Unlike ancient mythology, well known from fiction and works of art, as well as the mythologies of the countries of the East, the texts of the myths of the Slavs have not reached our time, since at that distant time when myths were created, they did not yet know writing.
In the 5th-7th centuries after the Great Migration, the Slavs occupied the territories of Central and Eastern Europe from the Elbe (Laba) to the Dnieper and Volga, from the southern shores of the Baltic Sea to the north of the Balkan Peninsula. Centuries passed, and the Slavs became more and more separated from each other, forming three modern branches of the largest family of related peoples in Europe. Eastern Slavs are Belarusians, Russians, Ukrainians; Western - Poles, Slovaks and Czechs (the Baltic Slavs were assimilated by their German neighbors in the XII century);
southern - Bulgarians, Macedonians, Serbs, Slovenes, Croats, Bosnians. Despite the division of the Slavs, their mythologies have retained many common features to this day. So, all Slavs know the myth of the duel of the god of thunder with his demonic enemy and the victory of the thunderer; All Slavic traditions are familiar with the ancient custom at the end of winter to burn a scarecrow - the embodiment of dark evil forces or to bury a mythical creature like Maslenitsa and Yarila among the Russians and Belarusians and German - among the Bulgarians.
The peculiarity of Slavic mythology, which, like any other, reflected the worldview of its creators, lies in the fact that their life was directly connected with the world of lower spirits that dwelt everywhere. Some of them were credited with intelligence, strength, benevolence, others - cunning, malice and deceit. The ancients believed that all these creatures - bereginas, pitchforks, waterfishes, field workers, etc., constantly interfere in their lives and accompany a person from the day of birth until death. The Slavs believed that good and evil spirits are next to them, that they help to reap a bountiful harvest and bring disease, promise a happy family life, order in the house and punish for unseemly deeds. The Slavs feared and revered the gods, who were relatively few and who controlled natural phenomena and elements - thunderstorm, fire, rain,trying to propitiate with prayers and sacrifices.
Since the actual Slavic texts and images of gods and spirits were not preserved due to the fact that Christianization interrupted the pagan tradition, the main source of information is medieval chronicles, teachings against paganism, chronicles, archaeological excavations, folklore and ethnographic collections. Information about the gods of the Western Slavs is very scarce, for example, "History of Poland" by Jan Dlugosz (1415 - 1480), which contains a list of deities and their correspondences from Roman mythology: Nyya - Pluto, Dzevana - Venus, Marzhana - Ceres, etc. etc.
The Czech and Slovak data on the gods, as many scholars believe, need critical consideration. Little is known about the mythology of the South Slavs. Early falling into the sphere of influence of Byzantium and other powerful civilizations of the Mediterranean, having adopted Christianity before other Slavs, they largely lost information about the former composition of their pantheon. The mythology of the Eastern Slavs has been most fully preserved. We find early information about it in the "Tale of Bygone Years" (XII century), which reports that Prince Vladimir the Holy (? - 1015) strove to create a nationwide pagan pantheon. However, his adoption of Christianity in 988 entailed the destruction of the idols of the so-called Vladimirov's pantheon (they were solemnly thrown into the Dnieper), as well as the prohibition of paganism and its rituals. The old gods began to be identified with Christian saints: Perun turned into Saint Elijah,Veles - to St. Blasius, Yarila - to St. George. However, the mythological ideas of our ancestors continue to live in folk traditions, holidays, beliefs and rituals, as well as in songs, fairy tales, conspiracies and omens. Ancient mythological characters such as goblin, mermaids, water, brownies and devils are vividly captured in speech, proverbs and sayings.
Developing, Slavic mythology went through three stages - spirits, deities of nature and gods-idols (idols). The Slavs revered the gods of life and death (Zhiva and Morana), fertility and the vegetable kingdom, heavenly bodies and fire, sky and war; not only the sun or water were personified, but also numerous house spirits, etc. - worship and admiration was expressed in the offering of blood and bloodless sacrifices.
