Water myths and legends which are scary
Water has always been one of the most special elements for humans since the beginning of time. It is related to numerous signs, stories, myths, and legends. For millennia, fire, earth, and especially water have been absolutely magnificent elements.
They were sure that the water came from a magical source. In Russian folklore, water is inextricably linked with life and death. So, living water, according to legend, could heal a wounded body. The ancestors of modern South Americans, Africans, and Europeans revered water as much, if not more than we do. Myths and legends were different, but they all converged on one thing – water was the meaning of existence, a deity. In many places of pagan worship, chapels and temples were even erected near the water, and sometimes the water objects themselves became heroes of myths and legends.
Let’s look at Japanese mythology first. Everyone knows the story of the Flood, described in the Bible. However, references to this “incident” are found in the myths and legends of different peoples. According to the Japanese version, for example, the first ruler of Japan settled on the islands immediately after the water began to subside. And again about the Japanese: there is such a lake – Tazawa (or Tazawako) with a depth of 423 m. It is noteworthy that in winter the lake does not freeze, despite the cold typical of local winters.
Many legends are associated with it, one of which says that a young and handsome fisherman Hachirotaro once lived in these parts. One day he caught a strange fish in the river. The young guy was hungry and ate it. Suddenly he felt a terrible thirst. In an effort to satisfy her, he fell down to a spring gushing out from under the stones and drank water from it for 32 days without a break.
On the 33rd day, Hachirotaro turned into a dragon. The fisherman could no longer return in this form under his native roof. Therefore, he dammed the river, thus turning it into a deep lake suitable for the habitation of a water dragon. So – according to legend – Lake Tazawa appeared. There is such a legend among the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun.
According to Japanese mythology, the Dragon Ryujin is the god of the sea, the lord of the water element. According to legend, he lived at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Japan, near the Ryukyu Islands (Nansei).
One blow of Ryujin’s tail causes huge tidal waves that completely wash away coastal villages. When Ryujin opens his huge, toothy mouth and sighs, giant whirlpools appear in the water. The head of a noble dragon is crowned with antlers; the mustache indicates his wisdom; the eyes see into the depths to the very bottom of the ocean. When Ryujin extends the terrible claws, floods occur. With a movement of his paw, he can overturn several ships.
Another myth is connected with him, but this time almost historical. Deciding to attack Korea, Empress Jingu asked Ryujin for help. The dragon messenger brought her two gems, tidal and ebb. Jingu led the campaign of the Japanese fleet to Korea. At sea, they were met by Korean warships. Jingu threw a tide stone into the water, and the Korean ships ran aground. As the Korean warriors jumped out of their ships to launch a foot attack, Jingu threw a tidal stone onto the seabed. All the water rushed back and drowned the enemies.
The Japanese generally have a lot of myths and legends about water. And here’s another one for you. The Japanese once believed in Kappa water demons, which look like small, naked men with tortoise shells and a water-filled bowl in place of their heads. They scoured the water in search of a lost passenger and dragged him into the depths. There are only two ways to avoid them: the first involves writing a name on a cucumber and throwing it into the water. Kappas are very fond of cucumbers. The second way is to worship the demons. The demon in this case has to bow in response and thereby empty his cup-head. Without water in their heads, the Kappa is helpless.
Fast forward to South America – to Ancient Mexico. Their legends about the Flood say this: “The sky approached the Earth, and in an instant, all living things perished.” They were sure that the mountains and rocks that we see now covered the whole earth, and the water boiled and boiled so that the mountains turned red. They were also sure that the water destroyed the unnecessary, ugly race of giants, and all people turned into fish, except for one pair, who hid in the trees.
The red-skinned man generally believed that the globe inhabited by people was created from silt that rose from the primordial waters. In their myths, there are bisexual beings known to the Aztecs as Ometecuhtli-Omecihuatl (lords of dual nature). They were depicted as deities ruling over the origin of all things, over the beginning of the world.
