DEMON is a word derived from the ancient Greek "daimon". So who are these, after all, demons?

The mythological consciousness of pagan beliefs says that the demon is the “soul” of the object, an unknowable force that can be evil or very evil, the demon is present in all phenomena or things, fire and water spirits, spirits of trees and spirits of stones, representing the Universe as space, everything is filled with demons. (Thales).

Religious consciousness, especially Christian mysticism, believes that a demon is a creature opposite to an angel, and demons often came from former bright angels or even gods. Most often, the Demon is something evil and absolutely indifferent to a person, but if you turn to him, then the person who knows, the demon will readily serve and fulfill the slightest desires only in order to provide himself with energy.

Devils, without a doubt, are also very strong entities, but since they do not have a physical shell, which deprives them of a huge amount of earthly pleasures, they are extremely willing to make various agreements and can completely obey the will of the magician and even do good. The passion for cabalism, on the one hand, and the development of demonology, on the other, had consequences in the form of the development of a hierarchy and a certain specialization of demons (for example, incubi, demons, succubi and imps); if we talk about Byzantine theologians, then they divided the demons into 4 categories:

- god-like demon (theodaimones);

- humanoid demon (anthropodaimones);

- bestial demon (zoodaimones);

- plant-like demon (phytodaimones).

If we understand God as the creative force of nature, more precisely, progress, and, regardless of what we are talking about - about society, about inanimate or living nature, then the forces of destruction are what is meant by the devil. The Devil has had a huge number of names over the past few thousand years. This is the Prince of Darkness, and Lucifer, and Beelzebub, and the Beast, and the Antichrist, and the evil one, and the Prince of demons, and the tempting serpent, and the Angel of the Abyss, and Satan, as well as many other names. The Devil Names section provides the most common names and a brief description of the names of evil spirits.

Now we know that in the occult and philosophical understanding, demons are spiritual entities, embodied in an abstract form, they are incorporeal beings, and nevertheless, capable of certain actions. The basic principle of communication with a demon is the knowledge of its name and the main purpose of this demon. If you know the name of the desired demon and have certain skills, then you can very well call him and tell him about your wishes.

Demonic Names and Purposes

Abduscius is a demon that uproots trees.

Abbadon is the ruler of the abyss.

Adramalech is a demon who was considered an adviser and was responsible for the Satanic wardrobe.

Abigor is a skilled warrior, demon rider.

Azazel is the bearer of the banners of the mighty army of hell.

Agvares is the organizer of the dances, the great infernal duke.

Alruny is the name of a sorceress who can change her appearance; in German mythology, this is a female Demon.

Alastor is the herald.

Amon is a marquis.

Amduscias is a musician.

Ancu - a ghost with a wagon foreshadowing death (Brittany).

Andras is a great marquis.

Astaroth - the great duke of the underworld, kept hellish treasures.

Asmodeus is a demon of lust, family difficulties and great passions.

Astarte - the goddess of motherhood, war and fertility - from the ancient.

Astarte is a great infernal duke.

Acheron is a monstrous infernal demon, his eyes glow.

Barbatos is a predictor of the future, he also knew how to find hidden treasures.

Balthazar is a tailed half-demon, half-man.

Belphegor is the one who seduced people with wealth.

Baphomet - was a symbol of the satanic goat; most often depicted as a half-man-half-goat or in the guise of a man with a goat's head.

Vaalberith is the chief infernal secretary.

Baal is a demon of deceit and treachery, a great infernal duke.

A vampire is a living dead that drinks the blood of people.

Valafar is the patron saint of robbers and robbers.

Warlocks are male witches.

Beelzebub - lord of flies, commanded the legions of hell.

Belizar is a demon of lies and one of Satan's strongest allies.

Verdelet is the master of ceremonies of hell.

Golem - this is the name of a terrible person who is created by magic in Jewish folklore.

Dantalian is the one who pushes people to bad deeds, thereby feeding on their energy.

Dagon is the baker of hell.

Devil - Christian teachings say that this is the Great Prince of Evil.

Dis - Dante gave Satan such a poetic name.

Dubbuk - according to Jewish mythology - a wandering spirit.

Zepar is a demon that drives women crazy.

Ishtar - from Babylonian and Assyrian mythology - the great mother goddess.

Incubus is a male lover demon.

Cernunnos - god of fertility and hunting, horned Celtic god.

Kali is the Indian goddess of destruction, death, horror, fear, the wife of the destroyer SHIVA.

Xaphan - makes fires in hell.

Leviathan is the lord of the oceans, a huge snake.

Lamia is a female demon, a vampire who hunted, most often, for children.

Lillian - children of Lilith from demons.

Leonard is the master of the covens.

Lilith is the first wife of Adam, the queen of succubus.

Lucifer is the son of the dawn, a fallen angel. He rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven, aka Satan.

Malebolge is the eighth, almost the last circle of hell, created for scammers and cunning people.

Put Satanakia is the Supreme Commander of the Satanic Army.

Marbas is the one who sent or cured the disease.

Mammon - experienced a passion for wealth.

Mephistopheles served Faust for 24 years.

Melhom - kept the treasures of the princes of hell.

Mulciber is the architect of hell.

Moloch is the deity to whom children's souls were sacrificed.

Nibras - responsible for excessive entertainment.

Nebiros is the field marshal of the infernal army.

Olivier is a fallen archangel who awakens cruelty towards the poor in a person.

Some examples of Vampire names

CIVATATEO: A vampire witch, found among the Aztecs. He is said to have served various lunar deities. The most beloved victims there were children, they died of illness immediately after they were attacked. It is believed that these vampires were white-faced.

DEARG-DUE: A hideous creature from Ireland whose name meant "Red Blood Sucker". This vampire is still feared and still dates back to Celtic times. There is only one way to curb a predator - you need to put stones on any grave that is suspected of housing such an animal. The best-known story about these vampires is that of a beautiful woman who may have been buried at Waterford, near the "Bowing Tree" (probably Aspen, a variety of Willow) in the little yard of the church.

