How different nations represented the earth. Representations of ancient peoples about the world

The ideas of the ancients about the Earth were based primarily on mythological ideas.

Consequently, these whales were in their eyes the main foundations, the foot of the whole world.

Increase geographical information connected primarily with travel and navigation, as well as with the development of the simplest astronomical observations.

The ancient Greeks imagined the earth to be flat. This opinion was shared, for example, by the ancient Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, who lived in the 6th century BC. He considered the Earth to be a flat disk surrounded by a sea inaccessible to man, from which stars come out every evening and into which stars set every morning. From east sea the sun god Helios (later identified with Apollo) rose every morning in a golden chariot and made his way across the sky.

The world in the view of the ancient Egyptians: below - the Earth, above it - the goddess of the sky; left and right - the ship of the sun god, showing the path of the sun across the sky from sunrise to sunset.

In each of the constellations, the Sun visits each year for about a month. The Sun, Moon and five planets move along this belt of land. Under the Earth is an abyss - hell, where the souls of the dead descend. At night, the Sun passes through this dungeon from western edge Earth to the east, so that in the morning again begin your daytime journey through the sky. Watching the sunset over the sea horizon, people thought that it goes into the sea and also rises from the sea. Thus, the ancient Babylonians' ideas about the Earth were based on observations of natural phenomena, but the limited knowledge did not allow them to be explained correctly.

When people began to make long journeys, evidence gradually began to accumulate that the Earth was not flat, but convex.

The great ancient Greek scientist Pythagoras of Samos (in the 6th century BC) first suggested that the Earth is spherical. Pythagoras was right. But to prove the Pythagorean hypothesis, and even more so to determine the radius the globe succeeded much later. It is believed that Pythagoras borrowed this idea from the Egyptian priests. When the Egyptian priests knew about this, one can only guess, since, unlike the Greeks, they hid their knowledge from the general public.

Pythagoras himself, perhaps, also relied on the evidence of a simple sailor, Skilak of Karyanda, who in 515 BC. made a description of his voyages in the Mediterranean.

The famous ancient Greek scientist Aristotle (4th century BC) was the first to use observations of Earth to prove the sphericity of the Earth. lunar eclipses. Here are three facts:

1. Shadow from the Earth falling on full moon, always round. During eclipses, the Earth is turned to the Moon in different directions. But only the ball always casts a round shadow.
2. Ships, moving away from the observer into the sea, are not gradually lost from sight due to the long distance, but almost instantly, as it were, "sink", disappearing behind the horizon line.
3. Some stars can only be seen from certain parts of the Earth, while for other observers they are never visible.

Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century AD) - Ancient Greek astronomer, mathematician, optician, music theorist and geographer. In the period from 127 to 151 he lived in Alexandria, where he carried out astronomical observations.

He continued the teachings of Aristotle regarding the sphericity of the Earth.

He created his own geocentric system of the universe and taught that everything celestial bodies moving around the earth in empty space.

Subsequently, the Ptolemaic system was recognized by the Christian church.

Aristarchus of Samos

Finally, an outstanding astronomer ancient world Aristarchus of Samos (late 4th - first half of the 3rd century BC) suggested that it is not the Sun, together with the planets, that moves around the Earth, but the Earth and all the planets revolve around the Sun. However, he had very little evidence at his disposal.

And about 1700 years passed before the Polish scientist Copernicus managed to prove this.

The correct idea of the Earth and its form did not develop among different peoples immediately and not at the same time. However, it is difficult to establish exactly where, when, among which people it was most correct. Very few reliable ancient documents and material monuments have been preserved about this.

For the most part, all the ideas of the ancients were based on the geocentric system of the world. According to legend, the ancient Indians imagined the Earth as a plane lying on the backs of elephants. We have received valuable historical information about how the ancient peoples who lived in the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in the Nile Delta and along the banks of mediterranean sea- in Asia Minor and Southern Europe. For example, written documents from ancient Babylonia dating back about 6 thousand years have been preserved. The inhabitants of Babylon, who inherited their culture from even more ancient peoples, represented the Earth in the form of a mountain, on the western slope of which Babylonia is located. They knew that there was a sea to the south of Babylon, and mountains to the east, which they did not dare to cross. Therefore, it seemed to them that Babylonia is located on the western slope of the "world" mountain. This mountain is surrounded by the sea, and on the sea, like an overturned bowl, the firm sky rests - the heavenly world, where, like on Earth, there is land, water and air. The heavenly land is a belt of 12 constellations of the Zodiac: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. In each of the constellations, the Sun visits each year for about a month. The Sun, Moon and five planets move along this belt of land. Under the Earth is an abyss - hell, where the souls of the dead descend. At night, the Sun passes through this dungeon from the western edge of the Earth to the eastern, in order to begin its daytime journey through the sky again in the morning. Watching the sunset over the sea horizon, people thought that it goes into the sea and also rises from the sea. Thus, the ancient Babylonians' ideas about the Earth were based on observations of natural phenomena, but the limited knowledge did not allow them to be explained correctly.

The ancient Jews imagined the Earth differently. They lived on a plain, and the Earth seemed to them a plain, on which mountains rise in some places. The Jews assigned a special place in the universe to the winds, which bring with them either rain or drought. The abode of the winds, in their opinion, was in the lower zone of the sky and separated the Earth from the heavenly waters: snow, rain and hail. There are waters under the Earth, from which channels go up, feeding the seas and rivers. Apparently, the ancient Jews had no idea about the shape of the entire Earth.

Geography owes a lot to the ancient Greeks, or Hellenes. This small people, who lived in the south of the Balkan and Apennine peninsulas of Europe, created a high culture. We find information about the most ancient ideas of the Greeks about the Earth known to us in Homer's poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey". They speak of the Earth as a slightly convex disk, reminiscent of a warrior's shield. The land is washed by the Ocean River from all sides. A copper firmament spreads over the Earth, through which the Sun moves, rising daily from the waters of the Ocean in the east and plunging into them in the west.

