Читать книгу Secrets of the ancient Aries. Digest of articles - - Страница 6

Even in the era of Paleolithic proto-farming, people already clearly realized that the straw burnt in the fields, remaining after grain collection, increased soil fertility.

This is probably the very source, the starting point from which the widespread straw cult subsequently grew. On straw (in the Russian folk tradition): they gave birth to children, danced on Christmastide and Shrovetide, the bride had to stand in front of the crown, washed, washed the dead, laid them on the table for Christmas and only after that they laid the table with an abusive tabletop, and it was supposed to die on the straw. Sheaves of straw and a straw effigy that were burned on Shrovetide, in this context, were symbols of fertility, happiness, abundance – the very «dead body» of last year’s harvest, which was given to the elements of fire and, having turned into soot and ashes, gave rise to new life, a new harvest.

And since in the Paleolithic antiquity, the collection, storage and processing of grain «were occupied by women -" girls, young men», and the earth itself was associated with the image of a woman -" Mother Earth "– there is nothing surprising in the fact that the Maslenitsa straw effigy was given female features. And this rite does not at all testify to the «bestial manners» of our ancestors, as some modern «intellectuals» claim, being horrified at the burning of a scarecrow and believing that its place before, before the adoption of Christianity, was occupied by a living woman, during the burning of which everyone around her people sang, danced and rejoiced.

Such a terrible picture could only be born in a very sick imagination. Indeed, even during the numerous auto-da-fe (burning of heretics) in Christian Western Europe, there was nothing like this (songs, dances and violent fun).

During Shrovetide, participants in the ritual sprinkled ashes and soot from a fire on each other and even on the floor in the huts, thus joining in fertility, abundance, happiness, wealth.

And here’s what’s interesting. In the ritual songs of Christmas fortune-telling (submarine songs), we meet the image of the Owl precisely in connection with smoke, ash, soot or a hole in the barn through which the sheaves were transmitted. So in a sublime song (recorded by P. V. Shein at the end of the 19th century), predicting poverty and widowhood, it says:

«Sitting owl

Over the boot.

Wonderful or lyadu!

Who sang

Good for that!».

But almost the same song foreshadowed the wedding:

«And the owl sits

Before the dry

The falcon has arrived

He tore off the crest!».

Here «sapushka, sopuha» is:

1) an air vent near the stove;

2) soot in the pipe;

3) a carved hole in the wall, which throws hay;

4) smoke in a chicken house.

And, what is no less interesting, «sipukha» is the North Russian dialect name of the owl itself.

Among the songs foreshadowing death, one of the attributes is the barn (or threshing floor):

«A woman sits on a barn

The canvas tears.

Ilea, Ilea!».

Or:

«I walk around the humenets

I lay a towel.

Holy evening!».

In turn, the girls complain in sacred songs that they are forced to «ram the sheepskin» or «threshing floor» (Notes of P. V. Shein in the Oryol and Simbirsk provinces).

Where does such a more than strange attitude to the barn (threshing floor) come from and what does it have in common with the stove (soot, ash, ash) and, ultimately, with the owl?

Let us turn for the answer, first of all, to the «East Slavic Ethnography» by D. K. Zelenin, which says that: «In the swamps and forests where the North Russians and Belarusians live, the drying of the sheaves in the barn is still preserved, although now this is rarely done. Until the beginning of the 20th century, barns existed here everywhere, and only the widespread use of threshers led to their rapid disappearance… The simplest variety of barn for drying sheaves is called Shish… A real barn… it’s a rough log building. According to popular beliefs, in the pit of the barn lives the barn or the barn, the barn’s father. His appearance is uncertain».

It is worth emphasizing that the archaic form of Shisha is a cone made of poles or logs, under which a hole is dug, where a fire is made to dry the sheaves, and extremely resembles the shape of a grave mound, mound or pyramid.

B. A. Rybakov noted that the Northern Russian barn is a place of the cult of fire – Svarozhich, which in various forms survived until the beginning of the 20th century everywhere.

«Fire Svarozhitsu pray.» Fire is called «god», «holy fire»; while blowing up the fire, prayers were recited. The fire is transferred from the old dwelling to the new… «We honor fire as a god,» said the inhabitants of Podolia. Ancient sources speak of the cult of Svarozhich under the barn, where a fire should burn, drying the sheaves. The Belarusians, making a fire under the barn, threw an unmilled sheaf of rye at it as a sacrifice to the fire.» In one of the sermons of the 12—13th century those who pray «fire under the barn» are sharply condemned. Very often, the «barn» (or Ovinnitsa) was perceived in the early 20th century as a spirit of fire. It should be noted that in the Vilnius province the Belarusians washed in barns, and in the Russian provinces they gave birth in barns. The barn was also directly related to the wedding ceremony. So there is evidence that on the first day of the wedding they drank beer in the barn. Then, during the wedding, the bride’s parents «drank the barn.» And, finally, at the end of the wedding, the ceremony of «pouring the barn» was performed, when a fire was lit in the barn, shouted «fire» and ran to fill the fire with beer (information of L. A. Tultseva).

The deceased was brought to the barn to be put on straw (wheat or pea). The idea that the souls of the dead (navi) leave bird tracks was widespread until the early 20th century. Therefore, on Thursday of Holy Week, in the bathhouse or barn (which served as a bathhouse), the floor was sprinkled with ashes so that the «navi» left a bird trail. In Bulgarian folklore, the «navi» have left a trail of birds. In Bulgarian folklore, «navi» are the birdlike souls of the dead, flying at night and frightening with their cry. But mostly only owls and eagle owls fly at night, i.e. representatives of one family.

