Myths about spiritual development. In fact

Literature of Antiquity

The cradle of European civilization (antiquity). At that time they were forming key concepts theories, concepts of state, law, science, literature, art.

The development of the ancient spirit was facilitated by:

The principle of competition ( Olympic Games in Rome)

The principle of harmonious development

Antiquity is the childhood of humanity.

9-8 centuries BC known as the time of the creation of the first alphabet, the first monuments of Greek literature date back to the same time, and the first examples of Roman literature date back to the 3rd century BC. AD Since the 5th century BC, since the fall Ancient Rome The era of Antiquity ends.

Literature reflects the development of society from early society to the slave empire.

Ancient Greek literature- a set of literary works of ancient authors, including all the work of ancient Greek poets, historians, philosophers, orators, etc. until the end of history Ancient Greece.

The extreme limits of the history of ancient Greek literature should be recognized as the 11th century. BC e., when numerous tales about heroes arose Trojan War, and the first half of the 6th century. n. e., when, by order of Emperor Justinian (529), philosophical schools in Athens were closed.

Greek culture develops in the conditions of the formation of policies. During the archaic period (VIII-VI centuries BC) a polis system took shape in Greece. Many independent city-states, “polises” in Greek, became the cells of society, state and culture of Ancient Greece. Polis developed from tribal communities or were created anew during the founding of colonies. This process took about 300 years. The Greeks preferred to create small policies - with a population of no more than 10 thousand people. Athens was, perhaps, a rare exception - 120-150 thousand people lived there (see p. 173). The polis consisted of a city (center), surrounded by defensive walls, and a rural district. The main population of the polis lived in the city, the People's Assembly met in the agora and trade took place, and on the acropolis (citadel) there were temples of the most revered gods.

At the moment of transition from the communal-tribal formation, the first monuments are born (Homer). Meanwhile, mythology has become a significant layer of culture, which reflects the consciousness of a person who thinks of nature and the world around him as a living and animate being. At first, this world is ruled by gods and demons, and later by certain scientific laws.

Mythology continues to exist throughout Antiquity. First as a religion and an explanation of all the processes taking place, then as a pantry artistic images. Mythical heroes become heroes of tragedies and lyrical works.

Periodization of ancient Greek literature:

Preclassical period (archaic) - the first third of the first millennium BC. - this is CNT, mythology and heroic poems “Illiad” and “Odesea”. IN this period the era of the formation and flourishing of Greek classical slavery.

Classical period - 7-4 centuries BC. e. – diverse types of lyricism, drama and classical literature. The heroes of this time are poets, the “fathers” of tragedy and comedy, historians and orators.

The Hellenistic period coincides with the era of large-scale slavery, when instead of policies there were large military-monarchical organizations and the first empires. At the same time, the era of individualism begins in the human worldview, which is why it is often called the period of degradation of the classics. And at the same time, small forms of literature are flourishing. This includes Roman literature, which is often interpreted as the Hellenistic Roman period. (3rd century BC to 5th century AD)

No. 2 Greek mythology and the evolution of mythological ideas

Religion and mythology of Ancient Greece had a huge influence on the development of culture and art throughout the world and laid the foundation for countless religious ideas about man, heroes and gods.

The initial stage of its development is Oral Folk Art. The most productive of which was mythology as a form of collective activity. Myth combines fiction, faith and knowledge, i.e. it is syncretic, but one cannot put an equal sign between myth and religion, which is based on a system of cults and rituals. In the same way, myth cannot be replaced by a fairy tale or legend, since legend is memory of events, and a fairy tale is fiction.

Stages of development of mythology

Fetishism is the representation of the most ordinary objects as animate.

Fetishism is a time when society experiences an appropriative stage of development. Man identifies himself with nature, which is all-animate, all consisting of physical objects and forces, and outside of them man knows and sees nothing. Every thing is animated and therefore magical power is spread throughout the world, and the demon creature is not separated from the object in which it lives.

Mythological archaic is the oldest period of mythology, which dates back to the times of the matriarchal family - the initial stage. The process of life is perceived in a randomly piled-up form, so everything around us is animate, but moves by some incomprehensible forces. The principle of disorder, disproportion, reaching chaos and horror. The world and nature are a kind of living and animate body. And because people see only the Earth and the Sky, which, as he believes, the earth gave birth to, then it is the basis of the mythology of the era of matriarchy. This is chthonic mythology. The earth is the source and womb of all living things, gods, demons, people.

Fetishism - nature, on the one hand, is all animated, on the other, everything consists only of physical objects and forces, behind which a person sees nothing. Such an object is a fetish, and mythology is fetishism. Other people perceive the fetish as a focus of magical power. The demonic creature is in no way separated from the object in which it resides.

Examples: gods and heroes in the form of untreated, rough wooden and stone objects. The goddess Latona on Delos - a log, Hercules in Gietta - a stone, Dioscuri in Sparta - 2 logs with cross beams. The vine and ivy are the fetish of Dionysus, the spear of Achilles, which healed the hero Telephus. Athena is a snake. Zeus is a bull.

Human organs are like the soul itself in the form of a material object. Homer's diaphragm. Together with the blood, the soul leaves the body.

When a person’s consciousness develops and he does not run away in horror from forces incomprehensible to him, but begins to peer into them, cognize them, and, if possible, use them - this is already the stage of fetishism as such, because the fetish is fixed as such, and is not just vaguely perceived.

Animism is the belief in the existence of souls and spirits, the belief in the animation of all nature. This term was first introduced by the scientist Stahl.

Animism is formed when a person not only appropriates, but also produces. At this time, the idea of ​​a thing is formed, which is separated from the thing itself. Animism reflects the process of demons gaining their independence. A demon can exist even after the destruction of the thing itself.

Example: nymph (tree).

Animist demon is a generalized mythical creature, the source or parent of things that also fall under respectively generic concept, for example, the ocean is both a river and the parent of all rivers on Earth. At this stage, the separation of matter and ether occurs. Demons and Gods are made up of different substances, they have a body, but it is different for them. If the demon consists of elements (from earth to fire), then the gods consist of ether.

Animism, like the previous stage, was formed at the stage of matriarchy. At this time, the creation of the Earth (Erinyes, i.e. creatures that combine animal and human) is revered.

The early classics were formed during the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy and were expressed by the stage of Olympian or classical mythology. At this time there was a transition from chthonism to the pantheon. The heroes begin to repeat and defeat all the monsters of the previous period.

Late heroism. At this time, man’s independence in relation to the gods grows, which is expressed not only in competition with the gods, but in criticism of these gods.

Self-denial of mythology. At this time, myths are formed that destroy their own foundations. Example: Prometheus.

Late classics - the end of mythology.

No. 3 Heroic and didactic epic of Ancient Greece (Homer and Hesiod)

Epic(ancient Greek ἔπος - “word”, “narration”) - a heroic narrative about the past, containing a holistic picture of people’s life and representing in harmonious unity a certain epic world and heroic heroes.

There were several types of epic: heroic, didactic, parody. On different historical stages it took different forms. At the origins heroic epic Homer's poems are worth it.

The epic style is an artistic style that depicts to us the life of one or another human group, subordinating absolutely every personal life with its laws. The primacy of the general over the individual. The true place of the epic is the ascending patriarchy, when a person so masters the forces of nature that he can heroically fight them and heroically subjugate them. In this era, the tribal community became settled, it began to recognize itself as a single whole, began to remember its history and the great heroes who created it.

If the general takes the place of the personal, then it is clear that the personal appears in an undeveloped and primitive form.

