🐦🖌️🎨 Birds-maidens Alkonost and Sirin, Gamayun in Slavic mythology

 🖌️🎨 Birds-maidens Alkonost and Sirin, Gamayun in Slavic mythology

Sirin is a messenger of the underworld, a bird personifying dark power, therefore depicted with a sad face and in dark tones.
Alkonost is a light bird that brings happiness, depicted with multi-colored wings and a light appearance, sometimes depicted with a scroll in her hands.
Gamayun is a prophetic bird.
Alkonost, according to the mythology of the East Slavic peoples, is a bird Alkonost with the head and chest of a girl, sometimes depicted in a crown. Another bird from Paradise is described together with her - Sirin, her complete opposite.
Both of them have sweet, enchanting voices. Birds-maidens captivate people with their singing so that "the soul leaves the body." But if the singing of Alkonost serves to console the saints, and has a bewitching effect on a person, then the singing of Sirin kills. The nature of their songs is also different - the songs of Alkonost are imbued with light sadness, the songs of Sirin are cheerful and beautiful, promising unearthly joys, but at the same time are deadly dangerous, which obviously makes him related to the image of the sea maidens sirens, who lured sailors into the depths of the sea.
According to the stories, the mythical bird Alkonost lays eggs on the day of the winter solstice deep into the sea water, after which the sea is calm for 7 days in a row. Then the bird-maiden takes the eggs and continues to hatch them on the shore.
The habitat of these creatures, according to various sources, is the Euphrates River or the fabulous island of Buyan.
Two anthropomorphic birds of paradise, Sirin and Alkonost, have been mentioned in the Chronographs since the 17th century; the first known mention is in 1617.
Sirin, unlike Alkonost, is depicted on popular prints without a crown, in a wreath and with wings instead of arms.
Both birds have a glow around their heads.
Gamayun is the same bird of paradise as Alkonost and Sirin, never depicted with them together. She, like a fortune teller, is always alone.
According to mythology, this bird is a messenger of the gods, flies to people at dawn.
Gamayun inspires poets, singers, storytellers - prompts them with magical stories, images.
Gamayun is the embodiment of poetry, secret knowledge and creativity. It is not surprising why the image of things of the bird is so popular among poets.

Source: tureligious.com; pofoto.club.