What does viy look like. The meaning of the word "viy. Legends and myths about the Slavic God Viy

Viy - in Little Russian demonology, a formidable old man with eyebrows and centuries to the very ground; V. cannot see anything on his own, but if several strong men succeed in raising his eyebrows and eyelids with iron pitchforks, then nothing can be hidden before his formidable gaze: with his gaze, V. kills people, destroys and turns towns and villages to ashes
Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron

There are two versions about the origin of this name. If you believe the first of them, then the Ukrainian word "vii" can be translated as "eyelashes", which is directly related to the eyes of the hero. Another option says that this name comes from the word “curl” - Viy resembles a plant, is covered with dried earth, and his legs look like tree roots.

“Viy is a colossal creation of the common people’s imagination,” wrote Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in a note to his story of the same name. - This was the name of the head of the dwarfs among the Little Russians, whose eyelids go to the very ground in front of his eyes. This whole story is folk tradition. I did not want to change it in anything and I tell it in almost the same simplicity as I heard it.

Indeed, fairy tales with a similar plot are well known in the mythology of the Slavic peoples. But none of them has a character like Gogol's Viy. As it is absent in any other folklore works.

Slavic mythology, as the most ancient, quite accurately describes the "device" of Viy:

Viy himself never came and never will come himself it is generally dangerous to wake him up and disturb him, and even dark entities do not bother him once again, and it’s not only his strength, his appearance, even the devils of ghouls, ghouls, cause horror and tremble in fear of him ....

Viy soulless without emotional being he has no feelings at all: anger, hatred, anger. Unlike Pannochka, when she, in her rage, anger and hatred for Khoma, shouted: - call, Viya! All the entities that she summoned were horrified, how can you wake up an ancient god?! But the lady's order was carried out - Viy came to remove the amulet, protection, where Homa was hiding, to show the way.

Viy himself does not move, cannot open his eyelids to himself, instead of arms and legs, roots covered with earth. He was dragged by ghouls, and they put him near the circle and opened his "eyelids". Viy's finger pointed at poor Homa.

So where did such a strange image of Viy come from in Slavic mythology and folklore?
The main features of our character help us find the answer: hairiness, possession of herds of bulls and involvement in the underworld. These signs make us recall one of the oldest and, moreover, the main East Slavic gods of pagan times - Veles (Volos). Until the beginning of the 20th century, the custom was to leave a bunch of uncompressed ears in the field after the harvest - "Veles on the beard."

There is no doubt the relationship between the images of the Slavic Veles-Vii and the Baltic Veles, or Vielona, the God of the Other World and at the same time the Patron of cattle (cf. Slavic Veles - the Cattle God).

Vielona (Vielona), Vels (Wels), Lithuanian Velnyas - litas. vylnias, velinas
According to the German author of the XVII century. Einhorn, Vels was dedicated to the month of October - Wälla-Mänes (cf. also Latvian Velyu Mate - “Mother of the Dead”).
The name of the “window” in the swamp is also known: Lit. Velnio akis, Latvian. Velna acis - literally: "the eye of Velnyas".

East Slavic Veles (Volos) is extremely close to the Baltic Vels (Velnyas). He was popular and was considered the god of “all Russia”, as opposed to Perun, the patron saint of the princely squad. In Kyiv, the idol of Perun stood on a mountain, and the idol of Veles on Podil, in the lower part of the city.

In Etruria, in the sacred city of Volsinia, a god was worshiped, whose name is rendered in different ways: Velthuna, Vertumna? Velthina, Veltha - “chief deity of Etruria”

The religious symbol of God Viy is the All-Seeing Eye, meaning "nothing can be hidden from the gaze of the judge." Presumably, his idol was also depicted with such a symbol.

Many researchers of Gogol's story noted the similarity of this mystical character, who has a destructive look, with numerous popular beliefs about Saint Kasyan. He is known as a talented spiritual writer and organizer of monasteries.

Kasyan

In Russian folk traditions, legends, beliefs, the image of "Saint Kasyan", despite all the righteousness of the life of a real person, is drawn as negative. In some villages, he was not even recognized as a saint, and his very name was considered shameful.