1. The objectivity of the epic (the epic artist does not seem to use his imagination. Not only real things, but also everything fabulous and mythical, is thought of by him as something objective and non-fictional)

2. The detailed efficiency of the epic (“Catalogue of ships” takes 300 lines, the shield of Achilles - 132 lines)

3. Picturesqueness and plasticity of images (loving examination of things, chronological incompatibility or the law of planar image, there is no ability to three-dimensional perception of the world, we have before us not a relief, but a plane perception of the world, geometric style, plasticity - not only injuries are given, but also their consequences, like Patroclus was dragging a Trojan under a spear)

4. Anti-psychologism and a purely material image of any internal experience (lack of analysis of a person’s internal experiences, lack of internal motivation for his events. Example: Paris loves Helen, but exactly how, nothing is known about this; Odysseus and Penelope)

But a person in whom her “I” has not yet awakened is subordinate to her tribal collective. From here follows devotion to everything that was received from her ancestors, i.e. everything great and significant. The basic principles of the epic necessarily include

5. Traditionality (what is depicted in the epic is important for everyone. Everyone is sure that this is how it has always been and will be. Everything is told slowly and sedately, as if we are talking about eternal truth. Repetitions or constant epithets)

6. Monumentality (an epic work always awakens high, noble feelings, fosters a heroic will, and does not tolerate anything base)

7. The absence of little things in it (they are present, but every little thing is depicted in the light of the general, given in the environment of heroic life, bears the stamp of great events)

8. Balanced - contemplative calm of a free - heroic spirit.

All these principles artistic style epics are concentrated in one thing, which equally relates to the style, to the way of life of the epic person. This is the principle of epic heroism. The real bearer of all these features of the epic style is the hero, understood as a product of the communal-tribal formation of the period of patriarchy, that is, as the individual embodiment of the patriarchal community itself.

Homer's free epic style is such a design artistic creativity, which examines the entire communal-tribal formation, often mixing in one image the most diverse of its eras and giving an image of these eras in a good-natured, ironic, humorous and condescending manner, but at the same time in a naively, serious and often even tragic sense. The heroes depicted here, natures who know how to love strongly and hate strongly, feel free and independent, passionately loving life in all its manifestations and never losing heart, despite constant suffering and disasters. Inconsistency in the Homeric style speaks precisely of the transition of the era, or of the movement and formation of the era, of its rapid development.

Numerous peoples inhabiting the territory ancient China, were in close contact with each other, the myths of these nationalities constantly contaminated with each other, changed and underwent significant mixing. Ancient myths have been written down for a very long time - from the Eastern Zhou era to the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, which is more than a thousand years. Needless to say, time, as well as those who wrote down the myths, left their stamp on them. Therefore, it is indeed very difficult to explore and reconstruct ancient Chinese myths from individual fragments and recreate their former appearance. In addition, the myths themselves changed and developed all the time. This is clearly seen in the evolution of the myth of Xi-wan-mu. Si-wan-mu, judging by the descriptions in the “Book of Mountains and Seas,” was originally a cruel spirit “with a leopard tail, tiger teeth and disheveled hair,” who sent diseases and administered punishments. Three bluebirds brought her food. The “Biography of Sovereign Mu” tells how the Zhou Mu-wan, riding a chariot drawn by eight beautiful horses, went to the Yan-shan mountains to see Si-wan-mu, with whom he composed poems and sang songs there. Apparently, Si-wan-mu was a queen in human form at that time. A later work by Huainanzi says: “Shooter Yi asked Xi-wan-mu for the medicine of immortality,” and Xi-wan-mu suddenly turned from an evil spirit into a good one. In the “Story of the Han Wu Di,” attributed to Ban Gu, Si-wan-mu takes on a different meaning - she turns into the “wan-mu” (queen mother) of the West. Here we have only a slight simplification of the name; as for the three birds, their description has not undergone any changes. In the somewhat later work Hanunei Zhuan, which is also attributed to Ban Gu, the image of Si-wan-mu is even more embellished - she is depicted as beautiful woman“more than thirty years old,” “with beauty that conquered the world,” and the three bluebirds that used to bring her food turned into cheerful and beautiful maids. The difference between the images of Si-wan-mu “with the tail of a leopard, tiger teeth and disheveled hair,” who lived in a mountain cave, and Wang-mu - the queen - is the same as between heaven and earth!

Such changes were the result of deliberate correction and embellishment on the part of the writers and cannot be considered as the result of the natural development and evolution of myths.

However, one should not neglect the influence that these corrections and embellishments had on the myths. Each of the myths that underwent such corrections, in turn, turned into a source of new ones. folk myths. For example, Si-wan-mu in folk legend is not an evil spirit with “the tail of a leopard and the teeth of a tiger,” but a beautiful mistress of the West. The “Book of Mountains and Seas” speaks only about Si-wan-mu, but in the “Book of the Wonderful and Extraordinary” Dong-wan-gun appears, none other than the husband of the lonely Si-wan-mu. Initially, I thought that this was just an invention of writers, and did not attach any significance to it. However, I recently read about the Peak of the Woman's Spirit from folk legends localities of Xianxia, ​​collected by Tian Hai-yan, where Dong-wan-gun, contrary to my ideas, acts as the spirit of the husband of Si-wan-mu. This, involuntarily surprising, made me think: was Dong-wan-gun originally created by writers, and then penetrated into folklore, or did his image arise on the basis of oral traditions already existing among the people? The issue is worth studying. Research work A study in mythology cannot be successful without a detailed and thorough study of the evolution of myths.

When working on myths, you should also pay great attention to how to isolate superstitions from myths.

Zhou Yang says: “Of course, myths and superstitions originally reflected certain primitive ideas of the ancient people about the world, reflected their beliefs in supernatural forces. However, the meaning of myths and superstitions varies. Superstitions that do not relate to supernatural forces follow; just discard; many myths were often active in relation to the surrounding world and were often truly popular, while superstitions, passive in nature, often reflected the interests of the ruling classes. This difference between myths and superstitions can be seen very clearly in their relation to fate.

Myths often expressed a person’s reluctance to submit to fate, and superstitions, on the contrary, preached fatalism and retribution, forcing people to believe that everything was predetermined and the best thing was to bow their heads before fate.

Therefore, the spirits themselves that control fate were different. Mythical characters often boldly opposed the power of spirits, for example, Sun Wu-kun against the Jasper Emperor Yuhuang, the Shepherd and the Weaver against the Queen Mother - Wang Mu. Superstitions preached the powerlessness of man before spirits and thus made people slaves of spirits, ready to sacrifice themselves. Myths have always inspired people to free themselves from slavery and strive for a life worthy of man. Superstitions, instilling in people a sense of slavish obedience, embellished the shackles of slavery. This is the reason why we, in opposing superstitions, praise myths.” Thus, myths are not at all like superstitions. However, in myths, to a greater or lesser extent, there are elements of superstition, which form their organic part, and they cannot be separated from myths. For example, in ancient myths there are many amazing legends about the birth of great figures. Thus, in the “Book of Songs” in the poem “Dark Bird” it is said that “the sky sent a dark bird to descend to earth and give birth to Shan.” In the Song encyclopedia “Imperial Review of the Taiping Years” - Taiping yulan in tsz. 78, the following words are quoted from “Shihan Shenwu”: “Huge footprints appeared on the bank of Lei-tse, and Hua-xu stepped on them and [after that] gave birth to Fu-si.” All these legends contain many elements of superstition. However, Fu-xi and Shang Qi appeared in the eyes of ancient people true heroes, and therefore, despite the fact that the legends glorifying heroes contain some elements of superstition, they should be considered as myths. They differ from those “myths” that were created in subsequent times specifically to glorify the miraculous origins of emperors and princes. These two types of myths must be distinguished from each other. In addition, the appearance of devils and spirits cannot be considered only as the influence of superstition. It is necessary to pay attention to whether, with the help of the image of a particular spirit, submission to fate is preached or, on the contrary, he opposes this. The spirits thus often expressed the hatred of the ancients towards the rulers. Mo Tzu in the chapter “Ming Guipian” gives a story about how Du Bo turned into a spirit of vengeance and killed the Zhou Xuan Wang. Such characters can be considered mythical. Such delicate work of distinguishing between superstitions and myths should be carried out very carefully.