DANAG: A Filipino vampire, as a species, he appeared to be responsible for what was created by Taro in the islands many years ago. This vampire worked with humans for many years, when one day such partnership ended because a woman cut her finger, and DANAG sucked her blood for so long that he completely withered the body.

Other mystical Names

Loa - "soul" according to Voodoo religion.

Isis - the mother goddess of ancient Egypt, was a symbol of a faithful wife and a prolific mother-protector.

Cocytus is a frozen river from the ninth circle of hell.

Druids are a caste of high-ranking Celtic priests.

A zombie is a living corpse that does the sorcerer's orders.

Demeter is a Greek goddess, her image is an integral part of the cult of the female deity of modern witchcraft, she is the goddess of agriculture and fertility.

Jinn - from Arabic mythology - most often they are evil and ugly demons, they have supernatural power, as well as obey those who own the secrets of magic.

Danu is the progenitor of fairies from Celtic mythology.

The homunculus is an artificial human being created through alchemy.

Gris-gris - from shamanism - talismans or spells kept to ward off evil and good luck.

Gaia is the spirit, Mother Earth in Greek mythology.

Goblins are ugly and malevolent elves.

Osiris is the Greek god of the dead.

Bellarmina is a witch's bottle that is used to make a potion.

A witch is a woman who uses black magic to achieve her goals.

Ankh - a cross with a loop, the Egyptian symbol of immortality, the universe and life.

Athame is a ritual dagger used by witches.

Allotrilophagy is the spitting up or vomiting of foreign objects most often associated with the possession of the Devil.

The altar is an elevated place for religious ceremonies and offerings of sacrifices to the gods.

Pandemonium - in hell - the capital of Satan.

Lemegeton is a pocket witch book, the Lesser Key of Solomon.

Summer - in hell - a river of oblivion.

Kabbalah is a Jewish system of philosophy, theosophy, magic, science, and mysticism that developed during the Middle Ages.

Kerriduen - among the Celts - this is the goddess of reason, wisdom, magic, magic and divination.

I-Ching is an ancient Chinese system of witchcraft and divination.

Gnomes are spirits that live in the earth.

Angels are the helpers of God (white angels), and the fallen angels are the embodiment of the evil of the servant of Satan himself.

Hecate - from Greek mythology - is a powerful goddess who patronizes magic and sorcery.

Ghoul is a terrible creature that rips up graves and eats carrion.

Voodoo is a religion originally from the West Indies, a hybrid of the Catholic faith and African religions.

· Primary elements - earth, water, air and fire - four primary elements.

Evil spirits, evil spirits and other demonic creatures in Slavic mythology

Asp is a monstrous winged serpent, which has a bird's nose and two trunks, its wings are colorful and burn-shimmer like semi-precious stones. According to other legends, the monster is impenetrably black. Hence the expression "slate-black color".

Anchutka is the ancient name for a devil or demon. Anchutkas are bath and field. Like any evil spirits, they instantly respond to the mention of their name.

Baba Yaga is the oldest character in Slavic mythology, epics and fairy tales. Initially, it was the deity of death: a woman with a snake tail, who guarded the entrance to the underworld and escorted the souls of the deceased to the kingdom of the dead.

Badzula is an unclean spirit in Belarusian mythology that makes people wander. Usually feminine. She wandered along the roadsides, and closer to winter she looked for someone to attach herself to.

Bannik - a special breed of brownies, an evil spirit, an evil old man, dressed in sticky leaves that have fallen off the brooms. However, he easily takes the form of a boar, a dog, a frog, and even a man. Together with him, his wife and children live in the bathhouse, but it is also possible to meet barns, mermaids, and brownies in the bathhouse.

Fun in the hut of Baba Yaga,

Enchantress Marina with a dragon,
artist Frank Cheyne Pape, 1916
illustration for the "Russian book of legends"

Water - in Slavic mythology, an evil spirit, the embodiment of a dangerous and formidable water element. Most often, he appeared in the guise of a man with animal features - paws instead of hands, horns on his head, or an ugly old man entangled in mud with a long beard. The Slavs believed that the water ones were the descendants of those representatives of evil spirits whom God cast down from heaven into rivers, lakes and ponds.

The wolf - in folk beliefs, according to the interpretation of the mythological school, personifies the unclean power of night darkness, clouds darkening the sky and earthly fogs.

Sinister - in South Slavic mythology, a demonic creature hostile to a person, his lack, bida. Little Russians have evil spirits, small creatures that, having settled behind the stove (like a brownie), remain invisible and bring misfortune to the house.

Idolishche Poganoe or Odolishche Poganoe is a representative of a dark hostile force, "non-Christ", "Tatar". Many different versions of epic tales have been preserved about his struggle with Ilya Muromets.

Goblin is the spirit of the forest in Slavic mythology. Goblin lives in every forest, especially loves spruce. The shoes are mixed up: the right bast shoe is put on the left foot, the left one on the right. The goblin's eyes are green and burn like coals. No matter how carefully he hides his impure origin, he does not succeed: if you look at him through the right ear of a horse, the goblin casts a bluish color, because his blood is blue.

Pererug - a petty and evil deity of discord, quarrels, quarrels, squabbles and insults; an evil spirit, like evil spirits.

Tugarin Zmeevich - in Slavic mythology, this epic image contains many different layers of epic tradition. First of all, in the serpentine nature of Tugarin Zmeevich one cannot help but see one of the variations of the motif of snake fighting, which is very common in Russian folk tales, and even in chronicle tales.

Almost the only section of Slavic mythology accessible to direct observation and study in its living functioning is demonology - a set of ideas about lower mythological creatures that were thought to be identical to each other, "serial", devoid of clearly defined individual features. Folklorists and ethnographers draw information about them from a variety of sources, primarily from their own field records of conversations with carriers of traditional culture and works of a special folklore genre - short stories dedicated to encounters with evil spirits that happened to the narrator himself or to someone else (in the first case they are called blades of grass, in the second case they are called bylshchins). They were told at long evening gatherings around the fire.

