The oldest cults and deities. Paganism is the oldest religion on earth.

Paganism is oldest religion  on the ground. It absorbed thousands of wisdom, knowledge, history and culture. Nowadays, pagans call those who profess the old faith before the emergence of Christianity.

And, for example, the ancient Jews considered pagan religions all beliefs that did not recognize Yahweh, or refused to follow his law. Ancient Roman legions conquered the peoples of the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. At the same time, they were victories over local beliefs. These religions of other nations, "languages" were called pagan. They were granted the right to exist in accordance with the interests of the Roman state. But with the emergence of Christianity and the religion of ancient Rome itself with the cult of Jupiter was recognized as pagan. As for the ancient Russian polytheism, the attitude towards it after the adoption of Christianity was militant. The new religion was contrasted with the former as true - untrue, as useful - harmful. Such a setup excluded tolerance and suggested the eradication of pre-Christian traditions, customs, rituals. Christians did not want their descendants to be signs of the delusion they had hitherto indulged in. Everything that was somehow connected with the Russian beliefs was subjected to persecution: "demonic games", "devilry", magic. There was even an image of an ascetic, a “riot”, who devoted his life not to military exploits on the battlefield, but to the pursuit and destruction of “dark forces”. Such zeal distinguished the new Christians in all countries. But if in Greece or Italy time has saved at least a small number of ancient marble sculptures, then Ancient Russia  stood in the woods. And the tsar-fire, having raged, spared nothing: neither human dwellings, nor temples, nor wooden images of gods, nor information about them, written by Slavic cuts on wooden plates.

And only quiet echoes reached to our days from the depths of the pagan world. And he is beautiful, this world! Among the amazing deities that our ancestors worshiped, there is no repulsive, ugly, disgusting. There are evil, scary, incomprehensible, but much more beautiful, mysterious, kind. Slavic gods were formidable, but fair, kind. Perun hit by lightning villains. Lada patronized lovers. Chur guarded possession boundaries. Veles was the personification of master's wisdom, and was also the patron saint of hunting prey.

The religion of the ancient Slavs was the deification of the forces of nature. The pantheon of gods was associated with the performance of economic functions: agriculture, cattle breeding, boarding, craft, trade, hunting, etc.

And we should not assume that paganism is only idol worship. After all, even Muslims continue to bow to the black stone of the Kaaba - the shrine of Islam. Christians in this capacity are countless crosses, icons and relics of saints. And who believed how much blood was shed and lives given for the release of the Holy Sepulcher in the Crusades? Here is a real Christian idol, along with bloody sacrifices. And to burn incense, to put a candle is the same sacrifice, only taking a good form.

The conventional wisdom about the extremely low level of cultural development of the “barbarians” is not supported by historical facts. Products of ancient Russian stone and wood carvers, tools, jewelry, epics and songs could appear only on the basis of a highly developed cultural tradition. The beliefs of the ancient Slavs were not the "delusion" of our ancestors, reflecting the "primitivism" of their thinking. Polytheism is the religious beliefs of not only the Slavs, but also the majority of nations. It was typical of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, whose culture can not be called barbaric. The beliefs of the ancient Slavs differed little from the beliefs of other nations, and these differences were determined by the specifics of the way of life and economic activity.

At the end of the 80s of the last century, the Soviet government living the last days decided to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Russia. How many welcoming cries were heard: “1000th anniversary of Russian literature!”, “1000th anniversary of Russian culture!”, “1000th anniversary of Russian statehood!” But the Russian state existed even before the adoption of Christianity! No wonder the Scandinavian name of Russia sounds like Gardarik - a country of cities. Arab historians write the same thing, counting hundreds of Russian cities. At the same time claiming that in Byzantium itself there are only five cities, the rest are “fortified fortresses”. And the Arab chronicles called the Russian princes the Khakans, "Khakan-Rus". Hakan is an imperial title! “Ar-Rus is the name of a state, not a nation or a city,” writes an Arabic author. The western chroniclers called the Russian princes "the kings of the Ros people". Only the haughty Byzantium did not recognize the royal dignity of the rulers of Russia, but she did not recognize him either. orthodox kings  Bulgaria, and for the Christian emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, Otto, and for the emir of Muslim Egypt. The inhabitants of Eastern Rome knew only one king - their emperor. But even at the gates of Constantinople, Russian squads nailed their shield. And, by the way, the Persian and Arab chronicles show that the Ruses make "excellent swords" and bring them into the lands of caliphs. That is, the Russians sold not only furs, honey, wax, but also the products of their artisans. And they found demand even in the edge of damask blades. Another export item was chain mail. They were called "beautiful" and "excellent." Technologies, therefore, in pagan Russia were not lower than the world level. Some blades of that era survived to this day. On them are the names of blacksmiths Rus - "Ludot" and "Slavimir." And it is worth paying attention to. So, pagan smiths were literate! This is the level of culture.

