The most outstanding thing is the appearance of Viy. Character history. Legends and myths about the Slavic God Viy

In 2017, Yegor Baranov addressed the heroes of Gogol’s works. In 2018, the director will present to the public a film called “Gogol. Viy." The role of the writer will be played in the film.

Quotes

Phrases from Gogol’s “Viy” became aphorisms.

“Lift my eyelids: I can’t see!”

This famous remark of Viy is often used in jokes and sarcastic statements. It is curious that Khoma Brut is presented by the author as a philosopher, and therefore as a person for whom religion does not occupy a primary place. At the same time, Brutus knows the prayers and is invited to send the deceased on her last journey. The philosopher’s worldview combines skepticism and fear of God:

“A person cannot come here, but I have prayers from the dead and people from the other world that, as soon as I read them, they won’t lay a finger on me. Nothing!".

The guy is seriously afraid of what is happening, realizing that he is left alone with a terrible force that he cannot resist. Khoma’s friends are sure that it is not evil spirits that are to blame for the death of their comrade, but his own fear:

“And I know why he disappeared: because he was afraid. And if he were not afraid, then the witch could not do anything with him. You just need to cross yourself and spit on her very tail, then nothing will happen.”

in East Slavic mythology, the spirit that brings death. Having huge eyes with heavy lids, Viy kills with his gaze.

Dictionary of mythology by M. Ladygin.

Viy- in Slavic mythology, a demonic creature that gives people nightmares; he is capable of killing a person and destroying an entire city with a glance, but his eyes are covered with iron eyelids, which must be lifted by his evil servants with iron pitchforks.

Sources:

● M.B. Ladygin, O.M. Ladygina Brief mythological dictionary - M.: Publishing house NOU "Polar Star", 2003.

Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

In Little Russian demonology, a formidable old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching to the very ground; V. cannot see anything on his own, but if several strong men manage to raise his eyebrows and eyelids with iron pitchforks, then nothing can hide before his menacing gaze: with his gaze V. kills people, destroys and turns cities and villages to ashes. Afanasyev sees in V. a reflection of the ancient and powerful deity of the Slavs, namely the thunder god. The processing of the legend about Vie by N.V. Gogol is known.

Dictionary of pagan concepts and gods

(Niya, Niam) - a mythical creature whose eyelids descend to the very ground, but if you lift them with a pitchfork, then nothing will be hidden from his gaze; word viii means eyelashes. Viy - with one glance he kills people and turns cities and villages to ashes; fortunately, his murderous gaze is hidden by thick eyebrows and eyelids close to his eyes, and only when it is necessary to destroy enemy armies or set fire to an enemy city, do they lift his eyelids with a pitchfork. Viy was considered one of the main servants of Chernobog. He was considered a judge over the dead. The Slavs could never come to terms with the fact that those who lived lawlessly, not according to their conscience, were not punished. The Slavs believed that the place of execution of lawless people was inside the earth. Viy is also associated with the seasonal death of nature during winter. He was revered as the sender of nightmares, visions and ghosts, especially for those who do not have a clear conscience. ...He saw that they were leading some squat, hefty, club-footed man. He was all covered in black earth. His legs and arms covered with earth stood out like stringy, strong roots. He walked heavily, constantly stumbling. Long eyelids were lowered to the ground. Khoma noticed with horror that his face was iron(N.V. Gogol. “Viy”). ... Today Viy is at rest,” the two-headed horse yawned with one head, and licked his lips with the other head, “Viy is resting: he destroyed a lot of people with his eye, and from the country-cities only ashes lie. Viy will accumulate strength and get down to business again(A.M. Remizov. “To the Sea-Ocean”).

