Egyptian mythology: Demon. Demon in literature

Among large number Representatives of the Egyptian pantheon of gods most often depicted on scarabs small bow-legged gods in a lion's skin and with a lion's tail, in a feather headband. These deities are known as Demons. Demon revered in Egyptian mythology as a patron small children, women in labor, watchman and snake fighter. Some believe that Bess is truly an Egyptian god, others insist on his Asian origin, others believe that Demon appeared under the influence of African religion.

For the first time the image of the god became known from the monuments of the Middle Kingdom period, but there is reason to think that the cult Besa originated much earlier. Starting from the Old Kingdom period, small ivory statues of dwarfs have been preserved, very similar in appearance to the appearance Besa.

As a snake fighter Demon depicted on magic wands during the Middle Kingdom. The captions under the paintings call him “a warrior, a fighter.” At that same time he becomes a dwarf with bow legs and a lion's mane that falls to his shoulders. In most of the images, the face is interpreted as a mask, in the form of the muzzle of a ferocious lion. In images of the 18th dynasty of pharaohs, the mask and face become one, and the lion skin becomes a cover Besa.

Since the New Kingdom period, Demon begins to be revered as the patron saint of children and women in labor. In the scene of the birth of the goddess Hatshepsut at the temple in the city of Deir el-Bahri, there is also an Egyptian Demon who helps the new queen to be born.

It is characteristic that ideas about Bese, as a bearer of a good and bright principle, a patron and protector, began to appear in his iconography. U Besa a little funny look and good-natured face. Similar images are found on wooden bed reliefs found in the tomb of the parents of Queen Tiye of Egypt. The scarab at that time was depicted Demon, dancing with a tambourine, because, among other things, he is also the god of joy and fun, to the sounds of whose music everyone jumps up and begins to dance uncontrollably. But the tambourine is not only a musical instrument, it is also a weapon that helps in the fight against evil forces.

Most likely, the images on scarabs should be dated to the New Kingdom Besa who draws wine from a huge vessel. These images are in a certain way connected with ideas about him as a “Bacchanalian god.” In the legend about the return of Hathor-Tefnut from distant Nubia, the lioness is also mentioned as a companion Demon.

Since during this period the concept of Bese As the patron of female beauty and home comfort, he was often depicted on mirror handles, toilet spoons, headrests, pendants and fans.

Thanks to its apotropaic functions, Demon(few of the gods) survived in the Amarna religion. Various pendants, amulets, beads, and scarabs with the face of a god were discovered in Akhenaten. During the Achamenid period, the face Besa loses his good nature and becomes aggressive, angry, and militant traits become dominant. After that, in all images he is drawn with a weapon.

Cult Besa, having taken over from ancient gods some aspects were preserved in Egypt. Characteristic of that time are mythological scenes that depict Besa together with his wife and children.

The veneration of God, which took place for a very long time, having undergone a number of changes, penetrated into Christian iconography in the first centuries new era.

Taurt acts as a companion and sometimes husband god Bes, a dwarf (or giant), an ugly snake strangler in a tiara of feathers or leaves, which in the early period was also placed among the stars, identified as the constellation Ophiuchus. The name of this god comes from the word demon, denoting one of the big cats, Cynaelurusguttatis. The skin of this animal formed his attire and “it is quite possible that he was called by the name of the animal into which, according to the ideas of the Egyptians, he sometimes incarnated.”

A rich mythology was associated with this deity, but since it mostly existed in oral tradition; only fragments of stories dedicated to Bes have reached us. In all scenes depicting Bes, he is present at the birth of the king or sun god. One of the oldest images of the god Bes was found on a bas-relief of a temple built by Queen Hatshepsut around 1600 BC. e. It represents the Bes in a scene relating to the birth of the founder of the temple. The figure of Bes is depicted in all the birth houses of Egyptian temples; he is always present at the birth of a king or the sun god. “He is also depicted holding on his left hand Harpocrates, the young sun god, and giving him food from his right hand, or he carries the child on his shoulder." However, the patronage of the Bes involved not only providing the child with food, but also entertaining him. Therefore, Bes was often depicted laughing at a child, dancing ridiculous dances and playing the harp for him, which made him over time the god of dance, music and fun, known in this incarnation as Bes-hit (“Dancing Demon”).

