(or as he is also called - Niam) is the God of the Slavs, who is perceived as the Guardian of Souls who went to Nav. In the later representation this divine Person appears as a certain mythical creature with eyelids lowered to the ground. If you lift his eyelids with a pitchfork, then nothing will be hidden from Viev’s Eye. By the name of the Slavic God Viy, in the ancient Slavic language people’s eyelashes are called Vii. This sound is still preserved in the language of the Ukrainian people. In legends, Viy is presented ambiguously, with a contradictory character.
The Slavic God Viy is considered the oldest God, the son of Rod. He was born together with his twin brother, to whom the Progenitor Rod gave the name - Dy. Despite the fact that the Slavic God Viy is a dark God, nevertheless, He often looks at the bright Rule, striving to live according to its laws.
Wise people, who see into the depths, sometimes calmly perceive strange behavior Viya. They remember something secret meaning the appearance of Viy for the Worlds, this is the plan of the Family, known to the end only to Him.
Legends And myths O Slavic God Vie
Many different legends affects Viy. Here are some examples of them.
About how the Slavic God God Viy taught the young God Veles:
The Dark God Viy took the child to himself as his own son, erased part of his memory, and taught him black magic. So Veles became a scientist who knows about all the secrets of light and good, as well as dark and destructive magic.
About His important purpose in the universe:
Nav fell in love with Viy when Rod entrusted Him with an important task - to cleanse the souls that came to Nav, no matter what. Main task- this is to cleanse all the souls that come in the heat, then let them go clean.
They cleanse souls with flames in a special place - Pekle. Everything painful, unnecessary, difficult memories, attachments, dependence on the burning fire leave the soul forever! Then the soul remains for some time in a purified state in Navi, but in a different place, where the afterlife Judge determines the period of its stay and departure from Navi. And the soul came out, completely cleansed of Falsehood and Lies; this is the only way it can further move along the path to Truth!
God Viy was created with a large admixture of the magic of Other Worlds, therefore He is always interested in distant Worlds - what is happening in them, what is happening.
How Viy got excellent informer assistants, how He was nicknamed All-Seeing and All-Knowing:
No matter what happens, nothing appears that could harm us,” Viy thought about the mysterious other Worlds. Therefore, they decided to create a gang of birds, rats and other nimble living creatures that could learn all the news everywhere and retell it to Viya. His informers scurried around everywhere, they even visited Rod’s upper room, collecting news day and night, and then reporting everything to Viya. The God of Sleep and his girlfriend Dryoma also came into the dreams of the Gods, and then retold them to Viya. So Viy knew about everything that was happening in Yavi, Navi or Prav. This is how Viy gained fame as the All-Knowing and All-Seeing God.
Amulet – symbolGod Viya
The sign or amulet of God Viy is called by the Slavs - “All-Seeing Eye”. He immediately tells us that this is God, from whose eyes, ears and memory nothing can be hidden. Appearance sign - circles repeating each other, one inside the other. Small protruding stripes along the edges of the circles indicate immunity. This denotes the hidden and obvious power of Viy, his authority, as well as his regalia - to be the Shepherd of souls, when no one can hide under the watchful, watchful eye of God.
Amulet "All-Seeing Eye" will protect from:
- bad, unclean thoughts;
- despondency;
- depression;
- pessimism;
- the arbitrariness of dark forces and other forces;
- deception or lawlessness in your direction.
Amulet "All-Seeing Eye" will attract you to:
- development of intuition;
- insightful mind;
- ingenuity;
- supernatural sense;
- restoration of lost connections;
- good relationships with people and friends;
- the trust of your family in you.
You can get a lot from the All-Seeing Eye of Viy - determination, understanding true feeling justice, and even wit, an analytical mind, its development.
See more about the All-Seeing Eye amulet.
Manifestation God Viya For Slavs
The ancient ancestors of the Slavs knew about the terrible power of Viy - with just one glance he was capable of destroying not only a person, but also entire cities or villages. One thing pleases me: this heavy look is carefully hidden by thick eyebrows and low-hanging eyelids.
The ancient North still retains in its memory the understanding that Viy, the God of the Slavs, does useful work in Pekla - he helps souls purify there. After purification, the soul can continue on its way. The soul needs to return to its Family, from where it came. Therefore, the Slavs treated Viy with respect, honoring Him for helping souls in their revival.
Attributes God Viya
Animal- a shaggy black dog with drooping eyelids.
