The individual space of a person in past eras was characterized by greater orderliness and regularity. The number of information flows was limited, the information pressure on the individual was minimal, the volume of information processed by him was constant for centuries, and their share increase was extremely slow.

A straight line can be chosen as a graphic symbol of human thinking of past centuries, the beginning and end of which have almost the same informational thickness and saturation, i.e. the number of concepts learned in the first third of life increased insignificantly towards the end of life, if we compare this with the degree of their increase in our era.

In ancient man, the formation of orderly thinking, which did not know the chaos of concepts, was facilitated by mythology. In the texts of a mythological nature, the orderliness of the characters, their words and deeds was preserved. Mythological plots organically fit into the consciousness of an ancient person, layering on his moral and categorical apparatus (ethics, religiosity, marriage). The man felt himself a part of the mythological concept, which made up the lion's share of the folklore of that time.

The axial figure of the mythological concept, along with mythical creatures, is a human hero with a high moral and social status - he is either a sage or a warrior. Those who are lower on the scale of moral and social qualities (timid artisans, timid plowmen) do not become the main characters of the myth. The plot of the myth does not revolve around such prosaic figures. For ancient people, the eidos of a perfect person necessarily included masculinity and fortitude. The mythological hero was the concept of a man who has yet to be achieved. It was a moral landmark in the form of a vertical of courage, striving upward. The mythological hero interacts with the gods, sometimes enters into rivalry with them, and even, at times, wins. The psychological matrix of the mythological hero is the moral and physical condition above the average, ordinary level, high personal qualities. The hero of the myth is forced to overcome physical obstacles and moral temptations.

Mythology marched alongside sacredness with its characteristic anthropomorphism. Man deified everything that exceeded his physical and psychological capabilities, and the mythological hero was also a divine figure.

The main characteristic of the myth was its cyclicity. The myth was presented as a procedure of eternal return. The mythological hero is an innovator and progressive. The myth contains an ideological formula, according to which a person is able to change the universal order for himself or achieve a goal, relying on the wisdom of the world. The myth was an algorithm demonstrating the basic life principles of an ancient person: the hero is able to change reality, but is forced to take into account the opinions of the gods.

The myth was an ideological construct with an undeniable influence on the formation of political ideologies of a later time. The figure of a hero striving for the horizon correlated with progressivism, the gods commanding the preservation of the status quo served as the embodiment of conservative stability.

The ideology of states and their foreign policy concepts changed and acquired new features depending on which part of the mythological-heroic pantheon was taken as a moral model when building the ideological foundation of political movements. In the XVIII-XIX centuries. the myth of Prometheus, which is spoken of by French revolutionaries, Polish rebels, etc., becomes popular, and a new geopolitical ethos is formed, reinforced by metaphysical motives.

Mythology cannot be secular. Secularity should be seen as the antithesis of mythology. Mythology is metaphysical and upward oriented. In mythology there is no logic of rationalism, and there is mythological logic. Events in the myth are realized with the participation of higher powers, gods, demons, etc. The logic of myth falls outside the scope of rationalism. Accordingly, the human eidos harmoniously contained metaphysical concepts, and the vector of human thinking was directed upwards, and was devoid of secularity.

Small-scale concepts are characteristic of secular thinking. Alienated from the metaphysical layer, secularity begins to operate with concepts of a meager scale that fit into a narrow circle of instrumental concepts about a person and his environment. The process of splitting secular thinking into outwardly independent blocks begins, each of which is given the opportunity to exist independently, without a deep connection with others. According to the degree of refinement of these blocks, one can name: a religious cult, science, the ideology of hedonism. Somersaults are made, and as a result, the first place, previously occupied by religion, is occupied by hedonism. The antithesis of the mythological thinking of the past is being formed - the modern thinking of the era of rationalism.