In the folk tradition, there were special holidays in which it was forbidden to heat Riga.

They were called «the name of the barn.»

These included:

Exaltation (September 14),

Thekla Zarevnitsa day (September 24),

Feast of the Most Holy Theotokos (October 1).

It is interesting that at the end of the threshing process, pancakes are baked, brought to the barn and put on the oven there. Pancakes, as you know, in the Russian folk tradition are associated with the cult of ancestors and the moon – «the sun of the dead», and in the archaic version they are unleavened cakes baked on hot stones in ancient hearths.

Ovinnik (or barn) seemed to our peasants the most powerful of all the spirits around them -«experienced owners begin to drown the barn in no other way than by asking the “ owner ” for permission. When the last sheaf is removed, they turn to the barn with their faces and with a low bow they thank the barn». And, finally, «barns», like baths, are a favorite place for girls’ fortune-telling. They come here on Vasilyev’s evening, at midnight, between the second and third roosters (the most convenient for conspiracies).»

Earlier, grain pits were used as warehouses for communal grain, which were arranged in the threshing floor. Ovin (or threshing floor, riga) is a place where grain was dried and stored.

And where grain is stored, mice will appear. And where mice appear, owls appear. And in this case, owls are welcome guests.

The owl that flew to the granary is still a gift for the farmer today. She saves the crop by killing the mice. No cat can compare to an owl here. In general, even in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the attitude towards the barn and the owl in the Russian folk tradition was special.

And here are some examples.It was believed that if an owl flies into a village, sits under the roof of a house and screams, then a big fire will happen in this house, or even in the whole village.

But at the same time, the owl screams to the newborn.

A. V. Gura in his work «Symbols of animals in the Slavic folk tradition» noted that «in the Owl they see the embodiment of the devil… According to the ideas of the Poles and Serbs, witches often turn into Owl. Poles have a belief that an owl is dead during the day and only comes to life in the dark. Everywhere, by its appearance near the house, the Owl portends death… There are known beliefs about the Owl as the embodiment of the soul of the deceased…

With its cry, the Owl cries out the souls of the dead (among the Poles), lures children out of the house and deprives them of life (among the Serbs). The owls guarding the treasures are the souls of the longtime owners of buried treasures (among the Poles).»

But with all this, «the scream of an owl is also perceived as a prediction of the birth of a child… The image of the newborn in connection with Sova appears in some Belarusian reaping songs in which women urge each other to catch the Owl in life. «An owl appears as a celibate, widow, or dissolute (unfaithful wife, promiscuous girl).» And here it makes sense to recall Lilith – Ishtar – Astarte – the Goddess Owl of ancient Sumer (2 thousand BC).

«Cry of the Owl and some subtle songs about the Owl, writes A.V. Gura – promise the birth of an illegitimate child from a widow or a girl. The Belarusian abusive expression «Smaked Sava» is addressed to the girl who gave birth before marriage… The Russians called the owl a «dissolute» inn «woman».

The image of the Owl develops erotic symbolism. In Polish riddles, the Owl is directly related to the female genital organ. Marriage and erotic symbolism is inherent in the image of the Owl in the wedding ceremony. For example, in Ukrainian songs performed before the wedding night, the Owl symbolizes the bride. «And, finally, «as a talisman for the people of the city, the Owl is nailed to the door of a house to ward off illness and misfortune. For Poles – to the gates of the barn, to frighten mice, for Ukrainians they hang Owl in the stable so that the brownie does not torture the horses».

And how can you not remember the «Owl-Mother-in-law», which herded horses in the Vologda ritual song:

Turu-turu, shepherd, do you sound far off?

From sea to sea, to Keyeva town

There is our homeland, in the homeland there is an oak tree,

An owl is on the oak, an owl is my mother-in-law, she grazed horses.

And further. «The owl has extraordinary properties. If the heart of this bird is put together with the left leg or at least one claw on a soundly sleeping person, he will immediately tell what he thinks to do in the future, and will reveal all his innermost secrets».

Researchers of the «owl question» also note the following about the Owl: «Since she is afraid of daylight and flies out only at dusk or at night, lives mainly in old or destroyed buildings, she is credited with demonic significance… takes the form of an owl (here it is appropriate to recall the Russian: «I went to the devil’s grandmother!»)…

An owl feather is worn by people who roam at night and want to get rid of the fear of darkness. Obviously, the owl was once a symbol of the ability not to feel fear and move freely even in the dark, that is, to be initiated into the secrets usually hidden for mortals».

For all the vices and virtues attributed to the patriarchal Sowa, in the Vologda and Vladimir ritual songs that survived until the 80s and 90s of the 20th century, she appears before us as:

«Owl – Mother-in-law», that is, the Foremother;

«Lady of the Horses», that is, the Great Mother Goddess of Indo-European peoples;

«Little telly motley», that is, Mother Earth of Indo-Iranians (Aryans).

B. A. Rybakov in «The Paganism of the Ancient Slavs» speaks of the essence of the worldview of primitive farmers «in the form of the formula: grain + earth + rain = harvest and the reflection of all links of this formula by means of a female figure… Woman and earth are compared and equalized on the basis of the ancient idea of fertility, fertility… supposed to sculpt a female figurine, then grain and flour were added to the soft clay, merging the agrarian and female principles».