Next moment. The calculation of the formula of the world circulation (Kolo) allowed the pagans to build ring-shaped metal shrines, where they created the oldest astronomical calendars. The Slavs determined the duration of the year at 365, 242, 197 days. Accuracy is unique! And in the commentary to the Vedas, the constellations are referred to, attributed by modern astronomy 10,000 years before Christ. According to biblical chronology, not even Adam was created at this time. Cosmic knowledge of the pagans stepped quite far. Evidence of this is the myth of the cosmic whirlwind of Stribog. And this is consistent with the theory of the origin of life on Earth - the panspermia hypothesis. Its essence comes down to the fact that life did not arise on Earth itself, but was brought in a deliberate stream of disputes, from which the diversity of the living world later developed.

It is these facts that are the indicators by which one should judge the level of culture and education of Slavic pagans. And whatever adherents of Orthodoxy assert, but Christianity is an alien, foreign religion, which made its way in Russia with fire and sword. Much has been written about the violent nature of the baptism of Russia, not by militant atheists, but by church historians. And do not assume that the population of the Russian lands meekly accepted the command of Vladimir, the apostate. People refused to come to the bank of the river, left the cities, raised revolts. And the pagans did not lurk in remote forests - even a century later after baptism, the Magi appeared in major cities. And the population did not feel any hostility towards them, and either listened to them with interest (Kiev), or readily followed them (Novgorod and Upper Volga region).

So Christianity could not completely eradicate paganism. People did not accept alien faith and performed pagan rituals. They sacrificed to the waterman — they stoked a horse, or a hive, or a black rooster; leshu - a horse or at least a pancake or egg was left in the forest; to the houseman - they put a bowl with milk, swept the corners with a broom dipped in rooster blood. And they believed that if the sign of the cross or prayer did not help from the annoying evil spirits, then the swearing arising from the pagan spells would help. By the way, two were found in Novgorod birch bark. They contain, at the extreme, the only abusive verb and “affectionate” definition in relation to a certain Novgorod, who owed money to the originator of the letter, and was designated for this by a female nature.

No doubt - for ten centuries, Orthodoxy has had a huge impact on the history, culture, art of Russia, on the very existence of the Russian state. But now Vladimir the Baptist would accept the Catholic faith or Islam, and the current apostles of the “Russian original faith” would shout about “reviving Russian Catholicism ...” or “... Russia is a stronghold of world Islam! ..” sent envoys to the priests of the voodoo cult. And the old faith of the ancient Russians will still remain the Russian faith.

Emil PRITSKY, historian

From early childhood, most of us know the word "cult". For some, it is associated with the names of dictators of the past years, surrounded by universal worship in every life, while for others it brings to mind terrible stories about certain satanic sects that involve the simple-minded citizens. Let us try to understand what a cult is and what lies behind this well-known, but not quite understandable term.

Meaning of the word "cult"

First of all, we note that it comes from the Latin noun cultus, which includes such concepts as "culture, lifestyle, pomp, processing" and a number of others. In the Russian language, its meaning is somewhat narrowed and implies a reverence for something or someone. For example, in front of supernatural powers, personalities endowed with extraordinary qualities, as well as objects or social phenomena.

It is important to take into account that there is not always an equal sign between a cult and a religion. This is because worship and reverence can manifest themselves not only in relation to the beings of the world above. At all times, for example, the cult of money and general consumption was widely developed.

If we consider the concept of a cult from a narrow religious point of view, it will include the service of some chosen deity or the whole pantheon of supernatural beings. In addition, a religious cult is usually associated with the worship of various sacred objects and actions of a magical nature. Depending on the object of worship, all known types of worship can be divided into several groups.

What is a religious cult?

Having mentioned in brief this very common form of cult worship, we will dwell on it in somewhat greater detail, since it occupies a very significant place both in the history of mankind and in its modern life. Suffice it to say that, according to the testimony of scientists, for the entire period of existence of people on Earth there was not a single known science of the people who did not have the concept of a deity and did not worship it.

Both ancient cults and modern religions suggest the presence of higher beings capable of influencing the course of the earthly life of their followers (followers) or their fate after death. In addition, an important place in them is held by the worship of various material objects, according to believers, either bestowed on people by deities, or intended to communicate with them. If in ancient cults these are sacred stones, groves or mountains, in modern religions religious objects are icons, texts. Scripture  and other relics.

What is paganism?