He loved feminine arts - weaving wreaths, preparing cosmetics, etc. In addition, the Bes was a lover of intoxicating drinks and was often depicted sucking beer from large jugs through a straw. The demon was popular not only as a snake strangler, but also as a catcher of lions, wild boars and antelopes. These abilities made him not only a protector from animals and spirits, but also a general averter of evil, known as Bes-Akha (“Demon Warrior”). For this reason, images of the Demon were applied to wooden headrests for sleeping, placed above doors, decorated with them on sleeping places, and attached to mirrors and blush boxes (ointments and blush served not only to care for beauty, but also as protection from an evil look). Amulets depicting this bow-legged dwarf were especially popular. Distinctive feature The images of the Demon were presented from the front, and not in profile, like other gods. Similar “amulets in the form of a Demon or his grimacing face with his tongue hanging out have been found in many areas ancient world, including the territories of the Northern Black Sea region, Central Asia, the Urals and Siberia."

The most important attributes of the Imp are the bow sa(a symbol of protection), a knife as a means of defense and a musical instrument, the sound of which was supposed to scare away evil spirits. The image of an ugly Demon with a caricatured face became a collective one, incorporating images of many ugly dwarf demons with senile, good-natured faces, wearing feather tiaras, often depicted with their tongues sticking out. Initially, these creatures wore lion skin, of which later only the beast's ears and tail remained. Images of dwarf men similar to the later Bes are already found on clay vessels of the Predynastic period. During the 18th Dynasty, images of the winged Bes were popular. Since the time of the New Kingdom, the Bes often wears the head and paws of a panther on his chest. “The solar lions also began to be associated with him, and he was considered one with the god Sepd, the lord of the East, the conqueror of the mountain tribes of the Sinai Peninsula.”

This god was also considered the lord of Punt, “i.e. e. southern countries on both shores of the Red Sea.” However, “his whole appearance and attire point rather to some African and, undoubtedly, Negro country south of Egypt, which was the place where he appeared.” Perhaps his prototype was some gods who had the appearance of dwarfs, “whose models seem to have been unborn or rickety children.” Driven out by the Hamitic tribes from the southern borders of Egypt, these black tribes went south, and since “the civilization of these Hamitic peoples depended on the civilization of the Egyptians ... they revered not the original image of the Bes, but the form of it that was then worshiped in Egypt.” In the underworld, the image of the dwarf Demon changes to the image of a man of normal height or even a giant. Here he acted as a vengeful deity, threatening sinners to cut out their hearts with his knife.

The most ancient dwarf deities are the female Demons. “The naked goddess Bes... appears not only in late period, when we find a male and female deity of this type among the gods having mainly a stellar character, but also on the magic wands of the XII dynasty.” For an unknown reason, during the pyramid period there was no official cult of these gods; no images of Bes were found on magical items, and even later the Bes was revered only by the common people. Only after 1000 BC. e. The image of Bes gained wide popularity and the bow-legged, undeveloped dwarf gods became models for deities who embodied the “universal or primitive force of nature.”

From the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, the cult of Bes gained such popularity that many proper names began to be combined with his name. The solar lions began to be associated with him and were eventually completely confused with Horus with the hawk (falcon) head. Everyone who wore his image as an amulet was under his protection. Herodotus called the guardian amulet figures of Bes on the prows of Phoenician ships “representatives of Hephaestus” (that is, the Bird of Memphis), calling them Pataikoi, or “little Birds.”

The demon is not a separate deity, but a collective name for various dwarf deities that differ from each other, which, starting from the era of the New Kingdom, mix and merge with each other. The demon, depicted with a knife, was mostly called “Akha” (“fighter against danger and evil”), the dancing demon is Hit, or Hati. Dwarf gods were often depicted together with the goddess Hathor. The final formation of the cult of the Bes is associated with the identification of ten Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]][[K:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]] minor deities (actually Nubian Bes, Aha, Amam, Hayet, Ikhti, Mefjet, Menev, Segeb, Sopdu and Tetenu) [[K:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]][[K:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]][[K:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]] in a single deity who is known as Besa.

Dwarf Imp.JPG

Dwarf Bes. Philae Island, Aswan.

