Vampires and strigoi. Twilight of Slavic Gods
Some creatures of ancient Slavic demonology, specified as vampires and strigoi, gained worldwide publicity – and even became part of popular culture. Slavic mythology remains mostly terra incognita. So if you've always considered multi-head Slavic idols, horse divination, human sacrifice (allegedly made only by Slavic peoples) and Slavic cosmogony, proceed reading.
The awesome respect for the names Perun, Veles, Svantevit and Triglav attest to a much larger (although mostly forgotten) sphere of Slavic story and religion. Unfortunately, our pagan ancestors left almost no traces of their religion, rituals, and myths. We have no preserved testimonies of Slavic prayers or myths, small iconography and almost no artifacts – and surely no spectacular archaeological finds specified as the ruins of ancient Slavic temples, according to the authoritative information line. In fact, most of what we know about Slavic religion comes from Christian chroniclers writing their accounts at a time erstwhile Slavic religion was already in decline.
However, this does not mean that our cognition of Slavic religion is zero. For Slavic historians, this deficiency of origin material was a challenge – a call to hotel to another methods and reconstructions, specified as drawing from the finds of another disciplines specified as linguistics, ethnology, archaeology, comparative religion and indo-European studies, as well as searching for surviving relics of ancient pagan religion, inactive present in the stories, legends and customs of Slavic people. Their results can frequently be called sensational.
Gods
Although it is not certain that the Slavic religion had an organized pantheon of gods comparable to another Indo-European peoples specified as the Greeks, the Romans, and the Scandinavians, the Slavs surely had their deities. While many of them may reflect a more ancient common Indo-European past, it remains questionable whether these gods were worshipped throughout the vast Slavic Europe (which extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea) or alternatively differed according to the location and peculiar Slavic tribe.
Perun
Perun is no uncertainty the highest god of Slavic pantheon. Worshiped in vast areas of Slavic Europe and even beyond (as Perkunas besides appears in Baltic mythology), Perun is the reigning ruler of the heavens and the god of lightning and thunder. As a god of lightning he was compared to Zeus in Greek mythology or Thor in Norse mythology.
The name Perun itself derives from the proto-European core *per- or *perk- meaning “hit or hit” and can be translated as “the 1 who strikes”. In fact, the name of this ancient god survived in Polish, where it meant “the thunder” (the lightning).
Although Perun was most likely worshipped throughout the Slavic settlement area, it is best certified in east sources.
Chronicles
According to the early Russian chronicles, Prince Vladimir the large erected the iconic statue of Perun (with another pagan idols) in front of his palace in Kiev shortly after the beginning of regulation in 980. The statue of Perun was made of wood, with a silver head and a golden mustache.
As the top Slavic god, Perun was considered equal in power to the fresh Christian God. However, this was not a mitigating condition – in 988, shortly after the acceptance of Christianity by the Duchy of Kiev, the same ruler ordered the demolition of pagan idols. The largest of them, Perun, was tied to a horse, dragged down a hill and repeatedly beaten with sticks before being yet thrown into Dniepr. Vladimir then ordered the statue to be washed down the river until it passed the bright Dnieper. Only then could the soldiers leave him. As the chronicler adds, the place where the idol was thrown to shore became known as Perunja Ren’ (Lavices of Perun).
Perun Incarnations
One of the most sensational 19th-century archaeological finds in the field of Slavic religion is the alleged Idol Zbrucz or Światowid z Zbrucz – although it is not certain that the figure is not a contemporary forgery, any researchers argued that the idol represents the highest Slavic deity of Peruna alternatively than Svantevita (which was an earlier attribution).
It is likely that the worship of Perun and the god himself took on various forms and names, depending on where it was worshipped in vast areas of Slavic Europe. This includes the peculiar triad of gods worshipped on the island of Rugia (the Slavic Rana, present Rugia off the German coast of the Baltic), which in the mediate Ages was inhabited by Slavic tribes of Rani (or Ruiani).
The highest god of the island was called Ruievit (a name that can be translated as Lord Rugia). According to descriptions, the idol Ruievit worshipped on the island had 7 faces and 7 swords attached around his waist, with an eighth sword firmly placed in the hand of the god.
