Is the expression miracle Yudo fish true? Squads of mammals. Cetaceans, pinnipeds, proboscis, carnivores. In Russian folk tales
Ershov Pyotr Pavlovich, with his tales about the Little Humpbacked Horse and the Miracle Yuda, gave an entire generation faith in the unknown. This author made me take a fresh look at the wonders of nature, because such anomalies as the Miracle-Yudo Fish-whale were found in the mythology of other peoples.
She has an imposing mouth capable of swallowing a ship, a bad temper despite the relative calmness of the real prototype of the animal, and a modified physiology.
The features of the animal are distorted. If in the end the fish became more or less natural in appearance, except for its size, of course, then initially it was practically a dragon, with an elongated mouth full of sharp teeth.
According to the materials "for comparative words" edited by Khomyakov, Chudo-Yudo should be interpreted as a dragon. Also in the 19th century, this expression was used to describe any "diva of the sea", which includes even killer whales. Despite the fact that in different sources Miracle Yudo is presented in its own way, most of these creatures have a natural prototype, or at least a natural explanation.
Origin of terminology
Directly the word "Miracle Yudo" also has own history. The first part is easily explained, since it directly means something “wonderful” or “unusual”.
But the second part of the term has a more specific and interesting history. In early Christianity, the word "yudo", consonant with the name Judas, was used to refer to everything demonic, evil and unclean.
Perhaps that is why most of the prototypes of such curiosities, including the one described in Ershov's prose 
fish are credited with an extremely aggressive disposition.
So, for example, the hero of a different mythology, this time from the East, Sinbad the Sailor escaped from the "false island" in a trough, pursued by a huge creature that wanted to feast on the members of his team.
The whale mentioned in The Humpbacked Horse, in turn, could hardly repeat the atrocities that are attributed to his more “evil” brethren. The fish was punished for racing after the ships, but the whale did not have to pretend to be an island.
Is there a single image of a monster
In the Old Slavonic legends, Miracle-Yudo is a dragon- or snake-like monster "with several heads." For example, in the fairy tale "Ivan the Peasant's Son and the Miracle Yudo", this is presented as.
As for the whale, he most likely received his reckoning as a curiosity for a snake-like body, albeit a modified one. The fish that lies "across the sea" also has quite natural characteristics characteristic of a real-life subspecies. So, for example, the animal also gets rid of excess water in the body with the help of a fountain in the front of the body, called the "blowhole", around which the guys have fun and jump.
Real prototype
If we are talking about Ershov's whale, then it should be noted that he has a very real image.
It is certainly exaggerated for the sake of entertainment and the scale of the story, but one way or another it corresponds to the image that was described in prose.
At first, you might think that we are talking about a minke whale, since most of the illustrations for Ershov's prose show the same fish with characteristic longitudinal stripes under the mouth, in which the whalebone is clearly visible.
However, most representatives of this species prey exclusively on plankton, which is why it will be extremely difficult for them to directly swallow anything, including “three dozen ships”.
It is quite possible that Ershov used the sperm whale as the basis for his Miracle Yud, which often swallows various objects that later cause considerable inconvenience to the animal.
Of course, we are not talking about any “big city” that can fit on the back of this representative of mammals. Average length animal is approximately 15-20 meters.
bible script
Ershov never revealed the secrets of what exactly served as the prototype for that same whale. Some saw in the fish the “living island” described above from more ancient mythology, which is a tame animal of the local ruler of the seas, others even saw the background to the parable, describing biblical motif.
It's about about the Book of the prophet Jonah, who was also swallowed by a whale when he angered the Lord and did not repent of his sins. However, as in the case of Ershov's whale, the prophet was not left on his own and got the opportunity to change his fate, as a result of being thrown ashore.
Also, the fish received its forgiveness when it released all 30 swallowed ships into the wild.
Moralization of the Narrative
In Yershov's prose, the Sun gave the whale a second chance, releasing the fish, which immediately declared its own dominion over the surface of the sea.
AT this case the evolution of the image from completely negative and destructive to thinking and understanding is traced. Kit had to let go of all the ships after the Little Humpbacked Horse brought him the news of salvation from plight. Even the peasants, who left the island in time, did not suffer.
Ershov's contribution to the humanization of Miracle Yud should not be underestimated, the author deliberately gave impetus to the development of the image.
Despite the fact that the Slavs were extremely far from both the sea and the mythology characteristic of the peoples in whose culture shipping occupied important role, they nevertheless created their leviathan.
Perhaps the point is in that “unseen”, which seemed to ordinary people the expanse of the sea. It is also possible that Miracle Yudo simply evolved from the characters of local fishing folklore. In any case, this image remained one of the key in the total description of the forces opposing the hero of epics and fairy tales.