The peoples who lived in Palestine imagined the Earth differently from the Babylonians. they lived on a plain, and the earth seemed to them a plain, on which mountains rise in some places. They assigned a special place in the universe to the winds, which bring with them either rain or drought. The abode of the winds, in their opinion, is located in the lower belt of the sky and separates the Earth from the heavenly waters: snow, rain and hail.

Depiction of the earth from the 17th century, note that the navel of the earth is in Palestine.

In an ancient Indian book called the Rig Veda, which means "Book of Hymns", one can find a description - one of the very first in the history of mankind - of the entire Universe as a single whole. According to the Rigveda, it is not too complicated. It contains, first of all, the Earth.

It appears as a boundless flat surface - "vast space". This surface is covered from above by the sky. And the sky is a blue dome dotted with stars. Between heaven and earth - "luminous air".

AT Ancient China there was an idea according to which the Earth has the shape of a flat rectangle, above which a round, convex sky is supported on pillars. The enraged dragon seemed to bend the central pillar, as a result of which the Earth leaned towards the east. Therefore, all rivers in China flow to the east. The sky tilted to the west, so all the heavenly bodies move from east to west.

The ideas of the pagan Slavs about the earthly dispensation were very complex and confused.

Slavic scholars write that he seemed to them like big egg, in the mythology of some neighboring and related peoples, this egg was laid by a "space bird". The Slavs, on the other hand, preserved echoes of the legends about the Great Mother - the parent of the Earth and Sky, the foremother of the Gods and people. Her name was Zhiva, or Zhivana. But not much is known about her, because, judging by the legend, she retired after the birth of the Earth and Sky. In the middle of the Slavic Universe, like a yolk, the Earth itself is located. The upper part of the Yolk is our living world, the world of people. Lower "underneath" side Lower World, World of the Dead, Night Country. When there is day, we have night. To get there, one must cross the Ocean-Sea that surrounded the Earth. Or dig a well through and through, and the stone will fall into this well for twelve days and nights. Surprisingly, but, coincidence or not, the ancient Slavs had an idea about the shape of the Earth and the change of day and night. Around the Earth, like egg yolks and shells, there are nine heavens (nine three times three is a sacred number among various peoples). That is why we still say not only "heaven" but also "heaven". Each of the nine heavens Slavic mythology has its own purpose: one for the Sun and stars, another for the Moon, another for clouds and winds. Our ancestors considered the seventh in a row to be the "firmament", the transparent bottom of the heavenly Ocean. There are stored reserves of living water, inexhaustible source rain. Remember what they say about heavy rain: "the abysses of heaven opened up." After all, "abyss" is the sea abyss, the expanse of water. We still remember a lot, but we don’t know where this memory comes from and what it refers to.

The Slavs believed that you can get to any sky by climbing the World Tree, which connects the Lower World, the Earth and all nine heavens. According to the ancient Slavs, the World Tree looks like a huge sprawling oak tree. However, the seeds of all trees and grasses ripen on this oak. This tree was a very important element of ancient Slavic mythology - it connected all three levels of the world, stretched with its branches to the four cardinal points and with its "state" symbolized the mood of people and Gods in various ceremonies: a green tree meant prosperity and a good share, and a dried one symbolized despondency and used in ceremonies where evil gods participated. And where the top of the World Tree rises above the seventh heaven, there is an island in the "abyss of heaven". This island was called "iry" or "viry". Some scholars believe that the present word "paradise", so firmly connected in our life with Christianity, comes from him.

Iriy was also called Buyan Island. This island is known to us from numerous fairy tales. And on that island live the progenitors of all birds and animals: "the elder wolf", "the elder deer", etc. The Slavs believed that it was to the heavenly island that they fly away in the fall. migratory birds. The souls of the animals hunted by the hunters also ascend there, and they answer to the "elders" - they tell how people treated them. Accordingly, the hunter had to thank the beast, which allowed him to take his skin and meat, and in no case mock him. Then the “elders” will soon release the beast back to Earth, allow it to be born again so that fish and game are not transferred. If a person is guilty, there will be no trouble ... (As we can see, the pagans by no means considered themselves the "kings" of nature, who were allowed to rob it as they pleased. They lived in nature and together with nature and understood that every living being had no less right to life than a person.)

Greek philosopher Thales(VI century BC) represented the Universe in the form of a liquid mass, inside of which there is a large bubble, shaped like a hemisphere. The concave surface of this bubble is the vault of heaven, and on the lower, flat surface, like a cork, floats flat earth. It is easy to guess that Thales based the idea of the Earth as a floating island on the fact that Greece is located on islands.

A contemporary of Thales - Anaximander represented the Earth as a segment of a column or cylinder, on one of the bases of which we live. The middle of the Earth is occupied by land in the form of a large round island of Oikumene (“inhabited Earth”), surrounded by an ocean. Inside the Oikumene is a sea basin that divides it into two approximately equal parts: Europe and Asia. Greece is located in the center of Europe, and the city of Delphi is in the center of Greece (“the navel of the Earth”). Anaximander believed that the Earth is the center of the universe. He explained the sunrise and other luminaries on the eastern side of the sky and their sunset on the western side by the movement of the luminaries in a circle: the visible firmament, in his opinion, is half the ball, the other hemisphere is under his feet.

The world in the view of the ancient Egyptians: below - the Earth, above it - the goddess of the sky; left and right - ship
god of the sun, showing the path of the sun across the sky from sunrise to sunset.

Followers of another Greek scholar - Pythagoras(r. c. 580 - d. 500 BC) - have already recognized the Earth as a ball. They also considered other planets to be spherical.

The ancient Indians imagined the Earth as a hemisphere supported by elephants.
Elephants are standing on a huge turtle, and the turtle is on a snake, which,
curled up in a ring, closes the near-Earth space.

The ideas of the ancients about the Earth were based primarily on mythological ideas.

Some peoples believed that the Earth is flat and rests on three whales that swim in the vast world ocean.