The another 2 gods Porevit and Porenut besides had idols of many faces, typical of Slavic spiritual worship. Porevita statue had 5 heads, and Porenut 4 (with a 5th face carved on his chest). While the name Porevit (reconstructed as a “power ruler”) suggests that its domain was primarily military power, the name Porenut may point to another fact, namely that Porenut was the boy of Perun (Piorun). This in turn, as Alexander Geysztor suggests, may be an argument behind the explanation that Ruievit was only another name for Perun, namely Perun ruling Rugia, with Porevit and Porent acting as his duplicate sons.
The modern image of Perun – the Slavic god of warVeles
The old Russian chronicle, which sometimes called him the second most crucial god, calls him the cattle god. This would besides position him as a god of wealth (because cattle were 1 of the main determinants of household wealth). another clues propose that Veles may have been associated with specified domains as magic, poetry, oaths, undergrounds, and dead. Veles is sometimes seen as a mythical antagonist of Perun, part of a structural pattern that may reflect a more ancient Indo-European story of the first rivalry between 2 opposing ultimate deities (for example Mitra and Varuna in Hindu mythology).
Historians and ethnographers fishy that the relics of this ancient concept could last even centuries after Christianity and can be found in the Slavic cosmogonic story – which carries the same motive for rivalry between God and the devil (as in the Slavic story of creation), which is the version of Veles. This recognition can be seen in the Czech folklor even in the 16th century, in which the expression “Jdi za moře k Velesu” (Go across the sea to Velesu!) means “Go to hell!”.
Triglav
And here is another god associated with swearing and divination, Triglav, is best certified in the Pomeranian region (the Baltic coast). In fact, it can only be a local form of Veles. Triglav's three-headed statue in Szczecin was described by Christian writers as covering his mouth and eyes with a golden shield, which was interpreted as the refusal of the god to witness human sins. The 3 heads of God meant 3 kingdoms ruled by Triglav: the heavens, the earth, and the underworld.
Triglav – a Slavic god most likely liable for the elements of heaven, earth and underground.Sventovit
Also called Svetovid and Svantovit, Sventovit may be best known for all the multi-head Slavic gods. He was worshipped in Arkona on the island of Rugia, where his monumental statue stood at the central point of the temple. According to the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, the character had 4 heads and 4 necks, and in 1 hand held a horn to drink. Saxo besides mentions that the kind of mustaches and idol hairstyles imitated local fashion. He besides described many forms of war fortunes performed around the temple, frequently involving a white horse, the saint animal Sventovita – which may propose that the deity performed akin functions as Veles and Triglav.
Another god akin to Sventovit and the possible incarnation of the mighty Perun is Jarovit (Gerovit). Worshiped in Wolgast (in Pomerania) and Havelberg (inhabited by the Polbian tribe of Brezani) was compared by medieval Christian scribes to Mars, a Roman god of war.
Twilight of Slavic Gods
In 1168, Arkon, who was the last opposition point of the Polubsk Slavs, was occupied by the Danes under the leadership of King Waldemar I. This event became the symbolic end not only of Slavic resistance, but besides of Slavic pagan religion. In a brutal demonstration of Christian forces, invaders under the leadership of Bishop Absalon destroyed ancient places of worship and idols, including the statue of Svantevit. As described by Polish historian Karol Modzelewski
A crowd of pagan believers watched armed invaders violate 1 sphere of taboo after another. The barrier around the temple was stripped, the curtains were torn, which covered the statue, 2 men were ordered to chop off the legs of the holy figure. Then a part of line was put on the neck of God, which was dragged to the victorious camp, where the kitchen service was chopping him to fire. Svantevit's last moments were described by Saxo Grammar:
With a giant bang, the idol fell to the ground. The purple draperies that hung around the sanctuary were surely shiny, but they were so rotten that they could not be touched. In the sanctuary there were besides immense horns of chaotic animals, astounding no little than their ornaments. The devil was seen coming out of the most interior temple disguised as a black animal until abruptly he disappeared from the sight of the observers.
These were the last moments of Svantevit and Slavic religion. In the east (Ukraine, Belarus, Russia) and western (Poland, Czech Republic) regions inhabited by the Slavic pagan cult were exterminated, though whether or not it is entirely impossible to say. Surely, the end of indigenous cults of these lands was announced after the conversion to Christianity in the 10th century.
Other gods
Stribog – a god of riches and winds.
