Myths about the creation of the world of ancient civilizations. Myths about the creation of the world - Myths and legends - Children's - Catalog of articles - bibliotechka. Violent winds - out of breath

03.11.2019

"Primordial darkness" - all the same chaos, was present in the ideas of the ancient Slavs, both Western and Eastern.

“And there was the original darkness, and the Mother of Time lived in that darkness, the great Mother of darkness and eternity - Swa. And her heart yearned, she wanted to know the laughter of children, her tender hands, and she took the warmth of her soul, and, holding it in her hands, turned it into a spiral, rolled up a fiery embryo. And out of that fiery germ she made her son. And a son was born from a fiery embryo, and a fire-breathing serpent was born from the umbilical cord, his name is Firth.

And the wise serpent became a friend to the son of Sva - Svarog. As they played, they grew up together. And Svarog became bored with his mother, for he had already become a young man. He also wanted to have small children. And he asked his mother to help him. The Time Mother agreed. She took from her soul and gave it to the wise snake to swallow. It's been a long time. And one day Svarog woke up. He took the heroic staff and touched the tail of the Firth Serpent. And an egg fell out of the serpent.

The Mother of Time picked it up and, breaking it, made a star. Once again, Svarog pressed his staff on the tail of the fiery serpent, and another child (son or daughter) was born to the god and goddess. So were born all the children of him and the Mother of Time - Swa.

How did all living things appear in the white world?

Svarog fell asleep, lay down on a snake-friend, and the snake curled up, becoming a bed for his brother. The Mother of Time, the goddess of Eternity, wanted to surprise her son. She took clear stars in her hands, tore off the old skin from the snake, ground it all into silver dust. She waved her swan hands, and dust scattered across the starry sky. And from that dust all living things were born. And it took not a day, not two, not a thousand years.

Man was made in the same way, only the Great Mother of all things put her soul into his body. That soul is the breath of the sleeping son of Svarog. Maybe that's why the soul sleeps in our body and wakes up only in a difficult time. Maybe this is right, because if a person thought only about the sublime, not caring about their daily bread, people would die out. Know that man was born both by God and by the serpent. That is why it contains both good and bad. The left half is serpentine, and the right half is stellar. It is only important to follow him so that good and bad, evil and good, are in balance, he will only benefit from that. If there is more evil, the soul will burn in a fiery flame, in a flame of anger and envy. And there will be neither benefit nor joy from that life. If the good outweighs, then the person who is very righteous will become boring for people more than necessary. He undertakes to teach without measure. His instructions do not often come from the heart. Such a person is boring and funny.

But the father and mother love all their children. Each child is sweet in their own way. Loves Svarog and faithful friend Firth. Once a year, Svarog walks with a staff across the sky and from those steps the stars fall and space, form, time are born.

But not eternal, like people, the stars in the sky. Svarog himself is not eternal. Everything has death and birth. The hour will come, and Svarog will be destroyed by a friend, a beloved friend, a fiery serpent. It will vomit stinking fire from its mouth, like a thousand hot suns. And the stars will die in flames. And all living things in the world will perish. But, dying, will be reborn. An update will take place. So it has been and so it will be. And at the death of the gods and the fiery serpent, their souls and the souls of people will gather into a single whole, into one common spiral, and the Mother of Time will cherish this whole. And add to it a particle of his soul. And from this, in time, a fiery germ will appear, and fire, earth and water will appear, and everything will repeat itself from the beginning, and will return to its circles. So it was, is and will be ... "

Creation myths

Traditions about the creation of the world are numerous and varied. But the main myth that underlies them belongs to the deepest antiquity. The Slavs imagined the world as being born from water. Such a belief is based on the actual, gradual emergence of land from under the waters that covered it.

According to the pagan traditions of our people, pure and impure forces participated in the creation of the visible world. The first did everything perfectly, and the second spoiled everything. Both deities participate in the creative activity of nature: the dark one - as a representative of the cloudy demons that darken the sky and close the rains, and the light one - as a thunderer of clouds, bringing down rain streams to the earth and enlightening the sun.

At the heart of the myth lies the idea of the spring renewal of nature, of the creation of world life from that deadness and apparent non-existence into which winter plunges it. The same thought lies in the Slavic traditions. At the beginning of spring, the awakened Perun rides on a fiery chariot, in all his formidable grandeur, to the great work of creativity - he strikes crowds of demons with thunderous arrows and, scattering the fruitful seed of rain, sows the earth with various cereals.

At the same time, he brings heavenly bodies out of thick clouds and fogs and, as it were, creates them from those semi-precious stones that until now have been hidden by the demons of winter and darkness at the bottom of the airy, cloudy ocean.

Bringing out the bright, spring sun, he creates white light, i.e., according to the basic meaning of this expression, he gives the world clear days, and according to a broader meaning, he creates the universe.

The sun's rays melt ice and snow, transforming their dead masses into noisy, high-water streams, and only then does earthly life begin with all its luxury and diversity, when the earth finally emerges from under the waters of the spring flood and is fanned by southerly winds.

It was from here that the myth arose that the earth is born from water and floats out of its abyss by the power of a divine breath. According to ancient belief, the earth, by the will of God, emerged from the abyss of the sea, in which, before the beginning of the world, it was immersed along with the sun, moon, stars, lightning and winds.

Life itself on earth originated from the moment when a fire flared up inside it, that is, when the rays of the spring sun warmed the frozen earth and awakened the power of fertility in it.

There was a belief that the universe was created by the king-fire and the queen-water, that is, lightning and rain, the heavenly fire of the sun and the living water of spring floods. It is remarkable that the word "create" points to water as an essential element of creativity. A "mortar" is a mixture of water and something dry.

In all mythologies, the deity of spring thunderstorms, as the fertilizer of the earth and the bearer of crops, is endowed with creative power. From his breath came winds, from his words - thunders, from tears - rains, from thick hair - clouds and clouds.

All these legends are rooted in one of the oldest myths. Two elemental forces act for the great feat of creating the world: light and dark. Despite the obvious desire of folk fantasy to build an ancient myth to the latest Christian views, the whole setting of the legend indicates that we are talking about the thunder god (Perun) and the demon of gloomy clouds:

“At the beginning of the world, God was pleased to push the earth forward. He called the devil, told him to dive into the abyss of water in order to get a handful of earth from there and bring it to him. “All right, Satan thinks, I will make the same earth myself!” He dived, took out the earth in his hand and stuffed his mouth with it. He brought it to God and gives it back, but he himself does not utter a word ...

Wherever the Lord throws the earth - it suddenly appears so even, even, that you stand at one end - then at the other you can see everything that is happening on the earth. Satan is watching... he wanted to say something and choked. God asked: what does he want? The devil coughed and ran out of fright. Then thunder and lightning struck the fleeing Satan, and wherever he lies down, hillocks and hills will move forward; where he coughs, a mountain will grow; And so, running all over the earth, he dug it up: he made hillocks, hills, mountains and lofty mountains.

The creation of the world in Slavic mythology is also associated with the name of Svarog - the god of heaven and heavenly fire, the spiritual ruler of our universe. He is the husband of Lada, the father of Dazhdbog - the progenitor of the Russians, the ancestor of most of the Slavic gods.

According to some legends, Svarog found the magic stone Alatyr, cast a spell, and the stone became a huge white-combustible stone. God foamed the ocean for them. The thickened moisture became the first land. Mother Earth Cheese appeared. In Slavic mythology, Alatyr-stone is the father of all stones, a sacred rock in the center of the world, in the middle of the sea-ocean, on the island of Buyan. And on it stands the world tree - the tree of life, the axis of the world. The lower part of the tree (roots) is connected with the underworld, the middle (trunk) - with the earth, and the upper (branches) - with the heavenly, higher. It serves as the throne of all the supreme gods.

