Iriy
Iriy, Vyrai (
According to Andrzej Szyjewski , initially the Early Slavs believed in only one Vyrai, connected to the deity known as Rod—it was apparently located far away beyond the sea, at the end of the Milky Way.[3] According to folkloristic fables, the gates of Vyrai were guarded by Veles, who sometimes took the animal form of a raróg, grasping in its claws the keys to the otherworlds.[3] It was often imagined as a garden beyond an iron gate that barred the living from entering, located in the crown of the cosmic tree. Whereas the branches were said to be nested by the birds, who were usually identified as human souls.[2]
The etymological reconstruction of the word, supported by preserved beliefs, allows us to connect the Iriy with the oldest Slavic ideas about the other world, which is located underground or beyond the sea, where the path lies through water, in particular, through a whirlpool.[4] The pagan Slavic peoples thought the birds flying away to Vyrai for the winter and returning to Earth for the spring to be human souls.[3] According to some folk tales, the human soul departs the Earth for Vyrai during the cremation of its deceased flesh on a pyre; however, it does not stay in paradise forever, returning some time later to the womb of a pregnant woman (traces of reincarnation can be seen in this belief)—carried by a stork or nightjar.[3]
Boris Uspenskij, having analyzed the extensive ethnographic material about Iriy, concluded that "Iriy" is a general designation of the otherworld (i.e., not a real geographical place).[4]
Etymology
This term is sometimes said to be derived from rai, the
Heaven and hell
Eventually the idea of Vyrai was split into two separate realms, most likely under the influence of
Vyrai and storks
See also
- Early Slavs
- Elysium
- Kingdom of Opona
- Nav
- Slavic paganism
References
- ISBN 9785882003561. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
- ^ ISBN 83-207-1629-2.
- ^ ISBN 83-7318-205-5.
- ^ a b Boris Uspenskij. Philological research in the field of Slavic antiquities. - M.: Publishing House of the Moscow University, 1982
- ^ Max Vasmer, Этимологический словарь русского языка (М., 1964—1973), s.v. ирей.
- ISBN 9785457607705. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
- ISBN 9785457607705.
- ISBN 83-221-0152-X.