I would also like to say a few words here about the differences between myths and legends, between myths and tales of immortals.

What is a myth and what is a legend? Give precise definition they are very difficult. Usually we cannot make a strict distinction between the two, since the legends themselves arise from myths. But in general, we can say that myths gradually evolve, the main characters in them are humanized, and their actions are recorded in the form of human deeds - this is how a legend is created. What legend usually tells about is either mighty heroes of antiquity, like the shooter I, who caught a wild boar and cut down the snake, or heavenly lovers, like the Weaver and the Shepherd, who meet once a year on the bridge of magpie tails, or, finally, stories about cultural heroes, such as Pan-gu, about the domestication of silkworms and horses.

Legends, being formed in the process of development of civilization, gradually discarded everything unusual inherent in myths, and borrowed what more or less corresponded to the real thing in people's minds. Thanks to this, we can see how the aspirations of the people acquired the character of reality and how people made the transition from a relatively low level of culture to a higher stage of its development. As for the difference between myths and tales about immortals, we can clarify this question using the example of the legend of Pan-gu. About this hero, Xu Zheng in “Historical Records of the Three Rulers and Five Emperors” says that Pan-gu was born in chaos, when heaven and earth resembled chicken egg. Suddenly, heaven and earth separated from each other: yang, light and pure, became heaven, yin, dark and unclean, became earth. After this, the sky began to rise up by one zhang every day, and the earth became thicker by one zhang per day, and Pan-gu himself grew by one zhang per day. Eighteen thousand years passed, and the sky rose high, high, and the earth became dense and thick. And Pan-gu himself became tall, tall.

In this story, despite the layers of fantasy, one can discern the appearance of a primitive legend, which has not yet lost the character of a beautiful myth. However, once it got into the writings of the Taoists, it turned into genuine nonsense. So, for example, in “Notes on the First Immortals” there is an entry whose meaning is as follows.

When earth and sky were not yet separated, Pan-gu, who called himself the first king of heaven, traveled among this chaos. Then, when heaven and earth separated, Pan-gu went to live in the palace on the Mountain of the Jasper capital - Yujing-shan, ate heavenly dew and drank water from earthly springs. A few years later, in a mountain gorge, from the blood collected there, a girl of unprecedented beauty was born, whose name was Taiyuan-yunyu, which means “The First Jasper Maiden.” Coming down from the mountain for a walk, Pan-gu saw her, and they got married, he brought her to the palace, where they began to live. They had a son, whom they named Tianhuang - Heavenly Emperor, and a daughter Jiuguangxuannyu - Pure Maiden of the Nine Rays, etc., etc. Isn’t all this the fabrications of the Taoists? We usually call this kind of writing “xianhua” - legends about immortals. In Xianhua, as in Taoist teachings, the achievement of happiness for one person comes to the fore. Therefore, such characters as Nyu-wa, Gun, Yu and similar mythical heroes who were ready to sacrifice themselves could not appear in Xianhua. By this feature, myths can be easily distinguished from Xianhua. However, the xianhua, which are part of the myths, are difficult to separate from the latter. For example, we must assume that the story from Huainanzi about the arrow Yi, who asked for the medicine of immortality from Xi-wan-mu, and Chang-e, who stole it and ran away to the moon, contains elements of Xianhua, and we still attribute this to myths. On the other hand, xianhua, which narrate the deeds of immortals, are very often close in content and style to myths and differ from xianhua, which were reworked by Taoists. When researching and studying these xianhua, we should consider them within the framework of mythology.

As for the question of why to study myths, I will try to explain this below.

Myths were created at the dawn of the history of human society. From myths we can judge what ideas and thoughts were working people ancient times: how they imagined the universe, how they sang folk heroes, how they sought to improve their lives, how they glorified work and struggle, etc., etc. In addition, by studying myths, we will understand even better how to love life and people.

Representing very great interest in themselves, myths had a significant influence on literature and art, giving them a special charm and freshness. The sculpture of the ancient Greeks is beautiful precisely because of its close connection with myths. The same can be said about Tao-te, Kuya, Kuya-dragon, Kuya-phoenix, water and one-horned dragons, about amazing birds and animals, the images of which decorated tripods and vessels of the Yin and Zhou eras. Mythological ideas left their mark on these works of art. The Great Qu Yuan in “Elegy of the Detached,” in “Questions to Heaven,” and “Nine Chant” turns to the images of heroes of myths, mourning the death of the Principality of Chu. His poetry, like Egyptian wall paintings and Indian epic, is saturated with elements of mythology.

But it should be borne in mind that myths, without being historical evidence, to some extent were able to reflect history. Of course, it is absurd to see ancient emperors and princes in all the characters of myths, but it is equally wrong to neglect the content of myths to some extent of a historical nature. In myths we can find a reflection of historical reality. For example, under the struggle between Huang Di and Chi Yu, there is hidden a clash between the people of the Mongolian plateau and the tribes of the southern part that took place in the central plain. Pacific Ocean, under the story of the Kunlun and Xi-wan-mu mountains - the emergence of cultural ties between Chinese and Tibetan tribes.

Myths reflect and national character. Thus, Chinese myths to some extent reflect the characteristics of the Chinese nation. Our people can proudly talk about the heroes of ancient myths. Telling about extraordinary endurance and strength, about the diverse aspirations of the people, Chinese myths express the spirit of self-affirmation of our distant ancestors. Indeed, for us, their descendants, these are excellent role models. By studying myths, we can understand the origins of our national character.

The process of life was perceived by ancient man in a disorderly heaped form. Therefore, a person not only makes everything material and physical, alive, and sometimes even animate and rational, but he thinks of everything around him blindly, that is, driven by some incomprehensible forces. As a result of this, the principle of design of all things and phenomena for primitive consciousness is the principle of disorder, disproportion, disproportion and disharmony, reaching the point of direct ugliness and horror. Peace and nature represent for primitive man some living and animate physical body. And since primitive man sees in front of him only the Earth with its constituent objects and the Sky, then the Earth (Greek chthon), living, animate, producing everything from itself and feeding everything, including the Sky, which it also gives birth to here, - is the basis of the mythology of the era of matriarchy. This ancient mythology is called chthonic. Just as a woman at this stage is the head of the clan, mother, nurse and teacher, so the Earth is here the source and womb of the whole world, gods, demons, people.

Along with the development of society, the forms of primitive thinking also change, which makes it possible to distinguish several stages in the development of ancient mythology.

A) F et i sh i z m. It is known that productive forces primitive society They go through two stages of their development: appropriating and producing. In the first case, a person, identifying himself with nature, i.e. understanding it humanely (and this means, first of all, animatedly), he finds for himself in this nature only the finished products he needs to maintain material life.

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*Mount Olympus is located in northern Greece, in Thessaly.

