Slavic gods

1.

2.

3.

Morana – Морана
[morana]
Zevana - Зевана
[zevana]
Lada - Лада
[ˈlɒdɪ]

4.

Mokosh – Мокошь
[mokosh]
Belobog - Белобог
[belobog]
Chernobog - Чернобог
[kəˈnəʊbəg]

5.

Svarog – Сварог
[vəˈrəʊg]
Perun - Перун
[pəˈruːn]
Dazhbog - Дажбог
[dazhbog]

6.

Khors – Хорс
[kəz]
Veles - Велес
[veles]

7.

Morana

8.

Morana is a pagan Slavic goddess associated with seasonal rites based on the idea
of death and rebirth of nature. She is an ancient goddess associated with winter's
death and rebirth and dreams. In ancient Slavic rites, the death of the Goddess
Marzanna at the end of winter becomes the rebirth of Spring of the Goddess
Kostroma, Lada or Vesna representing the coming of Spring.
Some medieval Christian sources such as the Czech 13th century Mater Verborum
compare her to the Greek goddess Hecate, associating her with sorcery. 15th century
Polish chronicler Jan Długosz likened her in his Annales to Ceres, the Roman
goddess of agriculture (together with another Slavic goddess Dziewanna).
In modern times the rituals associated with Marzanna have lost their sacred
character and are a pastime – an occasion to have fun and celebrate the beginning of
spring. The tradition is usually celebrated around the spring equinox (March 21).
Usually schoolchildren and young people participate in the celebrations alongside
local folklore groups and other residents. A procession consisting of men, women
and children carries handmade Marzanna (and often also Marzaniok dolls, the male
counterpart to Marzanna) to the nearest river, lake or pond. The participants sing
traditional songs and throw effigies of Marzanna into the water. Sometimes the
effigies are first set on fire, or their clothes are torn. On the journey back to the
village the focus falls on the copses, adorned with ribbons and blown egg shells.
The procession, still singing, returns to the village. In some locations (e.g. in
Brynica – a district of Miasteczko Śląskie), the beginning of spring is then
celebrated with a feast.

9.

Zevana

10.

Zevana is the goddess of wild nature, forests, hunting and the moon worshiped by
the Western Slavs. In the sources, she was first mentioned in the 15th century by Jan
Długosz, who compared her to the Roman goddess Diana. Dziewanna is also a
Polish name for Verbascum, and the etymology of the word is unclear. After strong
criticism from Aleksander Brückner, researchers rejected its authenticity, but
nowadays it is accepted by an increasing number of researchers. Sometimes, in folk
rituals, she performs together with Morana. After Christianization, she could be
replaced by Our Lady of Thunder Candle.

11.

Lada

12.

Lada is a goddess in Baltic and Slavic mythology associated with beauty and
fertility. Her masculine counterpart is called Lado. Lada and Lado are sometimes
seen as divine twins, and at other times as a mother goddess and her son. They are
commonly mentioned together in songs related to planting, harvesting, and
weddings. Together, Lada and Lado form one aspect of a multiple deity, whose
other names and aspects relate to the Sun, water, and grain, respectively.
Worship of Lada and Lado is attested in Russia between the fifteenth and
eighteenth centuries during springtime fertility rites, as well as in Polish church
prohibitions on pagan rituals. Some scholars have suggested that Lada and Lado are
not the names of deities, but simple refrains in songs and poetry. However, a
number of songs and historical chronicles provide evidence for a cult of worship.
The origins of Lada in mythology are uncertain; she may derive from other Slavic or
Baltic goddesses, or from the Greek Leto or Leda. The names Lada and Lado may be
related to the Old Slavic word lad, 'harmony, peace, union'.

13.

Mokosh

14.

Mokosh is a Slavic goddess mentioned in the Primary Chronicle, protector of
women's work and women's destiny. She watches over spinning and weaving,
shearing of sheep, and protects women in childbirth. Mokosh is the Mother
Goddess.
Mokoš was the only female deity whose idol was erected by Vladimir the Great in
his Kiev sanctuary along with statues of other major gods (Perun, Hors, Dažbog,
Stribog, and Simargl).
Mokosh was one of the most popular Slavic deities and the great earth Mother
Goddess of East Slavs and Eastern Polans. She is a wanderer and a spinner: "like
Greek Athena" and Baltic Lauma (Laumes), she is associated with "female crafts",
like weaving and spinning.
Her consorts are probably both the god of thunder Perun and his opponent Veles.
In saying, the former Katičić follows Ivanov and Toporov (1983) without further
corroborating their claim. Katičić also points to the possibility that as goddess Vela
she is the consort of Veles, and might even be interpreted as another form of the
polymorph god Veles himself: 167–198 Mokosh is also the mother of the twin
siblings Jarilo and Morana.

15.

Svarog

16.

Svarog is the Slavic god of fire and the sun, equated with Hephaistos and Helios in
Russian chronicles.
The name is connected with Sanskrit svar "heaven" (Anglo-Saxon sweorc), svā-rāj is
the ruler of heaven, i. e. Indra.
Alexander Brückner connected the Polish toponyms Swarocin, Swaryszew,
Swarzykowo, Swarzeń, Swarzędź, Swaryż and Swarużewo with Svarog, but this is
doubtful. The same holds true for the South Slavic toponyms Twaroch and
Tbaraschitzberg, and the Russian toponyms Svaruzhevo and Svaryzh.
Swarożyc, Svarožič are diminutives created by adding the suffix "-yc", "-ič".
According to the Hypatian Codex gloss, Svarožič is Helios, the son of Svarog, a role
taken over by Dažbog. In the Slovo někoego christoljubca, Svarožič is reduced to a
fire ghost.
Although Svarog seems to have been venerated throughout ancient Slavdom, South
Slavs know of Dažbog instead, and in Russia the Varangian Perun cult seem to have
displaced Svarog.

