MYTHOLOGICAL IMAGE OF KOSCHEI THE DEATHLESS AND ITS REFLECTION IN THE RUSSIAN MAGIC FAIRY TALES

The genesis of a folklore image of Koschei goes back to a mythological prototype. Koschei is one of dark gods, one of masters of the underworld. Slavic masters of the underworld were also Chernobog and Velez. It means, Koschei in the mythology and in the folklore has to have some special function. Both in myths, and in magic fairy tales Koschei is the security guard of the existing order of things, he guards the old world, he protects it from changes. The hero of the magic fairy tale, who kills Koschei, breaks the old regime and establishes the new order. The metaphor of Koschei is important for psychology. To find love, the hero has to improve himself. Renouncing his old Ego, he builds the new world for himself and for his lady-love. The death of Koschei is also a metaphor of the dying of one civilization and of the birth of a new civilization. The new civilization develops from egg in which the death of Koschei was stored earlier. When the hero kills Koschei, he frees the new world, which was curtailed in the egg. From the top half of the egg the new sky turns out, from the lower half of the egg there comes an earth. It is described in myths of different peoples of the world.