Nature here, on the one hand, is all animated, and on the other hand, it all consists only of physical objects and forces, beyond which man sees and knows nothing and cannot know or see anything. What is a thing that is both animate and at the same time thoroughly material, thoroughly physical? Such a thing is a fetish, and such mythology is fetishism. Thus, ancient man understood the fetish as the focus of magical, demonic, living force. And since the entire objective world is animated, the magical power is “spread” throughout the world and the demonic creature is in no way separated from the object in which it lives.

Fetishism in ancient Greece covers all areas of reality. Let us give a number of examples from literary primary sources. First of all, among fetishes we find gods and heroes in the form of unprocessed, rough wooden or stone objects. Such, for example, are the goddess Latona on Delos - in the form of a log, Hercules in Gietta - in the form of a stone, the Dioscuri brothers - in the form of two logs with cross beams in Sparta. Objects made by human hands were also fetishes, for example the spear of Achilles, which healed the hero Telephus. Plants, animals and man himself, as well as all parts of his body, had fetishistic significance. Thus, the vine and ivy were fetishes of Dionysus, and the god was sometimes directly called “Ivy.” Athena is called “Snake” in one of the Orphic hymns. The Cretan Zeus was once perceived as a bull, and the “owl-eyedness” of Athena and the “hair-eyedness” of Hera also clearly indicate their ancient identity with an owl and a cow (so-called zoomorphism). Snake, bull and cow endowed magical power, are also real fetishes.

As for man, his organs - heart, diaphragm, kidneys, eyes, hair, blood, saliva - were at first understood not as carriers of the soul, but as the soul itself in the form of a material body, i.e., a fetish. In Homer, for example, the diaphragm is thought of as a subject, as a self-conscious “I”. Together with the blood, the soul leaves the body. When a person’s consciousness strengthens and when, under the influence of the growth of productive forces, he already receives some opportunity to peer into objects and phenomena, and not just instinctively use them or instinctively avoid them, then the surrounding nature is dissected for him in the form of certain areas, sections , groups, different types or types of objects. A person not only runs away in horror from forces he does not understand, but begins to peer into them, dismember them and, if possible, use them. Only at this stage of development of the consciousness of primitive man does that stage of ancient mythology begin, which can be called fetishism in the proper sense of the word, because only here for the first time is the fetish fixed as such, and not simply perceived only instinctively and vaguely.

B) Animism. When a person’s assimilative activity rises to the level of production and when things are no longer taken or appropriated in finished form, then a person begins to be interested in questions of their production, that is, their composition, their meaning and principles of their structure. However, to do this it is necessary to separate the idea of ​​a thing from the thing itself. And since the things here are fetishes, it is necessary to develop the ability to separate the idea of ​​a fetish from the fetish itself, that is, to separate the magical power of the demon of a thing from the thing itself. This is how the transition to animism is made. Just like fetishism, animism (Greek animus - spirit, anima - soul) also had its own history. At first, the demon of a thing is so inseparable from the thing (even if he differs from it) that with the destruction of the thing, this demon of the thing ceases to exist, like the Greek hamadryad, a nymph of a tree, dying along with the cutting of the tree itself. Subsequently, the independence of these demons also increases, which now not only differ from things, but are also able to separate from them and persist for a more or less long period after the destruction of these things. Such is the Greek dryad, also a nymph of a tree, but already surviving after the destruction of the tree itself.

This demon then becomes a kind of generalized mythical creature, i.e., the source or parent of all things that fall as species representatives under the corresponding generic concept. The Greek Ocean, for example, is this river in general, which, firstly, is given in the form of one, especially large, especially fast, especially deep river, covering the entire Earth, and, secondly, it is the parent of all rivers on earth in general.

The gods and demons of ancient mythology are, first of all, physical, material and sensitive beings. They have a very ordinary body, although this body can be thought of as arising from different types of matter. If ancient people imagined that the coarsest and heaviest matter is earth, water is something more rarefied, and air is even thinner than water, and fire is thinner than air, then the demons were thought of like that - consisting of all these elements, starting from the most ordinary earth and ending with fire. The gods were imagined to consist of matter even more subtle than fire, namely ether.

The oldest animistic concept of the Greeks is expressed in the myth of Meleager. The Aetolian hero Meleager, when he was only seven days old, was predicted by the goddesses of fate Moira that his life would end as soon as the log burning in the hearth burned out. Mother Meleager snatched a log from the hearth, extinguished it with water and hid it. When she wanted to take revenge on her son for the murder of her brothers during the Calydonian hunt, she lit the log again, and Meleager died as soon as the log burned down. In this case, the burning log contains magical power, which is the cause of the entire life of a given person.

Ancient animistic demons tend to appear disordered and disharmonious. In these cases, they usually talk about teratology, that is, about the age of monsters and monsters (Greek teras - miracle and monster), symbolizing the forces of the earth. Hesiod speaks in detail about the titans, cyclops and hundred-armed creatures generated by Heaven-Uranus and Earth-Gaia. In the latter, monstrosity is especially emphasized, because each such creature has 100 arms and 50 heads. This also includes the hundred-headed Typhon - the product of the Earth and Tartarus (according to another version, Hera gave birth to him by hitting the ground with her palm and receiving magical power from her). Among the creatures of the Earth, it is necessary to mention the Erinyes - terrible, gray-haired, bloody old women with dog heads and snakes in their flowing hair. They protect the statutes of the Earth and persecute every criminal against the Earth and the rights of kinship. In the same way, from Echidna (a beautiful maiden with the body of a snake) and Typhon are born the dog Orphus, copper-voiced and fifty-headed, the bloodthirsty guardian of Hades - Kerberus, the Lernaean Hydra, the Chimera with three heads - lionesses, goats and snakes with flames from the mouth, the Sphinx, killing everyone , who did not solve his riddles, and from Echidna and Orph - the Nemean Lion. Demons that combine human and animal species are called mixanthropic (“mixed” with humans). These are the sirens - birds and women, centaurs, in whom the bodies of a man and a horse are combined. All this is evidence of inseparability ancient man from nature. When he did not yet separate himself from it, but felt like an integral part of nature. All this elemental monstrous mythology of matriarchy (Medusa Gorgon, Sphinx “strangler”, Echidna, Chimera - monsters feminine) receives its generalization and completion in the mythology of the Great Mother or Mother of the Gods. This mythology and this savage cult were, of course, relegated to the background in the classical times of Greece, and were scarcely remembered. But in the depths of pre-Homeric history, in the era of matriarchy, as well as in the Hellenistic-Roman period, when the revival of the archaic took place, this mythology and this cult were of great importance.

In developed animism, the transformation of a demon or god leads to an anthropomorphic, i.e. humanized, understanding of them. And it is precisely among the Greeks that this anthropomorphism reaches its highest form, expressed in a whole system of real artistic or plastic images. The Greek knew perfectly well what color hair Apollo had, what eyebrows or beard Zeus had, what eyes Pallas Athena had, what legs Hephaestus had, how Ares screamed and Aphrodite smiled, what eyelashes Aphrodite had and what sandals Hermes had.

Analyzing the images of ancient gods, demons and heroes in myths in sufficient detail, we will encounter another feature that constitutes a universal property of any god, demon and hero - this is what we call historical vestiges, rudiments, or relics. No matter how completely the anthropomorphic image of a god, demon or hero was developed in ancient mythology, it always contained features of an earlier, namely purely fetishistic, or chthonic development, for example, owl eyes - in Athena, a snake - a constant attribute of the wise Athena, eyes cows - from Hera.

