Probably the most famous of all the pre-Christian gods of Russia to this day, oddly enough, are not Rod, Svarog or Perun, but the centaur Kitovras and the patroness of women Mokosh. Only they are known by name and molded from clay. These are painted whistles that anyone can blow into: people believe that this whistle drives away evil spirits.
The legends about Kitovras belong to the most ancient times of the common Aryan unity and are therefore known to many peoples. In India, these are legends about the Gand-Harvas, in Iran - about Gandarva, in Greece - about Chiron, in Scandinavia - about a mighty giant who built the city of the gods Asgard with the help of his heroic horse. In the myths of the Semitic peoples, this is a demonic assistant to King Solomon. The Celts attributed many of Kitovras's deeds to Merlin, in particular the magical transport of the Stonehenge stones from Ireland to the British Isles by air. What is the original tradition?
The Book of Kolyada tells about how the Month, exhausted by loneliness, decided to kidnap from the god Khors his wife, the beautiful Dawn-Zaryanitsa. He himself was unable to do this, and therefore the Month decided to turn to the wizard Kitovras, who lived in the Caucasus Mountains, for help.
You cannot simply ask for help - he will refuse. So, we must force him, but how? A month turned to Kitovras' wife, a mermaid, and asked how to defeat her cunning husband. She said that the centaur is a great lover of wine, and when he gets drunk, even a child can handle him. The moon filled all the wells with wine. Kitovras got drunk, tied him up for a month and agreed to let him go only when he took an oath that he would kidnap Zarya.
Kitovras built a flying ship and took it to the shining palace of Dawn. Then he persuaded her to ride it and, as soon as the trusting goddess got on the ship, she flew to the Moon. The crime was opened immediately.
Horse immediately rushed in pursuit of his stolen wife. And after him - all the Svarozhichi. Dawn was returned, and the Month was roughly punished: Semargl cut him in half. And as soon as he, having healed the wound, grows again, Semargl again hits him with a sword.
No matter how Kitovras made excuses that the Month forced him to commit this deceit, he got the nuts. In atonement for his deed, the centaur was supposed to build an unparalleled temple in honor of the Almighty near the sacred Mount Elbrus.
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However, “to build” is a wrong word, the temple had to be hewn out of a solid stone of Alatyr, without the use of iron (iron could not touch the sparkling white stone). Even the wizard Kitovras could not do that. So he told Hors. I had to seek help from the mighty bird Gamayun, whose claws were sharper than any steel. Together, they created a stone miracle. In the "Book of Kolyada" its exact dimensions are given: length - 60, width - 20, height - 30 cubits. If we consider that the elbow is a measure of length equal to 38-46 centimeters, then the parameters turned out to be considerable: almost 30x10x15 meters. But the task was not to impress with the size of the building. The temple was built high in the mountains, almost in the skies. It stood on eighty pillars, around it was laid out the Irian, that is, paradise, garden, surrounded by a fence of pure silver. Inside the walls of the temple were decorated with gold and gems. The leaves of 12 doors and 12 windows were completely covered with patterns of carnelian, topaz, emerald, chalcedony, sapphire and other precious stones. When the rays of light fell on this priceless mosaic, it seemed that its plots came to life: birds fly up from the branches and go flying, animals walk in tall grasses between trees, whose leaves flutter in the wind. An Aryan city was built near the temple and a wonderful garden on Elbrus, the entrance to which is open to everyone.the beasts walk in the tall grasses between the trees, whose leaves flutter in the wind. An Aryan city was built near the temple and a wonderful garden on Elbrus, the entrance to which is open to everyone.the beasts walk in the tall grasses between the trees, whose leaves flutter in the wind. An Aryan city was built near the temple and a wonderful garden on Elbrus, the entrance to which is open to everyone.
Its description is given in the famous Iranian poem "Shah-Nam":
You will say: not a city - a pagan temple:
Everything is decorated with flowers, brocade …
The city spreads like paradise in front of him, Captivating with its unprecedented brilliance …
Treasures are everywhere: there is a golden treasure, Here lalas and pearls dazzle with beauty …
In diamond headdress, smart, slender, The virgins are fresher than spring.
The Temple of the Sun, built by Kitovras with the help of the Gamayun bird, was remembered by many peoples. Firstly, as we have already said, everyone retold the legend in their own way: now this is Asgard, now the city erected by the White Spirits, now the First Temple, now Stonehenge. Secondly, it is remembered as a heavenly city, the abode of the gods and the righteous. In other words, heaven on earth. Thirdly, Russian churches, both stone and wood, were built in imitation of the Elbrus temple: the walls were decorated with carvings depicting birds and animals; the altar got its name from the sacred stone of Alatyr; the church lamp was named after the ancient god - "Horos" and even the pulpit, from where the priest preached, comes from the ancient word "mov" - "to speak."
The mention of Kitovras makes it possible to quite accurately determine the time of the construction of the temple - this is the era of Sagittarius, that is, 20-19 millennia BC. In subsequent times, the temple was destroyed many times - from natural disasters, military raids and the accompanying looting. It was restored and … destroyed again.
According to Zoroastrian legends, it existed in the second millennium BC and was captured by the legendary king Rustam. There is also indirect information from ancient authors. The last mention of the Temple of the Sun dates back to the 4th century BC. Then waves of Hunnic and Gothic migrations erased the last traces of the heavenly hail. But back in the 10th century, the historian and traveler Abu-l-Hasan ibn al-Hussein al-Masoudi wrote:
“There were revered buildings in the Slavic lands. Between others, they had a building on a mountain, about which philosophers wrote that it is one of the highest mountains in the world (that is, we are talking about Elbrus - the highest mountain in the Caucasus). There is a story about this building: about the quality of its construction, about the location of its heterogeneous stones and their different colors, about the holes made in its upper part, about what was built in these holes to observe the rising of the Sun, about the precious stones placed there and signs that indicate future events, about the sounds in its dome and about what is comprehended when hearing these sounds."