LIKE THE SPINNER, THE SAME IS THE SHIRT. The oldest, most beloved and widespread underwear of the ancient Slavs was the shirt. Linguists write that its name comes from the root “rub” - “piece, cut, scrap of fabric” - and is related to the word “chop,” which once also meant “to cut.” The history of the shirt really began in the mists of time with a simple piece of fabric, folded in half, equipped with a hole for the head and fastened with a belt. Then they began to sew the back and front together, and added sleeves. This cut is called “tunic-like” and it was approximately the same for all segments of the population, only the material and the nature of the decoration changed. Mostly, shirts were made from linen; for winter, they were sometimes made from “tsatra” - fabric made from goat down. There were shirts made from imported silk, and not later than the 13th century, cotton fabric began to arrive from Asia. In Rus' it was called “ZENDEN”. Another name for a shirt in Russian was “shirt”, “sorochitsa”, “srachitsa”. It is a very old word, related to the Old Icelandic "serk" and the Anglo-Saxon "sjork" through common Indo-European roots. Some researchers see a difference between a shirt and a shirt. A long shirt, they write, was made of coarser and thicker material, while a short and light shirt was made of thinner and softer material. So gradually it turned into underwear itself: “shirt”, “cover”, and the outer shirt began to be called “COSHUL”, “NAVERSHNIK”. Koszul - a shirt, a shirt, a shirt, not a kosovorotka. Kursk: women's shirt with wide sleeves, sewn at the hem. Kostroma: short covered sheepskin coat; Yaroslavl, Vologda: sheepskin coat with burs, covered with Chinese, dyed or cloth. Also - men's or women's underwear with fur. Blouse, a kind of outer shirt, instead of outer clothing or in addition to it; work shirt. Koshuley - sewn clothing, unopened, not ripped in the front, genderless, worn over the head; korzno, among the Samoyeds there is a sovik and a malitsa. Tverskoe, Pskov: basket, purse, purse, koshulya “sheepskin sheepskin coat covered with cloth and trimmed with fur.” Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Arkhangelsk: “women’s shirt with wide sleeves, embroidered at the hem,” Kursk. (Dahl). Košlja, Belarusian košulja "shirt", Church Slavonic: košulja, Bulgarian: košulja, Serbo-Croatian: kòšuja, Slovenian: košúlja, Czech: košile, Slovak: košеl᾽а, Polish: koszula, Upper Lusatian, Lower Lusatian ko šula. By the 10th century On the territory of Europe, the Old Russian state was formed with its capital in Kyiv. The close ties of Rus' of the pre-Mongol period with Byzantium and Western Europe determined the character of Russian costume, which, despite its originality, nevertheless developed in line with the general direction in the development of European fashion of that time. Climatic conditions also had a huge influence on the formation of ancient Russian clothing. Severe and cold climate - long winters, relatively cool summers. The main types of fabrics produced are linen fabrics (from coarse canvas to the finest linens) and coarse homespun wool - homespun wool. The outer and ceremonial clothes of the boyars and later the nobility were made mostly from imported fabrics, called pavolok. Russian costumes were made from fabrics of various shades of red (crimson, scarlet), blue (azure), and sometimes green. All colored fabrics were called dyes. People sewed suits mainly from linen fabrics with a printed pattern and motley - fabric woven from threads of different colors. Clothes were usually decorated with various embroideries - silk, pearls. Small pearls were mined in rivers, and at a later time pearls were brought from the East, from Iran. These pearls were called “Gurmyzhsky”. The clothing of pre-Mongol Rus' is characterized by a relatively simple cut and simplicity of fabrics, but an abundance of “hanging” decorations, that is, decorations worn over clothing. These are bracelets, beads, earrings, necklaces and others. The ideal of beauty presupposed a stately figure, proud posture, and a smooth gait. Women have a white face with a bright blush, sable eyebrows; men have a thick beard. Clothes complemented a person's appearance and connected him with a generally accepted aesthetic ideal. The basis of the women's costume was a shirt, which differed from the men's only in greater length - it reached the feet. Rich women wore two shirts at the same time - an undershirt and an outer shirt, and the outer one was made from expensive fabrics. They wore a shirt with a narrow belt and often embroidered with ornaments. On holidays, elegant clothes were worn over the poneva or cufflinks - a navershnik, usually made of expensive fabric with embroidery. This clothing looked like a tunic, was long and quite wide, with short wide sleeves. The top was not belted and thereby gave the female figure a static and monumental appearance. In written sources of the 12th century. simple, poor clothing “rub”, “rag” is often mentioned, which, according to A. Artsikhovsky, was also the common Slavic name for the complex of clothing of ordinary people - home-made shirts and trousers. The semantics of this word retained its essence in later definitions. In Rus' there is also an expression “dressed in rags” - the last poor man. According to the Old Slavic concept, the word “rub” meant a piece of fabric (I. Sreznevsky). Clothes made from “rubs” could also have the identical name “rub”. The clothes of the poor, torn into rags in the 19th century, retained the name “rags.” Confirmation of the archaic nature of this word is the ruble, which was used to “iron” ready-made linens and towels. The Slavic word “shirt” (from “rub”) to define underwear has been preserved in Rus' as the general name for this outfit. The word "shirt" is borrowed. It was used by the nobility to stand out. The shirt became the wearable clothing of the elite. According to the research of ethnographers of the 19th-20th centuries, shirts were different in design. Long shirts consisted of straight, continuous panels from collar to hem. Such shirts were mainly ritual: wedding, holiday or posthumous. The shirt “to the point” had two parts: the upper one - “the waist, the machine, the shoulder” and the lower one, the actual “point”. There were also shorter shirts that were worn separately: the “shoulder” and the lower part - the “hem.” They were tunic-shaped in cut, sewn from one piece of cloth folded in half. Since it was not wide enough, straight or wedge-shaped sides were sewn on the sides below the armhole. The sleeves were narrow, straight, and often significantly longer than the arms. They served as gloves: they protected their hands from the cold. To prevent the sleeves from interfering with work, they were picked up, “rolled up”, and on holidays they were gathered up to the elbows and held at the wrist with a bracelet. This multifunctional sleeve shape was the result of life experience, an adaptation to harsh climate conditions. The men's shirt was collarless and had a round or rectangular neckline. Sometimes it had a small slit in the front and was fastened at the neck with one button; it was called a “goloshka”. They were decorated with embroidery or midges along the