The later heroic forms of matriarchal mythology include, first of all, the famous Greek Amazons. This is an obvious rudiment among the non-matriarchal and already purely heroic mythology. Amazons are a female tribe living, according to myths, in Asia Minor, on the Thermodon River, on the island of Lemnos or in the area of ​​Maeotis and Pontus Euxine, in Thrace or Scythia. The Amazons did not allow men into their society and recognized them only for the sake of procreation, exterminating all born boys. Armed from head to toe, always on horseback, they spent their time in wars. Patriarchal, that is, heroic, mythology almost always depicts the victory of some hero over the Amazons. They were defeated by Hercules, Theseus, Bellerophon, and Achilles. In the same way, the myths that have come down to us talk about the marriage of heroines with mortal heroes, and in the period of patriarchy and heroism this already sounded like a strange exoticism and like a vestige of a long-gone antiquity (cf. Thetis and Peleus, Aphrodite and Anchises).

B) R a n i c l a s s i k a. With the transition from the maternal community to patriarchy, a new stage of mythology develops, which can be called heroic, Olympian or classical mythology, based on a harmonious and artistic perception of the world. In the mythology of this period, heroes appear who deal with all the monsters and bogeymen that once frightened the imagination of man, crushed by an incomprehensible and omnipotent nature.

Instead of small gods and demons, one main, supreme god Zeus appears, and all other gods and demons obey him. The patriarchal community is now established in heaven, or, what is the same, on Mount Olympus. Zeus himself fights various kinds of monsters, defeats the Titans, Cyclops, Typhon and Giants and imprisons them underground or even in Tartarus. Hesiod left us colorful pictures of the Titanomachy and Typhony (“Theogony”, 666-735, 820-880); You can read about the victory of Zeus over the Giants in Apollodorus and Claudian. Other gods and heroes follow Zeus. Apollo kills the Pythian dragon and establishes his sanctuary on this site. The same Apollo kills two monstrous giants, the sons of Poseidon, Ota and Ephialtes, who grew up so quickly that, barely reaching adulthood, they already dreamed of climbing Olympus, taking possession of Hera and Artemis and, probably, the kingdom of Zeus himself (“Odyssey”, XI, 305 -320). Cadmus also kills the dragon and in this area founds the city of Thebes (Ovid, Metamorphoses, III, I-130), Perseus kills Medusa (ibid., IV, 765-803), Bellerophon - the Chimera (Iliad, VI, 179 -185), Meleager - the Calydonian boar (“Iliad”, IX, 538-543). Hercules performs his 12 labors, Theseus kills the Minotaur.

At the same time, a new type of gods also appeared (the Greeks called them Olympian). Female deities now received new functions in connection with the era of patriarchy and heroism. Hera became the patroness of marriages and the monogamous family, Demeter - systematic and organized agriculture, Pallas Athena - honest, open and organized war (as opposed to the violent, anarchic and immoral Ares), Aphrodite became the goddess of love and beauty (instead of the former wild, all-generating and all-destroying goddess), Hestia became the goddess of the patriarchal home. And even Artemis, who retained her ancient hunting functions, now acquired a beautiful and slender appearance and became a model of a sweet and friendly attitude towards people. The growing craft, which became an essential factor in the economy, also required a corresponding god for itself, namely Hephaestus, who is described in the 20th Homeric hymn as the patron of the entire civilization in general.

The gods of a specially patriarchal way of life became Pallas Athena and Apollo, who are famous for their wisdom, beauty and artistic and constructive activity. And Hermes, from the former primitive deity, became the patron of every human enterprise, including cattle breeding, art, trade, guidance along the roads of the earth and even the afterlife.

Not only gods and heroes, but all of life was reflected in myths in a completely new design. First of all, all of nature is transformed, which was previously filled with terrible and incomprehensible forces for humans. Now the Greeks perceive nature in a peaceful and poetic way. Nymphs of rivers and lakes, oceanids, or nymphs of the seas, Nereids, as well as nymphs of mountains, forests, fields, etc. Previously, they were presented in a wild and terrible form. But now man's power over nature has increased significantly; now he knew how to navigate it more calmly, use it for his needs, examine it (instead of hiding from it), and find beauty in it. Now power over the sea element belonged not only to the formidable Poseidon, but also to the very peaceful, friendly and wise god of the seas Nereus. Nymphs scattered throughout nature received a beautiful, sweet appearance; they began to be admired and sung poetically.

Zeus ruled everything before, and all elemental forces were in his hands. Previously, he himself was both terrible thunder and blinding lightning; and there was no deity to whom assistance could be sought against him. Now thunder and lightning, as well as the entire atmosphere, have become nothing more than attributes of Zeus; and their use began to depend on the reasonable will of Zeus. The environment of Zeus on Olympus is characteristic. Next to him, Nike - Victory - is no longer a terrible and invincible demon, but a beautiful winged goddess, who is only a symbol of the power of Zeus himself. Themis was also no different from the Earth before and was a terrible law of its spontaneous and disorderly actions. Now she is the goddess of law and justice, the goddess of the beautiful human order, and she is also near Zeus, as a symbol of his well-ordered kingdom. The children of Zeus and Themis are Ora - cheerful, charming, beneficent, eternally dancing goddesses of the seasons and state order, who fairly send down precipitation from the sky, opening and closing the heavenly gates. Next to Zeus are also Hebe, the goddess and symbol of eternal youth, and the cupbearer boy Ganymede, who was once kidnapped from Earth by Zeus the eagle. Even the Moirai, these terrible and unknown goddesses of rock and fate, who previously ruled the entire universe, are now interpreted as the daughters of Zeus and lead a blissful life on a bright, easy, cheerful and beautiful Olympus.

A cheerful, graceful and wise environment is now typical for Apollo with his Muses, and for Aphrodite with her Eros and other playful demons of love, with her Charites-Graces, a symbol of a beautiful, graceful, cheerful and wise life, with her eternal dances, smile and laughter, carefreeness and continuous joy. Human labor has also now received its further and effective development. At the behest of the goddess of agriculture, Demeter, Triptolemus now travels all over the earth and teaches everyone the laws of agriculture. Animals are tamed by humans (an echo of which we find at least in the myth of Hercules and the taming of their wild horses by Diomedes). Hermes and Pan watch over the herds and do not let them harm anyone.

Famous mythical artists appear (and among them Daedalus), who amaze the world with their discoveries and inventions, with their artistic and technical creativity. Thus, Daedalus built the famous labyrinth on Crete, magnificent buildings for King Kokal who saved him, a platform for Ariadne’s dances, and built wings for his flight with his son Icarus ( famous story about this and about the tragic death of Icarus, see Ovid - “Metamorphoses”, VIII, 183-235). The gods Poseidon and Apollo build the walls of the city of Troy (Iliad, XXI, 440-457). A typical myth is about Amphion, who with his playing on the lyre made stones form the walls of Thebes.