The origin of evil spirits folk legends interpreted in different ways. It was said that evil spirits were created by the devil, who imitated God at the creation of the world; that Adam was ashamed to show God many of his children, and those hidden by him became a dark power. It was said that evil spirits are "angels who rebelled against God, cast down from heaven to earth and into tartar. Whoever fell into the water turned into a water one, into a forest - into a forest, into a house - into a brownie." Despite the Christian appearance of the above explanations, we have before us clear remnants of pagan belief in numerous spirits of nature, embodying all spheres of the world known to man. It does not deny the pagan gods and demons, but, revealing their demonic nature, it calls the world to the saints and angels, the God-man and the Trinity Deity, inexpressible in His incomprehensible Essence. Simply put, the ancient gods were declared demons, but no one doubted their existence. And the small demons of nature remained completely unchanged, probably retaining even their former names.

On the basis of folk stories, one can even make approximate "portraits" of all kinds of evil spirits that a traditional person constantly met.

Goblin (forest, forest man, leshak, etc.), for example, appeared in the form of an ordinary person; an old man picking his bast shoes by the light of the moon; relative or friend; a man of great stature; a man in wool, with horns; deer lamb, whirlwind on the road. He is the owner of the forests, lives in an impenetrable thicket. If an echo is heard in the forest, then the goblin responds. He loves to lead people astray, and then claps his hands and laughs out loud.

The merman is often as black and hairy as the goblin, but can be a lamb, a child, a dog, a drake, a swan, a fish, and an old man. He lives at the bottom of a deep lake or river, in a pool, under a water mill. At night, it happens that he crawls ashore and combs his hair; the same can be done by his wife, an ugly vodyanikha (vodyanitsa). The merman, like a goblin, is womanly and generally inclined to kidnap people who forever remain in his underwater crystal halls.

Vodyanikh is somewhat reminiscent of a mermaid, the image of which, however, varies greatly by region. In a significant part of the northern regions, they do not know such an image at all, and if they do, they represent her as an old, ugly woman with pendulous breasts, reminiscent of a scorcher and not associated with the water element. A more familiar type of river or forest beauty, combing her hair, bewitching men and ruining girls.

Not only water mermaids are known, but also forest and field mermaids. The latter are found in rye and resemble other female demonic creatures - middays. They are tall beautiful girls in white who roam the fields during the harvest and punish those who reap at noon.

Brownie - a domestic spirit, a black scary man in wool, but it can also seem like a woman (his pair is a kikimora), a cat, a pig, a rat, a dog, a calf, a gray ram, a bear, a black hare (due to the belief that the brownie is the spirit of an animal laid as a building sacrifice in the foundation of a house); there is information about its snake nature. Brownie is a useful spirit: he helps with the housework, warns of impending trouble.

So, we have seen that the fate of ideas about the characters of different levels of the mythological hierarchy turned out to be different. If the cults of the higher gods were destroyed by fire and sword during the Christianization of Russia, then faith and worship of lower, insignificant, non-individualized characters have survived almost to the present day. As a result of the synthesis, the merging of pagan and Christian ideas in the popular consciousness, the ancient gods in a sense changed their names, aligning themselves with the images of the most popular Christian saints. The remnants of mythological ideas about less significant characters were conserved in folklore, in rituals and beliefs. The lower levels of the mythological system have hardly changed. With amazing stability, they absorbed Christian ideas without changing their ancient essence. To show, on the one hand, the origins and mechanisms of the penetration of new ideas, and on the other hand, to reveal at least in general terms the unchanging traditional East Slavic model of the world that emerges through them is the task of the following chapters.

Conclusion

Slavic mythology as a complex of collective ideas of the ancient Slavs and a way of mastering the world was formed in ancient times, when a person left nature, at the dawn of the formation of the agricultural culture of the ancient Slavs. This is the time of the development of common Indo-European and then actually Slavic views on nature, the formation of ancient pagan cults.

Noting the history of the development of Slavic mythological ideas, the most ancient layer stands out - hunting ideas: the veneration of heavenly moose cows, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe heavenly rulers of the world. The second no less ancient layer is the agricultural beliefs - the views of the Trypillians, Proto- and Proto-Slavs (2 - 1 thousand BC). At this time, an agrarian-magical worldview, characteristic of many Indo-European peoples, was developed, based on agricultural cosmology, the veneration of goddesses in childbirth, life-giving moisture, and the fertile Mother Earth. Views about the single mother of the World, ideas about fate are being formed. Finally, the next layer is the period of isolation of the Eastern Slavs in 1 thousand AD. e. On average, in science, the true historical development of Slavic mythology is correlated with the culture of Kievan Rus of the 1st millennium AD. e. The year 980 stands out as the central date - the time of the pagan reform of Prince Vladimir: the development of a mythological system, the creation of the Pantheon of the Gods. At the same time, this is the time of the beginning of the decline of the actually ancient, living faith of the Slavs and its transformation into a state religion.

988 - a radical change in paganism. This is the time of the adoption of Christianity in Russia. Actually Slavic mythology, with its heroes and plots, was persecuted. At the same time, there was not a displacement of mythological characters by biblical heroes, but also a mixture of mythological and biblical subjects (the phenomenon of dual faith).

Noting the "character", the features of the mythological ideas of the Eastern Slavs, we can summarize the following. The Slavs developed a special cosmocentric worldview - a special image of the world was formed, in which space and nature act as the semantic center. Fire, earth, air, water, sun, moon are living entities. Man himself is not conceived in isolation from nature. The world is a harmonious unity of man and nature.

