[SteeMagazin]^History >> Slavic paganism

There is not a soul who's never heard of Greek and Roman gods. Everyone knows who Zeus is. Everyone's heard of Mars, the famous roman god of war. Even the Norse mythology is more and more popular (due to certain TV programs and movies), but not a word about the old Slavic Paganism and their gods. So I find myself obliged to present you Slavic equivalents of Zeus and the company. There is not enough space nor opportunity here to discuss the whole Pantheon with all of its gods and their properties, but I hope a general overview will satisfy you as well.

Svarog

We will start with Svarog, who may be looked at as an equivalent of Greco-Roman Saturn-Chronos deity. It is by no means the same deity but shares many similarities. The Slavic Pantheism presents the Chronos-Zeus relation as the Svarog-Perun relation, Perun being the main deity of the pantheon. There is a legend that Svarog slammed his hammer to stop mountains from rising and as he hit with the hammer sparkles were thrown all around. From those sparkles came to be other gods. The instance before the hammer hit the mountains is refered to as Svarog's moment. The expression is still used [in Croatian] today to mark a moment of anticipation, expectance. It was also used to refer to the moment on the battlefield in which the battle was just about to start.

Perun

Perun is the chief deity of the Pantheon - his role is related to that of Zeus, Jupiter and Thor. He is (of course) presented as the god of thunder and sky, though his main attribute is the oak. The oak was in a way always a really imporant part of Slavic folklore. The Indo-European root *perk(w) from which the word Perun comes is in relation to the "oak" meaning (compare lat. quercus - oak, also supposedly the etymology of the Finnish "Perkele" ( maybe came via Lithuanian)). Perun is the personification of the force of nature.

Veles

Veles was the god of earth and was opposite of Perun (if we are to imagine a dual system of good and evil). He was also the god of underworld, waters and cattle. Comparable to the Norse deity of Loki. It is important to notice that the dual good and evil system is not necessarily to be taken in consideration for Veles was as important for the Slavic people as the other dieties and was thought to bring good to those prospering from agriculture.

Jarilo

Jarilo was the god of sexuality, fertility and spring, he is also connected to the light and brightness. Just think of Dionysus or Adonis and add a bit of Slavness to that and there you have it - Jarilo! ("jar-" means bright or light in various Slavic languages)

Stribog

Stribog is known as the wealth spreader (which is also a translation of his name). He was also known as Dažbog (Dabog) which means the giver or the giving god.

Mokoš

Mokoš (Mokosh) was the mother goddess representing earth, more exactly wet earth (Mokoš is connected to "moist" and probably means "moisture"). She is also the goddess of female works (weaving) and harvest and protects women in childbirth. She may have been the consort of both Perun and Veles, thus changing her nature, which may have also influenced the seasons.

These are just some of the many Slavic deities for which we'll have to book another time! I hope you find this article interesting. Feel free to upvote and share!

Written by: @tinmar
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@steemagazin team: @atimk23, @tinmar, @kalu24, @sulepower, @strictlybusiness, @kekec
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Links:
Perun https://bs.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59219
Veles By Mhapon - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59093865
Mokoš By Mhapon - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59118101
Svarog http://mitologije.com/slavenska-mitologija/svarog/
Jarilo https://aminoapps.com/c/smite/page/blog/smite-slavic-god-idea-jarilo/J88N_gJJcduPv7mxlqxYa2RVnxkwmqLJKJR
Stribog
http://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2017/10/stribog.html
Slavic mythology
https://www.slavorum.org/slavic-mythology-by-igor-ozhiganov/