cult animal, along with the bear, was the goose-swan, mentioned in the tales of the Russian people inextricably. However, similar, even more likely, identical tales are observed in Pomerania and Denmark and Sweden, where the Huns-Hans reached the Bronze Age.
The name of this tribe itself is associated with a goose, because in German it is Hans-goose. And it is natural that tales and legends with a goose are numerous-Geese-Swans appear in many tales. But earlier, the goose was the subject of a cult – this animal, as in the myths of Apollo, who was also a native of the North, carried the soul of the deceased to the Land of the Dead. This is evidenced by the numerous statuettes of these birds in the graves of Scythians, Sarmatians and Huns. But in the Bronze Age, geese were depicted schematically, in the form of a meander.
The Saks from Altai, the Sarmatians, also accompanied the goose in the afterlife. Obviously, judging by the tales, he had to fly away with the soul of the deceased to his ancestral home, the distant North. In Moksha, Gus-matzi, -hh, the latter is close to the word HUNT.
Among the Saks, the swan was also a sacred creature, whose function was to deliver the soul of the deceased to the afterlife. Recall the team of Apollo swans.
Extra evidence that the Huns-Hans reached Hellas in the third millennium is also proved by the goose-swan cult associated with the cult of Apollo and Artemis.
Among the many living attributes of Apollo, the swan rightfully occupies the main place. The popularity of the Apollo and Swans motif has been attested throughout antiquity. This beautiful proud bird accompanies the divine twins Apollo and Artemis “the most beautiful inter-glorious descendants of Uranus” (Hes. Theog., 920). Sometimes a “golden Aphrodite” or her tomboy Eros appears on a swan (and more often on a goose, judging by a vase), but this is already late Hellenism).
Poets and philosophers often call the swan the bird of Apollo (H. h., XXI. 1 sq; Sapph. Frg. 147b, Plato, Phed., 85b.), “The vocal singer of God”, “the most melodious of birds” (Call. Hymn., II, 5; IV, 249), “the favorite of the muses” (Eur. Ipphig. T., 1103—1105), “the Pythian and Delosian” (Aristoph. Av., 870). “The long-necked joy of Apollo” calls the swan Bacchillides (Dyph., 16). The motive of the “swan song” was not known in antiquity; Homer, Hesiod, and also in Homeric hymns do not have it. On the contrary, the swan in the sacred places of Apollo constantly sings, glorifying the birth of God on Delos (Call., II, 250—254), or portending his appearance (II, 5; Aristoph. Av., 769—770), or singing in the land of Hyperboreans hymns during the rites. According to Elian (De nat. An., XI, 1), at that time clouds of swans flocked from the Riphean mountains, “they fly around the temple, as if cleansing it with their flight,” and then gracefully sit on the fence of the temple, “representing a sight majestic in multitude and beauty. “When the singers begin to praise God accompanied by the citharists, “then the swans together join in singing and in no way do they sing awkwardly or inaccurately”, masterfully performing a melody, like experienced singers, led by a choreographer. And all day long, “the aforementioned feathered singers collectively glorify and glorify God.”
Belief in the living, evil dead, silver weapons against them
There are extremely interesting exhibits in the State Historical Museum, these are the silver tips of copies from the Borodino treasure, and obviously, the more ancient silver tips belonging to the Seima-Turbino Culture.
SHM exhibits, Seminsky-Turbinskaya culture
Silver spear tip Borodino treasure, silver spears. SHM
The detachments of warriors with silver spears are mentioned by Arrian at Alexander the Great and are called argyraspids, from argyr – silver, and speyra-spear, to call them silver-cut is a clear mistake. A detachment of soldiers with silver spears was also owned by the Persian king, according to the testimony of Quintus Curtius Rufus. “Behind the chariot were 10 thousand spearmen with richly decorated silver spears.” The squires of Moscow’s grand dukes and tsars – the market men – were remembered by all foreign guests of the Kremlin. During the ceremonial receptions of foreign ambassadors, they stood on both sides of the royal throne, dressed in ceremonial clothes, with silver hatchets. And here, too, silver weapons, and everything somehow coincides, one to one. If we recall the property of silver, which was considered important in antiquity, to drive away or kill evil spirits.
This is the custom of neutralizing the dead, known only in the Ciscaucasia and the Volga and Don basin. The dissected burials of the Bronze Age are known in the burial mounds of the pit and catacomb cultures. At the same time, they do not form a single chronological layer, often their dating is complicated by the lack of inventory. Often, the practice of dismembering two buried, buried in one pit. The specific forms of manifestation of the ritual of dismemberment of bones could vary, which can be explained by different motives of dismemberment. But, despite this, common to all options is that such a practice has never been applied to all members of the community and has always been unique. There are two types of dissections, each of which has its own motivation:
Type I – dismemberment caused by necrophobia, rather the desire to render harmless the dead, and to make safe his dead body, which already had no relation to the dead person, that is, the soul. And in later eras, the Indo-Europeans did not sign the graves of the dead, did not put any plates with the names of the dead, even the famous royal burial sites of Macedonia were depersonalized, in contrast to the Athenian burials of the same era. The corpse was dismembered, or mutilated, designed to “render harmless” the deceased. You can recall the belief, already widespread in the historical era, that a vampire can be killed with a stake pierced in his heart or cut off his head, but it can also be killed with silver weapons. Both phenomena have the same motivation. In the Bronze Age, such a dismemberment could probably be subjected to mentally ill or worshipers, priests, sorcerers, fortune tellers. The ritual was intended to deprive the powerful dead man of sacred power. Type 2 – dismemberment of the victim, as atonement for the sins of the organizers of the funeral rite and transfer of the “wrath of the deceased” to the dismembered victim. Either this was used to “alleviate” the suffering of the main deceased or undergo posthumous trials. Type 2 was not used in single burials.
In addition to the Oksko-Sur interfluve, such burials are also known in other territories. But the distribution area of this rite is so great that listing all areas of its existence is very difficult. In addition to the ancient Mordovians, this rite was quite widespread both among Finno-Ugric peoples and beyond. So in the III – IV centuries. the rite of neutralization was known to the Sarmatians (II Akhmerovsky, Salikhovsky burial ground), up to the VII century. it existed among the Turbaslinsky tribes (Dezhnevsky, Turbaslinsky burial grounds), Bakhmutin culture (Birsky burial ground), in the VIII – X centuries. in Saltovo-Mayak culture it is (Mayatsky, Saltovsky, Rubezhansky burial grounds), in the 7th-10th centuries. the rite was present in the graves of Mary (Khotiml burial ground, mounds near Kineshma), in the IX – XI centuries. Vymsk culture, in the XII -XIV centuries. in the monuments of the Makushensky type (Makushensky burial ground), Relkino culture (Relka burial ground), the Udmurts, Rodanovskaya culture, etc. (Matveeva G.I., 2003. S.210—211; Flerov V.S., 1993, 2000a, b; Aksenov V.S., 2002; Finno-Ugric peoples