The Slavs drew a picture of the living universe, comparing it with the "poetic" images of the World Egg, the World Tree, describing the image of the wonderful garden of Iria (or Buyan Island), which was reflected in folklore. A pantheon of pagan gods was created, headed by male deities (Rod, Svarog, Perun, Dazhdbog, Veles, etc.) and female images (Makosh, Zhiva, Lada, Morana). There was a folk tradition of belief in spirits - natural beings.

As a result of the synthesis, the merging of pagan and Christian ideas in the popular consciousness, the ancient gods in a sense changed their names, aligning themselves with the images of the most popular Christian saints. The remnants of mythological ideas about less significant characters were conserved in folklore, in rituals and beliefs. The lower levels of the mythological system have hardly changed. With amazing stability, they absorbed Christian ideas without changing their ancient essence.

Finally, at its core, Slavic paganism is the veneration of living nature as an all-generating force. Nature was understood as a living organism or as a powerful deity that predetermines the life of people. The main cult is the cult of fertility, which contains the idea of ​​affirming life.

It was bad with evil spirits in Russia. So many bogatyrs have recently divorced that the number of Gorynychs has plummeted. Only once flashed a ray of hope to Ivan: an elderly peasant who called himself Susanin promised to lead him to the very lair of Likha One-Eyed ... But he stumbled only on a rickety ancient hut with broken windows and a broken door. On the wall was scrawled: “Checked. Leech is not. Bogatyr Popovich.

Sergey Lukyanenko, Yuly Burkin, Ostrov Rus

"Slavic monsters" - you must admit, it sounds wild. Mermaids, goblin, mermen - they are all familiar to us from childhood and make us remember fairy tales. That is why the fauna of "Slavic fantasy" is still undeservedly considered something naive, frivolous and even slightly stupid. Now, when it comes to magical monsters, we often think of zombies or dragons, although in our mythology there are such ancient creatures, compared with which Lovecraft's monsters may seem like petty dirty tricks.

The inhabitants of the Slavic pagan legends are not a joyful brownie Kuzya or a sentimental monster with a scarlet flower. Our ancestors seriously believed in the evil spirits that we now consider worthy only of children's horror stories.

Almost no original source describing fictional creatures from Slavic mythology has survived to our time. Something was covered with the darkness of history, something was destroyed during the baptism of Russia. What do we have, besides vague, contradictory and often dissimilar legends of different Slavic peoples? A few references in the works of the Danish historian Saxo Grammar (1150-1220) - times. "Chronica Slavorum" by the German historian Helmold (1125-1177) - two. And, finally, we should recall the collection "Veda Slovena" - a compilation of ancient Bulgarian ritual songs, from which one can also draw conclusions about the pagan beliefs of the ancient Slavs. The objectivity of church sources and annals, for obvious reasons, is in great doubt.

Book of Veles

The "Book of Veles" ("Book of Veles", Isenbek's tablets) has long been passed off as a unique monument of ancient Slavic mythology and history dating from the period of the 7th century BC - 9th century AD.

Her text was allegedly carved (or burned) on small wooden planks, some of the "pages" were partially rotted. According to legend, the “Book of Veles” was discovered in 1919 near Kharkov by a white colonel Fyodor Izenbek, who took it to Brussels and handed it over to the Slavist Mirolubov for study. He made several copies, and in August 1941, during the German offensive, the plates were lost. Versions were put forward that they were hidden by the Nazis in the “archive of the Aryan past” under Annenerb, or taken out after the war to the USA).

Alas, the authenticity of the book initially caused great doubts, and recently it was finally proved that the entire text of the book is a falsification made in the middle of the 20th century. The language of this fake is a mixture of different Slavic dialects. Despite the exposure, some writers still use the "Book of Veles" as a source of knowledge.

The only available image of one of the boards of the "Book of Veles", beginning with the words "We dedicate this book to Veles."

The history of Slavic fairy-tale creatures may be the envy of another European monster. The age of pagan legends is impressive: according to some estimates, it reaches 3000 years, and its roots go back to the Neolithic or even the Mesolithic - that is, about 9000 BC.

There was no common Slavic fairy-tale "menagerie" - in different places they spoke about completely different creatures. The Slavs did not have sea or mountain monsters, but forest and river evil spirits were abundant. There was no megalomania either: our ancestors very rarely thought about evil giants like the Greek Cyclopes or the Scandinavian Etuns. Some wonderful creatures appeared among the Slavs relatively late, during the period of their Christianization - most often they were borrowed from Greek legends and introduced into national mythology, thus creating a bizarre mixture of beliefs.

Alkonost

According to ancient Greek myth, Alcyone, the wife of the Thessalian king Keik, upon learning of the death of her husband, threw herself into the sea and was turned into a bird, named after her name alcyone (kingfisher). The word "Alkonost" entered the Russian language as a result of a distortion of the old saying "Alcyone is a bird."

Slavic Alkonost is a bird of paradise with a surprisingly sweet, euphonious voice. She lays her eggs on the seashore, then plunges them into the sea - and the waves calm down for a week. When the chicks hatch from the eggs, a storm begins. In the Orthodox tradition, Alkonost is considered a divine messenger - she lives in heaven and descends to convey the highest will to people.

Asp

A winged snake with two trunks and a bird's beak. He lives high in the mountains and periodically makes devastating raids on villages. It gravitates towards rocks so much that it cannot even sit on damp ground - only on a stone. Asp is invulnerable to conventional weapons, it cannot be killed with a sword or arrow, but can only be burned. The name comes from the Greek aspis, a poisonous snake.

Auka

A kind of mischievous forest spirit, small, pot-bellied, with round cheeks. He does not sleep either in winter or in summer. He likes to fool people in the forest, responding to their cry "Ay!" from all sides. Leads travelers into a dense thicket and throws them there.

Baba Yaga

Slavic witch, popular folklore character. Usually depicted as a nasty old woman with disheveled hair, a hooked nose, a "bone leg", long claws, and several teeth in her mouth. Baba Yaga is an ambiguous character. Most often, she performs the functions of a pest, with pronounced inclinations towards cannibalism, however, on occasion, this witch can voluntarily help a brave hero by questioning him, steaming in a bathhouse and bestowing magical gifts (or providing valuable information).

