Who was Kiy?

In ancient times, somewhere in the 5th-6th centuries AD, as the legends say, three brothers lived on the Dnieper: Kiy chose the rise of Borichev, Shchek - the mountain in the neighborhood (Shchekovitsa would later be called its people), and Horivy Horiwice. They also had a sister, Lybid. The place they chose is beautiful. A dense pine forest, intercepted by a wide belt of the Dnieper, stretches for tens of miles around. The beast, birds, fish in these parts were many, briskly was trading. In addition, the transportation gave a considerable profit.

In The Tale of Bygone Years, it is true, they doubt that Ki could work as a carrier, although there is nothing shameful in that. At neighbors - Slavs-Czechs - the first prince Přemysl was, for example, a plowman. The people came to him somehow on a sunny day, they asked him to become a Czech prince on the advice of the prophetess Libusz, he put on princely clothes and shoes, sat on a hot horse, but took the old bast shoes with him to Vyshgorod, and hung them in princely chambers without embarrassment. For several hundred years, bast shoes, woven from bast, reminded princes of their ancestor, who for wisdom and savvy in state and purely human affairs was called "premeditated", "over-thinking". In Slavs in those centuries the work of a commoner was not considered humiliating for princes.

But the author of the "Tale of Bygone Years" for some reason did not want Kiy to be a carrier, or at least the owner of the transportation across the Dnieper, he immediately made him a prince, after which the brothers named the city founded by him Kiev.

Kiya's family was known and respected far beyond the Dnieper. If you believe the legends, the prince went to Constantinople, and the ruler of the Byzantine Empire received him with great honor. How much, whether Kiy spent a lot of time in Constantinople (the city of Constantinople was also called), the chronicler is silent about it, but only the prince liked the warm sea and magnificence of the Byzantine capital, and he decided to lay a city on the Danube, to stay in these fertile lands. Kiy was cut down to start a tiny town, but the surrounding residents rebelled, not wanting to have such a business neighbor. I had to go back to the Dnieper.

He arrived in Kiev, Borichev ascended, examined his relatives, was surprised: it's beautiful how! But the other beauty, the southern one, brightly saturated with sun, bluish-green marble of the sea, surrounded, he did not give rest. He was a strong man. I was not afraid of anything. But Kiy looked from the height of the rise of Borichev to the hills and plains, the pine forests were evenly painted, the Dnieper was washed with great masters, and he felt painfully in his soul: is it really possible to build such a beautiful city in these woodlands ?!

Kiy lived for a short time, returning to his native place. He died soon, no one knows why. Then Shchek, Khoryv and Lybid died, perhaps from longing for their beloved brother. But Kiev, which they laid, remained to live for ever. Such cities have an amazing property - they do not age. Sometimes storms and thunderstorms strike on them, or even enemy enemies, turn the city into ruins, covered with ashes of wars and fires, leaving no seemingly no chance to survive, but a day or two later, and appear on yesterday's still dead streets and Areas of sprouts of a new life.

This is the city of Kiev.

Its founder, Kiy, was dying in alarm, but he was in vain. Passing through all the hardships, handsome Kiev became even more magnificent than before.