TY - JOUR AU - Rakhno, Kostyantyn PY - 2022/10/28 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Chaga, koshchey and living shereshyrs JF - Studia mythologica Slavica JA - Studia VL - 25 IS - SE - RAZPRAVE / ARTICLES DO - 10.3986/SMS20222509 UR - https://ojs.zrc-sazu.si/sms/article/view/11179 SP - AB - <p>The article looks at the interpretation of an episode in the <em>Tale of Igor’s Campaign</em>, a famous anonymous medieval epic poem. The episode is the author’s address to Vsevolod Yuryevich, the militarily powerful Grand Prince of Vladimir. The image of Vsevolod is exaggerated. Similar to the ancient Persian kings, he is credited with the ability to chastise the Volga and the Don rivers, then occupied by the Polovtsian people. At the same time, the names of a female slave (<em>chaga</em>) and a male slave (<em>koshchey</em>) are used, most likely of Iranian origin. The North Iranian myth also portrays Vsevolod’s vassals, the sons of Prince Gleb Rostislavich of Ryazan, as living arrows (<em>shereshyrs</em>) for the huge ballista (<em>tir-i-charkh</em>) used in the East. Parallels of this image can be traced in the Nart epic of the Ossetians, where the invulnerable Nart Batraz acts as an arrow from such a weapon.</p> ER -