According to some beliefs Kasyan - fallen Angel who betrayed God. But after repentance, for his apostasy, he was chained and imprisoned underground.
An angel assigned to him beats the traitor on the forehead with a heavy hammer for three years in a row, and on the fourth releases him free, and then everything perishes, no matter what he looks at.

In other stories, Kasyan appears as a mysterious and destructive creature, his eyelashes are so long that they reach his knees, and because of them he does not see God's light, and only on February 29 in the morning, once every 4 years, he raises them and looks around the world - to which if his gaze falls, he dies.

In the Poltava region, Kasyan is represented as a black creature covered with wool, with skin similar to oak bark. He lives in a cave covered with earth. On February 29, various evil spirits raise his huge eyelids, Kasyan looks around the world, and then people and animals get sick, pestilence and crop failure occur.

In East Slavic folklore there are other characters, which have similar features to Viy.

So, for example, in Tale about Ivan Bykovich, recorded by the famous collector and researcher of Slavic folklore Alexander Nikolaevich Afanasyev (1826 - 1871), it is told that after the hero defeated three many-headed monsters (serpents) on the Smorodina River, their witch mother was able to deceive Ivan and
“dragged him into the dungeon, brought him to her husband - an old old man.

On you, - he says, - our destroyer.
The old man lies on an iron bed, sees nothing: long eyelashes and thick eyebrows completely cover his eyes. Then he called twelve mighty heroes and began to order them:
- Take an iron pitchfork, raise my eyebrows and black eyelashes, I'll see what kind of bird he is that killed my sons. The heroes raised his eyebrows and eyelashes with a pitchfork: the old man looked ... "

The motif of eyelids lifted with pitchforks (shovels, hooks) is widespread in East Slavic fairy tales. So, for example, in Volhynia, a sorcerer is often mentioned Mangy Bunyaka, or Scaly Bonyak; his eyelids are so long that they are lifted with pitchforks.

Sometimes he appears in the form of "a terrible fighter, with a look that kills a person and turns entire cities into ashes, the only happiness is that this deadly look is closed by clinging eyelids and thick eyebrows." In the beliefs of Podolia, he is known as Solodivius Bunio, who destroyed the whole city with a look; his eyelids also rise like a pitchfork.

This apocryphal image of Judas (giant eyelids and a heavy, clumsy body) also determined the main features of Viy. Gogol, forcing Brutus, who is in mental laziness and does not trust in God, to look at Viy Khoma, shows the negligent student of his gospel double.

In a footnote to his story "Viy" Gogol wrote that he only retells the folk tradition with virtually no changes - "almost in the same simplicity as he heard." Indeed, fairy tales with a similar plot are well known in the mythology of the Slavic peoples. But none of them has a character like Gogol's Viy. As it is absent in any other folklore works.

As if from nowhere, only for a moment this terrible character appears in the story and immediately disappears again into oblivion. This mysterious demon of death, to which the author devoted almost a dozen lines of the story, is painted in such bright, expressive colors that it invariably attracts the attention of researchers of Gogol's work.

Most of them believe that the story is undoubtedly based on a folk tale, which was rethought and processed by the author. Probably, Gogol altered the ending of the legend, revealing to the readers the mysterious image of Viy - a product of his own imagination. Nevertheless, Viy did not appear from scratch - he has "folklore prototypes", some of the characteristic features of which, apparently, were used by Gogol.

So, many researchers of Gogol's story noted the similarity of this mystical character, who has a destructive look, with numerous popular beliefs about St. Kasyan. The Christian Church celebrates the feast day of St. John Cassian the Roman (5th century) on February 28 according to the old style, and in leap years on February 29. He is known as a talented spiritual writer and organizer of monasteries.

In the popular mind, there was a different image of Kasyan, which had nothing to do with the canonical one. He suddenly turned from a real person into some kind of almost demonic creature, which is endowed with epithets - unmerciful, formidable, vindictive. According to some beliefs, Kasyan is a fallen angel who betrayed God. But after repentance, for his apostasy, he was chained and imprisoned underground.

