To become “winged”, the phrase must thoroughly take root in the mouths of the people. And this happens only when it convincingly and succinctly reflects any phenomenon or event. So the proverb “In a quiet pool there were devils.”
The meaning of the saying
The idea of the statement is that not everything that seems peaceful and calm is actually such. Somewhere deeply and invisibly dark passions can boil and an unclear danger, ominous plans can ripen. Most often, this saying refers to a person. For the time being, he is quiet and modest, educated and secretive. But there comes a time when the "quiet" suddenly performs unexpected and bad deeds. The saying, "There are devils in a quiet pool," is intended, therefore, to warn of possible unpleasant surprises that a person may present with impeccable outward behavior.
Hidden power of the pool
Folk wisdom, shaped in the Russian proverb, arose in the native Russian environment and reflects local realities. Firstly, the whirlpool - that is, a deep hole hidden at the bottom of a reservoir, is found in rivers and lakes, but not in the seas and oceans. The whirlpool is most often formed as a result of a whirlpool born of a counter current. The ominous power of the whirlpool is determined by its apparent calm. Secondly, there are devils in the whirlpool, according to popular Russian legends about evil spirits. If you look at the associative series caused by the word whirlpool, we see a gloomy and mysterious picture. This is a precipice, fear, rapids, water, snags, darkness, cold, abyss, danger, death. According to legend, otherworldly males live in the whirlpools, who marry drowned women or witches. Fucking families, as the legends say, can get out of the pool at night and replace human babies with their devils.
Why the devils live in a quiet pool
The belief that devils live in the water is probably connected with the biblical story of how Jesus, casting out demons from people, ordered the evil spirits to enter a pig flock, which then rushed into the water. There are sources claiming that deep waters as a habitat of evil spirits were known even in pagan, pre-Christian times. However, today researchers of anomalous phenomena will also tell a lot of stories that some modern lakes and ponds are “famous” for the fact that they saw devils. And this happens, according to them, because the entrances to parallel worlds can be located at the bottom of the reservoir.
Foreign equivalents
Other nations also have sayings similar to the meaning of the phrase "devils are in the pool." They also warn that humility and visible complacency may be deceiving. In Greece, for example, they say: "Beware of a quiet river, not a stormy one." The British express this idea as follows: "Silent waters are deep." Frantsu
PS warn: "No worse than the water that sleeps." In Spain, it is customary to talk about an imaginary calm like this: "Silent water is dangerous." The Italians say: "Quiet water destroys bridges," and the Poles believe that "Peaceful water washes the shores." The Slavs insidious calm waters are closely connected with the evil spirits living there. Ukrainian and Belarusian proverbs, like Russian ones, say: "In a quiet swamp, devils breed."
Literary life sayings
Proverbs and sayings are readily used by writers to give expressiveness to characters and the work as a whole. This fate did not bypass the proverb “In a quiet pool there are devils.” She was mentioned by A. N. Ostrovsky in the play “Heart is not a stone”, I. S. Turgenev to the heroine of the novel “Fathers and Sons”, F. M. Dostoevsky in the novel “The Double”, V. F. Tendryakov in the essay “ Heavy character ”, P. L. Proskurin in the trilogy“ Fate ”. The proverb graced the pages of the novel "Mountains and People" by Yu. N. Libedinsky. She was creatively rethought in the novel “The Chair” by I. Grekova, in the novel “Tsar Fish” by V. P. Astafyev, in the novel by L. L. Gorbatov “Donbass”.