Ilya Muromets is a textbook character of ancient Russian culture. He is considered a hero by Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian researchers. Many legends are connected with his name: at least in 14 stories he is mentioned as a real acting character. But who is the prototype of Ilya Muromets - the epic hero and defender of Russia? Let's try to figure it out.
The origin of the hero
According to legend, for the first 33 years of his life, Ilya Muromets was disabled - he did not get up from the stove and was a huge burden for his parents. After the visit of the mysterious "Kalik passers-by" Ilya got to his feet and "filled with strength", that is, he became a hero. This plot is repeated in variations in various legends and has only minor changes among different peoples.
Such a multifaceted hero, whose reality was proven by reliable information, could not have had a real prototype. Ilya Muromets was searched in all cities and towns of Kievan Rus, but there is practically no real evidence of the place of his birth. With a certain degree of certainty, one can only indicate the burial place of the epic hero: the Near Caves of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. There the prototype of Ilya Muromets restsunder the name of St. Elijah, along with 69 other saints. It was these remains that became the object of research by historians.
The one or the wrong?
Researchers have compared the remains of St. Elijah with the information contained in the epic about Ilya Muromets. The real prototype must have the same physical characteristics as the epic hero. This is partly confirmed by the examination: Ilya had a tall height for that time - 177 cm. In those days, tall men barely reached 165 cm.
In addition, the remains of the saint must show signs of the disease that Muromets suffered during the first stage of his life.
Joint disease
As mentioned above, in the first part of his life, Ilya was disabled. Only after healing at the age of 33, strength returned to Ilya, and he became a warrior of the Prince of Kyiv.
X-ray examination confirmed that the prototype of Ilya Muromets, the epic hero, whose relics are stored in the Lavra, really suffered from spondyloarthrosis, which in the progressive stage can make it difficult for the patient to move. This disease is characterized by loss of mobility of the lumbar and cervical vertebrae and can lead to complete immobilization of a person.
Miraculous healing
One of the most effective treatments for spondylarthrosis is massage. Good manual therapistcan really restore the patient's motor functions with the help of massage and reduction of the vertebrae. So the mysterious "passing stones" could really contribute to the restoration of the he alth of the prototype of Ilya Muromets.
Bogatyr and saint
It is interesting to compare the epic Elijah with Elijah the saint. To begin with, let's go through the merits of the saint. Oddly enough, there is no canonical life of St. Elijah - it is clear that he did not devote much time to spiritual affairs. Little can be said about him: that after a glorious military career, Ilya took the tonsure and ended his days as a monk of the Theodosius Monastery.
Much more attention is paid to the worldly life of the hero. According to various sources, the place of his birth was not modern Murom and its environs, but a small town in the Chernihiv region. Then the rather fast path of Ilya from his native village to the capital city is explained - according to various sources, the road took three to four days.
The legends say a lot about the military exploits of the hero. This is the clearing of trade routes to Kyiv, and the victory over the Nightingale the Robber. A fairly free presentation of all the battles with the participation of Muromets and his comrades was not so long ago set out in the cartoon of the Mill studio.
The last years of the hero
The glory of Ilya Muromets spread far beyond the borders of Russia. His name, for example, is found in German legends. But the end of his life is practically not reflected in the legends. It is believed that the prototypeIlya Muromets ended his military career before the age of 50 - by those standards, he was already a gray-haired old man. It is quite possible that the bogatyr took tonsure during the time of the abbess of the Monk Polycarp.
Judging by the surviving records, Ilya did not go to the monks for long. The probable death befell the elder in 1204, when the monastery in which he lived was attacked by the Polovtsy.
Identification
The first scientific attempts to identify the relics of St. Elijah date back to the 19th century, although before that period the identity of the relics of St. Elijah and the epic hero was not in doubt. For example, the pilgrim Leonty, who lived in the 18th century, when visiting the Lavra, has no doubt that he saw the tomb of Ilya Muromets, and he also drew attention to the death of the hero from a wound in the heart. In Soviet times, little attention was paid to the opinion of the pilgrims: the communist ideology sought to make a simple Russian hero out of the Orthodox hero, removing from the annals entire layers of legends about the divine gift of Elijah. So, nowhere in the Soviet encyclopedias is it mentioned that those very Kaliki in Christianity were identified with the apostles, and Ilya owed his unusual strength and wisdom to God.
Church position
The Church has never interfered with the study of the relics of the epic hero. From the point of view of Orthodoxy, any miracle - even the miracle of healing - must be confirmed by material evidence: from the confirmation of facts, a miracle will not cease to be a miracle. Particular importance is attached to the fact that Ilya's fingers werefolded in a prayer position as the Church now prescribes - three fingers together, and two bent to the palms. This additionally indicates the continuity of modern church rites, which originate from the Orthodox traditions of ancient Russia.
Serious work to identify the remains of Ven. Ilya was carried out by Ukrainian scientists in 1988: an interdepartmental examination conducted a serious forensic analysis of the monastery remains. To obtain reliable data, the most modern methods and equipment at that time were used. The results were amazing. The age of the deceased was determined with an accuracy of five years, and congenital defects of the bones and spine were confirmed. The death of the hero dates back to the 11-12th centuries.
Conclusions
Summing up, we can say that all the conclusions made in the process of studying the remains of the Monk Elijah, completely fit into the canvas were about the ancient hero. It can be argued with a high degree of probability that St. Ilya is the prototype of Ilya Muromets - all the stories about his miraculous healing are fully confirmed by scientific facts, so the question of who is the prototype of Ilya Muromets, the epic hero, can be considered closed.
