Parallels in the solar myths of the Turks, Mongolian peoples and Eastern Finno-Ugric peoples

Ilikaev Aleksandr ORCID: 0009-0003-6773-9053 PhD in Politics Associate Professor, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ufa University of Science and Technology Zaki Validi str., 32, Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan, 450076, Russia jumo@bk.ru Other publications by this author

Sharipov Renart Glyusovich ORCID: 0000-0001-9597-5617 PhD in Philosophy Associate Professor; Institute of History, Language and Literature of the Ufa Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences 450054, Russia, Republic of Bashkortostan, Ufa, Prospekt Oktyabrya str., 71 externet@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Solar myths, together with lunar myths, form part of astral mythology and originated in ancient times ^{[26, p. 78]}. The sun is the central character of solar myths. At the same time, in the XIX century, solar myths could include any legend in which the heroes showed sunny features. Currently, this approach is too general, although, in our opinion, it retains its importance in cases where it is necessary to reconstruct certain original mythological representations. Scientists also rejected the theory of V. Schmidt about the greater role of the sun in some archaic African and Australian mythologies. The point of view has been received, according to which, on the contrary, a gradual increase in the role of the sun in mythology is assumed in comparison with its lunar stage. For example, in the myths of the Australians, the sun is given much less space than the rainbow snake. Tuvans believed that the Sun, Moon and Rainbow could appear in the sky at the same time. At the same time, the Rainbow was of the greatest importance, since it (a kind of arcane sky) indicated the place where the yurt for the newlyweds should be placed ^{[19, p. 27]}. Also, in archaic mythologies, the sun can simply be represented by a man living in the sky with glowing armpits, one of the tribal totems ^{[26, p. 461]}. Apparently, the image of the heroine of the Mari fairy tale "Silvertooth Pampalche" has a similar origin. Although Pampalche is compared to the moon, it has a sister living on top of the mountain (obviously the sun) ^{[23, pp. 46-47]}. An echo of such ancient beliefs, when the sun was a much less important object compared to other astral objects, has been preserved even in the Bible ^{[26, p. 461]}.

No less ancient in origin should be considered those myths in which the Sun and Moon are presented as twin cultural heroes. It is believed that in archaic solar myths (for example, among the peoples of Siberia), the sun has the appearance of a woman (as, sometimes, the moon) ^{[26, p. 461]}. Thus, we can talk about sisters (the sun and the moon). Although the myth of extra suns west of the Ural Mountains is fixed only among Bashkirs, Chuvash, Udmurts, Bulgarians, Serbs and Lithuanians (among the Balto-Slavs in the form of myths about "drunk suns" and about the "marriage of the sun"), it is possible that the idea that the sun and moon were sisters and, moreover, moreover, the fact that the sun had sisters also has something to do with this story.

Also, according to V.N. Toporov, the idea that the sun once did not exist is very archaic. Hence the myths about the blind, invisible sun, the sun-eye. For example, according to Tuvan shamanic legends, the Sun has an eye that is sometimes cheerful, sometimes gloomy. Moreover, when the Black Sky was gentle and quiet, every living creature had an eye like the Sun ^{[19, p. 38]}.

In the previous article, we already noted that lunar myths are characteristic of the primitive system ^{[16, p. 27]}. But the inclusion of the sun in the pantheon as the main deity or one of the two deities, along with the thunderer, can serve as a marker of patriarchal, agricultural and pastoral mythology. Here we can talk about the formation of the solar image of the king. In a number of Middle Eastern mythologies, the plot about the struggle of the sun god with monsters and the subsequent establishment of the world is spreading. The mythologeme about the sun riding in a horse-drawn cart becomes archetypal. Also, apparently, emerging myths about the celestial blacksmith are adjacent to solar myths at this stage ^{[26, pp. 461-462]}.

Thus, the following archaic solar motifs can be distinguished: 1) the insignificant role of the sun compared to the moon; 2) the ancient sun; 3) the sun as an animal, a humanoid being, a predominantly female deity; 4) a solar boat (cart, sleigh); 5) the stolen sun (the sun of other worlds); 6) the voracious sun. The final motive should be attributed to the later motives: 7) the sun is an agricultural and cattle–breeding deity, the Sun is the king.

It will be interesting to examine the solar myths of the Turks, Mongolian peoples and eastern Finno-Ugric peoples, as well as, in a comparative perspective, the Slavs and other neighboring ethnic groups, for the presence of both ancient and later motifs in them. This will allow us to continue accumulating additional arguments in favor of confirming V.V. Napolsky's hypothesis about the existence of a special North Asian community of mythologies of the peoples of Northern Eurasia ^{[29, p. 119]}.

U. Kharva also noted that among the Ural-Altai peoples, at the initial stages of the formation of the mythopoeic picture of the world, the central place was not the deity of the sun, but the moon. But at the same time, nevertheless, the same Turks kept a record of time not only by the phases of the moon, but also by the cycles of the sun ^{[43, p. 243]}. The once less significant role of the sun is evidenced by the most diverse features in the beliefs of the peoples of Northern Eurasia. So, the new moon was celebrated and celebrated with great joy among the Chuvash people.  At this time, Uyah-Tura (the god of the moon) was asked for good luck in business and prosperity ^{[43, p. 242]}. That is, it is obvious that such requests were not addressed to the sun. It is clear that this was also the inertia of the previous thinking of the hunting society, which lived not according to the solar, but according to the lunar periods.

An interesting observation regarding the solar representations of the Mari and Mordvins was made by V. Kamilyanov, who suggested that the Mari deity of the sun Keche was once both the god of the sun and the moon. The researcher, with reference to the dictionary of X. Paasonen, noted the Erzya deity Kov-Chi-Paz, the god of the moon and sun (ers. kov – moon, chi – sun) ^[18]. Let's note right away that in the name of the deity, the first place is not the sun, as one might expect, but the moon. It would seem that the significant role of the sun in the past should be evidenced by the fact that the word sun itself is taboo among the Mari and Mordvins. Thus, the Mari keche, the Mordovian shi go back to the Pravolzhsky *kes ? with the meaning "circle" (cf. Finnish keh?) ^{[38, p. 9]}. It is not for nothing that in Mari embroidery the sun was often directly depicted in the form of a circle, or its variations in the form of diamonds, squares ^{[39, p. 56]}. In our opinion, in this case, the taboo may not be explained by the ancient sacralization of the sun, but just by the idea of it as a fairly simple and less important character compared to other astral and meteorological objects. For example, the Udmurts imagined the sun as an all-seeing eye, the eye of the universe. Folk comparisons of the sun with the "golden ball under the vault of the heavenly stove", "the red pillar of the whole world", "the red cow waking everyone up", "the mother of the universe" have been preserved ^{[12, pp. 71-72]}.

The archaic version of the origin of the sun from a part of the body of the primordial being has been preserved in Slavic mythology. According to the "Pigeon Book", the red Sun originated from the face of God, according to other versions, the light arose separately from God's judgment and his face, and the sun from the eyes of God. According to S.E. Nikitina, this plot correlates with the myths about the creation of the world from the body of Purusha, Ymir, Pangu and similar creatures ^{[30, pp. 117-118]}. The Mongolian peoples (for example, the Kalmyks) have a version that the sun and moon originated from the eyes of Manzashirin (bodhisattva Manzhushri) ^[9].

