#zmei

[chernobog13]

Mortal Combat* With the Three-Headed Serpent by Boris Zvorykin, circa 1916.

(* Every time I read this I hear "Finish him!" in my head.)

The dragon's name is supposedly Gorynych, a zmei (a type of Slavic dragon), but I'm pretty sure we all now who it's REALLY supposed to be (the three crowns are a dead giveaway).

[russianfolklore]

Nikolai Vorobyov's illustration for russian epic poem (bylina) "Dobrynya and the Serpent".

[chapel-hounds]

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒆𝒓𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓, 𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒔 •───────•°•❀•°•───────• Execution art for my character Zinoviy, who was found guilty as the culprit of the first murder case in the Danganronpa roleplay I'm playing him in. In his execution, he is transformed into the Russian dragon Zmei Gorynych, and has to defend a medieval village from wolves. In the course of his rampage, he ends up killing all the villagers as well, having lost his human rationality. In the end, he is slain by a bogatyr, the archetypal knight-errant of Slavic legends. I went for a very different style than the typical Danganronpa execution, instead going for a composition that takes influence from Ivan Bilibin's classic illustrations of Russian folk tales. By happenstance, Bilibin was also a costume designer for the Ballets Russes, which is very fitting, since Zinoviy is a ballet dancer. The draconic motifs have been part of Zinoviy's concept from the very beginning—his human design wears earrings shaped like the feathered ears of Bilibin's interpretation of Zmei Gorynych, and his dog design has similarly feathered ears and patches of silver brindle fur that resemble scales.

[corvidae1917]

Zemifon, the elusive Fakemon

Name etymology: Zmei, a dragon from Slavic mythology + myth + gryphon

Type: Dragon/Flying

Many of these Pokemon live at the top of the mountains of Northern Yurosa, in crevices and caves so difficult to reach that its existence was doubted by Pokemon professors until 20 years ago. For this reason they are cautious around humans and can be dangerous to approach without appropriate preparation, especially when their mothers are nearby. Their hostility was the reason why the first writers and poets who wrote of it, in what used to be called legends, portrayed it as malevolent or even as an evil spirit.

This Fakemon was originally drawn 3 years ago as Corwyth, and it was half-crow rather than half-eagle. It was also more of a wyvern than a traditional dragon.

In the current design, the dragon half’s form was based mostly on the Welsh dragon, although the idea for the dragon half came from European dragons as a whole, especially Zmei, a Slavic mythical creature. Although, Zmei’s extra heads are too reminiscient of Hydreigon; neither Zemifon or its evolved form have more than one head. The tail is supposed to look sort of gen 1-ish?? I added lines to make it resemble Nidoking’s tail. The eagle half was made to look still somewhat lion-like. The head is fluffy and also resembles the wings of an eagle as depicted on the coats-of-arms of various countries.

It is loosely inspired by Azhdaya, a demonic version of Zmei from Slavic mythology (again, without the extra heads). Some depictions of Azhdaya appear to show it with partially feathered (but still webbed) wings, and this was what originally made me think of the gryphon-dragon idea. I originally wanted it to be part-wyvern, but decided to separate the wings from the front legs as was more similar to a gryphon.

[artbyanca]

Eavesdropping

The wives of the zmei recognized Greuceanu and locked themselves in their house to plot his demise. Our hero turned into a fly and snuked in to listen to their plans.

[legends-collection]

Zmei

A Zmei Gorynich or zmei (Russian: змей; plural: Russian: змеи, romanized: zmei), in skazki (Russian folktales) and byliny (Russian epic poetry), is a dragon or serpent, or sometimes a human-like character with dragon-like traits.

Zmei Gorynych and Tugarin Zmeyevich, two well-known zmei, appear as adversaries of the bogatyri (heroes) Dobrynya Nikitich or Alyosha Popovich.

Etymology

The word zmei in Russian is the masculine form of zmeya, a feminine noun, meaning "snake".