According to other legends, before the birth of light, the world was shrouded in darkness. Only Rod was in the darkness. Rod is the spring of the universe, the father of the gods. Rod gave birth to Love - Mother Lada. Rod suffered for a long time, he pushed for a long time. And he gave birth to the kingdom of heaven, and under it he created the heavenly. He cut the umbilical cord with a rainbow, separated the Ocean - the blue sea from the heavenly waters with a firmament of stone. He erected three vaults in heaven, divided Light and Darkness, Truth from Falsehood. Rod then gave birth to Mother Earth, and the Earth went into the dark abyss, she was buried in the Ocean. The sun then came out of his face - the very Kind of heaven, the progenitor and father of the gods! A bright moon - from his chest; frequent stars - from his eyes; clear dawns - from his eyebrows; dark nights - yes from his thoughts; violent winds from his breath; rain and snow and hail from his tears; his voice became thunder and lightning - the very Kind of heaven, the progenitor and father of the gods!

Pavel Bryullov. Landscape with a river

Rod gave birth to Svarog heavenly. Svarog began to pave the way for the Sun across the firmament, so that the horse-days raced across the sky, after the morning so that the day began, and the night came to replace the day. Svarog began to look around his possessions. He sees - the Sun rolls across the sky, the bright moon sees the stars, and under it the Ocean spreads and worries, foams with foam. He looked around his possessions, did not notice only Mother Earth.

Where is Mother Earth? he was sad. Then I noticed: something in the Ocean-Sea is turning black. This is a gray duck swimming, generated by sulfur foam.

Do you know where the Earth lies? - Svarog asked the gray duck.

“Under the water, the Earth,” the duck answered, “is buried deep in the Ocean ...

The duck said nothing, dived into the Ocean-Sea, hid in the abyss for a whole year. As the year ended, it rose from the bottom.

- I didn’t have enough spirit a little bit, I didn’t swim to the Earth a bit. I didn’t swim all the hair ...

Help us, Rod! - Svarog called here. Then violent winds rose, the blue sea roared ... Rod blew strength into the duck with the wind. And Svarog said to the gray duck:

- At the behest of the Heavenly Family, at the desire-desire of the welder, you get the Earth from the depths of the sea!

The duck did not say anything, dived into the Ocean-Sea and hid in the abyss for two years. As the term was over, it rose from the bottom.

- I didn’t have enough spirit a little bit, I didn’t swim to the Earth a bit. I did not swim half a hair ...

Help, father! Svarog screamed here. Then violent winds rose, and menacing clouds went across the sky, a great storm broke out, Rod's voice - thunder - shook the heavens, and lightning struck the duck. Rod breathed that great strength into a formidable storm into the gray duck. And again Svarog cursed the gray duck:

- At the behest of the Heavenly Family, at the desire-desire of the welder, you get the Earth from the depths of the sea!

The duck said nothing, dived into the Ocean-Sea and hid in the abyss for three years. As the term was over, it rose from the bottom. She brought a handful of earth in her beak.

Svarog took a handful of earth, began to crush in his palms.

- Warm up, Red Sun, light up, Bright moon, help, violent winds! We will sculpt from the damp earth the Earth-mother mother-nurse. Help us, Rod! Lada, help!

Svarog crushes the earth - the Sun warms, the Moon shines and the winds blow. The winds blew the earth from the palm, and it fell into the blue sea. The Red Sun warmed her - the Cheese-Earth baked on top with a crust, then cooled her Light Moon. So Svarog created Mother Earth Three underground vaults he established in it - three underground, infernal kingdoms. And so that the Earth would not go into the sea again, Rod gave birth to powerful Yusha under it - a wondrous, powerful snake. It is hard for him to keep Mother Earth for many thousands of years. Thus, Mother Earth Cheese was born. So on the Serpent she rested. If Yusha-Snake moves, Mother Earth-Cheese will turn.

And here is a legend recorded in Northern Russia already in Christian times: “Two goldeneyes floated on the ocean-sea: the first was a white goldeneye, and the other was a black goldeneye. And those two gogols swam the Lord Almighty himself and Satan. By God's command, by the blessing of the Mother of God, Satan pulled out a handful of earth from the bottom of the blue sea. From that handful, the Lord created flat places and pathy fields, and Satan made impenetrable abysses, awls (gorges) and high mountains.

And the Lord struck with a hammer and created his army, and a great war began between them. At first, the army of Satan prevailed, but in the end, the power of heaven took over. And Michael the Archangel overthrew the satanic army from heaven, and it fell to the ground in different places, which is why water, goblin and brownies appeared.

A similar tradition is found in the apocryphal literature. “Before the creation of the world, the Lord of hosts sat in three chambers in the air, and the light from his face was seventy-seven times brighter than this light, his garments were whiter than snow, brighter than the sun. There was then no sky, no earth, no sea, no clouds, no stars, no dawn, no days, no nights.

And the Lord said: wake up the crystal sky and wake up the dawn, and clouds, and stars! And he blew the winds from his bowels, and planted paradise in the east, and the Lord himself sat in the east in the beauty of his glory, and the thunder is the voice of the Lord, it is confirmed in the chariot of fire, and the lightning is the word of the Lord, it comes from the mouth of God.

Then the Lord created the sea of Tiberias, boundless, and down to the sea through the air ... and the sight of the goldeneye floating on the sea, and that is the recommended Satan - entangled in the mud of the sea. And the Lord said to Satanail, as if not knowing him: Who are you for a man? And Satan said to him: I am a god. - And what do you call me? And Satan answered, You are God of God and Lord of the Lord. If Satan had not spoken like this to the Lord, the Lord would have immediately crushed him on the Sea of Tiberias. And the Lord said to Satanail: dive into the sea and bring out sand and stone for me. And the Lord took sand and stone, and scattered (sand) over the sea, and said: wake the earth thick and spacious!

Then the Lord took a stone, broke it in two, and pure spirits flew out of one half from the blows of the rod of God, while from the other half Satan filled the countless power of demons. But Michael the Archangel cast him down with all the demons from high heaven.

The earth created by God was established on thirty-three whales.

Here is another version of an ancient legend: “There was neither sky nor earth, but only darkness and water mixed with earth like batter. God and Satan walked on the water for a long time, finally got tired and decided to rest. And there is nowhere to rest. Then God ordered Satan:

- Dive to the bottom of the sea and pull out a few grains of earth with the words: "In the name of the Lord, follow me, earth," and carry me upstairs.

Satan dived to the bottom of the sea, grabbed a handful of earth and thought to himself: “Why should I say:“ In the name of the Lord, ”how am I worse than God?” He clamped the earth in his fist and said:

In my name, earth, follow me.

But when he surfaced, it turned out that he did not have a grain of sand in his hands. Satan again dived to the bottom, picked up a handful of earth and again said:

- In my name, go, earth, follow me.

And again, nothing came out. God told him:

- You again did not listen to me and wanted to do it your own way. However, your idea is in vain, nothing will come of you. Dive in and tell me how I taught you.

Satan dived a third time, scooped up earth, and when he mentioned the name of God, he managed to pull up a handful of earth.

God took this land, sprinkled it over the water, and a small hillock with grass and trees formed on it. God, tired of work, lay down and fell asleep, and Satan was annoyed that he was not so omnipotent, so he decided to drown God. Satan took God in his arms to throw into the water, and sees that the earth in front of him has grown ten steps. He ran to the water to drown God, but as he ran, the earth grew and grew, and Satan could not reach the water. Satan put God on the ground and thinks: “The earth is as thin as a shell. I will dig a hole down to the water and throw God into it.” But no matter how much he dug, he could not get to the bottom of the water.

That is why there is so much earth in the world - Satan "ran" it when he wanted to destroy God.

Meanwhile, God woke up and said:

- Now you understand that you are powerless compared to me - the earth and water obey me, not you. And the hole that you dug will be needed by you yourself - under the heat.

As you can see, the legend about the joint creation of the world by God and his companion, who gradually becomes the enemy of the Lord, has become most widespread. This comrade-enemy in different versions of the legend can be called Satan, the Idol, the Evil One, the fallen angel, etc.

Having created the earth, God strengthened it on the fish that swim in the sea. Every seven years, the fish rises and falls, resulting in some years being rainy and others being dry. When the fish moves, turning over on the other side, earthquakes happen.

In some areas, it is believed that the fish, holding the earth, lies curled up in a ring and squeezes its tail with its teeth, and earthquakes occur when it releases the tail from its mouth.