Draga Garashina, and after her Maria Gimbutas, expressed the idea that in the Eneolithic figurines (such as the clay goddesses of Tripoli), the Great Bird Goddess appears before us. B. A. Rybakov writes the following about this: «one should warn against some insufficiently substantiated propositions of M. Gimbutas. These include, first of all, the hypothesis of the great Bird – Goddess. The author often relies on the primitive stylization of sculptures, but the avian features attributed to them do not seem convincing. Perhaps a retrospective analysis should also be applied: from the later winged sirens – Sirins, to go deeper into the origins of this image».

Our North Russian ritual song about «Owl-Mother-in-law», recorded by A. M. Mehnetsov in 1974 in the Vologda Oblast, seems to have put an end to this discussion. The favorite plot of M. Gimbutas was confirmed.

But to talk about where, the origins of this image, should be based not only on the Neolithic images of women with owl heads found in the Russian North (6—4 millennia BC), and Trypillian owl-headed goddesses of the Eneolithic (4- 3 millennium BC). We will have to descend into those depths of millennia when agriculture was born on the territory of the Russian Plain (and the Russian North, in particular).

50 – 48 millennia BC is the beginning of the warm Mologo-Sheksninsky interglacial. As the atlas monograph «Paleogeography of Europe for the Last Hundred Thousand Years» (1982) and «Paleolithic of the USSR» (1984) testify, this was a time when in the territory of most of Western Europe it sharply became colder. The Wurme (Valdai) glaciation led to the prevalence of the tundra with birch-spruce woodlands on these vast expanses. But unlike Western Europe and Siberia, the territory of Eastern Europe was warm. And this warm Mologo-Sheksninsky interglacial period lasted, with small intervals, almost 27 thousand years – up to 23 millennium BC.

For those who find this unbelievable, I advise you to refer to the «Paleolithic of the USSR» (Publishing House «Science») published in 1984 in the series «Archeology of the USSR» Here on page 30 is placed «Comparison of the development patterns of the natural process of the Valdai (Wurm) time of Western Europe (A), Eastern Europe (B) and Siberia (C).

Authors write: «The relatively mild climatic conditions of the Molo-Sheksna interglacial allowed the population to spread widely throughout the Russian Plain, up to the Urals and the Pechora basin… In the north-east of Europe, which includes the vast expanses of the Volga and Ural regions, outstanding monuments of the early Paleolithic period have been found over the last mountains, and a turning point towards intensifying the work on their study. Certain areas of the Russian Plain (northwest) in the Molo-Sheksna time may not have been inhabited. It should be emphasized that from the south to the north of the Russian Plain, during the formation and development of the Upper Paleolithic, it was not nomadic hunters who moved, but the sedentary tribes who built long-term dwellings of various types, leading complex household activities based on hunting and gathering… The main object of hunting for the population of the southwest of the Russian Plain in the Molo-Sheksna period was the horse… Hunting for herds of horses and reindeer required the improvement of throwing weapons and, perhaps, at such an early time led to the invention of the bow and arrows».

By this time, such archaeological sites as: Byzovaya (northeast of Europe, Pechora region, right bank of the Pechora River), Sungir (near Vladimir), Bear Cave (upper reaches of the Pechora River, foothills of the Northern Urals), Ostrovskaya (500 km to the south Bear Caves), Kapovaya Cave with wall cave painting (upper reaches of the Belaya River, mountainous region of the Southern Urals), and, of course, Kostenki on the Don River.

Archaeologists note that they all belong to the period of the Molo-Sheksna interglacial period, which lasted practically from 50—48 millennia BC. up to 24—23 millennia BC).

«Kostenkovo-Streletskaya culture of the early period of the Late Paleolithic, leading its beginning from the Mousterian era» (which ends with the end of the Mikulinsky interglacial), reached by the beginning of the Ostashkovsky glaciation (24—23 millennia BC) «an amazingly high degree of development, not inferior to in many respects to later archaeological cultures.»

Thus: «Achievements of the material and spiritual culture of the population of Eastern Europe during the Molo-Sheksna interglacial period underlie, in turn, the highest flowering of the late Paleolithic culture of this region, which took place in the early period of the Ostashkov glaciation.»

Archeology confirms that by the beginning of the cold snap, vast settlements existed in the center and north of the Russian Plain, which «testify to the complex domestic and economic activities, the high level of culture, reflected not only in numerous remarkable works of art, but also in a highly developed and varied homebuilding technique. These monuments allow us to draw a definite conclusion about the significant population of the preglacial zone of the Ostashkov glacier at a time when the climate became more severe. The population led a sedentary lifestyle and provided itself with stocks of vital resources for the winter.»

Archaeologists speak of «long ground dwellings with hearths in the center, surrounded by small dugouts in combination with storage pits.» In these «strong and long-term dwellings of the population of the Russian Plain» there are a large number of «grater pestles and real grain-grinding slabs of granite, quartzite and Shoksha sandstone. Cooking plant foods in ordinary ways, similar to those used in agricultural crops, in the Paleolithic is a rather rare phenomenon, but not exclusive».

The authors of «Paleolithic USSR» emphasize that «Finds of pestles-blackfishes are known in the Late Paleolithic monuments of other regions, but, perhaps, only in the south-west of the Russian Plain, they are found in such quantities, starting from the Mousterian industries and passing like a red thread through almost all the different cultural and different times of the Late Paleolithic industries».