The hero of modernity is the antithesis of the hero of myth

Structural reshuffles take place within the hedonistic ideology. Minimalism gives way to ultra-minimalism. There is a grinding and crushing of hedonism itself, moving along the route “from small to as small as possible”. In our time, these manifestations reach a maximum, when everything that previously belonged to the personal-physiological level of human existence becomes the subject of noisy advertising campaigns and is made public (advertising of intimate hygiene items on television and in the form of huge billboards on the streets, etc. .).

Departure from the mythological concept means a departure from masculinity. There is a softening of the human spirit, hedonism penetrates into the spheres of human life, where it was not previously entered by definition. Handicraft-equipped gyms with a minimum of amenities are a thing of the past; their very educational function is changing. A place for sports turns into a place for the realization of hedonistic desires. Simple apparatuses are being replaced by complex machines in order to minimize pain and other physical inconveniences to the athlete. Instead of jogging on the street, a person gets on a treadmill in a warm and cozy room. Insignificant devices are invented to facilitate the physical load on a person, such as special gloves or athletic T-shirts for weightlifters, etc. Getting a sports rank is much easier than in previous years. The quality bar is getting lower and lower.

Enduring pain and weather is considered a sign of low social status. A wealthy person goes only to refined gyms. A new social model of an active athlete is being set: as relaxed as possible, ready to exercise not so much the spirit as the body, only in comfortable conditions. Along with this, decaffeinated coffee, nicotine-free cigarettes, artificial low-alcohol drinks, advanced painkillers, medical lasers instead of a scalpel, a contract army instead of a draft army, etc. appear. The minimum number of moral and physical trials remains for the share of the individual, he is able to rise to the minimum intellectual level (the releases of Light News appeared on the Retro radio, a light version of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace came out of print in Britain). Such hedonistic tendencies are penetrating the realm of politics. Today, those who offer the most hedonistic model for the development of society enjoy success with the voter.

The departure from the mythological matrix of thinking, when the moral and ethical norms laid down in mythology were not questioned, led to the emergence of a discrete form of thinking, which acquired pronounced forms in the information age. The total amount of concepts assimilated by a modern person exceeds their number in a person of the past, but is deprived of metaphysical harmony. The thought process of the era of the mythological hero and that of the information age represent a polar binary composition. In accordance with the principles of the first of them, a person was conceived as a wholeness woven into the fabric of events. The characteristic of the second is extreme rationalism, which ousted myth from all spheres of life, when religion turns into a toolkit for a rationalistic way of life, does not completely permeate it, but rests on the section of the scale of moral and ethical values ​​assigned to it by rationalistic consciousness.

There were no conceptual gaps in the mind of a person oriented towards mythological heroism as an example of moral and ethical norms. The lower was conceived as a part of the higher, the microcosm as a part of the macrocosm. Each member of society occupied the corresponding step in the social-hierarchical ladder, felt himself woven into the fabric of events taking place outside the framework of ordinary rationality.

For the age of myth, myth itself was rational. The myth was then stripped of its rational dimension, while at the same time stripping the rationality of the mythological content, which were closely intertwined. Rationality has become a secular category. A rupture of intellectual and metaphysical traditions was formed as a prerequisite for the formation of the mentioned binary composition.

Myths about heroes and their main cycles? and got the best answer

Answer from Forsiteucoz firsiteucoz[newbie]
13 Labors of Hercules
and almost all Greek Mythology (Jason and the Argonathes, Troy, etc.)
Megaresheba. ru - GDZ for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus.

Answer from 2 answers[guru]

Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: Myths about heroes and their main cycles?