Egypte louvre 012.jpg

Spreading

Preserved huge amount amulets in the form of a Demon that had a protective nature. They are found during archaeological excavations far beyond Egypt, in particular in Western Asia, on the coast of the Mediterranean and Aegean seas, in the Northern Black Sea region, in the Urals, in Siberia, in Central Asia up to Altai.

Modern researchers only have information about the veneration of Bes in the later eras of Egyptian history - the periods of the New and Late Kingdoms, however, the first mentions of Bes can be found in the sources of the Middle Kingdom. Most likely, the image of the ugly dwarf god was borrowed by the Egyptians from Nubia or was formed at the end of the Old Kingdom under the impression of the dwarf pygmies who were at the court of the pharaohs of the VI dynasty from the tropical forests of Central Africa.

Subsequently, the cult of Bes was adopted by the Phoenicians and Cypriots.

Demon in literature

In Bram Stoker's novel The Lair of the White Worm, Edgar Caswall finds a figurine of the Imp and sends it to his kite.

In the novel Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann - earthly incarnation Besa - a kind dwarf with the same name - is Joseph's patron in the house of Petepra.

Write a review on the article "Demon (Egyptian mythology)"

Notes

Literature

• / Rubinstein R.I. // Myths of the peoples of the world: Encycl. in 2 volumes / ch. ed. S. A. Tokarev. - 2nd ed. - M. : Soviet Encyclopedia, 1987. - T. 1: A-K. - P. 204.
• Solkin V.V.// Ancient Egypt: Encyclopedia / Under. ed. V.V. Solkina. - M.: ART-Rodnik, 2005. - pp. 69-70.
• Demon, ancient Egyptian god // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

Further reading

• Ballod F.V. An introduction to the history of bearded dwarf deities in Egypt. - M., 1913.
• Ballod F.V. Vase with a figure depicting the Demon // Monuments of the Museum of Fine Arts. - M., 1912. - Issue. I. - pp. 31–36.
• Korostovtsev M. A. Religion of Ancient Egypt. - M.: Science, Main Editorial Board of Oriental Literature, 1976. - 336 p.
• Popov M.// World of fantasy. - No. 7 (71); July 2009. - pp. 126-130.
• Pavlov V.V., Khojash S.I. Egyptian plastic art of small forms. - M.: Art, 1985. - 116 p. + 219 ill. With. - (From the history of world art).
• Khojash S. I. Images of the ancient Egyptian god Bes in the collection of the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin. - M.: Publishing house. company "Oriental Literature" RAS, 2004. - 173 p.

Excerpt characterizing Bes (Egyptian mythology)

By the age of ten I had become very attached to my father.
I've always adored him. But, unfortunately, in my first childhood years he traveled a lot and was at home too rarely. Every day spent with him at that time was a holiday for me, which I later remembered for a long time, and piece by piece I collected all the words dad said, trying to keep them in my soul, like a precious gift.
From an early age, I always had the impression that I had to earn my father’s attention. I don't know where this came from or why. No one ever stopped me from seeing him or communicating with him. On the contrary, my mother always tried not to disturb us if she saw us together. And dad always gladly spent all his free time left from work with me. We would go into the forest with him, plant strawberries in our garden, go to the river to swim, or just talk while sitting under our favorite old apple tree, which is what I loved to do almost everything.

In the forest for the first mushrooms...

On the banks of the Nemunas River (Neman)

Dad was an excellent conversationalist, and I was ready to listen to him for hours if such an opportunity arose... Probably just his strict attitude towards life, the arrangement of life values, the never changing habit of not getting anything for nothing, all this created for me the impression that I must deserve it too...
I remember very well how, as a very small child, I hung on his neck when he returned home from business trips, endlessly repeating how much I loved him. And dad looked at me seriously and answered: “If you love me, you shouldn’t tell me this, but you should always show it...”
And it was these words of his that remained an unwritten law for me for the rest of my life... True, I probably wasn’t always very good at “showing”, but I always tried honestly.
And in general, for everything that I am now, I owe it to my father, who, step by step, sculpted my future “I”, never giving any concessions, despite how selflessly and sincerely he loved me. During the most difficult years of my life, my father was my “island of calm,” where I could return at any time, knowing that I was always welcome there.
Having lived a very difficult and turbulent life himself, he wanted to be sure that I could stand up for myself in any unfavorable circumstances for me and would not break down from any troubles in life.
Actually, I can say from the bottom of my heart that I was very, very lucky with my parents. If they had been a little different, who knows where I would be now, and whether I would be at all...
I also think that fate brought my parents together for a reason. Because it seemed absolutely impossible for them to meet...