In the primitive myths of the peoples of Northern Eurasia, there may have been frequent representations of the sun, which was initially absent from the already inhabited and inhabited world. So, according to the Izhora rune, once people lived without the sun and moon, groped, searched for arable land with their fingers, and the footprint with their little finger; by candlelight and kindling they plowed and sowed the land ^{[32, p. 108]}. According to one version of the cosmogonic Komi myth, the sun also appeared late, when people were already sowing bread ^{[47, p. 384]}. Among the peoples of the Altai group, as indicated by U. Harva, the idea that there was no sun before has been preserved. People then flew through the air, scattering sparks, and did not need the warmth of the sun. But one of the people got sick. Then God sent him a spirit, which began to drive along the bottom of the ocean with a staff ten thousand fathoms long, until it scared off two goddesses. The goddesses immediately flew into the sky. Then the messenger found two round iron mirrors (the sun and the moon) and placed them there as well. Since then, it has become light on earth. U. Kharva believes that this myth is a consequence of the Christian tradition about people shining before the fall ^{[43, p. 241]}. However, it seems to us that there is simply a common ancient motif about the "missing sun". So, according to the Bashkir fairy tale "Tsarevich Salimyan", the daughter of the Solar King falls in love in a dream with an earthly youth (as well as he with her). The country of the Solar King is 400 days away. The daughter of the Solar King does not know peace until Salimyan puts a golden mirror to her headboard (he finds it under a spreading oak tree across the sea) ^{[8, pp. 363-365]}. There is an obvious parallel with the Mongolian-Turkic myths about the sun-mirror (disk) extracted from the seabed.       

Another evidence of the previously insignificant or weakly expressed role of the sun in myths is the plot about its origin from fire, water, or identification with an ordinary person (later he could turn into a cultural hero, deity). So, it is not for nothing that the heroine of the already mentioned Mari fairy tale Silvertooth Pampalche is betrothed by her father to the Water Lord ^{[23, pp. 40-41]}. At the same time, the sun can be mined as a valuable, but the most common object, in general, they do not stand on ceremony with it. The above-mentioned Altai myth about the origin of the sun is peculiar and archaic: a) the sun is born from some kind of water-underground environment and represents an "iron mirror"; b) although it is produced by God's messenger, it can be assumed that in an older version it could simply be about a person or some kind of cultural hero.

Shamanic mythology manifested itself among the Khants in the belief that a shaman, watching the sun (more precisely, its reflection in a mirror), can learn any information about a person who is far away. The latter faith explains, according to U. Kharva, apparently, the custom of shamans to hang metal images of the sun and moon on their robes ^{[43, p. 241]}.

V.G. Kotov traces the symbolism of the mirror as a magical object associated with the solar and imperial cult among the Japanese (goddess Amaterasu), as well as the "symbolism of the center" among the Bashkirs and Indo-European peoples ^{[21, pp. 52, 55]}. According to the researcher, an analysis of the images contained on decorated mirrors of antiquity and the Middle Ages shows that they can express the cosmogonic ideas of early nomads, when the mirror disk itself was identified with the sun ^{[21, p. 59]}. Thus, the use of a mirror among early nomads (for example, the Sarmatians), and subsequently among the Bashkirs, certainly has a clear relationship with the solar cult and in general, since in the perception of the world by the Ural-Altai peoples, the mirror was compared with the Sun, light, hearth, family prosperity.  It is important that in shamanic practice, the mirror belonged to one of the main places, since it was like a material shaman, acting as an intermediary between people and the spirit world ^{[21, p. 61]}.

According to the Bashkir myth about the origin of the Gaynin family, once the earth was too cold, and there was no sun. Although the absence of the sun is explained by its abduction by azhdakha, it is possible that initially it was generally said that the sun was a simple fire that could be hung on the horns of a deer, or a woman who could be married (Tulua) ^{[6, pp. 115-117; 21, p. 56]}.

According to the beliefs of the Altaians, the sun arises from the fact that the hero of Ochirvan takes fire, puts it on his sword, and then throws it into the sky. It is because the sun is made of fire that its light is hot. The Dolgans believed that the sun was created during the day, and the moon at night ^{[43, p. 242]}. The belief in the hot sun and the cold moon is preserved in the Teleut legend about how a certain khan ordered his future son–in-law to bring the Moon from the sky and put it near the door, and under the window - the Mother Sun. As soon as the messenger approached with his first prey, the khan's pot froze on the hearth. But then the Mother Sun appeared, and the pot immediately boiled to the bottom ^{[42, p. 103]}. Even judging by the retelling, a certain facelessness of the Moon is obvious here and at the same time the emphasized independence and anthropomorphism of the sun. However, unlike Indo-European mythologies, here the sun is primarily a female character.   

Indirectly, the point of view that the sun was originally identified simply with a certain person or element, or even with an inanimate object, is confirmed by archaic Slavic ideas (although bearing a touch of folk Christianity) that the sun is either a huge candle worn by angels to illuminate the world, or a gigantic spark that is inexplicably held in the sky, and it's unclear how it shines, it's like a bonfire, where an old, old grandfather throws firewood during the day. Moreover, the last character is clearly not drawn by the almighty heavenly ruler, but by the most ordinary person ^{[22, p. 87]}.

Some peoples, for example, the ancient Greeks, the Caucasian peoples, the Sami, and the Indians, knew the story of a character unsuccessfully trying to play the role of the Sun. It seems that this motif arose when the role of the sun in mythology increased, but there was still, albeit illusory, the possibility of "replacing" it. Hence, for example, the famous episode in "Kalevala", when the blacksmith Ilmarinen forges a new sun instead of the stolen one, but it does not warm. Among the peoples we are considering, this plot is fixed in Mansi. Taryg-cave-nimala-sov, one of the sons of the heavenly god Torum, is called upon to carry the Sun across the firmament. However, on the way he sees people fighting, goes down and kills them. Thorum reprimands his son that he should not have done this as a charioteer of the sun. After all, the luminary always looks dispassionately at the things that are happening on earth. Taryg-cave-nimal-sov, returning, revives people ^{[27, pp. 283-284]}. That is, the Siberian version is expected to be much more archaic than the Kalevala one, here the sun can easily (although not without mistakes, but not critically) replace another character, albeit of divine origin.

Nevertheless, the relics of these archaic solar representations may have been preserved in the mythologies west of the Ural Mountains. So, Marie knows the myth of the blacksmith and Humo. The blacksmith sits down in God's place, which is a golden chair. From it, the blacksmith discovers a lot of unfair things happening on earth and, unable to cope with the knowledge of the truth, falls off his chair ^{[24, pp. 54-55]}. Unfortunately, V.A. Aktsorin comments on this myth exclusively from a rationalistic standpoint. Like, legend says that the laws of nature are higher than man, or Humo himself is unable to cope with society ^{[24, p. 267]}. A similar legend about the peasant and God's place has been preserved among the Russian population. At the same time, the common source may be in the Christian view of the throne of omniscience as the seat of the deity ^{[26, p. 335]}. However, we venture to assume that here we could be talking about both the omniscient sun and the later reinterpretation of the motif in the spirit of the mythologeme of the sun-king. So, in one Udmurt fairy tale, Shundy-muma shows his son-in-law that the sun really goes around the whole world and sees everything ^{[13, p. 29]}.

The weak role of the sun was also manifested in such a widespread myth among the peoples of Northern Eurasia as the myth of a man (less often another creature, for example, an animal, an object) in the sun. As a rule, in these legends, the leading role belongs not to the daylight, but to the night, the moon. Almost all the peoples of Northern Eurasia (including the Turks, Mongolian peoples and Finno-Ugrians) have a myth about a water carrier placed on the moon. At the same time, the Buryats and Yakuts, although the sun is mentioned in this story, the moon asks to give up the girl to her on the grounds that the sun walks during the day, and she at night ^{[43, p. 243]}. In the Altai myth about the moon elder, who sends cold, the Sun, in response to the request of the heavenly gods to punish the murderer, does not descend to earth, because he fears that everything will burn down from his terrible heat. The Moon does it for him ^{[43, p. 243]}. The myth of a water carrier placed in the sky is associated with the moon among the peoples of the Ural-Volga region (Bashkirs, Mari, Udmurts, Tatars, Chuvash, Mordvins, Russians). An object in the sun (sometimes we are talking specifically about sunspots) appears in the myths of the Babylonians ("Tiamat is visible in the sun"), Bulgarians (cradle with a girl), Poles (man and woman, lamb), Belarusians (table, eggs), Ukrainians (witches), Uighurs (monkey), Evenks (water carrier) ^{[9; 40, p. 105]}. N.P. Rychkov also noted that the dwelling of the Mari goddess Kava, who extends power to all human needs, is located at the very zenith of the sky so that "when the sun rises at noon in the middle of summer, it shines at that time near her very dwelling" ^{[16, p. 230]}. Like the Mari, the Udmurts have the dwelling of the heavenly deity (Kava, Inmar) located directly on the sun ^{[13, p. 28]}.