Answer from Elena babina[master]
The main thematic cycles of myths and their content
Among the whole multitude of mythical legends and stories, it is customary to single out several most important cycles. Let's call them:
- cosmogonic myths - myths about the origin of the world and the universe,
- anthropological myths - myths about the origin of man and human society,
- myths about cultural heroes - myths about the origin and introduction of certain cultural goods,
- eschatological myths - myths about the "end of the world", the end of time.
Let us dwell in more detail on the characteristics of these mythical cycles.
1. Cosmogonic myths are usually divided into two groups:
Development myths | Creation myths
In the myths of development, the origins of mi- |In the myths of creation, the emphasis is on
ra and the universe is explained by the evolution | the statement that the world was created
transformation, the transformation of some shapeless | from some initial elemental
variable initial state, | com (fire, water, air, earth)
prior to the world and the universe. | supernatural being -god,
It can be chaos (ancient Greek | sorcerer, creator (creator can
what mythology), non-existence (ancient egy - | to have the appearance of a person or animal -
pet, Scandinavian, and other mytholo- | loons, crows, coyote). The most famous
gia). "...everything was able to - |
news, everything is cold, everything is silent - | a story about the seven days of creation: "And said
nii: everything is motionless, quiet, and simple - | Hall God: let there be light ... and separated
the sky was empty... "- from | God is light from darkness. And God called the light
myths of Central America. | day, and darkness at night ... "
Very often, these motifs are combined in one myth: a detailed description of the initial state ends with a detailed story about the circumstances of the creation of the Universe.
2. Anthropological myths are an integral part of cosmogonic myths.
According to many myths, a person is created from a wide variety of materials: nuts, wood, dust, clay. Most often, the creator creates first a man, then a woman. The first person is usually endowed with the gift of immortality, but he loses it and becomes at the origins of mortal humanity (such is the biblical Adam, who ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). Some peoples had a statement about the origin of man from an animal ancestor (monkey, bear, crow, swan).
3. Myths about cultural heroes tell how mankind mastered the secrets of crafts, agriculture, settled life, the use of fire - in other words, how certain cultural goods were introduced into its life. The most famous myth of this kind is the ancient Greek legend of Prometheus, the cousin of Zeus. Prometheus (in literal translation - “thinking before”, “foreseeing”) endowed miserable people with minds, taught them to build houses, ships, engage in crafts, wear clothes, count, write and read, distinguish between seasons, make sacrifices to the gods, guess, introduced state principles and rules of joint life. Prometheus gave man fire, for which he was punished by Zeus: chained to the mountains of the Caucasus, he suffers terrible torment - an eagle pecks out his liver, which grows again every day.
4. Eschatological myths tell about the fate of mankind, about the coming of the "end of the world" and the onset of the "end of times". The greatest significance in the cultural and historical process was played by eschatological ideas formulated in the famous biblical "Apocalypse": the second coming of Christ is coming - He will come not as a victim, but as a Terrible Judge, judging the living and the dead. The "end of times" will come, and the righteous will be predestined to eternal life, and sinners to eternal torment.

In ancient times, mankind developed civilizations. These were isolated peoples, which were formed under the influence of certain factors and had their own culture, technique and were distinguished by a certain individuality. Due to the fact that they were not technically advanced like modern humanity, ancient people were largely dependent on the vagaries of nature. Then lightning, rain, earthquakes and other natural phenomena seemed to be manifestations of divine powers. These forces, as it seemed then, could determine the fate and personal qualities of a person. And so the very first mythology was born.

What is a myth?

According to the modern cultural definition, this is a narrative that reproduces the beliefs of ancient people about the structure of the world, about higher powers, about man, the biographies of great heroes and gods in verbal form. In some way, they reflected the then level of human knowledge. These legends were recorded and passed down from generation to generation, thanks to which we can now find out how our ancestors thought. That is, then mythology was a certain form and also one of the ways of understanding natural and social reality, which reflected the views of a person at a certain stage of development.

Among the many questions that worried mankind in those distant times, the problem of the appearance of the world and man in it was especially relevant. Due to their curiosity, people tried to explain and understand how they appeared, who created them. It was then that a separate myth about the origin of people appears.

Due to the fact that humanity, as already mentioned, developed in large isolated groups, the legends of each nationality were in some way unique, as they reflected not only the worldview of the people at that time, but were also an imprint of cultural, social development, and also carried information about the land where the people lived. In this sense, myths have some historical value, since they allow us to build some logical judgments about a particular people. In addition, they were a bridge between the past and the future, a link between generations, passing on the knowledge that was accumulated in stories from the old family to the new, thus teaching it.