The demon was a protector god from evil spirits, patronized women in labor, took care of children, protected the family, and at the same time was a god who was closely associated with dancing, fun and music.

It was also believed that this god protects people from the bites of crocodiles, scorpions and snakes.

Bes did not have cult centers, temples, or his own clergy, but he was one of the most popular deities in Ancient Egypt.

A little god with great potential

Bes was often depicted on furniture, mirrors, toiletries, etc. The image of the Demon on vessels for cosmetics was supposed to protect the oils contained in it and give them healing power, and the woman - the owner of the vessel - special beauty.

A mirror with a relief image of the god Bes saved a person’s life, since the Egyptians considered a reflection equal to a person. God Bes, depicted on a wooden headrest - “headrest”, guarded the peace of the sleeping person.

A huge number of amulets with images of Bes have been preserved. The State Museum has one of the most interesting and largest collections in the world of Egyptian antiquities and art related to Bes. fine arts them. A.S. Pushkin in Moscow. There are more than 250 such items here.

Bas is always portrayed as deliberately ugly, with bowed legs, and a wide, bearded face distorted by a grimace. Sometimes his appearance contains individual cat or lion features. On Bes's head is usually a large tiara made of feathers or leaves.

It was believed that such appearance The demon itself scares away evil spirits.

When the image of Bes is carved or painted on a wall, it is never shown in profile, but always only in front, which is quite rare in Egyptian art.

The Egyptians believed that Bes could strangle a bear, lion or snake with his bare hands. He even had a nickname - “fighter”. But often Bes is depicted with a knife in his hands, with which he is ready to strike the enemies of the pharaoh and people.

Cheerful dwarf and kind protector

Despite his ferocity towards evil spirits, Bes is a kind and cheerful deity. He is always on the side and next to more powerful gods- Amon, Min, Ra, Horus (when Horus was little, Bes protected him, in particular from snakes).

The kind dwarf helps women during childbirth (the figurine of Bes was kept next to the woman in labor), and then entertains and protects the children. It was believed that when a child smiles or laughs for no apparent reason, he sees funny faces that Bes makes for him.

To evil spirits did not enter the house; the entrance to it was guarded by a statuette or image of this god. A tattoo of Bes on the body was also believed to have a protective effect. Musicians got this tattoo because of Bas's association with music and fun.

It is believed that temple prostitutes (there were them in Ancient Egypt) tattooed the image of this dwarf god on their pubic area to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, as well as to ensure all kinds of abundance.

Bes is not a lonely deity. He has a wife - goddess Besit (Besit). Interestingly, often in the images of this married couple the goddess holds Bes on her shoulders or on her head.

An unusual deity even for Egypt

It has not yet been reliably established whether the cult of Bes is actually Egyptian or came to Egypt from the outside. However, Bes is mentioned in documents from Upper Egypt dating back to the period Ancient kingdom. There is a mention of this deity in the “Book of the Dead” - the famous “code” of ancient Egyptian religious ideas II millennium BC Apparently, at this time his fame in Egypt was local.

The cult of the god became widespread and widespread already during the New Kingdom. Archaeologists have found numerous masks and parts of Bes costumes dating back to the New Kingdom period. Some of them show signs of regular use and thus may have been the property of professional artists.

Bes was so popular among ordinary Egyptians that even during the religious reform of Akhenaten, who replaced all gods with one Aten, people continued to keep amulets and figurines of this god, which is confirmed by excavations in Amarna (where Akhenaten’s capital was).

Wyrm fighter, guardian hearth and home, patron of female beauty, patron of home, family, fertility, babies, children, humor, song and dance, Bes is an unusual god even for Ancient Egypt, which had a huge number of all kinds of gods.

In Ancient Egypt, another dwarf god was revered - Pataykos (Patek), who also had protective functions. But he, unlike Bes, is always depicted as beardless and, as a rule, bald.