Mythological legends have been preserved about such outstanding singers as Musaeus, Eumolpus, Thamyrides, Linus and especially Orpheus, to whom traits were attributed that characterize them as figures of an ascending civilization. Orpheus tamed storms, thunderstorms and wild animals by singing, which was also a symbol of the power of human intellect and human creativity over the forces of nature. In the person of Hercules, this heroic era reaches its highest peak. Hercules, the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene, is not only the destroyer of various kinds of monsters: the Nemean lion, the Lernaean hydra, the Kerynean hind, the Erymanthian boar and the Stymphalian birds, he is not only the conqueror of nature in the myth of the Augean stables and the conqueror of matriarchy in the myth of the belt, obtained from the Amazon Hippolyta. If he is still comparable to other heroes with his victory over the Marathon bull, the horses of Diomedes and the herds of Geryon, then he had two such feats with which he surpassed all the heroes of antiquity; and these exploits were also the apotheosis of human power and heroic daring. In the extreme west, Hercules reached the garden of the Hesperides and took possession of their apples, and in the depths of the earth he reached Kerberus itself and brought it to the surface. It is not surprising that such a hero was taken to heaven by Zeus and thus married Hebe, the goddess of eternal youth. This kind of myths could only appear in the era of a person’s conscious and powerful struggle for his happiness.

Other classical myths also tell more than once about the victory of man over nature. When Oedipus solved the riddle of the Sphinx, the Sphinx* threw herself off the cliff; when Odysseus (or Orpheus) did not succumb to the mesmerizing singing of the sirens and sailed past them unharmed, the sirens died at the same moment; When the Argonauts sailed safely among the Symplegades - rocks that had until then incessantly converged and diverged, these Symplegades stopped forever. When the same Argonauts sailed past the famous apples of the Hesperides, the Hesperides guarding them crumbled into dust and only later took on their former appearance.

D) Late heroism. People became even more bold during the late classic period, and their independence in relationships with the gods grew noticeably. Many heroes begin to enter into competitions with the gods. The daughter of King Tantalus, Niobe, considered herself more beautiful than the goddess Latona and was proud of her many children. Latona's children killed all of Niobe's children, and the unfortunate mother, out of grief, turned into a rock from which streams of her tears flowed. The singer Thamirid enters into a musical competition with the muses, for which they blind him as punishment.

They bark.
______
* In Greek language Sphinx - w. r.

The Lydian king Tantalus, who was the son of Zeus and enjoyed every favor of the gods, became proud of his power, enormous property and his friendship with the gods, as a result of which he stole ambrosia and nectar from the sky and began to distribute this divine food to ordinary people. Sisyphus spied on the love affairs of both Zeus and Aegina and began to divulge this secret among people. King Ixion fell in love with Hera, the wife of the supreme god Zeus, and, hugging a cloud, thought that he was hugging Hera. Titius fell in love with Latona, the mother of Apollo and Artemis, and was killed by them for this. Tantalus dared to treat the gods with the roasted meat of his own son, and Sisyphus tried to deceive Hades and asked to return him to earth in order to influence his supposedly ungodly wife.

Achilles in Homer's Iliad scolds Apollo with the last words for harboring his enemy Hector. And the Greek hero Diomedes directly engages in hand-to-hand combat with Ares and Aphrodite (“Iliad”, V, 330-339, 486-864). Salmoneus even declared himself Zeus and began to demand divine honors (Virgil, Aeneid, VI, 585-594). Of course, all these ungodly or godless heroes, according to myths, suffer one or another punishment. It could not have been otherwise while the ancient Greeks had myths, that is, the gods were gods, and the heroes were heroes. The era of the decay of heroic mythology is characterized by myths about a family curse, which leads to the death of several generations in a row. One of the Theban kings, Laius, stole a child and was cursed by the child's father. Famous myths arose about the death of the Theban kings. Laius dies at the hands of his own son Oedipus. Oedipus marries his mother Jocasta, not knowing that she is his mother. Jocasta, having learned that Oedipus is her son, commits suicide; Oedipus' sons Eteocles and Polyneices die in battle, engaging in hand-to-hand combat; Eteocles' son Laodamas dies from supporters of his brother Polynices who attacked Thebes, and Polynices' son Thersander dies before the Trojan War from Telephus in Mysia.

The crimes of Tantalus, which were multiplied by his offspring, are well known. Tantalus's son Pelops deceived the charioteer Myrtil, to whom he promised half the kingdom for his help in defeating King Oenomaus, and fell under Myrtil's curse, as a result of which Pelops' sons Atreus and Thyestes are in mutual enmity all their lives. Atreus, through a misunderstanding, kills his own son, sent by Thyestes; in response to this, he treats Thyestes with fried meat to his, Thyestes, children. He also throws his wife Aeropa, who contributed to Thyestes’ machinations, into the sea and sends Thyestes’ son to Thyestes himself to kill him, but the son, who understood Atreus’s machinations, kills Atreus. The surviving two sons of Atreus wage the most severe Trojan War, at the end of which Clytemnestra, out of jealousy and revenge, kills her own husband Agamemnon. Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, who was the son of the same Thyestes, are killed by the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra Orestes, for which he is pursued by the underground avengers Erinyes. And it is characteristic that Orestes receives cleansing from his crime not in the sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi, but by the decision of the Areopagus (secular court) in Athens, presided over by Pallas Athena. Thus, a way out of communal-tribal relations arises along the paths of Athenian statehood and citizenship, that is, already outside the boundaries of the primitive communal formation itself.

D) Self-denial of mythology. There are two remarkable myths that can be used to trace how greek mythology came to what can only be called self-denial of mythology.

First of all, it was the mythology of Dionysus, but not that ancient Dionysus who bore the name Zagreus and who was torn to pieces by the Titans as a youth. This is the second Dionysus, the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Semele, who became famous as the founder of orgies and the god of rampaging bacchantes. This orgiastic religion of Dionysus, which swept like a storm throughout Greece in the 7th century. BC e., united all classes in its service to God and therefore was deeply democratic, moreover, directed against the aristocratic Olympus.

The ecstasy and exaltation of the fans of Dionysus created among the Greeks the illusion of internal unity with the deity and thus, as it were, destroyed the impassable gap between gods and people. God becomes internally close to man. Therefore, the cult of Dionysus, while increasing human independence, deprived it of its mythological orientation. The tragedy that arose from the cult of Dionysus used mythology as only auxiliary material, and the comedy that also arose from the cult of Dionysus directly led to sharp criticism of the ancient gods and to their complete trampling. In Euripides and Aristophanes, the mythological gods testify to their emptiness and insignificance; and it is clear that mythology in Greek drama, and therefore in life, necessarily comes to self-denial.

Another type of mythological self-denial arose in connection with the image of Prometheus. Prometheus himself is a deity. He is either the son of the Titan Iapetus, or the Titan himself, that is, he is either Zeus' cousin, or even his uncle. When Zeus defeats the Titans and the heroic age begins, Prometheus suffers punishment from Zeus for his help to people - he is chained to a rock in Scythia or the Caucasus. Prometheus's punishment is understandable, since he is an opponent of Olympian heroism, that is, the mythology associated with Zeus. That is why, throughout the entire heroic age, Prometheus is chained to a rock.

But the heroic age is coming to an end. Shortly before the Trojan War, the last great act of the heroic age, Hercules frees Prometheus, and a great reconciliation takes place between Zeus and Prometheus, which signifies the triumph of Prometheus, who gave people fire and the beginnings of civilization, making humanity self-sufficient and independent of the gods. A hero has appeared, relying only on his own mind and his own hands, i.e. a man new civilization who wants to master the forces of nature instead of slavishly serving them and longs for constant progress. Thus, Prometheus, being a god himself, destroyed faith in deity in general and in the mythological perception of the world. It is not for nothing that the myths about Dionysus and Prometheus flourished at the dawn of class slave society, during the formation of the Greek democratic polis system.

Speaking about the death of early mythology, we must take into account another type of myth - these are the widespread myths about transformations, or metamorphoses. In the Hellenistic-Roman period of ancient literature, even a special genre of transformation was developed, which found its brilliant embodiment in famous essay Ovid "Metamorphoses".