Order Cetaceans
1. Is the statement true: “Miracle Yudo, whale fish”? why?
No, because the whale is a mammal
2. Remember how bats navigate in space. What do bats and cetaceans have in common in spatial orientation?
Both Cetaceans and Bats are capable of echolocation. With its help, they can navigate in space
3. Why do cetaceans need a thick layer of fat?
A thick layer of fat provides a constant body temperature and buoyancy, reducing the specific gravity
4. Where do river dolphins live?
in the rivers South America, India, China
5. What is a whalebone?
Cetacean filtering apparatus
6. Complete the chart
Suborders: Toothed, Toothless
Tooth family: river dolphins, sperm whales, dolphins
Toothless family: Striped, Grey, Smooth
7. Distribute the species of cetaceans listed in the Red Book different states, by families
Families:
A. - Smooth whales
B. - Toothed whales
A.: 3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13
B.: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 14, 15, 16
8. Give examples of the “commonwealth” of humans and dolphins that you know.
Dolphins save drowning people, are capable of training - in dolphinariums, entertain children and adults, can treat children with cerebral palsy and autism, etc.
Order Pinnipeds
1. Briefly state the features external structure Pinnipeds, allowing them to lead a semi-aquatic lifestyle
Medium and large body, elongated, streamlined, ear openings close when immersed in water, limbs turned into flippers, short tail, thick subcutaneous fat layer
2. Name the largest and most minor representative pinnipeds
Antarctic sea Elephant- up to 3.5 t and up to 7 m
Ringed seal - up to 78 cm
3. Remember, in which other animals, except for pinnipeds, the auricles close when immersed in water
4. Suggest what consequences in the life of pinnipeds and cetaceans can lead to significant pollution of the seas and oceans
They will die, because first all small animals, that is, their food, will die out, and then larger animals. In addition, there will be very little oxygen in polluted water.
Detachment Proboscis
1. Name 2 types of elephants and give their distinctive features
1. Indian elephant - height 3 m, weight more than 5 tons, tusks only in the male 1-1.5 m long
2. African elephant - height 3.5 m, weight 3-5 tons, tusks in males and females, tusks up to 3 m long
2. During the fusion of which organs did the trunk form? What functions does it perform?
The trunk arose as a result of the fusion of the nose and upper lip. With its help, the elephant breathes, drinks, eats and picks up objects from the ground.
3. Elephants are known to take dust and mud baths along with water baths. Why are they doing this?
4. Offer your option to protect elephants from poaching
Severe punishment for poaching by law, heavy fines, establishment of nurseries and nature reserves
Squad Carnivores
1. What signs are common to all representatives of the order Carnivores?
A slender body, powerful paws, a small head, a muscular neck, the presence of fangs and predatory teeth, a similar way of feeding
2. Name the largest and smallest representative of the detachment
Bear - weight up to 1 t, length up to 3 m
Weasel - weight about 100 g, length up to 13 cm
3. Give examples of animal species from the order Carnivores that eat not only as predators
Bear (omnivore) big panda(herbivore)
4. Fill in the table, including in it one representative from any three families of the order Carnivores "Features of representatives of the families of the order Carnivores"
5. What predatory beasts of those listed in the Red Book of Russia live in your area?
Miracle Yudo- a character of Russian folk epics and fairy tales, Slavic heroic epic and, possibly, Proto-Slavic mythology (according to a number of authors, it is a kind of nomadic plot from earlier, pre-Slavic beliefs). Initially, it did not have a clearly expressed negative role in the narratives. The character's gender also changed over time, from female to male to neuter, respectively. To date, there has not been a consensus on the origin of the character in the works of ethnographers and culturologists. The nature of the character in the narratives that have come down to our time often resembles the sea monsters of ancient mythology.
Etymology and versions of the origin of the character
A number of unlikely etymologies were proposed in 19th-century literature. Thus, the Complete Church Slavonic Dictionary, edited by G. M. Dyachenko, compares Yudo with Sanskrit (Skt. jadas), which means a marine animal in general, in particular "fabulous". Also, miracle-yudo is used in the meaning of "wonder of the sea." According to "Materials for comparison. words ", edited by A. S. Khomyakov, miracle Yudo - the name of the mythical snake (dragon), derived from the words miracle, which in the old days meant a giant, but it is known that in the ancient era of the development of religious and poetic views on nature, all its mighty forces (whirlwinds, storms and thunderstorms) were personified in the titanic images of giants. Traditions about snakes and giants are in the closest and closest relationship, and, according to the testimony of a folk tale, the sea king takes on the image of a serpent. And yudo on behalf of Judas, which is still in the period early christianity began to give to the unclean and other demonic creatures.
The historian and publicist, doctor of historical sciences Yu. N. Afanasiev, notes that in one version of the folk tale about the Sea King and his daughter's belongings, the Sea King is directly called the Ocean Sea; in other lists, his role is transferred to the snake, the devil and the lawless Miracle Yud. This Slavic Neptune is also mentioned in other fairy tales. As a bearer of dark clouds that darken the heavenly light and often harm ripening harvests, from ancient times he combined in his character, along with beneficial properties, the features of a demonic being; the same dual character was adopted by the Sea King. That is why it is so common folk tales replacing the Sea King with the devil. As an example, Afanasiev cites a German fairy tale published in the Galtrich collection, in which the prince of hell, identical with our Sea King, retains all the attributes of the most ancient deity of thunderstorms: he possesses a wonderful scourge (= lightning), the blows of which make the whole kingdom shake and cause an uncountable army ; he rushes to the milk pond and, having drunk on boiling milk (= rain), bursts with a terrible crash and dies - just like a cloud broken by thunder and pouring rain disappears. Name Miracle Yudo, according to Afanasiev, confirms the same idea: it is mostly given to the mythical serpent (dragon-cloud).