It is sometimes believed that two fish, a male and a female, alternately hold the earth: when the male holds it, the earth rises higher above the surface of the sea and the year is dry. When the female holds the land, the land is closer to the water, as a result, the rivers and seas overflow their banks and the summer is wet.

And they also say that the earth rests on “high water”, water on stone, stone on four golden whales swimming in a fiery river. And everything together rests on the iron oak, which stands on the power of God.

Rivers, lakes and springs were dug up by birds. At the command of God, they all gathered together and first dug riverbeds and beds for reservoirs, and then brought water into them. According to other beliefs, the whole earth in the middle is cut with veins, through which water comes to the surface. And they also say that in the middle of the earth there is its “navel” - a hole from which water flows, then spreading along rivers, lakes and other bodies of water.

The people believed that mountains, gorges, swamps, bogs and other barren and inconvenient parts of the earth for human habitation were the work of Satan. When Satan, at the command of God, took out the earth from the bottom of the sea, he did not give it all to God, he hid a little behind his cheek. When God commanded the earth, thrown by him on the surface of the sea, to grow, the earth began to grow behind the cheek of Satan. He began to spit it out, and from the spitting of Satan turned out mountains, swamps and other barren places.

According to other legends, God, when creating the earth, boiled it, and the bubbles that formed while the earth was boiling, cooled down, turned into mountains. And they also say that at the beginning of the world the earth was liquid, God and Satan squeezed it from both sides in order to squeeze out excess moisture, mountains came out of the soil that came out from strong compression.

Ivan Bilibin. Illustration for the fairy tale "White Duck"

However, there are many different legends about the origin of mountains and stones. Most often it is believed that stones used to be living beings - they felt, multiplied, grew like grass, and were soft. Especially large blocks of stone, boulders and rocks are often considered to be petrified people, animals or fabulous giants, punished in this way for working on a holiday, fornication, insolence, murder, laziness or some other sin. In the villages near Tula, they said that a group of stones located around is a petrified round dance of girls punished for dancing on Trinity.

In some later legends about the origin of stones, the influence of the biblical story about the struggle of God with fallen angels is clearly felt:

“At the beginning of time, the earth was level and gave birth to bread ten times more than now, because there was not a single stone. But the devils rebelled against God and wanted to be just like him. Then God threw them from heaven to earth, turned them into stones and cursed them so that they would not grow again. And that's where the big stone is now - that means there was a great devil, and where there is a small stone, there was a little devil. And if God had not cursed them and they would have grown, then it would be impossible for a person not only to plow and sow rye, but also to walk on the ground.

About the creation of the first people

The myth puts the creation of the first man in close connection with the legends about the origin of fire. Just as fire was produced on earth by rubbing one log inserted into the hole of another, so in heaven the thunder god drills a giant tree-cloud with his sharp club, and from this drilling it gives birth to a baby lightning.

The ancient man, who in the thunder club recognized the child-bearing member of the fertilizing god of earthly nature, naturally brought this idea of the origin of fire and lightning closer to the act of intercourse and the birth of a baby, especially since the very life that animates a person (his soul) was understood as kindled flame.

The sacred songs of the Vedas, in the fire produced by friction, see the fruit of the matrimonial union of two stumps of a tree, of which one represents the receptive wife, and the other the influencing husband, the oil with which they were anointed is called carnal seed.

Alphonse Mucha. Slavs in their original homeland

From this arose mythical legends: firstly, that the soul of a newborn descends to earth in lightning, and secondly, that the first couple of people were created by the gods from wood.

Our ancestors explained the secret of the creation and birth of man by the same creative power of the thunderbolt, which called the whole visible world into being. He sent lightning to make the first hearth on the earth, kindle a flame on it and establish a household and a sacrificial rite. At the same time, the first man was created, the first householder and priest, in the image of which the representations of the fire burning on the hearth and the ancestor of the tribe were combined. Subsequently, when a family union was established, the thunder god, every time a baby was born, brought down lightning from the sky and kindled the flame of life in it.

The reproduction of a family, a clan, has been compared from time immemorial to sprouts that a tree shoots out of itself, as a result of which the trunk (stump, root) serves in epic poetry as a symbol of a father or ancestor, and branches as a symbol of their children and descendants.

In folk songs, there is a comparison of children with branches and the top of a tree. The parallel drawn in the language and folk beliefs between a branchy tree and a whole family, with particular clarity, declared itself in the custom of designating the origin of noble people and the degree of their relationship through the so-called genealogical tree. Old German sagas tell of a mother who dreamed that a large, shady tree with beautiful fruits grew from her heart or womb. This dream was an omen that she would soon give birth to a son - the ancestor of a vast and glorious tribe. Thus, the son seemed to be like a process emanating from the bowels of the mother, and in order to adopt someone else's child, it was necessary to perform a symbolic ceremony - to put him on his knees.

Konstantin Makovsky. Reaper

On the kinship of the soul with elemental beings

Mythical ideas about the kinship of the human soul with elemental beings, about forest spirits and maidens, whose life is inextricably linked with known plants, led to the creation of various legends that tell about the transformation of a person and the transition of his soul into a tree or a flower.

Faith in the possibility of such metamorphoses, inherited from the deepest antiquity, was sealed by the view that ancient man had of himself. He compared the birth of a child and its slow, gradual growth to the growth of a tree. Separate parts of the body seemed to him like those shoots and branches that a tree trunk gives out.

This view is attested by the history of language. The seed serves as a common name for the grain, from which every cereal and every tree grows, and for the fertilizing principle in animals and man. Pregnancy is likened to the sprout of a sown seed. So, in the folk bylina, the wife of the hero Danube says:

You and I have a child sown in the womb,

I will bring you my beloved son.

Give me a baby to bear,

At least put your seeds into the light.

In other songs, the bogatyrs order their retinue to beat the enemy kingdom, cut down both the old and the small, and not leave a single person for seeds.

"Semyachko" is used in regional dialects as an affectionate name for a child. The birth of a baby is likened to a fruit brought by a tree: to bear fruit is to become pregnant, a barren wife is one who does not give birth.

A meeting with a pregnant woman promises a plowman a harvest.

According to ancient laws, such a woman could enter someone else's garden with impunity and eat fruits. They believed that the young tree, from which the first fruits are plucked by a pregnant woman, will certainly be fruitful.

The names of the foot, hand, fingers and nails in Sanskrit are explained by likening a person to a plant. With his feet, a person touches the ground and thus resembles a tree attached by its roots to the mother earth. If the legs were compared with the roots, then the body itself was represented as a trunk, and the arms seemed to be branches, processes.

Comparing the birth of a child with the sprout of a sown seed, poetic fantasy introduced this idea into folk tales. So, the Russian hero Potigoroshek was born from grains eaten by his mother. An orphaned mother, whose daughter was taken by a snake and two sons killed, goes to the river and sees: a pea rolls along the road and falls into the water. "God's gift!" she thinks, she took out a pea and ate it. From this grain she bore fruit and gave birth to a son, the future winner of terrible snakes.

Another tale tells of the Flower-prince. One king imprisoned his beautiful daughter in a strong castle, wanting to protect her from all sorts of seductions. The princess was sixteen years old, and her beauty was so omnipotent that when she walked in the garden, the flowers bowed their colorful heads before her, the birds fell silent in the bushes and the fish looked out of the waters. Once, when the princess was in the garden, an unfamiliar gypsy came up to her and gave her a bunch of beautiful, fragrant flowers. The beauty brought the flowers to her chamber and put them in the water, the water turned purple, and gold and silver stars appeared on it - just like the fragrant dust that covers the petals of flowers. The princess drank this water - and immediately became pregnant and gave birth to a mighty son, who strikes snakes just like our Pokatigoroshka.

Such a supernatural origin of the hero belongs to the most ancient myths about the thunder god.

There is a story about the origin of buckwheat: the king had a daughter of indescribable beauty, named Krupenichka. The evil Tatars raided the Russian land, captivated Krupenichka, took her away from her homeland and betrayed her to hard work. A prophetic old woman freed her from captivity. She turned the girl into a buckwheat seed, brought it to Russia and threw it on her native land. The grain turned into royal, and buckwheat grew out of its husk.