Usually this refers to a myth that, as a result of one or another ups and downs, ended with the transformation of the heroes appearing in it into some objects of the inanimate world, into plants or animals. Thus, Narcissus, withered from love for his own image in water, turns into a flower that receives the same name (Ovid, Metamorphoses, III, 339-510). Hyacinth dies, shedding his blood on the ground, and from this blood the well-known hyacinth flower grows (ibid., X, 161-219). The cypress tree, which shot the deer, was very sorry about it and, out of sadness and melancholy, turned into a cypress tree (ibid., X, 106-142). It turns out that all natural phenomena were once understood mythologically, that is, they were animated, but over time they lost their mythical nature. Only human memory of late antiquity has preserved

Memories of their ancient mythical past, finding in them only poetic beauty. However, since this kind of myths appeared much earlier than Hellenistic-Roman times, they testified to the death of naive mythology, its replacement by an ordinary, sober and realistic poeticization of nature and man.

E) LATE CLASSIC AND DECADANCE. Mythology in the sense of naive faith ended along with the primitive communal formation for which it was necessary.

The class slave society in Greece and the associated emergence of literature actively uses mythology for its own purposes, political and artistic. Mythology is especially widely used in Greek tragedy. Pallas Athena turned out to be the goddess of rising democratic Athens for Aeschylus. Prometheus is full of modern Aeschylus advanced and even revolutionary ideas. Sophocles' Ajax defends his personal heroic honor, and Antigone fights the tyrannical laws of the state. Mythological heroes become Euripides ordinary people, sometimes weak, unstable, full of contradictions.

The mythology of the period of literary classics is still saturated with big ideas, although its anthropomorphism is here only external artistic form. In the era of Hellenism and the last centuries of the ancient world, mythology finally turns into purely literary device. True, the last four centuries of ancient philosophy, during which Neoplatonism arose, flourished and degenerated, were marked by the philosophical restoration of ancient mythology, when philosophers understood by ancient gods certain philosophical categories and built on myths a whole system of philosophy or, more precisely, a peculiar system of logical categories. At the same time, the revival of ancient mythology in socio-political and purely life practice inevitably collapsed, as happened in the 4th century. with Emperor Julian, who died because of his desires to implement pagan religion and mythology into the life of the state. In memory cultural society ancient mythology remained the wonderful childhood of humanity, which passed away at the very moment when it began to develop scientific and scientific-philosophical views on the world and nature.

Motivation for self-knowledge arises for various reasons. Usually, when everything is terrible and a person is physically or mentally ill, he develops a passionate desire to overcome obstacles, poverty, troubles and pain. Then he looks for an opportunity to change or heal the situation, but often not for himself. This happens through trainings, reading spiritual literature, pilgrimage trips, meetings with interesting people, classes on self-knowledge, overcoming unconscious limitations and fears.
At this stage, schools, trainings, religions, saints act only as supports in the desire to establish the correctness of one’s picture of the world. And if they “did not live up to the high trust,” then they should be anathema. A person will seek the company of those people who will understand him. This will continue until it happens that it is not the world around you that needs to be changed, but yourself.
However, as soon as the intensity of suffering drops, the person stops exercising. In this case, practice becomes a way of escaping from mental ill-being. The movement towards self-knowledge is the desire to fill every day with inspiration and creativity. Only then there is no routine of everyday life, but there is a living presence.

There are a number of myths, or stereotypical opinions, about classes. One of the most common says: defective people engage in spiritual practices, while “successful” people lead a comfortable life full of pleasures. This myth is shattered as soon as a person is attacked by depression or health problems occur. If a person does not show his natural talents and does not see prospects for further development, he will be consumed by a deep longing for an inner paradise and dissatisfaction with life. And no amount of beer, friends or bowling will help here.
The spirit of the times will definitely force a person to develop. If he refuses to change his usual picture of the world and system of habits, then it’s even easier - to be melted down. The incarnation will be considered in vain. The soul will go for a second trial, but in a more stringent mode of education.
The next myth: we are put together rather poorly, and we lack many qualities that we can acquire only at the end of life, after intensive work on ourselves. Many monks are promised salvation in the afterlife or enlightenment at the end of life for their devotion and dogmatism.
All this is true and not true at the same time. We already have a lot built into us that just needs to be discovered, revealed or developed. Actually, there is no need to copy others in the endless pursuit of someone else’s bird of happiness. It is important to show what is ours and get what is missing that we are destined for in this life. And it's not network marketing from spirituality, not fitness, not yoga studios and not organized religion. If a person makes efforts to reveal his natural qualities in the direction in which he came to realize himself, then success will surely come.
The myth that the path of self-knowledge must be difficult and thorny is another illusion. It should not be artificial - someone contrived or imposed. A person is not obliged to be dissolute or an ascetic in order to please the prevailing ideas about personal freedom or the views of spiritual leaders. The task of self-comprehension is to remember yourself, understand what I need, and be yourself! This is not withdrawal, but natural growth. These are the conditions under which a person in the best possible way realizes himself.
Our life is natural and beautiful and in this process we live and develop.

Expansion of consciousness and awareness imply, first of all, satisfaction with life, the understanding that I live the way I want it, and that I am the master of my destiny.

There is an understanding of the reasons for what is happening, the ability to plan the future, and movement along one’s life line. Awareness is also the ability to be aware and actualize your emotions and feelings, the ability to hear your “I”, know your purpose, and also understand what and how to do in a specific situation and in general.

Self-development

12 ways to develop intelligence

Is it possible to develop intelligence? Neuroscientists have long answered this question in the affirmative. Your brain is plastic and can physically change depending on what you do. And even the smartest person has something to strive for. So don't waste your time! We've collected tips and exercises from our books to help you become even smarter.

1. Solve logic puzzles

You will find fascinating tasks for training logical thinking in the book by popular blogger Dmitry Chernyshev “What to do in the evening with your family at the dacha without the Internet.” Here are a few of them:

Answer:

This is a type of credit card. Notches about the borrowed goods were made simultaneously on both sticks. One was kept by the buyer, the other by the seller. This excluded fraud. When the debt was repaid, the sticks were destroyed.

Answer:

This is Morrison's shelter to protect people during bombing. Not everyone had basements in which to hide. For poor households, the device was free. 500,000 of these shelters were built by the end of 1941 and another 100,000 in 1943, when the Germans began using V-1 rockets. The shelter justified itself. According to statistics, in 44 houses equipped with such shelters that were heavily bombed, only three out of 136 residents died. Another 13 people were seriously injured and 16 were slightly injured.

Answer:

Look again at the condition of the task: there was no task to “continue the sequence.” If 1 = 5, then 5 = 1.

2. Train your memory

Until now, you have been trying to guess the number by choosing the average. This is an ideal strategy for a game in which the number was chosen at random. But in our case, the number was not chosen in random order. We deliberately chose a number that will be difficult for you to find. Main lesson game theory is that you need to put yourself in the place of another player. We put ourselves in your shoes and assumed that you would first name the number 50, then 25, then 37 and 42.

What would be your final guess? Is this number 49? Congratulations! Yourself, not you. You've fallen into the trap again! We guessed the number 48. In fact, all these discussions about the average number from the interval were aimed precisely at misleading you. We wanted you to choose the number 49.

The point of our game is not to show you how cunning we are, but to clearly illustrate what exactly makes any situation a game: you must take into account the goals and strategies of other players.