In East Slavic mythology, a character whose deadly gaze is hidden under huge eyelids or eyelashes, one of the East Slavic names of which is associated with the same root: cf. Ukrainian Viya, Viyka, Belarusian. eyelash wire. In Russian and... ... Encyclopedia of Mythology

I; m. In Slavic mythology: a supernatural creature with a deadly gaze hidden under huge eyelids or eyelashes. ● According to popular beliefs, Viy is a formidable old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching to the very ground. By itself, he cannot be seen... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

In East Slavic mythology, a spirit that brings death. Having huge eyes with heavy lids, Viy kills with his gaze... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

A person from Little Russian demonology; an old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching to the ground; but if you raise his eyelids and eyebrows, his gaze kills and destroys everything he sees. This legend was processed by Gogol in “Viye”. Dictionary foreign words, included in... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Noun, number of synonyms: 4 fictional creature (334) hero (80) niya (2) ... Synonym dictionary

Viy- Viy, Viya, sentence. p. about Vie (myth.) ... Russian spelling dictionary

Viy- I; m. In Slavic mythology: a supernatural creature with a deadly gaze hidden under huge eyelids or eyelashes. According to popular beliefs, Viy is a formidable old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching to the very ground. By itself, he cannot be seen... ... Dictionary of many expressions

VIY- (character of the story of the same name by N.V. Gogol; see also VIEV) Jealousy, / wives, / tears... / well, them! – / the eyelids will swell / just right for Viy. / I am not myself, / but I am / jealous / for Soviet Russia. M928 (355); The terrible legacy of the philistines, They are visited at night by the Non-Existent... ...

-VIY- see Kyiv VIY... Given name in Russian poetry of the 20th century: a dictionary of personal names

Books

Viy, Gogol Nikolai Vasilievich. A gift edition of the story "Viy", dedicated to the 200th anniversary of N.V. Gogol, will allow the reader to immerse himself in the mystical world of one of the most extraordinary works of world classics.…
Viy, Gogol Nikolai Vasilievich. The peculiarities of the religious worldview of the great Russian writer N.V. Gogol and his “mystically gifted spirit” were reflected in the story “Viy”, which at one time was controversial...

The fair and incorruptible Judge Viy is looking forward to all of them.

In East Slavic mythology, Viy is the spirit who brings death. Having huge eyes with heavy lids, Viy kills with his gaze. In Ukrainian demonology - a formidable old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching down to the ground.

Viy cannot see anything on his own, he also acts as a seer of evil spirits (which can be seen in the work of N.V. Gogol); but if several strong men manage to lift his eyebrows and eyelids with iron pitchforks, then nothing will be able to hide before his menacing gaze: with his gaze Viy kills people, sends pestilence to enemy troops, destroys and turns towns and villages to ashes. Viy was also considered the sender of nightmares, visions and ghosts.

In ethnography, the assumption is made that it is with the image of Viy that the belief about the evil eye and damage is associated - that everything perishes and deteriorates from a bad look. Viy is also associated with the seasonal death of nature during winter.

There are two assumptions about the origin of the name Viya: the first is the Ukrainian word “vii” (pronounced “viyi”), which is translated from modern Ukrainian language means "eyelids"; and the second - with the word “to curl”, since the image of Viy resembles some kind of plant: his legs are entwined with roots and he is all covered with dried pieces of earth.

According to the “Book of Kolyada”: “The commander in the army of Chernobog is Viy, the brother of the sky god Dyya. In peacetime, Viy is the jailer in Pekla. He holds in his hand a fiery scourge with which he treats sinners. He has heavy eyelids, they are held with pitchforks by Viy’s minions. If Viy opens his eyes and looks at a person, he dies. Viy cannot stand sunlight, so he always prefers to stay underground."

N.V. Gogol in his work “Viy” (in the place where the philosopher Khoma Brut stayed overnight in the church) describes this deity as follows:

“And suddenly there was silence in the church: a wolf howl was heard in the distance, and soon heavy footsteps were heard echoing through the church; looking sideways, he saw that they were leading some squat, hefty, club-footed man. He was covered all over in black earth. Like sinewy strong roots protruded from him, arms and legs covered with earth. He walked heavily, constantly stumbling. His long eyelids were lowered to the very ground. Khoma noticed with horror that his face was made of iron. He was led by the arms and stood straight to the place where Khoma stood.