The demonologist L. N. Vinogradova, based on the study of Slavic songs, comes to the conclusion that the miracle Yudo is a kind of implicitly depicted mythological character, or the result of mixing with a mermaid (or with a more generalized image of harmful power), - one way or another, song characteristics allow note the features of "otherworldliness", the dangers of the character and the motives for his exile.
According to I. Zakharenko, in Russian folk epics and legends, the miracle Yudo goes back to the Pogany Idolish, with which the Russian heroes fight.
Following the pseudoscientific theory proposed by V.N. Demin, the miracle Yudo is a Russified image of the ancient Greek Gorgon Medusa. There is practically nothing fishy in the very image of the Russian Medusa - the fish simply surround her, testifying to marine environment. This version of the origin is seen by Demin much closer to the original pre-Hellenic archetype of the beautiful Sea Princess, who was turned into a miracle Yudo in a process called by Demin the “Olympic Religious Revolution”. The memory of the ancient Hellenic-Slavic Medusa was also preserved in medieval legends about the Virgin Gorgon. According to Slavic legends, she knew the language of all animals. Later in apocryphal manuscripts female image Gorgons turned into the "beast Gorgonius"; its functions have largely remained the same: it guards the entrance to paradise (that is, in other words, it is the guardian of the passage to the Isles of the Blessed).
M. Vasmer considers it most likely that yudo- “just a rhyming formation on the model of the word miracle”, and is hardly related to Bulgarian yuda. However, the Bulgarian word yuda(evil mythical female being, lives in the mountains, near lakes, flies through the air like a whirlwind) and Ukrainian yuda(genus evil spirit) are recognized, according to O. N. Trubachev, as related (proto-Slavic form * juda) with Sanskrit yodhá and descending from Proto-Indo-European * ịoudh-.
Academician B. A. Rybakov notes that the miracle Yudo is the deepest archaism of ancient Slavic mythology.
Modern usage
According to explanatory dictionary Russian language Ushakov, in modern Russian, miracle yudo used in the meaning of a fabulous monster, as well as in the meaning miracle, as something amazing, inexplicable, surprising with its unusualness (in an ironic form).
According to the linguoculturological dictionary of Irina Zakharenko and Irina Brileva, Russians can remember miracle-yudo and use this expression when they talk about someone or something unusual, strange, about some kind of miracle or about an unusually huge fish.
In epics and legends
According to B. A. Rybakov, in Slavic legends, the monster is always many-headed. Often the tale mentions trunks, and the Serpent himself is called "proboscis." “A serpent with twelve heads and twelve trunks; stomping with their feet ... grinding with their teeth. Chudo-Yudo does not bite his opponents, does not claw, but “drives into the ground” or beats with his trunk (“burned with his trunk”). Here it must be understood that the word "trunk" used to mean not a fleshy continuation of the nose and upper lip, like an elephant's, - this was the name of the tail of a lizard or snake. Therefore, the Serpent with twelve trunks is a snake with twelve tails (see the meaning of the word trunk in Dahl's dictionary). He himself is killed (in addition to the standard fairy sword) with arrows, spears and red-hot stones, which the hero's assistants throw into his mouth; often the hero rips open the monster's belly. After defeating the Serpent, his carcass is burned at the stake.
In Russian folk tales
In the Russian folk tale "Ivan the Peasant's Son and Miracle Yudo", Miracle Yudo is a group of multi-headed (6, 9, 12) dragons, negative characters. They live across the Smorodina River, through which they cross over the Kalinov Bridge. In the fairy tale Chudo-Yudo is depicted on horseback. The harm from it lies in the fact that it burns towns and villages with fire. The 12-headed Miracle Yudo possesses a fiery finger that allows you to regenerate chopped heads. Miracle Yudo lives in stone chambers, where Miracle Yuda has witch wives and a snake mother. The main opponent of the miracle-yuda, as the name of the tale implies, is Ivan - a peasant son.
In the fairy tales of Russian writers
In the fairy tale of Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov "The Little Humpbacked Horse" of 1834, as an independent character, there is Miracle-yudo Fish-whale. Actually, this is a fish-island that lies "across the sea."
In the film "Barbara-beauty, a long braid", based on the fairy tale by Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky "The Tale of Tsar Berendey, the good Tsar Yeremey and the evil Chude-Yuda, about the love of Varvara-beauty for the fishing son Andrei", Miracle Yudo is the king underwater world who kidnapped the king of the earth - Yeremey. Rescues Tsar Yeremey, to the motive of a folk tale, Andrei is a fisherman's son.