An important place among religious forms of worship is occupied by pagan cults. The objects of worship in them are the gods, personifying the various forces of nature. For example, thunder gods: among the ancient Greeks, Zeus, among the Celts, Taranas, and among the Slavs, the well-known Perun. Or gods of the Sun: Egyptian Ra, Ancient Greek Helios and Slavic Dazhdbog.

You can list for a very long time. The essence of paganism lies in the impact on nature, in which a clergyman (he is called differently by different nations) performs some kind of magical actions - from the most primitive to complex ritual cycles. Along with the worship of the higher forces of nature, paganism also includes communion with lower demons - the spirits of forests and water sources. Among them are the guilty, aquatic, mermaids and so on that we know from childhood. Since in paganism there are many objects of worship, this religion belongs to the category of polytheism, that is, polytheism.

The cult of the deceased ancestors

Continuing the conversation about what a cult is, it is worth mentioning one of its most ancient forms - the tradition of ancestor worship. It is a form of polytheism, that is, polytheism. At certain stages of their development, people believed (and in some cases continue to be considered) that their deceased relatives could in some magical way influence the life of their descendants remaining on earth.

In order to direct this influence to the desired course for themselves, people, honoring their ancestors as gods, developed whole systems of rituals, sometimes even associated with sacrifices. Of course, the overwhelming majority of ancestral forms of worship are ancient cults, found today only among certain peoples of small numbers.

Cults that harm people

In order to more fully illuminate this topic, it is impossible not to recall such an extremely negative phenomenon as a destructive religious cult. As a rule, it means various totalitarian sects, the actions of which cause physical, moral or material harm to their members or society as a whole. It follows that in this case the clergyman commits unlawful, punishable acts. Approaching more broadly the concept of destructive cults, they also include a number of non-religious organizations that threaten people.

What is a personality cult?

This phenomenon, by no means rare in world history. It is based on the inordinate exaltation of a person. As a rule, it is a prominent political figure who is the head of state. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the cult of personality leads to autocracy - the uncontrolled and unlimited sovereignty of one person in the state.

Stories are known numerous examples of how all kinds of outstanding, but sometimes imaginary qualities were attributed to leading statesmen. For example, in conditions of absolute monarchy, kings, kings, emperors, or sultans were practically deified. Indisputable truth was considered the recognition of the monarch or a god, or his representative (anointed) on earth.

However, if the royal or royal throne could belong by right of kinship, then in authoritarian and dictatorial regimes the leaders had to justify their primacy. For this reason, they are usually attributed to the presence of some outstanding qualities that elevate them above the total mass. A significant role in this case was played by their personal charisma, which included the ability to win the favor of the people.

How is the personality cult formed

According to leading sociologists, the very concept of "personality cult" is inextricably linked with certain prerequisites in society. First of all, it is the social immaturity of the majority of its members, the consequence of which is the unwillingness to bear personal responsibility for what is happening and the desire to shift it to a specific carrier of power - our traditional “superiors know better.”

A significant role is played by the low level of critical thinking among the population, which enables the media and cultural figures to successfully manipulate public opinion. These and a number of other factors inevitably lead to the formation of a well-defined, ritualized style of behavior towards a given person and create the basis for the emergence of the cult of his personality.

Examples of creating models of infallible leaders

Such examples can be found in sufficient quantity both in Russian and world history. One of them is the formation of the personality cult of Stalin. As a result of the propaganda unfolded in the country, people so much believed in its infallibility and omnipotence that they did not question any of the decisions taken. The large-scale repressions carried out in the country only contributed to creating an atmosphere of fear and unconditional submission to the leader.

Something similar was observed in Germany. After coming to power, Hitler managed to instill the nation confidence in his messianic destiny. The result, as is known, was the creation of a fascist dictatorial system, and his insane claims to world domination turned out to be inevitable in such cases the collapse of the entire state.

A vivid example of what the personality cult is today is the attitude of North Koreans towards their leader Kim Jong-un. Even with a cursory familiarization, there are all signs of an autocratic form of government, where the lifestyle of an entire people is formed by the will of one person.

The cult of human thought and material wealth

Another form of worship, proclaimed during the years of the French Revolution by Jacques-Rene Ebert and Pierre Gaspard Chomett, is the admiration for the human mind and the fruits of its activities. Representatives of this trend, called the “cult of reason,” rejected religion and recognized only scientifically proven theories. On the basis of this teaching, Marxist-Leninist materialism, well known to people of the older generation, emerged.

And finally, answering the question of what a cult is, one cannot but dwell on this, perhaps the most widespread form in all ages, as the worship of material goods and its related position in society. In this case, the concept of a cult can be interpreted in the direct meaning of this term, since throughout the history of human society, most of its members considered material benefits to be priority over spiritual values. Unfortunately, this universal disease is still incurable, and modernity does not allow to hope for its eradication in the near future.

