Well, I promised to continue the story of the Zmei Gorynych...
(The beginning of the story about the meaning of fairy tales, read in previous publications)
If Zmei Gorynych as a true superhero specifically tried to maintain secrecy, then he succeeded. What is its origin, from which regions he came to Russian land is still not known for certain. Various historians, archaeologists, ethnographers and other high foreheads put forward various versions, but the evidence base is poor for everyone, because Zmei did not leave evidence, and destroyed witnesses. Let’s tell you a secret, some even think that there was no Gorynych at all! And this fabulous image was created exclusively by the rich imagination of the Russian people, in order to denote in its immortal epos... the element. Just a natural phenomenon. A tornado, a hurricane, and, possibly, meteorite rain, destroyed the crop, a couple of huts caught fire, several not bad girls died - here you are, and Zmei Gorynych flew in.
Belligerent young scientists say that under Gorynych you need to see nothing more than a giant flamethrower designed by the Tatar-Mongols. Indeed, the enemy of the Russian people had a myriad of various devices for taking fortresses, among them the prototype of a flamethrower firing “Greek fire”, the exact composition of which has not been preserved to our time, but it is known that it was practically impossible to put out it, it continued to burn even on the surface of the water!
Of course, there is also a philosophical theory according to which the Serpent Gorynych is an echo of more ancient ideas about the sacred Lizard, the forefather of everything that exists on Earth. Allegedly, from the egg hatched by this first-mover, the world appeared. But then this Lizard is not the forefather, but Pram? In any case, there should be some real background for this version, since the myth of the ancient divine Lizard (ore Serpent, ore Dragon) exists not only in the mythology of the Slavs but also generally exists in ancient Aryan culture.
Practical archaeologists authoritatively declare: go down from heaven to earth, and then it will become completely clear that this is not mythical forefather, but quite real beast animals, forefathers and foremothers of modern crocodiles. It’s hard, of course, to imagine that in the Novgorod and Pskov rivers, as if in the African Nile, alligators were swimming, but they would have to. Academician Rybakov himself, the luminary of Russian historical science, analyzing the epic about Sadko, came to the conclusion that the famous gusliar, who got to the underwater king, was actually dealing with a crocodile.
He even indicated the place where this happened - on Lake Ilmen, near the source of Volkhov, in a place called Peryn. They began to dig, and excavations confirmed the scientist's assumption! In 1952, a temple was discovered there, which was included in the textbooks as the sanctuary of an ancient crocodile in Peryn. By the way, the consonance of the name Peryn and the name of the Slavic deity Perun leads to the idea that it was from the underwater king, who visited Sadko, that the idea of the omnipotent god Perun went. Again we return to the philosophical heights...
But what could make our ancestors deify not the sun, which gives light and warmth, not the earth giving birth to bread, but the toothy reptile? Fear. Hence the character of the sacrifices made to the underwater king - bloody. The famous historian and folklorist Afanasyev was also sure that under the sacred Lizard lies a very real animal.
Studying the tales and epics of the northwestern regions of Russia, he learned about an ancient ritual for which peasants of even the seediest villages of the whole world bought and fed horses, so that later they would sacrifice huge toothy dinosaurs living in lakes and rivers.
In summer, these miraculous yods themselves came out of the water to profit from someone other than fish, and in winter, already fierce and hungry, people decided to appease them and thereby save their cattle, and most likely, their own lives. The fertile land and the clear sun were glorified by the inhabitants of the forest-steppe south of Russia, but in the northern lake regions, they lived in fear and trepidation and prayed only about this - not to be in the jaws of the filthy monster.
In the "Conversations of Gregory the Theologian about the testing of the city" of the XI century, it was recorded that the pagans there still call the river a goddess, and the beast that lives in it, God, and offer them sacrifices. And not only so that the river snake did not eat their little children, but also in gratitude for the rich catch.
The worship of the crocodile continued for centuries, the Pskov chronicler narrated how hot animals came out of the river in the hot summer of 1582 and ate a lot of people, and horror stood all over the earth and prayed that the gods would go back under the water. Apparently, starving, the lizards did not make out - beautiful girls in front of them or just delicious meat...
Christianity is the tool that has become deadly to the ancient evil reptiles. The Orthodox Church could not endure the deification of anyone else but Jesus. Moreover, the cursed serpent, the creature of the devil. Lizards caught and destroyed. And the pagans, who suffered considerable damage from underwater reptiles, buried them with honour and moaned loudly over the graves...
Here it is, the mysterious Russian soul...
It is a pity that they did not leave a couple, so that the descendants, that is, you and I, could see with your own eyes the Holy Lizard. Zoos then did not exist, alas. And therefore, there remains doubt, the ancient progenitor of a modern crocodile and the Serpent Gorynych - the same character? No matter how formidable the underwater king was, his creeps were limited only to stuffing his belly. He didn’t try to go up, for he didn’t have wings, and he didn’t blaze fire. And the epic serpent, on the contrary, loved to soar under the clouds, and it always had Napoleonic plans. Even his middle name - Gorynych - rather indicates not a place of residence in the mountains, but that he was a native of the "high", that is, the upper world. To eat a horse is too low for him. He paid tribute exclusively to the red girls until love came and he abducted the niece of the Great Prince of Kyiv, Vladimir, Zabava Putyatichna.
And there are versions of the epic, in which it is alleged that Gorynych managed to call backfire in the beauty's heart! Is such a force cold, wet reptiles from a neighboring lake ?! And it is not known how the union of the superhero and the representative of blue blood would have been crowned, if not for the hero Dobrynya Nikitich, who had guessed to use his own weapon - the “Greek fire” against the kidnapper, and then chopped off the serpent's head one after another.
Dobrynya, to use modern terminology, is also a superman, but at the same time, he is the exact opposite of Gorynych. He is not only strong, brave, smart, but he is also the personification of kindness and service to his native people. If you compare it with Ilya Muromets or Alyosha Popovich, it turns out that Dobrynya undertakes to perform things that they can refuse. He is always ready to help, always on guard of the Good, and therefore in epics and folk tales, it was this hero who was destined to become the winner of the Zmei Gorynych, whose fire only destroyed and destroyed all life.
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