Among the many representatives of the Egyptian pantheon, the scarabs most often depict bow-legged dwarf-shaped deities, dressed in a lion's skin and with a lion's tail, in a headband of feathers, collectively known as Demons. The demon was revered in Egypt as the patron of women in labor and small children, a serpent fighter, and a guardian. Some people think Bes Egyptian god, others insisted on its Central Asian origin, while others suggested that the Bes appeared under the influence of South African religion.

For the first time, the image of the god Bes is known from the monuments of the Middle Kingdom, but there is reason to believe that the cult of this deity originated in more early time. From the period of the Old Kingdom, figurines of ivory dwarfs have been preserved, very similar in appearance to the iconography of the Bes.

As a serpent fighter, the guard Bes was depicted on the magic wands of the Middle Kingdom. The inscriptions on the wands call him a "fighter". At the same time, he takes on the appearance of a dwarf on bow legs, with a lion's mane falling over his shoulders. In most images of Bes from the Middle Kingdom period, the face is interpreted as a mask in the form of a lion's muzzle. In the 18th Dynasty depictions of Bes, the mask merges with the face, and the lion's skin turns into the Bes's cover.

Beginning with the New Kingdom, Bes was revered as the patron of women in labor and small children. In the scene of the birth of Hatshepsut at the temple in Deir el-Bahri, the god Bes is present, helping the birth of the future queen.

The ideas about Bes as a bearer of goodness, a protector and patron, characteristic of the period of the 18th dynasty, were manifested in his iconography. Bes has a funny look and a kind expression on his face. Such Demons are depicted on wooden bed reliefs from the tomb of Queen Tiye's parents. On the scarab of this time, Bes has a tambourine in his hands, since he is the god of joy and fun, to the accompaniment of which people dance in an unrestrained dance. But the tambourine is not only a musical instrument, but also a weapon that helps in the fight against evil forces.

Scarabs depicting a Demon drawing wine from a large vessel should probably be dated to the New Kingdom. These images are associated with the idea of ​​Bes as a “Bacchanalian deity.” In the myth about the return of Hathor-Tefnut from Nubia, Bes is mentioned as the companions of a drunken lioness.

Since at this time the idea of ​​the Demon as the patron of family comfort and feminine beauty was widespread, he was depicted on mirror handles, pendants, toilet spoons, headrests, and fans.

Due to its apotropaic functions, Bes was among the few gods preserved in the Amarna religion. A variety of beads, pendants, amulets, and scarabs with the figure of a freak god were found in Akhetaton. During the Achamenid period, the facial expression of the god loses its former good nature and becomes angry and aggressive; the warlike traits in the character of Bes become dominant; he is always depicted with weapons.

The cult of Bes, having adopted some aspects of the ancient gods, was preserved in Greco-Roman Egypt. This time is characterized by scenes depicting the Demon, his wife and children.

The veneration of the Demon, which took place for a long time, having undergone a number of changes, penetrated even into Christian iconography in the first centuries of the new era.

A characteristic feature of many mythologies, including Egyptian, is the deification of animals. In Egypt, deities embodied in animals were initially considered patrons of hunting; with the domestication of animals, some became deities of pastoralists. Later, the pantheon was anthropomorphized, but zoomorphic features in the appearance of deities were not completely supplanted and were usually combined with anthropomorphic ones. Bast was depicted as a woman with a cat's head, Thoth as a man with the head of an ibis, Anubis as a man with the head of a jackal. At the same time, veneration of purely zoomorphic images was preserved. Anubis - god of the dead- was revered in the image of a lying black jackal or a wild dog Sab, along with the mentioned anthropo-zoomorphic image.

The Egyptian Bes with a tambourine in his hands depicted both the god himself and the priest performing the function of a god in the ritual. In the ritual, the animal god is replaced by a shaman wearing an animal mask, in its skin, with its name and habits. Moreover, the mask could merge with the face not only in images, not only in ritual (for example, during a shaman’s ritual), but also in life. For the “role” of Bes, someone similar to Bes was chosen. This does not mean that the priest had to resemble a lion. External difference from ordinary people, ugliness could serve as a substitute, a synonym for similarity = divinity.

If in Soviet times the actors who played Lenin were prohibited from performing comic roles at other times, then in Egypt, during the XVIII dynasty, the Bes-Priest had to remain cheerful, good-natured and drunk in his “free time”, and in the Achamenid period, on the contrary , angry, warlike, always rattling weapons. Although, on the other hand, belligerence never excluded fun and drunkenness.