General traits

Gender

The dragon in Russian folk fiction may be female, in which case she is called zmeya. The tendency is for the prose folktale versions to have male dragons, and the byliny poetry to have the females. This will affect the behavior of the dragons. For instance, only the male dragons will capture or captivate a princess or a maiden as a love interest.

Multiheadedness

The zmei is often depicted with multiple heads, and the number of heads may be 3, 6, 9, or 12.

A three-, six-, nine-, and twelve-headed dragon are defeated on successive nights by the hero of the tale "Ivan the Peasant's Son and the Little Man the Size of a Finger" (Afanasyev #138). The twelve-headed one was hardest to kill, and although the hero beheaded it nearly completely, the last head had to be taken by six men provided to Ivan by the Tsar. Chudo-Iudo

In the variant "Ivan Bykovich (Ivan Buikovich)" (# 137), an equivalent sets of these multi-headed creatures appear, but are not called zmei, but a Chudo-Iudo (Chudo-Yudo). These are humanlike creatures, each one is riding a horse. Even when decapitated, if the head is picked up it grows back on once a line is drawn on it with the dragon's fiery finger. As is pointed out below, a zmei can take human-form, and in the variant "Storm-bogatyr, Ivan the Cow's Son" (#136), the multi-headed Chudo-Iudo are described as using the word zmei also.

Other attributes

The creature's appearance is not described in bylinas. In more recent sources, the Russian zmei is described as being covered with either green or red scales, and having iron claws.

Shapeshifting

The zmei may turn into a handsome youth. In that form he enthralls the sister or wife of Ivan Tsarevich in different versions of "The Milk of Wild Beasts" (Afanasyev #204, #205), as described below. In one of these (#204) the zmei also transforms into kitchen implements to avoid detection: he becomes a broom, a sort of mop (помело pomelo) and oven fork. But Ivan's obedient animals are able to detect the presence of an intruder in these implements.

The zmei assumes the form of a golden goat in another tale ("The Crystal Mountain", Afanasyev #162).

In fairy tales

The zmei occurs in the literature of Russia and Ukraine in numerous wondertales (skazki) such as those in Alexander Afanasyev's compilation Narodnye russkie skazki, and in the byliny (epic ballads), and rendered as "serpent" or "dragon". They may also appear as a character with "Zmei" or "Zmeyevich" (Zmeevich, etc.) in their proper name, and these may exhibit more human-like qualities, such as courting women.

As fabulous beast

The zmei slain by the bogatyr Dobrynya Nikitich in the bylina "Dobrynya and the Zmei" can be male or female. It may happen to be Zmei Gorynishche ("Dragon, the Son of a Mountain"). This name is a variant form of "Zmei Gorynych" found in fairy tales. Or it may be she-dragon without a name, as in the byliny collected from Karelian Russia. The "Puchai River" was its haunt, but in the caves of the "Saracen Mountains" it raised its pups and kept hostages. It was capable of flight, and abducted a princess from Kiev by flying there.

Zmei Gorynych

Zmei Gorynych (Russian: Змей Горыныч) has decidedly dragon-like characteristics, such as having multiple heads (from 3 to upwards of 12), spitting fire, and being associated with a body of water.

However, "Zmei Gorynych" is not consistently beast-like, and he may appear in the guise of a human thoroughout in some works.

Anthropomorphism

Sometimes there are "Sons of Zmei" (Zmeyevich being their patronymic surname) who are recognized as monsters with human qualities, or vice versa.

The zmei also transforms into a handsome youth to seduce women (folktale "The Milk of Wild Beasts", #204, 205). In one version, Zmei Gorynych seduces the sister of Ivan Tsarevich. She feigns illnesses and asks Ivan to perform the precarious task of retrieving the milk of the wolf, bear, and lioness. This plan fails. Later however, when Ivan is separated from his trusty pack of animals, zmei reveals his true nature and poises to devour him with his gaping mouth. In another version, Zmei Zmeyevich ("Serpent, Son of Serpent") and Ivan's adulterous wife play out a similar plot.

[lieonemore]

[zawieja]

some dragons in Eastern Europe are described to look like roosters or shooting stars and that's just neat