Mythology is one of the first forms of consciousness which expressed the attitude of people to the world. The myth (from ancient Greek � mythos) in translation from ancient Greek means "word", "legend", and mythology is a collection of legends. Each nation has passed that phase when the mythological consciousness was one of the main forms of consciousness in general. In this sense myths became some kind of the first answers to eternal questions on the origin of the world and the Man.

With time the religious conceptions of peoples were formed on the basis of mythology. More often the first religions were polytheistic, i.e. people worshipped not the one, but many gods. In Russian tradition polytheistic religions are usually named paganism (�yazichestvo�). It is natural that the ancient people did not name their beliefs pagan. This term has appeared in Christian theology for a designation of all pre-Christian and not Christian polytheistic cults. The term �yazichestvo� itself has a Slavic origin � from an old Slavic word "yazik", i.e. "people". In other words, in direct sense paganism is the most ancient traditional religion. It is interesting, that in Catholic tradition for a designation of pre- and not Christian polytheistic religions the Latin term �paganus� is used. This term was also later included into Russian � in a literal translation ("pogany") and in the same sense (pagans in Russian were called �poganiye�).

Paganism covered all the sphere of spiritual culture and a significant part of material culture of ancient people, but first of all � the relations between people and nature, as the problem of interrelations with the nature was the most important for ancient people. Therefore the deification of nature when various natural objects such as the Sun, the Moon, stars, air, fire, water, animals, plants, stones, etc. were considered deities can be called the main feature of paganism. Quite often the religious (pagan) and mythological legends mixed up, and then either the mythological ancestors were claimed to be gods (for example, Odin in Scandinavian mythology), or the pagan gods were considered to be historical ancestors of this or that people.

Mythology is divides into the higher and the lowest. The higher mythology is related with myths about gods and heroes, and the lowest - with mythological conceptions of various spirits of the nature, mythological essences which don�t possess the status of divinity. This division has relative character, first of all because there are various points of view on definition of the divinity.