Unlike others, ugly, wise, his fun is aggressive and aggression is always in the form of ridicule, the one who is always on the border - between life and death, the divine and the profane, ignorance and knowledge, the one who helps to give birth to the earth, woman and the ignorant. This is a portrait of a jester, trickster, holy fool. different times, V different cultures The functions of the jester could differ, but his deformity or a certain mask (gesture, speech, behavior in general) remained practically unchanged, which replaced the jester’s physical deformity.

The Natyashastra gives detailed instructions regarding the appearance and behavior of Vidushaka, the hero of the Sanskrit drama (v,idūsaka - "pest"). He must be a dwarf with protruding teeth, bald, hunchbacked, lame, with a funny gait and unclear speech.

The jester Thersites appears in Homer in the Iliad (II, 212-277): “He always sought to insult kings, despising decency, / Allowing himself everything that seemed ridiculous to the people. / An ugliest man, he came to Ilion among the Danaans; / He was cross-eyed, lame; his shoulders were completely hunchbacked; his head rose upward, and was only sparsely strewn with down. / Odysseus’s enemy and Pelida’s worst hater, / But now he condemned the scepter-bearer Atrid. with a piercing cry he reviled..."

Plato in the Gorgias mentions the trickster Thersites among “other scoundrels of the common rank” (525d).

Neither Homer nor Plato has one kind words for Thersites, but it would be naive to assume that both of them forgot about the meaning of Thersites’ ugliness and the meaning of Thersites’ role in general. And in the time of Homer, and in the time of Plato, and in the time of Shakespeare, and in the time of Peter I, “to insult kings, despising decency,” was the ritual function of a jester or holy fool (in Orthodox tradition). The "criticism" of Thersites by Homer and Plato (the latter remembers Thersites with an unkind word in the "Republic" (620 c)), probably indicates that the tradition of the jester in their time was more alive than ever and there were many Thersites, perhaps , too much. There has never been a shortage of people willing to criticize the authorities (cf. the problem of false foolishness in Byzantium and Russia).

In Plato’s dialogue “The Symposium,” Alcibiades (an Athenian statesman and commander) compares Socrates with a strong man: “If you open such a strong man, then inside he will find statues of gods. So, Socrates, in my opinion, looks like the satyr Marsyas. What are you similar to? with the Silenians in appearance, Socrates, you yourself probably won’t dispute this. And that you are similar to them in other respects, tell me, are you a daring person or not? If you don’t answer in the affirmative, I will have witnesses. .. You are no different from Marsyas, only you achieve the same thing without any tools, with just speeches... When I listen to him [Socrates], my heart beats much stronger than that of the raging Corybantes, and from my eyes from his tears flow from his speeches... Yes, even now I know very well that as soon as I start listening to him, I will not be able to stand it and fall into the same state. After all, he will force me to admit that, despite all my shortcomings, I neglect myself and get busy with things. Athenians. Therefore, I deliberately do not listen to him and run away from him, like from sirens... And sometimes I even want him to disappear from the world altogether, although, on the other hand, I know very well that if this happened, I would I would have grieved much more" (215a-216c).

Socrates' "ugliness" is a common place in the histories of philosophy of all eras. In the context of our topic, it is also interesting that Socrates called his method of philosophizing maieutics, the art of midwifery, and believed that by helping the birth of truth, he continued the work of his mother, the midwife Fenareta.

Physical deformity retained its iconicity - as a symbol of a person’s introduction to higher knowledge - and without any external connection with ritual, buffoonery and fun. “In Greek culture, an extremely acute experience of appearance as an empty “appearance” is revealed early on. According to this logic, the sage, that is, the exposer of appearance and the contemplator of essence, must be blind. Even in myth and legend, the prophetic Tiresias, the prophetic Homer, the prophetic Demodocus are blind Moreover, it is known about Tiresias that blindness was given to him simultaneously with the gift of prophecy; about Homer they said that the Muse blinded him. The famous story about Democritus, who burned out his eyes in order to see the invisible more clearly, is especially colorful.

References

1. Khojash S.I. Scarabs with images of the god Bes // World culture: Tradition and modernity. M., 1991, p. 91 - 99.