According to another story, an old woman, having brought buckwheat grain to Russia, buried it in the ground, the seed sprouted and gave birth to a blade of grass with seventy-seven grains. Violent winds blew and carried these grains to seventy-seven fields. Since then, buckwheat has bred in Holy Russia.

In this legend (originally it could refer to any spring bread in general) is the myth of the beautiful goddess of spring fertility, who is captured by demonic hordes and kept in severe captivity during the winter. With the return of spring, she is freed from their power, arrives from distant lands in a thundercloud and, crumbling to the ground with the fertile seed of rain, is reborn in the dense greenery of spring bread.

One of the most common Russian fairy tales tells how a sister killed her brother out of envy and buried him in the ground. A reed (or viburnum) grew in that place. They drove past the chumaks, cut a reed and made a pipe, which - as soon as they brought it to their lips - began to play by itself:

My sister ruined me

Knife in the heart, yes, I fixed it.

Thus the crime was exposed.

This storyline is very varied. Sometimes a brother kills a brother, and an elder grows on the grave of the murdered one. Sometimes a stepmother is a stepdaughter, and viburnum grows. Sometimes two sisters, the third, bury it in the grave and cover it with a Christmas tree on top, and a flower grows on the Christmas tree that sings about the perfect crime. In a folk song, a similar legend is associated with a willow bush.

Konstantin Makovsky. Russian beauty

In Slavic fairy tales, it is more often not the bones of an innocently killed person who speak of a committed crime, but a tree, a cane, a reed or a flower growing from his buried corpse, as if from a seed thrown into the ground.

A Little Russian song recalls the transformation of a drowned girl into a weeping birch. Drowning, the girl says to her brother:

Do not chop, brother, beaten birch,

Do not mow, brother, shovkovy grass,

Do not see, brother, blackthorn,

A birch birch - then I'm young,

Shovkovaya grass is my Rusa braid,

The blackthorn is my black eyes.

South Russian poetry is especially rich in legends about transformations into flowers and trees and reveals to the researcher a wonderful fantasy world full of artistic images and genuine feelings.

The above song has several variants offering no less interesting convergences. Maiden's braids spread across the meadows with silk grass, brown or black eyes turn into thorn berries, blood spills with water, and tears glitter on grass and leaves with dew - all based on ancient metaphors that likened hair to grass, blood to water, tears to dew, eyes - thorn berries.

The content of the song, known in Belarus, is touching, about how a mother disliked her young daughter-in-law, regaled her son with green wine, and her daughter-in-law with poison. The good fellow drank - he brought it to his wife, the young woman drank - he brought it to her husband, everyone divided it in half, and both died in one hour. She buried her son's mother in front of the church, and her daughter-in-law behind the church. A green sycamore grew on the grave of the good fellow, and a white birch (or viburnum) grew on the grave of his wife.

About the Ivan da Marya flower, known in Ukraine under the name “brother and sister”, a folk song tells the following legend: a good fellow went to a foreign side, got married and began to ask his young wife about the clan and tribe, and recognized her as his own sister . Then the sister says to her brother:

We go, brother, to the forest,

Let's become a weed-grass:

Oh, you will become a yellow flower,

And I will be blue.

Who is the flower uvirve,

Remember your sister and brother!

There is a story about the cornflower that once it was a young and handsome young man who was lured by a mermaid on Trinity Day in a field, tickled and turned into a flower. The young man's name was Vasil, and this name (according to the people) was transferred to the flower itself.

In Russia, they say about nettles that an evil sister turned into her. This is a fragment of that poetic legend that the ancient song conveys to us: Pavel had a beloved sister Olenushka, Pavlov's young wife slaughtered first a black horse, then a gray falcon, finally her own child, and everything was slandering Olenushka. Pavel took his sister by her white hands, led her out into the field, tied her to horse tails and drove the horses across a wide expanse: where blood watered the earth, fragrant flowers grew there, where she herself fell, a church was created there. After a short time, the young woman Pavlova fell ill, she lay for nine years, grass sprouted through the bones, fierce snakes swarm in that grass and drink her eyes. She asks to be taken to her sister-in-law's church, but in vain - she did not find forgiveness here and began to pray to her husband to tie her to horse tails. Pavel fulfilled her request and drove the horses across the field: where blood was shed, nettles and thorns grew there, where she herself fell, there was a lake.

III Traditions about the Creation of the world and man The legend about the Creation of the world, which lives in the mouths of the Russian people, is furnished with such details that, undoubtedly, belong to the deepest antiquity. In Tereshchenko's book, this legend is written in the following form:

From the book The Twelfth Planet the author Sitchin Zechariah

CHAPTER SEVEN THE MYTH OF CREATION OF THE WORLD On most of the cylinder seals found by archaeologists, symbols that designate celestial bodies belonging to our solar system are located above the figures of gods or people.

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From the book Traditions of the Russian people author Kuznetsov I. N.

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author

19.6. According to the book "Popol Vuh", Gur Khan, that is, Genghis Khan, participates in the biblical creation of the world. The story of the Popol Vuh about the creation of the world is more or less close to the version of the biblical book of Genesis, p. 81–89. However, the American book has additional interesting

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19.8. Repeated story of the book "Popol Vuh" about the creation of the world by two progenitors - the Spanish Gog and the Great Moscow Khan Speaking about the creation of the world, Popol Vuh calls the progenitors of the world the names of Xpiyakok (Xpiyacoc) and Shmukan? (Xmucan?), p. 79, 87. Note for what follows that

author Meyendorff Ioann Feofilovich

From the book Introduction to Patristic Theology author Meyendorff Ioann Feofilovich

From the book Creation Myths author Shakhnovich Mikhail Iosifovich

WHEN DID THE MYTH ABOUT THE CREATION OF THE WORLD APPEAR? The Arunta tribe of Australia believes that the world has existed from eternity. In ancient times, half-animals, half-humans lived, who turned one object into another by means of witchcraft. How did these mythological creatures come about - no one

From the book Secrets and mysteries of ancient Egypt author Kalifulov Nikolai Mikhailovich

MYTHS ABOUT THE CREATION OF THE WORLD AND THE FIRST PEOPLE

Egypt childish mythology
The Egyptians believed that people and their Ka (soul) were fashioned from clay by the ram-headed god Khnum. He is the main creator of the world. He sculpted the whole world on a potter's wheel and in the same way he created people and animals.

The myth of the ancient Indians
The progenitor of the world was Brahma. People appeared from the body of Purusha - the primordial man whom the gods sacrificed at the beginning of the world. They threw him, like a sacrificial animal, on straw, doused him with oil, surrounded him with firewood. From this sacrifice, divided into parts, hymns and chants, horses, bulls, goats and sheep were born. From his mouth priests arose, his hands became warriors, farmers were created from his thighs, and the lower class was born from his feet. From Purusha's mind arose a month, from an eye - the sun, fire was born from his mouth, and from his breath - the wind. The air came from his navel, the sky came from his head, the cardinal points were created from his ears, and the earth became his feet. Thus, from a great sacrifice, the eternal gods created the world.

Greek mythology
According to Greek mythology, Prometheus, the son of the titan Iapetus, the cousin of Zeus, fashioned people from earth and water. Prometheus created people looking at the sky, in the likeness of the gods.
According to some myths, people and animals were created by the Greek gods in the depths of the earth from a mixture of fire and earth, and the gods instructed Prometheus and Epimetheus to distribute abilities between them. Epimetheus is to blame for the defenselessness of people, since he spent all the abilities for life on earth on animals, so Prometheus had to take care of people (gave them fire, etc.).

The myth of the peoples of Central America
The gods molded the first people from wet clay. But they did not justify the hopes of the great gods. Everything would be fine: they are both alive and able to speak, but how can clay blockheads even turn their heads? They stare at one point and goggle their eyes. And then they will begin to crawl, sprinkle them with a little rain. But worst of all - they came out soulless, brainless ...
The gods got down to business a second time. "Let's try to make people out of wood!" they agreed. No sooner said than done. And the earth was inhabited by wooden idols. But they had no heart, and they were foolish.
And the gods decided once again to take up the creation of people. “In order to create people from flesh and blood, we need a noble material that will give them life, strength, and intelligence,” the gods decided. They found this noble material - white and yellow maize (corn). They threshed the cobs, kneaded the dough, from which they blinded the first reasonable people.