An angel assigned to him beats the traitor on the forehead with a heavy hammer for three years in a row, and on the fourth releases him free, and then everything perishes, no matter what he looks at. In other stories, Kasyan appears as a mysterious and destructive creature, his eyelashes are so long that they reach his knees, and because of them he does not see God's light, and only on February 29 in the morning, once every 4 years, he raises them and looks around the world - to which if his gaze falls, he dies.

Almost all legends about Kasyan emphasize his demonic essence and the extraordinary destructiveness of his gaze as a result of his connection with the devil, which makes Kasyan related to Gogol's Viy. Certain similarities are also found when comparing Viy with the pagan Beles, the ancient patron of hunters, who also personified the spirits of dead animals and was associated with the world of the dead.

But probably the most important prototype of Viy for Gogol was nevertheless Judas Iscariot, whose appearance is guessed behind the figure of Gogol's demon when referring to some apocryphal texts. Shortly before his death, these non-canonical writings on Judas' appearance report that his eyelids became huge, grew to an incredible size, preventing him from seeing, and his body became monstrously swollen and heavy. This apocryphal image of Judas (giant eyelids and a heavy, clumsy body) also determined the main features of Viy. Gogol, forcing Brutus, who is in mental laziness and does not trust in God, to look at Viy Khoma, shows the negligent student of his gospel double.

One of the strangest and mysteriously contradictory characters of the Slavic epic could have remained in the backyard of Russian folklore, if not for the attention of the great writer N.V. Gogol and his story "Viy", first published in the collection "Mirgorod" in 1835.

In his comments on the story, V.A. Voropaev and I.A. Vinogradov note: “According to the research of D. Moldavsky, the name of the underground spirit Viy arose from Gogol as a result of contamination of the name of the mythological ruler of the underworld “iron” Niy and Ukrainian words: “Virlooky, bug-eyed” (Gogol’s “Little Russian Lexicon”), “viya” - an eyelash and “poviko” - eyelid (see: Moldavsky D. “Viy” and the mythology of the 18th century.//Almanac of a bibliophile. Issue 27. M., 1990. P. 152-154).

Shot from the film "Viy"

Obviously, one more word of Gogol's Little Russian Lexicon is connected with the name of Viy: “Viko, the lid is on the disc or on the cover”. Let us recall the “dizhu” in “Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” - a huge tub of dough walking “squatting” around the hut - and “hiding” in “The Night Before Christmas” - a chest bound with iron and painted with bright colors, made by Vakula to order for the beautiful Oksana ...

And in Gogol's extract from his mother's letter dated June 4, 1829, "On the weddings of Little Russians", which refers to the preparation of a wedding loaf, it is said: and vico is put on a dress.”

The architecture of the temple depicted here is also essential for understanding the story - a wooden one, "with three cone-shaped domes" - "baths". This is a traditional southern Russian type of a three-part ancient church, widespread in Ukraine and at one time being dominant for it. In the literature, however, there are references that the tripartite wooden churches in Ukraine were predominantly Uniate churches.

One observation, long ago made by researchers, directly echoes this - that the “Viya” gnomes stuck in the windows and doors of the church definitely correlate with the chimeras (see below) of Gothic temples, in particular, the gargoyles of Notre Dame Cathedral. By the way, the protagonist of the story, Khoma Brut, who bears a “Roman” name, is a graduate of the Fraternal Monastery, which at one time was a Uniate monastery.

Another “Catholic” sign in “Viy” appears in the contrast of the dilapidated iconostasis (with darkened, “gloomy” looking faces of the saints) to the “terrible, sparkling beauty” of the witch, whose coffin was placed “against the altar itself”.

It can be assumed that the image of the dead beauty itself was inspired by Gogol by a "Catholic" source - namely, the painting by K. Bryullov "The Last Day of Pompeii" with a beautiful dead woman in the foreground, to whose image Gogol, who adores Italy, repeatedly returns in his dedicated painting Bryullov's article with the same name.

To understand Gogol's intention, it should be noted that Gogol uses the word "dwarf" in the "Book of all sorts of things" in the meaning of "sign": "The following dwarfs represent the weight of an apothecary ..."