Lift my eyelids: I can’t see! - Viy said in an underground voice. “And the whole host rushed to lift his eyelids.”

"Don't look!" - some inner voice whispered to the philosopher. He couldn’t bear it and looked.

Here he is! - Viy shouted and pointed an iron finger at him. And everything, no matter how much it was, rushed at the philosopher. He fell to the ground lifeless, and the spirit immediately flew out of him out of fear. That’s why you can’t look Viya in the eyes, because he’ll take you away and drag you into his dungeon, into the world of the dead.

Gogol also adds the following to his work: “Viy is a colossal creation of the common people’s imagination. This is the name given to the Little Russians for the chief of the gnomes, whose eyelids go down to the very ground. This whole story is a folk legend. I did not want to change it in any way and I tell it almost in the same simplicity as I heard.”

According to the research of D. Moldavsky1, the name Viya arose from Gogol as a result of a phonetic mixture of the name of the mythological ruler of the underworld Niya and the Ukrainian words: “viya” - eyelash and “poviko” - eyelid.

Famous Russian folklorist A.N. Afanasyev sees in Viya a reflection of the ancient and powerful deity of the Slavs, namely the thunder god (Perun).

The religious symbol of God Viy is the All-Seeing Eye - meaning “nothing can hide from the judge’s gaze.” Presumably, his idol was also depicted with such a symbol.

Niy (West Slavic) or Viy (Eastern Slavic) - also correlates with Pluto2, according to Dlugosz3 ("History of Poland", 15th century), perhaps one of the incarnations of Veles:

"Book I ... Pluto was nicknamed Nya; he was considered the god of the underworld, the guardian and guardian of souls who left their bodies, and they asked him to lead him to best places the underworld, and they built the main sanctuary for him in the city of Gniezno4, where people from all places converged.”

Maciej Stryjkowski5 in the “Chronicle of Polish, Lithuanian and All Rus'” in 1582 writes:

“They revered Pluto, the god of the sun, whose name was Nya, in the evening; after his death, they asked him for better pacification of bad weather.”

Religious symbol of God Viy

In Russian folk tales with similar plots (such as “The Battle on Kalinov Bridge”, “Ivan the Peasant Son and Miracle Yudo”) and also recorded by A.N. Afanasyev, the hero and his sworn brothers fight with three monsters (Miracle Yudes) and defeat them, then reveal the machinations of the monsters’ wives, but the Mother of Serpents was able to deceive Ivan Bykovich 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, his long eyelashes and thick eyebrows completely cover his eyes. He then 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 pitchforks: the old man looked..."

The old man arranges a test for Ivan Bykovich with the kidnapping of his bride. And then competes with him, balancing over a fiery pit, standing on a board. This old man loses the test and is thrown into a fiery pit (the Christian “Fiery Hyena?”), i.e. to the very depths of the lower world (the Underworld). In this regard, it is not superfluous to mention that the southern Slavs held a New Year's holiday in winter, where the old, serpentine god Badnyak6 (correlated with the old year) was burned, and his place was taken by the young Bozhich.

In Ukraine, there is a character, Solodivy Bunio, or simply the Naughty Bonyak (Bodnyak), 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 murderous look is covered by clinging eyelids and thick eyebrows.” . "Long eyebrows to the nose" in Serbia, Croatia and the Czech Republic, as well as in Poland, were a sign of Mora or Zmora. This creature was also considered the embodiment of a nightmare.

It is not without reason that the epic father of Svyatogor is identified by A. Asov7 with Viy. Having come to stay with the blind (dark) father of Svyatogor, Ilya Muromets, upon the 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.”