It is known that Baba Yaga lives in a dense forest. There stands her hut on chicken legs, surrounded by a palisade of human bones and skulls. It was sometimes said that instead of constipation, there were hands on the gate to Yagi's house, and a small toothy mouth served as a keyhole. The house of Baba Yaga is enchanted - you can only enter it by saying: "Hut-hut, turn your front to me, and back to the forest."
Like Western European witches, Baba Yaga can fly. To do this, she needs a large wooden mortar and a magic broom. With Baba Yaga, you can often meet animals (familiars): a black cat or a crow helping her in witchcraft.

The origin of the Baba Yaga estate is unclear. Perhaps it came from the Turkic languages, perhaps it was formed from the old Serbian "ega" - a disease.

Baba Yaga, bone leg. A witch, an ogre, and the first woman pilot. Paintings by Viktor Vasnetsov and Ivan Bilibin.

Hut on kurnogs

A forest hut on chicken legs, where there are no windows or doors, is not fiction. This is how the hunters of the Urals, Siberia and the Finno-Ugric tribes built temporary dwellings. Houses with blank walls and an entrance through a hatch in the floor, raised 2-3 meters above the ground, protected both from rodents hungry for supplies and from large predators. Siberian pagans kept stone idols in similar structures. It can be assumed that the figurine of some female deity, placed in a small house “on chicken legs”, gave rise to the myth of Baba Yaga, who hardly fits in her house: her legs are in one corner, her head is in another, and her nose rests into the ceiling.

Bannik

The spirit living in the baths was usually represented as a little old man with a long beard. Like all Slavic spirits, mischievous. If people in the bath slip, get burned, faint from the heat, scald with boiling water, hear the crackling of stones in the oven or knocking on the wall - all these are the tricks of the bannik.

In a big way, a bannik rarely harms, only when people behave incorrectly (wash themselves on holidays or late at night). Most of the time he helps them. Among the Slavs, the bath was associated with mystical, life-giving forces - they often took birth or guessed here (it was believed that the bannik could predict the future).

Like other spirits, the bannik was fed - they left him black bread with salt or buried a strangled black chicken under the threshold of the bath. There was also a female variety of a bannik - a bannitsa, or obderiha. Shishiga also lived in the baths - an evil spirit that appears only to those who go to the bath without praying. Shishiga takes the form of a friend or relative, calls a person to bathe with her and can steam to death.

Bash Celik (Man of Steel)

A popular character in Serbian folklore, a demon or evil sorcerer. According to legend, the king bequeathed to his three sons to give their sisters to the one who first asks for their hand. One night, someone with a thunderous voice came to the palace and demanded the younger princess as his wife. The sons fulfilled the will of their father, and soon lost their middle and older sisters in this way.

Soon the brothers came to their senses and went in search of them. The younger brother met a beautiful princess and took her as his wife. Looking out of curiosity into the forbidden room, the prince saw a man in chains. He introduced himself as Bash Chelik and asked for three glasses of water. The naive young man gave the stranger a drink, he regained his strength, broke the chains, released his wings, grabbed the princess and flew away. Saddened, the prince went in search. He found out that the thunderous voices that his sisters demanded as wives belonged to the lords of dragons, falcons and eagles. They agreed to help him, and together they defeated the evil Bash Chelik.

This is how Bash Celik looks like in the view of V. Tauber.

Ghouls

The living dead rising from their graves. Like any other vampires, ghouls drink blood and can devastate entire villages. First of all, they kill relatives and friends.

Gamayun

Like Alkonost, a divine bird woman whose main function is the fulfillment of predictions. The proverb “Gamayun is a prophetic bird” is well known. She also knew how to control the weather. It was believed that when Gamayun flies from the direction of sunrise, a storm comes after her.

Gamayun-Gamayun, how long do I have left to live? - Ku. - Why so ma ...?

Divya people

Demihumans with one eye, one leg and one arm. To move, they had to fold in half. They live somewhere on the edge of the world, multiply artificially, forging their own kind from iron. The smoke of their forges carries with it pestilence, smallpox and fevers.

Brownie

In the most generalized view - a domestic spirit, the patron of the hearth, a little old man with a beard (or all covered with hair). It was believed that every house has its own brownie. In the houses they were rarely called "brownies", preferring the affectionate "grandfather".

If people established normal relations with him, fed him (left a saucer of milk, bread and salt on the floor) and considered him a member of their family, then the brownie helped them do minor housework, watched the cattle, guarded the household, warned of danger.

On the other hand, an angry brownie could be very dangerous - at night he pinched people to bruises, strangled them, killed horses and cows, made noise, broke dishes and even set fire to the house. It was believed that the brownie lived behind the stove or in the stable.

Drekavak (drekavac)

A half-forgotten creature from the folklore of the southern Slavs. Its exact description does not exist - some consider it an animal, others a bird, and in central Serbia there is a belief that the drekavak is the soul of a dead unbaptized baby. They only agree on one thing - the drekavak can scream terribly.

Usually drekavak is the hero of children's horror stories, but in remote areas (for example, mountainous Zlatibor in Serbia), even adults believe in this creature. Residents of the village of Tometino Polie from time to time report strange attacks on their livestock - it is difficult to determine what kind of predator it was by the nature of the injuries. The villagers claim to have heard eerie screams, so the drekavak must have been involved.

Firebird

An image familiar to us from childhood, a beautiful bird with bright, dazzling fiery feathers (“like the heat burns”). The traditional test for fairy-tale heroes is to get a feather from the tail of this feathered one. For the Slavs, the firebird was more of a metaphor than a real being. She personified fire, light, the sun, perhaps knowledge. Its closest relative is the medieval Phoenix bird, known both in the West and in Russia.