In the matter of establishing the primitive elements of the Greek religion, we have not gone further than the first attempts. Undoubtedly, Welker had already seen that the religion that comes before us in its finished form in Homer should have been preceded by historical development; and he outlined the whole course of this development with an equally subtle understanding of the peculiarities of the Greek character in particulars, just as the philosophical foundations from which he proceeded were generally false. Welker thought to find the primary seed of the Greek religion in some primitive monotheism, in the cult of Zeus Kronion, as the supreme all-encompassing deity; later the gods of nature were created; with the development of the public, with the transformation of the Greeks from a peasant nation into an aristocratic nation and then into a rich trade people, the gods of nature turned into fully personified national gods with ethical significance, until, finally, the latter were destroyed by the Greeks' natural-philosophical speculation, which became more refined.

All this construction has long been refuted; there is no reason to believe in primitive monotheism; with the sublime idea of ​​Zeus, we meet not at the beginning of religious development, but rather at its final moment; besides, and in general, many historical trends in the Greek religion do not fit the Welker system.

We do not intend to set forth here the history of those opinions that were brought to light by later investigations on the question of the origin of the Greek religion. In general, they agree quite well with the demand of the old researcher K. O. Muller (K. O. Muller) - to look for explanations of this origin in the history of myth; but the story itself is understood quite differently. Comparative mythologists are looking for the basis of ideas about gods and their history in the fact that their names belonging to the primitive Indo-German period reveal to us; they offer natural interpretations of them, partly interesting, but, unfortunately, too contradictory (such an understanding prevails in Max Muller and Preller's “Mythology”). While in this method, due to ignoring the rites of the cult, all the value remains to the myths, already Fustel de Culange indicated family and ancestral cults as the primary elements of the Greek and Roman religion: honoring the home and worshiping ancestors.

Lead Plates with Questions to the Dodonsky Oracle

Some scholars adjacent to the anthropological school of E. Taylor and A. Lang see the first step in the development of both religion in general and Greek religion in particular in views and customs similar to those of wild tribes: in animism, totemism, fetishism, and cult the dead. None of these opinions, taken separately, can serve as a sufficient explanation of the Greek religion. The creation of the Greek religion was attended by both native and foreign elements; but their full and precise distinction will, of course, remain a good desire. Without a doubt, the ancestral cult and totemism, as well as the worship of nature, belong to the national elements of the Greek religion. But to determine separately the degree of participation in the creation of religion, falling to the share of the primitive population of unknown origin, which the Greeks found in Hellas, is as difficult as it is difficult to trace all the Asia Minor, Syrian, Phoenician, Canaan influences, not to mention the Egyptian ones ancient times showed their effect here. The art of the Mycenaean period indicates an ancient connection with the Babylonian culture. The influence of tribal and local conditions joins this. True, the distinction of the individual Greek tribes, namely, Yonian and Doryan, was often exaggerated to the size of a sharp opposition, and the significance of this distinction for the history of religion was undoubtedly also greatly exaggerated. In fact, the Greek gods differ from the Semitic and Egyptian gods in that they were not the patron gods of any particular tribe, but from the very beginning were related to different aspects of human activity. The influence that various districts, especially Thessalian ones, had on cults and myths, took place, of course, long before the historical period; nevertheless, it refers to the time of the settling of the country, which was preceded by the primitive stage of shepherd's and hunting life.

Abduction of Europe by Zeus in the form of a bull

We now give an overview of the most important aspects of the Greek religion, which can be considered primitive. The veneration of nature is found in the images of some gods, although in Homer's time it is in most cases already hidden. There is no doubt that Zeus, the ancient god of the sky, originates from the Indo-German pranaroda, for which he had the significance of supreme power just as for the Mongolian peoples, their god of the sky. In gods such as Poseidon and Hephaestus, Homer's natural element is already obscured by their complete impersonation; nevertheless, their attitude towards the worship of nature still shines through. Several myths and cults in Sparta, Didon and other places point to the belief in a cosmogonic marriage of heaven with earth. We find traces of nature worship not only in the organized cult and in the stories of the gods; in a pronounced or barely disguised form, it is preserved in some other customs and notions.

Of the elements of nature, the worship of water was expressed most directly. The rivers and springs were especially sacred in the eyes of the Greeks; every locality idolized that often small stream that irrigated it: for example, the Eleians worshiped Alpheus. Divine veneration was also bestowed upon the sources; they appeared as nymphs. The muses themselves, who came from Thrace, but later were located on Helikon in Boeotia, were originally such nymphs of sources, although at the same time they were representatives of singing. In Arcadia, along with the nymphs, there existed an ancient local deity of herds and pastures - Pan, who is also a representative of a more ancient stage of religion than the great Olympic gods.