Anthropogonic myths

Regardless of civilization, all ancient people had their own ideas about how a person appeared in this world. They have some common features, but they also have significant differences, which are due to the peculiarities of the life and development of a particular civilization. All myths about the origin of man are called anthropogonic. This word comes from the Greek "anthropos", which means - man. Such a concept as the myth of the origin of people exists in absolutely all ancient peoples. The difference is only in their perception of the world.

For comparison, we can consider separately taken myths about the origin of man and the world of two great nationalities, which significantly influenced the development of mankind in their time. These are the civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient China.

Chinese view of the creation of the world

The Chinese represented our Universe in the form of a huge egg, which was filled with a certain matter - Chaos. From this Chaos was born the first ancestor of all mankind - Pangu. He used his ax to break the egg in which he was born. When he broke the egg, Chaos burst out and began to change. The sky (Yin) was formed - which is associated with a light beginning, and the Earth (Yang) - a dark beginning. Thus, in the beliefs of the Chinese, the world was formed. After that, Pangu put his hands on the sky, and his feet on the ground and began to grow. It grew continuously until the sky separated from the earth and became what we see it today. Pangu, when he grew up, broke up into many parts that became the basis of our world. His body became mountains and plains, flesh became earth, breath became air and wind, blood became water, and skin became vegetation.

Chinese mythology

As the Chinese myth about the origin of man says, a world was formed that was inhabited by animals, fish and birds, but people were still. The Chinese believed that the great female spirit, Nuwa, became the creator of mankind. The ancient Chinese revered her as the organizer of the world, she was depicted as a woman with a human body, bird legs and a snake tail, holding a moon disk (Yin symbol) and a measuring square in her hand.

Nuwa began to sculpt human figures from clay, which came to life and turned into people. She worked for a long time and realized that her strength was not enough to create people who could populate the whole earth. Then Nuwa took the rope and passed it through the liquid clay, and then shook it. Where the lumps of wet clay fell, people appeared. But still they were not as good as those that were molded by hand. This is how the existence of the nobility, which Nuwa molded with her own hands, and people of the lower classes, created with the help of a rope, was substantiated. The goddess gave her creations the opportunity to reproduce on their own, and also introduced the concept of marriage, which was observed very strictly in ancient China. Therefore, Nu Wa can also be considered the patroness of marriage.

This is the Chinese myth of the origin of man. As you can see, it reflects not only traditional Chinese beliefs, but also some of the features and rules that guided the ancient Chinese in their lives.

Greek mythology about the appearance of man

The Greek myth of the origin of man tells how the titan Prometheus created people from clay. But the first people were very defenseless and did not know how. For this act, the Greek gods were angry with Prometheus and planned to destroy the human race. However, Prometheus saved his children by stealing fire from Mount Olympus and bringing it to man in an empty reed stalk. For this, Zeus imprisoned Prometheus in chains in the Caucasus, where the eagle was supposed to peck at his liver.

In general, any myth about the origin of people does not provide specific information about the emergence of mankind, concentrating more on subsequent events. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the Greeks considered a person to be insignificant against the background of the almighty gods, thus emphasizing their importance for the whole people. Indeed, almost all Greek legends are directly or indirectly connected with the gods who guide and help the heroes of the human race, such as Odysseus or Jason.

Features of mythology

What are the features of mythological thinking?

As can be seen above, myths and legends interpret and describe the origin of man in completely different ways. It must be understood that the need for them arose at an early age. They arose from the need of man to explain the origin of man, nature, and the structure of the world. Of course, the method of explanation used by mythology is quite primitive, it differs significantly from the interpretation of the world order that science supports. In myths, everything is quite specific and isolated; there are no abstract concepts in them. Man, society and nature merge into one. The main type of mythological thinking is figurative. Each person, hero or god necessarily has a concept or phenomenon that follows him. This one denies any logical reasoning, based on faith, not knowledge. It is incapable of generating questions that are not creative.