Mokosz – 1 of the fewer female goddesses in the Slavic pantheon, but its origins most likely go back to the mythology of the Ugrofin tribes. She was associated with the worship of the large Mother.
Svarog – god of the sun, heavenly fire and smithy; sometimes identified with Greek Hephaestus. Svarog's popularity in West Slavic lands reflects geographical names specified as Swarzędz in Wielkopolska or Schwerin (Svazhin) in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Dažbog – boy of Svarog (and thus besides known as Svarožič), like his father besides a solar deity, the god of the holy fire of the furnace.
Hors – 1 of the deities worshipped in Kiev Vladimir before Christianity; possibly a lunar deity, Hors comes from Iranian mythology.
Semargl – was a vegetative deity associated with good harvests; like Hors, it must come from Iranian mythology, where a akin creature, a griffin with a dog's body, is known as Simurgh. besides known are winged creatures from Slavic folk stories.
Slavic mythology is full of various fascinating creatures, from sirens to flying snakes. Many different animals were attributed supernatural powers, as were birds. Russian folklore abounds in stories of tempting and dangerous winged creatures that are inactive present in fairy tales, legends and visual art. The most celebrated of them are most likely Stratim-bird, Alkonost, Sirin and Gamayun.
Stratim-bird (also known as Strofil-bird)
In the book “The Verse on the Book of Doves” (“Golubinaya Kniga”), which dates from the 15th-XVI century, Stratim was described as the parent of all birds. Her body was thought to be so large that her right wing could cover the full world. This majestic creature lives in the ocean and there gives birth to her children.
Stratim is frequently mentioned in connection with the Slavic god Stribog, ruler of the winds. According to some, Stribog himself turns into a bird as he descends into the planet of men. Others believe Stratim is the incarnation of the god Veles, the patron saint of cattle and art. This mythical bird was especially crucial to sailors. It was believed to affect the weather and origin storms that sank ships with treasures. It is not certain where this mythical creature came from in Slavic folklore.
Alkonost
Another magical bird with the face of a beautiful young female who holds a paradise flower or scroll in her hand. It is said that Alkonost lives on the Eufrat River or on the mysterious island of Buyan, which sometimes appears during the tides. Legend has it that in winter it lays eggs under water, which after 7 days float to the surface so that the parent can transport them to land. erstwhile Alkonost eggs are in the sea, the weather always remains calm and windless.
People inactive believe that the voice of this bird is of exceptional magical quality. Her wonderful singing is dangerous to people, and erstwhile you hear it, you will forever be hypnotized by his beauty and forget everything you always knew. In this sense Alkonost resembles Greek Mermaids. The origins of this fantastic creature come from a Greek story about a girl named Alcyone. According to the story, it was transformed by the gods into a bird of winter.
Sirin
Sirin is frequently associated with Alkonost. Both are seen as paradise birds with female heads and charming voices. In the Russian mediate Ages, there were stories about her prophetic singing. Her songs, describing visions of heavenly delight, were besides deadly dangerous to humans. People who heard it could easy have lost their minds. For this reason, any believe that Sirin is the essence of darkness, the messenger with the underworld. Later in the books, there was a explanation that this bird could be driven distant by loud sounds, specified as beating a church bell or cannonfire.
Spirits and Demonology
Of course, in addition to the main gods, Slavic religion had a full scope of insignificant deities, local gods, home spirits, and demons. The most crucial of them was most likely Rod – the Slavic personification of fate. The household was usually accompanied by Rozhanitsa – invisible female beings who immediately after the birth of the kid decided on its destiny (similar to Roman Parcae or Greek Moirai; i.e. fate). The name both Rod and Rozhanitzy comes from the Slavic root meaning “birth”. A akin concept is Dola, a female deity or caring spirit who takes care of the home and sometimes feeds the children.
Afterlife
We know small about Slavic concepts of life after death. However, the diversity of bloodthirsty demons, specified as phantom, anthrax, vampire, and strigoi, which survived in Slavic folklore long after Christianity, may propose a alternatively grim thought of the afterlife of the Slavic soul. The beginnings are most likely reaching back to the mythology of the Ugrophine tribes. She was associated with the worship of the large Mother.
Svarog – god of the sun, heavenly fire and smithy; sometimes identified with Greek Hephaestus. Svarog's popularity in Western Slavic lands reflects geographical names specified as Swarzędz in Wielkopolska or Schwerin (Svazhin) in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany.
