to people and helps them; the monster snake, the fiery serpent, are almost always hostile to humans.
M.D. Chulkov wrote that in the beliefs of the 18th century. fiery snakes are “devils who fly and tempt women” [Chulkov, 1786].
The motive was widespread: a fiery serpent (called a fire snake in the Yaroslavl region) flies to girls and women. “Scattering sparks” over the pipe, he (through the pipe) appears in the hut in the guise of a handsome guy or an acquaintance of the husband of the mistress of the house (Volog., Yarosl., Vlad., Ryaz., Tulsk., Kursk., Vyatsk.). Such a snake in the Smolensk and Ryazan regions is called lyubak; in the Oryol region there is red tape, and in the Tambov province it is covetousness. According to the beliefs of the Yaroslavl and Vladimir regions, a raid - an evil spirit in the form of a fiery broom six arshins in size - visits people who yearn for the deceased. Often the snake is attracted by the excessive grief of widows and soldiers; visiting them, he turns into absent and dead husbands. The serpent “flies from the sky, illuminating the path in the form of a falling star or rocket, and when it reaches the door of a melancholy widow, it scatters with fiery sparks and, transforming into a loved one, enters the house. From a serpent, women can have children that differ from ordinary ones in their tail; such children, however, die” (Ryaz.). In the Simbirsk province they said that in the village of Nikolskoye a black son was born from a snake, with hooves, with eyes without lids, bulging.
Typically, peasants believed that the appearance of a fiery serpent was taken by an unclean person, a demon, or a devil. In the Yaroslavl province the snake was called “fiery demon.” However, the image of the fiery serpent is “older” and more complex than the image of the devil. The ideas about the fiery serpent reflected the concepts of animated heavenly, “fiery” phenomena (about “living” falling stars, meteorites) and about the deceased - the “master” of the underground (possibly also the heavenly, or rather, another) kingdom, who visits those living on earth of people. In the Oryol region they believed that comets were from the Devil - they were snakes or unclean. Peasants sometimes directly called meteorites snakes (Arch., Don, Kostr.). “Small meteors, or falling stars, are considered by the common people to be unclean spirits” [Avdeeva, 1842]. In the Pskov region, one of the stars of the Big Dipper was called a serpent. By popular belief, this star only goes to certain places, and where it stops on Midsummer, in that place people will be happy. The falling of stars was also a sign of death: according to popular beliefs, every person in the sky has a “double star” (“soul-star”), which falls at his death.
However, in peasant beliefs, a fiery meteorite serpent is usually a dangerous creature, an unkind soul. In the story from the Simbirsk province, an evil dead mother, a witch, flies like a snake and tries to destroy her daughter. In the Tver province they believed that the fall of stars was the overthrow of the devil from the sky. When they saw a falling star, they said “Amen” three times.
The fiery serpent that appears to women sometimes repeats to the smallest detail the appearance of their loved ones. In a story recorded in the Volga region, he appears to a widow in the guise of her husband, “with a gun and a hare in his hands.” The widow is very happy, they live together, and only based on some signs (“the husband” crossed himself too quickly, “so hard that you wouldn’t notice”, instead of “Virgin Mary” he read “Miracle Mother”, etc.) the widow guessed that unclean before her. She asked the priest for a protective prayer, and the kite stopped flying.
pretending handsome guy or a husband, a snake, as a rule, destroys women: they begin to dry out, wither away (the snake seems to “suck” the strength out of them, and sometimes even eats them themselves) (Sarat.).
To get rid of the snake, thistles spread around the hut, a door (crumbling) stone, sprinkling the house with holy water, snow collected for Epiphany (January 19), prayers, spells, for example, “from a fiery serpent flying to a woman who yearns for him” helped to get rid of the snake: they stick Mordvinnik grass (thistle) into the threshold and into all the cracks and say: “As in the city of Lukorye a serpent flew along the seaside, the city queen was seduced by him, she was killed by longing for the king, she mated with him, with the serpent, her whiteness diminished, her heart yearned , she indulged in one consolation - as the snake flies, so it will seduce her. I am not afraid of you, serpent, I will worship the Lord God, I will become like the Venerable Mary of Egypt, I will be imprisoned. Just as a dead person cannot rise from the ground, so you cannot fly to me, do not set my womb on fire, and do not yearn for my heart. I start a conspiracy, lock myself in with an iron lock, fence myself in with a stone wall, cool off with spring water, a veil of Mother of God covering myself; Amen" (Simb.).