The ancient Greeks imagined the Earth as a flat disk, surrounded by a sea inaccessible to man, from which the stars emerge every evening and into which the stars set every morning. From the eastern sea in a golden chariot, the sun god Helios rose every morning and made his way across the sky.

The ancient Indians represented the Earth as a hemisphere held by four elephants. Elephants stand on a huge turtle, and the turtle is on a snake, which, curled up in a ring, closes the near-Earth space.

Old Norse Land.

Old Testament land in the form of a tabernacle.

Seven heavenly spheres according to Muslim ideas.

View of the Earth according to the ideas of Homer and Hesiod.

Plato's Ananka's Spindle - The sphere of light connects earth and sky
like the skin of a ship and pierces the sky and the earth through and through in the form
luminous pillar in the direction of the world axis, the ends of which coincide with the poles.

Universe according to Lajos Ami.

When people began to make long journeys, evidence gradually began to accumulate that the Earth was not flat, but convex. So, moving south, travelers noticed that in the southern side of the sky the stars rise above the horizon in proportion to the distance traveled and new stars appear above the Earth that were not visible before. And in the northern side of the sky, on the contrary, the stars go down to the horizon and then completely disappear behind it. The bulge of the Earth was also confirmed by observations of receding ships. The ship disappears over the horizon gradually. The hull of the ship has already disappeared and only the masts are visible above the surface of the sea. Then they disappear too. On this basis, people began to assume that the Earth is spherical. There is an opinion that before the completion of the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan, whose ships sailed in one direction and unexpectedly sailed from reverse side there, that is, until September 6, 1522, no one suspected the sphericity of the Earth.

There are many answers to the question of how ancient people imagined the Earth, since the views of our distant ancestors were radically different depending on which region of the planet they lived in. For example, according to one of the first cosmological models, it rests on three whales swimming in the boundless Ocean. Obviously, such ideas about the world could not have arisen among the inhabitants of the desert, who had never seen the sea. Territorial binding can also be seen in the views of the ancient Indians. They believed that the Earth stands on elephants and is a hemisphere. They, in turn, are located on a giant tortoise, and that one is on a snake, curled up in a ring and closing the near-Earth space.

Egyptian representations

The life and well-being of the representatives of this ancient and one of the most interesting and original civilizations completely depended on the Nile. Therefore, it is not surprising that it was he who was at the center of their cosmology.

The real river Nile flowed on the earth, underground - underground, which belonged to the kingdom of the dead, and in the sky - representing the firmament. The sun god Ra spent all his time traveling by boat. During the day, he sailed along the heavenly Nile, and at night, along its underground continuation, flowing through the kingdom of the dead.

How the ancient Greeks imagined the Earth

Representatives of the Hellenic civilization left the greatest cultural heritage. Its part is ancient Greek cosmology. She found her reflection in Homer's poems - "Odyssey" and "Iliad". In them, the Earth is described as a convex disk, resembling a warrior's shield. In its center is land, washed on all sides by the Ocean. A copper firmament spread over the Earth. The Sun moves along it, which rises daily from the depths of the Ocean in the east and, making its way along a huge arcuate trajectory, plunges into the abyss of water in the west.

Later (in the 6th century BC), the ancient Greek philosopher Thales described the Universe as an infinite liquid mass. Inside it is a large bubble in the shape of a hemisphere. Its upper surface is concave and represents the vault of heaven, and on the lower, flat, like a cork, the Earth floats.

In ancient Babylon

The ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia also had their own, original ideas about the world. In particular, cuneiform evidence from ancient Babylonia, which is about 6 thousand years old, has been preserved. According to these "documents", they represented the Earth in the form of a huge World Mountain. On its western slope was Babylonia itself, and on the eastern slope were all the countries unknown to them. The World Mountain was surrounded by the sea, above which, in the form of an overturned bowl, there was a firm heavenly vault. It also consisted of water, air and land. The latter was a belt of the constellations of the Zodiac. In each of them, the Sun was annually about 1 month. It moved along this belt along with the Moon and 5 planets.

There was an abyss under the Earth, where the souls of the dead found shelter. At night, the Sun passed through the underground.

The ancient Jews

According to the ideas of the Jews, the Earth was a plain, on different parts which towered mountains.

As farmers, they assigned a special place to the winds, bringing with them either drought or rain. Their storage was located in the lower tier of the sky and was a barrier between the Earth and heavenly waters: rain, snow and hail. Under the Earth were waters, from which channels went up, which fed the seas and rivers.

These ideas have been constantly evolving, and the Talmud already states that the Earth is round. At the same time, its lower part is immersed in the sea. At the same time, some sages believed that the Earth is flat, and the firmament is a hard, opaque cap covering it. During the day, the Sun passes under it, which moves above the sky at night and is therefore hidden from human eyes.

The ideas of the ancient Chinese about the Earth

Judging by archaeological finds, representatives of this civilization considered the tortoise shell to be the prototype of the cosmos. His shields divided the plane of the Earth into squares - countries.

Later submissions Chinese sages have changed. In one of the oldest text documents, it is believed that the Earth is covered by the sky, which is an umbrella rotating in a horizontal direction. Over time, astronomical observations have made adjustments to this model. In particular, they began to believe that space, surrounding the earth, is spherical.

How the ancient Indians imagined the Earth

Basically, information about the cosmological ideas of the ancient inhabitants of Central America has come down to us, since they had their own written language. In particular, the Mayans, like their closest neighbors, thought that the universe consisted of three levels - heaven, underworld and earth. The latter seemed to them a plane floating on the surface of the water. In some older sources, the Earth was giant crocodile, on the back of which there were mountains, plains, forests, etc.

As for the sky, it consisted of 13 levels, on which the star-gods were located, and the most important of them was Itzamna, who gave life to all things.

The lower world also consisted of levels. At the lowest (9th) were the possessions of the deity of Death Ah Pucha, who was depicted as a human skeleton. Heaven, Earth (flat) and the Lower World were divided into 4 sectors, coinciding with parts of the world. In addition, the Maya believed that before them the gods destroyed and created the Universe more than once.