Dažbog – boy of Svarog (and thus besides known as Svarožič), like his father besides a solar deity, the god of the holy fire of the furnace.
Hors – 1 of the deities worshipped in Kiev Vladimir before Christianity; possibly a lunar deity, Hors comes as believed from Iranian mythology.
Semargl – was a vegetative deity associated with good harvests; like Hors, it must come from Iranian mythology, where a akin creature, a griffin with a dog's body, is known as Simurgh.
Slavic Worship
Little is known about rituals and places of worship in Slavic religion. Many ceremonies seem likely to have taken place in the open air, around natural sites specified as sacred trees (especially oaks, associated with Perun), groves, springs of rivers, hills and stones. Christian writers besides mention and sometimes accurately describe pagan temples specified as the Sventovit temple in Arkona. However, these “poganese churches” are mostly certified only in the 11th and 12th centuries and are limited to Pomorze and Pomorze. This led any researchers to fishy that these structures might be alternatively a late pagan reaction to the advancement of Christianity and its architecture.
Human sacrifice?
According to Thietmar of Merseburg, Slavic gods liked the taste of human and animal blood. Another medieval scribe describes in item the bloody martyrdom of Bishop Mecklenburg, John, whose head was sacrificed to God Radogost in 1066. Human sacrifice was besides attributed to Peru. Although these are late testimonies (and come from Christian writers), many researchers believe that human sacrifices are not entirely improbable to be part of Slavic religion.
As analogies with another cultures show, human sacrifice may have been a functional component of early Indo-European religion, even in specified late and “civilized” cultures as the Republic of Rome (reminiscent of the human sacrifice made by Julius Caesar at Campus Martialis in 46 BC). A more typical feature of Slavic spiritual rituals was divination from horses. Horses (often white) appear in many records of Slavic ritual war fortunes. The behaviour of the horse was crucial in the community's decision-making process in relation to decisions specified as going to war, conducting battles or even political decisions of another type.
The Slavic story of creation?
We have very small information about the first rites and myths underlying Slavic religion. The absence of a preserved mythical corps (tellings explaining the origin of man, the world, etc.) and inexpensive information from Christian writers forced scholars to search this material elsewhere. Especially Slavic folklore proved to be a peculiarly fruitful area of research: it turned out that ancient pagan stories told centuries after the introduction of Christianity retained any of the most primitive Slavic mythical concepts. 1 specified fairy tale, told by a Polish peasant from the vicinity of Sierod in the late 19th century, can tell us a lot about how Slavic peoples imagined the beginnings of the world:
At first, it was just heaven and ocean, God in his boat and the devil emerging from the sea foam. He sat next to God. The Devil gave God the thought of creating the planet due to the fact that he could not do it himself. The Devil dived and surfaced with a fistful of sand drawn from the bottom. God scattered it on water and created the beginnings of the Earth – but it was so tiny that they both barely fit. God and the Devil inhabited the earth erstwhile the Devil decided to push the sleeping God into the water. But all he did was make the Earth grow from God's side, from the east, and from the west. 2 creators began a quarrel that ended with God’s withdrawal into Heaven, and the Devil was struck into the abyss by God’s lightning bolts.
Iranian roots of Slavic religion?
As Alexander Geysztor, 1 of the most prominent researchers of Slavic religion, noted, this cosmogonal story intertwines 2 motifs typical of Indo-European mythology: 1 of them is the oceanic origin of all being from which all life originates, the another is the dualistic aspect of creation, resulting from the cooperation of 2 otherwise antagonistic mythical figures. These figures in past told ethnographs by a 19th-century Polish peasant are represented by God and the Devil, but as Gieysztor suggests, they can only be names behind which there are far more ancient deities – like possibly Perun and Veles.
The radically dualistic aspect of this myth, best known for Iranian mythology (Ahur Mazda and Ariman), is further explained by the long-standing close relations that united the Slavs and Iranian tribes (such as the Sarmacs) surviving in the northern part of the Black Sea. In fact, as Gieysztor argues, many of the most crucial Slavic spiritual vocabulary owes to this close neighbourly bond, including the words meaning the heavens (Slovene nebo, Iranian nabah) or a god (Slovene god vs Iranian baga). This is another fascinating chapter in the obscure past of Slavic religion...
Tom Zwk
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