Universal History Annotation << Back IMAGE OF GOD OF THE THUNDER AND LIGHTNING SHHYBLJE A.V. Gucheva The article is devoted to the image of Shhyblje and also to the main concepts of the cult-ritual religious action «Shhyblje Udzh» (Uj in honor of the God of Thunder and Lightning). This ceremony, this worship of the god of thunder and lightning Shhyblje, who ordered the life and death of people and was committed regardless of gender, age and social status. The appeal to the divine power, endowed with power and possessing the highest effectiveness in dealing with the deity, was realized through dance, song-praying and sacrifi ce. Through the appeal, accession to the divine was carried out, and prohibitions and taboos associated with the introduction of the «forbidden day» were imposed on him, the non-fulfi llment of which was dangerous to man. Shhyblje is not a personifi ed-visible deity, does not have a completed visual-defi nite image or symbol, but the personifi cation of the mysterious strength of nature and elements, received only a verbal description in songs-prayers addressed to him, in which we meet not only the mythological image of his counterpart Ela, but also the name of Il'ja the prophet. Keywords: Shhyblje; Shibla; deity; sacred and worldly spheres; Elje; prophet Il'ja; Tlepsh; thunder; lightning; cult-religious action. DOI: 10.25791/vseist.02.2018.062 Contacts: E-mail: anggucheva@mail.ru Pp. 39-46.