Probably, in the entire history of mankind, there will not be even a year when wars did not rage on Earth. Tears, blood and destruction - these are the results of any armed conflict, regardless of its cause and scale. However, at all times people believed that unknown forces control every battle, and the warrior who solved their secrets will become invulnerable to the enemy's weapons and come out alive from the hottest battle.
God's host
It just so happened that the ancient history of mankind is a chain of endless wars. Whole kingdoms and vast territories of fertile lands passed from hand to hand thanks to the power of weapons. Luck in battle enriched the winners, while the losers faced an unenviable fate. It was then that numerous beliefs were born that the battles are watched by special gods of war, on whose mercy victory in battle depends.
So, in ancient Egypt, the celestial Montu was especially revered. According to myths, it was thanks to the patronage of this god that the troops of Ramses II were invincible in battles, and the pharaoh himself became the greatest ruler.
Mighty Vikings honed their military skills from early childhood, as they believed that only skillful fighters were helped in battle by Odin, who closely watched every battle on earth.
But the Greek god Ares had a changeable disposition - at the beginning of the battle, he could patronize one army, and then take the side of the enemy, so only rich sacrifices helped to achieve his location.
However, there were also such battles, in which not only the gods of war participated, but also the inhabitants of heaven, "in charge" of the peaceful sides of human life. So, during the siege of Troy, not only Ares and Athena the warrior took an active part in the battles, but also Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite and even the lord of the gods Zeus himself.
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Weapons are important
However, even the most dexterous and experienced warrior, enlisting the help of the gods, would not be able to realize even half of his abilities without good weapons. That is why at all times and in all countries, armourers were highly respected, and a light and sharp sword or a strong shell was very expensive.
In Japan, to this day, there are legends about the famous master Masamune, whose swords were of exceptional strength. Each blade of this armourer was forged from 128 layers of steel and possessed … capricious character. It was believed that Masamune's swords choose their own master, and if they find themselves in the hands of a person they did not like, they can cause a serious wound.
I must say that the weapons made by European craftsmen were also distinguished by exceptional properties, however, most of their secrets are now irretrievably lost. So, in the III century BC, the engineer Philo of Byzantine described the blades sent as a gift to the emperor by the masters of Spain. These swords had amazing flexibility: if you put one of them on a person's head, you could easily pull its ends to your shoulders, and then the blade straightened as if nothing had happened.
The Ostrogoth King Theodoric the Great in the 6th century talked about swords made by German armourers, which “cut even armor and more expensive iron quality, and the polished surface shines so that it clearly reflects the features of the beholder, and the blades are so evenly sharpened that one might think that they came out of Vulcan's workshop."
In addition, for a long time, European craftsmen tried to engrave ancient spells in the form of skillful weaving of runes on expensive items. It was believed that these patterns are a reliable talisman and will save the life of the owner of such weapons in battle.
The dispute between the two famous medieval rulers Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, preserved in the annals of history, tells about the amazing properties of the blades of Christian and Eastern warriors. In order to demonstrate the superiority of Damascus steel, the sultan cut a pillow stuffed with horsehair in half with a single blow of his saber. In response, the king cut off the iron handle of the club with his sword. This "battle draw" made the legendary warriors respect each other and reconciled their opponents for a while.
Cossacks - "Spassovtsy"
An excellent addition to the grace of the gods and faithful weapons were the special magical knowledge used by the ancient warriors. The most famous of these exercises is "Cossack Spas" - a mysterious battle magic of the Don Cossacks. The warrior wielding the "Savior" will easily overcome any enemy, pass unnoticed through the enemy camp, become invulnerable to any type of weapon, and even be able to transfer his consciousness into an animal or a bird.
Today, some researchers believe that Suvorov, Baron von Ungern-Sternberg and Vasily Chapaev were familiar with the practices of the Cossack Savior, who more than once amazed their contemporaries with their courage and military luck.
According to legend, the foundations of the "Savior" were developed even before the beginning of our era by the tribes of the Dzhanians living in the mouths of the Kuban and Don, whose small detachments terrified the mighty troops of Tsar Darius.
Several centuries later, the twenty thousandth detachment of Genghis Khan met strange people in the steppe who caught arrows flying at them with their bare hands and easily fought with two swords at once. However, the forces were unequal, and the Mongols began to crowd out the amazing warriors, but then a strange obsession suddenly found the invaders, and they began to fight each other. The darkness vanished, and it turned out that the unknown warriors “disappeared” without a trace in the vast steppes, and the formidable khan missed half of the tumen (part of the army of 10 thousand horsemen).
But what can we say about the centuries gone by, when during the years of the Civil War amazing events took place in the detachment, which was commanded by the Cossack Colonel Vasyashchev. This dashing officer, together with 54 soldiers, easily managed to capture an entire corps of Red Army men. Not knowing fear, he flew with only one saber at the enemy armed to the teeth, and at this time the guns of the "defenders of the working people" who fired at him for some reason gave a misfire. Later, returning to the detachment's parking area, the colonel took off his outer clothing and, like dust, shook out the bullets of the Red Army soldiers from it.
Surprisingly, the secrets of the "Spassovites" are still alive today. So, in the 1990s, during a closed tournament of martial arts held in the capital, one of the followers of this ancient teaching challenged 20 (!) Strongest masters to battle at once. It must be said that the fight ended in a very pitiable manner for the owners of black belts, while the "Spasovets" did not receive a single bruise.
That there was no war
In the wars of the past XX century, the lives of ordinary fighters who did not own magic practices and magic weapons were often saved by ancient omens passed from generation to generation. The most common soldier's custom was to always carry a talisman with him, which most often was the cartridge from the first issued clip. During the Great Patriotic War, soldiers copied by hand and kept Simonov's poem "Wait for me" in their hearts, as they believed that these lines would definitely help them return to their families and friends. During the battles in Afghanistan, our guys served as such a talisman with the keys to the apartment, which they did not part with in the most fierce battles.
Until now, in many units there is an unspoken prohibition on washing and shaving before battle, since it is believed that a cleaning soldier unconsciously prepares himself for death.
During the Second World War, it was considered special luck to have lucky clothes. So, the pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Purgin, who made 232 sorties, each time got on the plane in the same shabby tunic and would never agree to replace it with more civilian uniforms.
Also, experienced soldiers never swore or ate before the battle, and the recruits who violated this taboo faced severe punishment. It was considered a bad omen to give something before the upcoming battle, since there was a high probability that the donor would never see his colleagues again.
A belief that does not allow taking something of a murdered friend's belongings as a souvenir has come down to our days, and the military always drink every third glass during any feast while standing, without clinking glasses, paying tribute to their dead comrades in such images.
Few people know that the toast “So there’s no war!” Popular in Soviet times, so often pronounced in various homes during holidays and family celebrations, was a kind of spell for our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, with the help of which they helped us, their descendants, tried to save from the horrors of military battles.
Elena LYAKINA