Formation of the first scientific views

The way ancient people imagined the Earth changed over time, primarily due to travel. In particular, the ancient Greeks, who had achieved great success in navigation, soon began to try to create a system of cosmology based on observations.

For example, the hypothesis of Pythagoras of Samos, who already in the 6th century BC, radically differed from how ancient people imagined the Earth. e. assumed that it had a spherical shape.

However, his hypothesis was proved only much later. At the same time, there is reason to believe that this idea was borrowed by Pythagoras from the Egyptian priests, who used it to explain natural phenomena many centuries before classical philosophy began to form among the Greeks.

After 200 years, Aristotle used observations of lunar eclipses to prove the sphericity of our planet. His work was continued by Claudius Ptolemy, who lived in the second century AD, who created the geocentric system of the universe.

Now you know how ancient people imagined the Earth. Over the past millennia, mankind's knowledge of our planet and space has changed significantly. However, it is always interesting to learn about the views of our distant ancestors.

Presentations / History / The idea of the ancient Slavs about the structure of the world - The structure of Slavic mythology

The text of this presentation

THE ANCIENT SLAVIANS' REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE WORLD
Two feelings are wonderfully close to us. In them the heart finds food: Love for the native ashes, Love for the father's coffins. Based on them from time immemorial By the will of God Himself, the self-sufficiency of man, the pledge of his greatness! A.S. Pushkin

According to the ideas of the ancient Slavs, we know the structure of the world quite well. The world was organized in three parts (as in many other cultures). Gods lived in the upper world. In the Middle World there are people and everything that surrounds them is the earth. In the bowels of the earth, in the lower world, an unquenchable fire (inferno) burns.

The sacred tree is not just a reduced copy of the universe, but also its core, support, without which the world will collapse. In one of the old manuscripts there is a dialogue: “Question: Tell me what holds the earth? Answer: The water is high. - Yes, what holds the earth? - Four golden whales. - Yes, what holds the golden whales? - The fiery river. - But what keeps that fire? - The iron oak, the hedgehog is the first planted from everything, the root is on the power of God.

World Tree. The Slavs believed that any sky can be reached by climbing the World Tree, which connects the Lower World, the Earth and all nine heavens.

The Earth is surrounded by the World Ocean, in the middle of which rests the "navel of the earth" - a sacred stone. It lies at the roots of the sacred World Tree - oak on Buyan Island, and this is the center of the universe. The ancient Slavs considered the world tree to be a kind of axis that holds the world together. In its branches live the Sun, the Moon and the stars, at the roots - the Serpent. The world tree can be birch, sycamore, oak, pine, mountain ash, apple tree.

In Russian medieval folklore - "the father of all stones." In conspiracies and fairy tales - "white-combustible stone." In the center of the world in the middle of the sea-ocean, on the island of Buyan, there is that stone. A world tree grows on it (or there is a throne of world kingship). Healing rivers flow around the world from under this stone. It was not just that there was a combustible stone Alatyr in the center of the universe. At Eastern Slavs there was worship of stones, trees, sacred groves.

GREEN OAK AT LUKOMORYE…
According to popular fairy tales northern Russian provinces, it is the oak that marks the border between our world and the Far Far Away kingdom, that is, the other world. And a black cat, or a Bayun cat, is placed as a guard at this border. His task is not to let any idlers into the distant kingdom, and he does this by lulling the curious with fairy tales and songs.

The Zbruch idol, which can confirm the three-part division of the world of the Slavs, is a tetrahedral pillar 2 m 67 cm high, found back in 1848 near the village of Gusyatin in the Zbruch River (a tributary of the Dniester). The pillar is divided into three tiers, on each of which various images are carved. The lower tier depicts an underground deity from different sides, the world of people is depicted on the middle tier, and the gods are depicted on the upper tier.

SLAVIC GODS

The lower image (underground part) shows a deity holding the earth plane and compares it with the god Veles (Volos).
Veles is one of the greatest gods of the ancient world, son of Rod, brother of Svarog. His main act was that Veles set the world created by Rod and Svarog in motion. Veles could take on any guise. Most often he was portrayed as a wise old man, a protector of plants and animals. Totem animals of Veles bear, wolf, Holy cow. The peoples living in a natural tribal system considered animals equal to people. For example, in Russia, bears are very fond of and consider them brothers. And the bear is Veles. The Russians learned a lot from the animals, imitated them with their voice, movements, methods of attack and defense. Veles is an inexhaustible source of knowledge, each animal in its forest is unique.

When a hunter killed a bird or beast, his soul went to Iriy (the Slavic analogue of "paradise", the island of the blessed was called Iriy or Vyriy.

It lay in the south, where birds winter and Spring lives. The progenitors of all birds and animals also lived there.) and told the “senior” how they treated him. That is why it was impossible to torture an animal or a bird, one should thank him for allowing him to take his meat and skin. Otherwise, the “elders” will not let him be born again, and people will be left without food.

Upper tier. GodsOn the main front face of the upper part, facing north, towards the entrance to the temple, there is a goddess of fertility with a cornucopia in her hand. This is Makosh (Mokosh) - "mother of the harvest." The patroness of the feminine, fertility, marriage, childbirth, hearth, spinning.

Goddess of all Destiny. The goddess of magic and sorcery, the wife of Veles and the Mistress of the crossroads of the universe between the worlds. Protector and patroness of mistresses. In the lower incarnation, she is the famous Yaga, in this case we can say that she is the mother of the winds, that life and death are equally subject to her. Mistress of Nature.

By right hand from Mokosh depicted Lada with wedding ring in hand.
Lada is a deity in Slavic mythology; goddess of spring, spring plowing and sowing, patroness of marriage and love. The fact of the existence of Lada in the beliefs of the Slavs is disputed by a number of scientists. Faithful companion Frets are considered Oslad because. marriage and love are always next to feasts and pleasures.