God pan

The cult of ancient times had neither temples nor images; he went to the sacred groves, on the altars under the open sky, or the offerings were just hung in the trees. Thus, in Homer, in whom, at any rate, the worship of great gods is already stated, we find almost only such altars everywhere. But originally objects of nature or the elements were honored directly. There is no doubt that the Greeks retained many sacred stones and logs as objects of worship. Pausania is struck by the multiplicity of traces of such a ministry to the stones, which this observer, even at such a later time, found in remote corners of Greece. He reports many ancient stones. White stones, which both he and those to whom he refers, considered idols, i.e. for images of gods; but we should no doubt regard them as remnants of the fetishistic ministry of stones: these are the thirty sacred stones in Farah, the stone in Tegea, etc. In connection with the subsequent symbolic significance of this ministry, it is known that there were two famous stones on Ares Hill in Athens which during the trial the claimant and the defendant were placed and which therefore were called arrogance stone and stone of shamelessness. In Germah, the beginning of the processing of a wild stone into an image has already been made; examples of simple litolatry still came across in historical times, as we, by the way, conclude on the basis of one of the descriptions of the characters of Theophrastus. In addition to the stones, there were also other objects that turned out to be fetishistic veneration: such were the roughly hewn wooden logs, which, however, were considered to have fallen from the sky; besides, it is hardly possible to draw the line between the fetish and the idol in the palladium - the ancient images guarding the cities; then we meet the commemoration of wooden sticks and wooden boards: the so-called scepter of Agamemnon in Geronei, the image of Hera in Argos.

Greek vase with a letter from Prat

Speaking of the cult of trees among the Greeks, we mean not the deities who were representatives of the tree fruits and the harvest, not the rites of the celebratory cult, which were based on the growth of bread, winemaking and the care of fruit trees, and not the idolization of vegetation, which was imported into Greece from the outside, along with the ministry of Adonis. Here we exclusively refer to the oldest worship of sacred plants and trees. This includes primarily the idea of ​​the nymphs of trees: dryads, hamadryads, small people who live in sacred oaks, cypresses, ash trees and other trees and who die with the death of the tree; hence the fear of cutting down such trees, several examples of which are given by Pausanius. The trees that were included in the myths or associated with the cult ceremonies, originally, no doubt, were sacred in themselves, regardless of this connection: such are the palm tree on Delos, for which Leto was grasped at the birth of Apollo and Artemis; a laurel tree in the Tempe Valley, from which wreaths were taken for the winners at the Pythian games; the sacred tree in Rhodes, which was later associated with the name of Helena.

Of the main gods, the heritage of the ancient cult of trees passed in particular to Artemis and Dionysus. Images of Artemis were often hung in the trees; Dionysus' bearded masks were placed on sukaty tree trunks. On the contrary, it is impossible to derive any undoubted indication of the ancient cult of trees from the fact that certain types of trees were specifically dedicated to individual deities: for example, the oak tree was dedicated to Zeus, the olive tree to Athena.

Even more clearly dendrolatriya was found in the Greek religion, the cult of animals. Of course, in historical times, cases where caring for sacred animals and offering them sacrifices are among the exceptional. As a matter of fact, such a phenomenon took place only in relation to snakes, which were attached to the service of various gods, for example Asclepius, and in which, as they thought, the souls of heroes were mostly settled. We know of several such serpent cults: the Salamis serpent in the service of Demeter in Eleusis; a snake guardian in the Acropolis of Athens, which received a honey cake every month; the serpent, which was hailed as the demon patron of Elida in Olympia, and so on. In addition to these scant remains of the animal cult, there are very many of its traces in myths and rites. In any case, it is not possible here to immediately conclude that there is an ancient animal cult, as soon as one of them is mentioned. Relationships that are in each given case are not always clear: with respect to some animals, one can doubt whether they were really original objects of the cult, some kind of deities (totems), or were they considered simply as having a prophetic meaning, for example, wolves and birds; or they were dedicated to the gods as symbols, for the sake of any one attribute, as, for example, especially prolific animals were dedicated to Aphrodite. Nevertheless, it is known with certainty that in cases where animals were dedicated to individual deities, this was combined with remnants of ancient veneration of animals. Sometimes a new god, instead of completely supplanting the former, animal god, simply placed him with him: hence the mouse in the temple of Apollo of Stenfeis and the owl as an attribute of Athena. In some cases, the deity kept the signs of an animal or retained half of its appearance: for example, Dionysus was depicted either entirely as a bull, or at least with bull horns, Demeter - with a horse mane. But in Greek mythology, there is no other such outstanding feature as the idea of ​​gods temporarily adopting the appearance of animals; thus, Zeus approached his lovers in all sorts of forms: either in the form of a bull, or in the form of a swan; once even he turned into an ant. Apollo was less likely to turn, but he, in the form of a dolphin, showed the Cretan sailors the road to Delphi. Dionysus also turned into a lion in order to punish the Tyrrhenian tyrants. The stories about the gods in the image of animals are joined by more stories about many people who have undergone the same transformations. Thus, the naive miftographer (Antonin Liberalis) and the frivolous poet (Ovidiy) of a later time could state the whole mythology in terms of transformations.

