Ilya Muromets

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For the Russian bomber "Ilya Muromets", see Sikorsky Ilya Muromets.

Bogatyrs (1898) by Viktor Vasnetsov (Ilya Muromets is the center figure)

Ilya Muromets (Elijah of Murom, Russian: Илья Муромец) is a Russian mythical hero. He is celebrated in numerous byliny (folk epic poems). Along with Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich he is regarded as the greatest of all the legendary bogatyrs (i.e., medieval Russian knights-errant). (The three of them are represented together at Vasnetsov's famous painting Bogatyrs.)

According to legends, Ilya, the son of a farmer, was born in the village of Karacharovo, near Murom. He suffered serious illness in his youth and was unable to walk until the age of 33, when he was miraculously healed by two pilgrims. He was then given super-human strength by a dying knight, Svyatogor, and set out to liberate the city of Kiev from Idolishche to serve Prince Vladimir the Beautiful Sun (Vladimir Krasnoye Solnyshko). Along the way he single-handedly defended the city of Chernigov from invasion by the Tatars and was offered knighthood by the local ruler, but Ilya declined to stay. In the forests of Bryansk he then killed the forest-dwelling monster Solovey-Razboynik, (literally Nightingale the Robber), who could murder travellers with his powerful whistle.

Ilya Muromets (1914) by Viktor Vasnetsov

In Kiev, Ilya was made chief bogatyr by Prince Vladimir and he defended Rus from numerous attacks by the steppe people, including Kalin, the (mythical) tsar of Golden Horde. Generous and simple-minded but also temperamental, Ilya once went on a rampage and destroyed all the church steeples in Kiev after Prince Vladimir had failed to invite him to a celebration. He was soon appeased when Vladimir sent for him.

He became the only epic hero canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Ilya Muromets's name became a synonym of an outstanding physical and spiritual power and integrity, dedicated to the protection of the Homeland and People and over time has become a hero of numerous movies, pictures, monuments, cartoons and anecdotes.

[edit] Ilya Muromets depictions

Viktor Vasnetsov's 1898 painting Bogatyrs (center figure).
Ilya Muromets is depicted on the 1913 Russian stamp.
Viktor Vasnetsov's 1914 painting Ilya Muromets.
Aleksandr Ptushko's 1956 film Ilya Muromets.
Vladimir Toropchin's animated feature, Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber, to be released on July 7, 2007. [1]