It is impossible not to recall such an inhabitant of Slavic mythology as the Rarog bird (probably distorted from Svarog - the blacksmith god). The fiery falcon, which may also look like a whirlwind of flame, Rarog is depicted on the coat of arms of the Rurikids (“Rarogs” in German) - the first dynasty of Russian rulers. The highly stylized diving Rarog eventually began to look like a trident - this is how the modern coat of arms of Ukraine appeared.

Kikimora (shishimora, mara)

An evil spirit (sometimes the brownie's wife), appearing in the form of a little ugly old woman. If a kikimora lives in a house behind a stove or in an attic, then he constantly harms people: he makes noise, knocks on walls, interferes with sleep, tears yarn, breaks dishes, poisons livestock. It was sometimes believed that infants who died without baptism became kikimora, or evil carpenters or stove-makers could let the kikimora into the house under construction. Kikimora, living in a swamp or in a forest, does much less harm - basically it only frightens stray travelers.

Koschei the Immortal (Kashchei)

One of the old Slavic negative characters well known to us, usually represented as a thin, skeletal old man with a repulsive appearance. Aggressive, vindictive, greedy and stingy. It is difficult to say whether he was the personification of the external enemies of the Slavs, an evil spirit, a powerful wizard, or a unique kind of undead.

It is undeniable that Koschei owned very strong magic, shunned people and often did the favorite thing for all the villains in the world - kidnapped girls. In Russian science fiction, the image of Koshchei is quite popular, and he is presented in different ways: in a comic light (“Island of Rus” by Lukyanenko and Burkin), or, for example, as a cyborg (“The Fate of Koshchei in the Cyberozoic Era” by Alexander Tyurin).

Koshchei's "trademark" feature was immortality, and far from being absolute. As we all probably remember, on the magical island of Buyan (capable of suddenly disappearing and appearing in front of travelers) there is a large old oak tree on which a chest hangs. There is a hare in the chest, a duck in the hare, an egg in the duck, and a magic needle in the egg, where Koshchei's death is hidden. He can be killed by breaking this needle (according to some versions, by breaking an egg on Koshchei's head).

Koschey as presented by Vasnetsov and Bilibin.

Georgy Millyar is the best performer of the roles of Koshchei and Baba Yaga in Soviet movie fairy tales.

Goblin

Forest spirit, protector of animals. Appears as a tall man with a long beard and hair all over his body. In fact, not evil - he walks through the forest, protects him from people, occasionally shows himself in front of his eyes, for which he can take on any appearance - a plant, a mushroom (a giant talking fly agaric), an animal or even a person. Leshy can be distinguished from other people by two signs - his eyes burn with magical fire, and his shoes are worn backwards.

Sometimes a meeting with a goblin can end badly - it will lead a person into the forest and throw it to be eaten by animals. However, those who respect nature can even befriend this creature and get help from it.

famously one-eyed

The spirit of evil, failure, a symbol of grief. There is no certainty about Likh's appearance - it is either a one-eyed giant, or a tall, thin woman with one eye in the middle of her forehead. Famously, they are often compared with the Cyclopes, although apart from one eye and high growth, they have nothing in common.

The proverb has come down to our time: "Do not wake Likho while it is quiet." In the literal and allegorical sense, Likho meant trouble - it became attached to a person, sat on his neck (in some legends, the unfortunate tried to drown Likho by throwing himself into the water and drowned himself) and prevented him from living.
Likha, however, could be disposed of - deceived, driven away by willpower, or, as it is occasionally mentioned, transferred to another person along with some kind of gift. According to very gloomy prejudices, Likho could come and devour you.

Mermaid

In Slavic mythology, mermaids are a kind of mischievous evil spirits. They were drowned women, girls who died near a reservoir, or people bathing at inopportune times. Mermaids were sometimes identified with "mavki" (from the Old Slavonic "nav" - a dead man) - children who died without baptism or were strangled by their mothers.

The eyes of such mermaids burn with green fire. By their nature, they are nasty and evil creatures, they grab bathing people by the legs, pull them under water, or lure them from the shore, wrap their arms around them and drown them. There was a belief that the laughter of a mermaid could cause death (this makes them look like Irish banshees).

Some beliefs called mermaids the lower spirits of nature (for example, good "shorelines"), which have nothing to do with drowned people and willingly save drowning people.

There were also "tree mermaids" living in the branches of trees. Some researchers rank as mermaids middays (in Poland - lakanits) - lower spirits, taking the form of girls in transparent white clothes, living in the fields and helping the field. The latter is also a nature spirit - it is believed that he looks like a little old man with a white beard. Polevoi lives in cultivated fields and usually patronizes peasants - except when they work at noon. For this, he sends noondays to the peasants so that they will deprive them of their minds with their magic.

Mention should also be made of the crowberry - a kind of mermaid, a baptized drowned woman who does not belong to the category of evil spirits, and therefore is relatively kind. Vodyanitsy love deep pools, but most often they settle under the mill wheels, ride them, spoil the millstones, muddy the water, wash out the pits, tear the nets.

It was believed that the waterwomen were the wives of watermen - spirits appearing in the form of old men with a long green beard made of algae and (rarely) fish scales instead of skin. Buggy-eyed, fat, creepy, merman lives at great depths in pools, commands mermaids and other underwater inhabitants. It was believed that he rides around his underwater kingdom on catfish, for which this fish was sometimes called the "devil's horse" by the people.

The merman is not malicious by nature and even acts as the patron of sailors, fishermen or millers, but from time to time he likes to play pranks, dragging a gaping (or offending) bather under water. Sometimes the merman was endowed with the ability to shapeshift - turning into fish, animals, or even logs.

Over time, the image of the water as the patron of rivers and lakes has changed - he began to be seen as a powerful "sea king" living under water in a chic palace. From the spirit of nature, the water one turned into a kind of magical tyrant, with whom the heroes of the folk epic (for example, Sadko) could communicate, conclude agreements and even defeat him with cunning.

