Among the many characters in The Lay of Igor's Campaign, Div is the most mysterious. In the work itself, he appears twice. For the first time, he “cries out at the top of the tree” giving either a prophecy or a warning to the Polovtsians about Igor Svyatoslavich’s campaign, in the second case, “he is thrown to the ground”. There are many speculations about who Div actually is. Most researchers agree that Div is a mythical creature, something like a goblin or bird things. But then disagreements begin.
The outstanding researcher of the Russian language VI Dal considered Diva an ominous bird-scarecrow, most likely an owl [Dal V. Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language. Vol. 1. M., 1955. S. 435]. Literary critic S. V. Shervinsky put forward the assumption that Div is a hoopoe bird, V. Suytenko considered him a goblin, and N. Dorozhin identified Diva from "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" with a relict hominid [See: Dorozhin N. Who is he, Div from The Lay? Technology for youth. 1983. No. 3.]. The latter assumption is generated, most likely, by the desire to show off wit and somehow stand out. We, following Occam's principle, will not “produce essences”, and will turn to the authorities in the field of ancient Russian literary criticism.
Academician D. S. Likhachev considered Diva a Polovtsian pagan deity. In his work devoted to the analysis of "The Lay of Igor's Campaign", he pointed out: "In this regard, we note that Div is clearly a" stranger ", not a Russian god, like a" Tmutorokan fool "… After all, crying from a tree, pagan deity - Div - appeals to "foreign" countries "[Likhachev DS. "The Word about Igor's Regiment" and the Culture of His Time. L., 1985. P.28]. In another book, Academician DS Likhachev writes: Divov belongs to the Polovtsian gods, possibly Karna and some other mythical creatures of the Lay [Likhachev DS "A word about Igor's regiment." M., 1982. S. 112]. In the book of Professor LN Gumilyov "The Search for a Fictional Kingdom", it is stated that the Diva means the devil, or the land of the devil [See: Gumilev L. N. The search for a fictional kingdom. M., 1970. S. 257]. Respectively,in this interpretation of the image of Diva, two phrases from "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" acquire the following meaning: 1) the deity of the eastern peoples Diva, shouting from the top of a tree, warns the inhabitants of their countries about Igor's campaign; 2) Div (the deity of the Eastern peoples) has already rushed to the Russian land.
This position is balanced and historically accurate. There is, however, a circumstance that does not allow one to unambiguously accept the interpretation of the image of Diva by outstanding Russian scientists. This is the absence in the folklore of the Turkic peoples of a character similar in name or description to Diva. The Polovtsi were Turks by origin, and although they have disappeared from the face of the earth, it is worthwhile to assume that modern Turks, Turkmens or Uzbeks have a similar folklore character. There is a Deva, but he "lived" in Iran, separated from Russia by Turan - hordes of Turkic-speaking nomads, equally hostile to Russia and Iran. This makes the comparison of Diva and Deva irrelevant in this context.
But a character who has become archetypal for both the Iranian Deva and the Russian (we dare to say this) Diva may be relevant. This is the deity of the ancient Proto-Indo-Europeans Diy, the Lord of the High Sky. The ancient Greeks transformed this character into Dzeus-Zeus [It is worth remembering at least the famous expression: "Deus exe mahina" in which the word "Deus" goes back to the word "Diy".], Among the Persians (Iranians) - into Deva, among the Aryans - in the Devil, among the Celts - in Disu. One character is missing - a Slavic one. It may well be Div from The Lay of Igor's Host. In this case, Diva can be identified with the husband of the goddess Lada, who bore the name Didi, later reinterpreted into Grandfather [See: Rybakov B. A. Paganism of the ancient Slavs. M., Nauka, 1994. S. 374.; Danilenko V. N., Shilov Yu. A. The beginnings of civilization. M., 1999. S. 260-261].
Comparison of Diva with Diem-Dyaus finds confirmation in ancient Russian literature. So, in the apocrypha "The Walking of the Mother of God" [It was to this apocryphal Academician DS Likhachev referred to, substantiating the ancient Russian origin of the god Troyan], in a list dating back to the 12th century, one can read: the delusion is not great, the thinking gods are many - Perun and Khors, Dyya and Troyan "[Sreznevsky I. I. Ancient monuments of the Russian language and writing. Izvestia ORYAS, T. X. S-Pb., 1861-1864. S. 551-578]. Especially noteworthy is the fact that Diy and Troyan are mentioned in the same pair.