Snake as a genius of the place; she is offered an egg and bread on the altar.

(Wall painting in Herculane)

Nowhere do the Greek representations reveal their affinity with the representations of wild tribes to the same extent as in these stories, in which gods are only great wizards and there is almost no boundary between God, man and animal.

Already from the cult of animals, we learn that the Greeks had the worship of underground forces. The role played by the serpent, especially in the Boothic cult, can only be explained by the fact that this animal hiding in underground burrows is in connection with creatures living in the interior of the earth: the above mentioned feeding of sacred snakes of every kind of food, even such which snakes do not eat, but which, like honey, were usually brought to chthonic deities, with certainty that this meant not the feeding of the animal, but something else. In ancient Greece, we find in action two kinds of worship addressed to underground creatures: the attitude towards the souls of the dead and to the chthonic gods. Regarding the first, we have several direct indications. First, we find them in the graves of the ancient capitals of the Mycenaean period, as excavations have discovered, then also in the cult of a later time. The Athenians had a feast dedicated to all the dead: this is the day of the jars during the Anfesteriya in February; On this day, they generally tried to appease the shadows. On such days, the dead left their underground dwellings and roamed the earth; a lot of effort was put into keeping terrible shadows in the distance: the door-posts were smeared with barb, the hawthorn leaves were chewed; the family made offerings and sacred libations to their dead. You can get an idea of ​​the gifts that were delivered to the dead from Homer, where the solemn burial of Patroclus and Achilles is described; we see from the description that we did not neglect bloody and even human sacrifices. Solon fought against such sacrifices, for example, he forbade slaughtering a bull at his grave; but this custom, despite the prohibition, held on for a long time. Nevertheless, it is more than doubtful that such an attitude towards the dead could be called a cult of the dead in the true sense of the word. Obviously, here we are dealing not so much with invoking the dead, as with the care of them - a habit that exists in all primitive peoples, and with precautionary rules, due to the usual belief in ghosts; the Greek calls it the aversion of the wrath of the dead.

On the contrary, the relation to chthonic deities is a real cult.

Demeter

It is indisputable that the Greeks worshiped the land was very ancient. First of all, the rites of the chthonic cult so clearly resemble the forms of worship of the same kind of beings in other Aryan religions, that it is impossible to consider its foundations as primitive, common, Indo-German heritage. Even the specifically Greek form of chthonic cults bears signs of deep antiquity; they are more than other cults tied to a particular place; Gifts that were made at their departure, water with honey, and primitive porridge - indicate a time when wine and baked bread were not yet known; the use of sacred rites of new discoveries, such as oil, was avoided. Further, the close relationship that exists between the chthonic gods and the vegetation, in the particular case of field vegetation, is important; This connection indicates the initial living conditions of the Greeks engaged in agriculture. Thus, in Hesiod, it is recommended that the villager pray to chthonic Zeus. Further examples of the same are presented by the fact that Hades is called Pluto, that is, the bearer of wealth, or abundance, and that the ancient Gaia living under the earth is also considered the master of plants; but the most important thing is, of course, the myth of Demeter: in it both mother-earth and the queen of the dead, Persephone, appear as the main figures in the presentation of the annual course of natural phenomena and agricultural culture.

Next to this beneficent side of the nature of the underground gods, there was an awesome one, conditioned by their activity as the gods of death. It is not only the gloomy Fanatos who personifies death, who drinks the blood of the victim in his grave, is frightened; Hades and his companions Cyclops also arrange a disgusting feast from the body of the deceased, after which only the bones remain. "This is the depth of the earth itself, the gaping jaws of which consume the dead," says Dietrich. As the sacred remnants of this original crude view of power the underworld There were terrifying images and scary masks of many chthonic deities. Cerberus itself is originally nothing more than a devouring monster of depth, itself devouring the depth of the earth, in the form of a terrible dog. The cruelty of the death-slayer is associated with the idea of ​​the severity of the avenging and punishing forces of death; so Erinias, the chthonic spirits who lived under the earth, who represented, undoubtedly, the angry soul of the murdered, developed into avengers for grave crimes in general. When Erinius is invoked, they strike the ground; the same action is used in the administration of most other chthonic cults. This also explains that underground gods are also appealed for atonement for spilled blood. The seeker of redemption must sit on the ground, and the red wool, with which he ties his neck and arms, symbolizes that he is under the authority of the underground forces who love the color of blood.