Vodyanyye as imagined by Bilibin and V. Vladimirov.

Sirin

Another creature with the head of a woman and the body of an owl (owl), which has a charming voice. Unlike Alkonost and Gamayun, Sirin is not a messenger from above, but a direct threat to life. It is believed that these birds live in "Indian lands near paradise", or on the Euphrates River, and sing such songs for the saints in heaven, upon hearing which, people completely lose their memory and will, and their ships are wrecked.

It is not difficult to guess that Sirin is a mythological adaptation of the Greek sirens. However, unlike them, the Sirin bird is not a negative character, but rather a metaphor for the temptation of a person by all sorts of temptations.

Nightingale the Robber (Nightingale Odikhmantievich)

The character of late Slavic legends, a complex image that combines the features of a bird, an evil wizard and a hero. The nightingale the robber lived in the forests near Chernigov near the Smorodina River and for 30 years guarded the road to Kyiv, not letting anyone in, deafening travelers with a monstrous whistle and roar.

The Nightingale the Robber had a nest on seven oaks, but the legend also says that he had a tower and three daughters. The epic hero Ilya Muromets was not afraid of the adversary and knocked out his eye with an arrow from a bow, and during their fight the whistle of the Nightingale the Robber knocked down the entire forest in the district. The hero brought the captive villain to Kyiv, where Prince Vladimir, for the sake of interest, asked the Nightingale the Robber to whistle - to check whether the rumor about the super-abilities of this villain is true. The nightingale, of course, whistled, so much so that he almost destroyed half the city. After that, Ilya Muromets took him to the forest and cut off his head so that such an outrage would not happen again (according to another version, the Nightingale the Robber later acted as an assistant to Ilya Muromets in battle).

For his first novels and poems, Vladimir Nabokov used the pseudonym Sirin.

In 2004, the village of Kukoboy (Pervomaisky district of the Yaroslavl region) was declared the "homeland" of Baba Yaga. Her "birthday" is celebrated on July 26th. The Orthodox Church came out with a sharp condemnation of the "worship of Baba Yaga."

Ilya Muromets is the only epic hero canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Baba Yaga is found even in Western comics, for example - "Hellboy" by Mike Mignola. In the first episode of the computer game Quest for Glory, Baba Yaga is the main plot villain. In the role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade, Baba Yaga is a vampire of the Nosferatu clan (distinguished by ugliness and secrecy). After Gorbachev left the political arena, she came out of hiding and killed all the vampires of the Bruja clan that controlled the Soviet Union.

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It is very difficult to list all the fabulous creatures of the Slavs: most of them have been studied very poorly and are local varieties of spirits - forest, water or domestic, and some of them were very similar to each other. In general, the abundance of non-material beings greatly distinguishes the Slavic bestiary from more "mundane" collections of monsters from other cultures.
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Among the Slavic "monsters" there are very few monsters as such. Our ancestors led a calm, measured life, and therefore the creatures that they invented for themselves were associated with elemental elements that were neutral in nature. If they resisted people, then, for the most part, only protecting mother nature and tribal traditions. The stories of Russian folklore teach us to be kinder, more tolerant, love nature and respect the ancient heritage of our ancestors.

The latter is especially important, because ancient legends are quickly forgotten, and instead of mysterious and mischievous Russian mermaids, Disney fish girls with shells on their breasts come to us. Do not be ashamed to study Slavic legends - especially in their original versions, not adapted for children's books. Our bestiary is archaic and in a sense even naive, but we can be proud of it, because it is one of the most ancient in Europe.

Probably, each of us knows some Slavic demons and evil spirits. In most cases, these are the heroes of fairy tales that have come down to our time. Check if you are familiar with all the ancient mythical essence of the Slavs.

In the article:

Slavic demons - Anchutka

Our ancestors of the Slavs had different demons, spirits, evil spirits that protected, horrified, helped, frightened people. The list of Slavic evil spirits is very long. However, there are special supernatural beings to be aware of.

Some from early childhood known to people. These are such mythical characters as Bannik, Koschey the Immortal. With other demons, you will probably meet for the first time. For example, with Anchutka.

It's a small evil spirit. He is only a few centimeters tall. His small body is completely covered with dark thick hair, but on his head he has a bald spot. One of the features of this evil is the absence of heels.

People believed that if you say out loud the name of this evil spirits, then it will immediately appear in front of you. Such creatures live in ponds and fields. Their main enemies are wild animals.

The most peaceful Anchutkas are field ones, they practically do not appear in front of people until they are called. Others love to play pranks. However, their jokes are very evil and dangerous. Therefore, it is not worth jumping on the rampage. A particularly evil spirit can even kill a person.

The main ability of this type of evil spirits is the art of becoming invisible. In addition, the creature can turn into any animal or person. Some sources indicate that the spirit can move anywhere in space.

In order to get out of the Anchutka's tenacious paws, it is enough to throw a little salt into it or touch it with iron. However, if the spirit has chosen a house, then it is possible to expel it there only if the building is completely burned.

Slavic evil spirits - Aspid

Serpent Aspid

Another famous character in Slavic mythology is Asp. Our ancestors represented him in the form of a huge snake that is able to breathe fire. Instead of a mouth, it has a huge bird's beak.

The wings of the snake are black. However, when exposed to sunlight, they become multi-colored. Aspid lives in the mountains and forests, always hunts at a short distance from his habitat.

His diet consists of pigs and cattle. However, if the snake is very hungry, it can even attack a person. Evil spirits dominate over a large area and do not let other individuals into it.

The only way to kill a snake is to burn it. However, he never flies up to the fire and does not land on the ground, only on a stone. However, there is a method to capture the monster. To do this, you need to make a trumpet sound that will enrage the snake. In anger, he does not control his movements and rushes at everything that makes such a sound. This will help lure the monster into a trap.