By left hand from Mokosh - Perun with a horse and a sword.
The Slavic thunderer was Perun - a formidable deity. He lives in heaven. Angry, the god throws stones or stone arrows on the ground. Thursday was dedicated to Perun from the days of the week, from animals - a horse, from trees - oak. Perun, in Slavic mythology, the most famous of the Svarozhich brothers. He is the god of thunderclouds, thunder and lightning. A very expressive portrait of the Thunderer was given by Konstantin Balmont: Perun's thoughts are quick, What he wants is now. Sprinkles sparks, throws sparks From the pupils of sparkling eyes. People believed that he commands the winds and storms that accompany a thunderstorm and rush from all over. four sides Sveta. He is the lord of rain clouds and earthly water sources, including springs that break through the earth after a lightning strike. The appearance and weapons of Perun were identified with natural phenomena: lightning - his sword and arrows, a rainbow - a bow, a cloud - clothes, or a beard, or curls on his head, winds and storms - breathing, rain - a fertilizing seed, a roar of thunder - a voice. People believed that the sparkling eyes of Perun sent death and fires. According to some legends, Perun's lightning was different: lilac-blue, "dead" - struck to death, golden, "alive" - awakened earthly fertility

On the back face - Dazhbog with a solar sign; his face looks, as befits a solar deity, to the south.
The daytime illumination of world space was attributed by Russian people of the 12th century not only to the sun, but also to some special immaterial light, which in later times was called "white light". deity of the sun, sunny day(maybe white light) was Dazhbog, whose name gradually turned into a "giver of blessings."

It is likely that the supreme deity was Rod - the creator of the universe, everything visible and invisible world; impersonal deity, "father and mother of all gods".
The genus is the progenitor of all living and existing things. Rod gave birth to everything that we see around. He separated the visible and obvious world - Reality - from the invisible, spiritual world.

GOD SVAROG The Supreme Heavenly God, who controls the course of Life and the entire world order of the Universe in the Explicit World. Svarog is considered the god of fire, he gave people pliers and taught them to forge iron. The Great God Svarog is the Father for many ancient Light Gods and Goddesses. God Svarog, how loving father, cares not only about his heavenly children and grandchildren, but also about people from all Clans of the Great Race, who are descendants of the Ancient Svarozhichs.

The whole earthly world, according to the ideas of the Slavs, was inhabited by spirits, mysterious forces: in the forest - goblin, in lakes and rivers - insidious water and mermaids, in swamps - terrible kikimors, in huts - brownies.

Leshy
Goblin is one of the most important spirits of nature. He is the only one of all evil spirits capable of growing on a par with the most tall trees then become so small that it hides under a strawberry leaf

MERMAIDS
The female spirits of the waters are waterworts, mermaids swim to the surface only in the evening, and sleep during the day. They lure travelers with beautiful songs, and then drag them into the pool. A big holiday at the mermaids - Kupala.

WATER
The water grandfather is the master of the waters. The mermen graze herds of their catfish, carp, bream and other fish at the bottom of rivers and lakes. Commands mermaids, undines and other aquatic inhabitants. In general, he is kind, but sometimes he likes to indulge in water and drag some gaping person to the bottom so that he entertains him.

DOMOVOI
Domovoy is the patron of the house. Appears in the form of an old man, a shaggy little man, a cat or other small animal, but it is not given to see him. He is the guardian not only of the whole house, but mainly of all who live in it.

BEREGINI
Beregini live along the banks of rivers, they protect people from evil spirits, predict the future, and also save small children who have been left unattended and fallen into the water. Beregini-wanderers often pointed out to travelers where the ford was located.

However, now you need to be wary of these good spirits, because many of them became evil lobsters when people forgot about the Mermaids and stopped monitoring the purity of the waters.

Thus…
Gods and shrines. The Slavs were pagans. Their main god was considered Perun, the god of thunder and lightning. The god of the sun was called Dazhbog, the god of the wind - Stribog, the god of fire - Svarog. There were gods who, as the Slavs thought, were subject to the house and economy of man. For example: Veles (Volos) was the god of cattle and cattle breeding. The picture shows a sanctuary in which the Slavs make a sacrifice to appease the gods. It could be food Domestic bird, livestock, in exceptional cases even people.

Questions and tasks Draw the World Tree. Arrange on its branches the Slavic gods and spirits known to you.

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Since ancient times, people have watched with excitement starry sky trying to unravel the mystery of the structure of the surrounding world. Today, humanity knows much more about how the Universe works, what elements and objects it consists of. But ancient ideas about the Universe differed significantly from modern scientific views.

Ancient Greeks

Imagined the earth was flat. This opinion was held, for example, by the ancient Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, who lived in the 6th century BC. He considered the earth to be a flat disk, surrounded by a sea inaccessible to man, from which the stars emerge every evening and into which the stars set every morning. Every morning the sun god Helios (later identified with Apollo) rose from the eastern sea in a golden chariot and made his way across the sky.

Egypt

India

The ancient Indians imagined the Earth as a hemisphere supported by four elephants. Elephants stood on a huge turtle that swam in the milky sea. All these animals were wrapped in rings by the black cobra Shesha, and her thousands of heads propped up the Universe.

Babylon. Today's Iraq ... in those parts

The inhabitants of Babylon represented the Earth in the form of a mountain, on the western slope of which Babylonia is located. They knew that there was a sea to the south of Babylon, and mountains to the east, which they did not dare to cross. Therefore, it seemed to them that Babylonia is located on the western slope of the "world" mountain. This mountain is surrounded by the sea, and on the sea, like an overturned bowl, the firm sky rests - the heavenly world, where, like on Earth, there is land, water and air. The heavenly land is a belt of 12 constellations of the Zodiac: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. In each of the constellations, the Sun visits each year for about a month. The Sun, Moon and five planets move along this belt of land. Under the Earth is an abyss - hell, where the souls of the dead descend. At night, the Sun passes through this dungeon from the western edge of the Earth to the eastern, in order to begin its daytime journey through the sky again in the morning. Watching the sunset over the sea horizon, people thought that it goes into the sea and also rises from the sea. Thus, the ancient Babylonians' ideas about the Earth were based on observations of natural phenomena, but the limited knowledge did not allow them to be explained correctly.