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Let's take a closer look at Diva-Diya. For the first time, he is mentioned in the "Lay of Igor's Campaign" as a prophetic bird:
And then the points of the Polovtsian land are listed. It turns out that the Russian pagan deity warns the enemies of Russia about the danger? But Div, who came from the depths of millennia, could well change the characteristic from positive to negative and become an evil and treacherous character. After all, he was pushed into the background by the "younger" pagan gods [As an example: Tiamat, the Sumerian goddess of fertility, in Babylon and Assyria turns into an evil demon].
This assumption is confirmed when considering the semantic material of the Old Russian language. On the one hand, the word "div" in the Old Russian language had the same meaning as "divo", on the other hand it means a sign, an omen [For example: "I curse those who put human names to the stars and … the creators of the drowgou div". See: Dictionary of the Old Russian language. T.2. M., 1989. P.465], which leads us along a chain of associations to the concept of the sky. The word "wonderful" has how many meanings: wonderful, amazing, rare, beautiful, excellent [See: V. Dal Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language. Vol. 1. P.435], which fully corresponds to the epithets of the highest deity. The word "wondrous" is in the same semantic range and means glorified, famous, worthy ["Cyprian is great … wondrous in virtue." See Dictionary of the Old Russian language. T.2. P.465.; also:“O bright light and ornately decorated Russian land! You are surprised by many beauties …”]. "To marvel" not only in the Ukrainian language, but also in Russian dialects means to look, to see (association with the light, which means with the sky), and "to marvel" - to look at something extraordinary and amazing ["Do not marvel at the people, Divi for a while "," Divya for a friend, and all eat before dinner. " See: Dictionary of Russian folk dialects. Issue 8. L., 1972. P.47]. This semantic series goes back to the concepts of sky, light, heavenly sign, amazing, as well as to the concept of vision, the ability to see and wonder. For the ancient Slavs, these concepts were apparently associated with ideas about a heavenly deity. But there are also other chains of concepts associated with the root "div". The word "divi" in the Old Russian language means forest, wild, ignorant, cruel, rude [Dal V. Explanatory dictionary … V.1. FROM.435.; Dictionary of Russian folk dialects. Issue 8. P.48]; and "divachit" - to behave strangely, to freak out [Dictionary of Russian folk dialects. Issue 8. P.47].
So Div in the fantasy of the people ceased to be a sign-giving heavenly deity and turned into a cruel forest demon, prophesying trouble and rejoicing in human failures. In The Lay of Igor's Host, he not only gives a bad prophecy, but also takes steps to make this prophecy come true, that is, he “divaits” over Prince Igor. This interpretation is fully confirmed by the further narration of the Lay: "Already the misfortunes of him (Igor) lie in wait for the birds over the oak trees, the wolves raise a thunderstorm along the ravines, the eagles scream at the bones of the animals, the foxes crack on the scarlet shields." Thus, the text is simply oversaturated with bad pagan omens. But "the prince slept with lust" and Igor does not notice the warning of the things of the bird Diva, just like the Christian sign in the form of a solar eclipse.
But in the form of what bird does Div sit on top of the tree? A happy and unhappy fate in Russia has always been announced by the cuckoo. This idea is so deeply rooted in the popular consciousness that it has become a kind of ritual: "Cuckoo, cuckoo, how long can I live in the world?" On the other hand, in his work Yu. A. Shilov gives evidence of veneration by the ancient Greeks of the god Dzeus-Zeus in the form of a cuckoo [Danilenko V. N. Shilov Yu. A. Decree. Op. P.279]. Thus, the first excerpt from "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" acquires the following interpretation: the dark deity Divas in the guise of a cuckoo prophesies the death of the Russian army and reveals to the enemies the plans of Igor Svyatoslavich.
The second mention of Diva in the Lay cannot be understood outside the context of the preceding passage:
Here Div is viewed as a supernatural being, whose fall to the ground is as extraordinary and terrible an incident as the fall of shame to glory and the replacement of freedom with violence. But if we associate him with the ancient deity Dieus, the Lord of the High Heaven, then his overthrow to earth is quite equivalent to the fall of the sky itself to earth, which in the Middle Ages was considered synonymous with the end of the world. This interpretation is quite consistent with the previous context: "the shame has already fallen to glory, violence has already hit freedom, the god of heaven, Diy, has already struck the earth." Indeed, for Southern Russia, the defeat of Igor's army was tantamount to the end of the world, since its cities and villages were left defenseless against the nomads.
Thus, Div, twice mentioned in the "Lay of Igor's Host", actually appears in two different guises. This leads us to the conclusion that we are dealing with a fragment of a detailed pagan tradition that has not come down to us. Thus, the hypothesis identifying Diva with the Diem of the Indo-Europeans seems to be quite reasonable.
A. B. GULARYAN