The early solar mythologies also include those where the sun moves strictly horizontally and does not go beyond the horizon line. The night supposedly comes from the fact that the luminary goes behind a huge mountain in the north (Meru). Some of its modernization was the idea that the sun passed part of the way underground (under water) at night. The first idea, according to B. Rybakov, was formed back in the Paleolithic and was explained by the narrowness, or rather flatness, of the hunting perception of the world. The second is widespread in the Bronze Age. Information about the sun not setting below the horizon is found in Russian translated manuscripts from the XV century ^{[37, p. 226]}. In Slavic folklore, the motif of the "bathing" sun is characteristic of the holiday of Ivan Kupala. Among the Mongols, the first story was spread thanks to Buddhist cosmology. In particular, the Kalmyks believed that the Sun moves around the sacred mount Sumeru, which has four slopes ^{[28, p. 250]}.   

The peoples of Northern Eurasia have retained many ideas about the former, less favorably disposed to people, the daylight. First of all, myths about several suns and myths about solar eclipses (the "black sun") should be highlighted here.

The Mongolian peoples, as well as the Bashkirs, Chuvash and Udmurts, have a legend about a multitude of suns in the distant past. So, according to the Buryat legend, three extra luminaries are shot down from the bow by Erhe-mergen, as a result of which one current one remains ^{[43, p. 242]}. In the Torgut legend, three suns are created by Shulmus, an evil spirit, in order to burn the earth created by Burkhan Bakshi, a good spirit. After the flood, only one sun remains in the sky, other suns go into the abyss together with Shulmus ^{[41, p. 242]}. Among the Bashkirs, the Ural Batyr turns out to be such a good marksman-mergan. The number of suns in Bashkir legend is much smaller. There are only two of them, but they prevented people from sleeping with their light (or rather, a certain bai). From one half of the downed sun, the moon is obtained, and from the other – Uraltau Mountain, rich in various treasures ^{[6, p. 31]}.

The Chuvash myth of the three suns differs from the Bashkir and Udmurt variants and is closer to the Siberian and Far Eastern types. Moreover, the theme of heat from excess luminaries is already being replaced here by the theme of the onset of cold from the repayment (killing) of the second excess sun and the flight in horror from the people of the only one remaining. Interestingly, the Chuvash myth has preserved the ancient motif that there is always a danger of destruction or death of even the last sun (among the Mongols, Tuvinians, Altaians, etc.) ^[9].

V.E. Vladykin notes that in a variety of images, one way or another related to the Udmurts, there are 3, 5, 7, 9 and more suns ^{[12, pp. 71-72]}. However, like the Chuvash and Bashkirs, the Udmurts still have a real myth about the extra sun. According to him, when the sky was still low above the earth, three suns were shining. The people who appeared, in order to moderate the unbearable heat, shot a bow, apparently extinguishing two suns. After that, the heavens with the remaining luminary rose high ^{[13, p. 27]}. In general, the Udmurt myth is somewhat similar to the Chuvash myth. According to the myth of the eastern Khants, the shaman gets on a wonderful bird to the place where Torum lives (Alley-Ike, Nagi-Ike – Big, or White Old Man), eight suns shine there ^[9].

Among the Balto-Slavs, as already mentioned above, myths about the extra sun exist in two versions. According to the first, there were four suns before, or even the moon was the second sun, but God sent a snake to her to drink it. Here the conclusion suggests itself that perhaps in the most ancient cosmogonic representations of primitive man, the sun was compared to a kind of cosmic egg, which, like a bird's egg, can be drunk by a snake. Apparently, this is how the nature of solar eclipses was explained. Sometimes we can talk about a lot of sunny eyes, which are also drunk by a snake ^{[9; 40, pp. 102-104]}. The second motive is connected with the failed marriage of the sun, when animals learn about the upcoming wedding and make efforts to avoid the appearance of fiery children from the sun, threatening to burn the earth with heat ^{[9; 40, p. 105]}.

In our opinion, the motive of the attack on the former hostile sun should be recognized as another archaic solar mythologeme. Most often it is associated with the extermination of excess suns (as in Bashkirs, Chuvash, Udmurts), although not always. For example, in the myth of Komi, Pera, the son of Parma-earth, sits on the horns of a Rainbow, visits the upper world, where he marries Zaran, the daughter of the Sun, and descends with a girl to earth. The disgruntled Sun tells his daughter to return, threatening to incinerate everything. But Parma-earth does not allow children born to Pera to their mother. Pera and his seven sons shoot bows at the Sun, beating off a piece that falls into the taiga and ignites fires in it ^{[47, p. 384]}.

In general, the motive for attacking the sun is common in southwestern Africa, Central Asia, Siberia, and the Indians of America. It is very characteristic of the Turkic-Mongolian peoples and is practically unknown in Europe and the Middle East ^[9]. A special case of this motif is the story of a hidden arrow and a severed finger. So, according to the Tuvan myth, the marmot was formerly a human hunter. Then three suns shone in the sky. The groundhog shot one of the bows and missed. Then, in great annoyance, he cut off his thumb and buried himself in the ground. Among the Altaians, Mongols and Oirats, the role of a groundhog shooter is played by Erhiy mergen ("thumb shooter") ^[9].

It seems that we managed to find an interesting parallel to the Turkic-Mongolian versions of this solar plot among the Mari people living in Bashkiria. According to the legend of the latter, the old hunter Vegeney, distinguished by fabulous accuracy and luck, found a birch tree during the hunt, which emitted a white light. Wegeney liked this place so much that he founded a settlement here. Wegeney swore that his soul would not leave him until he returned to this village. To consolidate the oath, the hunter bit off his own little finger ^{[39, p. 98; 24, pp. 221-224]}. At the same time, it is believed that the name Vegeney (Vedeney) comes from the ancient Marian nickname Vedin, Vedyn (letters. "aquatic, living by the water") ^{[15, p. 304]}. In another version of the legend, Wegeney (Pegeney) may find a wonderful birch tree moving along a chip thrown into the water ^{[24, pp. 215-216]}. By the way, a similar search method is found in Karelian and Bashkir fairy tales ^{[7, pp. 309, 427]}. That is, not only is there probably an echo of the myth of the solar arrow (the birch tree glowing with white light may be an image of the sun), but also an echo of the Ural-Altai cosmogonic myth about the origin of the sun from a fiery-aquatic environment.

Myths about solar eclipses are part of the legends of the "black sun". According to Buryat legends, when the Sun and Moon were absorbed by the dragon Alkha, very long solar and lunar eclipses took place. Tatars and Chuvash people know the legend of a vampire (ubyr), who periodically swallows the Sun and Moon, but then spews them out because they burn his mouth ^{[43, p. 244]}.