In the 19th century, Russian scientists began to study Russian myths, legends and legends, understanding their scientific value and the importance of preserving them for future generations. The key works for the new understanding of Slavic mythology were the works of F. I. Buslaev, A. A. Potebnya, Promotional video:
I. P. Sakharov, such specific works as a three-volume study by A. N. Afanasyev "Poetic views of the Slavs on nature", "Myths of Slavic paganism" and "A short sketch of Russian mythology" by D. O. Shepping, "Deities of the ancient Slavs" by A. S. Famintsyn and others.
The first to emerge was the mythological school, which is based on the comparative-historical method of study, the establishment of the organic connection between language, folk poetry and folk mythology, the principle of the collective nature of creativity. Fyodor Ivanovich Buslaev (1818-1897) is rightfully considered the founder of this school.
“In the most ancient period of language,” says Buslaev, “the word as an expression of traditions and rituals, events and objects was understood in the closest connection with what it expresses:“the name imprinted a belief or event, and from the name a legend or myth arose again.” A special “epic ritualism” in the repetition of ordinary expressions led to the fact that what was said once about any subject seemed so successful that it no longer needed further modification. The language thus became "a faithful instrument of tradition."
The method, originally associated with the comparison of languages, the establishment of common forms of words and their elevation to the language of the Indo-European peoples, for the first time in the Russian spider was transferred by Buslaev into folklore studies and applied to study the mythological legends of the Slavs.
"Poetic inspiration belonged to everyone, like a proverb, like a legal saying. The whole nation was a poet. Individuals were not poets, but singers or storytellers, they only knew how to tell or sing more faithfully and dexterously what everyone knew. The power of tradition reigned supreme over the epic singer, not allowing him to stand out from the group. Not knowing the laws of nature, neither physical nor moral, epic poetry represented both in an inseparable totality, expressed in numerous assimilations and metaphors. The heroic epic is only a further development of the primitive mythological legend. The theogonic epic is replaced by the heroic one at that stage in the development of epic poetry, when legends about the affairs of people began to join pure myth. At this time, an epic epic grows out of myth,from which the fairy tale later emerged. The people keep their epic legends not only in epics and fairy tales, but also in individual sayings, short conspiracies, proverbs, sayings, oaths, riddles, omens and superstitions."
These are the main provisions of Buslaev's mythological theory, which in the 60-70s of the XIX century gradually develops into the school of comparative mythology and the theory of borrowing.
The theory of comparative mythology was developed by Alexander Nikolaevich Afanasyev (1826-1871), Orest Fedorovich Miller (1833-1889) and Alexander Alexandrovich Kotlyarevsky (1837-1881). Their focus was on the origin of the myth in the very process of its creation. Most of the myths, according to this theory, go back to the most ancient tribe of the Aryans. Standing out from this common tribe, the peoples carried its legends around the world, therefore the legends of the "Dove Book" almost completely coincide with the songs of the Old Norse "Elder Edda" and the ancient myths of the Hindus.
The comparative method, according to Afanasyev, "provides a means to restore the original form of legends."
Of particular importance for understanding Slavic mythology are epics (this term was introduced into everyday life by I. P. Sakharov; before that, epic songs were called antiquities). Russian heroic epics can be put in a row with heroic myths in other mythological systems with the difference that the epics are largely historical, they tell about the events of the XI-XVI centuries. The heroes of epics - Ilya Muromets, Volga, Mikula Selyaninovich, Vasily Buslaev and others are perceived not only as personalities related to a certain historical era, but above all - as defenders, ancestors, namely epic heroes. Hence - their unity with nature and magical power, their invincibility (there are practically no epics about the death of the heroes or about the battles they played). Originally existing in the oral version, as the work of singer-storytellers, epics, of course,have undergone significant changes. There is reason to believe that they once existed in a more mythologized form.
Slavic mythology is characterized by the fact that it is all-embracing and is not a separate area of the popular idea of the world and the universe (like fantasy or religion), but finds embodiment even in everyday life - be it rituals, rituals, cults or the agricultural calendar, preserved demonology (from brownies, witches and goblin to banniks and mermaids) or a forgotten identification (for example, the pagan Perun with the Christian Saint Ilya). Therefore, practically destroyed at the level of texts until the 11th century, it continues to live in images, symbols, rituals and in the language itself.