Heraldry, objects- scourge
Treba (offering)– a fire and a bag of wool for burning.
God ViyV northern traditions fortune telling And magic
Cut number – 9
Divination. Questioning God.
The appearance of Reza God Viy draws the Questioner’s attention to the fact that he is standing on the edge of a cliff, and connections with the Rule have been lost. This is a warning that a person is doing something wrong, somewhere his path turned off the right road and rushed somewhere to Nav, and, of course, to Prav.
Gives advice: you should cleanse your soul. To find the right path, you will need to put in a lot of effort, which you should not give up.
A sure sign of finding the right path is the sudden arrival of a streak of luck and good fortune.
Magic. When invite Boga Viy.
In magical rituals, they avoid specifically calling God Viy, or addressing rituals to him. This God is stern and does not like to be disturbed. He is the keeper of Magic, but does not give it away in vain. But behind the amulet of God Viy they know the power to protect in reality from unrighteous acts. Those in the know who walk between the Worlds certainly take the sign of God Viy with them, as an assistant and protector. After all, Viy is the ancient God of magic, who taught Veles himself!
They also wove sciences, turning to Father Viy in those cases when it was very necessary to block the path to bad intentions, to stop attacks and other people’s intentions. Therefore, a knot was tied, and a conspiracy was slandered against the person from whom they wanted to protect themselves. Nauz Viya is called “Dead Knot” - it serves as a powerful barrier from evil people.
VIY (aka Vy, Niy) - Voivode, king of the underworld, the ancient god of hurricanes
NAME: The word "vii" means "eyelashes".
APPEARANCE: Viy is the most terrible and strongest representative evil spirits living underground. Staggering, clubfooted, arms and legs like tree roots, covered in the ground. He walks with difficulty and appears only in cases when other representatives of evil spirits are unable to cope. The eyelids are long, right down to the ground, he can’t lift them himself, usually they do it bats. Like all evil spirits, they disappear with the third roosters.
ELEMENTS. Viy belongs to the elements
ABILITIES: Viy kills people with one glance and turns cities and villages to ashes; His murderous gaze is covered by thick eyebrows and eyelids that are 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.
HIERARCHY: Viy was considered one of the main servants (Trait). The image of Viy is closely connected with - in his guise as a guide souls of the dead and custodian
SPHERE OF INFLUENCE: He was also considered a judge over the dead. Viy was also considered the sender of nightmares and visions; is also associated with the seasonal death of nature during winter.
Viy, Khud.Orlova
ACTIVITY: In peacetime, he is a jailer in . He holds in his hand a fiery scourge with which he treats sinners.
They also say that Viy, together with, participated in sending the Great Flood to the earth.
IN LITERATURE: - Viya! - the voices of the travelers became like strings: they will disappear, I can’t live here, - that same Viy: Raise my eyelids, I don’t see anything! - The same one about the iron finger. 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. Via will accumulate strength and get down to business again.
A. M. REMIZOV “To the Sea-Ocean”
Lift my eyelids: I can’t see! - Viy said in an underground voice.”, N.V. Gogol “Viy”
IN THE LITERATURE: ... Instantly the door of the hut opens,- and, with the continuous flash of lightning, I see a young knight, in silver armor, girded with a formidable sword. Not even the fierce Niy himself would have shocked my timid heart with his appearance.
V.T. NAREZHNY “Slavic Evenings”
Kasyan looks at everything - everything withers. Kasyan looks at the cattle, the cattle fall; on the tree - the tree dries.
Kasyan on the people - it’s hard for the people; Kasyan on the grass - the grass dries; Kasyan for livestock - the livestock dies. Kasyan squints everything with a sideways...
It is curious that Kasyan is subordinate to the winds, which he keeps behind all sorts of locks.
(137) Found on the Internet and edited for the site.
Viy is a mythological character who is known to literally everyone. Viy became one of the most famous characters mythology, in particular, Ukrainian mythology, after Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809-1852) wrote his immortal work “Viy”. This creature is presented exactly as Gogol showed him, but is this what Viy really looks like and isn’t he a product of the great writer’s imagination?