Both in Gogol and in the fairy tale recorded by Afanasyev, the presence of iron attributes is not surprising. Gogol's Viy has an iron face, an iron finger, the fairytale Viy has an iron bed, an iron pitchfork. Iron ore is mined from the earth, which means the Lord underground kingdom, Viy, was a kind of owner and patron of the earth’s bowels and their riches. Apparently, that’s why N.V. Gogol classifies him among the gnomes, who, according to European tradition, were the guardians of underground treasures.

The Bulgarian Bogomil sect describes the Devil as turning to ashes all who dare to look him in the eye.

It is likely that in the future Viy merges with the image of Koshchei the Immortal - the king of the dead, the god of death. In one of the tales there is a mention that Koshchei lifts his eyelids with seven pitchforks, which indicates his similarity or relationship with Viy. Noteworthy is the relationship between the words: poker, koshevoy, Koschey, kosh-mar. "Kosh" means chance, lot (cf. "makosh"). It was assumed that Chernobog stirred up the coals in the Pekla with pokers, so that from this dead matter would be born new life. Christian saint Procopius of Ustyug, depicted with pokers in his hands, such as on the bas-relief of the Church of the Ascension on Bolshaya Nikitinskaya Street in Moscow in the 16th century. This saint, introduced in the 13th century, is responsible for the harvest, he has three pokers, if he carries them with their ends down, there is no harvest, upwards, there will be a harvest. In this way, the weather and crop yields could be predicted.

The fairy tale about Vasilisa the Beautiful, who lived in the service of Baba Yaga, says that she received a gift for her work - in some cases - a pot (stove-pot), in other cases - a skull (which most likely relates specifically to Koshchei, for the kingdom of Koshchei was strewn with human skulls and bones). When she returned home, the skull-pot burned her stepmother and her stepmother's daughters to ashes with its magical gaze.

Koschey, in a later era, stood out as an independent cosmogonic character who makes living matter being deader is associated with chthonic8 characters such as the hare, duck and fish. Undoubtedly, he is associated with seasonal necrosis, he is the enemy of Baba Yaga, who guides the hero into his world - the Koshny Kingdom. The name of the heroine is also interesting (in one of the Russian folk tales), kidnapped by Koshchei - Marya Morevna (death to death).

In Orthodox Christianity, Viy is replaced by Saint Kasyan.

In Russian traditions, legends, and beliefs, the image of Saint Kasyan (who lived in the 10th century and became famous for preaching monastic life and founding monasteries in Galia), despite all the righteousness of his life, is depicted as negative. In some villages he was not even recognized as a saint, and his name itself was considered shameful. Usually the image of Kasyan was associated with hell and he was assigned demonic traits in appearance and behavior.

According to popular beliefs, Saint Kasyan is unkind, selfish, stingy, envious, vindictive and brings people nothing but misfortune. Appearance Kasyan is unpleasant, especially striking are his slanting eyes with disproportionately large eyelids and a deathly gaze (the “saint” is good, isn’t it?). Russian people believed that “Kasyan looks at everything, he turns everything around,” “Kasyan cuts everything with a sideways eye,” “Kasyan hits the people—it’s hard for the people,” “Kasyan hits the grass—the grass dries, Kasyan hits the cattle—the cattle die.” In Siberia it was believed that Kasyan liked to “wrap” the heads of chickens, after which they died or became monsters. On its holiday - "Kasyan's Day" (Kasyan the Unmerciful, Kasyan the Envious, Crooked Kasyan), which is celebrated on February 29 in leap year, Kasyan amuses himself by looking at the world: looks at people - there will be pestilence, at livestock - death, at fields - crop failure. The veneration of Kasyan also took place on January 14-15.

In addition, it was believed that all the winds were subordinate to Kasyan, which he kept behind all kinds of constipations; most likely, it was on this basis that the version of Viya-Kasyan’s similarity with the Hindu god Vayu, who is indeed similar in description to our Viy, appeared. Vayu is the god of wind and also the bestower of boons, he provides shelter and can disperse enemies. He is represented as having a thousand eyes, but at the same time his appearance is vague.