neckline, slit, sleeves and hem. The men's shirt was shorter than the women's. It only reached to the knees. They wore it untucked, belted with a woven or leather belt with a metal buckle and decorations. After the adoption of Christianity in the 10th century. In Rus', long, non-fitting clothes are gradually coming into use. The suit did not reveal the shape of the body, it was loose, but not very wide. Almost all clothes were put on over the head, that is, they were not loose. They had only a small slit in the front. They hardly wore draping clothes, and among the people they were completely absent. The basis of a man's suit was a shirt. People usually wore one canvas shirt, which was both lower and outer clothing. Noble people wore another, upper, richer shirt on top of the lower one. Her sleeves were sewn in, long and narrow. Sometimes “sleeves” (a prototype of cuffs) were put on the sleeve around the wrist - narrow, oblong pieces of expensive fabric, often embroidered. The shirt had no collar. The small slit in the front was fastened with a button or secured with a cord. But this happened later, in the 13th century. The men's shirt of the ancient Slavs was approximately knee-length. It was always belted and tugged at the same time, so that it turned out to be something like a bag for necessary items. Scientists write that the shirts of city dwellers were somewhat shorter than those of peasants. Women's shirts were usually cut to the floor (according to some authors, this is where the “hemm” comes from). They were also necessarily belted, with the lower edge most often ending up in the middle of the calf. Sometimes, while working, shirts were pulled up to the knees. Women's shirts are like bags: tie the sleeves and put whatever you want. Without a shirt - closer to the body. (Funny proverbs) A barge hauler is like an orphan: when there is a white shirt, then there is a holiday. To scream in shirts is to sow in fur coats. Changing the faith is not changing a shirt. The bird is loud and his shirt is black. The city is being repaired - not just shirts. They gave the naked man a shirt, and he said: “Fat.” The shirt, directly adjacent to the body, was sewn with endless magical precautions, because it was supposed to not only warm, but also ward off the forces of evil, and keep the soul in the body. So, when the collar was cut, the cut out flap was certainly dragged inside the future garment: the movement “inward” meant preservation, accumulation of vitality, “outward” - expense, loss. They tried in every possible way to avoid this latter, so as not to bring trouble to the person. According to the ancients, it was necessary to “secure” in one way or another all the necessary openings in ready-made clothing: collars, hem, sleeves. Embroidery, which contained all kinds of sacred images and magical symbols, served as a talisman here. The meaning of folk embroidery can be very clearly traced from the most ancient examples to completely modern works; it is not without reason that scientists consider embroidery an important source in the study of ancient religion. This topic is truly immense; a huge number of scientific works are devoted to it. Slavic shirts did not have turn-down collars. Sometimes it is possible to restore something similar to a modern “rack”. Most often, the incision at the collar was made straight - in the middle of the chest, but there were also oblique ones, on the right or left. The collar was fastened with a button. Buttons in archaeological finds are dominated by bronze and copper, but researchers believe that the metal was simply better preserved in the ground. In life, we probably saw more often those made from simple materials at hand - bone and wood. It is easy to guess that the collar was a particularly “magically important” detail of clothing. It was so richly equipped with protective embroidery, and gold embroidery, pearls and precious stones, that over time it turned into a separate “shoulder” part of clothing - a “necklace” (“what is worn around the throat”) or “mantle.” It was sewn on, fastened, or even worn separately. The sleeves of the shirts were long and wide and were secured at the wrist with braid. Among the Scandinavians, who wore shirts of a similar style in those days, tying these ribbons was considered a sign of tender attention, almost a declaration of love between a woman and a man... In festive women's shirts, the ribbons on the sleeves were replaced with folded (fastened) bracelets - “hoops”, “ hoops." Elegant clothes were worn not only for beauty - they were also ritual vestments. A 12th-century bracelet preserves for us the image of a girl performing a magical dance. Her long hair was scattered, her arms in her lowered sleeves were flying like swan wings. Scientists think that this is a dance of bird maidens who bring fertility to the earth. The Southern Slavs call them “forks”, among some Western European peoples they turned into “vilis”, in ancient Russian mythology mermaids are close to them. Everyone remembers fairy tales about bird girls: the hero happens to steal their wonderful outfits. And also the fairy tale about the Frog Princess: the flapping of lowered sleeves plays an important role in it. Indeed, the fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it. A person’s costume is a complex that combines not only clothes and shoes, but also jewelry, accessories, cosmetics and hairstyle. The suit combines practical and aesthetic functions, helping a person organize his life, work and communication with other people. Clothing has a wide range of meanings and functions. It serves as an indicator of gender, age, family, social, class, property status, ethnic, regional, religious affiliation, a person’s occupation, and his ritual roles. Culture of Russian cities of the 13th - 14th centuries. was multi-ethnic, it combined Slavic, Finno-Ugric, Western and Eastern elements, which could not but influence the costume of the townspeople - the so-called interpenetration of cultures took place. Urban costume of a number of ancient Russian principalities - Moscow, Tver, Vladimir and Suzdal, using sources from neighboring lands. Particular attention is paid to the costume of the Vyatichi tribe. Until the end of the 13th century. this tribe still preserves its original culture, not only rural, but also urban. Their lands subsequently became part of the Moscow, Chernigov, Rostov-Suzdal and Ryazan principalities. Vyatichi burial mounds of the 12th-13th centuries. provide researchers of the costume of pre-Mongol Rus' with rich materials for reconstruction. In the XIII-XIV centuries. The role of the Christian church in Russian cities is strengthening, which is confirmed by archaeological finds (the number of objects of pagan cults is sharply decreasing). Since archaeological data indicate that the ancient Russian costume has changed little since the 12th century. and before the Mongol invasion, the sources of the 12th century have been examined, making it possible to more fully restore the entire complex of urban costume. A comprehensive method of working with archaeological, visual, written and other synchronous sources on the costume of the period under study was applied. Any reconstruction