In general, the plot about the visit and abduction of women by a snake is international and of very old origin. The folklore image of the serpent-tempter (supplemented and developed by the biblical image of the serpent-tempter) is also reflected in literary monuments, in particular in the life of Peter and Fevronia of Murom (the serpent seduces Fevronia).
The fiery serpent seemed to be, apparently, a prophetic creature: according to the beliefs of the Samara region, it was possible to stop the serpent by saying: “Whoa!” After this, the serpent revealed to man the secrets of the future. When letting go of the snake, it was necessary to tear his shirt down from the collar (otherwise the snake would not fly away and would destroy the person who decided to stop it).
According to legends, snakes also visit poor widows and old women. They bring them milk and money (the snake’s money, however, often turns into shards). Sometimes such a snake, like a domestic snake, is given milk to drink. In the Vladimir province they believed that snakes not only flew to women, but also sucked cows. Such a snake could serve the witch mistress, milking and bringing her milk from other people's cows.
According to legends, the helper snake was hatched from the egg of a rooster (black in color or of a certain age - five, seven years). This egg was carried in the bosom: “I took it and put it under my bosom and hatched a big one (snake)” (Volog.).
Combining a snake and a rooster, the snake in such beliefs resembles a yard snake (rooster snake of the Pskov province), the guardian of household wealth. In the Vologda region, such a snake is called almost like a brownie, a yard snake - a big one. Nevertheless, the fiery serpent in most beliefs is like a negative hypostasis of the house spirit, the yard spirit: it brings wealth to the house, but this wealth is fragile and dangerous (Kursk., Volog.): “If a man wants to get rich, he must get an egg from a rooster and wear it for six weeks under the left armpit, after which a snake will hatch from the egg. Here you have to lie down at night in an uninhabited hut where there are no icons, for example in a bathhouse. In a dream, the devil yields to the snake for a certain period of time, under certain conditions. The fiery serpent brings the man money - it goes more towards drunkenness... When the time comes, you can still save yourself by cutting the vein under the “snake”’s neck. Both the man and the serpent, knowing this, fight with all their might, but rarely does a man overcome the serpent. More often, he dies, pierced through and through by the hellish flames of a serpent” (Volog.).
“There are people who sell their souls to the unclean. During life, an unclean spirit must help such a person and obey him... In one village, near the city of Vesyegonsk, there lived a stern man. Many often saw the Devil in the form of a fiery serpent flying into his hut through a chimney. To talk with the snake, the man went to another hut, where he locked himself. This guy had a lot of everything, but for some reason he was dissatisfied with everything. Finally death comes to him. The man calls his family together and strictly punishes them so that no one dares to enter that hut when he screams. The man locked himself in another hut, and his family was waiting. Suddenly he screams! Everyone ran to another hut, and there the owner lay dead: his eyes were turned out, his tongue was torn out and abandoned. After his death, this sorcerer appeared to the church watchman more than once at night, until they decided to drive an aspen stake into the grave” (Novg.).
Russian epics say that there lives a winged seven-headed dragon Gorynych
on the Sorochinsky Mountains in deep cave. He keeps various treasures and kidnapped maidens there, for whom he flies to Holy Rus'. Bogatyrs fought with Gorynych more than once; Dobrynya himself met with him more than once.
Once - when the dragon got into the habit of flying into the little room of a certain Marina Ignatievna - Dobrynya took out a sharp saber, raised it above his violent head:
“Would you like me to cut the cakes into pieces and scatter them in an open field?” And then the seven-headed Serpent Gorynych, and with his tail between his legs, ran away... And, running, he, Gorynych, conjured:
“God forbid I go to Marina’s house again!”
But the dragon did not calm down even after the fear he experienced. He kidnapped the niece of Prince Vladimir, Zabava Putyatichna, and then the aunt of Dobrynya himself, Maria Divovna. Here the struggle went not to the stomach, but to death.
There are no clouds - but only rain, no rain - sparks are falling:
The Serpent Gorynysche is flying.