Badzula - ancient evil spirits among the Slavs

Such an ancient spirit in ancient times made people wander. In Slavic mythology, this spirit was often feminine. If Badzula achieved what he wanted, then the person immediately began to have trouble. Everything fell out of hand, nothing worked, and the money left the house, quarrels began with friends and relatives.

After that, the person fell into depression, began to drink a lot, spent his last savings, left his home, and as a result remained with nothing and left to wander. Meanwhile, Badzula, very pleased, ate the fruits of her labor.

They say that Badzula looks like an elderly woman, hiding behind an old decrepit veil. Her chest hung down to her stomach, and deep scars were visible on the skin.

It was very easy to get rid of her. To do this, a person needed to thoroughly clean his house, take out all the garbage from the room, and then throw it away, facing east. At this moment, a spirit appeared in front of the person, which pushed him to vagrancy.

As soon as you get rid of your garbage, then, for a moment, appearing in front of you, Bazzula will disappear.

Is there a water one?

The owner of the waters, the water grandfather is another popular character in Slavic mythology. He is the embodiment of the element of water, as a negative and dangerous principle.

Most often, people imagined him in the form of a naked and very obese old man with large bulging eyes and a tail covered with fish scales. Often the water is covered with mud, algae. He has a long beard and mustache.

It was believed that this spirit could turn into any fish, bird, log, drowned man. Some sources indicate that the brownie could also turn into children and horses. This spirit lives in swamps, rivers, whirlpools, in abandoned water mills. Each nation has its own special legends associated with the water.

For example, in Ukraine they believed that before the Baptism, the merman sat in the water, and after that he passed into the vine. Then he went out on land and sat in the coastal grass right up to the Savior.

Belarusians, on the other hand, believed that before Epiphany, this spirit walks around the village and demands a sled from people in order to take their children out of the reservoir before its consecration. That is why before Epiphany it was necessary to turn all the sleds upside down so that the evil spirits could not use them.

The beekeepers believed that this spirit is the patron saint of bees. On the night of Apple Spas, all beekeepers without fail brought gifts to the water spirit. Most often it was honey and wax, which had to be thrown into the pond. Bolotnik and Vodyanitsy can accompany the Waterman.

Sinister - evil spirit

An evil spirit that can dwell in human homes and in the thicket of the forest is Sinister. Our ancestors were sure that this is evil spirits that can take away all wealth from the house and attract poverty into it. It is believed that where this spirit settles, poverty will reign there.

In the Sinister epics, it is identical to the white walker from the series Game of Thrones

The evil spirits are absolutely invisible, but you can hear them. People believed that he communicated with those in whose house he settled. The main enemy of Sinister is Brownie. A good grandfather does not let poverty into the house. But if she manages to get through, it will be very difficult to exterminate her.

Sometimes spirits settle in several individuals. It happens that as many as 12 creatures live in one house. Most often, Sinister hides in warm stoves, in chests or cabinets. The failures sent by Sinister will follow a person exactly until he gets rid of the spirit.

The fact that Sinister settled in the house suggests that. Perhaps he is too weak or has completely disappeared from this dwelling.

Despite the fact that the Sinisters themselves are weak, it is very difficult to defeat them. It is easier to prevent them from entering the house. For this, solar signs were applied on the doors. It was believed that the more such symbols in the room, the greater the likelihood that poverty would not penetrate the house.

The image of Kikimora

Few people are not familiar with Kikimora. She was depicted as a terrible old woman with a long nose, very thin, dressed in torn old rags. She is so small and skinny that she does not even go outside because she is afraid that the wind will blow her away.

Beliefs about kikimore are not common among all Slavs. Most often, references are found among Russians, less often among Belarusians. It is believed that this image was formed under the influence of the rite of worship of the goddess Makoshi.

It is believed that a child can turn into Kikimora if he was cursed by his mother and father. Some sources indicate that Kikimora can become a child whom the mother killed herself or who died unbaptized.

Such evil spirits settle in those houses where a person committed suicide or where the body of a child is buried. There was a belief that this spirit could also appear if someone sent it.

This was usually done by carpenters who wanted to take revenge on negligent employers. To do this, it was necessary to make a figurine from a sliver and shreds and put them between the logs of the house. It is believed that the called Kikimora is the most dangerous and can even kill a person.

It is very difficult to get rid of such evil spirits. To do this, you need to thoroughly clean the apartment, collect all the garbage, fumigate the room with incense while saying a special spell. However, even after such a rite, evil spirits can return. There is another effective means - to let the bear in on the evil spirits. According to popular beliefs, it is this animal that she is most afraid of.

Goblin - guardian spirit

Strong, powerful and formidable, he was often the negative hero of folk tales. People imagine him as a tall, strong old man with a long beard. He has green hair that has long branches and plants in it.

Slavic guardian spirit of the forest

Among the many different spirits, Leshy is the most similar to a person. However, his dark gray skin and hair color give him away. At night, Leshy's eyes glow. The creature can become very tall or very small, change its appearance.

The spirit lives only in the forests. In fact, this is a very caring, loving and kind owner of the forest. However, he does not favor people, because they destroy what is so dear to him. If this spirit is greatly angered, then it will appear in the form of a huge bear and will kill the offender himself. The main enemies of Leshy are Brownie and Vodyanoy.

It is believed that the Goblin is able to accelerate or slow down the growth of plants, knows how to heal wounds. It is impossible to kill this spirit, but it can be scared away. For the most part, such spirits are not dangerous, because they do not like to contact people and almost never attack. But they can easily confuse and intimidate a negligent traveler.

Evil deity Pererug

The small evil god Pererug is very similar to Sinister. However, he does not bring poverty, but quarrels, squabbles and aggression. This little entity, having appeared in the house, begins to mischief in every possible way and tries to embroil the relatives.

Pererug is invisible, it is also impossible to hear it. Such little gods even had their own temples and sanctuaries. The Slavs did their best to appease these creatures in order to avoid trouble.