is, first of all, a concept, a stage of a high level of generalization and comprehensive mastery of the material. Reconstruction of a historical costume is always a hypothesis due to incomplete information. At the same time, the experience of recreating a costume and further experience that appears in the process of wearing it is of undoubted value for researchers involved in the history of medieval Russian life. The mentality of people is formed not only from what people saw and knew, but also from what they did day after day according to habitual, practical patterns that no one specifically thought about. Therefore, the noblewoman and the peasant woman have a different mentality, not only because of information differences, but also because they moved, ate, dressed, and so on differently. Reproducing the mentality of medieval man completely is an impossible task for a historian, even if he collects all available sources. But with the help of recreating practices (for example, the process of cooking, wearing a suit...) you can get closer to reconstruction, combining the mental model that a scientist creates based on sources, and a material model that allows you to get as close as possible to understanding the life and way of life of our ancestors. Written sources have brought to us the words that in the Middle Ages were used to call underwear shirts: men's and women's - sorochitsa, srachitsa, srachino, srachka, shirt. In the chronicle account of the flight of Prince Yuri after the Battle of Lipetsk in 1216 we read: “Prince Yuri came running to Volodymyr about noon, on the fourth horse, and strangled three in the first shirt, threw out the lining and that one...”. That is, during the escape, the prince took off all his outer clothing and outer shirt, remaining in only the lower one - the “first shirt”, and even tore out (“threw out”) the lining - the background - from it. The undershirt was made from bleached linen, usually made at home. Sewing shirts for family members was considered a woman's domestic task. Because the undergarment was washed frequently, the fabric was not embroidered or decorated, as medieval washing would have damaged the embroidery. Data provided by Yu.V. Stepanova, a researcher of the Upper Volga burial costume. In those male burials where buttons (bronze and billon) were found, they were located in the neck and chest area, with one button at the level of the cervical vertebrae. In only one burial were four bronze buttons found, apparently placed vertically on the neck and chest. From the second half of the 11th century. The process of forming a shirt, traditional for Russian folk costume, with a slit along the neck, perhaps a “kosovorotka,” is taking place. The same conclusions can be drawn based on the finds of fragments of collars from Suzdal burial mounds. Unfortunately, there are no surviving complete examples of Russian men's shirts from the 13th-14th centuries.
A branched tree with unusual patterns of flowers, fruits and birds is often found in folk art. It is a symbol of fertility, which represents the strength and power of the earth, living and blooming nature, as well as the connecting axis between earth and heaven. The heavenly tree absorbed the universe of the ancient Slavs. A kind of portal was present among almost all ancient peoples, but it had its own name, for example, among the Scandinavians Yggdrasil, the Baiterek Turks, and the Chinese Kien-Mu. The symbol can be depicted in the form of an ordinary tree with roots and branches, schematically in the form of one stick and three branches, and also in the form of a woman with raised hands.
Let's look at where the concept of the tree of heaven itself came from. According to legend, God was originally inside the egg in complete fog. The dispersion of small drops led to the separation of the world's waters with air space. Wherever the Lord cast his gaze, a bright star lit up everywhere. One day the Almighty decided to revive his mirror image, so the distorted sphere brought to earth a dark deity called the Demon (the bringer of misfortune).
The power of God gave rise to two sacred oak trees, and fallen acorns brought a pair of ducks into the world. The birds began to take out sea sand and build a nest, which then became earth. The Evil Demon did not like the action of the birds. He took a mouthful of silt and covered the construction surface with it, which led to the formation of mountains. The Demon's misbehavior angered God. The Almighty broke one of the trees and drove the evil spirits underground with it. So there is only one Heavenly Tree left in the world.
The entire Universe, consisting of nine heavens, surrounds the tree on all sides. You can get into each world along the trunk, and the highest point of the crown reaches seventh heaven. A tree can be compared to a portal that takes you to different worlds, like a corridor with entrance doors to different rooms.
Legends of the World Tree
Greek and Chinese myths speak of the emergence of the world from an egg. The Slavs also have similar works.
An ancient legend says that previously the world consisted only of the sea and a flying duck, which dropped its egg into the depths of the sea. It split into two parts: the first became the Mother-damp earth, and the second became the vault of heaven.
According to fairy tales, unusual fairy-tale heroes live in the branches of trees: the scientist cat, the firebird, the Nightingale the Robber, etc. Often trees come to the aid of heroes, protect them and have miracle fruits that give youth. A striking example of the presence of clawed animals on the trunk of the tree of life is the cat Bayun. His nickname comes from the word “bayat” - to tell. The magical power of his tales is capable of striking enemies to death. This amazing character is present in A. Pushkin’s famous poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, where the author used the fairy tale to preserve religious and mythical characters.
In one of the fairy tales, the hero visits the underworld to find three princesses. From each kingdom (copper, silver and gold) he brings out an egg, which he breaks on the ground.
According to legend, the tree grew on the island of Buyan on a magic stone, where the center of the Universe was located. It was very difficult to get to him. Different peoples used their own trees as heavenly symbols: oak, sycamore, birch, apple tree, etc.
Main parts of the world tree
The grandeur and mystery of the forest have long attracted humanity. Slavic monuments of the 11th-17th centuries tell of pagan worship of sacred groves, where various rituals were held, newlyweds were married, water was blessed, and festive meals were held. The pagan Slavs considered the tree to be the center of knowledge and the connection of three worlds: terrestrial, underground and upper-heavenly. The image of the tree of ascension was accompanied by silhouettes of spirits and deities, warriors and priests. The top of the sacred trunk touched the world of the Gods, and the roots sank into the underworld, where Chernobog and Madder lived. At the very top, behind the clouds, was Iriy (paradise). Its inhabitants were the Gods, the ancestors of people, the progenitors of animals and plants.