Myth of the North American Indians
Once it was such a hot summer that the reservoir in which the turtles lived dried up. Then the turtles decided to look for another place to live and hit the road.
The fattest tortoise, to make it easier for himself, took off his shell. So she walked without a shell until she turned into a man - the ancestor of the Turtle family.

The myth of the North American Acoma tribetells that the first two women learned in a dream that people live underground. They dug a hole and freed the people.

The myth of the Inca people
In Tiahuanaco, the creator of all things created the tribes there. He made one person of each tribe out of clay and drew the dress they were to wear; those who should be with long hair, he sculpted with long hair, and those who should be shorn, with short ones; and every nation was given its own language, and its own songs, and cereals, and food.
When the creator finished this work, he breathed life and soul into every man and woman and ordered them to go underground. And each tribe went out where it was ordered.

Myth of the Indians of Mexico
When everything was ready on Earth, Nohotsakyum created people. The first were the kalsia, that is, the monkey people, then the koha-ko, the boar people, then the kapuk, the jaguar people, and finally the chan-ka, the pheasant people. So he created different nations. He made them out of clay - men, women, children, fit their eyes, noses, arms, legs and everything else, then put the figures in a fire, on which he usually baked tortillas (corn cakes). From the fire, the clay hardened, and people came to life.

Australian myths
In the beginning, the Earth was covered by the sea, and at the bottom of the dried up primeval ocean and on the slopes of the rocks protruding from the waves, there were already ... lumps of helpless creatures with glued fingers and teeth, closed ears and eyes. Other similar human "larvae" lived in the water and looked like shapeless balls of raw meat, in which the rudiments of parts of the human body were only guessed. A flycatcher bird separated human embryos from each other with a stone knife, cut through their eyes, ears, mouth, nose, fingers ... She taught them how to make fire by friction, cook food, gave them a spear, a spear thrower, a boomerang, each one provided him with a personal churing-goy (guardian of the soul).
Different Australian tribes consider kangaroo, emu, opossum, wild dog, lizard, crow, bat as their ancestors.

There once lived two brothers, two twins - Bunjil and Palian. Bunjil could transform into a falcon, and Palian could transform into a raven. One brother made mountains and rivers on the earth with a wooden sword, and the other made salt water and fish that live in the sea. Once Bunjil took two pieces of bark, put clay on them and began to knead it with a knife, sculpting legs, torso, arms and head - this is how he created a man. He also made a second one. He was pleased with his work and performed a dance with joy. Since then, people have existed, since then they have been dancing for joy. To one man he attached wood fibers like hair, and to another too - the first had curly hair, the second straight. Since then, men of some genera have curly hair, while others have straight hair.

Scandinavian mythology
Having created the world, Odin (the supreme deity) and his brothers decided to populate it. One day, on the seashore, they found two trees: an ash and an alder. The gods cut them down and made a man out of ash and a woman out of alder. Then one of the gods breathed life into them, another gave them intelligence, and a third gave them blood and rosy cheeks. So the first people appeared, and they were called: the man - Ask, and the woman - Embla.

In any mythology, myths about the creation of the world and people form the basis. It is difficult to single out any particular trend in all this. The creators of the world are somewhere gods, somewhere animals, and even plants. How the primordial creature arose from the primordial Chaos and how the world created - each myth has its own story for this. This article presents several myths about the creation of the world of the Slavs, Greeks, Sumerians, Egyptians, Indians, Chinese, Scandinavians, Zoroastrians, Arikara, Huron, Maya Indians.

Slavs.

The Slavs had several legends about where the world and its inhabitants came from. Many peoples (ancient Greeks, Iranians, Chinese) had myths that the world arose from an egg. Similar legends and tales can be found among the Slavs. In the tale of the three kingdoms, the hero goes in search of the three princesses to the underworld. First, he falls into the copper kingdom, then into the silver and gold. Each princess gives the hero an egg, into which he turns in turn, enclosing each kingdom. Having got out into the world, he throws eggs on the ground and unfolds all three kingdoms.

One of the old legends says: “In the beginning, when there was nothing in the world but a boundless sea, a duck, flying over it, dropped an egg into the abyss of water. The egg split open, and from its lower part came out mother-cheese earth, and from the upper rose a high vault of heaven.

Another legend connects the appearance of the world with the duel of the hero with the serpent, which was guarding the golden egg. The hero killed the snake, split the egg - three kingdoms came out of it: heavenly, earthly and underground.

And here is how the Carpathian Slavs told about the birth of the world:
When was the beginning of the world
Then there was no sky, no earth, only the blue sea,
And in the middle of the sea - a tall oak,
Two marvelous doves sat on an oak tree,
Began to think how to establish the light?
We'll go down to the bottom of the sea
Let's take out the fine sand
Fine sand, golden stone.
We sow fine sand
We will lift the golden stone.
From fine sand - black earth,
Studena water, green grass.
From the golden stone - blue sky, Blue sky, bright sun,
The moon is clear and all the stars.

Here is another myth. At the beginning of time, the world was in darkness. But the Almighty revealed the Golden Egg, in which the Family was enclosed - the Parent of all things.
Rod gave birth to Love - Mother Lada and, by the power of Love, destroying its dungeon, gave birth to the Universe - countless star worlds, as well as our earthly world.
The sun then went out of His face.
A bright moon - from His chest.
Frequent stars - from His eyes.
Clear dawns - from His eyebrows.
Dark nights - yes from His thoughts.
Violent winds - out of breath)..
"The Book of Kolyada", 1 a
So Rod gave birth to everything that we see around - everything that is with Rod - everything that we call Nature. The clan separated the visible, manifested world, that is, Reality, from the invisible world, the spiritual from Novi. Rod separated Pravda from Krivda.
In the fiery chariot Rod was approved by thundering Thunder. The Sun God Ra, who emerged from the face of the Family, was approved in a golden boat, and the Month in a silver one. Rod emitted from his mouth the Spirit of God - the bird Mother Swa. By the Spirit of God, Rod gave birth to Svarog - the Heavenly Father.
Svarog finished peacemaking. He became the owner of the earthly World, the lord of the Kingdom of God. Svarog approved twelve pillars supporting the firmament.
From the Word of the Most High, Rod created the god Barma, who began to mutter prayers, glorifications, and recite the Vedas. He also gave birth to the Spirit of Barma, his wife Tarusa.
Rod became the Heavenly Spring and gave birth to the waters of the Great Ocean. From the foam of the waters of the Ocean, the World Duck appeared, giving birth to many gods - yasuns and demons-dasuns. The clan gave birth to the Cow Zemun and the Goat Sedun, milk spilled from their nipples and became the Milky Way. Then he created the Alatyr stone, with which he began to churn this Milk. Mother Earth Cheese was created from the butter obtained after churning.

Sumerians.