5. Do math

Lomonosov believed that mathematics puts the mind in order. And this is true. One of the ways to develop intelligence is to make friends with the world of numbers, graphs and formulas. If you want to try this method, the book "Beauty Squared" will help you, where the most complex concepts are described in a simple and fun way. A short excerpt from there:

“In 1611, the astronomer Johannes Kepler decided to find himself a wife. The process did not start very well: he rejected the first three candidates. Kepler would have taken a fourth wife if he had not seen the fifth, who seemed “modest, thrifty and capable of loving adopted children.” But the scientist behaved so indecisively that he met with several more women who did not interest him. Then he finally married the fifth candidate.

According to the mathematical theory of "optimal stopping", to make a choice, you need to consider and reject 36.8 percent possible options. And then stop at the first one, which turns out to be better than all the rejected ones.

Kepler had 11 dates. But he could meet with four women, and then propose to the first of the remaining candidates that he liked more than those whom he had already seen. In other words, he would immediately choose the fifth woman and save himself from six unsuccessful meetings. The theory of “optimal stopping” is also applicable in other areas: medicine, energy, zoology, economics, etc.”

6. Learn to play a musical instrument

Psychologist, author of the book “We Are the Music” Victoria Williamson says that the Mozart effect is just a myth. Listening to classical music will not improve your IQ. But if you take up music yourself, you will help your brain work better. This is confirmed by the following experiment:

“Glenn Schellenberg has conducted a number of detailed analyzes of the relationship between music lessons and IQ in children. In 2004, he randomly assigned 144 six-year-old children from Toronto to four groups: the first group received keyboard lessons, the second group received singing lessons, the third group received acting classes, and the fourth group was a control group that received no additional activities. To be fair, after the study, children in the control group were offered the same activities as the others.

The training lasted 36 weeks in a designated school. All children passed IQ tests during summer holidays, before these sessions began, and also at the end of the study. Comparable age and socioeconomic status criteria were used.

After a year, the vast majority of children performed better on the IQ test, which makes sense since they were a year older. However, in the two music groups, the increase in IQ was greater than in the acting and control groups.”

7. Practice mindfulness meditation

Meditation not only helps reduce stress levels, but also helps develop memory, creativity, reaction, attention and self-control. More about this method in the book “Mindfulness”. Advice from it:

“Have you noticed that the older you get, the faster time passes? The reason is that with age we acquire habits, certain patterns of behavior and live on “automatic”: the autopilot guides us when we have breakfast, brush our teeth, go to work, sit down in the same chair every time... As a result, life passes past, and we feel unhappy.

Try a simple experiment. Buy some chocolate. Break off a small piece from it. Look at it as if you were seeing it for the first time. Pay attention to all the breaks, texture, smell, color. Put this piece in your mouth, but don't swallow it right away, let it slowly melt on your tongue. Try the whole bouquet of flavors. Then slowly swallow the chocolate, try to feel how it flows down the esophagus, notice the movements of the palate and tongue.

Agree, the sensations are not at all the same as if you simply ate a candy bar without thinking. Try this exercise with different foods, and then with your usual activities: be mindful at work, while walking, getting ready for bed, and so on.”

8. Learn to think outside the box

A creative approach will help you find a solution even in a situation that seems hopeless to most. Author of the book"Rice Storm"I am sure that anyone can train creativity. First, try using Leonardo da Vinci's method:

“Leonardo da Vinci’s way of developing ideas was to close his eyes, completely relax, and scribble random lines and scribbles on a piece of paper. Then he opened his eyes and looked for images and nuances, objects and phenomena in the drawing. Many of his inventions were born from such sketches.

Here is an action plan on how you can use Leonardo da Vinci's method in your work:

Write the problem down on a piece of paper and think about it for a few minutes.

Relax. Give your intuition the opportunity to create images that reflect the current situation. You don't need to know what the drawing will look like before you draw it.

Give shape to your task by defining its boundaries. They can be of any size and take the shape you want.

Practice drawing unconsciously. Let the lines and scribbles dictate how you draw and arrange them.

If the result does not satisfy you, take another sheet of paper and make another drawing, and then another - as many as needed.

Explore your drawing. Write down the first word that comes to mind regarding each image, each squiggle, line, or structure.

Link all the words together by writing a short note. Now see how what you wrote relates to your task. Have new ideas emerged?

Be attentive to the questions that arise in your mind. For example: “What is this?”, “Where did this come from?” If you feel the need to find answers to specific questions, then you are on the right path leading to solving the problem.”

9. Learn foreign languages

According to researchers, it promotes brain development and helps maintain mental clarity even into adulthood. In the guide of the polyglot Susanna Zaraiskaya you will find 90 effective tips on how to learn new foreign languages easy and fun. Here are three recommendations from the book:

• Listen to songs in the language you're learning while you drive, clean your home, cook, take care of flowers, or do other things. You will become immersed in the rhythms of the language even when listening passively. The main thing is to do this regularly.

• The nonprofit Planet Read uses Bollywood music videos in its literacy program in India, subtitled in the same language. The subtitle format is the same as in karaoke, that is, the word heard in at the moment. Easy access to such videos doubles the number of first-graders who master reading. And all due to the fact that viewers naturally synchronize audio and video. The way India fights illiteracy will allow you to compare what you hear with what you see.

• Who said that drama is incompatible with the table of irregular verbs? Soap operas can be a really fun way to learn a new language. Simple storylines, and the acting is so expressive that even if you don't know all the words, you'll still be aware of what's going on just by following the characters' emotions.

10. Make up stories

This is another way to become more creative and develop flexible thinking. Don't know where to start? In the notebook “642 ideas of what to write about” you will find many tips. Your job is to continue the stories and turn them into complete stories. Here are some tasks from the book:

• You meet a girl who can close her eyes and see the entire Universe. Tell me about her.

• Try to fit the whole life of a person into one sentence.

• Take an article from a recent newspaper. Write down ten words or phrases that caught your eye. Using these words, write a poem that begins: “What if...”

• Your cat dreams of world domination. She figured out how to switch bodies with you.

• Write a story that begins like this: “The weird thing started when Fred bought a house for his miniature pigs...”

• Explain to a gold miner from 1849 how email works.

• An unknown force threw you inside the computer. You need to get out.

• Choose any object on your desk (pen, pencil, eraser, etc.) and write a note of gratitude to it.

11. Get enough sleep!

Your ability to learn depends on the quality of your sleep. Interesting fact from the book “The Brain in Sleep”:

“Scientists have discovered that different stages of sleep are designed for different types of learning. For example, slow-wave sleep is important for mastering tasks involving factual memory, such as memorizing dates for a history exam. But dream-rich REM sleep is necessary for mastering what is associated with procedural memory - how something is done, including the development of new behavioral strategies.

Psychology professor Carlisle Smith says: “We spent a month cutting out blocks from which we built a maze for mice, and then for ten days we recorded their brain activity around the clock. Those mice that showed greater intelligence in running a maze also demonstrated greater brain activity in the REM sleep phase. I myself have never doubted that sleep and learning are connected, but now enough data has accumulated for others to become interested in this issue.”

12. Don't neglect physical education

Sport has a positive effect on our intellectual abilities. Here's what evolutionary biologist John Medina says about this in his book Brain Rules:

“All sorts of tests have shown that physical activity throughout life leads to amazing improvements in cognitive processes, in contrast to a sedentary lifestyle. Adherents of physical education outperformed lazy people and couch potatoes in terms of long-term memory, logic, attention, problem-solving ability, and even the so-called fluid intelligence.”

More books about the development of intelligence- .

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