Lower mythology

Lower mythology is a sphere of mythological representations relating to characters who have no divine status, demons and spirits, as opposed to higher gods and the official cult. This opposition is particularly pronounced in world religions.

History of the study
The term was introduced by German ethnographer W. Mannhardt, who was the first to carry out a special study of this mythology. Mannhardt extensively studied mostly representations of spirits associated with the harvest and the broader category, spirits of vegetation, representing the annual cycle of dying and resurrecting vegetation. В. Wundt believed that representations of "vegetation demons" were an intermediate stage between the pre-earthly "totemic cult" and developed cults of gods. James George Frazer considered gods such as Attis, Adonis, Osiris, and Dionysus as related through transitional stages to the dying and resurrecting spirit of vegetation.

At an early stage in the development of mythological ideas, scholars suggest the existence of mythological fetishism, within which things and phenomena were animated and social functions were transferred to them. The demonic being was not at all detached from the object in which it was believed to dwell. Later, as a result of the development of a productive economy, mythology moved towards animism, when the "idea" of the thing and the magical power of the demon began to be separated from the thing itself. The original animism included the idea of the demon as a force determining a person's fate, evil or less often beneficent. In Homer there are many examples of a nameless, faceless, suddenly acting and terrifying demon. Of this instantly arising and just as instantly departing fatal force man has no idea, they cannot call it by name and cannot enter into communion with it. Subsequently, there are ideas of demons of individual things and events with different powers of influence. In developed animism the transformation of a demon or god leads to its anthropomorphism, humanization.

Mythology can stratify in relation to the social class. Tales and poems about gods and heroes considered ancestors of aristocratic families are formed. Specific priestly mythology may also be developed in closed corporations of priests. Both types of mythologies constitute a higher, often official mythology. Folk beliefs, an inferior mythology, characterised as coarser and more immediate, but the most stable, has survived longer. In the folklore and beliefs of the peoples of Europe, it is the lower mythology that has survived. The higher mythology has almost completely disappeared and has only partially merged with the images of Christian saints.

Distinction from higher mythology
Characters of lower mythology often take an active part in people's lives, meeting them, transforming into humans, etc. So, in many mythologies, these characters are more important than the deities who acted, usually during the creation mythic time.

The creatures of inferior mythology are most often characters in the most popular folklore genres: fairy tales, Bailichka and others, while the gods are represented in mythological narratives proper.

In the realm of ritual, the creatures of lower mythology are associated with a complex of superstitions, witchcraft, magic practices and rites, deities - with a tribal or nationwide cult. Mikhail Bakhtin called the folk carnival tradition, which uses images of folk mythology, unofficial, as opposed to the official cult of gods. V. V. Ivanov referred to folk mythology itself by the same term.

The distinction between unofficial inferior mythology and official cult is most pronounced in cases where these mythological systems have historically or ethnically different origins. Such a situation is observed, for example, in the regions where Buddhism spread (Sri Lanka, Tibet, Mongolia) and Christianity, where the latter spread relatively late and absorbed a set of local mythologies (countries of Latin America, etc.).

Thus, an inferior mythology may be formed by downgrading mythological characters of higher ranks to its level. In a number of cases, this is reflected in mythological narratives. In one of the stories of Keti mythology, the supreme god Es expels his wife Hosedem, to earth and she gradually acquires the features of an inferior spirit.

Many beings of lower mythology are associated with a shamanic cult: spirits of body parts used in healing rituals, spirit-masters, spirits-helpers. In regions where there is developed shamanism, like Siberia and South Asia, these spirits are believed to be subordinate to higher deities, with whom the shaman also communicates. In some Asian, Siberian, and Amerindian traditions, unlike the shaman, only the sorcerer could communicate with beings of lower mythology. A typologically similar situation also took place in a number of traditions of the Ancient East. According to anatolian cuneiform texts of the 2nd millennium BC, a priestess, when performing magic acts, in particular healing rituals, referred only to the characters of lower mythology. The priests of the official cult referred to a "thousand gods" of the Hittite kingdom. According to the will of the Hittite king Hattusili I, the queen was forbidden to address the priestesses (unofficial).

In ancient mythologies, acts like cannibalism and human sacrifice were practiced in the name of gods (the cult of Zeus Lykaios, Dionysus, Celtic mythology, Polynesian cults, etc.). In the process of spreading the ban on cannibalism, it has been increasingly associated with the lower world of monsters, giants, witches, etc.

Literature

 * Ames М. Buddha and the dancing goblins. «American Anthropologist». 1964. V. 66, № 1
 * Leach E. R. Pulleyar and the Lord Buddha