It is impossible to determine what was the original relationship between the care of the souls of the dead and the chthonic cult; numerous similarities in the sacrificial gifts and places of offerings point to the original connection; but to solve the question of what preceded, the more difficult that both categories of rituals had a completely different fate. The sacrifices of the dead were subject to change over time, since reverence for the dead is always a living, renewed feeling with each generation. Not only did new types of gifts join: wine and oil, but also the most funeral rites developed with the growth of humanity; human sacrifices and in general the bloody gifts receded into the background, and in the end all external actions were gradually reduced to figurative celebration in the form of grave relief images, etc. On the contrary, the chthonic cult, always regarded as intercourse with ancient deities, stubbornly retained ancient forms and therefore gives the impression of a more original one.

In historical time there is a clear distinction between the two categories of rites. Sacrifices to chthonic deities had the character of atoning sacrifices; they were signs of resigned submission and fear of seeking mercy. The sacrifice to the deities of the earth — whether this sacrifice was made up of people or animals — was brought that could serve to appease them, and not to invite them to dinner. Therefore, such sacrifices were made at night, in deep silence and with strict silence. The purpose of the sacrifices of the dead was, on the contrary, to give pleasure to the sacrificial gift itself, and therefore these sacrifices were generally more joyful in nature, although living people received as little from them as they did from chthonic sacrifices. Sacrifices to the dead were made during the day. Smaller differences, such as the fact that male animals were sacrificed to the deities of the earth, and that the female animals were castrated or neutered, that the cult of the dead was associated with black, and the chthonic with red, have only that interest for our purpose, that of these differences we can infer some initial distinction.

But attitudes of the cult to the land and to the dead are not exhausted. Even in later Greece, we find traces of veneration of ancestors.

It is known that among the Greek social divisions there were “clans” who recognized or at least imagined themselves bound by blood kinship; they were united directly in the worship of one ancestor, whose name was called the clan, - probably this establishment goes back to the real cult of the ancestor.

Gzhata

The sanctity that cities attributed to their founders, the phylums to their old chiefs, the care with which their bones were preserved as guard relics and carried with them during their travels — all this can be called ancestral worship, which has come down to the level of a real cult. This is one of the forms of the cult of heroes, one of the most common and most important cults in Greece. In the cult of heroes there are also some primitive elements, and above all, insofar as it, having arisen from the veneration of ancestors, can be defined as the developed cult of the dead. In this sense, the hero was the spirit, or soul, of some substitute person. According to Greek psychology, the life of the soul does not cease with the death of the body; a person in his essential features remains in the same state in which he was at the moment of death; on this basis and in the grave, he still needs to be watered and fed (by means of offerings); therefore, the grave is arranged like a dwelling and the dead are given the tools and weapons necessary for life, sometimes even domestic animals and servants. However, this primitive belief in immortality was among the Greek tribes very aristocratic. Constant continuation of the life of the soul got to the lot only to those who could be called a man in the full sense of the word. But those were only the chosen people, especially the brave and famous. This distinction can be seen already from the tombstones of the Mycenaean period: while ordinary mortals had to be content with tombs designed only for short-term existence, the domed tombs of princes and noble persons survived to our time and testify to us of the luxury with which they were erected.

The interior of the temple of Zeus at Olympia with the image of Zeus by Phidias

The heroes, who at the primitive stage of development are almost identified with ancestors, were granted a real cult, and, moreover, a cult home and everyday: "Honoring the ancestors was closely associated with the central sacred point inside the house, with the home hearth. Ancestral spirits were also present at the family dinner. Second gift belongs to the heroes: the heroes belong to the crumbs falling to the ground, just as, according to the German view, they are taken to the souls of the poor "(Uzener). Thus, the hero lived in the house: under the threshold, in a furnace or somewhere else; but the real place of worship was the grave, as we saw it in Mycenae, where the altar stood at the royal tombs in the acropolis.

But the hero is not only an ornate man: a noble person, or a brave man, or, according to later custom, any dead person; in heroic traditions and in the cult of heroes, images of ancient gods and ancient traditions of the cult continue their lives; heroes such as Perseus, Theseus, Odysseus, Oedipus, cannot be regarded as dead rulers, but should be understood in the sense of images of local gods.