In the previous article, we already noted that in Mongolian mythology, the plot of the swallowed sun was preserved in a more dramatic form (with obvious Buddhist influence). In it, the appearance of the Sun is attributed to the deva gods and the asura demons. After the Sun and Moon were returned to the sky from the primordial Milky Sea, the Asuras appropriated a certain drink. Hormusta, summoning the devas, ordered the drink to be stolen so that the asuras would not become stronger. The sun, taking the form of a beautiful girl, was able to get their treasure from the Asuras by cunning ^{[42, pp. 105-106]}.

The Bashkirs still had rituals associated with the solar eclipse. For example, during an eclipse of the sun, Bashkirs forced children to cry, animals to scream, perform a sacrifice, and pray to the sun: "Lord, thank you… For living in the white world, for the fact that you warm and purify." The sun as a deity also appears in the rite of invoking the sun by Ayaz teleu. Its essence boils down to the fact that during incessant rains, an Ak korban ("White Kurban") sacrifice was performed on a hill or on another elevated place and collective prayers were held in honor of the sun ^{[44, p. 150]}.

In our opinion, some independent development of the mythologeme of the "black sun" is the motif when the sun is not swallowed by any creature, but is obscured. The most archaic here, apparently, should be recognized as the motif of the day star closed by a bird. So, the Hungarians believed that the sun during eclipses becomes a victim of the Morkolab bird (the name is ascribed to the Slavic volkolak). The nest of the latter is located on the so-called "sunset tree". According to the Tuvan myth, Yovgun Mergen once told people that the eye of the sun was covered by the wing of the Khan Gerdi bird. Yovgun mergen shot at the bird, broke its wing with an arrow and the sun shone again. However, people became afraid of the sun (Yovgun-mergen warned that the sun would lead people to death). Then the shooter left and turned into a black stone, and then the stone disappeared. Among the Selkups, when Lab-ira, a bird with iron wings, opened her mouth, a solar eclipse began. Eagles, crows, and clouds could also be the cause of the solar eclipse ^[9]. In the Altai myth of the origin of the sun mentioned above, the luminary is not only born from a certain water-underground environment, but is actually identified with one of the birds, that is, it has an ornithopod-like appearance.

It can be assumed that the Udmurts and Mari people in the past were aware of the myth of the literal "black sun" in the form of an object separate from the real sun. Thus, the Udmurts believed that in order for the sun not to go astray, Shundy-mumy (the mother of the sun) moves in front of him in the outlines of a certain black bowl, pointing the way to the luminary ^{[12, pp. 71-72]}. Perhaps the Eastern Aryan song about the black maiden (shem yudyr), which one of the co-authors of the article (I.A.) heard from his grandfather, has something to do with this legend, which in the morning, playing, comes at evening dawn with a copper flute in her mouth ^[33]. This guess can be indirectly confirmed by the data that the Udmurts called Shundy-mums a spider-cross, which could plug the sun with its network and deprive the world of light. To prevent this from happening, the wind rises. Another explanation of solar eclipses is similar to the Turkic one (it is also known in Mari) that eclipses of the sun occur because it is swallowed by an evil Ubyr (Vuver in Mari, Ubyr and Lybyr in Tatars) ^{[12, p. 72]}. According to the late myth about the advantage of the Udmurt faith over the faiths of the Tatars and Russians, the solar eclipse ends when the Udmurts begin to pray ^{[13, pp. 28-29]}.

As already noted in the introduction of the article, the idea of the sun as an animal or generally a living being (like a beast or a man) and a predominantly female character should be recognized as a rather archaic feature. Thus, the death of the mother, the owner of the yurt, was likened by the Tuvinians to the setting of the sun ^{[19, p. 24]}. In the late 1980s, one of the co-authors of this article (I.A.) witnessed the funeral of a teenage girl in Ufa. The women mourners went and wailed: "You have set our red sun."

The Turkic peoples could represent the sun in the form of a fiery bird, a winged horse (horse), a ram, a deer, a bull, a golden hen, a hawk. This motif is found on ancient jewelry. Also, the Sun, apparently, was associated with deities: Kayra in the form of a swan, the Goddess of the Earth (Toprak Ana), as well as Kok-Tengri (God of the Sky) ^{[49; 48]}.

The sun among the Altaians of the Ene-Kyun peoples (Mother Sun) was included in the system of supreme gods and, living on the fifth layer of the sky (or sixth), could have brothers and sisters: Erlik, Mergen, Ulgen, Umai, etc. ^{[31, pp. 126-130]}. It is believed that Alan-Goa, the mother goddess, conceived her sons from a ray that penetrated into the yurt through a smoke hole ^{[20, p. 81]}.

In the epic "Ural-Batyr", Samrau acts as the supreme deity and deity of the Sky and birds among the Bashkirs. About him, his eldest daughter Humai, the solar swan, says that he could not find a mate on earth and then rushed to heaven, where he met the Sun and Moon, which he fell in love with. He had two daughters with them. At the same time, Samrau can send divas and snakes to the lower world, that is, he acts as the ruler of three worlds at once. In turn, the Sun (Koyash) is also linked to the chthonic sphere through the image of the king of birds ^{[44, p. 147]}. Koyash hands his daughter the heavenly horse Akbuzat, which later turns out to be related to the fate of the solar maiden, acting as her patron ^{[44, p. 148]}. In the archaic Mari fairy tale, the heroine helps her husband catch the winged horse Argamak ^{[23, pp. 179-187]}. Here, the common Ural-Altai mythologeme of the connection of the sun (identification) with the winged horse is obvious. However, perhaps, judging by the Turkic name of the Mari miracle animal, we can also talk about borrowing.

The ancient Altai motif of the connection of the sun deity with the water element has been preserved among the Bashkirs. So back in the nineteenth century, M.V. Lossievsky wrote down the legend of the Koyash mermaid, which came out from the day of the sea. Koyash has brown hair in several girths, which rests on the water. With her hands, the sunny mermaid removes the stars from the sky and pins them to her hair ^{[44, pp. 148-149]}.

Bashkir phraseological units draw the sun as a living being: sunburn ("eaten by the sun"), solar eclipse ("stolen sun"), Koyash-apai ("sister/aunt-the sun") ^{[1, p. 15]}. It should also be added that with the synonym of the word koyash – ken in the Bashkir language there are many similar phraseological units: the sun ("face of the sun"), the halo of the sun ("ears of the sun"), sunstroke ("solar penetration") ^{[2, pp. 657-675]}. The anthropomorphism of the sun is also evidenced by the dialectal names of the west and east among Bashkirs: west ("the place where the sun sinks"; "the place where the sun goes down daily"; "the place where the sun sleeps") east ("the place where the sun is born", etc. ^{[2, pp. 662, 667, 669, 673]}. Bashkirs also have relics of oaths mentioning the sun: "Here is the sun!", "I swear by the sun", etc. The oath was sealed by ritual drinking of blood ^{[44, p. 149]}.

Bashkir prohibitions, benevolence, and curses also testify to the anthropomorphism of the sun. So, according to the beliefs of the Bashkirs, the sun should not be shown dirt, various impurities, unburied dead, it is forbidden to say "koyash syktyvkar" ("the sun came out"), "Koyash batty" ("the sun sank"). If you do not follow these prohibitions, the sun can get angry and send curses. For example, if you say "Koyash sykty", the sun can send a curse: "Let your eyes pop out too!" ^{[44, p. 150]}.

Also in Bashkir folklore, the names of the sun have survived, indicating its perception as a deity: Ken eyehe (Spirit, master of the sun), Koyash tenre (Deity of the sun), Koyash batshahi (King of the sun), Ken eyelare (Spirits, masters of the day, the sun). The divine essence of the sun is also indicated by the names of the ladybug, noted in Bashkir dialects: "sister (aunt) the sun", "sun worm", "looking at the sun", "grandmother's sun", "warming the sun" ^{[44, p. 149]}.