The fauna inhabited all three layers:
World tree drawing photo
The power of the world tree is admirable. Its roots split rocks and boulders.
Such trees, which have come down from ancient times, are part of our world. They act as a hymn to perseverance and love of life.
By combining the knowledge of the Slavs, the ability to draw and their imagination, schoolchildren create completely different creations.
An example of a child's drawing created with a gel pen.
Similar work was done using paints.
How to draw a world tree step by step with explanations
The tree branches in the abstract painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt look a little tangled, but even fourth-graders can replicate this work. It is enough to follow the given steps.
- To begin with, draw a trunk in the center of the sheet.
- Rounded branches are added to its top on both sides.
- A pair of thick branches with curls are drawn on the right and left sides of the tree. A wavy horizontal line is added at the bottom.
- The side branches are complemented with small details.
- Leaves are drawn on the branches in the form of abstract figures.
- Similar patterns are drawn inside the trunk and the ground.
- The contours of the tree are drawn in black. The author’s work is dominated by golden and brown shades, but the wood can be painted to suit your taste.
An example of drawing a mighty oak tree with a pencil.
To begin with, draw a line of the ground at the bottom of the sheet, and then depict a thick, uneven trunk. It is necessary to take into account that oak branches grow low.
The next stage is very important, as it details the foliage and crown. Their shape is responsible for the appearance of the entire tree. The oak crown is slightly wider on the sides.
The leaves are drawn slightly smeared or each leaf is drawn. Then they add volume to the foliage. This will make the tree lighter.
The lower crown should be slightly darker than the top. The branches and trunk are painted over, and a shadow is added below.
The process of drawing living pictures using acrylic animation is performed to music. This technique combines animation with graphics and painting.
Options for drawing the world tree, photo
Children's imagination can transform ordinary objects into the World Tree: a teapot, an umbrella, a throne, a cane and even a lampshade.
Our ancestors associated the rapid alternation of periods of life with a tree. He was considered a symbol of resurrection and awakening.
The image of a drawn tree can also be different: tree-time, tree-world or tree-genus.
The world tree, as a reflection of infinity, has always attracted the attention of mankind. His seed, like human life, sprouts with renewed vigor, continuing to exist in world cultures.
The world tree is an important symbol of the worldview of different peoples in ancient times. But his image can also be considered as an element of non-pagan religions. In this article we will try to trace the stages and features of the formation of this important cultural symbol and the significance of the image in the formation of ideas about the world at each historical stage of its existence.
The world tree of different peoples as the foundation of cultures
The conventional nature of art, already from the very era of primitiveness, presupposes the reflection of ideas about the universe and the organization of the world order in works of folklore and literature, painting and sculpture, architecture, dance and theatrical art, etc. The key image that combines these ideas is the world tree.
It expresses the idea of organizing the Cosmos as a cultural concept to Chaos as a symbol of irregularity, disorganization, and unstructuredness. Almost all the mythologies of ancient peoples are united by the presence of a world tree as a central, cementing symbol. In many ways, the ideas about it among different ethnic groups were similar, but also clearly differed from each other, which, undoubtedly, was due to the peculiarities of their habitat and development. It is the world tree that symbolizes the harmony of the Universe, being its central axis, the core that connects the underground, earthly and heavenly worlds together.
Structure and symbolism
Like an ordinary tree, the world tree in mythology has three main parts: the crown, the trunk and the roots. The crown symbolizes the Kingdom of Heaven, the trunk - the Earthly Kingdom, the roots - the Underground Kingdom of the souls of the dead.
You can consider parts of the world tree through associations with the time of day: crown - night, trunk - day, roots - morning. From the perspective of the past (roots), present (trunk) and future (crown). With natural elements: earth (roots), water (trunk), fire (crown). With generations of people: ancestors (roots), living ones (trunk), descendants (crown). The structure of the human body (legs, torso, head) and the structure of the temple (foundation, “body,” dome).
The trinity of the universe, having received its foundations in paganism, found its continuation in fairy tales (one of the fabulous numbers is 3: three brothers, three attempts, three trials, etc.) and even in the Christian religion (the triune essence of God - God the Father, God -son, God the Holy Spirit).
Often, different living creatures inhabiting the Earth are associated with each part of the World Tree:
In the mythology of the ancient Egyptians
One of the most common variants of the mythological view of the world of the ancient Egyptians is considered to be the model described in the myth of Nut and Hebe. The essence of the myth comes down to the fact that brother and husband Geb are the god of the Earth, and his sister and wife Nut are the goddess of Sky, both are the children of another celestial couple - Shu (god of Wind) and Tefnut (goddess of Moisture), giving birth to the first child stars , gave rise to a problem that is still one of the main ones in family relationships - how to raise children? However, in this case, it was not about education: every morning Nut swallowed the stars, “like a pig swallows her piglets,” and at night she released them into the sky again.
Quarrels between spouses threatened the collapse of the entire Universe, and Nut turned to her father, Shu, for help. He stood between Geb and Nut and pulled them apart, separating them. By the will of the gods, Geb and Nut could no longer have children. This was the punishment. It is this part of the ideas about the world that formed the basis for the ideas about its Model, which is essentially the image of the world tree, where Nut is depicted as a woman standing on a bridge with stars on her side, resting her toes and hands on the edges of the Earth. The God of the Earth, Geb, is depicted in the guise of a man lying on the Earth. Between them stands Shu, who rests his feet on Geb and supports Nut with his hands. In this version, Nut is symbolized with the crown, Shu with the trunk, and Geb with the roots of the world tree.
Model of the world of the ancient Egyptians
The second version of the ancient Egyptian model of the world can be considered the trinity of the Nile, the main Egyptian deity. According to the mythology of the Egyptians, the Nile was Heavenly, Earthly and Underground. Here we turn to ideas about the changing parts of the day in ancient Egyptian mythology. So, during a bright day, Amon-Ra’s daytime boat, Mandjet, sails along the Heavenly Nile, in which his daytime retinue sits; among the gods there is Isis, the goddess of fertility and the wife of Osiris. Farmers live and work on the banks of the Earthly Nile. But the territory of the Underground Nile is the territory of the Underground Kingdom of the souls of the dead Duat. It has an entrance through the Sunset Horizon Gate. The night retinue of Amon-Ra sails here on the night boat Masektet. On the way to the exit from the last Gate at dawn, the barge must overcome many traps and open ten more gates. It is for this purpose that Amon-Ra has the key of life ankh.