The Sumerians explained the origin of the universe in the following way.
In Sumerian mythology, heaven and earth were originally thought of as a mountain, the basis of which was the earth, personified in the goddess Ki, and the top was the sky, the god An. From their union, the god of air and wind, Enlil, was born, himself called the “Great Mountain”, and his temple in the city of Nippur was called the “House of the Mountain”: he separated the sky from the earth and arranged the cosmos-universe. Thanks to Enlil, the luminaries also appear. Enlil falls in love with the goddess Ninlil and possesses her by force as she sails down the river in her barque. For this, the elder gods banish him to the underworld, but Ninlil, who has already conceived a son, the moon god Nanna, follows him, and Nanna is born in the underworld. In the underworld, Enlil takes the form of guardians of the underworld three times, gives birth to three underground gods with Ninlil. They return to the heavenly world. From now on, Nanna in a barque, accompanied by stars and planets, travels through the sky at night, and through the underworld during the day. He gives birth to a son, the solar god Utu, who travels through the sky during the day, while at night he travels through the underworld, bringing light, drink and food to the dead. Then Enlil equips the earth: he grew the "seed of the fields" from the earth, produced "everything useful", invented the hoe.
There is another version of the myth about the creation of the world.
The beginning of this story is quite beautiful. Long ago, when there was neither heaven nor earth, there lived Tiamat, the goddess of sweet waters, Apsu, the god of salty waters, and their son, the fog rising above the water.
Then Tiamat and Apsu gave birth to two pairs of twins: Lahma and Lahama (demons), and then Anshar and Kishar, who were smarter and stronger than the elders. Anshar and Kishar had a child named Annu. Annu became the god of the sky. Ea was born to Annu. This is the god of underground waters, magic.
The younger gods - Lahma, Lahama, Anshar, Kishar, Anna and Ea - gathered every evening for a noisy feast. They prevented Apsu and Tiamat from getting enough sleep. Only Mummu, the eldest son of Apsu and Tiamat, did not take part in these amusements. Apsu and Mummu appealed to the younger gods with a request to stop the festivities, but they were not listened to. The elders decided to kill everyone who interfered with sleep.
Ea decided to kill Apsu, who plotted against the younger ones.
Tiamat decided to avenge her husband's death. Her new husband, the god Kingu, strongly supported this idea.
So Tiamat and Kingu devised a plan for revenge. Upon learning of Tiamat's plan, Ea turned to Anshar's grandfather for advice. Anshar offered to strike Tiamat with the help of magic, because her husband was dealt with in this way. But Ea's magical powers do not affect Tiamat.
Anu, Ea's father, tried to reason with the angry goddess, but nothing came of it. Since magic and negotiation led to nothing, it remained to turn to physical strength.
Whom to send to battle? Everyone decided that only Marduk could do it. Anshar, Anu and Ea initiated young Marduk into the secrets of divine magic. Marduk is ready to fight Tiamat, as a reward for victory, he demands the undivided power of the supreme god.
Young Marduk gathered all the Anunnaki (as the gods called themselves) so that they approved the war with the supreme goddess and recognized him as their king. Anshar sent his secretary Kaku to call Lahma, Lahama, Kishara and Damkina. Upon learning of the upcoming war, the gods were horrified, but a good meal with plenty of wine reassured them.
In addition, Marduk demonstrated his magical power, and the gods recognized him as king.
The merciless battle lasted for a long time. Tiamat fought desperately. But Marduk defeated the goddess.
Marduk removed the “tables of fate” from Kingu (they determined the movement of the world and the course of all events) and put it on his neck. He cut the body of the slain Tiamat into two parts: from one he made the sky, from the other - the earth. Humans were created from the blood of the murdered Kingu.

Egyptians.

In the Egyptian city of Heliopolis, the “proud of the Sun,” as the Greeks called it, Atum was considered the creator and primary being. It arose from Nun, the primary ocean, which Atum called his father, when there was still nothing - no sky, no earth, no soil.
Atum rose like a hill among the waters of the oceans.
The prototypes of such hills were real hills that stood out on the water surface of the flooded Nile. Appropriately fortified, they became the platform for the first temples, the erection of which seemed to perpetuate the act of creation of the world. The shape of the pyramid is apparently connected with the concept of the primary hill.
- I exist! I will create the world! I have no father and no mother; I am the first god in the universe, and I will create other gods! With an incredible effort, Atum broke away from the water, soared over the abyss and, raising his hands, cast a magic spell. At the same moment, there was a deafening roar, and Ben-Ben Hill grew out of the abyss among the foamy splashes. Atum sank down on the hill and began to think about what to do next.
But the lone creator had nothing to create from, and he copulated with his own hand and swallowed his own seed, and then vomited out of the mouth of the god of air Shu and the goddess of moisture Tefnut, the first divine couple. Ocean Nun blessed creation, commanding it to grow. As soon as they were born, the children disappeared somewhere. Atum could not find them in any way and sent his daughter, the Divine Eye of Atum, to look for them. The goddess returned the fugitives, and the overjoyed father shed a tear. His tears turned into the first people.
From the first couple born by Atum, the god Geb and Nut, the goddess and incarnation of Heaven, descended. The air god Shu and his wife divided the earth and the sky: Nut rose in the form of a firmament above Geb, leaning on him with her hands and feet, Shu began to support the firmament in this position with his own hands.
It was necessary to separate heaven and earth, because while they are together, in an embrace, there is no place on earth for other creatures.
But Geb and Nut managed to give birth to the twins Osiris and Isis, as well as Set and Nephthys. Osiris was destined to be the first to be killed and resurrected for an eternal afterlife.
Earth and sky are surrounded on all sides by water. Every night Nut swallows the sun, and in the morning again
gives birth to him.

Memphis had its own version of the creation myth. The creator god Ptah creates everything that exists by the power of thought and the word: “Ptah was pacified, having created all things and divine words. He gave birth to the gods, created cities, placed the gods in their sanctuaries. conceived by the heart and expressed by the tongue that created the essence of all things."
The main gods of ancient Egypt, created by Ptah, were his own incarnations. In Egyptian mythology, there is another version of the creation of the world that arose in the city of Shmunu - the "City of Eight". According to her, the progenitors of all things were eight gods and goddesses - Nun and Nuanet, Huh and Huakhet, Kuk and Kuaket, Amon and Amaunet. The male deities had the heads of frogs, the female deities had snakes. They dwelt in the waters of primeval chaos and created the primordial egg there. From this egg emerged a solar deity in the form of a bird, and the world was filled with light. "I am a soul born from chaos, my nest is invisible, my egg is not broken."
During the period of the New Kingdom (XVI-XI centuries BC), the city of Thebes became the political capital of Egypt. The main Theban deity is the sun god Amon. The Great Hymn to Amon says:
Father of fathers and all gods,
He lifted up the sky and established the earth,
People came out of his eyes, gods came out of his mouth
King, long live he, long live,
May it be prosperous, head of all gods
In the myth of Amon, pre-existing versions of the myth of the creation of the world were combined. It tells that in the beginning there was the god Amun in the form of a snake. He created eight great gods, who gave birth to Ra and Atum in June, and Ptah in Memphis. Then they returned to Thebes and died there.
There is almost no mention of the creation of man by the gods in Egyptian mythology. According to one version, people arose from the tears of the god Ra (this is explained by the similar sound of the Egyptian words "tears" and "people", according to another, the god Khnum blinded people from clay.
Nevertheless, the Egyptians believed that humans were "God's flock" and that God created the world for humans. "He created heaven and earth for them. He destroyed the impenetrable darkness of water and created air so that they could breathe. He created plants, livestock, birds and fish for them in order to feed them." It should be noted that in almost all traditions, legends and myths - this is common ...

Chinese.

Scandinavians.

According to the Scandinavians, in the beginning there was a void Ginungagap. To the north of it was the frozen world of darkness Niflheim, and to the south lay the fiery hot land of Muspellheim. From such a neighborhood, gradually the global void of Ginungagap was filled with poisonous hoarfrost, which began to melt and turned into an evil frost giant Ymir. Ymir was the ancestor of all frost giants.
Then Ymir fell asleep. As he slept, the sweat dripping from under his armpits turned into a man and a woman, and the sweat dripping from his feet into another man. When a lot of ice melted, the cow Audumla arose from the resulting water. Ymir began to drink her milk, and she liked to lick the salty ice. Having licked off the ice, she found a man under it, his name was Buri.
Buri had a son, Boryo Bor, married the hoarfrost giantess Bestla, and they had three sons: Odin, Vili, and Ve. The sons of the Storm hated Ymir and killed him. So much blood flowed from the body of the murdered Ymir that she drowned all the giants, except for Bergelmir, the grandson of Ymir, and his wife. They managed to escape the flood in a boat made from a tree trunk.
Odin and his brothers brought Ymir's body to the center of Ginungagapa and created a world out of it. From the flesh of Ymir they made the earth, from the blood - the ocean From the skull they made the sky. And the brain was scattered into the sky, clouds turned out.
The gods ignored only the part in which the giants lived. It was called Jotunheim. They fenced off the best part of this world with the eyelashes of Ymir and settled people there, calling it Midgard.
Finally, the gods created humans. From two tree knots, a man and a woman, Ask and Embla, turned out. All other people are descended from them.
The last to be built was the impregnable fortress Asgard, which rose high above Midgard. These two parts were connected by the Bifrost rainbow bridge. Among the gods, the patrons of people, there were 12 gods and 14 goddesses (they were called ases), as well as a whole company of other deities, smaller (vans). All this host of gods crossed the rainbow bridge and settled in Asgard.
Above this layered world grew the ash tree Yggdrasil. Its roots sprouted in Asgard, Jotunheim and Niflheim. An eagle and a hawk sat on the branches of Yggdrasil, a squirrel rushed up and down the trunk, deer lived at the roots, and below all sat the serpent Nidhogg, who wanted to eat everything. Yggdrasil is what has always been, is and will be.