They testify that: «In recent decades, important data have been obtained that already in the Middle and especially in the Late Paleolithic (recall that this is the ancient Stone Age from 70 thousand BC to 12 thousand BC) forms of complicated gathering began to be widely used related to the processing and preparation of plant foods. Primitive archeology now possesses massive and indisputable materials proving a long prehistory of agriculture, which began at least from the end of the Middle Paleolithic era. In the south-west of the Russian Plain, for three or four tens of millennia, peculiar stone, sandstone pestles-grains in the form of small tablets, usually found together with stone slabs, developed and improved… The wide distribution of these tools indicates that the emergence of agriculture is preceded by various forms developed, complicated gathering associated with the preliminary complex processing of the collected plant food in the form of edible roots and grains».

40—50, and maybe 70 thousand years ago, the population of the Russian Plain (our ancestors, by the way) collected cereals and ground them with grater pestles on stone graters, getting flour. Then the question arises – what were these cereals? The answer is given by the atlas-monograph «Paleogeography of Europe over the last hundred thousand years», where on the territory of the Russian Plain, during the Valdai glaciation, along with forests of birch, pine and spruce, stretching from the Carpathians to the Middle Pechora along the south-west-north east, there are huge meadow grass steppes stretching far to the north. It must be assumed that the grasses in these steppes were endemic to these latitudes, which require 18—20 hours of indirect solar irradiation and an abundance of moisture in the soil for normal vegetation. Such «plants of long daylight hours» (according to academician LS Berg) are rye, barley, oats, wheat, flax and peas. It is they who, apparently, made up the ancient meadow grass steppes of high northern latitudes.

And if this is so, then the grain had to be collected. And women, of course, did this, since even at the beginning of the 20th century, as «stingy songs» testify, this work was performed by

«girls, young people» (recording by Shane P. V., late 19th century):

«Wheat in the field

Ripe stood.

May, may,

Mayu, green!

Ripe stood

Waving a spike

Waving a spike

Her voice was hooting.

«Girls, young men,

Come out, reap!

I cannot stand, wave a spikelet!».

And, finally, a full description of the process, which, apparently, has not changed in its structure from the Paleolithic to the present day, since this record was made in 1964 in the Pskov region (from E.F. Razumova):

«А я, молодЕнька, рожь топчУ.

Рожь топчУ, рожь топчУ.

Травку-муравку вытопчУ,

ВытОпчу, вытопчУ.

ЗеленОе жито вырастёт,

ВырАстет, вырастёт.

А я, молодЕнька, буду жАть,

БудУ жать, буду жАть.

И да в снОпочки вязАть,

Да вЯзать, да вязАть.

И в сарай буду возИть,

Да вОзить, да возИть.

Да на раЮ буду садИть,

Да сАдить, да садИть.

Да сАдить, да садИть.

И цепами буду молотИть,

МолОтить, молотИть.

У печи буду сушИть,

Да сУшить, да сушИть.

В квашне буду творИть,

Да твОрить, да творИть.

И рабочих всех кормить,

Всех кОрмить, всех кормИть».

Note that the Pskov dialect word «ray, paradise» is a barn (riga, threshing floor). In Sanskrit, «rai, paradise» is abundance. But in ancient times, the idea of abundance was most likely associated with grain, and therefore with its storage – the barn. After all, it is no coincidence that we still say that «bread is the head of everything», we call a generous person «hospitable» and greet guests with «bread and salt»».

It must be thought that in the Paleolithic of the Russian plain, grain collected by women in meadow grass steppes, consisting of wild sowing rye (found in the 19th century in the Kanin tundra), wild sowing wheat (a wild type of sowing spelled found in the Middle Urals), wild sowing oats, wild sowing barley, wild peas (found in the 18th century by academician I.

Lepyokhin in the Kanin tundra) and wild flax (found in the 18th century by academician I. Lepyokhin in the Kanin tundra, in the 19th century – on Timan), had to be dried and stored.

The ears were dried in sheaves, most likely in that archaic type of barn, which survived in the Russian North until the beginning of the 20th century and was called «shish». Indeed, even in the «stubble» song, recorded in the Pskov region in 1964, it is said that the sheaves should be «plant in rai», that is, placed on top of the barn’s poles, in the buried hole of which a fire was burning at that time.

It is worth paying attention to the fact that they bring the rune «Ir», which looks like a schematic representation of an ancient barn (shisha), and emphasize that the rune «Ir» is a sign of the feminine, and «in one ritual spell, the rune» Ir «is understood as» Comprehensive.»

So, after the «rai» – the barn, the grain had to be saved. Let us once again recall the long ground dwellings «of the Paleolithic inhabitants of the Russian Plain. These were very impressive structures. So in the 30s of the 20th century P. P. Efimenko, the remains of a large ground dwelling, 31 meters long and 8 meters wide, with eight hearths along the central axis and a complex heating system were uncovered in layer I of the Kostenki 1 site. Near the dwelling there were small dugouts and pits – storerooms. Let us remind you that back in the late 19th – early 20th centuries, such pits were arranged in the barn (in the barn, in the barn). They were coated with clay, then burned with straw, and covered with straw or sheaves from above.

Probably, the structure of communal grain pits came from the depths of thousands of years of Paleolithic antiquity without any significant changes.