Researchers of the pagan culture of the Slavs do not find any mention of the name “Viy” in ancient sources. However, a god is mentioned that is similar in sound and essence. We are talking about the god of the underworld, whose name is Niy (corresponding to). Niy, most likely, is related to the ancient Slavic words “” (world of the dead) and “navi” (dead people). Researcher D. Moldavsky puts forward the version that Gogol in his work used later ideas about Niya in folklore. The change in the name Niy to Viy most likely came from a feature of the underground god, namely his long eyelids or eyelashes, which cover his deadly gaze. Here is Ukrainian. viya - eyelash and povika - eyelid over time in the dialect of the inhabitants of Ukraine they replaced Niya with Viya.
As for this character, we should be grateful to Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol for the fact that he left extremely valuable information for us, which, if not for his work, would quite possibly have been erased from the memory of peoples. The most interesting thing about this character, who, as we have already found out, is a fairy-tale prototype of the god of the underworld - Niya-Koshchei, is his deadly eyes and long eyelids, which have to be revealed to the creatures or heroes around him. Although in Gogol’s book Viy’s gaze did not kill at all, but rather removed the effect of the amulets, apparently, in ancient times this gaze was attributed with destructive abilities.
In Russian and Belarusian fairy tales there are descriptions of certain characters associated with evil spirits who kill with their gaze, but their eyelids are so huge and so heavy that they have to be lifted with a pitchfork. We can observe such a character in the fairy tale “Ivan Bykovich,” where the eyebrows and eyelashes are raised with a pitchfork to the witch’s husband. In the fairy tale "Fight on Kalinov Bridge“The mother of the snakes dragged the main character into the dungeon, where her husband, an old man with long eyelashes and thick eyebrows that cover his eyes, lies on an iron bed. The old man calls twelve mighty heroes and orders: “Take an iron pitchfork, raise my eyebrows and black eyelashes, I’ll see what kind of bird he is that killed my sons.” This tale most likely tells about the pagan goddess and her husband Koshchei. Thus, it can be assumed that the ability to kill with a glance was inherent in both Niy and our Koshchei. There is an assumption that it is from this ancient concept, a superstition has appeared, which is known as the “evil eye” - from a black, slanted or ugly eye, an evil look, a sideways glance, and so on, everything perishes and deteriorates.
The era of dual faith proves that Viy (Nii) and Chernobog Koschey are the same god, as well as the fact that both had a deadly look and long eyelids (eyebrows, eyelashes). After baptism, both on the territory of Russia and on the territory of Ukraine, the image of these gods was transferred to one Christian saint - St. Kasyan. It is believed that Kasyan is evil, unkind, stingy, vindictive, unpleasant and dangerous. St. Kasyan's Day is celebrated on February 29 in leap year. Despite the fact that in Christian tradition Kasyan (John Cassian the Roman) is considered a righteous man; in the Slavic tradition he was credited with the role that Chernobog played in pagan times. In all likelihood, this came from the name of a Christian saint, since Kasyan in Russian and Ukrainian is heard as “oblique”, “Ukr: oblique”. A sidelong glance meant a bad look, which could bring misfortune. Russian sayings about Saint Kasyan: “Kasyan looks at everything, everything withers”, “Kasyan mows down everything with a sideways view”, “Kasyan looks at the people - it’s hard for the people”, “Kasyan looks at the grass - the grass withers, at cattle - the cattle dies, at a tree - the tree is drying up" and "The offspring are bad in the year of Kasyanov." There are also beliefs that Kasyan has disproportionately large eyelids that cover his eyes, and if these eyelids are opened, then everything that this saint looks at, whose prototype is the god of the underworld of the dead, immediately dies.
“Lift my eyelids!” excerpt from the 1967 film “Viy”:
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In many, including academic works, the character in Gogol’s story is described completely differently from how Viy looks in the writer’s work. Researchers claim that the author, in the image of the famous monster, united the ancient Roman Niy with the human age, although N.V. Gogol himself wrote that he presented the legend exactly as he heard it.
And the reader believes, because, in addition to this story, he created several more works of a similar genre, in which, in Gogol’s characteristic ironic manner, folk characters are described.
The Wise Veles
This is exactly how this god is called in ancient Slavic myths. He is the ruler of the bodily, organic life of all people and animals. He knows when the body asks for rest for sleep, and when for eternal rest. Veles tirelessly makes sure that everything that is taken from the earth returns there. And at the same time he is not a servant of death. Veles looks completely different from Viy. In the minds of our ancestors, Veles is a man of about 50, strong and ideally built, wise and balanced.