As for the animal world associated with parts of the world tree, it is in this version that they are used: Amon-Ra is depicted with the head of a Falcon, the ruler of the Duat, Anubis, has the head of a jackal feeding on carrion, and the main guardian of the entire kingdom of Duat is the serpent Apep. It is with him that Amon-Ra in the guise of the Cat fights before the last gate to begin a new day.
Golden tree of the ancient Egyptians
There is a third version of the image of the ancient Egyptian world tree - a huge golden Syquimore or Sycamore tree (according to different versions, plane tree or fig), which rests its crown on the Sky, where the goddess Nut lives and enjoys the contemplation of the precious stones growing in its crown. The Phoenix bird also lives there, knocking down life-giving dew from the crown and giving life to everything on earth. But the roots of this tree are the tomb with the body of Osiris killed by Set resting in it. The tree seemed to have grown through her.
World tree in Mesopotamian mythology
One of the variants of the image of the world tree in mythology is presented in the ancient Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh. It is here that we meet its traditional tree-like image and encounter the creatures that inhabited the parts: in the crown is the bird Anzud, on the trunk is the maiden of the Lilies, in the roots is a snake.
The world tree from the mythology of Ancient Mesopotamia is identified with the mythological Mount Kur, with a clay base and a tin top. It stands on the Earth goddess Ki, and on its top is the Sky god An. And the underworld is ruled by Nergal.
World tree in Scandinavia
In the culture of the ancient Germanic and Scandinavian peoples, the world tree is also used in its familiar form - a tree. Its crown is overshadowed by solar signs, and its roots are guarded by a boat and a monster. We can see such an image of the Scandinavian world tree on an ancient Germanic stone.
But in the ancient Scandinavian sagas and epic works “Elder Edda” and “Greater Edda”, there is another image of him - also of the arboreal order. Ash Yggdrasil. It grew through ten worlds into which the Universe is divided from the Underground Kingdom, guarded by the terrible Dragon, gnawing corpses, and to the Heavenly Kingdom. At the trunk, a source of Wisdom flows from the roots. It, like the tree trunk, is guarded by three goddesses of fate - Norns.
But there is a completely different idea: the giant Ymir, the first creature that arose in the Abyss, can also be considered the world tree. When the gods killed him, his head became the Sky, his bones became the Mountains, and his body became the Earth.
Slavic mythology
The Scandinavians chose ash as the axis of the world order, but the Slavs chose the mighty oak. And this is quite understandable. In addition to its similarity with the image of the ancient Russian knight-hero, the oak was also an object that was important for our ancestors from a sacred point of view: executions, sacrifices, and trials were carried out near it. Oak was also a folk healer. To this day, in a Russian bathhouse, an oak broom is a symbol of health.
This is how the world tree is represented in Slavic mythology: the fruit-bearing golden crown of the oak tree covers with its branches “paradise” - the Heavenly world, and is fragrant, exuding a divine aroma. At the very beginning of the trunk, 12 sources of honey and milk flow out as the life-giving force of Nature, perhaps an analogue of “living water” in folklore. It is from them that Man draws strength as a being in tune with the trunk of an oak tree.
There is a version that this oak is located on the inaccessible Buyan Island in the ocean. The gods live in its crown, a demon is chained to the trunk, and demons and the snake Shkurupey live in the hole at the roots.
In another version of the world tree among the Slavs, a nightingale nests in the branches of an oak tree, bees live in a hollow in the trunk, and an ermine lives in a hole near the roots.
Fairy tales
The image of the world tree as the axis of the universe is also reflected in the fairy tales of different peoples. Most often, their plot was connected with the growth of a planted miracle tree or legume plant, which at its top went into the sky, towards the booms, and the hero who reached its top received gifts and fulfillment of desires. Let us recall, for example, the English fairy tale “Jack and the Beanstalk”, where the poor boy Jack, having exchanged five bean grains from an old man for a cow, climbed up the stalk that grew overnight into heaven, where the cannibal lived, and stole from him a bag of gold, a golden chicken and a golden harp. As a result, Jack's family began to live in abundance. This is the whole essence of fairy tales about the world tree - the triumph of good over evil.
In the epic of the Sakha people (Yakutia), the world tree is presented as Aak Luul Mas - a tree with highly raised branches. Look at the photo of the world tree below.
It holds three worlds: Upper, Middle and Lower. In the Upper world there live light gods - aiys, and in the Lower world - dark ones, abaas. The main god Yuung Aar Toyon sits in the uppermost sky. The owner of the tree is considered to be the earth goddess Aan Alakhchin Khotun, who feeds the Middle Bogatyr with milk from the tree trunk.
The world tree in the culture of ancient civilizations of Central America
What is especially interesting is what the world tree looks like in Native American cultures. So, the Mayans imagined it growing in the very center of the world: the trunk is like a barrel, sharp thorns grow thickly on the trunk and branches. Often the Mayan altar was made in the shape of such a tree.
But the Aztecs imagined the universe to consist of 13 heavens and 9 underworlds. All parts were connected by five vertical axes. The central axis, the median tree, was considered the most important. But on the cardinal points there are four more trees: red (east), black (west), white (north), yellow (south). In their crowns live the gods-spirits of Nature: chaks (rain), pavahuns (winds), bakabs (holders of the sky). They rule alternately for one year at a time.
Various nations
Below we will talk about the representation of the world tree in the culture of different peoples. The Phoenicians imagined the world tree in the form of a giant Tent, the arch of which is supported by a huge tree. And the top of the Tent rests on Heaven itself.
