Various ancient peoples, whether Egyptians, Greeks or Romans, tried to explain all the phenomena occurring around them, so a fabulous explanation of the change of day and night has come down to our times. Legends of different nationalities are generally similar.
Change of day and night: a fabulous explanation
With the words "the sun has risen" or "the sun has set," we begin or end the next day in life. Our ancestors endowed sunrises and sunsets with great power. These phenomena were sacred to our ancestors.
And indeed, during sunsets and sunrises they performed various rituals and ceremonies, both church and magical. From here a "fabulous" explanation of the change of day and night "grew." Photo of sunset or dawn has every user of social networks. Today, modern man does not understand these phenomena and does not know the sacred meaning.
Ancient Greek myth
In the ancient Greeks, the change of day and night has a fabulous explanation. The titan of Hyperion had three children: Selena, Eos and Helios. Shining with a cold light, Selena was the goddess of the moon. On her head was a sickle month. On the night road she rides a chariot drawn by bulls. Selena drives off this road when her child stars fade and marble columns turn pink.
Eos - the goddess of the morning dawn, announces the advent of a new day. Following Eos, their brother Helios rushes from the east in a shining golden chariot. The Greeks revered him no less than the powerful and supreme Zeus. The rays of Helios penetrated the farthest and darkest corners through the black clouds. Their warm light awakened all life. Thanks to the rays, trees and fruits grew. Helios is the thunderstorm of all criminals. The rays of this god blind them. From such rays can not hide and the gods.
Helios knows everything about the divine "affairs." It was he who told Demeter that her daughter Persephone had kidnapped Hades in his dark kingdom of shadows. But it is noon when Helios reaches the west. In the evening, the horses of Helios and he get tired and blush. God goes to his palace for rest, where the divine retinue also rests, and the chariot of Selena leaves on the road ... Such is the Greek change of day and night. Their fantastic explanation is similar to the Slavic myth.
Slavic vision of day and night
The idea of the world among the ancient Slavic pagans was very complex and confusing. The sun and sunlight were different concepts for them. For each season, the Slavs had a separate “sun” - Yarilo, Kupaylo, Svetovit and Kolyada. The sun itself they called Khoros. By the way, this word meant "circle". From here came the word round dance.
Like the Greeks, the Slavic fairy-tale explanation of the change of day and night is simple - Dazhdbog (the sun is the giving god) rode a golden chariot through the daytime sky harnessed by fiery winged horses. Morning and evening dawns were considered sisters. Moreover, the morning dawn was the wife of the sun. On the summer solstice, the Slavs celebrated their wedding. Like the Greeks, the Sun is an all-seeing eye, watching over everything and everyone. Because criminals act at night to this day.
Ancient Indian view of the advent of a new day
The Indian legend of the change of day and night is distinctive. A fabulous explanation says that there was no night. She appeared thanks to one tragic incident. Brother Yama and sister Yami lived. The brother died, and the lonely sister had no choice but to endlessly mourn the unfortunate brother. To all requests and exhortations to calm down and stop pouring tears, Yami only exclaimed: “But he died today!” The gods saw the truth: for a girl to calm down, night was needed, only so a new day would come. They created the night. It was morning, Yami forgot about the mountain. And the Indians began to say "the turn of the day and night."
Conclusion
For many years, our ancestors believed in these myths and legends about the creation of day and night, until the Middle Ages. Religion and mystical ideas have been replaced by science. Nikolai Copernicus 500 years ago wrote a book about how our planet rotates around its axis, passing a path in orbit around the star Sun. So, according to Copernicus, there was a change of day and night.
The fairy tale explanation was destroyed. And the book of the scientist was banned by the Pope, as it contradicted the Christian religion. Copernicus became famous as the creator of the heliocentric system. The name of this system comes from the name of the sun god Helios, so, according to the theory of Copernicus, the Sun is located in the center of the Universe. The Polish astronomer died of a stroke on May 24, 1543, he was 73 years old.