He is a kind of controller of bodily existence, as they put it in the old days, of bestial truth. Veles did not interfere in the mental, much less spiritual, activity of a person. This god did not condemn or punish gluttony, sexual promiscuity, or the killing of animals for entertainment and not for food. He simply removed his protection from the body and this human nature fell into the power of Viy.
Viy. Brief description
What does Viy look like? He is an ugly creature, with many physical defects and vicious spiritual strength. This monster attracts to itself everything musty, bodily depraved and unbridled. Without others, he cannot satisfy his bodily needs, he cannot even lift his eyelids. But he lives a powerful spiritual life. And monster creatures are drawn to him, ready to serve for his spiritual strength. This is exactly what the lady is like. The writer points to this three times in the story: twice with a hint, and the third - in clear text, putting words about this into Thomas’s mouth: “it’s obvious that she’s done a lot of sin in her life, since there’s such evil spirits for it.” And she’s talking about Thomas: “Let Brutus read for three nights. He knows."
Some exact details from the story by N.V. Gogol
Before the lady, three people came to the farm - the rhetorician Tiberius Gorobets, the philosopher Thomas Brutus and the theologian Khalyava. Gogol, as expected, speaks three times about Thomas’s bodily promiscuity. And it is to him that the one who lives “according to Viy” comes. They are similar in the passions that overwhelm them, and therefore are not under the protection of Veles. The lady saddles the philosopher (what a subtle detail!), and he feels the sweetness of flying with the witch on him. But he has his own mental life, which defeats the spell of his own body, and not the charm of the lady, who in this situation is only a means. It's already morning, the roosters have crowed. But Foma kills the lady. And Veles does not protect his body. Viy gets him in Kyiv, in God's institution, through the bodily depravity of the rector.
Viy’s servants and, invisibly, Viy himself constantly walk around Thomas Brutus. The description of the meeting between the philosopher and the centurion is striking in the realistic details. “It’s not like that with me,” says the centurion, “Do you know the leather caps?” "At large quantities this is an unbearable thing." “You won’t get me up.”
This is where the philosopher ended up (what a detail!). That's why he died of fear.
Viy is an evil spirit, and Koschey is an ordinary evil person
Some authors who, without reading the entire work, quote “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and claim in their works that Koschey and Viy are related images. Yes, this is nonsense. The “Word...” specifically states that Gzak, Konchak and Gzak’s father Bonyak are Slavic nomads and koschei, i.e. owners of livestock (in Old Slavonic: bones, koschei). A. S. Pushkin directly points out this: “... he is wasting away over gold. There’s a Russian spirit there, it smells like Russia.” You have to be deaf and blind not to distinguish between what Viy looks like in mythology and what Koschey looks like.
Viy's Habitation
Viy is constantly in the depths, in the bowels of the earth, where the bodies of his servants are warm, humid and endlessly rotting. He has sisters - Villas, who sometimes fly out and prowl over human villages, looking for servants for their terrible brother. They compete with another character in our mythology, the Fire Serpent, for the souls of fallen people.
And it’s not hard to imagine what Viy looks like. The photo of the painting by the artist who presented and painted Viy and his servants is known throughout the world. One can argue with some details, but in general the artist captured the essence of this character correctly. This is decaying flesh, which her powerful but evil soul does not want to return to the earth, that is, it does not submit to the wise Veles.
There is no fight between Veles and Viy
The struggle takes place in human souls. The soul of Thomas Brutus flew away along with the triumphant song of the roosters, who greet the rise of Yaril and the light that he brings to the world. And souls should not return to dead bodies, as was the case with the lady. This contradicts the canons, which are observed by the bestial god Veles.
Thomas returned to the earth what he had so carelessly used in this bright world. And therefore he is remembered by two friends - the philosopher Tiberiy Gorobets and Freebie, who hides drunk in the weeds.
Who is Viy???... July 25th, 2013
Viy - 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
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 “вії” can be translated as “eyelashes,” which is directly related to the hero’s eyes. Another option says that this name comes from the word “to curl” - Viy resembles a plant, is covered with dried earth, and its 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 is the name given to the Little Russians for the chief of the gnomes, whose eyelids go all the way to the ground. This whole story is a folk legend. I didn’t want to change it in any way and I’m telling it almost in the same simplicity as I heard it.”
Indeed, tales with a similar plot are well known in mythology Slavic peoples. But none of them contains a character like Gogol’s Viy. Just as it is not found in any other folklore works.