The ancient Chinese imagined the world tree in the form of a mulberry. In its crown lived a Rooster and ten golden three-toed ravens-Suns. In the crown, instead of fruits, stars sparkled. This tree grew at the very edge of the Celestial Empire. But another tree, Xun, mentioned in their myths, does not have an exact description. The Chinese also imagine this tree as the Breadfruit tree, which grows on Mount Kunlun. Life-giving springs bubble up at its roots. Along the trunk you can get to Heaven, where the gods live, or you can go down to the Underworld.
And in the Hindu religion it is possible to turn to such an image, reflecting the essence of the world tree, as the goddess Ganga, who previously lived in the divine palaces in the sky, but at the request of the king Bhatarakhya, pure from sins, who stood like a rock, merged with a waterfall onto the earth, breaking on his head on parts. Having filled the world ocean drained by the hermit Agastya for the victory of the gods over the evil demons, the asuras, she gave life to everything on Earth and penetrated into the underworld. Thus, a mountain with a waterfall can be considered as a world tree. Moreover, in other cultures, a tree often grows on a mountain.
In the myths of ancient India, a version is proposed that after the victory of the asuras over the gods in their last battle, the gods went underground to plow the “primordial” ocean in search of the source of eternal life, but found the axis of the universe - the Parijata tree, which the god Indra would later dig up and plant in his garden of paradise. This tree had golden bark and copper-colored young leaves, fragrant flowers and fruits.
Chthonic beings as a model of the world tree
First you need to understand the concept itself, which is related to ancient pagan mythology. Chthonic in it were terrible monsters - the creation of deities of the first, primordial generations (Gaia and her evil offspring - among the Greeks, Tiamat - among the Akkadians and Babylonians, etc.) But first of all, such creatures are a feature of ancient Greek myth-making.
The main characteristic of these characters is the synthesis of body parts of several animals in their appearance. And the personification is Evil, as a world manifestation and revenge, and cruelty, as its instrument.
Thus, the well-known Echidna is a synthesis of a woman and a snake. In this case, the snake part symbolizes the Underworld, the female body and head symbolize the Earthly world, and the divine origin symbolizes the Heavenly world.
Echidna was the mother of no less colorful characters - the guardians of Hades, the multi-headed fire-breathing dogs Orff and Cerberus. Thus, Cerberus was a three-headed dog, on whose necks snakes wriggled instead of fur, and at the end of its tail there was a dragon’s head. In this synthesis, the snake and dragon elements personify Hades, the dog's body and heads - the Earthly world, the divine principle - the Heavenly world. However, since neither Uranus-Sky nor the gods living in the heavenly world had anything to do with the creation of such creatures, the interpretation of the last component is controversial.
And another Greek character, also the product of Echidna and Typhon, is the Chimera. Its appearance combines the body of a goat - the personification of the Earthly world, the tail of a snake - the Underground world, the neck and head of a lion - a solar symbol associated with the worship of the Sun, which means it can be correlated with the Heavenly world.
In Egyptian mythology, the image of the terrible monster Amamat comes to mind, to whom, on the eve of the palace of Osiris in the Duat, during the weighing ceremony, the heart of a lying sinner was thrown to be devoured. This character combines the elements of a crocodile (Underworld), a hippopotamus (Earthly World) and a lion (Sky World). He is the personification of retribution for sins.
Temples and funerary structures
It seems possible to consider temples as a model of the world tree. The development of the internal space of the temple (both pagan and Orthodox) occurs from the west (Underworld) to the east (Divine World), and from bottom to top. Examples of the first include the above-ground temple complexes of Luxor and Karnak, the semi-rock temple of Queen Hatshepsut, the rock Abu Simbel, Orthodox and Catholic churches. Examples of the second are the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, the pyramids of the Incas, Mayans, Aztecs, and Orthodox churches.
Similarly, from bottom to top, the development of burials occurs - pagan mounds and ancient Egyptian pyramids. Thus, the underground part of the Scandinavian mound is the receptacle of everything that the deceased might need in the kingdom of the Dead, the top of the mound is the place where the funeral boat was placed with the deceased and the living concubine, beloved dog, wife, etc., also personifies the Earthly world, and the smoke that goes into the Sky when the boat is burned is a connecting part with the world of the gods, where the deceased goes. True, it should be noted that such a ritual concerned only noble representatives of the tribe or people.
TREE OF LIFE OF THE SLAVS
Slavic worldview
The origins of the original Slavic world understanding:
How many years of our history do we know: 100, 200, 1000? How old are our Bylinas? After all, the epic is what it was: Whose calendar are we living by now? What year is it now according to the original Slavic calendar? Based on the chronicles, now it is 7516 years from the Creation of the world. And this is probably not the first date. And if chronology was kept, that means there was culture, that means there was literacy and literate people who observed the sun and stars, noticed various natural phenomena, etc.
Where did the 6,500 years of our unknown go? Why don't we remember them? How did our Ancestors live in those distant times? We do not know the answers to these questions and may never know. However, there are some milestones of the Slavic tradition that are known for certain. Let's figure out which ones?!...
Everything in the world and the Universe is similar to each other and is permeated with the finest relationships. This idea is best reflected in the Slavic Tradition. Our Great Ancestors lived in complete harmony with the world around them, which was once created by Rod and Rozhanitsa, by the unity of two principles, primary energies. Hence, from ancient times, we have called everything that surrounds us “nature,” that is, that which is always with the Rod, the Great Rozhanitsa, the Foremother, the personified and embodied female energy of the Universe: The World is one and many-sided at the same time, like the Rod itself. Man is part of the world and exists according to its laws. Consequently, the life of the world and man, material and spiritual, are closely connected. Our great-great-grandfathers and great-great-grandmothers knew this firmly, therefore, what surrounded them in everyday life was the most necessary, formed the basis of this life, and became the most important symbols and archetypes.
Ancient Slavic legends tell us that the whole world, the cosmos, is organized like an egg, as the source from which life arises. The center of the “egg” - the yolk - is identified with the earth, the upper part of the yolk is the earthly world, and the lower part is the underground world. According to legend, the egg is surrounded by the World Ocean, a symbol of the elements of life. And the whole world is surrounded by 9 heavens, which were equated to 9 layers of an egg, to spheres, among which each has its own meaning.