Remember how Gogol? “Suddenly ... in the middle of silence ... he again hears the disgusting scratching, whistling, noise and ringing in the windows. He closed his eyes timidly and stopped reading for a while. Without opening his eyes, he heard how a whole crowd suddenly burst on the floor, accompanied by various knocks, deaf, ringing, soft, shrill. He slightly raised his eye and hastily closed it again: horror!., these were all yesterday's gnomes; the difference is that he saw many new ones among them.

Almost opposite him stood a tall man whose black skeleton had moved to the surface and a yellow body flashed through its dark ribs. To the side stood thin and long, like a stick, consisting only of eyes with eyelashes. Further, a huge monster occupied almost the entire wall and stood in tangled hair, as if in a forest. Two terrible eyes peered through the net of these hairs.

He looked up with fear: above him something in the form of a huge bubble with a thousand pincers and scorpion stingers stretched out from the middle was held in the air. Black earth hung on them in tufts. In horror he lowered his eyes to the book. The dwarfs made a noise with the scales of their disgusting tails, their clawed feet and squealing wings, and he heard only how they were looking for him in all corners. This drove out the last remnant of the hop that still brewed in the head of the philosopher. He zealously began to recite his prayers.

He heard their fury at the impossibility of finding him. “What if,” he thought with a shudder, “this whole gang falls on me? .. ”

“For Viem! let's go after Viy!” many strange voices shouted, and it seemed to him as if some of the gnomes had left. However, he stood with closed eyes and did not dare to look at anything. “Wii! Viy!” - everyone made noise; the wolf's howl was heard in the distance and barely, barely separated the barking of the dogs. The doors screeched open, and Khoma only heard how whole crowds poured in. And suddenly there was silence, as in a grave. He wanted to open his eyes; but some threatening secret voice told him: "Hey, don't look!" He showed an effort... Through an incomprehensible curiosity, perhaps stemming from fear itself, his eyes suddenly opened.

Before him stood some kind of human gigantic growth. His eyelids were lowered to the ground. The philosopher noticed with horror that his face was iron, and turned his burning eyes back to the book.

“Raise my eyelids!” Viy said in an underground voice, and the whole host rushed to raise his eyelids. “Don't look!” some inner feeling whispered to the philosopher. He could not resist and looked: two black bullets were looking straight at him. An iron hand rose and pointed its finger at him, “Here it is!” - Viy said - and everything that happened, all the disgusting monsters at once rushed at him ... lifeless, he crashed to the ground ... The rooster sang for the second time. The dwarves heard his first song. The whole crowd rose to fly away, but it was not there: they all stopped and got stuck in the windows, in the doors, in the dome, in the corners and remained motionless ... "

So who is Viy? This is the god of the underworld. In Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian mythology, he was considered a creature whose one glance could bring death. His eyes were always hidden under the eyelids, eyebrows or eyelashes. He was the son of Chernobog and Marena, the goddess of death. He served as governor in the army of Chernobog, and in peacetime he was a jailer in the underworld. He always had a fiery scourge in his hands, with which he punished sinners.

In Ukrainian legends, it is mentioned that Viy lived in a cave where there was no light, he was often depicted covered with wool (a clear hint of Bigfoot?). He looked like the Ukrainian Kasyan, the Byzantine Basilisk, the Volyn sorcerer "mangy Bunyaka", the Ossetian war giant and others.

Fame for this generally little-known creature, as we have already said, was brought by the story of N.V. Gogol. The fact is that in the epics of the Belarusian Polissya, death was presented in the form of a woman with large eyelids. In the chronicle legend of the 16th century, which described the last days of Judas, it was specified that the overgrown eyelids completely deprived him of vision.

Maciej Stryjkowski in the "Chronicle of Polish, Lithuanian and All Russia" in 1582 writes: "Pluto, the god of hell, whose name was Nyya, was revered in the evening, they asked him for the best pacification of bad weather after death."