Greeks.

The famous ancient Greek scientist Aristotle (4th century BC) was the first to use observations of lunar eclipses to prove the sphericity of the Earth. Before him, by the way, this theory was put forward by Pythagoras of Samos (in the 6th century BC)

Here are three facts:

The shadow from the Earth falling on the full moon is always round. During eclipses, the Earth is turned to the Moon in different directions. But only the ball always casts a round shadow.
The ships, moving away from the observer into the sea, are not gradually lost from sight due to the long distance, but almost instantly, as it were, “sink”, disappearing beyond the horizon line.
Some stars can only be seen from certain parts of the Earth, while for other observers they are never visible.

Geocentric system according to Ptolemy

He created his own geocentric system of the universe and taught that all celestial bodies move around the Earth in an empty world space.
Subsequently, the Ptolemaic system was recognized by the Christian church.

Aristarchus of Samos (310 - 250 BC)

Finally, the outstanding astronomer of the ancient world Aristarchus of Samos (late 4th - first half of the 3rd century BC) suggested that it is not the Sun, together with the planets, that moves around the Earth, but the Earth and all the planets revolve around the Sun. However, he had very little evidence at his disposal.
And about 1700 years passed before the Polish scientist Copernicus managed to prove this.

Copernicus

His hypotheses refuted the theory of the ancient Greek scientist Ptolemy, which had existed for almost 1500 years. According to this theory, the Earth rested motionless in the center of the Universe, and all the planets, including the Sun, revolved around it.
Although the teachings of Ptolemy could not explain many astronomical phenomena, but the church for many centuries supported the inviolability of this theory, since it suited it quite well. But Copernicus could not be content with hypotheses alone, he needed more compelling arguments, but it was very difficult to prove the correctness of his theory in practice at that time: there were no telescopes, and astronomical instruments were primitive. The scientist, observing the firmament, drew conclusions about the incorrectness of Ptolemy's theory, and using mathematical calculations convincingly proved that all the planets, including the Earth, revolve around the Sun.
The church could not accept the teachings of Copernicus, because this destroyed the theory of divine origin Universe. The result of his 40 years of research, Nicolaus Copernicus outlined in the work “On the rotation of the celestial spheres”, which, thanks to the efforts of his student Joachim Rethik and like-minded Tiedemann Giese, was published in Nuremberg in May 1543.
The scientist himself at that time was already ill: he suffered a stroke, as a result of which the right half of the body was paralyzed. On May 24, 1543, after another hemorrhage, the great Polish astronomer died. They say that already on his deathbed, Copernicus still managed to see his book printed.
In general: And yet it spins!

Italian. Galileo Galilei, full: Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de Galilei

Creates his own pipe and calls it a telescope! I copied, by the way, from the Dutch. It seems that the invention didn’t help them, unlike Vincenzo, or they didn’t have enough brains)

After careful measurements and calculations, Galileo's telescope turns out to be incredibly accurate (at that time), but also allows Galileo to make a lot of discoveries.

The very first discovery Galileo made, after a detailed study of the surface of the moon. He not only proved, but also described in detail the mountains that are on the surface of the moon.

The second discovery of Galileo was - Milky Way. The scientist proved that it consists of a cluster of many stars. In addition to such a cluster of stars, the scientist suggested that there are other galaxies in the world that can be located in different planes of the vast Universe.

The third largest and most significant discovery was the 4 moons of Jupiter.

With his observations, Galileo simply and accurately proved that any cosmic body can rotate around other celestial bodies and not only around the Earth. The great astronomer examined and described in detail the spots on the Sun, of course other people saw them, but no one could describe them in a worthy and correct way until Galileo Galilei did it.

In addition to observing the moon, Galileo also revealed to the world the phases of the planet Venus. In his writings, he compared the phases of Venus with the phases of the Moon. All such important and weighty observations boiled down to the fact that the Earth, along with other planets in our galaxy, revolves around the Sun.

Galileo described all his observations and discoveries in a scientific book called The Starry Herald. It was after reading this book and the discoveries made by Galileo that almost all the monarchs in Europe demanded to purchase a telescope. The scientist himself presented several of his inventions to his patrons.

Of course, compared to the current Hubble-type telescopes, Galileo's telescope looks plain and simple. If you think about how such a primitive device allowed one person to make a huge number of discoveries, it becomes clear that it doesn’t matter which device a person has is super-new or old - the main thing is that the person looking into it has an extraordinary mind.

The ideas of the ancients about the Earth were based primarily on mythological ideas.
Some peoples believed that the Earth is flat and rests on three whales that swim in the vast world ocean. Consequently, these whales were in their eyes the main foundations, the foot of the whole world.
The increase in geographical information is associated primarily with travel and navigation, as well as with the development of the simplest astronomical observations.

Ancient Greeks imagined the earth was flat. This opinion was shared, for example, by the ancient Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, who lived in the 6th century BC. He considered the Earth to be a flat disk surrounded by a sea inaccessible to man, from which stars come out every evening and into which stars set every morning. Every morning the sun god Helios (later identified with Apollo) rose from the eastern sea in a golden chariot and made his way across the sky.

The ancient Indians imagined the Earth as a hemisphere held by four elephant . Elephants stand on a huge turtle, and the turtle is on a snake, which, curled up in a ring, closes the near-Earth space.

Babylonians represented the Earth in the form of a mountain, on the western slope of which Babylonia is located. They knew that there was a sea to the south of Babylon, and mountains to the east, which they did not dare to cross. Therefore, it seemed to them that Babylonia is located on the western slope of the "world" mountain. This mountain is surrounded by the sea, and on the sea, like an overturned bowl, the firm sky rests - the heavenly world, where, like on Earth, there is land, water and air. The heavenly land is the belt of the 12 constellations of the Zodiac: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. In each of the constellations, the Sun visits each year for about a month. The Sun, Moon and five planets move along this belt of land. Under the Earth is an abyss - hell, where the souls of the dead descend. At night, the Sun passes through this dungeon from the western edge of the Earth to the eastern, in order to begin its daytime journey through the sky again in the morning. Watching the sunset over the sea horizon, people thought that it goes into the sea and also rises from the sea. Thus, the ancient Babylonians' ideas about the Earth were based on observations of natural phenomena, but the limited knowledge did not allow them to be explained correctly.