Hence the well-established expression about seventh heaven. The seventh heaven is the “firmament of heaven,” i.e. the transparent bottom of the heavenly World Ocean. According to legend, it contains “heavenly abysses” - reserves of rainwater, when they break through, the water seems to pour onto the ground in a stream, so we get the expression “heavenly abysses have opened up.”
The main axis of the world is the World Tree (Tree of Life), most often identified with an oak tree. It connects all space - heaven, earth and the underworld. The crown of the tree represents the “upper world”, in which there are 9 heavens, the sun, stars, birds live, it is also the world of the Gods and Ancestors, the world of Rule, Heavenly Svarga (hence the words and concepts - truth, rule, correct :). The tree trunk is the “middle world”, which included our entire earthly world, the world of Reveal (manifest, phenomenon, manifested:). The roots of the tree reached the “underworld”, with the chthonic, dark, that is, creatures unknown to us, living there, the world of Navi.
The metaphor of the World Tree reflects the inextricable connection of the worlds, the “circular movement in nature,” the change of seasons, the principle of “rotation of the year” (the cycle of the seasons and the cyclical nature of time in general) and the sacred meaning of human life.
Our ancestors had very deep knowledge about the world around us, space and the universe. Natural forces and elements received names based on their functions and properties. And then the figurativeness, metaphorical nature of our thinking and language personified them and turned them into Gods and Goddesses.
Everything in the world is endowed with a soul, spiritualized, is in constant and continuous interaction, the world is holistic and diverse. “Every cloud has a silver lining,” “there would be no happiness, but misfortune would help,” we remember our proverbs, which reflect the dualism of the world around us, as our ancestors understood it. Life and death, good and evil, love and hate, man and woman are two sides of the same coin, two halves of a single whole and do not exist separately. So our Gods are all paired - Rod and Rozhanitsa, Svarog and Makosh, Perun and Perunitsa, etc.
Each person has his own creators - the creators are his PARENTS, who also have their own parents, and who, in turn, also have their own parents. Who was at the beginning and where is it? And in the beginning we all had common creators, first ancestors, progenitors - Rod and Rozhanitsa. The genus is the progenitor of all things; it is one and many-sided at the same time. He has many names (like our parents), the main one of which is Svarog - heavenly father, and the name of Rozhanitsa - Makosh - Mother Cheese Earth, Mother Nature or Lada (okay, get along, okay, settle :). All the rest are the children and grandchildren of Svarog, Svarozhichi.
The myth about Rod and Rozhanitsa tells that the love of Earth and Heaven was so strong that it came to life and split into two: female Love (Lada) and male Love (Rod).
This is where the ideas of our ancestors, the Slavs, about gods and goddesses come from. The Slavs understood God as a pre-eternal and eternally creative being. God is everywhere and everywhere - in the wind, rain, thunder, grass, stone, water and fire. So it turns out that our Gods are our Ancestors, and we are the Slavs, their children and grandchildren, and not slaves, like later Christians. And our Ancestor Gods have already given us everything we need for life (the universe, earth, fire, law, knowledge and various tools), now it’s up to us. Each person chooses his own destiny, which path to follow - the path of truth or falsehood, creation or destruction. And only our Co-Message is our judge. Our Ancestors rarely turned to the Gods with requests, but only glorified them and sang them in their poems and hymns, precisely because it does not suit a Slav - a descendant of the great Ancestors and Gods - to ask something from someone, he can do everything himself . And only in the most exceptional cases - when the matter depends not only on the will of man, but also on the will of natural forces and elements (Gods), can one turn to them with filial need.
We, the Slavs, are “Dazhbozh’s grandchildren, who should not be in awe of the gods, we must know and remember them, then they will be able to help us, since “the gods have no eyes but ours and no hands but ours”...
Likhanova Tatyana, Museum employee
About them, the oxen of nature are very numerous and multifaceted. There is no such symbol that would mean nature itself. But quite a lot of magical signs are dedicated to her. This is, first of all, magical nature. Therefore, let's start with the symbols of the World Tree (Tree).
The World Tree (among the Scandinavians - the Yggdasil ash tree) is the “axis of the world”, it supports all the worlds. The world of Pravi is located in the crown. At the trunk - Reality, in the roots, where the World Serpent Yusha huddles - Nav. The shaman, being in a trance, can travel through these worlds.
The image of a tree is one of the greatest inventions of mankind. It arose a long time ago and determined the structure of all mythological systems. Thanks to the World Tree, man saw the world as a single whole and himself in this world as a part of it... The tree entered our genetic memory, into the sphere of the unconscious. As psychologists prove, at a certain stage of development of the child’s psyche, it makes itself known as a primary image that has entered the flesh and blood: if a child draws a lot, then wood predominates in his drawings. Some psychologists believe that this is the World Tree, the Tree of Life - the meeting place of man with the Universe, their common symbol is the symbol of any whole made up of parts, the basis of any language with its branching phrases, an idea that permeates poetry, painting, architecture, any games, choreography, social, economic and even mental structures.
All the elements of the world began to be strung on it, like an axis: from concrete gods and animals to abstract concepts like temporal categories. The vertical structure of the World Tree consisted of three parts, or levels: lower (roots), middle (trunk) and upper (branches). This is how the main cosmic zones were formed in the imagination of the ancients, and with them twin opposites: earth - sky, earth - underworld, fire (dry) - moisture (wet), past - present, present - future, day - night. These pairs are mixed in the structure of the tree with ternary unities: past - present - future; ancestors - contemporaries - descendants; three parts of the body: head - torso - legs; three elements: fire - water - earth. Pairs and triplets covered a wide variety of life forms. People understood the interconnection of opposites, the essence of all development.
The World Tree is the basis for organizing thinking, memory, and perception. Images of the external and internal world are strung on this trunk, and now they can be expressed in sign systems - in words, numbers, formulas, images. The tree with its three levels is schematized in the mind, and now abstractions and symbols appear. Next to the horses and bees there appears a sun wheel and an eight-pointed cross inscribed in a circle. We find this symbol in both Orthodox churches and Tibetan temples.