In some Bashkir legends, unlike the epic "Ural-Batyr", the Sun is also represented as a male character. For example, according to the legend "Tangaur Tribe", the foremother of the Bashkir Tangaur was a girl who conceived from a sunbeam ^{[6, 122]}. Thus, according to this ethnogenetic legend, Koyash is a man, the father of the family. As is known, the motif of birth from a ray of the sun is found in the beliefs of many Turkic-speaking peoples, as well as in ancient Greek mythology ^{[26, pp. 461-462]}. It is interesting to note that in the Bashkir name book with the element koyash (ken) both male and female names are represented: Koyash, Koyashbike, Kenhylyu, Kenbakty, etc. Let us add that the deity K?n t?ri "sun god" is recorded in the monuments of ancient Turkic writing ^{[14, p. 326]}. From the mythological views of modern Turks, it is worth noting the presence of several solar deities among the Chuvash (the sun Deity, the Father of the Sun, the Mother of the Sun, the Children of the Sun) ^{[26, p. 538]}.

According to the Bashkir myth about the origin of the Gaynin family, the sun was associated with the mistress of fire and water (Tulua, Tulva). In addition, it is the deer that brings out the sun on its horns ^{[6, pp. 115-117]}. The semantics of the image of the common Turkic goddess Umai is connected on the one hand with the solar cult, on the other hand with the element of fire. In Bashkir mythology, there is an epithet of the Sun, which is called "Ut-Koyash" (Fire-Sun), and in Sumerian mythology, the Sun god is called Utu ^{[45, p. 120]}. According to the testimony of the Soviet Turkologist L.P. Potapov, the Khakass shaman, addressing Umai, called for fire, and among the Teleutes he also recorded a spell in which Umai is called a thirty-headed/forty-headed mother-fire, capable of thawing all frozen ^{[34, p. 280]}.

It is also possible to note the connection of the image of Umai-Humai with the sacred bird (swan, winch), which can be traced in Bashkir mythology. In the epic "Ural-Batyr" Humai appears either in the image of a beautiful maiden, or in the image of a sacred swan bird ^{[17, p. 237]} Not only the ancestors of the Bashkirs linked the image of Humai-Umai with a bird. L.P. Potapov, in particular, indicates that the Kumandin shaman (kam) during the invocation ceremony to Umai, he addressed her in this way: "From a clear sky, soaring (like a bird) come down, / Mother Umai (like) a mother bird!" ^{[34, p. 276]}. According to A.F. Ilimbetova, the image of the virgo bird, the mother bird, is associated with a very ancient layer of totemic representations that date back to the Paleolithic times ^{[17, p. 3]}.

D.J. Valeev believed that the main deities of the ancient Bashkir pantheon were: Tengri – the main god who personified the worship of heaven, Humai – the goddess of fertility and Samrau – the heavenly king. In this scheme, Humai and Samrau act as spouses. In their marriage, Aihyliu (moon, month) and Koyash (sun) are born ^{[10, p. 7]}. Thus, it can be considered that the goddess Umai-Humai, personifying, as is typical for the common Turkic classical pantheon, the forces of fertility, was at the same time a solar deity associated with the Sun through the element of fire and the element of air (in the image of the Humai bird, as well as the Samrigosh bird, mentioned in Bashkir legends and fairy tales ^{[8, pp. 371-374]}.

According to researcher Z.G. Aminev, the main character of the fundamental Bashkir epic "Ural-Batyr" also has a solar essence, because he acts as a typical hero-demiurge of cosmogonic myth, repeating the annual path of the sun through the celestial sphere. After completing his mission, this hero must disappear like the sun in order to be reborn again (Finnish Vainamainen, Mordovian Tyushtian, Indian Hiawatha). Having bypassed all four sides of the world, the Urals completes its world-building purpose and leaves the stage. Like Osiris, the hero of the Bashkir epic opposes the dark (underground, aquatic) demiurge Shulgan, who personifies the forces of Chaos ^{[5, p. 94]}. Thus, in Bashkir mythology, the solar deity appears in three guises: 1) Koyash, as the wife of the heavenly king Samrau (the personification of Heaven), or Koyash, the daughter of the Sun (in the fairy tale "Sunny Girl"), at the same time connected with the Sun through the element of fire and the air element; 2) as Humai – the Solar Maiden, the personification of the goddess Umai; 3) as Humai – the wife of the Urals, as an anthropomorphic God-man, demiurge and cultural hero ^{[4, p. 42; 5, p. 91; 8, pp. 365-370; 45, p. 120]}.

The convergence of the Mari myth about the creation of the first people and the Bashkir fairy tale "Sunny Girl" are interesting. The Mari myth tells how Tune-Yumo (the Main God) and Shochyn-Ava (the Mother of Birth) create the first pairs of people at noon after swimming in the river. At the same time, they are patronized by the supreme lord of Yumo himself in the form of an elk, subsequently awarding Tune-Yumo and Shochyn-Ava with horns ^{[15, p. 346]}. In the Bashkir fairy tale "Sunny Girl", Bai's son dreams of a girl named the Sun and falls in love with her. The hero goes in search of the Sun girl. First, he stays with an old woman. She says that on the way, Bai's son will meet an elk and he will show the way. But the moose says that he will show the way to the Sun when his horns are level with the tops of the fir trees. The second old woman helps the hero to cross the bridge over the sea to the golden mountain with the help of a ribbon. A golden-haired girl is sitting on top of it. Bai's son has been living with her for 800 years. But then he is "pulled by the earth." The young man, having received three apples from his wife (with the instruction: when you get bored, eat), returns home. But there was no trace of the house. My parents died a long time ago at home. The young man eats one apple and becomes an elderly man with a black beard and a black mustache. The second apple turns him into a bent old man. The third apple brings death. Although everything was beautiful in the land of the Sun, "a man returned to his homeland to die" ^{[8, pp. 365-367]}.

As P.S. Pallas notes, the Sun was the object of special reverence among the Kalmyks. In their opinion, the luminary consisted of glass and fire and had a circumference of almost a thousand kilometers. According to P.I. Nebolsin, the Kalmyks believed that the Sun fertilizes and fills the earth with life. It is the source of everything necessary for the well-being of the human race ^{[28, p. 250]}.

The Chuvash worshipped the gods of light – Suta tenche and the sun – Khevel, who were subordinate to the supreme god Sultan. In addition, along with the sun, they singled out the Father of the sun, the Mother of the Sun, and the Children of the sun. Like, for example, the Bashkirs, the Chuvash were distinguished (not only in speech, but also as revered objects, deities): the ears of the sun, the wings of the sun, the legs of the sun ^{[26, p. 538]}. The latter undoubtedly testified to the representation of the daylight by the likeness of a man or even a fantastic animal (bird, deer, horse, etc.).

Back in the XVII century. Marie, first of all, revered the sun and, along with fire and water, imagined it to be something higher than everything else in the world ^{[36, p. 427]}. Among the Mari people, a horse with moose horns, among other things, symbolizes the sun itself, which senior informants are especially asked to point out (born in 1924, 1930). Interestingly, the motif of the "horse" ornament with elements of "moose" can still be found in Mari embroidery ^[46]. Some researchers suggested in the century before last that the Mari expression ketche yol (sunbeam, "foot of the sun") means that the sun deity had an anthropomorphic appearance ^{[39, p. 56]}. However, any large hoofed animal could have legs – a sun horse, an elk, a deer.

According to Mari folk beliefs, April 4 was a special day dedicated to the gods Keche-On and Keche-Ave. According to V. Kamilyanov, on this day, the sun was used to determine what year would happen. In order for the cattle to be healthy, they were doused with meltwater. According to a meteorological sign, if red circles were visible around the sun at sunrise, this promised a fruitful year ^[18]. In general, among the Mari, Keche was the personified sun, a deity acting "as a giver of light and well-being in life" ^{[39, p. 55]}.

