#vodyanoy

A creature of the rivers and swamps of Slavic mythology, he lurks beneath the water, waiting to drag people and animals down to his underwater palace.

I'm starting on here by posting some old art. For everyone who has seen this before on my Insta, hello a second time. And for everyone who is seeing me for the first time, I welcome you with a drawing from 2023.

One of the things that still fascinate me is how often humanity feared water. While many other spirits from Slavic mythology were seen as mostly neutral, the image of the Vodyanoy was almost always evil. Humanity shivered by the thought of drowning and this guy become the embodiment of that fear.

We can see some traces of human terror even in the names of rivers. In Bulgaria we have a "Луда река", translating to "insane river". But nothing can beat it's first name "Shaytan" this time translating to "Devil".

I saw this image on United24's BlueSky account around Halloween. While vodyanyks, or vodyanoy, aren't usually shown with fish tails, this dude has a fish fin peeking out of the water behind him. They're usually shown as older men with beards, and occasionally webbed feet.