But where there is a lot of grain, as noted earlier, mice always appears, the number of which grows exponentially over time. And in order to preserve the grain for themselves, our ancestors had to make every effort. They attracted the natural enemies of mice – owls – to the barn. How this was done, we do not know. Most likely, the owls flew in on their own. After all, mice are their natural food. And people, in gratitude for the saved harvest, began to worship owls. And women – grain collectors and housewives – gradually merged with the image of an owl – the keeper of the barn, and hence the harvest. And since it was women who were responsible for the fertility of the fields, burning straw, drying grain on fire and cooking food on fire, the duet woman – owl naturally turned into a trio: woman – owl – fire. And all this was connected with the barn. But even at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in barns: they washed like in baths, gave birth, they brought the deceased there and put straw (corn or pea) under his head.

Therefore, the image of a woman – an Owl, already in ancient times, united not only with fire, but also with water, straw, ash and ash, life and death. Already in the cultural layer of the Upper Paleolithic Mezen site in the Chernihiv region, there are figurines made of mammoth bones, which «some researchers call «birds», and others – «emale figurines». Neolithic images of women with the head of an owl found in the Russian North (6—4 thousand BC) were mentioned earlier. In Tripoli (Eneolithic 4—3 thousand BC), female figurines with owl heads were sculpted by adding grain and flour to soft clay, and such images of goddesses were found at every grain mill in the «sanctuary of bread» found by archaeologists. And here it makes sense to cite one of the mysteries that existed in the Totemsky district of the Vologda province at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (materials of the Ethnographic Bureau of Prince V. N. Tenishev):

«The owl flew out

From the red window

Sela Owl

Four pillars».

Here, the owl symbolized the «rug of bread taken out of the oven».

In Tripoli, the belly of the owl-headed goddess of bread is sometimes guarded by two snakes. Goddesses with snakes will also go through millennia, reaching the beginning of the 20th century in North Russian embroidery. Summing up the above, we can say after Robert von Ranke Graves: «Ancient Europe did not know any gods, there was only one Great Goddess, and only she was revered as immortal and unchanging.» The only addition to this text will be – Eastern Europe, since Western Europe until the turn of 4—3 thousand BC the Indo-Europeans with their Great Goddess Mother Sova did not know, and they, in turn, did not live in Western Europe.

Over time, the ancient deity of earth, abundance, fire and water, life and death Owl-Mother-in-law received many different names: Gaia, Aditi, Rhea, Cybele, Astarta, Ishtar, Lilith, Ma, Divia, Rato, Lato.

Academician B. A. Rybakov wrote: «The area of ethnographic veneration of mother Lada is very wide: it completely includes the entire land of the Balts – Hyperboreans (both in the Latvian-Lithuanian and Slavicized Great Russian part), the entire territory of the Proto-Slavs and all areas of later Slavic settlement. In the Bronze Age, the cult of Lato reached Greek Crete, where it met with the local cult of Demeter and Persephone. It is possible that the primitives knew the cult of Lato (Latona) – Lada.»

It was already noted earlier that the two daughters of the titan Kay, whom ancient Greek mythology placed on the shores of the Kronian (Arctic) Ocean and whose city the Vologda ritual song calls «our homeland», Leto and Asteria were embodied in the images of quails. It was in the images of a quail and a quail that Zeus and Leto were married – the parents of Artemis and Apollo of Hyperborean.

But here we have a Russian Christmas song recorded in the middle of the 20th century in the Kirov region:

Dil-dil, quail,

Yes Lada, young!

Yes there, yes I flew here,

Yes dil-dil, quail,

Lada, young!

Yes, yes, yes, I gave wings to this,

Yes dil-dil, quail,

Lada, young!

Lada-quail, probably at a later stage of plow farming, became another image of the bird goddess associated with the Earth and the live.

But she still could not replace the Owl-Mother-in-law until the end. The owl Mother Goddess, in the process of migration of the peoples who worshiped her, had new names: the Sumerian-Akkadian Ereshkigal, depicted with an owl in his hand; Lilith – Ishtar – Astarte with owl quills and paws, standing between two owls; Egyptian Neith with her later hypostasis – Nephthys, whose most ancient name sounds like Lun (that is, Owl); The Great Mother of the Gods Rhea – Cybele, on the armrests of the throne of which were placed two owls; «Owl-eyed» Tethys-Tefida, wife of the Ocean; Hera – «Mother-in-law», according to one of the versions of the myth – the granddaughter of «owl» Tethys; and, of course, «owl-eyed» Athena, about which they write the following: «Athena is one of the most important figures not only in Olympic mythology, she is equal in importance to Zeus and sometimes surpasses him, rooted in the most ancient period in the development of Greek mythology – matriarchy. In power and wisdom, she is equal to Zeus… her place is closest to Zeus… The ancient zoomorphic past of the goddess is indicated by her attributes – a snake and an owl. Homer calls Athena „owl“, the Orphic hymn – „motley snake“ … Athena goes back to the image of the goddess with snakes of the Cretan-Mycenaean period. An owl and a snake guarded the palace of the goddess with the shield of the Mycenaean time – the prototype of the Olympic Athena… Athena herself was thought of as fate and the Great Goddess – the mother, who is known in archaic mythology as the parent and destroyer of all living things.»

Recall that in the tradition of Russian Christmas-time fortune-telling about the fate of the Owl heralds both death and the birth of a child.

Speaking of ancient Greek Athena, the Encyclopedia of Myths notes the following: «The powerful, terrible, owl-eyed goddess of the archaic… she demands sacred reverence for herself, no mortal can see her.»