Slavic mythology, as the most ancient, quite accurately describes Viy’s “device”:
Viy himself has never come and will never come himself, it is dangerous to wake him up and disturb him, and even dark entities do not bother him once again, and it is not only his strength, his appearance, even among the devils, ghouls, ghouls, it causes horror and trembles with fear in front of him...
Viy is a soulless, emotional creature; he has no feelings at all: anger, hatred, anger. Unlike Pannochka, when she, in her rage, anger and hatred of Khoma, shouted: “Call me, Viya!” All the entities she summoned were horrified at how one could awaken ancient god?! But the lady’s order was carried out - Viy came to remove the amulet, the protection where Khoma was hiding, to show the way.
Viy does not move on his own, cannot open his eyelids, instead of arms and legs there are roots covered with earth. The ghouls dragged him and placed him near the circle and opened his “eyelids.” Viy's finger pointed at poor Khoma.
So where did it come from? Slavic mythology and folklore is so strange image Viya?
The main characteristics 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 most ancient and, moreover, the main East Slavic gods of pagan times - Veles (Volos). Until the beginning of the 20th century, the custom persisted after the harvest of leaving a bunch of unharvested ears of grain in the field - “For Veles on his beard.”
There is undoubtedly a kinship between the images of the Slavic Veles-Viy and the Baltic Vels, or Vielona, the God of the Other World and at the same time the Patron of Cattle (cf. the Slavic Veles - the Cattle God).
Vielona, Wels, Lithuanian Velnyas - Lithuanians. vеlnias, velinas
According to the message German author XVII century Einhorn, the month of October was dedicated to Wels - Wälla-Mänes (cf. also Latvian. Velu Mate - “Mother of the Dead”).
The name for the “window” in the swamp is also known: lit. Velnio akis, Latvian. Velna acis - literally: “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 Rus'” in contrast to Perun, the patron saint of the princely squad. In Kyiv, the idol of Perun stood on the mountain, and the idol of Veles on Podol, in the lower part of the city.
In Etruria, in the sacred city of Volsinia, a god was worshiped, whose name is conveyed differently: Velthuna, Vertumna? Velthina, Veltha - “the main deity of Etruria”
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.
Many researchers of Gogol's story have noted the similarity of this mystical character with a destructive gaze with numerous popular beliefs about St. 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 life 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, he was chained and imprisoned for his apostasy.
The angel assigned to him beats the traitor on the forehead with a heavy hammer for three years in a row, and on the fourth he sets him free, and then everything he looks at perishes.
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 lifts them and looks around the world - what if his gaze falls, he dies.
In the Poltava region, Kasyan is represented as a black creature covered with wool, with skin like oak bark. He lives in a cave, covered with earth. On February 29, his huge eyelids are raised by various evil spirits, Kasyan looks around the world, and then people and animals get sick, pestilence and crop failure occur.
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 similar to Gogol’s Viy.
In East Slavic folklore, there are other characters who have characteristics similar to Viy.
So, for example, in the Tale of Ivan Bykovich, recorded famous collector and researcher Slavic folklore Alexander Nikolaevich Afanasyev (1826 - 1871), tells that after the hero defeated three multi-headed monsters (snakes) 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. 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 motif of eyelids raised with a pitchfork (shovel, hooks) is widespread in East Slavic fairy tales. So, for example, in Volyn the sorcerer Mangy Bunyaka, or Scandinous Bonyak, is often mentioned; his eyelids are so long that they can be lifted with a pitchfork.
Sometimes he appears in the form of “a terrible fighter, with his gaze killing people and turning entire cities into ashes, the only happiness is that this murderous gaze is covered by clinging eyelids and thick eyebrows.” In the beliefs of Podolia, he is known as Solodivius Bunio, who destroyed an entire city with a glance; his eyelids also lift like pitchforks.
But, probably, the most important prototype of Viy for Gogol was Judas Iscariot, whose appearance is guessed behind the figure of Gogol’s demon when referring to some apocryphal texts. In these non-canonical writings about the appearance of Judas, shortly before his death, it is reported that his eyelids became huge, grew to incredible sizes, not allowing him to see, and his body became monstrously swollen and heavy.
This apocryphal appearance of Judas (giant eyelids and a heavy, clumsy body) also determined the main features of Viy. Gogol, forcing him to look at Viy Khoma Brutus, who is in spiritual laziness and does not trust in God, shows the careless student his evangelical double.liveinternet.ru/users/bo4kameda/p ost187282834/
