Chort

This article is about the mythological creature. For other uses, see Chort (disambiguation).
Caricature of Napoleon with a chort
A Ukrainian disguised as a Czort on Malanka

A chort (Russian: чёрт, Belarusian and Ukrainian: чорт, Serbo-Croatian čort or črt, Polish: czart and czort, Czech and Slovak: čert, Slovene: črt) is an anthropomorphic malign spirit or demon[1][2] in Slavic folk tradition. Chorts are often depicted identically to Christian devils, with horns, hooves, and a skinny tail.[citation needed] In Slavic mythology, a singular Chort is sometimes identified as a son of the god Chernobog and the goddess Mara.[3][page needed] Likewise, in Ukraine mythology, Chorts were originally the priest of Chernobog.[4] In folk Christianity, they are considered lesser minions of Satan.

Compare to Russian sayings (curses) "чёрт побери" ("chort poberi") – meaning "be taken by the demon" (often used as an exclamation to express frustration or pain as in English "darn!", "rats!", "shit!", etc.), the saying is often used as an acceptable version of cursing in Eastern Europe; "чёрт попутал" ("chort poputal") – meaning mixed up by the demon; "к чертям" ("k chertyam") – meaning to hell, and many others.

  1. ^ Русские Народные Сказки»/Сост., вступ. ст. и прим. В. П. Аникина.-М.: Правда, 1985.- 576 с., ил.) (in Russian)
  2. ^ Türk Mitolojisi Ansiklopedik Sözlük, Celal Beydili, Yurt Yayınevi (Pages - 143/144) (in Turkish)
  3. ^ Bane, Theresa (2012-01-11). Encyclopedia of Demons in World Religions and Cultures. McFarland. ISBN 9780786488940.
  4. ^ Kryzhko, Olena. "National and Cultural Symbolism of Zoo-Anthropomorphic Creatures in Ukrainian Myphological Picture of the World." Logos (08687692) 101 (2019).