And how the Serpent Gorynych rushed,
Almost burned him, Dobrynya, with fire...
But the hero again overpowered the dragon and this time killed him. A lot of dragon blood leaked out, Dobrynya stood in it for three days, and didn’t know how to get out. On the fourth day Dobrynya heard a voice from heaven:
“You hit the damp ground with your spear, and say with your spear:
“Make way, mother raw earth!” Devour all the snake's blood!" And the dragon's blood went into the ground. Since then, life in Rus' has become easier.
All this is told about the seven-headed snake of the epic.
And in fairy tales, Gorynych can also turn into whoever he wants: either a good fellow, or a stone, or even a broom. Ivan Tsarevich fights with the fabulous Gorynych, and if not he, then Ivan the merchant’s son or Ivan peasant son- and, of course, in the end they defeat the insidious evil spirits.
This character is one of the brightest and most famous in Slavic epic epic. Usually, the Serpent Gorynych is an anti-hero, insidious and terrible, with whom the hero fights. Moreover, he does not have an anthropomorphic image, but the appearance of a relict dinosaur. The villain also has several heads and breathes fire. Where did this outlandish image come from in Russian fairy tales?
Image of evil
In the myths of many peoples there are dragons - snake-like monsters that could also have several heads, such as the ancient Greek Lernaean Hydra or the ancient Persian Azhi-Dahaka, of which, among three faces, one was human. They also spewed fire, like the Sumerian dragon god Zu, and almost all of them flew, and some also swam.
There are also a number of references in biblical texts to the dragon-like sea monster Leviathan.
All these lizards, including the Slavic Serpent Gorynych, symbolize the test that the main character must go through in order to accomplish a feat and get treasure. Accordingly, monsters are the personification of evil.
Some researchers of Slavic epics suggest that under the collective image of the Serpent Gorynych lurks countless hordes of Tatar-Mongol or other steppe nomads.
The invasions that the local heroes tried to repel were endless, like the heads of a monster: you chop off one, and two grow in return. In addition, historians confirm that all attacks by nomads were accompanied by terrible fires and sometimes they began long before the enemy army broke through into the fortified settlement.
There is some evidence that the Tatar-Mongol warriors in Rus' used gunpowder, or at least something like napalm with its addition, obviously borrowed from the Chinese. As you know, this people invented gunpowder one and a half thousand years before the birth of Christ. But for the ancient Slavs, the clouds of fire flying outside the city walls were probably akin to the breath of the Serpent Gorynych spitting out flames.
The terrible reality in the form of endless attacks, accompanied by fire tornadoes and hundreds of deaths, coupled with the mythological perception of the world, may have given rise in the human mind to the image of a monster destroying settlements and taking loved ones into captivity.
Guardian of the Dead
Vladimir Propp’s famous cultural work “The Roots of a Fairy Tale” states that almost all Slavic myths are associated with the ritual tradition of initiation. Ancient community life assumed that growing boys, in order to become men and warriors, should be sent “to the ends of the world,” where they would accomplish a feat, “die, be resurrected,” and then return home changed, mature and strong.
In some epics, the origin of the Serpent Gorynych is seen as the son of Viy, the ruler of the Middle Underground Kingdom. Therefore, the monster has the nickname Gorynych, because it is so powerful and heavy that Mother Earth, to whom it is alien, cannot carry it on herself.
Accordingly, this monster lives in the mountains and guards the entrance to kingdom of the dead. Meanwhile, the young Slavic hero, according to fairy tale, you need to go to Underground Kingdom, in order to “die and rise again,” which means one must kill the Serpent Gorynych, that is, accomplish a feat.
The appearance of the guardian of the world of the dead among the Slavs was obviously formed on the basis of the most ancient cosmogonic myths. One of them says that everything living on earth, both good and evil, came from an egg hatched sacred serpent. Well, the Underground Kingdom is that clot of the unknown and incredible, having known which, you can understand the universe.
Echoes of reality
There is a well-founded opinion that the prototype of mythological dragons in the culture of all nations are dinosaurs that once lived on earth. And if humanity hardly encountered the relict animals themselves, people probably found their skeletons, and this is how all sorts of myths arose.
