MYTHOPOETIC WORLD OF MOUNTAINS IN ANCIENT CULTURE (BY THE EXAMPLE OF TMOLUS)

A mountain or mountains are an important element of the existence of almost every person. Metaphorically or physically, mountains are the factor that allows a person to get closer to God (or gods), to know him and himself through him. Since ancient times, in various religions and mythological systems, mountains have personified the vertical, the axis of the world and have always been associated with the gods. However, in the system of ideas of the creators of Greek mythology, mountains themselves were gods, because they appeared back in the days when Gaia formed them without the participation of Uranus. With the change in the population and civilizations of the Mediterranean, the eternal mountains also underwent transformation, becoming the dwelling place of the gods. Every educated person knows about the role of Ida, Olympus or Helicon in Greek mythology. Nevertheless, some of the myths about the mountains of Lydia, primarily Tmolus, contain plots about mountain gods. And not for nothing, because the mountains were a source of prosperity for the region, gave rise to large (even in the mythological sense of the word) rivers, such as the gold-bearing Pactolus, and influenced the climate and economic development of the region. Ptolemy, Plutarch, and Ovid wrote about the mountains of the western coast of Asia Minor, and this information is valuable from the point of view of historical geography. In Roman times, only a few mountain gods were personified, the mentions of which in numismatic sources indicate the role of mountains in the construction of the identity of the population of the province of Asia. The article identifies the main types of visualization of mountain gods and shows the features of the context of the use of their image.