Just like the Turkic and Mongolian peoples of Siberia, the Bashkirs, the Chuvash, and the Mari distinguished not only one Sun, but a whole group of solar deities. Actually, the deities of the sun at Mari were: Keche-ava, Keche-Yumo, Keche-Purysho-Yumo, Keche-On, as well as Keche-Kuryuzhe, Keche-Yumo and Keche-Shyrt. This is much more than the corresponding Moon deities, which once again indicates an increase in the solar cult among the eastern Finno-Ugric peoples ^{[39, pp. 56-57; 122-123]}. V. Kamilyanov says that the sun gods were most revered by Mari. In his opinion, the main solar gods are Keche-On and Keche-Ava. In addition to these paired deities, the researcher notes Keche-Yumo, the sun god. However, according to V. Kamilyanov, the latter is often confused with Osh-Keche-Yumo, the god of white day and light due to the fact that the word keche in the Mari language simultaneously means day and sun. Osh-Keche-Yumo, according to the old people, was precisely the god not of the sun, but of white day, white light. His staff included Osh-Keche-Kugu-Puyyrysho – "the predestiner of the fate of white day, light", Osh-Keche-Shochyn-Ava "mother of white day, light", Osh-Keche-Piyambar – "assistant of Osh keche", Osh-Keche-Vitnyze "speaker of Osh Keche" ^[18]. The researcher also notes: Keche-Puyyrysho-Kugu-Yumo (lit. "the great creator of the white day"), cited by K. Sitnikov Keche-Shyrta – the spirit of the sun and Keche-Kuryuzha – "the god of the solar disk, the ring" (K. Sitnikov finds it difficult to translate the word kuryuzhe). Related to the latter character is Keche-Korno – "the defining path of the sun" ^[18].

Thus, Keche-Ava acts as the mother of the sun, sometimes in the form of Osh-Keche-Shochyn-Ava, that is, the giving birth mother of the bright sun or even Keche-Shochyn-Ava-Yumo (that is, the goddess-mother of the sun). At the same time, Keche-Ava is not only the bestower of health and well-being, but also the guardian of the family and the whole people. It also protects people from infection. According to some sources, Keche-Ava is single, according to others, she is the wife of Keche-Yumo or Keche-She. Either a red (red) or a white cow is sacrificed to her. Keche-Ava was originally worshipped exclusively by women who organized special public prayers, during which a calf or sheep was sacrificed to the goddess. Perhaps an echo of the myth that the sun was once created from a part of an egg laid by a duck is the rite of begging for a blush for a child: the worshipper, turning to Keche-Ave, put an egg on a stump ^{[39, p. 56]}.

Keche-Yumo is the "god of the sun" in the ideas of the Mari people. It was believed that it ignites daylight, warms the earth with the sun, allows plants to grow from the ground and, in addition, protects them from any harm. Keche-Yumo has two assistants Hrshan and Sozhol. Most often, Keche-Yumo is called Osh-Keche-Kugo-Yumo, which means "the great god of the bright sun." Keche-Yumo has a whole staff of smaller gods, which includes the predestiner of the sun, the mother who gives birth to the sun, the prophet, the scribe. Nizhny Novgorod Mari considered Kechke-Yumo the main god and prayed to him in a grove on the Terrible Mountains ^{[39, p. 57]}. Keche-Yumo sacrificed a bull, cow or goose ^{[41, p. 103]}.

Mari Kechamysh is the son of the sun, probably the brother of Tylchak, the son of the moon, a friend of Vultak (the Son of the White Mare). Kechamysh, who found a wife in a forest house, dies at the hands of the evil underground dwarf demon Kynergut-Tale (his soul is in a black duck). Kechamysh's death happens at the top of the mountain. But with the stomping-whiff of a White mare, Kechamysh comes back to life. At the same time, it is characteristic that Kechamysh's wife gives birth to a daughter in the underworld (Tylchak's wife gives birth to a son). The life of Kechamysh's daughter turns out to be enclosed in the egg of a white duck ^{[11, p. 559; 16, p. 30]}.

In the archaic Mari fairy tale "The Daughter of the Goddess of the Sun" already mentioned above, formally referring to the type of SUS 402 "Frog Princess", the youngest son of King Koksha marries Kechavi-Yudyr, who has the appearance of a toad, the daughter of the sun. Unlike the Russian version, Kechavi-Yudyr is not cursed, but wears her toadskin according to custom (that is, the clothes she married in). The daughter of the Sun and her forty swan sisters help Koksha to get the winged horse Argamak. But after Koksha burns his wife's skin, he has to look for her in heaven. Having reached the dwelling of the goddess of the sun Kechavi, he hides behind a cloud with the help of his mother-in-law. The wife arrives and discovers an uninvited guest. Koksha grabs Kechavi-Yudyr, but she turns into a bear, a wolf, or a forest monster. In the end, Koksha manages to calm his wife down and she submits to him ^{[23, pp. 179-187]}. 

V.E. Vladykin notes that the Udmurts represented Shundy, the sun, with four legs, which symbolized a beast running through the sky. Udmurts imagined the sun in zoomorphic images of a duck, goose, swan, deer, horse ^{[12, pp. 71-72]}.

As for the Altai myth mentioned above about the origin of the Sun and Moon, it is peculiar and archaic. According to him, the Sun is not only born from some kind of water-underground environment, but is also essentially identified with one of the birds, that is, it has an ornithopodobny appearance similar to that of the Bashkir Umai-Humai. In addition, although the sun is mined by God's messenger, it can be assumed that in an older version it could simply be about a person or some kind of cultural hero like the Bashkir Urals - a demiurge and cultural hero. The data on Kazakhs show a very strong connection between the image of the solar deity among the Turks and the cult of birds. Thus, according to R.T. Almukhanova, the Kazakhs explain the prohibition of killing the akku (swan) not only because it is a symbol of marital fidelity. With its whiteness, the swan symbolizes the upper world in which the Sun is located. It is not for nothing that when the sun rises, the Kazakhs say that "the dawn has turned white" ^{[3, p. 36]}.

In the representations of the Ob Ugrians, the goddesses of the sun stood out: Hotal-ekva (Mansi), Katlimi (Khanty). It was believed that during the day the Hotal-equa rides through the sky on a winged deer blazing with golden flames, and at sunset splashes in a lake of living water ^{[26, p. 597]}. In general, everywhere among the Nenets, all Khants (which is indicative in view of the greater archaism of the Khants as an ethnic group) and Mansi, the Sun was considered a woman, and the Month a man. According to Khanty beliefs, people originated from the marriage of the Sun and the Month. Luminaries, in anticipation of troubles, always eat themselves and thereby warn their "children" about the coming disasters. Probably, some particularly archaic Khanty solar representations have been preserved in the Nenets myth of Yuno Nu, the son of a horse who ran away directly into the sun. Yuno Nu subsequently became friends with Iba-sei Nu (Warmth-heart Son) and Pii-sei Nu (Nights-heart Son). Then three friends married Khabei Non (Khanty Women) in the guise of swans. After a series of adventures, Yuno Nu managed not only to revive his comrades killed by the monster, but also to become, thanks to the mare mother, the supreme heavenly god Numa along with his wife Haer (the Sun). It is also worth adding here that the northern Hunts associated Torum-anki, the wife of Numi-Torum, with the sun ^[9]. In this myth, strikingly similar to the corresponding Mari, Hungarian fairy tales, as well as some Altaic and Mongolian plots, one can find a clear correlation of the Sun with the white mare, and her son with the lord of the sky.