Well-known specialist in history and culture Ancient Rus' Academician Boris Rybakov believed that the inhabitants of Novgorod in the 4th - 5th centuries worshiped a certain lizard - the ruler of the water element. On this occasion, in his writings he wrote: “... Of particular interest are the authentic harps of the first half of the 12th century from excavations in Novgorod. (...) The left (from the guslar) side of the instrument is sculpted, like the head and part of the body of a lizard. Under the head of the lizard, two small heads of “lizards” are drawn. On the reverse side of the gusel, a lion and a bird are depicted. Thus, in the ornamentation of the gusel, all three life zones are present: sky (bird), earth (horse, lion) and undersea world(lizard). The lizard dominates everything and, thanks to its three-dimensional sculpturality, unites both planes of the instrument..."
Also, during excavations in the Novgorod and Pskov regions, archaeologists found numerous images of lizards made on the structures of window frames and on the handles of buckets. All of them represent not a fairy-tale, but a very real image of a large animal with an elongated muzzle and a huge mouth with clearly defined large teeth.
In one of the chronicles of the 11th century, “The Conversation of Gregory the Theologian on the Test of the City,” in the section devoted to fishing and related pagan rituals, tells about a crocodile lizard that came out of the river and devoured the victim left for it by the local population.
19th century ethnographic writer and collector folk songs Pavel Yakushin, during his trip to the Novgorod region, wrote down from the words of one elder the story of the appearance of the Yuryev monastery: “... There was a Serpentine Beast, this Serpentine Beast lived in this very place, that’s where now this very holy monastery stands (...) . Every night this Snake Beast went to sleep in Ilmen-Lake...”
An unknown chronicler in the 16th century, traveling around Russia, wrote that “...In the summer of 7090, fierce crocodiles came out of the river and the path was closed behind them, they ate a lot of people. People fled in horror all over the earth and prayed to God. They were hiding and he ran away..."
And this is not all the very strange records of ancient years about the existence of certain “crocodile lizards” in the rivers of Rus'. Therefore, it is possible that the origin of the fairy-tale character Snake Gorynych has a very real basis.
How often, while reading fairy tales or watching cartoons, do we meet the Serpent Gorynych?
Battles with great Russian heroes, the kidnapping of Slavic beauties, horror inflicted everywhere - this is what is associated with this character.
But does it really exist? Or is this a folklore image that lived in Rus'?
The appearance of the Serpents of Gorynych is described as follows: a dragon with several heads. As a rule, the quantity was a multiple of 3 - 3, 6, 9, 12, but could be 5 or 7.
His heads breathed fire, and if one of them was cut off, a new one instantly grew. The mythical character had clawed paws, a long tail with spikes and small wings that allowed him to fly everywhere.
They called it differently in different countries ah: Zmok - Slovenia and the Czech Republic, Zmiy - Ukraine, Zmaj - Croatia.
Each country added new features to the image of Goryn, arguing whether he was a dragon or a serpent.
The Serpent Gorynych is not vulnerable, and therefore practically invincible. But there is only one place thanks to which it could be destroyed - a small area of scales next to the head.
Once in this place, the head disappears, but a new one immediately appears in its place.
The weapon that could kill him was called the “Seven-Tailed Whip” in legend.
But it was possible to destroy Goryn only by cutting off all his heads at the same time. One more weak point the snakes are his young. They are defenseless, but only until their scales begin to turn to stone.
The emergence of a mythical patronymic
Why Gorynych and where does the mysterious snake live? It turns out that the patronymic, or nickname, is directly related to the habitat of the mythical character. There are several versions:
- The snake, as a creature, can belong to two elements: fire and water. Therefore, the first option for a lair is in the middle of the sea on a rock.
- According to legends, the Serpent is the guard of the transition between two worlds: the world of the living and the world of the dead. He lives on Kalinov Bridge, which is thrown across the Smorodina River.
- The mountain or cave from which the patronymic was derived. This assumption appeared as a result of one fairy tale. Everything around his habitat is lifeless and dead: grass does not grow, birds do not sing, animals pass by.
- Goryn - from the word burn. The fire that erupted from the monster’s mouth destroyed all living things in its path.