In Ukraine, there is the character Solovyy Bunio, but simply Scaly Bonyak (Bodnyak), sometimes he appears in the form of "a terrible fighter, a look that kills a person and turns entire cities into ashes, the only happiness is that this deadly look is closed by clinging eyelids and thick eyebrows."

"Long eyebrows to the nose" in Serbia, Croatia and the Czech Republic and Poland was a sign of Mora or Zmora, a creature considered the embodiment of a nightmare.

Having come to visit the blind (dark) father Svyatogor, Ilya Muromets, on an offer to shake hands, gives the blind giant a piece of red-hot iron, for which he receives praise: “Your hand is strong, you are a good hero.”

The Bulgarian Bogomil sect describes the Devil as turning into ashes everyone who dares to look into his eyes.

In the tale of Vasilisa the Beautiful, who lived in the service of Baba Yaga, it is said that she received a pot (stove-pot) as a gift for her labors in some cases, and a skull in others. When she returned home, the skull-pot burned to ashes with her magical gaze her stepmother and her stepmother's daughters.

These are far from all references to the most ancient deity called "Viy".

One of the strangest and mysteriously contradictory characters of the Slavic epic could have remained in the backyard of Russian folklore, if not for the attention of the great writer to him N.V. Gogol and his story "Viy", first published in the collection "Mirgorod" in 1835.

In his comments on the story, V.A. Voropaev and I.A. Vinogradov note: “According to the research of D. Moldavsky, the name of the underground spirit Viy arose from Gogol as a result of contamination of the name of the mythological ruler of the underworld “iron” Niy and Ukrainian words: “Virlooky, bug-eyed” (Gogol’s “Lexicon of Little Russia”), “viya” - an eyelash and “poviko” - eyelid (see: Moldavsky D. “Viy” and the mythology of the 18th century. / / Almanac of a bibliophile. Issue 27. M., 1990. P. 152-154).

Shot from the film "Viy"

Obviously, one more word of Gogol's Little Russian Lexicon is connected with the name of Viy: “Viko, the lid is on the disc or on the cover”. Let us recall the “dizhu” in “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” - a huge tub of dough walking “squatting” around the hut - and the “hiding” in “The Night Before Christmas” - a chest bound with iron and painted with bright colors, made by Vakula to order for the beautiful Oksana .. .

And in Gogol's extract from his mother's letter dated June 4, 1829, "On the weddings of Little Russians", which refers to the preparation of a wedding loaf, it is said: oven, and vico is put on a dija.”

It can be assumed that the very image of the dead beauty was inspired by Gogol by a "Catholic" source - namely, the painting by K. Bryullov "The Last Day of Pompeii" with a beautiful dead woman in the foreground, to whose image Gogol, who adores Italy, repeatedly returns in his dedicated painting Bryullov's article with the same name.

Remember how Gogol? “Suddenly ... in the midst of silence ... he again hears the disgusting scratching, whistling, noise and ringing in the windows. He closed his eyes timidly and stopped reading for a while. Without opening his eyes, he heard how a whole crowd suddenly burst on the floor, accompanied by various knocks, deaf, ringing, soft, shrill. He slightly raised his eye and hastily closed it again: horror!., these were all yesterday's gnomes; the difference is that he saw many new ones among them.

Almost opposite him stood a tall man whose black skeleton had moved to the surface and a yellow body flashed through its dark ribs. To the side stood thin and long, like a stick, consisting only of eyes with eyelashes. Further, a huge monster occupied almost the entire wall and stood in tangled hair, as if in a forest. Two terrible eyes peered through the net of these hairs.

He looked up with fear: above him something in the form of a huge bubble with a thousand pincers and scorpion stingers stretched out from the middle was held in the air. Black earth hung on them in tufts. In horror he lowered his eyes to the book. The dwarfs made a noise with the scales of their disgusting tails, their clawed feet and squealing wings, and he heard only how they were looking for him in all corners. This drove out the last remnant of the hop that still brewed in the head of the philosopher. He zealously began to recite his prayers.

