Ilya Muromets’s Family Tree

About Ilya Muromets →

Family

• Efrosinya Yakovlevna(parent),Ivan Timofeevich(parent)— Marriage

  Ilya Muromets is the son of the peasant couple Ivan Timofeevich and Efrosinya Yakovlevna of Karacharovo near Murom, who raised him through thirty-three years of paralysis until wandering pilgrims healed him and sent him on the road to Kiev.

• Sokolnik(child)

  Sokolnik is the son of Ilya Muromets, born to a polianitsa whom Ilya encountered on the road. Raised without knowledge of his father, Sokolnik rides to challenge Kiev's champions and meets Ilya as a stranger — father and son fight a savage duel before recognizing each other.

  ⚠ Byliny variants differ on the combat's outcome: in some, recognition leads to reconciliation; in others, Sokolnik attempts to kill his sleeping father and Ilya slays him.

Slew

• Idolishche Poganoe

  Ilya Muromets disguised himself as a pilgrim to infiltrate Prince Vladimir's court, occupied by the monstrous Idolishche Poganoe. He confronted the giant amid his obscene feasting and struck him dead with a single blow.

• Kalin Tsar

  Ilya Muromets rode alone against Kalin Tsar's besieging army, cutting through the foreign host to reach the invading king himself. He slew Kalin Tsar and broke the siege of Kiev.

• Solovei-Razboinik

  Ilya Muromets shot Solovei-Razboinik through the eye with an arrow on the road to Kiev, ending the robber's thirty-year blockade of the crossroads. He bound the monster and brought him to Prince Vladimir's court as proof of the deed.

Member of

• Bogatyrs

  Ilya Muromets stands as the eldest and mightiest of Prince Vladimir's bogatyri in Kiev, the heroic triad completed by Dobrynya Nikitich's noble cunning and Alyosha Popovich's youthful daring. Together they defend the Rus against invaders, monsters, and the forces that threaten the prince's realm.

Associated with

• Svyatogor

  In the byliny, the ancient giant Svyatogor befriends Ilya Muromets and passes his superhuman strength to the younger hero before dying sealed in a stone coffin. Svyatogor's death marks the transition from the age of giants to the age of human bogatyrs.

• Vladimir the Great

  Prince Vladimir imprisoned Ilya Muromets in a deep cellar beneath Kiev after the bogatyr's insolence at court. When Kalin Tsar's armies besieged the city and no champion remained to face them, Vladimir released Ilya, who rode out and scattered the invading host.