- The last, no less widespread version of where the Serpent Gorynych could live - chambers of gold and silver - also appeared thanks to epics in which he keeps kings and rulers at bay, collecting tribute from them and living in luxury. In this regard, there is an assumption that Goryn is an intelligent being.
The image of the Serpent in history
The symbolism of the image of the Serpent Gorynych is multifaceted in Russian mythology. At the time of the appearance of this creature, the Russian land was tormented by wars and raids by nomads.
It is possible that the snake is the embodiment of all the troubles of that time. Another version that comes from fairy tales: snakes are universal evil, the opposite of good.
The history of the appearance of legends about the Serpent Gorynych originates from paganism.
The Slavs who lived in the north worshiped a certain snake as a deity, making sacrifices. And for the southern Slavs he was a demon.
Christians interpret the image of the serpent as a symbol of the Fall.
It was believed that the snake and the dragon were the Devil in a different guise.
After all, it was because of the tempting serpent that Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden.
Goryn’s main occupation, according to legend, was destruction: he burned villages and cities, took hostages and prisoners, forced them to pay tribute, instilling fear of death.
In this image, he acts as an enemy invader.
Symbols of the many faces of evil are the numerous heads of the serpent. And the struggle between good and evil is depicted by the battles of heroes with him.
In the mythology of different countries, the image of a snake is associated with other monsters.
For example, in the myths about Hercules the Lernaean Hydra was described. A snake with 7 or more heads could breathe fire and regenerate severed heads. Hercules destroyed her in battle, just as the Russian heroes defeated Goryn.
Gorynych in art
Gorynychi turned out to be incredibly widespread in culture. Nowadays, thanks to films, cartoons and fairy tales, the image is more benevolent. There are no bloodshed, battles or kidnappings.
Sculptures:
- Petrazavodsk, 2000. In the year of the dragon, a sculpture of a snake was installed.
- Kharkov, 2000 Wooden Kite on the banks of the Lopan River.
- Novosibirsk, 2013. Fountain with heroes of Russian fairy tales, including the Serpent.
- Lipetsk. there is a huge statue.
Painting:
- V.M. Vasnetsov “Fight of Dobrynya Nikitich with the seven-headed Serpent-Gorynych”
- AND I. Bilibin “Dobrynya’s fight with the Snake”, “Dobrynya Nikitich liberates Zabava Putyatichna from the Snake-Gorynych”
- S. Moskvitin “Dobrynya Nikitich”
- N.K. Roerich "Victory"
Movies:
- “Vasilisa the Beautiful”, Alexander Rowe.
- “Ilya Muromets”, Alexander Ptushko.
- “Fire, water and... copper pipes”, Alexander Rowe.
- “There, on unknown paths”, M. Yuzovsky.
- “They sat on the golden porch,” B. Rytsarev.
The Serpent Gorynych became the most popular in various animated films.
The most popular of them is a series about Russian heroes: “Dobrynya Nikitich and Zmey Gorynych”, “Three heroes and the Shamakhan queen”, “Three heroes on distant shores”, “Three heroes and sea king».
Here the snake is a friend of the heroes, helping them in all fairy-tale vicissitudes.
In literature, the Serpent Gorynych is mentioned in such works as: the epic “About Dobrynya Nikitich and the Serpent-Gorynych”, the fairy tale “Until the third roosters”, “Monday begins on Saturday” by the Strugatsky brothers.
The serpent is among us
It is quite obvious that Zmey Gorynych is completely mythical creature.
It was created in epics and legends as an image of universal evil and invaders in Rus'. No evidence of its existence has been found. And the drawings found in the chronicles are just an accompaniment to the stories about the heroes who liberated Rus' from invasions.
In fairy tales, the Serpent was friends with Baba Yaga and Koshchei the Immortal: together they committed evil deeds. But they are all just fairy-tale characters.
Although, there are skeptics who claim that the Serpent could exist. And they do not exclude the possibility of its existence even now. By modern version, The Serpent is a reptilian, humanoid and snake in one guise. He could transform into a human to charm his captives, and then destroy them.
This is not the first time that assumptions about the existence of reptilians have been put forward. Some believe that they will take over the Earth and enslave humanity, but for now they live among us, trying to develop a plan to take over.
Accordingly, it is possible that the Serpent also lives among us!