Around the same time, the most famous hero of the myths of the ancient southern Europeans is Neptune (Poseidon). It is with him that a lot of legends, legends, and myths are connected. It was he who inspired great fear in everyone because all the vibrations of the soil were attributed to Neptune (Poseidon), and when an earthquake began, sacrifices were made to the god Poseidon. It was enough for Poseidon to hit the ground with a trident for it to open and oscillate.
Poseidon (Neptune) was recognized and revered as a mighty and powerful god by all seafarers and merchants who erected altars to him and turned to him with prayers so that the god Poseidon would grant their ships a happy journey without storms and would patronize the success of their trade.
One of the most famous myths is associated with it. At the request of the hero Theseus, the god Poseidon summoned a monster that caused the death of Hippolytus, the son of Theseus and the queen of the Amazons. Gloomy by nature, Hippolyte loved nothing but hunting. He loudly expressed his contempt for women, never worshiped the goddess Aphrodite, and brought all his sacrifices to the altar of the goddess Artemis. Enraged, Aphrodite decided to avenge such neglect. The goddess Aphrodite inspired Hippolytus’ stepmother Phaedra with an insane love for Hippolytus. But Hippolytus turned away in disgust from his stepmother, who for this slandered Hippolytus before his father.
Considering him guilty, Theseus invoked the wrath of the god Poseidon on him, and he ordered the sea monster to appear on the surface of the water, while Hippolytus drove up to the sea in a chariot. Frightened by the monster, the horses overturned the chariot, and Hippolytus died.
And at this time in Egypt, water is endowed with a life-giving ability – heavenly waters irrigate the earth, helping to maintain life on it. One of the myths tells that God sat on the water, just like a bird sits on eggs, and sat out life.
In Egyptian history, the triple hieroglyph of water symbolizes the vast waters, i.e. primordial ocean and primordial matter. The Vedas say that at the beginning of time everything was like a sea without light. Water is compared to the life-giving fluids of the body. In accordance with this view, in ancient Egypt, water was added to the mummified body in order to replace the lost “life juices”.
Let’s move on to Russia. There was a legend about Vodyany, the lord of the waters. According to legend, this is an evil spirit personifying the water element. He lives in whirlpools of rivers, in whirlpools or in swamps, he likes to settle under a water mill, near the wheel itself, which is why in the old days all millers were considered sorcerers.
However, the mermen also have their own houses, built of shells and semi-precious river pebbles. In his native element, the water is irresistible, but on earth, his strength is weakening. He lures a person into the water and drowns him, is able to destroy dams, can give fishermen a rich catch, or disperses all the fish and breaks the nets. Therefore, millers and fishermen tried to appease him: they threw bread into the water or sacrificed some black animal (a rooster, a cat, a dog), and the fishermen released the first fish they caught back into the water.
The Slavs also had faith in Vodyanitsa – the wife of a waterman, a former drowned woman. She was also called a joker, a joker. Vodyanitsa preferred forest and mill whirlpools, but most of all she loved the fall under the mills, where the rapids muddy the water and wash out the pits. Under the mill wheels, she seemed to usually gather for the night with the waterman.
According to legend, it has a bad temper: when it splashes in the water and plays with the running waves or jumps on the mill wheels and spins with them, it breaks the nets and spoils the millstones.
The Omsk region keeps the legend of the “Five Lakes”, one of which is the famous lake Okunevo. And the village near it was considered the energy center of the earth. The village itself is a place where paranormal phenomena periodically occur. Someone saw a headless horseman here, others talk about a round dance of girls from nowhere on the river bank.
The legend tells that translucent figures of enormous height appeared and disappeared behind the backs of the girls. Around the village, there are five lakes, which appeared when five meteorites fell. The water in each of the lakes is considered healing, the location of the fifth lake is still a mystery.