Certain traces of archaic ideas about the sun's past connection with various animals are contained in the widespread mythologeme "the sun rides". Thus, the Bulgarians believed that the Sun, the brother of the Month, the Morning and Evening stars, moves on a horse in the morning and on a donkey in the afternoon. Russians believed that the Sun rides free from morning to lunch, after lunch it transfers to a hare and goes faster. Mordvins added a wolf to this list (during the day). The Chuvash are a horse. In addition, an archaic Russian fairy tale is known in the recording of A. Afanasyev, in which the sun rides on a red horse. Also, the sun in the representations of Russians can act simply as a red man, a winged girl with glowing clothes. In the Slovak fairy tale, we are talking about a special "sunny horse" that sanctifies a country immersed in darkness ^[9].

The Russians noted that the Sun has a mother and several sisters, who alternate with each other when traveling around the sky. The sun can also act as the wife of the month, the winds as sons, and the stars as daughters ^[9]. In the Kalmyks' ideas, the sun and the moon are sisters who did not find husbands for themselves and therefore ascended to heaven. Komi considered the sun to be a sister, and the month to be a brother. In addition, Komi has preserved the myth that only a shepherd, the son of the Sun, can drag a lunar bull to earth, who must drink hare's milk extracted with the help of an aspen bucket and a beaver tooth ^[9].      

The idea of the sun as a female deity was widespread among the Udmurts, Mordvins, Tatars, Bashkirs. The Udmurts pointed out that there are Vozhomums – the mother of the summer and winter solstices and Shundy-mums – the mother of the Sun. Shundy-mums (the Mother Sun) at the same time watches the sunrise and sunset, points the way to the Sun. It was believed that when the Sun rises, there is a crackling sound, like from firewood in a stove. But this crackling can only be heard by a strong horse. Here, obviously, the connection of Shunda-muma with the horse is not accidental. The sun (Shunda) among the Udmurts was also the universal mother and was associated with the feminine principle. The Mordvins believed the Sun to be a girl, a woman named Varya, who had a daughter named Proscophia. The Tatars considered the Sun to be a woman ^[9].

The idea that the sun was a woman was characteristic of the Turkic and Mongolian peoples of Siberia. So, the Altaians imagined the sun kyun as a woman, the wife of the month. They placed the mother Sun kyung-an on the seventh tier of the sky along with Mergen-Tengre. The Teleutes also believed that the mother of the sun was located on the seventh or fifth tier of the sky. The Buryats distinguished an eight-legged Mother Sun and a nine-legged Father Moon. Also, the sun could act under the name Nalkhan Yuuren ehe ("affectionate mother Yuuren"). At the same time, even numbers were correlated with the female solar principle. Hence, when displaying the sun, eight (in most cases) concentric circles with eight and nine legs, respectively (sometimes in the form of spokes-rays) were depicted. These luminaries had eight and nine legs. The sun (naran) and the moon possessed a single female master. There were nine boys on the sun versus eight girls on the moon. Thus, in the Mongolian-speaking tradition, the Sun and the Moon were considered the daughters of Tengri Esage Malan. Fire was the son of the sun. Sometimes the Sun and Moon were depicted as two female figures with a radiance in the form of three horns above their heads. It is worth noting that in the Mongolian tradition, when the Moon is a woman, the Sun is also always a woman ^[9].

The Yakuts have the Sun and the Moon as sisters. When one sister comes to visit, the younger one hides. The Evenks have a woman, a mother, the patroness of hunting, animals and vegetation, as well as a grandmother who hides in a yurt in winter, accumulates heat to release it in the spring. As a mother, the widow of the Month, the Sun has a daughter, but is very jealous that she marries an earthly guy. Smelling the scent of a mortal, she drives her daughter away with her son-in-law. At the same time, the Evenks had the sun, moon, thunderstorm and other astral and meteorological objects that could previously live on earth in the image of ordinary people. The emergence of further objects in the world: trees, hawks with red paws, rainbows, thunderstorms, clouds, the sun and the moon is explained by the struggle of women, who later became the sun, moon and hawk, for one man ^[9].

Although the last Evenk myth is more reminiscent of archaic Australian and Papuan myths, let us take the liberty to correlate it also with the widespread story among the Ural-Altai and Slavic peoples about where the sun and the demon compete for the hero (month). As a rule, the sun here acts as a female character (sometimes as the "solntseva sister", who lives on top of a high mountain in the sky) ^{[27, 65-66; 9]}. Yu.E. Berezkin, E.N. Duvakin consider the plot of the Bashkir fairy tale "The Bald Man and his werewolf sister" to belong to this type, where the hero He runs from the villainous sister to the princesses' wives on Kuk-tulpar ^{[8, pp. 116-117]}. The Russians also have a plot. It is enough to point to the fairy tale "The Witch and the Sister of the Sun".

One of the oldest solar myths, apparently, should include the myth of the birth of the sun from an egg. In its most detailed form, it is known from Komi. According to him, the sun appears from an egg broken on the body of a mother duck ^{[47, p. 414]}. In other eastern Finno-Ugrians and Turks, the myth of the origin of the sun from an egg is not directly fixed. Perhaps it used to exist among the Mari people. At least, its presence can be assumed from the cosmogonic myth recorded by M.I. Ivanov among the meadow mari, according to which the Sun was left by Yumin-Ava, the mother duck, to look after the earth created by Yumo and Yin ^{[15, p. 173]}.  

The motif of the solar boat, so characteristic of Egyptian mythology, Greek, Middle Eastern, American Indians among the peoples of Northern Eurasia, in general, is not particularly common. So the Russians of Vologda believed that the Sun sailed on a boat. The motif of Saula, the goddess of the sun, moving in a boat, is more popular among Latvians. The Sun moving in a vehicle, which is so common in Greek mythology (Phaeton), is present only in Selkup mythology (we are talking about sleds, sleds) ^[9] and, thus, is absent from the Turks, Mongolian peoples, Finno-Ugric and Slavs. However, it is interesting that the moon carriage is mentioned in the Mari and Kalmyk myth ^{[16, p. 36]}. Also noteworthy is such a detail of the Komi myth that the hero of the Feather goes on a sleigh to get Zaran, the daughter of the sun ^{[47, p. 384]}.  Given the data on Selkup mythology, it is quite possible that in the past the peoples of Northern Eurasia may have had ideas about a sun sleigh, which in the south were early replaced by the mythologeme of the sun rider. Especially the horseman motif became popular in Turkic-Mongolian mythology. The image of the sun horse (deer) became more widespread among the Finno-Ugric and Slavic peoples.

The next, in our opinion, archaic solar motif is the stolen sun or the sun of the underworld. Obviously, it could have originated in the Chthonic period of North Eurasian mythology, when the sun had not yet become the main agricultural and pastoral deity, but expressed the wild power of the natural elements. This plot may be somewhat older than the plot about the struggle of the sun and the demon for the moon. At least here the sun is firmly connected with the other world and clearly does not fit into the new world of victorious farmers and cattle breeders.

In the Buryat cosmogonic myth there is a plot when the Owner of the Earth, having received the sun and moon as a gift from the God of Heaven, locks them in his chest. The world is plunging into darkness. The wise hedgehog sent by the God of Heaven rescues the luminaries thanks to his cunning ^{[43, p. 242]}. According to the myth of the eastern Khants, the old man-month had two wives: the Sun and an underground evil spirit. The couple quarreled, tore her husband apart. Part of the month with the heart went to the Sun, the rest to the evil spirit. The Khanty explained the presence of their moon under the earth with the latter circumstance ^[9].