Note that the most ancient Egyptian goddess of the first dynasties (beginning of 3 thousand BC) – Nate (Neath) was an analogue of Athena. Recall that it was her image in the temple of Sais that was always covered with a veil. The name of Nate’s late hypostasis, Nephthys, sounded like «Lun.» Nate herself was the patroness of the city of Lunit, which the ancient Greeks also called Latopolis – the city of Lato (Lunit).

Let us specially repeat that Herodotus identified Neith with Athena, and that the Hittite-Hurite goddess «Shavushka» (Owl) is close to Neith. In connection with the city of Lunit, we present the text of a Russian ritual song, which became by the beginning of the 20th century children’s nursery rhyme»:

Owl is an owl, big head,

Sits on an oak tree, turns his head.

Little owl, little owl – a big head,

Where have you been, who have you seen?

I flew, owl, a big head

To a feast, to a gazebo.

They saw me as a little owl – a big little head,

Two white moon, two lovely friends.

Loonies are also owls, one of their varieties. Apparently, their name directly unites these birds with the Moon, with lunar cults.

In this context, it is interesting that the image of the Sumerian Ishtar (Lilith) with owl’s wings and paws, standing between two owls (beginning of the 2nd millennium BC), is perceived as a direct illustration of the above «nursery rhyme».

Perhaps it was this structural scheme, born in deep Paleolithic antiquity, then, with the development of cattle breeding and the domestication of the horse, was replaced by the one we know well – the Mother Goddess with two horses or two riders on the sides.

Note that Athena was called: Pandros (All-Moist), Aglavra (Light-Air), Agravla (Poleborozdnaya).

Agricultural holidays were dedicated to Athena: Procharistoria (sprouting of grain), Plinteria (the beginning of the harvest), Arrephoria (giving dew for crops), Scriphoria (aversion to drought).

Summarizing the above, we can conclude that Athena as a whole retained the main features of the ancient Mother Goddess, the Owl-Mother-in-law.

Interestingly, Athena’s name is not derived from Greek. Its pre-Greek origin is suggested.

Let us assume that this name originated from the term «Owina».

There is good reason to believe that in a patriarchal society, many of the sacred terms of matriarchy have been recoded into a masculine version. So the name of the barn «Shish» clearly replaced a completely different term meaning the female genital organ (the symbol of which in Polish riddles was the Owl).

Here it makes sense to recall again that in the Russian folk tradition, the «name day of the barn» was celebrated on the days of Thekla Zarevnitsa (September 24) and the Most Holy Theotokos (October 1), and the Ir rune, which looks like a schematic representation of an ancient barn, was a sign of the feminine principle and was understood as «Comprehensive». Then Ovina or Avina will be the same as Ovinnitsa, that is, «The Mistress of Ovin.»

Another argument in favor of such an assumption is the fact that Athena (as the Great Goddess – Mother) gives and takes life. But in Sanskrit, the term «avi» means «pain, suffering, and labor pains». Recall that in the Old Russian folk tradition it was customary to give birth in a barn.

Since Sanskrit is extremely close to the Russian language, we use its terms to clarify this situation.

Av (avati, ava, avit) —

1) contribute

2) saturate

3) protect

4) desire, love.

Ava – to rush, descend, favor.

Avata – pit, burrow.

Avati – earth, soil, base.

Avi – pain, suffering, labor pains.

Avinacin – eternal, everlasting.

Of no less interest is the word «Sova».

We look close to him Sanskrit phonemes:

Sava —

1) revitalization, excitement

2) sacrificial rite

Sava – squeezing soma.

Savana – 1) revitalization, excitement

2) a sacrificial rite.

And here it is appropriate to recall the wedding ceremony, preserved in the Russian tradition, where beer was prepared and drunk in the barn.

Savana – wooded

Savana —

1) fire

2) hell.

Savitri —

1) producer

2) mother.

Sva – his, her, them, to have.

Saviman —

1) setting in motion,

2) awakening,

3) an indication,

4) direction.

Savidya is endowed with knowledge.

Savicesana – endowed with special properties

Apparently, Mother-Sva of the Vlesova book is the Mother-Owl of deep Paleolithic antiquity, the Goddess of life and death, the Owl-Mother-in-law of the Vologda and Vladimir ritual songs.

But there is also:

Sauva – heavenly (about sound),

Suvari – giving birth to someone

Savega – fast, impetuous,

Savisa – poisonous, poisoned.

It makes sense here to remember that in the zoomorphic incarnation Athena, Neith, Lilith is not only owls, but also snakes that the palace of the Minotaur in Crete was guarded by an owl and a snake. That the plot of the goddess with snakes in her hands was preserved in the North Russian embroidery until the 20th century. And that snakes eat mice too, and owls hunt snakes.

And an owl carrying a snake in its claws is a common sight, so it’s okay to call an owl a poisonous one.

In the North Russian dialects there is such a name for an owl as «Guha», supposedly repeating the cry of this bird. But if we again turn to Sanskrit, it turns out that: Guh – shelter, cave.

Guhya – to be hidden, hidden, mysterious.

Guha-caya – living in a secluded place, in a cave, kept in secret, intimate.

Guha – heart (remember that it is the heart of an owl that is considered to be what can make a sleeping person talk about his innermost dreams and secrets).

And finally, guha is an epithet of God Shiva – the Creator and Destroyer of the Universe.