The following legend has also been preserved: in the old days, the mighty Baikal was cheerful and kind, he deeply loved his only daughter the Angara. She was the most beautiful – everyone could not stop looking at her. Even the birds, although they descended lower, never sat on it and said: “Is it possible to blacken light?” Baikal took care of his daughter more than his heart. Once, when Baikal fell asleep, Angara rushed to run to the young Yenisei. Baikal got angry and dropped the rock right on the throat of the Angara. Panting, she asked her father to forgive her and give her at least a drop of water. Baikal shouted: “I can only give my tears!” Since then, for hundreds of years, the Angara has been flowing into the Yenisei with water-tear, and the gray-haired lonely Baikal has become gloomy. The rock that Baikal threw after his daughter was called by people the Shaman stone. Rich sacrifices were made to Baikal there. People said: “Baikal will be angry, it will tear off the Shaman stone, But in the south, the legend of living and dead water was spread.
She talked about an old man who survived many generations, but his appearance remained unchanged. And he had great power. Witch doctors and spirits of different lands often turned to him for help, and sometimes Mother Earth herself. The old man had the gift of endowing water with life-giving power, a drop of such water could bring back to life and relieve illness, a sip could give a person the ability to see the truth of life and be happy, three sips opened a healing gift in a person, and a mug of such water brought a person the strength that they had only disembodied spirits.
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Realizing the value of this water, he handed it out carefully, because in the hands of an ignoramus a lot of misfortune could happen. However, a misfortune happened: a man came to him, praying for help. His father was dying from a serious illness. The old man gave the man a glass vessel with water and told him to give water to his father once a day at dawn all week and forbade him to drink it himself since it was not intended for him. But the man could not restrain himself and drank the water. He immediately saw an old man who got angry with him and demanded to return the water. But hatred overwhelmed the man. He carved a spear out of thick wood and went back to the cave. He went there and killed the old man. As soon as the spear pierced the old man’s heart, his blood splashed onto the man’s eyes and cleansed his mind and heart of black feelings and thoughts.
The man fell to his knees, hugged the old man, and wept with repentance and love, as if for his own father. And at this time, his blood father received his sight and became healthy. The gift of the elder passed to the man. But the man could not restrain himself and drank the water. He immediately saw an old man who got angry with him and demanded to return the water. But hatred overwhelmed the man. He carved a spear out of thick wood and went back to the cave. He went there and killed the old man. As soon as the spear pierced the old man’s heart, his blood splashed onto the man’s eyes and cleansed his mind and heart of black feelings and thoughts. The man fell to his knees, hugged the old man, and wept with repentance and love, as if for his own father. And at this time, his blood father received his sight and became healthy. The gift of the elder passed to the man. But the man could not restrain himself and drank the water. He immediately saw an old man who got angry with him and demanded to return the water. But hatred overwhelmed the man. He carved a spear out of thick wood and went back to the cave. He went there and killed the old man. As soon as the spear pierced the old man’s heart, his blood splashed onto the man’s eyes and cleansed his mind and heart of black feelings and thoughts. The man fell to his knees, hugged the old man, and wept with repentance and love, as if for his own father.
And at this time, his blood father received his sight and became healthy. The gift of the elder passed to the man. his blood splashed on the man’s eyes and cleansed his mind and heart of black feelings and thoughts. The man fell to his knees, hugged the old man and wept with repentance and love, as if for his own father. And at this time, his blood father received his sight and became healthy. The gift of the elder passed to the man. his blood splashed on the man’s eyes and cleansed his mind and heart of black feelings and thoughts.
The man fell to his knees, hugged the old man and wept with repentance and love, as if for his own father. And at this time, his blood father received his sight and became healthy. The gift of the elder passed to the man. In Yakutia, local residents have long believed in the existence of the Labynkar devil – something dark gray in color with a huge mouth. The distance between the eyes is equal to the width of a raft of ten logs. According to the legend, it is very aggressive and dangerous, attacks people and animals, and is able to go ashore.