Greeks.

At the beginning of everything there was a formless, dimensionless Chaos, then Gaia (Earth) appeared with Tartarus (the abyss) deep in its bowels and the eternal force of attraction that existed long before them - Eros. By the same name, the Greeks called the god of love, who accompanied the goddess of love Aphrodite, but Eros, who stood at the beginning of the universe, excludes any feeling. Eros can be compared to the force of gravity - it is like a law. It was this force that set Chaos and the Earth in motion. Chaos produces the feminine - Night and the masculine - Erebus (Darkness). Night gave birth to Tanat (Death), Sleep (Hypnos), a huge number of dreams, the goddesses of fate - Moira, the goddess of retribution Nemesis, Deception, Old age. Eris, who embodied rivalry and strife, from which Exhausting Labor, Famine, Sorrow, Battles, Murders, False Words, Litigation and Lawlessness, but also adamantly just Orc, who punishes anyone who takes a false oath, has also become a product of the Night. And from the union of Night with Erebus, a transparent Ether and a shining Day were born - Light from Darkness!
According to the myth of the origin of the world, after that Gaia woke up: first, Uranus (Sky) was born by her, then the Mountains rose from its depths, their wooded slopes filled the nymphs born by her, spread over the plains of Pontus (Sea). Covering the Earth with Sky led to the appearance of the gods of the first generation - there were twelve of them: six brothers and six sisters, powerful and beautiful. They were not the only children from the union of Gaia and Uranus. Gaia also gave birth to three huge ugly cyclops with a large round eye in the middle of the forehead, and after them three more arrogant Hundred-armed giants. The Titans, having taken their sisters as wives, filled the expanses of Mother Earth and Father Sky with their offspring: they gave rise to a tribe of gods of the most ancient generation. The eldest of them, Oceanus, had three thousand daughters, beautiful-haired oceanids, and the same number of river streams that covered the whole land. Another pair of titans produced Helios (Sun) Selene (Moon), Eos (Dawn) and numerous Stars. The third pair gave rise to the winds Boreas, Note and Zephyr. The titan Iapetus could not boast of as abundant offspring as his older brothers, but he became famous for a few, but great sons: Atlas, who took the heavy burden of the heavenly vault on his shoulders, and Prometheus, the most noble of the titans.
The youngest son of Gaia and Uranus was Cronus, impudent and impatient. He did not want to endure both the arrogant patronage of his older brothers and the power of his own father. Perhaps he would not have dared to raise a hand against him, encroaching on the supreme power, if not for the mother of Gaia. She shared with her mature son a long-standing resentment against her husband: she hated Uranus for the ugliness of her sons - the Hundred-armed giants and imprisoned them in her dark depths. Cronus, under the protection of Nikta and with the help of his mother Gaia, seized his father's power. Having taken his sister Rhea as his wife, Kron laid the foundation for a new tribe, to which people gave the name of the gods. However, the insidious Kron was afraid of his offspring, because he himself raised his hand against his father, and so that no one would deprive him of power, he began to swallow his own children immediately after their birth. Rhea bitterly complained about her sad fate to Gaia and received advice from her on how to save another baby. When the child was born, Gaia herself hid him in one of the inaccessible caves, and Rhea gave her spouse a swaddled stone.
Meanwhile, Zeus (as the mother of the rescued baby called) grew up in a hidden cave on the slopes of wooded Ida, the highest mountain of the island of Crete. He was guarded there by the youths of the Curetes and the Corybantes, drowning out the children's cries with blows of copper shields and the rattling of weapons, and Amalthea, the noblest of goats, fed him with her milk. In gratitude for this, Zeus, having subsequently taken a place on Olympus, constantly took care of her, and after death he raised her to heaven so that she would shine forever in the constellation Auriga. Interestingly, Zeus left the skin of his nurse for himself, making a shield out of it - a sign of higher power. This shield was called "aegis", which in Greek meant "goat". According to him, Zeus received one of his most common epithets - aegis-powerful. The horn, which Amalthea accidentally broke during her earthly life, the lord of the gods turned into a cornucopia and gave it to his daughter Eirene, the patroness of the world.
Growing up, Zeus became stronger than his father and not with cunning, like Cronus, but in a fair duel he overcame him and forced him to regurgitate his swallowed brothers and sisters from the womb: Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter and Hestia. So, according to the myth of the origin of the world, the end of the era of the titans was coming, who by this time had filled the heavenly and earthly expanses with several of their generations, the era of the gods of Olympus began.

Zoroastrians.

In the distant past, before the creation of the world, there was nothing: no heat, no light, no living beings on earth and in heaven. In the vast space there was only one Zervan - endless eternity. It was empty and lonely, and then He had an idea about the creation of the world. He wanted a son to be born to him. The desire was extremely great that Zervan began to make sacrifices for a thousand years. And two sons were born in his womb - Ormuzd and Ahriman. Zervan decided that he would give his first-born son Ormuzd power over the whole world. Ormuzd read the Father's thoughts and told Ahriman about them. However, evil already then was the essence of Ahriman, and he, in order to be born first, hastily tearing the shell of the Father, was born. Evil Ahriman declared to his father: "I am your son, Ormuzd." Zervan looked at the ugly, Darkness-filled Ahriman and sobbed: this was not what He expected. Right behind Ahriman, Ormuzd appeared from the womb, radiating Light. Ahriman, thirsting for power over the world, was the younger brother, but by cunning he was the first to be born. Therefore, he boldly reminded Zervan that he was the one who should rule the world, as promised. Zervan answered Ahriman: "Perish, Unclean! I will make you king, but only for nine thousand years, but Ormuzd will have power over you, and after the end of the allotted time, the kingdom will be given to Ormuzd and He will correct everything according to his will."
So, after the creation of the world, it was divided into two parts. The place of residence of Ormuzd, constant and unlimited in time, full of omniscience and virtues, pierces the infinite light. The area subject to Ahriman, who is in darkness, ignorance and passion for destruction, who was, is, but will not always exist, is called the Abyss. There was a void between the Light and the Dark Abyss, in which infinite light and infinite darkness mingled. Ormuzd began the creation of a perfect world, shedding a particle of his pure light into the abyss that separated him from Ahriman. But Ahriman rose from the Darkness, as it was foretold. The insidious younger brother, who did not possess omniscience, did not know about the existence of Ormuzd, and was so enraged by the creation of the world he saw that he declared war on all Creation. Ormuzd tried to convince Ahriman that there was no use in such a war, and He did not hold any grudge against his brother. However, Ahriman did not listen, as he decided: "If the Omniscient Ormuzd tries to resolve the matter peacefully, then He is powerless." Ahriman did not know that he was not in a position to harm his brother, but that he could only harm the being, only the Omniscient Ormuzd knew about this.
The brothers have been given nine thousand years from the beginning of the creation of the world: the first three thousand years events will take place at the will of Ormuzd, the next three thousand years - the will of Ormuzd and Ahriman will mix, and in the last three thousand years the evil Ahriman will be exhausted and their confrontation over Creation will cease . Ormuzd showed Ahriman his victory at the end of history: the impotence of the Evil Spirit and the destruction of the divas, the resurrection of the dead, the final incarnation and the future calm of creations forever. And Ahriman fled in fear back into the Darkness. And although he fled, he continued the insane struggle against the Creation - he created divas and demons that rose to intimidate. The first thing that Ahriman created is the Lie that undermines the world. Ormuzd created for himself eternal immortal companions: Good Thought, Truth, Obedience, Devotion, Integrity and Immortality. Then He created beautiful angels who became the messengers of Ormuzd and the protectors of good. Ormuzd continued the creation of the world: He created Heaven and Earth, and between them created light, stars, moon and sun. The Omniscient determined places for everyone, so that they would always be ready to fight evil and be saved.