17.

Khors

18.

Khors is the moon god, but also the moon light at daybreak, whence the meaning of
his name, "Morning God" or "Morning Giver". The town of Jüterbog, in
Brandenburg, is possibly named after him. The theonym may refer to Yarilo as the
good of the moon. The name Mesyats literally means "Moon". The moon god was
particularly important to the Slavs, regarded as the dispenser of abundance and
health, worshipped through round dances, and in some traditions considered the
progenitor of mankind. The belief in the moon god was still very much alive in the
nineteenth century, and peasants in the Ukrainian Carpathians openly affirm that
the moon is their god.

19.

Veles

20.

Veles is a major Slavic god of earth, waters, and the underworld. His attributes are
wet, wooly, hairy (bearded), dark and he is associated with cattle, the harvest,
wealth, music, magic, and trickery. According to reconstruction by some
researchers, he is the opponent of the supreme thunder god Perun. As such he
probably has been imagined as a dragon, which in the belief of the pagan Slavs is a
chimeric being, a serpent with a bear's head and drooping hairy ears. His tree is the
willow much like Perun's tree is the oak. No direct accounts survive, but
reconstructionists speculate that he may directly continue aspects of the Proto-IndoEuropean pantheon.

21.

Belobog

22.

Belbog or Bielbog is the assumed name of the alleged god of auspicious fate
worshiped by the Polabian Slavs. His name was derived by analogy to the
Chernobog (lit. Black God) mentioned by Helmod in the Chronica Slavorum, who
is a god of bad luck. The pair of these gods is often presented as evidence of "Slavic
dualism," although their authenticity is controversial.
Belbog was first mentioned directly in the 16th century. In 1538, the Pomeranian
chronicler Thomas Kantzow in his Chronicle of Pomerania wrote:
I have heretofore related all manner of faithlessness and idolatry, in which they had
engaged before the time of the German Empire. Earlier yet, their ways are said to
have been even more pagan. They placed their kings and lords, who ruled well,
above the gods and honored the said men after their death. In addition, they
worshipped the sun and the moon and, lastly, two gods whom they venerated above
all other gods. One [of them] they called Bialbug, that is the white god; him they
held for a good god. The other one Zernebug, that is the black god; him they held
for a god who did harm. Therefore, they honored Bialbug, because he did them
good and so that he might [continue to] do them good. Zernebug, on the other hand,
they honored so that he should not harm them. And they appeased the said
Zernebug by sacrificing people, for they believed that there was no better way of
assuaging him than with human blood, which is actually true, if only they had seen
it in the right light: that Zernebug seeks nothing other than the death of Man’s body
and soul.

23.

Chernobog

24.

Chernobog is the name of the god of bad fate worshipped by the Polabian Slavs. He
is first mentioned by Helmold in the Chronica Slavorum. The authenticity of the
cult of the Chernobog, as well as of the Belebog reproduced by analogy to him, is
controversial among scholars. Nevertheless, Chernobog is one of the most popular
Slavic gods in the world.
The German monk and chronicler Helmold, who accompanied the Christianization
missions against the Elbe Slavs, describes in his Chronicle of the Slavs the cult of
Chernobog:
Also, the Slavs have a strange delusion. At their feasts and carousals, they pass
about a bowl over which they utter words, I should not say of consecration but of
execration, in the name of two gods—of the good one, as well as of the bad one—
professing that all propitious fortune is arranged by the good god, adverse, by the
bad god. Hence, also, in their language they call the bad god Diabol, or Zcerneboch,
that is, the black god.

25.

Dazhbog

26.

Dazhbog is the sun god, son of Svarog, winner of darkness, warranter of justice and
wellbeing. Mathieu-Colas interprets Dazhbog as meaning "Wealth Giver". He
changes from a young man to an old man as he travels through the sky; he has two
daughters accompanying him, the two Zvezda ("Morning Star" and "Evening Star"),
and has a brother, the bald moon god (Jutrobog).

27.

Perun

28.

In Slavic mythology, Perun is the highest god of the pantheon and the god of sky,
thunder, lightning, storms, rain, law, war, fertility and oak trees. His other
attributes were fire, mountains, wind, iris, eagle, firmament (in Indo-European
languages, this was joined with the notion of the sky of stone), horses and carts,
weapons (hammer, axe (Axe of Perun), and arrow), and war. He was first associated
with weapons made of stone and later with those of metal.
Of all historic records describing Slavic gods, those mentioning Perun are the most
numerous. As early as the 6th century, he was mentioned in De Bello Gothico, a
historical source written by the Eastern Roman historian Procopius. A short note
describing beliefs of a certain South Slavic tribe states they acknowledge that one
god, creator of lightning, is the only lord of all: to him do they sacrifice an ox and all
sacrificial animals. While the name of the god is not mentioned here explicitly, 20th
century research has established beyond doubt that the god of thunder and
lightning in Slavic mythology is Perun. To this day the word perun in a number of
Slavic languages means "thunder," or "lightning bolt".