Slavic mythology
Polish mythology and Slavic creatures of folklore
Slavic religion evolved over more than a thousand years. It's conjectured that some parts of it are from
neolithic or possibly even
mesolithic times. The religion possesses numerous common traits with other Indo-European religions. Very few written records are known to survive from the centuries before the
Christianization. The controversial
Book of Veles is believed by some to be a
sacred text of this religion. Saxon Grammatica is another source with disputed authenticity.
Chronicon Slavorum by
Helmold is generally accepted as a genuine source, covering culture and events in the late 1st millenium AD.
Slavic religion recognizes three worlds:
Jav, Prav, and Nav, Jav being the material world, Nav the immaterial, and Prav being the laws that govern them.
The supreme god of Slavic
pantheon is usually
Svarog (senior member of
Triglav). But exactly because of his nature he was not the most worshiped: that was
Perun, while
tribes that were occupied mostly with cattle could pay most attention to
Veles and so on.
Sometimes the
underworld of this religion is
Svarga, residence of
Svarog, and Irij is its
paradise. More often both Svarga and Irij refer to the
Heaven. The
Hell is Koschny kingdom, residence of Koschey, Morena, and Zmey. Both realms are parts of Nav.
There is not a single well-established pantheon. One attempt at establishing such an 'offcial' pantheon was made by
Vladimir I, Prince of Kiev in
980-
988 religious reform, immediately preceeding Cristianization of
Ruthenia. Vladimir erected six or seven idols near his court -
Perun as a supreme god,
Veles (disputed),
Horos,
Dajbog,
Stribog, Simargl, and
Mokosh as tribal gods.
It should be noted that many of the gods may be known by different names even in the same language.
Pantheon
\n
A statue of Svetovid
\n*
Rod
In addition to the
gods, the pantheon also includes a number of lesser
deities.
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Mythical creatures
\nSee also Slavic creatures of folklore\n*Baba Yaga\n*Nyia\n*
Slavic fairies (rusalka, vila, etc)\n*Utva zlatokrila\n*
Golden-horned deer\n*
Drekavac\n*
Leshii\n*Sery Volk (Grey Wolf)
Mythical heroes
\n
\nThese heroes are based on real persons but most stories about them became pure fiction, involving magic etc.\n*Bogumir\n*
Ilya Muromets\n*Dobrynya Nikitich\n*Alyosha Popovich\n*Oleksa Dovbus\n*Prince Ivan (Ivan Tsarevich)\n*
Marko Kraljevic
External links
\n*A Slavic Pantheon\n*
Pantheon des dieux slaves
Category:Slavic mythology
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