In addition, mythology also has specific literary devices that make it possible to emphasize the significance of certain events. These are hyperbole that exaggerate, for example, the strength or other important characteristics of the heroes (Pangu, who was able to lift the sky), metaphors that attribute certain characteristics to things or beings that do not actually possess them.

Common features and influence on world culture

In general, one can trace some regularity in how exactly the myths of different peoples explain the origin of man. In almost all variants, there is some kind of divine essence that breathes life into lifeless matter, thus creating and shaping a person. This influence of ancient pagan beliefs can be traced back to later religions, such as Christianity, where God creates man in his own image and likeness. However, if it is not entirely clear how Adam appeared, then God creates Eve from a rib, which only confirms this influence of ancient legends. This influence of mythology can be traced in almost every culture that has existed since.

Ancient Turkic mythology about how man appeared

The ancient Turkic myth about the origin of man, the progenitor of the human race, as well as the creator of the earth, calls the goddess Umai. She, in the form of a white swan, flew over the water, which has always existed, and searched for land, but did not find it. She laid the egg right into the water, but the egg immediately sank. Then the goddess decided to make a nest on the water, but the feathers from which she made it turned out to be fragile, and the waves broke the nest. The goddess held her breath and dived to the very bottom. She took out a patch of earth in her beak. Then the god Tengri saw her suffering and sent three iron fish to Umai. She put earth on the back of one of the fish, and it began to grow until all the earth's land was formed. After that, the goddess laid an egg, from which the whole human race, birds, animals, trees and everything else appeared.

What can be determined by reading this Turkic myth about the origin of man? One can see a general similarity with the legends of ancient Greece and China already known to us. Some divine power creates people, namely from an egg, which is very similar to the Chinese legend about Pangu. Thus, it is clear that initially people associated the creation of themselves by analogy with living beings that they could observe. There is also an incredible reverence for the maternal principle, a woman as a continuer of life.

What can a child learn for himself in these legends? What new things does he learn by reading the myths of the peoples about the origin of man?

First of all, this will allow him to get acquainted with the culture and life of the people that existed in prehistoric times. Since the myth is characterized by a figurative type of thinking, the child will quite easily perceive it and be able to assimilate the necessary information. For children, these are the same fairy tales, and, like fairy tales, they are filled with the same morals and information. When reading them, the child will learn to develop his thinking processes, learn to benefit from reading and draw conclusions.

The myth of the origin of people will give the child an answer to the exciting question - where did I come from? Of course, the answer will be wrong, but children take everything on faith, and therefore it will satisfy the interest of the child. By reading the Greek origin myth above, the child will also be able to understand why fire is so important to mankind and how it was discovered. This will be useful in the subsequent education of the child in elementary school.

Variety and benefits for the child

Indeed, if we take examples of myths about the origin of man (and not only them) from Greek mythology, you can see that the colorfulness of the characters and their number are very large and interesting not only for young readers, but even for adults. However, you need to help the child figure it all out, otherwise he will simply get confused in the events and their causes. It is necessary to explain to the child why God loves or dislikes this or that hero, why he helps him. Thus, the child will learn to build logical chains and compare facts, drawing certain conclusions from them.

As already mentioned, totemic ideas about the origin of man from an ancestor animal probably belong to the earliest versions of "anthropogenesis", because they are associated with the lifestyle of primitive hunters. With the development of human society, changes in lifestyle, the emergence of religious beliefs, other versions appeared that were supposed to testify to the unique position of man in the natural world. His status as master over all living beings is affirmed by religious legends about divine creation: God the Father, who created the world, nature, animals and man - the “crown of creation”, put him at the head, above all other “living creatures” (in the sense of created creatures) .

Anthropogonic myths, which do not talk about the origin of any particular tribe (as in the ancestral tales of totems), but about the appearance of a person on earth as such, can be divided into three categories depending on the plot. Apparently, these plots are rooted in archetypal representations, that is, their appearance is not explained by external factors: observations of natural phenomena or cultural borrowings. The similarity of motives is due to the general patterns of thinking of ancient people, the archetypal basis - a matrix on which specific figurative representations are layered.