In addition, Sanskrit has its own name for the Owl – Kaucika (literally «having clawed paws»). Based on the terms of Sanskrit, we can assume the following semantic series: the sacrificial rite (sava or savanna) associated with fire (savana) consisted of squeezing out soma (sava) and reviving, arousing (sava). Soma (beer) is strained through a straw grate (kauca), standing on a bed of straw (kusa) in a barn, warehouse, granary (kucala). This drink made from grains (barley, rye, wheat) and hops gave health, dexterity, intelligence, experience, happiness and goodness (kaukala). And all this was possible thanks to the Owl (kaucika), which protected the grain from mice.

Speaking of beer in connection with the barn and Sova, we should turn to the second half of the ancient Paleolithic matriarchal society – men who, of course, played an important role in this society. Beer was prepared for them, and it was men who drank it. This is also evidenced by the North Russian tradition, which survived until the first third of the 20th century.

In the 80s and 90s of the 20th century, old people told folklorists that the general drunkenness, which today is attributed by some to the Russian people as their specific «genetic» quality, was completely absent in the North Russian villages back in the 30s of the 20th century.

On holidays (Shrovetide, in particular), men drank no more than 3 glasses (the size of a thimble) of vodka, but they were not limited in beer. However, this beer, prepared according to ancient technologies, has nothing to do with the so-called «beer» that our «breweries» produce today. As for the women and children, they never drank beer, let alone vodka. They drank pivtso, a weak, almost non-alcoholic beverage. As for men, consuming beer brewed according to tradition, they could hardly sleep. And they did not have free time for constant drinking in the ancient matriarchal society. The men built houses, prepared firewood for the winter, hunted and fished.

And they also did very important work – they mined salt, the deposits of which are quite widespread in the North of Eastern Europe.

Note that even today, paying tribute to the ancient tradition, we meet guests with bread and salt, where the loaf is a female symbol, and salt, apparently, is male.

Turning again to Sanskrit, we find in it such terms as:

Lavana – salted, salted, plus:

Lavana – salt (sea)

Lavanya – salinity, salt, beauty, beauty

Lavanata – salinity

Lavanita – salty

Lavana-Jala – containing salt water, sea

Lavanoda (Lavana-Uda) – sea (salt – water).

But there is also in Sanskrit:

Lavana – cutting, mowing

Lavaka – reaper

Lava – cutting, plucking (fruits, berries)

Lava – the harvest

Lava is the cut, shearing, piece, piece, drop and name of the son of Rama and Sita.

In the Vologda and Arkhangelsk dialects there is the word «lavina», which means «mowing, cutting». In the Kostroma and Nizhny Novgorod regions, the word «rama» is «border, border, and end of arable land near the forest.» And in the Cherepovets district of the Vologda region, «ramenye» is «meadow grasslands among the forest. As for the term «Sita», in Sanskrit it is a furrow, a wrinkle, a fold and the name of Rama’s wife, but also – white, light. In Russian, there is such a concept as sieve (white) flour and sieve (white) bread, as well as the name of the device for sifting flour – a sieve. Thus, already at the linguistic level, a complex of connections is being built, where «rama» (one of the names of a wooden harrow) and «furrow» in the field give an opportunity for subsequent harvest, as a result of which «flour» will appear, in combination with salt, giving birth to bread.

This complex of concepts will arise later, after millennia, when the harvesting of wild cereals will be replaced by slash-and-burn agriculture. At the early stage of proto-agriculture, we can assume the participation of men in some important harvest rites, possibly related to the salt they mine.

Here it makes sense to refer to another Sanskrit term Lu (Lunati, Lunite, Lulava / Lu, Ulava / Lu Luve, Lavitum, Luna), which means:

Cut, separate,

Divide, divide,

Tear off, tear off,

Harvest, harvest.

And now we recall the city of Lunit, whose patroness was the ancient Egyptian goddess of the first dynasties of the kings (beginning from the 3rd millennium BC) – Nate. Herodotus considered her an analogue of the ancient Greek Athena. And the fact that the Greeks called this city Latopolis Laton, that is, the city of the goddess Lato (Leto-Summer, Lada). And here we mention a term such as Lavitum, associated with Lavana – mowing, harvesting, harvesting and with Lavana – salted, salted, and salt.

Apparently, the place and time of birth of such images as Owl – Mother-in-law and Lilith were the same. It is possible that the appearance of fair-haired (red-haired) and light-eyed Levites, the descendants of Jacob’s third son from Leah, named Levi, is also associated with the same «space-time» characteristics. Note that it is the third son (Ivan Tsarevich, Ivan the Fool) in Russian folk fairy tales, which are distinguished by the deep archaism of their plots, who possesses certain sacred abilities. He marries the Frog Princess, takes out rejuvenating apples, receives the magic horse Sivka-Burka the Prophetic Kaurka, etc.

But, the same thing happens with the descendants of Levi – the Levites. They were excluded from the 12 tribes of Israel and the only ones from all were not endowed with land.

That is, in fact, they led the lives of the Brahmins, not possessing property and receiving tithes from the people for their existence. But they also performed priestly functions, being singers, musicians and guards in the portable temple of the Tabernacle. It remains for us to conclude that the Levites (Lavites) in the deepest matriarchal antiquity in the north of Eastern Europe took part in the holy ceremonies of harvesting with salt, music, singing and ritual libations with beer. This is also evidenced by such an ancient text as «Mundaka Upanishad», one of the most authoritative Upanishads of Atharva Veda, the second chapter of which says:

«Whose agnihotra is not accompanied by the sacrifices of the new moon, full moon, four months’ offering of the first and is performed without guests, Deprived of libation, offerings to the visvadevas are not performed properly, destroys his worlds, up to the seventh.