Each of the three parts of the Tree belonged to certain creatures. At the top, on the branches, birds were depicted, in the middle, at the trunk - ungulates (deer, elk, cows, horses), sometimes humans and bees, and at the roots - snakes, frogs, fish and beavers. God sat at the very top of the tree. Sometimes he entered into battle with a serpent or dragon and freed the cattle they had stolen. The tree, symbolizing conception and fertility, was depicted on women's clothing.
The vertical structure of the Tree is more associated with cosmology, and the horizontal structure is more associated with magical rituals. Most often, the Tree was depicted with eight branches, four on each side. It also had four main colors: red, black, white, blue.
It is well known that for the ancient Slavs trees were not just building material. Our pagan ancestors saw in them the same as themselves, children of earth and heaven, moreover, possessing no less a right to life. According to some legends, the very first people were created from wood - which means that trees are older and wiser than people. Cutting down a tree is the same as killing a person. But you also have to build a hut!
Russian peasants preferred to cut huts from pine, spruce, and larch. These trees with long, even trunks fit well into the frame, tightly adjacent to each other, retained internal heat well, and did not rot for a long time. However, the choice of trees in the forest was regulated by many rules, violation of which could lead to the transformation of the built house from a house for people into a house against people, bringing misfortune.
Of course, there could not even be any question of raising one’s hand to a tree that was revered, “sacred.” There were entire sacred groves in which all the trees were considered divine, and it was a sin to pluck even a branch from them.
Individual trees that attracted attention due to their extraordinary size, age, or developmental features could also be considered sacred. As a rule, local legends were associated with such trees. Legends have reached us about righteous old men who, at the end of their days, were turned into trees by the gods.
An ancient man would never have decided to cut down a tree that grew on a grave. Back at the end of the 19th century. peasants showed ethnographic scientists a large pine tree that supposedly grew from the braid of a ruined girl; What if a human soul settled in a tree? In Belarus, a sure sign of this was considered to be the creaking sound made by a tree: in creaking trees, according to beliefs, the souls of tortured people cried. Anyone who deprives them of shelter will certainly be punished: they will pay with their health, or even their lives.
In some places in Russia there was a strict ban on cutting down all old trees for a very long time. According to the peasants, it was a sin to deprive the forest patriarchs of the right to natural, “spontaneous” death from windfall or simply from old age. Anyone who encroached on such a tree would inevitably go crazy, be injured or die. It was also considered a sin to cut down young, immature forest. In this case, the mythological view was based on a completely natural desire to preserve young trees that had not reached the best conditions. In relation to the “forest elders,” the law of mythological thinking was in effect: elder means chief, revered, sacred.
Trees with developmental anomalies - a large hollow, a stone or other object grown into the trunk, with an unusual shape of the trunk, with an amazing interweaving of roots - were also not subject to felling: “not like everyone else” - you never know what kind of force could be hidden in them !
In different areas there were also bans on the logging of certain species. First of all, of course, this applied to “cursed” trees, such as aspen and spruce. These species are energetically unfavorable for humans, they “pump” life energy out of him, and even objects made from their wood retain this property. So the reluctance of our ancestors to live in a spruce or aspen house was again not without reason. On the other hand, a person who cut down a completely “benevolent” linden tree was bound to get lost in the forest. Apparently, the gods sternly stood up for the tree that had been shod and even clothed people for centuries...
Dead, dry trees were not suitable for construction. This is understandable: such trees do not have vital forces in them, they bear the mark of death - what good, they will carry it into the house. And even if no one dies in the house, the “dry” will definitely become attached. In a number of places, for this reason, they avoided cutting down trees in winter, when they are deprived of sap and are “temporarily dead.”
The idea of death and the afterlife is also associated with the ban imposed on trees that fell with their tops to the north during cutting, “at midnight”: our ancestors associated this side of the world with eternal darkness, winter, lifeless cold - in a word, the other world. Insert such a tree into a log house, and the people in the house will not live long!
A special and very dangerous variety of forbidden trees are “violent”, “evil”, “wicked”. Such a tree seems to be trying to take revenge on a person for its death: it can crush a lumberjack, and if they cut a log out of it for a hut, just behold, it will bring down the entire house on the heads of the residents. Even a chip from such a tree, deliberately placed by an evil carpenter, was capable, in the opinion of Russian peasants, of destroying a new house or mill. If the “lush” forest was cut down for firewood, one had to be wary of fire!
Belarusians called “lush” trees “storosovye”. This is where our expression “stoeros club” comes from, meaning a stupid and unkind person.
“Lush” trees, according to popular belief, most often grew on abandoned forest roads, especially at the intersections of such roads. The fact is that the Slavs attributed great mythological meaning to the road, and a negative one at that. The road going into the distance, in the opinion of our ancestors, ultimately led to the next world - for outside the tribal territory, as is known, the kingdom of unknown forces began, and the border between the worlds of the dead and the living was close. And besides, the road was thought of by the pagans as a kind of “horizontal projection” of the World Tree, which connected the worlds. It is no coincidence that riddles about the road have been preserved, such as: “When the light was born, then the oak fell, and now it lies,” and etymological scientists claim that the words “tree” and “road” in the Russian language go back to the same root. The twisted trunk, twisted against the sun, also did not inspire confidence in the pagans.
There was also a ban on the use of trees planted by humans in construction. First of all, garden trees, moreover, located inside the estate fence. Scientists believe that the point here is in the mythological understanding of such opposites as “one’s own” - “alien”, “natural” - “cultural”, “wild” - “domestic”. A tree taken from the forest and used for the construction of human habitation certainly had to undergo a “change of quality”: from “foreign” to become “ours.” Such a transformation certainly could not have happened with a garden tree, and besides, garden apple and cherry trees were almost family members for our pagan ancestors...
If the first three trees scheduled for felling, for some reason, turned out to be unsuitable, then on that day it is better not to get down to business at all - it will not be good.