There are three such motives. In some cultures, distant from each other in time and space, there is a story about the creation of one huge creature, an anthropomorphic giant, with all the signs of a person. Another, no less common motif: initially, the gods or a god create a pair of human beings, a man and a woman, who are later the progenitors of all mankind. And, finally, the third motive tells about the creation of the first people at once in large numbers. Usually the gods produce them in some handicraft way: they are molded from clay, planed from wood, collected from animal bones. Let's try to find out the meaning and psychological significance of each of the identified groups.

1. In the myths about the origin of the First Man - a huge giant, he is represented as the standard by which all people will be created. This primordial specimen is either non-sexed or bisexual. He is a man in general. His androgyny (bisexuality) probably symbolizes integrity, completeness, indivisibility. Ideally, a person should be like this, but this quality of integrity, according to myths, is forever lost. Remember the legend told by Plato in the dialogue "Feast". The Greek philosopher reproduces the myth of the first people created by Zeus as bisexual, two-faced, with four arms and four legs. As a result of some fault, these characters were cut in half by God, so the usual, familiar humanity arose. However, people who have lost their soul mate, pushed by an irresistible longing for the lost integrity, people are looking for the missing part, each his own. Plato used this myth to explain the birth of Eros: he appears when two halves are reunited. C. G. Jung interprets the Hermaphrodite myth differently. In his opinion, a creature that has the characteristics of both sexes symbolizes integrity, selfhood, which is an unattainable ideal of completeness and perfection for each person.

The primordial giant anthropos is so complete that it embodies the entire cosmos. From his body, as a rule, the gods create all parts of the world. His eyes become sun and moon, his breath becomes wind, his voice becomes thunder. Flesh makes soil, knees and shoulders become mountains. Blood vessels circulate like rivers, hair forms a vegetation cover. Bones and teeth are transformed into precious stones and metals. We will find similar characters in different parts of the world. Giant Ymir - in Scandinavian mythology; the first man Purusha - in Indian. Even in the Old Testament apocryphal history, which was not included in the Bible, there is a similar character - Adam Kadmon, which means "original man." He was so huge that he frightened the angels with his size so that they asked the creator to reduce Adam in size. The result is an ordinary person.

• 2. In the tales of the first man and the first woman, the concomitant motif of the fall invariably appears. Two heterosexual representatives of the human race never justify the trust of the creator. Biblical Adam and Eve, identical characters of Muslim legends Adam and Havva eat the forbidden fruit, learn the sacraments of married life, in a word, they always violate the prohibitions given by God. Their disobedience comes to blasphemy. The first human couple in Iranian mythology, Mrtya and Mrtyanag started by eating lamb meat and drinking milk instead of dew. And then they completely stopped honoring the creator (prince of light Ahura Mazda), declaring the evil Ahriman (lord of darkness and evil) the ruler of the world and their father. The motive of the fall and expulsion from paradise, as in the case of the androgynous First Man, is associated with the idea of ​​losing the original perfection that the first people possessed from the moment of creation. Humanity, descended from the first couple, adds more and more new vices to the original sin of the forefathers.
• 3. The motive for the further deterioration of the human race is even more clearly manifested in the myths about the creation of many people at once, for example, fashioned by the gods in large numbers. It should be noted that in this case, as a rule, the practicality of the gods who created mankind is emphasized in order to have someone to manage the household, cultivate the land, grow plants and cook food for the celestials. And in general, the gods in the person of man create for themselves a servant and admirer, they want a creature to appear in the world that worships the creator. Often, because of the negligence of the creators themselves, people have flaws. In the Sumerian epic, the gods Enki (“Great Lord”, patron of the earth) and Ninmah (“Lady Mistress”, mother goddess) sculpt little men from clay, interrupting from time to time to rest and drink wine. At first, their creations are successful. Then, drunk, they create freaks, endowed with physical disabilities, women who are not able to give birth, sexless creatures. A similar motif exists in Chinese mythology, where the mother goddess Nu Gua makes people out of hard clay, but when she gets tired of this occupation, she smacks them out of silt diluted with water. It turns out beggars, losers, one-armed, one-legged cripples. This probably explains why imperfect, deprived beings appear from under the hand of the creator.