The motif about the sun of different worlds seems to be original. Perhaps he is actually an archaic version of the myth of the multitude of suns. However, in this case, the suns are not destroyed, but continue to shine in their spheres. The Turks, Mongols, and almost all Finno-Ugrians and Slavs do not have this motif. It is found among the peoples of Africa, Chukchi, American Indians, as well as Hungarians. According to the beliefs of the latter, in the lower world, in the land of dragons, and in the upper world, the sun shines ^[9]. According to another Ob-Ugric myth, an old man from the original times decided to fight with his daughter-in-law. The woman hooked the sun and moon and hid them in her chest ^{[32, p. 340]}. In the myth of how Ekva-pyrishch, the son of Numi-Torum, created animals and birds, it is told that once there was neither sun nor moon. Then Ekva-pyrishch descended into the underworld of Kul-otyr and, resorting to cunning, stole the luminaries from him ^{[32, p. 388]}. It seems that the Mari custom of meeting deceased ancestors with a lighted candle at a wake could become an echo of such ideas. This was done so that people could live in the afterlife as well as under the sun – on this ^{[32, p. 286]}.

The idea of a multitude of multicolored skies, which have their own multicolored (summer and winter) suns, apparently dates back to the myths of the aboriginal population of Siberia. So, the Hunts recorded the beginning of the myth about how a certain man unsuccessfully wooed the Sun and his sister, until he went to look for a real woman. In the Selkup myth, the Sun quarrels with the heavenly god, goes to live in the underworld, where it generates layers of the upper tier of the earth along with the heavenly sun. The second daughter with a blazing green fire face stays with her mother. She is the sun of the dead and when she comes out, the northern lights appear. According to the Yakut myth, there are nine multicolored spheres of heaven. At the very extreme, three suns sparkle, but only one is visible on earth due to the existing hole in the tiers of the heavens. In the shamanic myth, Ar Toyen pushes two white suns apart and creates a third between the winter and summer suns ^[9].

The "feeding" of the sun god with human blood was characteristic of the Indians of Central America (the Aztecs). In addition, human sacrifices were supposed to ensure the daily path of the sun across the sky. These rituals fit into the idea of the cyclical development of the universe and the constant struggle of different principles in it: for example, the sun and moisture ^{[25, p. 520]}. The archaism of such ideas, it seems to us, is expressed in the fact that human sacrifices were eventually replaced by animal sacrifice. In the primitive era, prisoners captured en masse did not represent a valuable resource, and they should have been disposed of anyway. But already in the ancient states of the Old World, where slave labor is beginning to be widely used, the practice of human sacrifice, including to the Sun, is completely forgotten. Due to a kind of slow or specific development, the Indian states of Central America become an exception. In them, on the contrary, human sacrifices to the Sun grow into a state cult.  

Human sacrifices have not been recorded among the peoples of Northern Eurasia. Nevertheless, in connection with some survivals of solar mythology, it should be noted the Mansi mythological tale in which a man prepares to sacrifice his son in order to get deer. Then Mir-susne-hum, the son of Torum, takes him to the sun, where, however, the man is not fed. He is fed only by his wife Mir-susne-huma. Eventually rewarded with a herd of deer, the man returns to the camp. The older brother, envious of him, slaughters his son in the hope of also enriching himself with deer ^{[32, p. 382]}. The Russian fairy tale "The Sun, the Moon and the Raven Voronovich" is close to this plot. Although it is already purely humorous in nature, it retains the oldest motif of kinship between people and the Sun (it is characteristic that the Sun is a son-in-law here, that is, a man). The old man's attempt to imitate the Sun turns out to be unsuccessful. Meanwhile, it is known that the Slavs believed that the sun is actually so voracious that it requires nine ovens of bread, nine baked cows, hominy, fish, clouds for dinner ^{[40, p. 105]}. Even more definitely is the Komi-Permian legend about Shurma, a ferocious deity who dwelt with his raven in the sun. Two boys and two girls were sacrificed to Shurma every week ^{[47, p. 388]}.

As M.B. Kenin-Lopsan notes, the ancient Tuvans greeted the sunrise with a bow. The woman, the owner of the yurt, sprinkled tea from a special sacrificial spoon with nine holes towards the sun, and then to all sides of the world, thus offering sacrifices to the Sun and spirits. The setting of the Sun behind the tops of the mountains was also accompanied by a ritual. Then it was decided to check the presence of all children and strictly require them to observe silence ^{[19, p. 23]}.

B.A. Rybakov tried to restore the solar cult of the ancient Slavs. First of all, he noted the god Horsa (the Great Horsa). The researcher considered this cult to be the oldest, dating back to the time of the Eneolithic, when in the next Bronze Age the idea of the night sun making its underground passage through the "sea of darkness" appeared. B.A. Rybakov considers the image of Kolaksai ("the sun-king") to be the second in time of its appearance. At the final stage, the ancestors of the Slavs formed an idea of Dazhbog (the giving god), called in the chronicle directly the Sun-the king, the son of Svarog. "God's grandchildren", that is, the grandchildren of the sun, names the Russian princes "The Tale of Bygone Years" ^{[37, p. 418]}. Although the etymologies of B.A. Rybakov, as well as his arbitrary identification of the Slavs with the Scythians, have long been recognized as outdated, the scheme of development of the solar cult itself does not raise objections. From archaic ideas about the Sun as the personification of natural power to the deified figure of the ruler and his descendants. So, it is characteristic that among the Scythians, Kolaxai won the competition with his older brothers, who personified other elements or objects (mountains, rivers). Only he alone could grab the golden plow, yoke, axe and bowl that fell from the sky – symbols of agricultural and cattle-breeding labor, as well as a symbol of priestly power ^{[35, p. 590]}.

The sun played an important role in the beliefs of the eastern Finno-Ugric peoples. V.E. Vladykin notes that the Shundy sun was the dominant image in the religious and mythological picture of the Udmurts ^{[12, pp. 71-72]}. The Mari believed that the sun had a beneficial effect on land and livestock. The role of the sun, according to the researchers, increased dramatically in the warm season when it was time for field work. Arguing with the Christian traveler, the owner-marie assured the former that it was stupid to honor icons, more reasonable than the sun, that is, what gives life ^{[36, p. 427]}. Although Keche-On is considered a rank below Keche-Yumo, he is a source of light. In addition, it was in relation to Ketch-On that the researchers noted that when the Mari people pray in an open place, they always prayed facing the "king of the sun", wherever the luminary was at that moment. At the same time, during the sacrifice, the deity was replaced, as it were, by a lead plaque, which was inserted into the tree along with itty (a cult fetish). A red or white bull was sacrificed to the "King of the sun" ^{[39, pp. 56-57]}. The image of the cultural hero Kudym-Osh ("the bear from the Ku River") is associated with the cult of Shondi (the Sun) in Komi. When people decide to move their ancestral village to a safer place, it is the Sun that gives Kudym-Osh a favorable sign. Subsequently, Kudym-Osh teaches his countrymen to agriculture, shows how to forge iron, build dugout boats ^{[47, p. 212]}.

Thus, we have identified the most archaic solar motifs in the mythology of the Turks, Mongolian peoples and eastern Finno-Ugric peoples. Among the most stable are the ideas about the once-absent sun, the birth of the last one from the water-fire environment, the idea of the sun as an inanimate object (a bowl, a mirror), a simple person (possibly possessing unusual features, for example, silver teeth), an animal (a winged horse, a white mare, a deer). Myths about several ancient suns, eclipses in the form of a bird obscuring the sun, and a black maiden are also extremely archaic. The Ural-Altai peoples, in general, are characterized by the representation of the sun by a female character, a goddess with deer or bird features. At the same time, the sun could also act as a male character, a cultural hero of ethnogenetic myths (for example, among the Bashkirs, Komi). The sun could use a sleigh as a means of transportation. Sporadically, the peoples of Northern Eurasia have ideas about the suns of other worlds, including the afterlife. In addition, some eastern Finno-Ugric peoples have preserved the memory of human sacrifices to the sun. A new image in the myths of the Turks, Mongolian peoples and eastern Finno-Ugric peoples has become the sun (including in the form of a deity king), which contributes to the emergence and strengthening of agriculture and cattle breeding.