Our ancient Navier deity Viy also has an analogue among the ancient Irish, who call it Balor. In Irish mythology, this deity is the one-eyed god of death, leader of the ugly Fomorian demons. Balor struck enemies with the deadly gaze of his single eye. During the battle, the god's eyelid was raised by four servants.

List of used literature:

1) Holy Russian Vedas. Book of Kolyada., M.: "FAIR-Press", 2007.

2) N.V. Gogol. - Viy, from the Collected Works in nine volumes. Volume 2. M.: "Russian Book", 1994.

3) Gavrilov D.A., Nagovitsyn - Gods of the Slavs. Paganism. Tradition, M.: "Refl-book", 2002.

4) A.N. Afanasyev - Russian Folk Tales. Issue IV., K. Soldatenkova and N. Shchepkina, 1860.

5) M. Drahomanov - Little Russian folk legends and stories, Kyiv, 1876, p. 224, as well as I. Ichiro - Pan-Slavic folklore source of Gogol Viy, Izvestia of the USSR Academy of Sciences, ser. lit. and Russian language N5, 1989.

6) A.F. Hilferding - Onega epics, M., 1949.

7) Yordan Ivanov - Bogomil books and legends, Sofia, 1925.

8) P. Vinogradov - The Life of Saints... M., 1880, p. 29.

1 D. Moldavsky - Leningrad critic and folklorist.

2 Pluto - in ancient Greek mythology, the god of the underworld of the dead and the name of the kingdom of the dead itself, the entrance to which, according to Homer (the ancient Greek poet-storyteller) and other sources, is located somewhere in the far west, beyond the Ocean River, which washes the earth."

3 Jan Dlugosz (1415-1480) - Polish historian and diplomat, major Catholic hierarch, author of the "History of Poland" in 12 volumes.

4 Gniezno is a city in Poland, part of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, Gniezno County.

6 Badnyak is a log burned on the hearth on Christian Christmas Eve, and the main rite of the Christmas cycle of holidays among the southern Slavs.

7 Alexander Ivanovich Asov - writer, journalist, historian and philologist, one of the most famous modern researchers and experts on ancient Slavic culture and Slavic paganism.

8 Chthonic - belonging to the underworld.

Slavic mythology is no less rich than the mythologies of other peoples. There are 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 other world with a look that can kill anyone.

The monster's eyes are closed with huge long eyelids that fall to the ground. Therefore, he himself cannot lift them. There are special assistants for this. 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 gaze of the creepy monster that the belief about the evil eye or the evil eye originated. According to legend, the evil eye causes the death of people and animals, trees dry up from it, and green grass turns yellow. He can also send a streak of failure, poverty, illness and other misfortunes to a person. Women in labor and brides are especially sensitive to the evil eye. The wedding veil was invented to protect against the evil eye, and pregnant women tried not to be seen by strangers, especially strangers.

And all these customs began to stem from the inhabitant of the underworld with his terrible look. It is believed that he received his mystical component from Veles, the pagan god and 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 entity, so it is not surprising that from him came a terrible monster with a look that kills everyone.

Chernobog personified evil in Slavic mythology

At the same time, Viy in mythology had a number of positive traits. He often tormented evil and spiritually damaged people. But he welcomed individuals who were strong-willed and strong-willed and did not harm them. He was an extremely contradictory creature, subject to sudden 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.

This underworld evil spirit was described by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in his work of the same name. He described her as squat, club-footed, with sinewy arms and legs. His Viy is covered from head to toe with black earth. The monster's fingers and face are iron, and its eyelids are long and touch the ground. He does not kill with his gaze, but only destroys the protective power of amulets against evil spirits. He is only a guiding force, not a killer. AND main character works of Gogol, Khoma dies not at all from the gaze of a monster, but from the horror that gripped his soul.

Stanislav Kuzmin