Black, terrible, fast as a thought, very red, the color of thick smoke, The sparkling one and the goddess in all forms are the seven tongues playing.

Whoever, while these shine, performs and makes offerings on time, That they are the rays of the sun, lead, where is the abode of the one lord of the gods».

Of course, the texts of the Atharva Veda, and even more so the Mundaka Upanishad, were canonized thousands of years after the end of the era of matriarchy. But, nevertheless, here are preserved relics of that distant time when not God the Father, but the Great Goddess Mother was incarnated in seven tongues of flame and not solar, but lunar cults played a leading role.

It is also significant that the terms of classical Sanskrit «deva» – heavenly, divine, god, priest, lord and «devaka» – heavenly, in Russian, and especially in North Russian dialects, are used at the everyday level to this day (deva, devka, deuka) in relation to exclusively girls and women, but not men. Thus, the term that later became the basis of many words associated with the concept of «divine» in Sanskrit:

Deva rarman – sacred rite, worship,

Deva kula – temple, home of the gods,

Deva gana – doubt of the gods,

Deva-ja – of divine origin,

Devatva – divinity,

Deva-Deva – God or King of the gods, etc,

in the Russian language retained its most ancient meaning, where the concept of the divine is assigned precisely to the feminine.

We can state that the cult of the Goddess-Mother-Owl, protector of Grain and giver of Life, mistress of Fire and Water, formed in deep (still Paleolithic) antiquity, could arise only where for many tens of millennia there were meadow cereal steppes consisting of sown forms – wild rye, wild barley, wild oats and wild wheat. And such steppes existed for such a long time only on the territory of Eastern Europe – the Russian Plain. In the subsequent Mesolithic era (the Middle Stone Age, in 10—8 thousand BC, led to the disappearance of cereal steppes and the widespread distribution of deciduous forests (the real steppes remained only in a narrow strip of the Black Sea region), people were forced to burn these forests in order to restore the fields of cereals that now needed to be sown.

So, apparently, slash-and-burn agriculture appeared.Matriarchal-hoe farming, as B. A. Rybakov noted, survives to the Eneolithic (5—3 thousand BC). He writes: «All four dimensions entered the worldview of farmers: the surface of the earth, the height of the world plowed up and down, lost in the blue firmament of the sky, and the continuous movement of this world in time.

And all this was expressed in the ornament. The ornament has become a public phenomenon that allows, like later letters, to tell about your attitude to the world and to unite people to perform certain actions. ” Appearing back in the Paleolithic of the Russian Plain (Kostenki, Mezinskaya site), the ornament developed here to that complex system, which was then carried to the territory of future India, Ancient Greece, Ertruria, etc. And it was in Russia that these ornamental complexes have survived to the present day in the most complete and complete form.

At the turn of 4—3 thousand BC the role of agriculture is weakening and the importance of animal husbandry is increasing. As the authors of «Eneolithic USSR» note: «It was the development of livestock breeding in its mobile forms (distant pasture, semi-nomadic, and further nomadic) that sharply limited or even excluded the possibility of simultaneous agricultural practice… mobile livestock breeding is very productive in the first periods of development, it provides a surplus product faster and easier than agriculture… Collectives of mobile livestock breeders grew rapidly. Their herds grew accordingly, which required a constant expansion of „production areas“ – pastures. This expansion proceeded much faster and on a large scale than among the farmers… The conditions of feather grass and wormwood steppes, passing in their extreme southern limits into the semi-desert, sharply limited the possibilities of agriculture. The forage base necessary for the development of cattle breeding was practically unlimited here… in different landscape zones, cattle breeding took different forms. In the forest-steppe settlements marked by a strong settled settlement and the presence of even limited agriculture, it was clearly of a local nature. The herd was dominated by large domestic animals and a pig, respectively. To the south, in the steppes, the most productive and adapted animal to the specifics of this zone was the sheep. Sheep breeding was the decisive economic factor in the development of steppe areas».

This is where, in my opinion; one should look for the origins of the legend about the farmer Cain and Abel – «the shepherd of the sheep.» Speaking about the weakening of the role of agriculture and the significant strengthening of cattle breeding at the turn of the 4th-3rd millennia BC, when the «agricultural Eneolithic period with its equality of the» Golden Age «ended, B. A. Rybakov emphasized that «the struggle for these herds, their alienation and uneven distribution, the ability to move together with property in carts (carts (rattle cars)) over considerable distances under the protection of mounted warriors, the development of exchange -all this radically changed the established agricultural order, introduced into it is social inequality, and the military principle, and the relationship of domination and subordination within each tribe. The agricultural Eneolithic with its equality of the «Golden Age» did not leave us any traces of forced burials …The culture of battle axes, the culture of mobile and warlike horse shepherds gave birth to a new social phenomenon that consolidated the immeasurably increased power of tribal leaders and governors – the custom of violent ritual murder of the closest subordinates of the leader at his grave and a joint burial with him».

The millennial era of matriarchy has ended. The era of patriarchy has begun – the era of war and murder. The Ancient Mother Goddess ceded her place to God the Father.

But not everywhere and not always!

And where the ancient traditions of agriculture were born and preserved, the Mother Goddess remained not a Warrior-Virgin, but Mother Earth, Great Foremother, Owl – Mother-in-law.