Diyu

In the mythology of the Turkic peoples of the Volga region, Western and Southern Siberia, Kazakhstan, Central, Near and Minor Asia, as well as some Iranian peoples, a huge (three-, six-, nine- or twelve-headed) creature.

The image of diyu has its roots in pagan times. In Turkic-Tatar mythology, this is a deity with unlimited possibilities, usually an evil, dangerous enemy of the epic hero.

Diyu's appearance is described in different ways, but his monstrous size is always emphasized:

"The head obscures the light, the torso fills the whole world"

(Tatar folk tale "Zulkarnai-batyr").

Kidnaps girls, women, sometimes old people and children, usually eats them.

In Tatar folk tales there are descriptions of copper, silver and gold palaces in which slave girls "wash human carcasses on long tables." Human bones are scattered everywhere in Diyu's possessions (the Tatar folk tale "On the top of the Marble Mountain").

As a rule, diyu sleeps deeply for a long time, sometimes for several days, thereby exposing himself to great danger: the saber with which he can kill diyu is kept by himself, and the epic hero can use it.

Sometimes diyu looks no different from a person, can appear in the image of both a man and a woman, have a family and children, more often daughters.

In Tatar mythology, diyu is mostly male.

Tatar folklorist L.S. Zamaletdinov considers diya the ruler of the kingdom of the dead.

In the Turkic-Tatar mythology, the image of diyu underwent a significant transformation: in later works of oral folk art, the hero defeats this evil multi-headed creature. In them, diyu no longer has a divine essence; some other fairy-tale and mythological characters began to be called by his name.