Ilya Muromets can without exaggeration be called the most famous of Russian epic heroes. Even a Russian who has never read epics or their prose retellings knows about this Russian hero at least from cartoons.
Researchers of Russian folklore know 53 epic heroic plots, and in 15 of them Ilya Muromets is the main character. All these epics belong to the Kiev cycle associated with Vladimir the Red Sun - an idealized image of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich.
The deeds of the epic hero
The beginning of the epic "biography" of Ilya Muromets is associated with a very typical for an epic hero motive of belated maturity: for 33 years the hero has been sitting on the stove, unable to move his arms or legs, but one day, three elders - "kaliki perekhodimi" - come to him. In Soviet period editions, a clarification of who these people were was "cut out" from the epics, but folklore tradition hints that these are Jesus Christ and the two apostles. The elders ask Ilya to bring them water - and the paralyzed man gets to his feet. Thus, even the healing of the hero turns out to be associated with a willingness to accomplish, albeit insignificant, but a good deed.
Having acquired heroic strength, Ilya sets off to perform feats. It is noteworthy that neither Ilya Muromets nor other Russian heroes ever perform feats only for the sake of personal glory, as the heroes of Western chivalric novels sometimes do. The deeds of Russian knights are always socially significant. This is the most famous feat of Ilya Muromets - the victory over the Nightingale the Robber, who killed travelers with his robber whistle. “You are full of tears and fathers and mothers, you are full of widows and young wives,” says the hero, killing the villain.
Another feat of the hero is the victory over the Idol, who seized power in Constantinople. Idolische is a collective image of nomadic enemies - Pechenegs or Polovtsians. These were pagan peoples, and it is no coincidence that the Idolische threatens to "blow up God's churches". Defeating this enemy, Ilya Muromets acts as a defender of the Christian faith.
The hero always appears as the protector of the common people. In the epic "Ilya of Muromets and Kalin the Tsar" Ilya refuses to go into battle, offended by the injustice of Prince Vladimir, and only when the prince's daughter asks the hero to do this for the sake of poor widows and small children, does he agree to fight.
Possible historical prototypes
No matter how fabulous the stories of the epics about Ilya Muromets seem, historians say: this is a real person. His relics rest in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, but originally the tomb was located in the side-chapel of St. Sophia of Kiev - the main temple of Kievan Rus. Usually, only princes were buried in this cathedral, even the boyars were not honored with such an honor, therefore, the merits of Ilya Muromets were exceptional. Researchers assume that the hero died in 1203 during a Polovtsian raid on Kiev.
Another version is offered by the historian A. Medyntseva, who tried to explain why the epic tradition connected the image of Ilya Muromets with Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, who lived much earlier. Without denying the connection of the epic hero with the real-life Ilya Muromets, she points out that the same person who served as the prototype for Dobrynya Nikitich could have become another source of the image. This was the maternal uncle of Prince Vladimir - the housekeeper's brother, a commoner, who managed to become first a prince's warrior, and then a voivode.
This man did a lot of good for his nephew: he insisted that Svyatoslav give Vladimir to the Novgorodians as princes, after the death of Svyatoslav he helped Vladimir to come to power. Introducing Christianity in Russia, Vladimir Dobrynya entrusted the baptism of Novgorod. After this event, Dobrynya is no longer mentioned in the annals, although there is no mention of his death anywhere. A. Medyntseva suggests that this man, having been baptized, received the name Ilya, and later his biography became one of the sources of the image of Ilya Muromets.