Arikara Indians.

The Great Heavenly Spirit, Nesaru, sometimes referred to as the Great Mystery, was the lord of all creation. A boundless sea stretched under the sky, on which two ducks swam forever. Nesaru created two brothers, the Wolf Man and the Happy Man, who commanded the ducks to dive to the bottom of the great sea and fetch some earth. From this land the Wolf Man created the Great Plains, and the Happy Man the hills and mountains.
Two brothers went underground and found two spiders. They taught spiders how to reproduce. The two spiders gave birth to many species of animals and plants, as well as humans. In addition, they spawned a race of evil giants.
These giants were so vicious that Nesar eventually had to destroy them in a great flood. Nesaru loved the people and saved them from death.

Huron Indians.

At first, there was nothing but water. Only the wide, wide sea. The only inhabitants were animals. They lived on water, under water or flew through the air.
Then a woman fell from the sky.
Two polar loons flew past and managed to pick her up on their wings. However, the burden was too heavy. The loons were afraid that they would drop the woman and she would drown. They called loudly for help. At their call, all the creatures flew and sailed.
Great Sea Turtle said:
- Put the celestial on my back. She's not going anywhere with my broad back.
The goons did just that.
Then the council of animals began to think about how to proceed. The wise Sea Turtle said that a woman needs land to live.
All the animals in turn began to dive to the bottom of the sea, but no one reached the bottom. Finally, Toad dived. It took a long time before she appeared again and brought a handful of earth. She gave the land to the woman. The woman flattened it on the Turtle's back. This is how dry land came into being.
Over time, trees grew on it, rivers flowed.
The children of the very first woman began to live.
To this day, the earth rests on the back of the Great Sea Turtle.

Mayan Indians.

A long time ago there were no people, no animals, no stones, no trees on the earth. There was nothing. It was a boundless and sad plain, covered with waters. The deities Tepev, Kukumats and Khurakan lived in the twilight silence. They talked and agreed on what was to be done.
They kindled a light that illuminated the earth for the first time. The sea receded, revealing land that could be cultivated and where flowers and trees flourished. A wonderful fragrance ascended to the sky from the newly created forests.
The gods rejoiced in their creations. However, they thought that the trees should not be left without servants and keepers. Then they placed on the branches and near the trunks of animals of all kinds. The animals remained motionless until the gods ordered each of them: - You will go to drink water from the rivers. You will go to sleep in a cave. You will walk on four legs, and one day your back will know the weight of the load carried. And you, bird, will live in the branches and fly through the air without fear of falling.
The animals obeyed orders. The gods thought that all living beings should be placed in their natural environment, but should not live in silence, as silence is synonymous with devastation and death. Then they gave them votes. But the animals could only scream, not being able to say a single reasonable word.
The distressed gods consulted and turned to the animals: - Since you failed to understand who we are, you will live forever in fear of others. Some of you will devour others without any revulsion.
Hearing these words, the animals tried to speak. However, only screams came out of their throats and mouths. The animals obeyed and accepted the verdict: they soon began to be persecuted and sacrificed, and the meat was boiled and there were much more intelligent creatures that were to be born.

source vision7.ru

The myth of the origin of the world from primitive chaos, told by Hesiod, is referred to as a cosmogonic myth, according to which the world gradually developed from the original formless state, but it also contains the creation of the world by divine principles. It should be noted that, unlike the Biblical tradition about the creation of the world by the Triune God, there are no feelings here, there is no place for love inherent in the Biblical Creator for His creation.

At the start of everything there was a formless, dimensionless Chaos, then Gaia (Earth) appeared with Tartarus (the abyss) deep in its bowels and the eternal force of attraction that existed long before them - Eros. By the same name, the Greeks called the god of love, who accompanied the goddess of love Aphrodite, but Eros, who stood at the beginning of the universe, excludes any feeling. Eros can be compared to the force of gravity - it is like a law. It was this force that set Chaos and the Earth in motion. Chaos produces the feminine - Night and the masculine - Erebus (Darkness). Night gave birth to Tanat (Death), Sleep (Hypnos), a huge number of dreams, the goddesses of fate - Moira, the goddess of retribution Nemesis, Deception, Old age. Eris, who embodied rivalry and strife, from which Exhausting Labor, Famine, Sorrow, Battles, Murders, False Words, Litigation and Lawlessness, but also adamantly just Orc, who punishes anyone who takes a false oath, has also become a product of the Night. And from the union of Night with Erebus, a transparent Ether and a shining Day were born - Light from Darkness!

It is significant that the motives of Greek mythology, along with other Eastern systems, are present in the Gnostic worldview. Gnosticism, in addition, has absorbed almost incompatible components, including elements of the Old Testament law and early Christian teaching.

According to the myth of the origin of the world, after that Gaia woke up: first, Uranus (Sky) was born by her, then the Mountains rose from its depths, their wooded slopes filled the nymphs born by her, spread over the plains of Pontus (Sea). Covering the Earth with Sky led to the appearance of the gods of the first generation - there were twelve of them: six brothers and six sisters, powerful and beautiful. They were not the only children from the union of Gaia and Uranus. Gaia also gave birth to three huge ugly cyclops with a large round eye in the middle of the forehead, and after them three more arrogant Hundred-armed giants. The Titans, having taken their sisters as wives, filled the expanses of Mother Earth and Father Sky with their offspring: they gave rise to a tribe of gods of the most ancient generation. The eldest of them, Oceanus, had three thousand daughters, beautiful-haired oceanids, and the same number of river streams that covered the whole land. Another pair of titans produced Helios (Sun) Selene (Moon), Eos (Dawn) and numerous Stars. The third pair gave rise to the winds Boreas, Note and Zephyr. The titan Iapetus could not boast of as abundant offspring as his older brothers, but he became famous for a few, but great sons: Atlas, who took the heavy burden of the heavenly vault on his shoulders, and Prometheus, the most noble of the titans.

The youngest son of Gaia and Uranus was Cronus, impudent and impatient. He did not want to endure both the arrogant patronage of his older brothers and the power of his own father. Perhaps he would not have dared to raise a hand against him, encroaching on the supreme power, if not for the mother of Gaia. She shared with her matured son a long-standing resentment against her husband: she hated Uranus for the ugliness of her sons - the Hundred-armed giants and imprisoned them in her dark depths. Cronus, under the protection of Nikta and with the help of his mother Gaia, seized his father's power. Having taken his sister Rhea as his wife, Kron laid the foundation for a new tribe, to which people gave the name of the gods. However, the insidious Kron was afraid of his offspring, because he himself raised his hand against his father, and so that no one would deprive him of power, he began to swallow his own children immediately after their birth. Rhea bitterly complained about her sad fate to Gaia and received advice from her on how to save another baby. When the child was born, Gaia herself hid him in one of the inaccessible caves, and Rhea gave her spouse a swaddled stone.

Meanwhile, Zeus (as the mother of the rescued baby called) grew up in a hidden cave on the slopes of wooded Ida, the highest mountain of Crete. He was guarded there by the youths of the Curetes and the Corybantes, drowning out the children's cries with blows of copper shields and the rattling of weapons, and Amalthea, the noblest of goats, fed him with her milk. In gratitude for this, Zeus, having subsequently taken a place on Olympus, constantly took care of her, and after death he raised her to heaven so that she would shine forever in the constellation Auriga. Interestingly, Zeus left the skin of his nurse for himself, making a shield out of it - a sign of higher power. This shield was called "aegis", which in Greek meant "goat". According to him, Zeus received one of his most common epithets - aegis-powerful. The horn, which Amalthea accidentally broke during her earthly life, the lord of the gods turned into a cornucopia and gave it to his daughter Eirene, the patroness of the world.

Growing up, Zeus became stronger than his father and not with cunning, like Cronus, but in a fair duel he overcame him and forced him to regurgitate his swallowed brothers and sisters from the womb: Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter and Hestia. So, according to the myth of the origin of the world, the end of the era of the titans was coming, who by this time had filled the heavenly and earthly expanses with several of their generations, the era of the gods of Olympus began.

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