The word "hero" among the Greeks is extremely significant. Undoubtedly, in the cult of heroes one can also indicate primitive elements of various kinds, but one should not, however, together with Rode, deduce the whole cult of heroes from the cult of the dead and refer it to the original Greek religion. The Deneken took better account of the versatility of these phenomena and their later components.

It is impossible to set forth the true history of the individual Greek gods; but when in these so complex mythological images we look for the primitive, we find it not in the initial unity of ideas and meanings, as was thought before, but in various separate elements that were later connected. This ratio in modern times was especially explained by Uzener. According to him, the ancient European religions originate from the worship of purely random deities, the gods of a particular event or moment, which had meaning only for one particular process, or sometimes for a particular fact of nature or human life. This stage in the development of worship of gods has been preserved in the Roman religion with its indigamental deities, despite the high culture of the Romans. An unexpected conclusion of a more in-depth study was that, in the most ancient, accessible to our gaze, times, the Greeks stood at the very same indigitive stage of development. Traces of this we find everywhere. Countless individual gods exist for the process of growth in nature and for the successful growth of field bread: these are the goddesses Damia and Auxesia mentioned by Herodotus, whose images were made by the inhabitants of Epidaurus from the ancient olive tree according to the instructions of the Delphic oracle to eliminate the country's infertility. The analogy of this pair of goddesses was represented in Attica Aukso and Hegemon; Fallot or Falia and Karpo honored the Athenians as vegetative and ripening goddesses. Pandroza, the goddess of spring rain, and Gersa, the goddess of dew, existed later, along with Aglaya, or Aglaura, the goddess of sunlight, or the clear sky, whose temple was in Athens. Other Athenian cult gods are: Erechtheus (the breaker of the clumps of earth), the ancient god of the plow, and Triptolemus, who was the god of the third, or triple plowing; Kekrons, brother of Erehei, god of the harvest; the altar of Butes, the shepherd of the cows, was in the Erechtheion; his mother, Euksippa, was a goddess who harnessed horses; Opaon, which promoted the ripening of grapes, and Maleat, the god of apples, are good examples of fruit gods. The fecundity of people has famous divine patrons: Calligenia, even Iphigenia herself, as well as Eulefia, is the patroness of birth; Curotrofa, whose name passed to Gea, Demeter, Artemis, Aphrodite and other goddesses, is the first teacher. Her image of a child in her arms, which we find in the catacombs, is one of the prototypes of Madonna.

Formerly Apollo and Asclepius, there existed healing gods: the physician Yatros, the purifier Pean, Yazos and Jazon, the Thessalian god Chiron; Recall also the Athenian goddess Gigieyuyu, whose name is so transparent. The welfare of the city was dominated by deities with equally clear names, such as Sozipolis, Ortopolis, Sozon, etc.

As independent, active gods, these deities mostly disappeared, but their names have been preserved, and some of them sound like completely familiar to us - either as special names, like Kharits and Gory, or as epithets of the main gods, or as heroes, or centaurs. Indeed, we can even trace the process by which they reached this position.

Just as in the language known words are distinguished from the variegated mass of individual specific names and are made by the general designations of whole groups of phenomena, similarly known deities were singled out from various gods of a particular case or moment and were included in common usage in a tribe, in a state, in a country. But this growth of the dominant gods occurred only at the expense of other deities that preceded them; the stronger will devour the weakest, and we find only traces of the existence of the latter, either in nicknames, epithets, etc., which were attached to the victorious god, or in places of worship in which the defeated were honored. Thus, the main gods of the Greeks are actually complexes of gods; these complexes were either created by combining the gods under one name, or grew up, grouped around the meaning of this name. What circumstance the victorious god could owe his happiness to, cannot be expressed in one word. The assumption of Uzener that the victor, whose name, which was at first his own name, became obscure, has an analogy in the history of religions, but also local, hierarchical or political movements, naturally, also played a decisive role in this development. One example of many could serve as Zeus Lickey: Lycos, the ancient god of light in Attica, Boeotia and Arkady, the patron of the courts, whose name was also called the gymnasium, in the process of historical movement meets the great god of light and the judge; he could not exist next to him; he was swallowed up by Zeus or they began to look at him as if he were Zeus; as a result, Zeus Lycian; by exactly the same meeting between Lykos and Apollo, Apollo the Lycian.

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Introduction

We do not mention the recently published essay by an unknown author, entitled: “The History of Religions and Secret Religious Societies of the Ancient and New World”, which until now has set out the history of the religions of India and China - as because this history of religions does not have a scientific, especially of a theological nature, and because it presents more of the domestic and external aspects of religious beliefs, with little regard to the dogmatic and philosophical side of the issue, and does not represent an integral, meaningful view of ancient religions.