Earth according to the ancient Babylonians.

When people began to make long journeys, evidence gradually began to accumulate that the Earth was not flat, but convex.

Great ancient Greek scientist Pythagoras Samos(in the VI century BC) for the first time suggested the sphericity of the Earth. Pythagoras was right. But to prove the Pythagorean hypothesis, and even more so to determine the radius of the globe, it was possible much later. It is believed that this idea Pythagoras borrowed from the Egyptian priests. When the Egyptian priests knew about this, one can only guess, since, unlike the Greeks, they hid their knowledge from the general public.
Pythagoras himself, perhaps, also relied on the evidence of a simple sailor, Skilak of Karyanda, who in 515 BC. made a description of his voyages in the Mediterranean.

famous ancient greek scientist Aristotle(IV century BCe.) He was the first to use observations of lunar eclipses to prove the sphericity of the Earth. Here are three facts:

the shadow from the earth falling on the full moon is always round. During eclipses, the Earth is turned to the Moon in different directions. But only the ball always casts a round shadow.
The ships, moving away from the observer into the sea, are not gradually lost from sight due to the long distance, but almost instantly, as it were, "sink", disappearing behind the horizon line.
some stars can only be seen from certain parts of the Earth, while for other observers they are never visible.

Claudius Ptolemy(2nd century AD) - ancient Greek astronomer, mathematician, optician, music theorist and geographer. In the period from 127 to 151 he lived in Alexandria, where he carried out astronomical observations. He continued the teachings of Aristotle regarding the sphericity of the Earth.
He created his own geocentric system of the universe and taught that all celestial bodies move around the Earth in an empty world space.
Subsequently, the Ptolemaic system was recognized by the Christian church.

The universe according to Ptolemy: the planets revolve in empty space.

Finally, the outstanding astronomer of the ancient world Aristarchus of Samos(late 4th - first half of the 3rd century BC) suggested that it is not the Sun, together with the planets, that moves around the Earth, but the Earth and all the planets revolve around the Sun. However, he had very little evidence at his disposal.
And it took about 1700 years before the Polish scientist managed to prove it. Copernicus.

MUNICIPAL BUDGET GENERAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

"NOVOSELOVSKAYA GENERAL SECONDARY SCHOOL"

RAZDOLNENSKY DISTRICT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CRIMEA

Prepared by:

teacher primary school

MBOU "Novoselovskaya school"

Nezboretskaya Olga Vasilievna

town Novoselovskoye - 2016

Representation of the ancient peoples about the Earth

Correct information about the Earth and its shape did not appear immediately, not at one time and not in one place. However, it is difficult to find out exactly where, when, among which people they were most correct. Very few reliable ancient documents and material monuments have been preserved about this.

First prototypes geographical maps known to us in the form of images left by our ancestors on the walls of caves, incisions on stones and animal bones. Researchers find such sketches in different parts of the world.

The way ancient people imagined the Earth largely depended on the nature, topography and climate of the places where they lived. 'Cause the peoples different corners planets saw in their own way the world, and these views differed significantly.

For the most part, all the ideas of the ancients about the Earth were based primarily on mythological ideas.

Ancient inhabitants of the ocean coast

According to legend, the ancient inhabitants of the ocean coast imagined the Earth as a plane lying on the backs of three whales.

ancient indians

According to legend, the ancient Indians imagined the Earth as a plane lying on the backs of elephants.

Probably the most famous legend today, which tells how ancient people imagined the Earth, was composed by the ancient Indians. This people believed that the Earth was actually a hemisphere, which rests on the backs of four elephants. These elephants stood on their backs giant tortoise floating in the endless sea of milk. All these creatures were wrapped in many rings by the black cobra Shesha, which had several thousand heads. These heads, according to the beliefs of the Indians, propped up the universe.

ancient babylonians

Valuable historical information about the Earth and its form was preserved by the ancient peoples who lived in the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Nile Delta and along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea (in Asia Minor and Southern Europe). Written documents from ancient Babylonia have survived to our time. They are about 6000 years old.

The Babylonians, in turn, inherited knowledge from even more ancient peoples. The Babylonians represented the Earth as a mountain, on the western slope of which Babylonia is located. They noticed that to the south of Babylon is the sea, and to the east there are mountains, through which they did not dare to cross. That's why it seemed to them. This mountain is round, and it is surrounded by the sea, and on the sea, like an overturned bowl, the firm sky rests - the heavenly world, like on Earth, is land, water and air. The heavenly land is the belt of the 12 constellations of the Zodiac. In each of the constellations, the Sun visits each year for about a month. The Sun, Moon and five planets move along this belt of land. Under the Earth is an abyss - hell, where the souls of the dead descend. At night, the Sun passes through this dungeon from the western edge of the Earth to the eastern, in order to begin its daytime journey through the sky again in the morning.

Ancient Greeks

ancient egyptians

ancient jews

ancient muslims

Seven heavenly spheres according to Muslim ideas. The worldview that the universe is like a multi-stage structure. The universe is divided by Muslim theologians into three main parts - heaven, earth and underworld. All seven heavens have their own purpose, their own color and properties, they are inhabited by angels of the corresponding categories: the 1st heaven in Muslim mythology is considered the source of thunder and rain, the 2nd one consists of molten silver, the third one is made of a reddish ruby, the 4th one is made of pearls , 5th - from pure gold, 6th - from gaping rubies. In the end, the 7th heaven is inhabited by the more glorious and powerful of the angels - cherubim, day and night weeping and groaning before God, begging him to have mercy on erring sinners.

