Baba Yaga is known to everyone in Russian folk tales, as well as numerous feature and animated films. However, only a few connoisseurs and lovers of folklore know that this is one of the oldest mythological characters, whose image has a deep ritual meaning.
Mythological functions of Baba Yaga
Pagan Slavs revered Baba Yaga as a guide to the kingdom of the dead. Her house - a hut on chicken legs - served as an entrance to the afterlife. Recognizing the hero by smell (in fact, Baba Yaga is blind), she necessarily drowned a bath for him, which meant ritual bathing. Then she laid the table for a ceremonial meal. Fortunately, the death of a fairy-tale character was only conditional, "temporary", and allowed him to rescue the stolen beauty from the dead kingdom.