He heard their fury at the impossibility of finding him. “What if,” he thought with a shudder, “this whole gang falls on me? .. ”

“For Viem! let's go after Viy!” many strange voices shouted, and it seemed to him as if some of the gnomes had left. However, he stood with closed eyes and did not dare to look at anything. “Wii! Viy!” - everyone made a noise; the wolf's howl was heard in the distance and barely, barely separated the barking of the dogs. The doors screeched open, and Khoma only heard how whole crowds poured in. And suddenly there was silence, as in a grave. He wanted to open his eyes; but some threatening secret voice told him: "Hey, don't look!" He showed an effort... Through an incomprehensible curiosity, perhaps stemming from fear itself, his eyes inadvertently opened.

Before him stood some kind of human gigantic growth. His eyelids were lowered to the ground. The philosopher noticed with horror that his face was iron, and turned his burning eyes back to the book.

“Lift up my eyelids!” Viy said in an underground voice, and the whole host rushed to raise his eyelids. “Don’t look!” some inner feeling whispered to the philosopher. He could not resist and looked: two black bullets were looking directly at him. Iron hand stood up and pointed her finger at him: “Here he is!” - Viy said - and everything that happened, all the disgusting monsters at once rushed at him ... lifeless, he crashed to the ground ... The rooster sang for the second time. The gnomes heard his first song. The whole crowd rose to fly away, but not here something happened: they all stopped and got stuck in the windows, in the doors, in the dome, in the corners and remained motionless ... "

"Long eyebrows to the nose" in Serbia, Croatia and the Czech Republic and Poland was a sign of Mora or Zmora, a creature considered the embodiment of a nightmare.

The Bulgarian Bogomil sect describes the Devil as turning into ashes everyone who dares to look into his eyes.

These are far from all references to the most ancient deity called "Viy".

Slavic mythology is no less rich than the mythologies of other peoples. It has many different characters, both good and evil. Some of the latter are not just evil, but creepy. These include such an odious image as Viy. This is an entity from the underworld, with a look that can kill anyone.

The monster's eyes are closed by huge long eyelids that fall to the ground. Therefore, he cannot lift them himself. For this, there are special assistants. By order of Viy, they lift his eyelids with iron pitchforks, and the eyes of the monster from the underworld begin to sow horror and death.

Viy - a negative character in Slavic mythology

It was from the look of a terrible monster that the belief about the evil eye or the evil eye went. According to legend, the evil eye causes the death of people and animals, trees dry up from it, green grass turns yellow. He can also send a streak of bad luck, poverty, illness and other misfortunes to a person. Women in labor and brides are especially sensitive to the evil eye. To protect against the evil eye, the wedding veil was invented, and pregnant women tried not to catch the eye of strangers, especially strangers.

And all these customs began to flow from the inhabitant of the underworld with his terrible look. It is believed that he received his mystical component from Veles, a pagan god and the main enemy of Perun, from whom he stole cattle. Veles was associated with devils and other evil spirits and gave birth to Viy, who became the most powerful and terrible fiend of the underworld.

But among the Slavs who lived in the Baltic states, this remarkable image was considered one of the sons of Chernobog. The latter symbolized absolute chaos, destruction and universal darkness. He controlled all the elements, and evil spirits from the underworld served him. That is, Chernobog was considered a negative divine essence, so it is not surprising that a terrible monster with a killer look came from him.

Chernobog personified evil in Slavic mythology

At the same time, Viy in mythology had a number of positive features. Often he harassed people who were evil and spiritually flawed. But personalities, strong in spirit and strong-willed, welcomed and did not harm them. He was an extremely controversial creature, prone to violent mood swings. But its main function, in any case, was evil. Only sometimes it manifested itself in full force, and sometimes it was barely noticeable.

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol described this underworld vermin in his work of the same name. He described her as squat, clubfoot, with sinewy arms and legs. Viy is covered with black earth from head to toe. The fingers and face of the monster are iron, and the eyelids are long and touch the ground. With a glance, he does not kill, but only destroys the protective power of amulets from evil spirits. He is only a guiding force, not a killer. And the protagonist of Gogol's work Khoma dies not at all from the look of a monster, but from the horror that seized his soul.

Stanislav Kuzmin