Ancient Slavs

The ideas of the Slavs about the earthly dispensation were very complex and confused. Some ancient Slavs believed that any sky can be reached by climbing the World Tree, which connects the Lower World, the Earth and all nine heavens. The World Tree looks like a huge sprawling oak tree. However, the seeds of all trees and grasses ripen on this oak. This tree was a very important element of ancient Slavic mythology - it connected all three levels of the world, stretched its branches to the four cardinal points and with its "state" symbolized the mood of people and Gods in various rites: a green tree meant prosperity and a good share, and a dried one symbolized despondency and used in ceremonies where evil gods participated. And where the top of the World Tree rises above the seventh heaven, there is an island. This island was called "iry" or "viry". Some scholars believe that the present word "paradise", so firmly connected in our life with Christianity, comes from him.

Old Testament land in the form of a tabernacle.

View of the Earth according to the ideas of Homer and Hesiod.

The geographers of the ancient world tried to map the spaces known to them - the Oikumene and even the Earth as a whole. These maps were imperfect and far from the truth. More reliable maps appeared only in the last two centuries BC. e.

When people began to make long journeys, evidence gradually began to accumulate that the Earth was not flat, but convex. So, moving south, travelers noticed that in the southern side of the sky the stars rise above the horizon in proportion to the distance traveled and new stars appear above the Earth that were not visible before. And in the northern side of the sky, on the contrary, the stars go down to the horizon and then completely disappear behind it. The bulge of the Earth was also confirmed by observations of receding ships. The ship disappears over the horizon gradually. The hull of the ship has already disappeared and only the masts are visible above the surface of the sea. Then they disappear too. On this basis, people began to assume that the Earth is spherical. There is an opinion that before completion, whose ships sailed in one direction and unexpectedly sailed from the opposite side there, that is, until September 6, 1522, no one suspected the sphericity of the Earth.

From ancient times, knowing environment and expanding living space, a person thought about how the world works, where he lives. Trying to explain the Universe, he used categories that were close and understandable to him, first of all, drawing parallels with familiar nature and the area in which he himself lived. How people used to represent the Earth? What did they think about its shape and place in the universe? How have their views changed over time? All this makes it possible to know historical sources that have come down to the present day.

How ancient people imagined the Earth

The first prototypes of geographical maps are known to us in the form of images left by our ancestors on the walls of caves, incisions on stones and animal bones. Researchers find such sketches in different parts of the world. Similar drawings show hunting grounds, places where game hunters set traps, as well as roads.

Schematically depicting rivers, caves, mountains, forests on improvised material, a person sought to pass on information about them to subsequent generations. In order to distinguish objects already familiar to them from new ones, just discovered, people gave them names. So, gradually mankind accumulated geographical experience. And even then our ancestors began to wonder what the Earth is.

The way ancient people imagined the Earth largely depended on the nature, topography and climate of the places where they lived. Therefore, the peoples of different parts of the planet saw the world around them in their own way, and these views differed significantly.

Babylon

Valuable historical information about how ancient people imagined the Earth was left to us by civilizations that lived on the lands between and the Euphrates, inhabited the Nile Delta and the shores of the Mediterranean Sea (modern territories of Asia Minor and southern Europe). This information is more than six thousand years old.

Thus, the ancient Babylonians considered the Earth a "world mountain", on the western slope of which was Babylonia - their country. This idea was facilitated by the fact that the eastern part of the lands they knew rested on high mountains which no one dared to cross.

South of Babylonia was the sea. This allowed people to believe that the "world mountain" is actually round, and is washed by the sea from all sides. On the sea, like an inverted bowl, rests the solid heavenly world, which is in many ways similar to the earthly one. It also had its own "land", "air" and "water". The role of the land was played by the belt of the Zodiacal constellations, which blocked the celestial "sea" like a dam. It was believed that the Moon, the Sun and several planets move along this firmament. The sky for the Babylonians was the place of residence of the gods.

The souls of dead people, on the contrary, lived in the underground "abyss". At night, the Sun, plunging into the sea, had to pass through this dungeon from the western edge of the Earth to the eastern, and in the morning, rising from the sea to the firmament, again begin its daytime journey along it.

The way people represented the Earth in Babylon was based on observations of natural phenomena. However, the Babylonians could not correctly interpret them.

Palestine

As for the inhabitants of this country, other ideas reigned on these lands, different from those of Babylon. The ancient Jews lived in a flat area. Therefore, the Earth in their vision also looked like a plain, which in places was crossed by mountains.

Winds, bringing with them either drought or rain, occupied a special place in the beliefs of the Palestinians. Living in the "lower zone" of the sky, they separated the "heavenly waters" from the surface of the Earth. Water, in addition, was under the Earth, feeding from there all the seas and rivers on its surface.

India, Japan, China

Probably the most famous legend today, which tells how ancient people imagined the Earth, was composed by the ancient Indians. This people believed that the Earth was actually a hemisphere, which rests on the backs of four elephants. These elephants stood on the back of a giant tortoise swimming in an endless sea of milk. All these creatures were wrapped in many rings by the black cobra Shesha, which had several thousand heads. These heads, according to the beliefs of the Indians, propped up the universe.

The land in the view of the ancient Japanese was limited to the territory of the islands known to them. She was credited with a cubic shape, and the frequent earthquakes that occur in their homeland were explained by the rampage of the fire-breathing dragon that lives deep in its depths.

About five hundred years ago, the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, observing the stars, established that the center of the Universe is the Sun, and not the Earth. Almost 40 years after the death of Copernicus, his ideas were developed by the Italian Galileo Galilei. This scientist was able to prove that all the planets solar system, including the Earth, actually revolve around the Sun. Galileo was accused of heresy and forced to renounce his teachings.

However, the Englishman Isaac Newton, who was born a year after the death of Galileo, subsequently managed to discover the law of universal gravitation. Based on it, he explained why the Moon revolves around the Earth, and the planets with satellites and numerous revolve around the Sun.