Often in mythology, guilt for squalor and physical defects is attributed to humanity itself, which refused to honor its father, or was proud of its superiority over all earthly creatures. Pride, excessive curiosity, violation of prohibitions bring people to the point that they are punished (by sending death, illness, shortening life) or even sacrificed in order to create a new humanity instead (such a motive exists among the American Indians). Probably, in this way, the myth reminds us that a person created in the image and likeness of God should not become proud and exalted. The idea of ​​similarity should not be a source of pride, but an incentive to improve the negligent, guilty offspring of God. It seems that these plots contain an important psychological moment associated with the possibility of becoming. Man, being the crown of creation, must nevertheless create, create and improve himself. Of course, you will not find such direct statements in myths, but the interpretation of unconscious images accompanying the plot leads to such an interpretation of the meaning of anthropogonic myths.

Myths about the creation of man are an integral part of cosmogonic myths.

Characteristic : the idea that initially everything has an anthropomorphic appearance. In this regard, the creation of man - distinguishing him from other humanoid beings , which gradually lose their human appearance (sometimes - the separation of people from each other).

Gods, demiurges, cultural heroes create the first people from the most variety of materials (animal bones, nuts, trees, clay, earth, etc.).

More often the origin of woman is different from that of man.

The idea of ​​the first man is connected with the idea end of mythical time when people were immortal, did not differ from the gods. First man - this is the most common first mortal . With his death the mythical ends (before-time O e) the existence of mankind . Following him, people began to die. .

The death of the first anthropomorphic being often explains the origin of the universe.

interesting anthropogonic myths of a totemic nature . Their characteristic plots: man once did not differ from animals; the story is not about the origin of all people, but only of a certain group, the zoomorphic totemic symbol of which is some kind of animal.

Sometimes people come out of the egg, out of the tree .

A special type of myth - about how people originally lived underground, and then came out (or were brought out) to the ground.

The motive of the origin of man is often complicated by ideas about the dual nature of man - earthly and heavenly.

Astral myths

Myths about constellations, stars and planets (solar - about the sun, lunar - about the moon ).

Stars and constellations are represented by animals, often they are elements of hunting.

Characteristic of these myths - the presence of several space characters who are embodied by constellations. Variants of myths differ in which part of the body corresponds to which constellation.

Gradually builds up correspondence system between 12 constellations and 12 animals . In ancient Babylon, a tradition was formed, which was later adopted by the Greeks - the allocation of 12 characters zodiac (from Greek - animal).

There are a number repetitive motifs :

about the star as about the dog that was on the chain. but could break;

about the Big Dipper as a chariot.

Sometimes stars - This items , caught in the sky (the roots of trees that grow in the "upper sky"); People that became stars or constellations; earthly women who became the wives of the stars.

There are stories about twin stars (an analogy with twin myths).

Constellations are often explained as footprints fighting heroes .

solar myths

myths, main character which is Sun .

The most archaic myths - in which the sun, the month (moon) form a pair of related and, at the same time, opposed cultural heroes.

Often the sun is represented by a woman.

The sun is the master of light , he has children, helpers who turn on the light.

Universal is the myth of the daughter of the sun .

Archaic myths tell about the destruction of "extra" suns .

A frequent myth is that stole the sun and then saved it .

Gradually the sun is realized as main deity , and in some cultures the sun culture hero .

Lunar myths

myths, main character which is moon and the relationship between the moon and the sun.

Moon and sun embody male And feminine start or blood relations (brother and sister).

A common motive is the motive the moon's courtship of the sun and their wedding . After the wedding the moon leaves the sun . For this he is avenged by the God of Thunder and splits the month in two .

Sometimes - monster motif (dog, ghoul) that devours the moon .

Usually the moon is bad A the sun is good . Less often it is the other way around.

Deity the moon has great power : it gives the elements for all living things.