| abstract
| - Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation. It possesses numerous common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion. There are no known written accounts of Slavic mythology predating the fragmentation of the Proto-Slavic people into Western Slavs (Czechs, Slovaks, Sorbs and Poles), Eastern Slavs (Russians, Belarussians and Ukrainians), and Southern Slavs (the modern Balkans). Actual historical data can be divided into three: archaeological, ethnographical, and written. The first two tend to have a role in reconstructing the rituals, with the latter -- predominantly the chronicles by Byzantine scholars and Ruthenian and German monks -- being the primary source of knowledge concerning the pantheon itself. As with Celtic Mythology, a lot of the written evidence suffers from having been Hijacked by Jesus before anyone thought to write them down. Exactly what it looked like may be somewhat confusing. Overall, ancient Slavic religion seems to be fairly local and cultic in nature, with gods and beliefs varying from tribe to tribe. Historic sources show that each Slavic tribe worshipped its own gods, possibly even had its own pantheon. Some scholars believed that Slavs' religion actually was focused on daemons and spirits, with the organised pantheon appearing only under foreign pressure. However, through cultural comparisons, linguistic research, and critical analysis of the written sources, it is now assumed that there was a single Proto-Slavic pantheon from which pantheons of various Slavic tribes originated.
* It appears that Slavic mythology was built upon the dualism personified by two gods, Perun and Veles. Perun was a "dry" sky god, commandeering fire, wind, and lightning (his name means simply "lightning" in Slavic languages). Veles was a serpentine, cthonic, "wet" ruler of earth and water. To whom the rain belonged was pretty much the "whose is the apple tree on the fence" problem. In some stories Perun creates the world and Veles accidentally helps him by trying to interfere. Whatever the reason, they constantly fight each other, lightning strikes marking Perun's attempts to kill his foe from the sky. However, despite the easy analogies, Veles was not really a bad guy, as he was also a patron of cattle.
* In comparative mythology Perun is a descendant of proto-Indo-European Perkwunos and a brother to figures such as Thor (mighty bearded thunderer) or Zeus (supreme ruler of the sky). It also appears that the Nordic rulers of Novgorod and Kiev embraced Perun as an equivalent of Thor, or perhaps Odin.
* Another important set of gods were Svarog, Svarozic ("little Svarog" or "son of Svarog") and Dazbog. The exact relation between the trio is unclear; Svarog might have been the father of the other two, and the trio might have been actually a duo, or even a single god. Whatever the case, their area of competence was the fire -- the one in the sky, and the one on the earth which made metalworking possible. Other possibilities are the domain over the Moon, or sunlit sky.
* In comparisons, the relation to Hephaestus and mythical smiths is obvious. Svarog as the father and patron of sunlit sky has also been considered an offshoot of proto-Indo-European Dyaeus Pater, thus a brother of Zeus and Jove.
* The Slavic patron of the harvest, vegetation and fertility was Yarilo (or Yarovit), while Mokosh or Mother Earth (Mat Zemlya) was the earth goddess herself (and possibly a borrowing; Mokosh might have also been a goddess of feminine labours like spinning and weaving). Slavs valued earth and the vegetation cycle; there was a plenty of taboos concerning the treatment of the earth before the wheat grew (so, during "pregnancy"), and the end of the winter was a big festival -- remnants of it have survived to this day. An interesting one is the tradition of burning or drowning (or both) an effigy of the winter and death goddess Morana on the first day of spring.
* Mokosh/Mother Earth (if not a borrowing) and Yarilo can be compared to gods and goddesses of the harvest and/or fertility not unlike Freyja or Demeter, while Morana draws comparisons to Hekate. One might also say that Mokosh as feminine goddess shows some similarity to Hestia.
* The four-faced patron of war (to be honest, almost every other one has been called a war god at a time), divination, fertility and abundance Svantevit is possibly the best-known Slavic deity, and interestingly he is the one whose status is hardly clear. While there are threads linking him to other regions, his worship is most strongly linked with the fabled Arkona on the Rügen Island, last vestige of Slavic paganism destroyed in 1168. Thus it is possible that he was a local deity, or a local variety of another god (presumably Perun).
* Apart from Svantevit, the westernmost Slavdom is also responsible for plenty of other regional deities. If it is not Svantevit, a Slavic god a layman might mention (if not necessarily link him with Slavs) of is likely Chernobog, who is also known to have been worshipped in this area. On the other side of Slavic Europe, deities like Hors or Simargl make an appearance, though they are often thought to be borrowings from neighbouring Turkic and Iranic peoples. The Slavic religion had semi-nomadic steppe origins, where each geographical direction had a color of its own. Thus, Belarus actually means "the Western Rus", because the West was linked to the color white. (Compare to Byelobog, "the white god", and Belgrade, "the white city".) The Other Wiki has a List of Slavic deities for your perusal. See also Slavic Mythology, from which some of this article has been cribbed. See also Russian Mythology and Tales, the eastern branch (well, an evolved form of the eastern branch) of this.
- Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianization. The religion possesses many common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion.
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